By His Stripes ...

Easter Week ... people often ask me what I like about raising our kids overseas. Though there are a few challenges (missing our friends & relatives, etc), there are some things that are actually EASIER about raising a family overseas, especially for parents like us who desperately desire our kids to grasp the true meaning of holidays like Easter and Christmas.

For our kids, there are no marshmallow peeps or chocolate Easter Bunnies to herald in the holiday of Easter. This country doesn't celebrate Easter. So I love that we are able to help our children focus on Christ's amazing death and resurrection. Do they still get Easter baskets? Yes (see photo above). Do we still enjoy the traditional egg hunt with our friends? Yes (see photos below). But still ... I love being able to focus on Christ and on His love & sacrifice for us.

On Saturday night, each family member took turns writing things down on small slips of paper ... things we wanted to confess to the Lord. We then taped them to a cross to give the visual that Jesus died for all of our sins. The next morning, this new cross was taped to the inside of the girls' bedroom door with all the slips of paper removed. I could hear Verity wake up first and read the paper. She then started shaking her sisters awake and said, "I have some good news to show you!" =) Later, I found this written in the corner: "Thank you for telling us this. Verity."

On Easter Sunday, we first attended church ...

...and then enjoyed Easter lunch with our friends.
Here's a shot of the Easter egg hunt ... and they're off!

For a few more Easter shots taken from my Facebook page,
please click here.

Also, around Easter, we were really dismayed to learn that Chingu had parvo. It was heartbreaking to watch him vomit all over the house. Thankfully, IV treatments here are really cheap and though he looked like he was at death's door, he slowly recovered and did not succumb to parvo. While ill, all he wanted to do was cuddle with the girls (as shown here with Annalise). We're thankful God has given us more time with our new dog.