More Spring reflections

Laodicean amphitheater under construction.

 Beginning of Laodicea exploration.

Some fairly new digs.

Sardis "olympic" pool.

An ancient mosaic on the ground in Sardis.

A family from the east collecting some greens at Sardis.

Gigi soaking it all in at Sardis...notice the poster above her head to the left.

Tabs and Ahu hanging in the Rug room.

Sandy and Lori in the Rug room.

Learning how to tie the knots. Many of these women work for hours each day on the same rug for months until it's done. This particular woman said she has lots of neck and upper back pain. It's tedious work.

Love these colors!

Silk cocoons.

Everyone watching the silk spinning.

Spinning the silk in a hot water bath.

The nomadic life of the locals.

A rug factory. They use all natural ingredients to die the fabric (wool, cotton, silk).

Trying on the local garments.

Original site of the temple of Zeus. This area is also known as the throne of satan. Funny, in 1999 Baba spoke to our hearts in this place at the base of those steps as we were praying for the city: "One day you will live in this land."

Pergamom columns.

Standing in the old city Pergamom looking out over the new city.

Our tour guide Ahu. Missing her.

Friends who translated as we visited the red-light district.

The day after our house got robbed Gigi is serving us by cleaning finger-print dust off the floor. Thanks Gigi!

I loaded these pictures "tam ters" - completely backwards. If you start from the bottom and scroll up, it makes a bit more sense. Group from the States came out to help with the start-up of sozo ministry in our city. We took a couple of days to see some of this ancient land. Everything was so green after the winter rains!

It's been a while...sorry!

I'm needing to get better on follow-through. I want to share with you all that Hudson's Alk Phos levels came down to normal!! Not just "high" normal, but smack in the middle of normal range! God did it. That's all I can say. He was showing me from the beginning that there was a way out, and that he wanted to show me Hudson was going to be alright. Praise the Lord!
We've had a lot going on since my last post...We moved to a different home the beginning of July, and then went to Turkey for two weeks mid-July, then came home and have been playing "catch-up" ever since :) We still have boxes in our back room that have not been unpacked. I will write more later when I make some more time...two tired boys are ready for a nap and are currently wrestling at my feet...they are getting to the age where fist swinging is included with the wrestling...?!

End of June

Today we take Hudson in for another blood test on his Alkaline Phosphatase levels. After the last post his levels had gone down, but were still well above normal for his age. But his levels ares still coming down! Our hope is in the Lord and in His plans for Hudson and our family. God truly is in control.

Last night I was able to enjoy sweet fellowship with family and friends in celebration of my 32nd Birthday. What a blessing! It was a big bash, one that my husband had organized. It was actually my 30th Birthday party, just two years late. So some people thought it was my 40th Birthday since it was a "bigger than usual" get-together. *scoff* do I really look like I could be 40?! Well, I guess somedays I feel like I could be at least 40!

I'll post pics of the party later.
Please keep Hudson in Your prayers. We should have the results back from the test sometime early next week.

We are moving to a new house in Stillwater in 1 1/2 weeks. Then we leave the country July 14th for two weeks. So my normal "3-day" work week will turn into a full time job getting a months worth of work squeezed into 2 1/2 weeks in July. This is one busy summer! I've been reminded by my husband and the Holy Spirit that in order to make it through these more stressful times, I need to push harder into the presence of the Lord. I cannot do it on my own. I've been feeling the stress and anxiety mount over the last couple of weeks.

Please pray with us for a smooth move, a blessed work "month" for me and Caleb, and for God's will to be done on our trip in July.
Thank you!

Hudson's tests

So Hudson has been sick the good part of 4 months now, and his weight has been on the low side. So his Pediatrician decided to do some labwork two weeks ago to rule out any underlying illness. Well, the results were kind of a shock, since his Alkaline Phosphatase lab came back 20times the normal value for a kid his age. So they re-did the lab draw (not an easy task to hold down a screaming 16 month old so they can poke him with a needle...3 times). This time the lab came back 5 times the normal value - better, but still concerningly high. So from that point Hudson's Pedi calleda Pedi-oncologist in Tulsa to find out what the next step should be. Apparently one of the risks of an Alk Phos lab this high is bone tumor. So after a full body x-ray, a urinalysis, and some more lab work to look at tumor-markers, all appears to be okay - which we whole-heartedly praise the Lord for! Now the doc decided to wait until the 20th of May to have the Alk Phos checked again. Please take note that through all of this the Lord has been showing us to trust Him, and to pray for Hudson's complete healing. The Lord is in control, and Hudson is His first. Hudson is more precious to God than he will ever be to us - and that is some serious preciousness :) We are praying that this is all just a fluke lab, and that the values will be back to normal on Tuesday. Would you pray the same with us? As soon as we find out about the labs, I'll post and send out an email.

International days...

Hospitality Day
Hospitality day at our house was so much fun! Three girls from China, and one from Turkey. We got to show them how to use an avocado, and shared probably too many pictures with them (wedding and trips). What a great evening! And Caleb made some fabulous portobello mushrooms on the grill with havarti cheese - yummy! And thst's saying something because I'm not that crazy about mushrooms!



Birthday Party for Ryan

University is done with classes for the summer, and our town has literally shrunk in population. It's kind of nice to have some room to breath when so many students are gone! Not that students aren't wonderful :) It hasn't been THAT long ago that I was a student at OSU as well!

We recently went to a birthday party for Lily and Mooyed's son Ryan who turned 1. It was a fun party with great Persian food! Silas and Hudson kept sneaking outside though, and I found them in the bushes playing several times.

Hands Abroad

The last day of Hands Abroad was in April, and we had a party with all the students. They brought delicious food and we all had a great time eating, talking, and sharing about our classes with the other classes. Here are two ladies from Libya that were in our class. Below are two more sweet Libyan students standing by the nursery.

Our friend Nellie with Libyan student Monya.

Harvest Time

We didn't make it to the pumpkin patch this year. The local patches said between the squash bugs and the rain in late summer, the pumpkins were not doing so good. They were importing pumpkins from other places just to have some to sell! So we set up our own harvest pumpkin patch of sorts in our front lawn! The boys enjoyed rolling the pumpkins around, and I enjoyed taking their pictures :) We haven't cut into them yet, but I hope they stay good a little while longer so we can cook and bake with the nutritious Isquatm Squash (old Native American term for pumpkin).

My cute little pumpkins!

Getting it together

Okay, so I finally figured out how to POST a blog. I was "posting" pictures and text under the wrong heading...but I've got it now!

Just a brief update: I'm looking forward to the fall for a great weather change, for football season, family gatherings, and Hands Abroad. We live in Stillwater, come on! OSU football trumps everything else this time of year in this town! All you see is orange and black on game days (not to be mistaken with Halloween). So the college atmosphere is fun, and we actually are still connected to some college students, or recent students, on Sunday nights. And Caleb and I are still going to Community Free Church, which we love and continue to grow in love with the people there. I've started helping with Hands Abroad, an international ministry through a different church which provides English and sewing classes to international students/spouses. I'm helping with beginning English, and we have two ladies from Libya and one from S.Korea in our class. They are alot of fun! I have a feeling I'm going to be learning more Arabic and Korean though.