8 years!

Brian and I were married on November 26th, 2000! We are so thankful to the Lord for bringing us together. We delight in serving Him and are so grateful for the precious family He has blessed us with. God is good all the time. During the speeches on our wedding day I said, "I'm not moving to a mud hut in Malawi, just yet." Brian said, once we had moved to Malawi "The Lord took the mud hut out of the equation and well here we are!"

We have experienced so many wonderful times together as well as times of trial and difficulty, but God has guided us through it all. He is so faithful. All glory to Him.

Bied, I love you more than you'll ever know!

New Swings

Ami is five. Bradley is three and Benjamin is one and a half. Maybe no. 4 will have green eyes so that I don't feel totally out-numbered.

These are the new swings the kids received. They have had such fun swinging on them. Brian had the frame made a while ago and so we put it in a shady spot infront of our house. The dry area behind the swings is where the latest grass planting has been started.

Moving on...

into the 12th week and a record seven days without nausea and vomiting. Praise the Lord. Our guest from California, Professor Carl Hargrove arrived on Friday and I haven't felt 'blah' once. He came laden with some special treats from our very special friends :) The kids love the swings. Brian put them up as soon as they came out of Carl's bag!

Fungus

So do I or don't I...yes I do post about my husband's fungus, because he said I should :)
He has had it for nine years and just this past week the doctor on campus removed both big toenails. He is hopeful that this will get rid of the fungus and that Brian's toenails will once again be the normal flesh colour instead of greyish black.

Removed toenails. Yucky, aren't they? Not the final product :) More to come...

Crowns for Kings and Queens

Every Thursday we have an activity and craft time at someone's house. This week was our turn. The kids read about a king called Arthur who made some kind of barley pudding. He put lots of fat inside it too and his wife fried the left overs the next morning. Ugh!

We sang songs from Scripture and then we made king and queen crowns. We had ten kids altogether. For snack time we act delicious watermelon and a crunchy oats bar. We encroached a little on our neighbour's lawn, because their grass is greener!

Girls

During our story reading tonight we read about a young boy in Greece who could play the harp magnificently and could sing even better too. He was going to the island of Sicily to find fortune and fame.

"But Mom, we shouldn't want to be rich and just think about money."
"You're right, Ames, when we die we cannot take anything that we have here on earth with us. It's all just stuff and it stays behind."
"Oh, but Mommy please can I take my barbies with me?"
"Sorry girl, they have to stay, everything does."
I'm sure if I ask God, He'll have lots of toys for me to play with."

Q and A

We have three Bible Studies that meet in our home during the week. One on Tuesday mornings for ladies, one on Wednesday evenings for the youth group and then one on Saturday afternoons for working ladies. It has been a joy to study the Word together. I have been helping with the women's study, but because I don't know all the answers to the questions the ladies have been asking, it's great to have Brian to help out! This past Saturday I had to take a picture because it reminded me of the studies he used to have in South Africa with just the 'gals'. That was before we were married :)

Dirty

For days now the kids have looked like they really need to be scrubbed. We do scrub them lots! It's so dirty and dusty here at the moment and until all the grass is planted and the rains come, well scrubbing is what we'll do.

Still got the sickies...

Which is to be expected when you're about 10 weeks pregnant! The kids haven't done much school this week. One morning, I put them all down for a nap at about 9am which lasted until noon. I think the heat here is a huge factor too, it is quite draining, even on the kiddos. Anyway, it was great to put my feet up and rest. It's been quite tough running around after these three while feeling blah!

In two weeks, we have a guest arriving from California and so I am really praying that I'll be up to hosting in a non-blah way.

I'm still trying not to complain :)

November 7th, 1969

On this day, my best friend was born to Mark and Rosemary Biedebach.

Praise be to God for allowing him these years. Brian has had an exciting life with many travels all over this world. The most important thing to him is to know Christ and to preach God's Word so that others may know the joy and hope that he knows.

Brian does lots of this!


Brian grew up eating Rice Roni at every Sunday lunch meal that his grandma Biedebach prepared. He still loves it and we even have a stash of it here in Lilongwe, Malawi - graciously supplied by members of mission teams from the US.




This is a picture of Brian on November 7th, 1969.
Brian, I LOVE YOU and am so thankful to be a part of your life.

Kids' Zone

These three bundles have been couch bound these past couple of days, maybe even weeks, because I haven't been up to do anything else, but lying around like a potato myself. I don't remember feeling this morning-day-night nausea in my other pregnancies. Ami told me the other day, "Mom, we're not to complain!" Well I know that, I just didn't feel like hearing it...

We don't have any TV stations, so they have watched movies over and over again and are reciting some now- that's just so bad. What's a mother to do...

We can squeeze in one more on Opa's couch.

Watering Cans...

Are for watering grass and trees and plants...

And for making mud right outside our front door!

Brian found these at a store in town and got each of the kiddos one. It's a good thing there was not just one colour, otherwise we might have had a family feud. You can see how the grass is coming along, sort of.

Bradley was singing a Willy Wonka song about chocolate.

Ami, watering the only flowering shrub in our yard. The tree next to it, is the infamous avocado tree, that we transplanted from the yard where we used to live. It has survived and will continue to do so, with the aid of 'these avid gardeners'.

This is a picture for you to see how dry it is at the moment. This is just over our wall. We're living on the greener side of the fence.

These are our paw paw(papaya) trees that we planted as the foundation of our house was being laid. These pictures are for you, Dad.

These are the banana trees. We look forward to the fruit!