Thursday, July 15, 2010

Monday, July 12, 2010

There is more to these pictures!

Okay... so for the first time in a few days I have time to write some things!

First, I praise God for amazing children... they have been a witness and marvelous the whole time. This trip has allowed me to become a creative mom... as we sit and wait for the meals to be served and the looks from the kids when they don't know what they are eating... nevertheless they have been wonderful and really gotten their appetites. Holland especially has eaten just about everything served to her and Athan has been more than willing to try everything on my plate! So, they are amazing and beginning tomorrow everything for the next three days will be for them.

So this bog too will be about them...

Holland... has grown up so much! She wanted to WALK all by herself in the airports, she loved watching the "brothers Jones" aka the Jonas Brothers on the plane. She loves telling people Dank ya well... (thank you) she loves the food and our Dutch van.

Athan... has, as mentioned before enjoyed trying the different foods. She loves the window that rolls down on her side in our dutch van... She REALLY LOVES seeing Mega Mindy things in the store and insists that we need to buy a dress up outfit so everyone at home can know about Mega Mindy!!

Justin... has decided that he wants to live here :) He is not afraid to talk to anyone and everyone hear is AMAZED that he has only been a "russell" for two months. He too has been a plate cleaner. We found out today that he is deathly afraid of spiders and everyone in Ouderkerk knows it as his screams echoed through the small village!! Windmills are his new favorite!

Caedmon... oh my... what a man! He is really the only one who understands that we are in another place with different words. Tonight he commented " Clarksville is easy... this is really hard." :( BUT... he has proven to be the big brother and gently guides the others. EVERYONE is impressed with him. The boat rides yesterday were one of his favorite things! He too loved the windmill and enjoyed his first real swim across the pool today with his dad!

I must say, that with all the changes the Russell's have undergone the past few months... I am PROUD of my children. I praise God for that... those you who read the blog know some of the frustrations we have been through and anyone who has children know that you feel like you work so hard and they don't listen or care... but they have proven me wrong and I a deeply grateful to God for his mercy and his sanctifying work he is doing in their lives!

So, as I sit here in the cool dusk sky at 10:35 at night I am grateful beyond words for this opportunity and for my children.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Highlights from the first few days...

Highlights so Far:

-Train ride to Baltimore
-The kids first flights (the slept well on the 2nd flight)
-A great wedding celebration (with child-care the whole time!)
-Getting to go into a working windmill (you know, one of the ones from the 1800's that they still use to actually mill corn into cornmeal...they are a little tough to climb into, especially with a 3 year old in your arms!)
-GREAT food (and trying some new things...like pureed duck liver and a goose salad sort of thing)
-Bacon wrapped filet!
-Kids making ice cream sundaes in the kitchen of a very nice restaurant with the chef
-Everyone is sleeping BEAUTIFULLY. The kids are sleeping until we have to wake them up around 9 AM
-Watching the kids play with and find a way to communicate with Emma, Daan, Stein and Tim...all of whom only speak Dutch

Looking forward to:
-Boat ride to Rotterdam for lunch
-Heading back to Rotterdam to watch the game tonight (Holland vs. Spain) with Jeroen and Hilda
-Heading to Renkum to spend a few days with Onno and Myrna and their kids
-Air-conditioning when we get home!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

just a few pics from the first couple of days