James & Anna's Wedding!!

James & Anna are married. sigh. We were happy to be able to meet (and approve of!) James this summer when we were back in PA to visit. It was obvious that he had found his way into Anna's heart. She absolutely glowed when he was around! We are so happy for him and how God has blessed her with such a great guy! She is such an intelligent and competent and beautiful woman...he is super-lucky to have her!

Although we were in PA over the exciting time that they got engaged, we were not able to get back for their wedding. However, they Skyped us in for it! We got front row seats!! The wedding started at 3AM here in Cambodia, so thankfully they couldn't see us, but we could see and hear everything! What a treat! THANK YOU, Anna, for making this possible for us to join you in that way!!

Here are a few photos we took from our perspective at the wedding! :) 

The beautiful Matron of Honor: Maria

 Andy and Cossette!

Jason and Brooklyn!

Enjoying a time of worship

Dad Martin gave an encouraging and challenging message

 Saying their vows which, by the way, they memorized. Bravo!

 Praying together, signing the register, and taking communion together

 Yes, they even sang a song! 

Oh my goodness, was I ever getting gushy and weepy at this stage!

From This Moment has a whole new meaning for me... it was beautiful.

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. James Snader!!! YAY!!!!

Miriam totally rocked that bridesmaid dress! GORGEOUS pregnant lady!!! 

Can't wait to meet my nephew!! :D

Isn't the stage so pretty?

I know it wasn't the same as being there, but it was definitely close!!! 

They are now off to Jamaica for their honeymoon...the place where it all began for them. 

SO happy for them, and happy for us that we get another awesome BIL in the family! Welcome, James!

Love you guys and wish God's BLESSING on you as you begin this wonderful and exciting new stage of life together! xoxo

green bananas, blue cupcakes, pink eye

Green Bananas 
There are so many things that our children are going to grow up with thinking is "normal." And to them, it will be perfectly normal to see goats or cattle on the road or children running barefoot around their bamboo huts yelling "hello!" as we wave and smile at them from our tuk tuk.

One thing that will be strange for Wes is to someday hear that bananas are yellow. Here, the BEST bananas are green! They are so sweet and almost melt in your mouth. And yes, they're green. The yellow ones just don't taste the same. 

So, someday if you are quizzing Wesley on his colors and you ask him what color bananas are, humor him and his upbringing by going with the flow when his answer is: "Green!!" :)

I was wondering if letting Wes eat SO many bananas was a good idea. 

He just LOVES fruit! Apples, bananas, 'baby' oranges, watermelon, mango...not too big on papaya yet, though. The thing is, he can eat 7 bananas in one day. Or 10 'baby' oranges in one sitting. He'll go to the fridge and find chocolate cupcakes (see photos below), get them out saying, "cake!" and then eat an apple instead. This must be why he's so healthy! 

I was wondering if fruit in excess is a bad thing, and then I read this article about bananas that has been circulating on Facebook and then I changed my mind. I'll just let him enjoy his fruit--and the many health benefits--that go along with it!

Blue Cupcakes
Last week, one of the boys, Biktu, turned 10! I found this out on the same day I found out that his mom left their family 6 months ago and his dad is re-marrying, so he'll have a new mom and new siblings soon. These types of things we find out gradually since we can't just sit down and talk with most of these boys. So THAT is why he hangs out at our house so often! I offered to make him a birthday cake, but his grandma kind of took offense at that and told me that she's giving him a birthday cake. He had already gotten excited at the idea of me making him a chocolate cake, though, so I decided just to make cupcakes. Wes and I carried one over to his place with a candle for him to blow out. They were having a nice party for him! I was so happy to see that! It was fun to participate in a bit of the festivities for him! He's such a sweet and polite boy.

Here are the blue cupcakes we made for him!
Wes enjoys "helping" me bake these days! He says, "stir! stir!" and drags a chair over beside me and helps me stir. We have fun together and ended up with blue icing over a lot more than just the cupcakes!! haha

Pink eye

Friends of ours here have a baby boy who just turned one! We were so excited to be invited to his "superhero" birthday party! We were all supposed to come dressed as superheroes! This is Wesley's costume: my little homemade superhero. So cute!

However, the night before the party, THIS is what happened to my eye. Sorry if this picture is TMI. :(
Thanks so much for praying for me last week! It was really difficult for me to care for the children and do everything I needed to do while having only one eye. Pink eye is REALLY contagious so I really appreciate you all joining us in prayer protecting it from spreading to the children, Joey, and my other eye. It was a miracle! The infection was contained, and after 5 days of wearing a patch and about 7 full days of my eye being really red and swollen, it is now back to normal, and NOBODY else caught it!! PTL!!

So, this was the reason why I haven't made a blog post in a little while. I've got a lot more to share! We celebrated American Thanksgiving this week, PLUS we put up our Christmas tree tonight and had a little party with the neighbor boys!! So, more photos coming soon.

We are full-fledged in the Christmas spirit here and busy planning our trip to Vietnam, which is where we'll be spending our Christmas. We are really looking forward to that!

As I type this, my lovely sister-in-law, Anna, is getting into her wedding gown and preparing to walk down the isle! We were happy to be home over the time that she and James got engaged, but are now sad to miss their special day. HOWEVER, we're going to try to Skype in at about 3 AM this morning to view the ceremony! I'm super-excited about that!!! So, I'd better get to bed.

lovies!

Photo shoots and Reflections on parenthood

We had an impromptu photo shoot before church 2 weeks ago! We often arrive early since Wes loves to play in the playground and on the soccer field when there's no games going on.
I love how energetic he is and how he just embraces life! He loves to run and play!
He has pretty much eliminated his afternoon nap times, so on a Sunday he consistently falls asleep in the tuk tuk on the way home from church (around 6 PM) and we can't wake him up! We just carry him up to bed and he's out till morning. This is how he embraces life: play hard; sleep hard.

What is this kid going to be like when he's a teenager?

He's already doing the 14-year-old-boy trick of opening up the fridge and just looking into it. 

Really! He just opens the door and stands there. looking. for food. something to grab. which he often does. 

Today he had a sandwich, rice, two yogurts, and an apple and he still was standing at the fridge, door open, looking for more food. He's so great. haha

I love watching Wes love on his baby sister. 

He'll often tickle her toes to make her laugh or give her a big kiss on her head.

I now refer to Briana as my little teenager. 

I'm having a hard time getting her to bed before 11 PM (often closer to midnight!) and she won't fully awake until 10 AM. Even if I wake her up earlier in the day to try to get her on a different schedule she won't really wake up until after 10. A taste of her personality? Perhaps! We'll see!

Gramma & Papa Eby gave the kids these shirts this summer around Canada Day!

It took Briana a little while to fit into it, but she sure does now! Little baby is growing too fast!

I love my kids! :)

Wes can take selfies!! :D 

I love getting to know my children and guiding them, teaching them, giving them what they need. 

I can't help but wonder what the coming years will bring. What will they be good at and gifted in? What will they hate and we get to teach them disciplines? Where will they struggle? I love finding what makes them laugh hysterically. I love drying their tears. I love that Joey & I can be the ones they run to or cry out for and nobody else can help them like we can. We pray for wisdom daily that we will be the Christ-centered parents that these little ones need to guide them in truth as they develop and discover and learn and grow into the plan that GOD has especially for them!! So blessed that Joey & I get the front row seats to see what that is!!

Happy Half Birthday, Wes!

Let me start this post by explaining that we never celebrated half-birthdays when I was a child.

I'd never even heard of them till I worked in Chicago. For some reason the idea stuck. Is it an American thing? Maybe. Anyway, it's something we have adopted into our family just for fun! 

How many years will it last, you ask? 

Good question. We'll see!

For now, the toddler years go by so fast and so many changes happen within just 6 months, so it's fun to have another reason to document and celebrate! 

We celebrated with some of Wes' favorite food: spaghetti!

Yes, it was as gross in person as in the pictures. 

We will counsel him never to eat spaghetti on a first date.

The "half a birthday cake" was such a surprise to Wes! I can tell he didn't expect anything special when we sat down to dinner, but the expressions on his face was priceless as we made him feel special just because he's Wes. What delight it is to see your children enjoying the things you give them!

Yummy cake!!! :D

I happened to find a few little toys that were "perfect" for him!

It was fun to watch him unwrap them. They are already well-loved!

Since he already knows all his letters and sounds perfectly, this little game is perfect for him! 

He's not so good at matching up the letters yet to make a word, but this is a good next step for him and it won't take him long to catch on!

We also got him some little cars. Always a hit in our little boy's world!

So, happy half birthday to you, Wes! I love how you have such a hearty laugh, love to play, and always make people smile wherever you go! I'm amazed at how you have already learned your letters, big and small, and their sounds, and your numbers 1-12, practice them over and over all day long! You love to learn. You love to ride your two-wheeler with training wheels. You love curious George, and spaghetti and getting into the peanut butter! You love to hit balls with your bat, do flips on the couch, and bring your favorite things with you in your back pack. Even though you're still sleeping with mommy & daddy EVERY night since we came back from our big trip, we love having you (and your monkey and your train and your letter cards because you don't want to part with them, even at night) close to us. We love you so much! We are so thankful that God brought YOU into our family.