Comment... let us know which post/series was YOUR favorite!
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Tied for #15:
HOME ~
At the beginning of this school year, my two oldest were given a writing assignment - to describe a space or a place that made them feel "at home." As a parent of TCKs - kids who often, according to the literature, have a hard time defining a place to call home - I was very interested to see what they'd write. I loved this glimpse into their hearts and minds and beings. Their daddy did, too... reading these essays just about brought him to tears, literally.
So, to use a much cliché-ed quote... without further ado here are Brendan's and Rebekah's essays (and a few recent, favorite, pictures)...
FIRST GLIMPSES OF BREN @ MESSIAH ~
I do. Those things, while I can appreciate their purpose and see their validity and effectiveness... drive me crazy.
Don't know if Brendan was thinking the same thing as he played "Dead Bug Tag..."
#14
MODELING THOSE NEW DRESSES... ~(Photos of Nadia, Anna and Tori)
#13
Dress codes are one of those things I get and don't get... all at the same time.
Parents, not schools or other organizations, are the ones responsible for determining a dress code for their own children. As a parent, I also believe that in general, we can't leave teenagers to independently establish a dress standard that the adults in their lives will deem acceptable. It is not, however, the role of the school to come up with a standard of dress that they think every person needs to follow. I do understand that there needs to be some sort of standard or guidelines...
#12
She misses her bro...
Butterscotch and Beethoven...
Climbing her favorite tree...
Even when it meant our not-so-little-anymore-buck-goat-would keep her treed there...
#11
We took our littles to the county fair today/tonight. It wasn't their first visit, but only Victoria vaguely remembers going before - and what she mostly remembers is the animals... and watching the big cat show... from the last time! It's been four years, after all!
After a couple of hours there this morning/afternoon and a yummy-but-way-too-expensive-and-bad-for-your-health lunch with the whole family, we had to bring our biggers home for their sports practices and we decided that we'd return later in the evening, after the midway (i.e. the rides) opened, with just the littles. I figured they'd want to go through the fun houses, play a few games, ride the carousel and the ferris wheel and maybe the kiddie roller coaster. After all, they'd never been to an "amusement park" before in their entire lives.
#10
#09
Is it weird to say that I felt safer with my family...
- living in W Africa with all the possibilities for disease, injury or illness
- knowing (as we watched military planes fly up river and then return) that there was a full-fledged war going on just a couple hundred miles up river
- recognizing that terrorist activity was all around us... and probably infiltrating our "neighborhood" as well
- driving in developing country traffic every single day...
...than I do living in the developed west?
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(A post written for another blog site where I regularly contribute)
#08
There's a definite rhythm to missionary life - goodbye... hello... goodbye... hello...
But then again, in this day and age, this world that we live in, isn't that pretty much the rhythm of all life - from first hellos to final goodbyes?
That doesn't make it any easier, for anyone, in any place, at any time, in any position or "calling."
I strive to do well those hellos...
#07
Some mamas dread this day.
I'm not sure what I'm feeling because it won't be the day
for which I'd been preparing myself.
I had expected our goodbye to take place in a small W. African capital city before he hopped on a plane with his daddy for a vacation in Ireland and then a return to Michigan...
#06
BELONG ~
To be... long
Existing for a significant time
or
covering a substantial distance
To long... to be
Wishing, craving, yearning,
aspiring, desiring to be
present, current, real
To belong
fitting, feeling right, measuring appropriately...
classifying or assigning rightly to a specific place or time...
including, blending, complementing, conforming...
harmonizing...
#05
BRAVE ~
...So many qualify brave as about self... a choosing to set aside my own fear to do something remarkable and courageous, often wonderful and serving; it's a deliberate disregard of all the best reasons why not to stand on the single reason to say... or shout... or even faintly whisper... "Yes..."
Tempting, to let brave become all about me instead of all about others. After all, who doesn't desire to be seen "beautiful and brave?" Does that desire sully the splendor? Cower the courage?
Perhaps. For all in this imperfect world is dulled by the tarnish of sin....
#04
SQUIRREL SOUP ~
Sometimes dinner at our house is pretty normal. Other times it is anything but.
Sometimes it is hard to actually eat the food due to the conversation. Other times, conversation is child-led strategy to somehow escape eating a less than favorite meal.
For the next 31 days, I'm planning to post about dinner time at our house as part of an annual writing challenge hosted by the nester.
Hopefully, you'll get a humorous... very real... glimpse into life, {um - dinner}, chez les Wrightlings... all 8 {um I guess it is more accurate to say 7 of them since the biggest one will be mostly off at school} - of 'em!
Last night, we ate squirrel soup...
#03
The harmattan haze is here...
It is uncomfortably gusty this year.
Usually, this is my favorite time of the year in Niger, even with the nonstop dusting and removal-of-desert-from-dwelling-place... but this year?
Our relatively calm, overgrown and sprawling village-turned-capital-city has changed dramatically due to political and military events in the land next door. Police checks, bombers and attack helicopters roaring by overhead, car searches where they make sure it really is veggies and not explosives, military escort required to leave the city limits and armed soldiers at the gates of the kids' schools... every single day. The convoy of tanks headed into the thick of things literally passed by within a stone's throw...
Is my family is actual danger?
#02
(Another post on another site I write for each month...)
I can’t remember the first time we received one of those questionnaires in the mail…
Since that time, many more have arrived – although now it is not uncommon for a link to show up in our inbox, requesting us to respond to a list of questions at an online site which then tabulates our input and communicates our replies to whatever agency posted the questions. You would think I would have grown accustomed to this. I haven’t. Instead, I find it harder and harder to keep a good attitude, simply answer the questions and send them back. At the same time, I do understand the motivation behind and the significance of those questionnaires; in theory, I support their validity and see their worth… which makes it hard to argue that they shouldn’t be sent.
So I won’t.
On the other hand those questionnaires never fail to, at very best, discourage me. At worst, I get downright angry – as in sinfully angry...
#01
A series on the kids in preparation for our return to the States last summer...
Since our home assignment is imminent, friends and family are asking us how to best pray for our children as we prepare to bring them back to our home and plop them in the middle of Mid-Michigan; we do what we can to help them adjust, but basically, we try to trust God as He leads and hope for the best.
Doesn't sound too proactive to write it out that way, does it?
We're open for better ideas, if you have any?
Anyways, I thought I'd dedicate a post to each one of our school children - and maybe it would give you some ideas as to how to pray for these wonderful munchkins as well as the-not-so-much-anymore-munchkins that we commonly refer to as Wrightlings (It really is the perfect term for them, coined by our buddy Ryan! Thanks, Ryan!)
Richelle,
ReplyDeleteA slightly belated Happy New Year to you...how are you adjusting to life in the states? Praying you and your family are well.
Blessings,
Dolly
Hey Dolly,
DeleteGood to hear from you again. A very belated Happy New Year to you as well. We are doing well and looking forward to what 2014 holds for us. Blessings to you and yours. :-)