GOODBYE BLOG!

After 6 years of blogging (or rather, 5 years of blogging and 1 year of neglecting it), I am finally pulling the plug on this blog.

In recent months, I've been following through with my desire to decrease my "cyber-presence" (deactivating my Facebook account, officially closing this blog, etc).  

But it doesn't mean that I don't have a strong desire to keep in touch with our loved ones.  So please email us often as I would love to keep up with your lives and to be praying for you and your needs!  

We thank God for you!!! 

The Silver Lining

Today our friend, Jessica, asked us the question, "What one item would you want if you were stranded on a desert island?"

Seeing how the others have already answered practically with a generator, a knife, a magnifying glass and a water filter, I decided to respond with a luxury item ... my Kindle. I do love reading on my Kindle.

Ironically, a few hours after that question, the guilty (but still very precious) baby shown above smacked my Kindle to the ground and broke it.

In situations like this, I am usually hesitant about looking for the silver lining. For those of you who know my husband well, you know he responds quite differently.

When faced with a disappointment or a challenge, he smiles and says, "Let's thank God for this." I usually want to smack him then and say, "NO, I want my pity party!" But secretly, I know he's right and I've always been incredibly thankful for David's faith-filled attitude.

It didn't take long for God to parade the "Broken Kindle's Silver Lining" before my eyes.

#1 - When my daughters found out what had happened, they said, "Mom, we talked and decided to pool our allowance to buy you a new one. We want to cover for Eloise." They knew that nobody was blaming Eloise but for some reason, they felt responsible to help shoulder the burden of replacing the Kindle because "Eloise is their baby sister."

SILVER LINING: I got the opportunity to see our girls' commitment to their sisterhood and to see their desire to care for me by being generous with their money!

#2 - A dear, dear couple responded to this by sending us a message that read, "We want to replace your Kindle for you." I was so touched that my eyes immediately filled with tears staring at the computer screen. I didn't expect that AT ALL and was incredibly humbled by their generous offer.

SILVER LINING: God used this couple to remind me that He has blessed us with GREAT friends and that even though the Kindle is not a "necessity," He can use precious people like this couple to bless me with another one.

#3 - I didn't think Amazon would replace it because their warranty only covers their own defects and not "accidents or misuse." But the customer service rep said that since their Kindles "should" survive a fall like that, they are going to replace my Kindle for free.

SILVER LINING: I am still a Kindle owner ... or will be once I receive Amazon's free replacement.

We all have "clouds" in our lives. Some are completely minor and trivial like the one I experienced today. Other clouds are more painful and tragic.

What silver linings have you discovered lately?

Still Alive After Five

September 4, 2006. David and I boarded an airplane with three children (aged 4 and younger) and began a phenomenal adventure in a new country.

Remember this photo above? Annalise (age 2) sitting atop our 12 pieces of luggage at the LAX? We really had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into. ;)

That was 5 years ago today. During that first week, I would wake up feeling so dazed and overwhelmed, asking myself, "Will I survive here?"

Well, we did. We went from living downtown with 3 preschoolers (I get soooo tired remembering those days) ... to living in our own home with a new baby while the oldest 3 are all in school!

Truly, I thank God for His unfailing love, grace and mercy as we have lived and worked in this country these past 5 years. I now feel like a "circle." As a college student, our good friend Mark Palmer told us that when he moved overseas, he saw Americans as a "square" and the people in his overseas home as "triangles." He felt like he didn't completely fit in overseas and because of how he had changed, he felt like he didn't completely fit in back in the States. He had become a "circle."

My 5 years here has changed me in ways I never imagined. I am a circle ... I don't completely fit in back in the States and I don't completely fit in here as a foreigner. But I wouldn't trade that for the world.

Many of you have been along for the ride these past 5 years ... we have the most encouraging friends on this planet. Some of you have even been along for the ride for the past 20 years ... when David first moved to Moscow! Thank you thank you thank you!

This was the Williams Family 5 years ago ...

...and this is the Williams Family today.

Modern Day Jameses

Before we were blessed with Eloise, we were praying about possibly adopting a baby. We spent a lot of time in prayer and in research (some of you unfortunate, patient souls were the recipients of my MANY emails and questions).

For some reason, we weren't able to progress forward in adopting our fourth. However, many of our friends have been blessed with the amazing opportunity to adopt and I wanted to highlight four more families tonight. Following each of your journeys has been SUCH a huge encouragement in my life!

I call them "Modern Day Jameses" based on the first part of James 1:27 ... Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.

The Alipuria Family

Our friends, Alexis and Manoj, adopted two
precious children from Ethiopia, Micah & Ellis.

The Schweizer Family

Our friends, Aaron and Minda, adopted
their beautiful son (Asher) from Ethiopia.

The Michaelian Family

Our friends, Dave and Heidi, adopted
their little cutie (Zeke) from Rwanda.

The Bergman Family

Our friends, Tony and Jill, adopted sweet Jade from China
and two beautiful girls (Kidist & Tigist) from Ethiopia.

Are any of you in the process of adopting? If so, let us know ... we'd love to pray for you and to give, whenever able, towards your financial needs.

One Hour as Bethany Hamilton

One reason I decided to take a break from Facebook? Complaints. Reading my newsfeed became very draining as it was filled with complaining ... my pie was too hot, my shirt is too wrinkled, the traffic is so bad and so on.

For family movie night this week we watched Soul Surfer, a film based on the true story of professional surfer Bethany Hamilton.

Her humility and courage were so inspiring. Though she understandably had her questions and struggles, she chose not to complain about her circumstances and instead decided to continue pursuing her passion. We were all impacted by her story. But I wondered if our girls truly understood the (physical) obstacles Bethany had to overcome to pursue her dream of professional surfing.

This morning, I taped each of their left arms down (this was the arm the shark bit) and set the timer for one hour. Just one hour.


I asked them to do simple tasks ... load the dishwasher, pick up their room, clear the table, etc. The timer buzzed ... I removed the tape ... and here are their reactions:

Moriah (5 1/2) : "It kind of bothered me. It was easy to pick up little things. It was hard to look at books. I am thankful that I have two arms. I think Bethany is brave."

Annalise (7): "I was tempted to take the tape off. I wanted to move my hand. It was hard to turn the page in my book when I was reading. It was hard to hold a lot of things at one time. I couldn’t really hold Eloise. When I took the tape off, I said, “FINALLY!” It was so irritating. I feel thankful that I have two arms."

Verity (9): "It was kind of fun doing the experiment but it was really hard to read a book. It was easy to comb my hair but it was really annoying when a bug bite itched badly but only my left arm could reach it. I couldn’t hold Eloise. I feel relieved, thankful and happy that I can use both arms again. I think Bethany is really brave and I want to be a surfer like her when I grow up."

What did you think of the film? Have you taken time today to thank God for any blessings you've taken for granted lately?

EIGHTEEN MONTHS OF SILENCE

Remember us? Your far-away friends? We started this blog 5 years ago for the purpose of keeping our family and friends updated on our overseas life but some of you may have noticed that we've taken an 18-month hiatus. The blog has been "asleep," just like our precious Eloise.

2010 began with our (second) miscarriage and ended with us cuddling our 4th baby. The year began with tears of sadness and ended with tears of joy. It began with us enduring yet another overseas winter and ended with us enjoying California's version of winter (read: shorts and pretty weather).

This goes without saying but our major 2010 highlight was the arrival of our 10 pound 5 ounce princess, Eloise. (If any of you with 3 kids are trying to decide whether or not you should go for Baby #4, I say, "GO FOR IT!" It has been an incredible blessing!)

We have spent the first half of 2011 learning to adjust back to life overseas ... this time with 4 children. And as we're sweating through another hot summer here, I decided to deactivate my Facebook account and try blogging again. I figure that those who truly want to keep up with us will take the time to pull up our blog. ;) We've missed you guys and hope to hear from you here. How are you all doing?

Christmas Expectations

Expectations. Come Christmas time, expectations abound. Kids expecting gifts off their wish list. Family members expecting other family members to visit. Children hoping for snow.

With every Advent season, David and I hope that our family can focus on the expectation of Jesus' birth. I still love that old quote, "Jesus came to pay a debt He didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay."

Christmas is always an amazing, sweet time for our family ... filled with all the fun traditions (decorating, parties, presents) but more importantly, filled with the joy that "God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten son..."

One of my highlights is pulling our Christmas boxes out of storage and watching the girls go crazy pulling out all the Christmas items they haven't seen in a year! I can hardly wait for the last bite of turkey to be consumed on Thanksgiving before I grab these boxes! ;)

Another highlight is watching our girls perform in their school Christmas musical. Their rehearsal alone brought tears to my eyes ... all these young, young voices singing about the real reason for the season. Here are our three girls right before the musical.

Annalise reveled in her role as the Star of Bethlehem.

One of our greatest blessings this year was our move into this new house. And David & I knew we wanted to use it as often as we can to host parties & gatherings. This month, we hosted four Christmas parties ... two for expats and two for nationals. Here are glimpses of the expat parties:

The first was for women only.

We had another one with our co-workers.

One of my favorite traditions is opening our "joy stockings" on Christmas Eve. We write notes to each family member about how they brought joy to us in the past year.

Annalise reads her notes. This was the first year she wrote her own notes (instead of dictating them to me!) Priceless! I do record these notes on the computer so they can always remember what they wrote each other every Christmas.

Hooray ... finally Christmas morning! Too bad our kids woke up to find this chair. ;) It read "Merry Christmas, girls! Wait for Mommy & Daddy first." So close yet so far! (And don't you love that morning hair?)
Watching our girls open their gifts is such a joyful thing for me ... and I know God enjoys it even more. I don't think I'll ever be able to grasp just how much He enjoys blessing us. This is a glimpse of the "afterglow" ... all the presents are opened and the girls are trying to decide which gift to play with first!
And Christmas Day is not complete without Jesus' birthday cake. Happy Birthday, Jesus!