September

September has been a busy month for us.

School started on September 6.  Kimball is in 5th grade and is off to a great start.  He will continue to play the cello this year and a few clubs after school.  There is a late bus that will bring him home from the clubs which will be very handy!  

Rebecah is in 2nd Grade and doesn't have any friends in her class this year.  It's an opportunity to make more friends. We went to the Back to School barbecue for the elementary and attended Open House at the Middle School and Elementary.  I think it will be a good year.

Lincoln and Annika love this sweet lady.  We call her Grandma Bev because she is just like a Grandma to the kids.  She fills a void since we don't have family near us.  While Joseph was in Ghana we had Grandma Bev over for dinner 2 nights.  She would spend time with the little ones while I would make dinner and clean up.  She also sat with us in church and was a great help.  Annika saw Grandma Bev in the parking lot at church and was so excited she ran across the parking lot shouting "Grandma Bev!  Grandma Bev!"  When Annika reached Bev she threw her arms around Bev's legs.  It was so precious.  

Joseph helped with Operation Walk, his 4th year helping.  This year the team went to Koforidua, Ghana.  Joseph said the area was a cross between Panama and Mexico where he served his mission.  It was a jungle region of Africa so there were a lot of palm trees and plantain trees.  It is also a very poor area.  Joseph said the African people are humble and trusting and just wonderful people.  He also said that they have no concept of personal space so it was not unusual to have someone grab his hand and lead him around showing him things.  

The Operation Walk storage containers were delayed going through customs when they arrived so that set their entire trip behind schedule.  They still managed to perform a lot hip and knee replacements and help a lot of people, especially young people, have a better quality of life.

This last picture is a screen shot of a comment one of the patients sent to the doctor who did the daily summaries of the Operation Walk trip.  I just love her gratitude and appreciation for a chance for a better life physically. I hate having Joseph gone so long, but knowing he is helping to improve the lives of others make his absence from us worth it.

We really missed Joseph while he was gone--especially me!  Joseph was gone 9 days.  In the past it hasn't been that long and a few years he came back early from the trip.  We were really busy with various activities, but busyness is no replacement for a husband and father.

Syracuse has a lot of festivals in the downtown area.  We went to the Irish Festival to see what it was like.  It was a chilly day and it wasn't as exciting as we hoped, but we still managed to entertain ourselves for an hour.  There was live music and some dance performances.  There was a lot of alcohol for sale and since that isn't our thing we wouldn't attend the fest again.

Joseph dressed Lincoln and Annika up one day!

Edie turned 11 months this month.  She is the sweetest girl ever!  She loves to swing!  We were at a friend's house while Rebecah had piano lessons the sun was in Edie's face, but she didn't mind.  She just enjoyed swinging!

Soccer practice and games started for Kimball at the beginning of the month.  Rebecah started piano lessons.  We had a really hot spell mid month that lasted about 6 days.  It was probably the longest hot spell we had all year.  Thank goodness it will be snowing in a few months.  Next month we will celebrate 4 birthdays within 6 days.  It will be another good month.