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365 Czech Republic

An Eclipsing Start to Spring

An Eclipsing (3/20/15)

I almost always work from home on Fridays and today was no different. Except at one point I walked to the kitchen to get something to drink and when I looked out the window I was confused at what I was seeing. I’ve probably looked out that window hundreds of times, but today was a bright sunny day and the window looked as if it was tinted. Like most Czech and European windows it swings open so I went to it and opened it and looked outside. Thats when I realized it wasn’t the window, but rather it was the sky that was tinted. We were experiencing a solar eclipse!

An Eclipsing (3/20/15)

I confirmed this with another missionary online and then checked the news and sure enough Europe and parts of West Africa were witnessing a pretty amazing solar eclipse. For us in Czech, we were seeing about 75% of the sun being covered by moon. One of our windows had sun shining through the blinds and the tiny holes were showing the crescent shaped sun spots on the floor and table. Above you can see them in both photos. It was pretty fun and I’m glad we had clear skies today to witness it on this first day of spring.

An Eclipsing (3/20/15)

Titus went to his second full-day of preschool and it was another day where he took the bus to a nearby preschool for the entire day. While he’s gone I’m always curious to watch what Avery does at home. Today she did the USA puzzle we have again and then later she was drawing on the white board in her little blue chair (shown above). It’s actually a little sad to see her search around for things to do because she’s just not used to having Titus out of the house so long during the day. Normally they are inseparable and play together all day, so I think in a small way this is a transition time for her as much as it is for Titus.

An Eclipsing (3/20/15)

When I picked Titus up from the bus this afternoon he was really excited. He had a necklace on with a picture of Donald Duck (it actually read “Kačer Donald” in Czech) and it had a piece of candy stuck to the back. He also had a fruit cup snack and a little treat in his hand which he quickly handed to me to hold for him. I actually tried live streaming the entire thing to Twitter today so Bethany could watch from home and below is the video that I captured. It’s a little choppy, but you can get the gist. In the beginning you can hear me speaking English with the lady that I met on Wednesday. You’ll see how happy he is, but it doesn’t change how strange it is to be picking up my four hear old from the bus!

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365 Czech Republic

A Big Boy on a Big Bus and Answered Prayer

Today was Titus’ biggest school day to date. I say “biggest” because it was packed full of new experiences for him and for us. Before I talk about that I want to say that the entire day was an answer to prayer from start to finish. If you read our blog yesterday and prayed for this then thank you! God was so gracious today.

Titus was really excited about school this morning which is in and of itself an answer to prayer. Considering how he was on Monday, this was a huge blessing. Bethany took him to school early so he catch the bus for his field trip to another preschool today. What made today different was that he was going to be gone for the entire day until 3pm, as opposed to us picking him up at noon. In the photo below you can see his little head and stocking hat peeking up in the center as he gets read to board the bus.

Titus Rides the Bus (3/18/15)

The bus left sharply at 7:45am and took the kids to a nearby village for a “school swap” thing where they just basically have a normal day but at a new place. We don’t really understand why exactly they did it, but here’s a photo of Titus on the bus as they were about to pull away. I think the school charters a city bus to make this happen because I don’t think the schools have their ow buses like in the States. And I didn’t ask Bethany if she cried, but I’m operating under the assumption that her eyes were just a little teary as she took this photo.

Titus Rides the Bus (3/18/15)

While Titus was away on his trip, I worked from home and Avery was hard at work too on her USA puzzle. She did the entire 50+ piece puzzle by herself today with no help from Mommy or Daddy. She was really proud of it and so I took a photo of her “big girl” moment. Admittedly, she has done this puzzle with us many times so she has it almost memorized. But instead of state names she always, “Where’s the one with the cow?” or something like that. It’s great.

Titus Rides the Bus (3/18/15)

Also while Titus was at school, we had an appointment at 1pm to sign both him and Avery up for the next school year in the fall. Our friend Martina was kind enough to come help translate and talk Czech for us which was a great blessing. It ended up being a really quick appointment and we actually met with Titus’ teacher (this is also strange to me because why wasn’t she on the field trip?). She was really nice and we were in and out of there in just a few minutes. Here’s a few photos of us walking over to it.

Titus Rides the Bus (3/18/15)

Titus Rides the Bus (3/18/15)

This photo below is of Bethany, Martina, and Titus’ teacher finishing up.

Titus Rides the Bus (3/18/15)

About ten minutes to three I walked down the road to pick up Titus from school hoping for a good report about his day. It only take a few minutes to walk from our place to his school so I was there early and as I stood there a woman walked up to me and said, “You’re an American, right?” in perfect British accent English. I was surprised, but I calmly replied “Yes.” Then she told me that her son and Titus are in the same class and that her son speaks English so we should get them together outside of school. This was actually an answer to prayer because we have really wanted to have more relationships with Czechs. She went on to tell me about herself and that her husband is from the U.K. and he only speaks English. We were talking for a while and finally said, “Am I supposed to go some place else to get my son?” She told me the bus was expected to arrive until 3:10 (which I didn’t know). If you want my opinion, it was just the Lord getting me there early so I could have this conversation.

She was very kind and gracious and thought that just letting Titus speak English to another kid would be a blessing to him (which we totally agree). We ended up exchanging phone numbers and we might try and plan to do a walk or go to the park with their family on a weekend. Just thinking back on it now I’m smiling because God is so good. She didn’t have to walk up to me and introduce herself and talk for a while, but I was really thankful just to have a normal conversation with a stranger. It has a very long time to just have a full, open conversation like that in English with someone I don’t know. I know that might sound weird, but man was it encouraging.

Titus Rides the Bus (3/18/15)

While finishing up my conversation with the lady at the school, the bus pulled up right on time. There were a few cars blocking the street that the bus honked at and when I looked over I could see Titus’ face light up and he waved to me. I waved back and just smiled at him. He looked so big, but still so small. I was going to take video of him getting off the bus but since I was still kind of in conversation with that lady I only got the above photo.

All the kids got off and Titus ran towards me and I said, “Dude! Did you have a good day?!” He said, “Yeah, dad. It was awesome!” He told me all about the bus ride and the slide at the school that “doesn’t have any grass.” I asked him about nap time (which he’s never done at school) and he said, “I got my dinosaur pajamas on all by myself!” He told me he cried for us a little bit while they were walking, but I’m not quite sure where or how long, but I assume it wasn’t too bad because it didn’t seem to bother him. All in all, I think he did alright. The funny thing, if he didn’t do well, I probably wouldn’t even if we’d find out. The teachers don’t speak English and Titus isn’t always the most reliable source of info! I’m just happy that he was smiling when he got off the bus and overall he was exited about his day. He’ll be doing it all again on Friday and when we talked to him about that tonight it didn’t seem to bother him.

It’s weird to watch him grow up. Seeing him on that bus was surreal. I have memories of being on the bus around his age and I’m realizing he will probably remember this too. This is whole process is part of entrusting your kids to the Lord. He has to watch over them and I have to trust that God is taking care of them. The Lord is sovereign over everything including school bus rides! And I can’t and won’t always be there for everything Titus experiences, but I’m happy to be there to pick him up.

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365 Czech Republic

St. Patrick’s Day, Playing Outside, and a Prayer Request

It’s St. Patrick’s Day. I’m sure you saw many people today walking around wearing something green and tonight people around America (not so much Czech) will celebrate by throwing parties and drinking beer (on a related note, I have an entire story about witnessing a drunk driving accident on St. Patrick’s Day that I’ll never forget). It’s sad to me that this is how we (as Americans) celebrate on a day that is supposed to remember a Christian man who loved gospel of Jesus Christ (for more on that, see Kevin DeYoung’s excellent, short post today).

At the Josiah Venture office today there were a few people wearing green, and our Norther Irish friend, Rachael, brought green clover cookies for us to enjoy at our our meeting. They were (magically) delicious–sorry, I couldn’t resist. We had a great meeting a Bible study this morning from Philippians. I’d much rather be spending my St. Patrick’s Day around God’s Word then doing just about anything else!

Playing Outside (3/17/15)

Bethany took the kids to the park this afternoon and they said that had a great time. In fact, when I got home today the kids came running to the garage to tell me all about it. Above is a photo that Bethany got of the flowers near the park (and hey, there’s lots of green!). While they were there they even saw some kids from our church. Titus even found a new friend who was riding a little play motorcycle and Titus was just running around alongside him for a while. It’s been really nice to play outside and enjoy the warmer spring air. Here’s another photo from the park with Avery enjoying the sand.

Playing Outside (3/17/15)

Tomorrow Titus will head off to a longer day of preschool because they are doing a “school swap” thing where they bus the kids to another school in town about 10 minutes away. Normally we pick him up around noon but he’ll be staying until 3pm. I can tell that Bethany was prepping him today because he kept telling me all about what he’ll be doing tomorrow. He loves riding on the bus so I’m sure he’ll enjoy that. Below is a photo of the announcement about it at the school and we normally just use Google to try and translate it all. Thankfully this time around his teacher emailed Bethany directly about the trip and what she should pack for him. As I’ve been writing this, she as hard at work trying to get everything together for Titus’ backpack.

Playing Outside (3/17/15)

Our prayer request is simply that Titus would do well and not be scared. We have been memorizing a verse on fear together and we are continually reminding him of the words. He’ll be going tomorrow and Friday on these little trips so we’re hopeful that it will go well and that he would do alright. Thank you all for praying and for continuing to encourage us!

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365 Czech Republic

Titus’ Hardest Morning at School

I always have meetings on Monday morning and today I was running just a few minutes behind so instead of walking Titus to school I actually drove the car around the block. It’s ridiculously close to our house, but I just wanted to leave as soon as I dropped him off. On our way he kept trying tell me that “there’s no school today, dad.” I said, “Yes, there is.” Then when we parked he said, “See dad, the lights are off.” I looked up in to the second story window and indeed the lights were off, but I told Titus, “Bud, the sun is out today so they are probably not turning the lights on right now.” I didn’t really know if that was true, but based on the number of cars around I was pretty confident there was actually school today. When we got inside, sure enough, all the kids shoes were in their boxes and school was in session. Titus looked around almost bewildered and just began to cry…a lot.

Of course I did whatever I could to calm him down, but he just wouldn’t. I don’t know what was going on his mind exactly but he had at some point this morning decided that he wasn’t going to school if he had anything to do with it. I took him upstairs to the room where he puts his jacket and he wasn’t calming down. A grandma dropping off her grand daughter tried to console him, but that only made it worse. She said something in Czech which I didn’t understand but I just smiled as if to say, “Thanks for trying.”

I carried him to the classroom where he kept saying, “Daddy, I’m scared. I want to go home. I don’t want to go to school. Will you pray for me?” We prayed, but he was still struggling. His teacher approached us and tried to console him too but he was still crying. Bethany told me tonight that he has been struggling more of late, but not this bad. Specifically, he has been asking us to pray for him every time we drop him off. Finally, this morning, I sat with him on the ground and started playing with some dinosaurs. His teacher brought over some little knights and army guys and he brightened right up. He started talking to his teacher about something in English and I just got up, said goodbye and he was fine. From start to finish the whole was probably fifteen minutes and I’m still kind of scratching my head about it. Bethany said he came home happy today and was fine, so I’m thinking it was just a morning thing.

As a parent I realize what we’re doing. We are regularly dropping off our kid at a place where he doesn’t speak the language and the people there don’t speak his. It’s not easy for any of us. We trust the Lord is working in Titus’ mind to both help with the language and the process, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. This week especially will be a challenge because he’ll be going on a little field trip to another school and staying for a longer day away. We’re going to see how this goes and would covet your prayers this week. We trust the Lord for our kids, even when it’s hard.

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365 Czech Republic

A Language Day

Language Day (3/13/15)

The last couple days have been wet and dreary. Even though the weather had warmed up a bit last week, it was really short lived and is currently just above freezing. Us southern Californians aren’t used to that because usually when it warms up it stays that way for a while. As I walked to Titus’ school this afternoon to pick him up I took the above photo to give a little bit of an idea of how it looked pretty much all day. The rain is like an all-day light mist and everything just kind of stays gray.

Language Day (3/13/15)

As I approached Titus’ preschool today I realized just how funny the entrance is (shown above from the photo I took today). After you walk through the gate and up the path you come to a large door that for an American is something out of a movie. The doors are heavy and loud and if you didn’t know that there were a hundred little kids running around inside you would think maybe I was entering some kind of castle. I like it.

When I got to Titus’ class they had just started the Lego movie (dubbed in the Czech language). Titus was pretty excited and didn’t want to leave so I let him watch for a few minutes. Plus, it’s always a bonus to hear kids movies in Czech because the language is usually simplified and I can try following along. I also liked that Titus had his hand on his friend Denis’ chair. Also funny was that it was basically almost all the boys watching the movie while the girls were in the other room playing.

Language Day (3/13/15)

We had our biggest language study day to date and it was absolutely wonderful. Our language teacher Tamara came to our house today because she had a car available and was already running errands (normally we drive to her place about 15-20 minutes away). For two solid hours we worked through our Czech language textbook, and we also had a little time to review a Czech tourism book that Tamara brought us (below). What I really enjoyed about our time with her today was that Tamara will just speak Czech while we do things. For instance, while we were looking at the beautiful photos and scenery shown in the book she brought, Tamara was just simply telling us about the places all in Czech. She was speaking slowly and helping us in English along the way, but it’s an exercise of just listening and paying attention to the words you can understand while picking up new ones along the way. Oh, and by the way, this is a beautiful country.

Language Day (3/13/15)

Between 2:30-4 we had a little break before our second round of Czech lessons started with Jenny and Landen. We also try to have hot water for tea and some snacks on the table (which you can see below). I took this photo today because I realized this has become the norm now and we’re well prepared to get into the Czech language!

Language Day (3/13/15)

Today was kind of special because Jenny and Landen brought a young girl from our church who speaks both Czech and English (I also think she speaks Polish!). Her name is Miriam, and she became a little bit of our “Czech helper” (it’s like a teacher, only she doesn’t have to prepare) and we had fun listening to her speak and laughing at all of our mistakes. I think this was the first week we have done five straight days of language time with Jenny and Landen in the afternoon so it’s been a really fun and full week. I can already tell that with how much studying we’re doing that things are starting to click in my mind much faster. By no means are we great Czech speakers yet, but we’re definitely making progress! Here’s a photo of all of us (minus me, of course) sprawled out on the table working on our lesson.

Language Day (3/13/15)

Since we had such a focused day of language, and because the kids did pretty well during all of it, we decided to take them out to eat tonight. It’s bit of a drive to find a place we can all enjoy, but it’s just nice to get out. We went to a newer mall about 20 minutes from our place and enjoy an easy dinner and just walked around a toy store together.

Bethany has been talking a lot lately about how much baby #3 has been kicking and hiccuping. I believe she’s officially entered her third trimester and she’s starting to feel a little more uncomfortable. In the next month or so we have to begin to figure out which hospital Bethany will deliver at and put together a “birth plan” with a Czech speaker to try to minimize the surprises when she does go into labor. You can be praying for us as the due date gets closer and closer and as we begin to finalize our plans of having a baby in another country.

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365 Czech Republic

“Bye Bye, Ty Ty”

I feel about as sick as I’ve felt while living in Czech. I slept for four hours this afternoon and still feel exhausted. Those who regularly follow our story know that we have not been very healthy since moving here, and the past week has been no different. It’s hard to distinguish between what is just the normal cold season stuff and what is our bodies adjusting to a new climate. The weather has gone from cold to somewhat warm, so that could be affecting us. We don’t get nearly as much sun as we used, so that’s a theory too. And then of course there’s just the normal sickness that goes around and right now we know a lot of people who are sick, so that could definitely be it. Maybe I am saying this because of how I’m feeling at the moment, but I think sickness has been one of the most difficult things that we’ve experienced over. It seems like whatever we get is worse and lasts a lot longer that what I remember having in the States. Yet, I know God is using it to sanctify us. I just wish the sanctification process required less Kleenex.

There’s not much to write about when you spend most of the day sleeping, but there is a story from when Bethany picked up Titus today. He had last week off because of some normal holiday break, and today was his first day back in a week. One of the hilarious things about his class is that everyone calls him “Ty Ty” (I think they picked the nickname up from us because we often call him that when we’re talking to him). As Titus and Bethany were walking out of the coat room there was a little girl standing near the walkway who saw them, stopped what she was doing, waved, and said, “Bye Bye, Ty Ty” in English. Bethany was so excited that the girl spoke to him in English and so she made sure he said goodbye to her as well. It was a cute moment and something we want to remember.

I’m off to bed. Pray for us as we try to get healthy and get our energy back.

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365 Czech Republic

Titus and Mommy Go On a Date

Titus and Mommy's Date Night (2/23/15)

Tonight was the first time Titus and Bethany have gone on a “date.” Titus has had this idea in his head for about a week now and he has been talking about it a lot. Bethany and I decided they would go tonight and they had to drive a little bit, but they went to an American classic: McDonald’s.

Titus and Mommy's Date Night (2/23/15)

As they were trying to get out the door Avery was crying a lot. I think she was a little confused as to why mommy and Titus would leave and she not be allowed to go. We reassured her it was OK and I tried to distract with the grilled cheese I made her for dinner. From the sound of things, I think Titus had a fun time. Bethany said they met a few Czech kids at the play place and she successfully asked them their names in Czech. Strangely their names were Max and Samuel. I say strangely because those are just not normal Czech names, or they are not Czech names we have heard before. Apparently Titus did really well and Bethany said she was surprised he that he finished his entire Happy Meal. I’m really glad they got some time together. It’s something we have wanted to do for some time now, and you really just have to plan to make the time. Here’s a few more photos Bethany got.

Titus and Mommy's Date Night (2/23/15)

Avery and I enjoyed just playing at home and here’s a photo of me putting her “way up high” and her laughing.

Titus and Mommy's Date Night (2/23/15)

We continue to push forward every day with Czech language speaking drills (aka: “LAPS”). Today it actually felt like we were running laps because the difficulty level increased immensely. Today we were working on location type words like besides, beneath, above, and in. It’s pretty incredible how much sentences in Czech will change depending on whether, for instance, a pen is “in the book” or you are “putting the pen in the book.” They are basically completely different sentences. To practice we were putting papers on our heads and books under the table and all kinds of things. At one point Titus came and sat on my lap. We were doing the drills and he just decided to grab a piece of paper and copy us. It was pretty funny and I got a photo of it.

Titus and Mommy's Date Night (2/23/15)

That’s all for today!

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365 Czech Republic

Verbs, Czech, Love, and Optimus Prime

Friday Grab Bag (2/20/15)

We spent a more extended time in our Czech language study today and it was a mix of grammar and speaking. This morning we had our normal language grammar lesson with Tamara and we were working on verbs. There are so many forms that verbs in Czech take, it’s amazing. After some serious drilling and writing, I was feeling much better about it. Tamara has been a huge blessing and I’m very thankful for our time with her.

Above is a photo I took of Bethany during our second round of study today. We were doing our normal speaking drills with Jenny and Landen Llamas and we were building simple sentences like “I picked up the book” or “I put the book on my head” and I just had to get a photo of Bethany because it made us all laugh. You’re not really thinking about what you’re physically doing, but mentally just trying to put sentences together and I realized I should probably get a photo of it.

Friday Grab Bag (2/20/15)

As Jenny and Landen were leaving they found a package on our doorstep from America. Even though it took a little while to get here, we received our Valentine’s Day cards from Bethany’s parents which they have been sending to us for years now. There was an envelope for each of us and they threw in some of our mail that was delivered to them in the States. Bethany’s dad also included a handwritten note inside which was really nice. We don’t get much mail, so when anything comes it’s kind of special. Thank you, family, for thinking of us even on Valentine’s Day!

Friday Grab Bag (2/20/15)

Tonight we took a short trip to the grocery store as a family just for something to do. We only picked up a few things, but as we were walking around and just browsing I turned around to find Titus with this mask on (shown above). He kept saying, “Dad! Take a picture of me!” I didn’t realize until tonight that it was a mask of Optimus Prime from Transformers. Titus has no clue what that is, but I just love that he’s enjoying being a boy. While driving to the store he told Bethany he wanted to go on a date with her tomorrow. They have been talking about it for a while now, but I think it’s going to happen tomorrow. I just hope Titus has more ideas on what to do on a date in Czech because I’m just plain out of them!

We had some plans to make a little trip to Prague tomorrow to see our friends, but we’re delaying them until maybe next week. The youth group at our church is having a big party tomorrow and we would really like to be part of it. But we also want to get out and explore Czech. We’ve never really had much opportunity to spend time in Prague so we’re hoping to do that soon. It’s so crazy that we live in Europe.

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365 Czech Republic

Titus’ First Official School Photo

Karnvel (2/16/15)

You remember that day a few weeks ago? You know, the one where there was a party at Titus’ school that we didn’t know about? Well, I’m proud to show you the photos from that historic day! Bethany was sold these photos today at Titus’ school and above is a photo of his entire class. That being said, there are a few things I would like to point out about this photo:

  1. I love the kid with the beard in the back row, middle. He just looks awesome.
  2. I love that pretty much the entire back row is not looking at the camera.
  3. The kid rubbing his eye in the front towards the left is just classic.
  4. My favorite: the smiling Darth Vader kid laying on the ground in the front is all kinds of strange and amazing. There is so much to love about this photo. I’m so glad it exists.

Karnvel (2/16/15)

You may recall from that day that Titus had to go downstairs to get another photo taken, an individual shot (shown above). I wasn’t there for the group photo, but I was there for this individual and I’m actually really excited about how it turned out. There is just something joyous about the fact that Titus’ first, real, official school photo is of him wearing a Buzz Lightyear costume…and wearing it proudly. His smile is so genuine here, and thinking back on that day I’m so surprised we even got this face out of him. He had been crying and sad not long before we went downstairs so it’s quite a feat to see him happy as a clam. These are great memories and I can’t wait to show this one day in his wedding video montage.

Lots of Czech Talk (2/16/15)

As for other things from today, we were back at it this afternoon doing our Czech speaking with Jenny and Landen. I can’t say enough just how amazing it has been and how much I have learned in just a week. I really do love learning the grammar when we do our normal lessons, but the speaking and just listening to Czech has been unbelievably helpful. Bethany even said it’s shocking how this system works and how even when you think, “Oh, I didn’t study…” or “I don’t think I’ll do well today,” you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Bethany actually did the best speaking today out of all of us! We’re hoping to go five days straight this week with these extra speaking lessons. It’s a full week with lots to do, but I guess you’ll just have to come back tomorrow to find out what happens next…as the world turns.

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365 Czech Republic

Encouraged

Overall it’s been a really encouraging week. Many people have sent us kind words via email and social media in regards to our baby gender announcement (if you missed that post be sure and go check it out). Bethany and I have been working harder on reviewing our Czech language cards and I’m just encouraged by our daily progress.

Normally we have language lessons on Wednesday mornings, but Avery woke up in the middle of the night and threw up in her bed (my apologies to any weak stomach readers). Our teacher has a young boy who has just gotten over some sickness so we didn’t want to take Avery to her house and now we’re scheduled to have lessons on Friday. Avery has been sick most of the day with a runny nose and cough, but it doesn’t look like any of us have it yet. I assume it’s just a little cold and that Titus won’t be far behind her, but you never really know with kids and sickness.

Snow Walking (2/4/15)

Speaking of Titus, I walked him to school this morning while it was snowing and it hit me just how different his childhood already is compared to mine. Not once in my life did I ever walk to school in the snow. In fact, I don’t believe I ever even walked to school! And the one time I remember it snowing while I was at school, my mom picked us up early and drove us home because she was worried about driving in it. Titus, however, is walking in the snow and we do our morning ritual of getting him dressed in all of his layers. In the photo above, he’s wearing a snow suit, sweatshirt, jacket, long johns, and that fancy hat with ear covers. It’s such a different life than mine was, but I’m glad he’s getting to experience something I never did. In my mind, it keeps it interesting.

Bethany made banana bread this week and it sounds like we’re going to try banana bread french toast tomorrow. It’s a first for us, but we heard about it the other day and thought it was a fun idea. With that to look forward to, I think I’ll hit the hay. Thank you for reading and being such an encouragement to me and my family. We are so blessed by many of you.