More and more like his daddy...

Hudson reminds me more and more of his daddy lately :) A week or so ago a friend asked Hudson if he ever has a dream. He answered (very seriously, veins popping out in his neck), “No. But my daddy has a dream! That one day people from every nation and tribe and tongue will love Jesus!”

And this week, Craig stopped back to pick something up in our room while the kids were having their rest time. (Hudson has his “nap” in our room now- him and his sister were having too much fun and not enough rest during this time in their room together.) Hudson asked if he could listen to some music- his choice being some worship songs. Craig walked in to Hudson standing on the bed, hands in the air, eyes closed- rocking out (silently) to “How Great is our God”.

Had the fun chance to see Kayly on her way into the country for about an hour with some other U of I students- we love them…! And we’re all looking forward to a visit from old friends coming back in town for a few days this week- their Isaiah, Marian and John are all just a few months younger than H, G and T. We’ll get a few days of experiencing 6 kiddos running around :)

And here's the pic I quickly snapped of our local "Obama":

We have our computer back :)

So- I posted our pics...

And - couple funny convos with G today. Had several friends eating with us tonight- one husband was not there with his wife, so Hudson asked if he would be coming and his wife answered, "Maybe, he has a throat problem." Grace told me, "He has a throat, so he won't be coming. But his wife she doesn't have a throat so she's here."

G also has held onto the Easter story and often says, "Mama, good news: Jesus is alive!" Tonight after reading our Acts story, Grace turned to us and said, "Good news: Jesus created the world! Jesus created Golden Books!"

pic and our big girl-

Just picked up our pics of the kids- can't figure out how to resize them without our mac- so I'll post the others when we get it back (which should be Monday!).

In other news, was telling the kids a "childhood" 2 nights ago about our family's sailboat named Joncy. When I was telling them why we named the boat Joncy（first letter of Jay, second letter of Joanie, third of Lindsay and so on...), Gracie yelled out, "Mama! That's my ... holy (whole) name! Joanie...that's my holy name!" (or middle name- part of her whole name)

That same day she came out of the convenient store telling me they only had the airplane kind of ice cream bar, not the crunchy kind. I was confused for a minute then realized Craig had told her they only have the plain kind of ice cream bar (not plane).

our little baseball star...

Hudson had a fun moment in the elevator...him and Craig hopped on a crowded elevator that included 2 older ladies- one started telling the other who Hudson was. "That's Ke Mo Han (Hudson's Chinese name). He's the one who can really play baseball- and he's a good big brother." :)

We taught again at Hudson's school this morning (like every Friday)...it is such a joy! Hudson was telling me that there was a girl in his class that was only 3 (most of the students are 5 - some 4 and 6 too). I asked him which one she was and he answered, "She has black hair, mmm (thinking)...". Didn't get too far on that one (Hudson being the only foreigner in his class).

here they are getting ready to face "the sun!" :)

Planning, etc.

Talked to some friends here about our plans for the future yesterday. Made me realize how much I really like when we figure out some sort of "plan" for our family-to know where we'll be living in a year, in a couple years.... (wherever that is really!) One unexpected blessing of living life overseas is just an easier realization that we don't know what the next day, month...will bring (which is true for anywhere). If He wills, we'll be here tomorrow- and the day after that...

Snapped a picture of our local "Obama" yesterday- but our mac crashed so I'll have to wait to upload it. We probably lost about 4 months of pictures/emails our back-up drive seems to not have worked like we thought it did. :(

Titus keeps us laughing though...been trying to teach him how to pray with us all at night, ha! We tell the kids to show Titus how we pray (sitting/kneeling still, etc.) - So while Hudson is praying the other night, T crawls up to him (he's kneeling/leaning on the ground) and pulls his pants down. :)

Here's the goofball- screaming (which he usually does on his tip toes with eyebrows raised), sticking out his huge tongue and playing with his shadow (it was sunny!) (he also loves playing peek-a-boo with himself in our full length mirror.) :)

"Was that Obama?"

This one makes even me laugh- and is much more funny if you've met this neighbor of ours.
Yesterday afternoon Craig was going out to study and took Hudson with. (This is like a dream for Hudson, I did it once a couple weeks ago and he loved it- and did good work too. Even better a study trip with daddy...). Anyway, they were heading out and a Chinese man who is often on the streets in our neighborhood and who is especially excited to see our white faces and say, "hellooo" was out. He looks a bit different than the typical majority Chinese man you'd see. After saying hello and walking a couple steps, Hudson turned to Craig and said, "Was that Obama?" I'm going to try to snap a shot of this local Obama look-alike and put it up for you to see. He is definitely the most Obama looking Chinese guy I've seen.
Our sweet Hudson is a faithful pray-er for the president of the country he was born in and is a citizen of- he just hasn't seen much of him :)

Nightly request

Just about every night after putting the big 2 in bed, Hudson calls out for me or Craig to come in a pray again with them- this time that specifically, "no tigers, bears, lions, whales, sharks, caymans, alligators, crocodiles, dinosaurs, or unicorns will come in their room at night." this request started with just bears a few months ago and has been added to and added to. We usually take the opportunity to remind Hudson that Jesus promised to be with us always and that God is in control and we don't need to be afraid of anything.
A couple nights ago was a rare night where Hudson fell right asleep and Grace was not tired. At one point during the night she requested prayer that, "no lions, tigers, deer or kangaroos" would come in their room that night. :)
And as for the little guy-- Titus is really not liking being told no lately... but is so sweet whenever we walk down our hallway. We have 8 pictures up in our hall of all the aunts/uncles/mimis and papas that we love and miss. He leans and points at the pictures and is so happy to hear us tell him everyone's names.