"Mom, I have seen snow...

...so can we go back to Malawi now?"

Can you see his burn mark from the cookie sheet on the side of his face :( ?

Bradley can't wait to get back. We leave in two weeks' time. We can hardly believe our furlough is almost over. We too though, are eager to get back home and into our daily routine. We have missed being with our friends in Lilongwe and look forward to ministry there.

Fun with Kwacha and Cousins

Ami, Kwacha, Benjamin and Bradley on the monorail.

Braysen, Bradley and Benjamin

Come on Benja!

Ami got to go on some of the big rides with Dad and Kwacha.

We miss you Breanna!

Brian and Kwacha took the kids to Disneyland. They met Sharon and her kids there. They had so much fun. It was Kwacha's first time and he enjoyed it too.

Similarities at 6 months?

Ami

Bradley

Benjamin

Allison

Something we did notice after naming Allison is this...

Ami and Bradley both end in an "ee" sound.
Benjamin and Allison both end in a "n" sound.

Not intentional at all, but kinda fun now that we think about it.

Kids in action

The two older kids helped to bake cookies while mom called out the instructions. The cookies turned out okay. Bradley singed his face on the side of a baking-hot cookie sheet and then walked outside and stepped on a bee.
Awwwww...he wailed for a long time, poor boy!

Ami is an excellent helper and does most anything we ask, quite happily. I am not supposed to lift anything that weighs more than 5 pounds. That includes Allison and she needs much carrying. Ami has been hauling Alli wherever I need her to be. Brad has learned to help out with chunky Alli too, although he is quick to mention how heavy she is. Benjamin who rarely sits still, asked to be rocked like a baby the other evening. I nearly cried! My Benja can be sweet. What a mission though to get him onto my lap...we sat and sang for at least 5 minutes. Thanks be to God Who allows us these precious moments of joy.

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning hairdo.

Alli Mae's first Christmas!

Cute 'kaalvoet kinders'.

We had a wonderful Christmas together as a family celebrating the birth of our Saviour who lives today. What a joy it was to talk to our children about the hope believers have of eternal life. Christ who knew no sin and Who never had to die, did so in obedience to God the Father so that sinners like us might know peace. He is the best gift ever. We do try and have the kids focus on that and not so much on their gifts. It's not so easy. One little incident did bring delight to my heart. On Christmas eve there were ten gifts under our donated tree. Ami counted them very carefully. Five were for her. Two were for Bradley. One for Benja. One for Alli and one for Daddy. None for mom? She obviously was quite excited that she had five, but when she realised that there weren't any for her mother she decided she had to do something about that.
It wasn't long before she placed a flat square box wrapped in her own unique way under the tree. Now there was a gift for her mom too. When I opened it this morning, I was teary!
Earlier in the week she had gone with her cousin to Chucke Cheese's and earned a flower-shaped purple 'stone' plastic ring. It was precious to her. She showed it off, quite pleased at her achievement, and now she had given it to me for Christmas!

Ready to help dad-they have all the tools.

Ami with her new dress.

Our first real tree.

My amazing husband prepared a delicious ham, roast potatoes, green beans, corn, and croissants.

Great Daddy

Since mom is out of action, dad has taken the reigns and is doing a sterling job. Even mealtimes are more fun!

6 months

Allison is 6 months now. She has started sitting on her own and rocking back and forth on her hands and knees.

Merry Christmas and Happy Appendectomy

This is Brian updating the Biedeblog. God has answered so many prayers for us this week. Anita had her appendix removed this morning and everything went well. The doctor said that it was a good thing we had it removed because it was in bad shape. He said that her "chronic appendicitis" is what has been causing her so much discomfort for the past nine months. That includes her 3 episodes of excruciating pain that caused us to look into this in the first place. For those who have been following the blog, the two times Anita was hospitalized when she was pregnant with Allison was probably because of her traumatized, hemorrhaging, abscess filled appendix. The doctor in South Africa had diagnosed those attacks as "tendinitis" but when she had a third episode three months after Allison was born we realized that it probably wasn't tendinitis. How grateful we are that this showed up on Anita's CT scan and that we were able to deal with this here in the U.S. -- if her appendix had burst in Malawi, our only option would have been to airlift her back to South Africa.

Anita was in the hospital at 6:30 AM this morning for surgery and able to return home at 6:00 PM this evening. The whole operation was done with a scope - AMAZING. The kids are all staying with friends until tomorrow afternoon and I have been able to be with Anita the whole time. My sister is planning to be here tomorrow to help me with the troops. Thank you, praying friends, and please continue to pray for Anita's recovery. (P.S. - the doctor also found a hernia while scoping out Anita's abdomen and he stitched that up while he was there - another thing to be thankful for). We have been accomplishing much on this furlough and look forward to our return to Malawi in just four weeks.

Go go go...

The kids at the end of a long day!

Furlough is tough. We have been sharing and or preaching, [at least Brian has, in the first two weeks we were here, he had to share 11 times!] visiting churches, catching up with family and friends and trying to rest too. Lord willing, we'll have a slower couple of days with Christmas coming up. I'll be forced to rest, because of my scheduled appendectomy.

1mm

Urologist says my kidney stone is only 1mm. Not anything to be concerned about. Praise the Lord! Trying to drink lots of water. The ones pictured above are part of Bied's kidney stone collection. The biggest one he has passed was 8mm.

Dr. says...

I do have a kidney stone! Will see the urologist again on Friday. Also, surgery for my appendix will probably be in two weeks' time, just before Christmas. We appreciate your prayers.

Fun in Texas

We had a really fun time with Bied's family in Texas. Where in Texas? McKinney and Allen. We also drove out to Frisco on Sunday evening to Tom Pennington's church. That was neat. Sharon and John fed the kids and put them to bed so that we could go. On the morning we left to come home it was snowing. Such a fun thing for the kids to see.

On a carousel in the mall.

Braysen and Allison in their jammies.

Big girl Breanna holding little Alli.

Cousins eating ice cream at the mall.
Biedebachs at the park.

This sweet baby is still not sitting, but is pushing herself up on her forearms. She loves being on her belly and looks like an aeroplane when she lifts her arms and legs into the air.

Tomorrow is my dad's birthday! It's already Dec 4th in South Africa. Happy birthday Opa. We love you.