Category: The Girls’ News

We spent three lovely days with our friends Lamar, Tamy, and Malik Gore in West Deptford, NJ. We went on walks, played air hockey, joined them at Bible study, and went to ice cream twice! We saw a few of Tamy’s friends from church and their children. Sarah was one. It was fun seeing the chickens that had just joined her family the night before we came. Schylie was able to give her a lot of tips. Another friend was Nicole and her son Boaz. We enjoyed talking about things like big families (she is pregnant with #2 and hopes to have 10) and healthy living, raising godly children and also helpful books on the topic. The fire Wednesday night and s’mores was delightful and we also enjoyed other restful times of fellowship and delicious meals. We miss you all already!!

We left Thursday around 10:30 heading to the O’ Connors house in Putnam, CT. I do not have fond memories of driving that day. I think the Lord protected us from at least 6 accidents over about 70 miles in north NJ and the Manhattan area. James had told me to take the Tappan Zee Bridge. Long story but I think my dear husband knows me so well and I learned I really should have listened.

We arrived around 4:00 and had to make introductions. It had been 6 years since we had seen them! All the children had changed so much. We had planned to stay for one night and get home on Friday. But after the children had enjoyed about 5 hours together they asked if we could stay for one more night. We did! What a wonderful time of indoor and outdoor games, making short videos, food, and getting to know each other, making sweet long time friendships. Their ages are: Abby 19, Sarah 16, Paul 15, Peter 13, and Anna 11. The six older child are either married or have moved away. It was so nice that Terri and I were able to spend a lot of time together while we shopped, prepared meals, or walked the neighborhood. Her husband Pat was working so we didn’t see much of him but enjoyed our short visits. We hope to connect with them later this year, especially when the boys come home. 🙂

Saturday morning came too fast and since Schylie had a 10:30 appointment in Cambridge about her malaria medicine, we planned to leave at 9:00. Paul made a delicious breakfast, gingerbread oatmeal. Yum! We had a hard time saying goodbye and finally left at 9:25. Schylie’s appointment was short and we got on the road at about 10:45. We were headed to the Marcels to pick up Sandy’s two ferrets and say hi to Joe and Ellis. We had to take everything out of the suburban and put the cages in and then repack the sub. Everything fit except the cooler and the bike hitch. Joe said they would bring them on Sunday. What a sweet reunion for Sandy! She really missed them.

Aly Marcel was working at her job about 2 minutes away so we stopped by Sally’s Selections Consignment Shop to say hi. We missed Ellen but would see her on Sunday.

Anticipation rose as we approached the Sagamore bridge. Boy were we ready to be home after 78 days (11 weeks)! Home sweet home!! We arrived at 2:20 and were greeted by River and our cat Zoe.

A few stats of our travels:

442 road kills counted, approx. 13,375 miles driven, drove through and visited 27 states, ate 5 meals at Subway, 2 meals at Chik fil A, met up with the guys 3 times, stayed in 4 hotels, stayed at one Air B&B, stayed in 19 different homes/families, one car break down in South Dakota ($450), witnessed one car accident while breaking to avoid it, resulting in needing an alignment ($94), and many trips to Starbucks!!

Here are some pictures:

Thank you for your prayers during our travels. We had a lovely vacation, but we  are so happy to be home. 🙂 Stay tuned for further posts from the guys as they make their way home!

Signing off…

Our time with the Newells was wonderful. We had a lot of nice downtime, playing games and just chatting. On Friday, we girls joined the Newell kids for a church youth group excursion to Carowinds, a theme park only a few hours away. It was a warm day, but so much fun. Saturday evening was spent having dinner with some friends of the Newells. At some point that day, Mama found a large tick embedded in her leg. She assumed that it had been there since Tuesday, the day we spent outside with Alan. Christie helped her remove it, and so far she seems fine. On Sunday, we attended church with the Newells in the morning and visited a PCA church in the evening. It was a wonderful Lord’s Day and we were warmly greeted by many. We left early this morning, around 7am. The whole family waved us out while Titus played his bagpipes for us. It was a sweet moment. Today, we drove a 12 hr day to New Jersey for a visit with our dear friends–Lamar, Tamy, and Malik. We anticipate a lovely visit with them, leaving on Thursday.

Here are some pictures from the last week or so.

Signing off…

I’m not going to talk about the time we spent with Daddy and the boys, since Daddy already wrote an extensive post about our visit with them. Nevertheless, suffice it to say–we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them and the goodbyes were very, very difficult. After leaving Canon City, we made a few stops and then trudged ahead to Oklahoma where we would stay with Kirk Gibbons’ mother, Beverly. We finally arrived late in the evening, and were warmly welcomed. We said hello and jumped into bed. On Sunday we joined Beverly in attending her home church, Heritage Presbyterian Church (PCA), not far from her home. For Sunday School, there were visiting missionaries from Ukraine who spoke about their work there. We very much enjoyed our time in this Presbyterian church–a taste of home! Beverly’s daughter, Jeanne, joined us for lunch later in the day. Later on, we tuned in to our church’s quarterly hymn sing and sang along. We left Monday morning, very grateful for the time and fellowship we shared with Beverly and her daughter.

We drove for several hours (as usual) on our way to visit with some new friends, Alan & Margaret in Tennessee. Our drive was interrupted by a terrible accident. Thankfully, we were not a part of it. We were driving on the highway when the pickup truck in front of us suddenly swerved and drove off the road into the grassy median. Mama looked up and saw a car swerve back and forth, and then flip over and land on it’s top. It slid and then spun. Meanwhile, Mama slammed on the breaks, bringing us to a stop about 1 foot from hitting the upside down car. As the dust settled, we all jumped out of the car. Mama yelled at me to “Call 911!” I quickly dialed the number as I slipped out of the car and walked toward the upside down car. People were running to the car from all sides, at least a dozen, all trying to pull things out of the car and help whoever was inside. Turns out, a young woman, around 22, and her 6-8 month old son were in the car. They crawled and were pulled out, seemingly ok. Meanwhile, I was talking to the lady on the other line, explaining the accident as best I could. I got off and turned my attention to what was going on. We stood around for a bit, wondering what to do. Several people were surrounding the young lady and her baby, so we stood off to the side. When the tow truck arrived, we sifted through the debris on the road and pulled out several pieces of clothing, baby toys, and the woman’s wallet. We watched as her mother arrived, and later her boyfriend. We could see that the woman was lightly scratched, but otherwise ok. The baby seemed fine. He smiled at me. Mama eventually filled out a witness report. As the accident was cleaned up and traffic started moving, we handed in our report and drove off. We lost at least 45 minutes. The next hour or so was spent in debriefing…we sure needed it. It was a very tragic and frightening thing to watch.

We finally arrived at the Bishop’s home around 7pm. They live on 120 acres with several waterfalls and creeks on their property. After dark, Alan took us outside to his telescope that he set up for us on the front porch. Before long, we found ourselves looking at Saturn, Jupiter, the moon, and several significant stars. It was amazing. The next morning, we had a breakfast of granola and over a dozen different kinds of fruit. We spent the rest of the morning hiking along a shallow creek and collecting rocks and precious stones, while Mama joined Alan in repairing a break in his well pipe. We took one short but scenic walk to a nearby waterfall where Terra intentionally stepped on a snake she found. After asking Alan what kind of snake it was, he quickly told her to let it go and get away from it. It was a copperhead! Very poisonous…  Back at the house, we had a quick snack, then took a drive down to the river with a canoe and two kayaks. Sandy stayed back with Margaret. We ended up spending 6 hours on the river. It was beautiful, and so much fun–except for one part. We were approaching a bend in the river, with rapid flowing water pulling us toward a few logs lodged on the river’s surface. Alan, Mama, and Chantry were in the canoe in front of Terra & I, who were in two separate kayaks. I wasn’t able to paddle quickly enough to avoid the logs, so I decided to stop paddling and put up my hand to push off the logs. As it got closer, I realized the current was too strong. Nevertheless, I tired to hold myself against the log. Instead, my kayak flipped over. I found myself under the kayak, and quickly pushed it away. I was still under the water, trying to find air. I was stuck under the logs! It was several seconds before I floated up and could breathe. I grabbed on to my kayak and paddle and floated downstream till I could stop myself. Meanwhile, Terra was flipped over also, right after she saw that I was down. She also got stuck under her kayak, but was able to get up pretty quickly. Alan, Mama, and Chantry helped guide us to a spot where we could catch our breath. We helped each other dump the water out of our kayaks and then hopped in and continued our trek. It was a scary time, but we persevered and finished our route. We loaded up the watercraft in the dark with the help of our phone’s flashlights and arrived back at the house at 9:25pm. A busy, but fun day. I do miss my glasses though.

We left the following morning, headed to South Carolina to visit with our dear friends, the Newells. Not long after leaving Alan’s, we stopped for gas and realized we couldn’t find Mama’s wallet. After looking for awhile, we called Alan and learned that she had left her wallet in his truck. He kindly offered to bring it to us. So, around 11:45, we finally left the area and got on the road. We missed a turn at some point, which set us back further. We enjoyed yet another meal at Subway and driving through the Smoky Mountains. Taking turns driving, we eventually arrived at the Newells after 1am. They got up to greet us and show us to our rooms. We slept in this morning and had a later breakfast, followed by family worship. We spent most of the morning playing games and hanging out.

Pictures forthcoming!

Signing off…

Signing off…

As I think upon the last several days, it’s hard to remember what we actually did each day. A lot of it is just a blur… So, instead of going through each day, I’m going to pick out the highlights (or at least most memorable experiences) of the last week or so.

Continue reading “Quite the blur–by Schylie”

It’s been awhile! We sure have been busy visiting lots of relatives. On Monday June 26, we started the day packing up our things. Later on, we went to Wildcat lake to swim and fish with Grandpa. It was a perfect day, weather-wise.

Continue reading “Visiting time–by Schylie”