Silverwaters

By now you probably know that possibly the biggest storm on record has hit the East US coast. New Orleans is under water, hundreds of thousands evacuated, power out, etc. It will take time for all the damage to be evaluated, and a cost to be put on damage by storm Katrina. To me this is just another sign of our living in the Last Days when natural catastrophes are happening on a far more regular and intense basis. May God help us all to be ready should anything of this magnitude hit, both physically and spiritually.

In our prayers is Tim, the brother of one of our home members, who was not able to leave New Orleans in time. We have not heard anything from him since the storm hit, and are praying that he will be safe and somewhere where he can get basic food and living supplies should his house be damaged.

Please pray with us for my mother in law who suffers from dry eye syndrome. She is in a lot of pain and was (might still be) in the hospital for treatment of an infection. This meant drops in her eyes every half hour, even at night. I can only imagine how painful and tiring this must be for her.

Mom, please know we’re praying for you every day. Charlotte is very sympathetic and will pray several times a day. We hope you’re feeling better!

One nice thing about being home again is that I have music again! Our car only has a tape deck, and I haven’t recorded the latest CDs onto tapes yet, so I was missing my new favorite, ‘Heat’. The day after getting back, with a lot of cleanups, laundry, unpacking etc to do, I put the CD into the laptop, plugged in the speakers and turned them up so I could hear no matter which room I was in. Ahhhhhh, it was great! I love how our music puts me into another world. I was happy to hear Francesco singing again, this time in a style that I really like, Vas is back along with Godfrey, and my all time favorite on this CD has got to be ‘You Show Me’ (song nr.4) by Nikki. I can play it over and over, it’s so beautiful. I asked Charlotte if I should put some music on while we were cleaning together later in the day, and she said, “Oh, put on our favorite song”, so I take that to mean she likes it too.

Ahhhh, it’s good to be home!

Our little trip to the coast went very well, except that it was unusually rainy and cold. We all slept in tents, which made for very interesting nights—especially when lightning got close! Jo ended up sleeping in the van for a night when it was especially bad, and the three kids cuddled with me in the tent. I actually liked it! However, I’m glad to be home, catching up on sleep (ever try to sleep with thunder going off every few minutes?) as well as laundry, ha!

Aside from that, the trip was loads of fun. We were able to stay in a cute campground with very nice facilities. The manager was very nice, and the kids had a chance to perform for all the staff before we left. We were in a small town called Biograd na More, not to be confused with Biograd in another country! It was a 15 minute walk down the beautiful promenade to the middle of town where we had a stand most evenings as well as had meals, or just walked around with the kids. Most days we went swimming (or at least some of us did—Cherise didn’t like the cold water in the least and preferred to play in the rocks), Charlotte got to experience snorkeling for the first time and made progress in learning to swim.

One day we went to the Kornati national park which included a six hour boat trip around the islands, swimming in a salty lake (extra salty because it doesn’t have an outlet), a fish lunch and snorkeling in the beautiful sea there. Jerry took some of the kids up the hill of the island we had lunch at, and I hear it was a spectacular view! To be honest, I did get a bit sea sick on the way home, as we didn’t have time to get dressed properly after swimming, so I dressed the kids and myself on the rocking boat which left my stomach in a bit of a lurch for a few minutes, heh. It was quite cold with the wind whipping our hair, so I was glad we had taken long shirts along. The kids had great fun every time a speed boat passed us, as it would create waves that rocked our boat! That area seemed like a favorite for the rich to get away from prying eyes, as almost every little port had big, expensive looking yachts and sailing vessels.

Another day included a trip to Zadar, a larger city a few minutes drive away. This town has a beautiful water organ built right by the sea edge. The secret to the music is that the waves enter different holes built into the wall by the sea which then makes different notes. Despite the fact that no one is directing the sounds, it never sounds off key or ‘wrong’ in any way—truly genius way to use nature. There are old ruins from Roman times in this town, which were fascinating to see. The Romans had quite a lot going on in Croatia, as we found out by seeing maps of aqueducts, roads, and buildings built almost 2000 years ago!

Another interesting outing was to a small terrarium where the kids could actually touch and hold different lizards and snakes, as well as see crocodiles, exotic sea creatures, etc. We also visited a museum that had wreckage from an old trading ship. This includes the only leftover hats from that time (the small flat ones that one sees a lot on paintings; I associate it with Martin Luther, etc), three shirts, chests, rolls of silk and other cargo.

Now it’s back home with lots to do! We are wrapping up our ‘back to school’ project for underprivileged children, so please pray with us that we can collect many more school supplies in the last few days that are left. This weekend we may also pick up more furniture that will be passed on to families that need. There was major flooding in our area of Croatia, so we are researching how we can help.

I shall do my best to get pictures up on my site as soon as I can, please keep this in your prayers as well. Thank you!

So, we’re off the coast for another quick road trip. I will try to write, though I won’t be posting till I get back. It should be fun if the weather plays along. We’ll be tenting with the three kids, so that’ll be something to look forward to

See ya all in two weeks or so…

It was a bit of a hecktic day. First we were going to go to the coast, then it looks like plans might change again, so I just tried to make the best of it, kept on a semi-regular schedule with the girls, and got as much ready as I could.

Something I saw on the news today reminded me of the importance of never leaving the one you love after an arguement. A young couple had a fight, and the man drove off on his motorbike, still angry and ended up loosing control of the bike and dying after a crash. They never had time to say sorry, we don’t even know if they might have gotten on fine today, but now he doesn’t have a chance in this life, and unless she’s very spiritually minded, she’ll probably not hear him even if he tries from over there. I only hope I can learn to speak in love, not let my temper get the best of me, and most of all, never end on an angry note. I want to live each day as if it were my last.

Today was Charlotte’s day out with daddy, so I had a lot of time with Cherise. We spent most of the day making a lovely Creation project. I love letting her be creative–she does so well! She did most of the cutouts, pasted the pictures, made cute drawings, etc. Will be hanging them all up tomorrow.

Jordan did NOT do well in his potty training today. I ended up putting a diaper on him as had no more pants left! Well, this is mainly because the weather has been so cool that laundry won’t dry, which probably also accounts for him having to wet himself every half an hour!

I was praying that the space shuttle would land safely. Thank God it did, after many delays. I was concerned especially for the families, innocent people that would suffer just because someone somewhere has to proove that space travel can and should be done. Frankly, I’m against the whole thing, wish they would save it for Heaven and save us all having to pray that they can make it down safely. Oh well, thank God it’s over with for right now.

I’m determined to get to bed before 10:30 tonight, seeing as the kids haven’t been sleeping too well, and I’ve got some catching up to do. See you all tomorrow!

Hi there! This is my first attempt at blogging, but I hope to keep you all better informed of what’s going on over on our side of the world. This doesn’t mean that I’ll never write anymore, it’s just a more general way for me to keep everyone posted on what’s going on. Please do comment and let me know your thoughts on what I write.