Candy

Since we have been talking about Cotter... Here's another story for you!

He is our candy lover! He wakes up asking for candy, asks for it all day long, and then, after we brush his teeth at night, he asks for more! So, as you could guess, we are constantly telling him that he cannot have candy. He has decided that he wants candy more often than allowed, so he has started bringing his step stool into the kitchen and climbing on the counter to get a handful of candy, and then running and hiding and eating the candy as fast as he can before we find him. When we call his name and he doesn't answer, we know that he has probably found some candy and then begins the search for him! We have found him under the coffee table, under the dining room table, in his closet, and our personal favorite is under his bed!

I'm just glad Josh isn't a dentist!

Prayer

Cotter has really started saying the sweetest prayers. This morning at breakfast, this is what he prayed:

"Dear God,

Help Mama feel good. Help people who don't have food. Help the sick. Help me be a servant. Amen."

I pray that I can also be a servant to everyone around me. Thanks, Cotter, for the reminder.

Tony Alley

Everyone has a favorite teacher who has influenced there lives in many ways. Tony Alley was mine. He was the Associate Professor of Art & Design and Mass Communication at Oklahoma Christian University and he just lost his fight with brain cancer January 15th. He not only was an amazing teacher, but he really cared about his students and wanted to see each one succeed. If it wasn't for his constant encouragement and faith in me, I'm not sure I would have finished school and I wouldn't have my degree in Advertising. One of my favorite memories with him was when he made a mold of my face for his 3D Modeling and Animation class. I spent one Saturday afternoon in the art department with my face wrapped in who knows what with only a small hole for my nose so that I could breathe. He then made a 3D model of it and I walked into his office one day and my face was on his desk! It was kind of freaky!

Before we moved to Vienna, I was able to spend a few hours with him at his office with my kids. I wanted them to meet him and he really wanted to see my kids. We had a wonderful afternoon sitting on the lawn at OC eating cookies and drinking Sprite from the teachers lounge. I am so thankful that we were able to have that time together.

I wish so much that I could be in Edmond right now so that I could go to his Memorial Service. But instead, I will be here in Vienna mourning the loss of a wonderful Christian man who has helped me become who I am today.

To see a video of Tony and his story, go here.

A Tender Heart & A Tough Question

On Sunday as we were about to eat breakfast before heading to church, I told the kids that we need to pray for the people in Kenya and attempted to explain the situation. When I finished my brief explanation, both Carli and Caleb looked at me quite confused and said they didn't understand. I told them I would explain in the car after breakfast. During breakfast I tried to explain a little more.

Later in the day, Carli prayed that the people who were burning the houses and church buildings would stop and make the right choice to be kind. She also prayed for the Christians in Kenya and the people who were hiding in fear and unable to leave Kenya. As we were driving after church, she asked me, "Dad, why doesn't God just make the people who are burning up the houses stop?" I told her that was a good question and then tried to simply explain my limited understanding of the relationship between God's sovereignty and humanity's free will (i.e., God created people with the ability to make real and meaningful choices and does not force people to make a choice even if it is the right choice. All along God has wanted a relationship with those who have chosen to love Him not people He has forced to do so.)

Children are a great blessing; they always challenge you and have an inherent desire for compassion and justice. I just didn't think that I would be addressing such a deep theological question with my children so early in their lives.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We hope that everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! We have been very busy, which is why you haven't seen any new posts in a while, so I will try to make up for it!

Let's go back to December 15th. Jaime (Josh's sister) and Kyle got married at Memorial Road Church of Christ. So far, that has been the hardest thing that we have missed. But thanks to Skype and Randon Rieger, we were able to be there for the whole thing! We were there the night of the rehearsal and were able to watch the whole wedding from our home. We even had two different views from each of our computers! It was great. Then, Randon brought us to the reception and Josh threw on a tie with his pajama pants and we gave a toast. It was really special and, Randon- you have no idea how much that meant to us. Thanks again.


The next week was spent getting ready for Josh's family to come. Thanks to our team and some new Austrian friends, we were able to get the beds and blankets and pillows and everything else that we needed to have 14 people stay in our house for two weeks! They all arrived by the 22nd and left yesterday. We were here in Vienna for about a week through Christmas and then we went to Venice and Florence, Italy for a week. It was so much fun having everyone here. The one shower made it interesting, but we all managed just fine.


We had a huge Christmas meal which was quite eventful with my small kitchen and small oven. We had to get creative with some of our favorite recipes because we couldn't find some of the ingredients. In fact, Kyle had to go clear accross town for sweet potatoes! I was so thankful because I love sweet potatoes! So thanks again, Kyle! Cotter really enjoyed the meal. He fell asleep with a roll in his hand!

One thing that is very different here is the fact that all of the stores (grocery stores too) close around 2:00pm on Christmas Eve and don't open again until Dec. 27th! So, there is no running to the store if you forgot an ingredient on Christmas day! You will just have to do without! We made a very detailed list and actually only forgot the green olives and sour cream. We did without the green olives and used yogurt for the sour cream!

So after opening lots of wonderful presents and one last Christmas market at Schönbrunn, we hopped on a plane to Venice. We arrived in the afternoon and rode buses and boats to get to our hotel which was just a few blocks from San Marco square. If you don't like birds (Tamika), then stay far away from San Marco Square! They don't bother me too much, but as you can see, they were starting to freak me out! The kids had a blast, which made for some pretty funny pictures!

Here are some other pictures from our time in Venice.

We then got on a train and rode to Florence. It took about three hours and the kids loved playing games and drawing pictures with their aunts and uncles. We had a pretty eventful arrival into Florence when we saw the apartments that we had reserved in advance. With the light bulbs hanging from the wires and the other drastic differences between the online pictures and reality, we decided not to stay there and to find a hotel! We were never so happy to find a Holiday Inn with vacancy!

There were a ton of people in Florence (maybe for the holidays) so I was a little tense during this part of our trip. I was so afraid that one of our kids would run off into the crowds. In fact Carli did one time and I have never been more scared. So next time- I would like my kids to be a little older. One of my favorite parts of Florence was when we went to see the David statue. Again, seeing something in person that I have studied for years was pretty amazing!

Josh and I celebrated our 7th anniversary in Florence which was pretty amazing too! We had a wonderful Italian meal and started our search for the perfect Italian dessert! We went into several different shops until we found a bookstore that reminded us of Barnes and Noble. We used to go there after dates in the States to get coffee from Starbucks and read some books or magazines. So we enjoyed a great cup of (strong) coffee and a Tiramisu in a cup! It was very nice!

After a couple of days in Florence we decided to take a quick train to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was a lot of fun and the kids had fun posing for pictures! You know, that place wouldn't be famous if the architects knew what they were doing when they built the tower! Again, it was neat to see something in person that I have only seen in pictures.

We then took the train back to Venice and enjoyed a beautiful fireworks show from our hotel window on New Year's Eve while our kids slept.

God has definitely blessed us with amazing families. We have two huge families that love us so much and bring so much encouragement. It was so hard to say goodbye yesterday at the airport and I imagine there will be many more hard goodbyes to come. I think our time together was even more special this time and we look forward to the next time we will be together again. Thanks Hensals for making this such an amazing Christmas. We love you and miss you already.