Celebrating a Homegoing

Once again, I wanted to share some beautiful pictures of little Joshua, my darling new nephew with his happy parents (hubby's sister).  These are celebration pictures that commemorate the joyful day he was able to go home from the hospital this week.

This will be my last post about this sweetheart baby since he is now safely home and in his Mommy's arms and under her loving care.  We once again praise our wonderful Lord for His goodness to His children.

We leave our home in three days.  Our journey will begin on an overnight train to the capital city, Kiev.  From there we will fly to London and spend the night, spending one more memorable day with my mother-in-law before we part ways until Christmas - her going to Mexico and us to Dallas.

Video presentation completed? Check.

Prayer cards and display table banner printed? Check.

David's book published? Check.

Half a year of school finished, corrected, and put away? Check.

Luggage packed? Uhhh... almost.

Please pray for our safety, health, and for our children to sleep well as their little bodies adjust to new times and new places.  As always, I humbly thank you, my friends.

Now, I've gotta go finish that packing...

New Prayer Card

This is the front of our new prayer cards which have already been ordered {except those dark-colored boxes have information in them in real life that I didn't want to post here}.  The days to our departure to America are ticking by quickly, and I wish I could slow that ticking noise down!

Tomorrow we will finish our half-way point of school.... 85 days {loud cheering... can you hear it through the screen?!}.  We have been working all summer long, mostly going at it 6 days a week to get to this point.  So, while everyone else is talking about "Back to School," we are ready to be done with it!  We are all looking forward to a long-anticipated break!  Don't ya just love the flexibility of homeschooling?  Somehow, though, I think my children will be learning just as much over the next 6 months away from the books as they have learned in the books.  Funny how that works, isn't it?  Just please don't tell them that, yet... not until they have graduated. {smile}

Really, I am kidding.  I have two eager learners, one who works at a snail's pace {maybe because he loves it so much and enjoys working for so many hours?!} but still makes grades as good as the other two, and another who just enjoys dumping the other three's pencils and crayons onto the floor before he is caught in the action.

I love being a mom.  I really, really do.  So much love and entertainment wrapped into tiny {but growing} packages.

I'm really not supposed to be here blogging today.  Really, I should be working on our video presentation for furlough.  Hubby has been working on publishing a book {juicy details later} and I have been putting our presentation together.... one. picture. at. a. time.  It is a slow process, but a necessary one since this is what we use to report to our supporting churches.

God has been so good.  How do you tell that in a 6-7 minute presentation?  Guess I had better stop typing here and try to figure out the answer to that myself...

Joshua is going home!

My sweet, sweet mother-in-law made it in safely, and, boy, are we ever enjoying her!  She is such a barrel of fun and all 6 of us are vying for her attention at all times, it seems.

She shared this picture of little Joshua with us today, and I asked her to e-mail it to me so that I could share it with you too.  Doesn't he just look like a little man?!  When you look at his Mommy's hand, you can understand just how little this preemie's face really is.  So tiny, yet so perfect.

We are excited to share with you the news that little Joshua will be going home from the hospital in the next couple of days.  How grateful we are for his little life!  Thank you for the amazing, positive response you have shown in offering your prayers and words of encouragement to his family.  I know they have been encouraged to know that people from all over the globe have come before the throne of grace on their behalf.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,...  James 1:17.  Thank you, Father, for this good and perfect gift!