Pennsylvania

It's hard to believe but we've been in the Pennsylvania area nearly five weeks! Time as flown by as we've been very busy! We're still re-adjusting to life in the "fast lane", getting used to convenience store gas stations, huge food and drink portions, massive grocery carts, and people who drive really fast...but usually obey the laws. Joy was very disappointed to find out that the local Sheetz gas station here no longer offers their fresh, Mennonite-made whoopie pies. Bummer! Don't know what a whoopie pie is? Go here to find out.

Birthday season is over for us. Hannah's b-day happened while we were at MAF headquarters. So she got to celebrate three times--once there, once in Oregon w/ Joy's side of the family, and once in Pennsylvania w/ my side of the family. She had a fancy little tea party w/ her cousins. they all wore the dresses that their grandma made.

Hudson's b-day was next. We went to a local petting zoo, where he got to feed some animals. Then we fed our own faces at McDonalds--a treat for our kids. Funny thing is, the twins still won't eat a cheese burger. They don't know what they are. They keep asking for fried rice!

Britton's b-day was next. For his b-day we squeezed in a day at the National zoo in Washington D.C. Here's a shot of our 9 yr old with his mom. Aren't they cute, and handsome?

Here's all the kids, ours and my sister and brother-in-laws, eating ice cream cones on the steps in my parents back yard. It's been great for the cousins to get re-acquainted.

We did have a few days to sneak in a trip to a cabin in West Virginia with the whole family. My sister who's been in China going on six years was there, as well as my other sister and brother-in-law, as well as grandpa an grandma Forney. Here's Gpa and Gma with all the grand kids in the woods.

Here's Joy with my two sisters. Cute huh?

We did a lot of "horsing around." It makes me realize how open the woods are here compared to the jungles of Kalimantan!

We had a lot of fun there. Thanks Dad and Mom!

Last week, while skyping with some of our MAF friends back home in Tarakan, our Indonesian house-helper and her sister had a chance to get on camera to say hi to the kids. We are so blessed to have such a great gal to help Joy at home with the myriad of things it takes to keep things going in a place like Tarakan. A day rarely goes by over there when Joy doesn't say how thankful she is for Abby, and the kids really adore her. As soon as Tanner and Tyler saw Abby and her sister, Orpa, on the computer screen, they both climbed up on the chair, bent over and smooched them. We couldn't pull them away. It was pretty funny, but of course made quite a mess of our screen. Oh well. :)