~Merry Christmas!!~

THANK YOU for your prayers as we finished organizing, packing, cleaning, and rushed to the airport in Argentina!!!  We could NOT have made it without your prayers!  There were times that I felt I couldn't go on, and then God would help me keep going. :-)
We flew all night on Thursday, Dec. 17th, and landed in Miami early Friday morning.  However, our flight landed 30 mins. late, and then there was a problem so we couldn't get out of the airplane for 20 more minutes...thus we missed our connecting flight to Cinci. :-(
They flew us to Washington D.C. and then told us that there was a possible STANDBY flight getting us to Cinci by 5:00, if not they would book us for the 7:00 P.M. flight getting us to Cinci by 9:00 P.M.!
We really wanted to get to Cinci by 5:00...for earlier our girls had been invited to join the youth from our Christian Nation church for their last night cooking for Ronald McDonald house and then they were going to see the Christmas lights in the Cincinnati zoo.
So our family PRAYED that God would PLEASE help us make the standby flight so our girls could join the youth!
After they had called all the names on the flight, our family stood up and went up RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DESK...so they would know we REALLY wanted to get on that Standby flight. :-)
As we stood there, we prayed that God would work out His will in us getting on the flight.  A few minutes later they said they only had SIX TICKETS...and we needed SEVEN ('cause baby is still free.)
Phillip told them we wouldn't separate.  Not sure what happened, but 3 minutes later they told us to get on the plane!! :-)  PRAISE THE LORD!!
So, we landed SAFE AND SOUND in Cincinnati at 5:00 Friday night!
There was a nice group of family, friends, Bro. Becker, and Pastor Eisenhart who met us at the airport and helped us to get home to our cozy house!
I'll post more about this later, but Laura and her crew cleaned off the year's worth of dust, scrubbed, washed laundry, etc. AND GOT OUR HOUSE ALL MERRY AND BRIGHT!
It's wonderful being Home!
And now with both of our little girls Very SICK with the SAD STOMACH FLU :-(...we are sure to have Christmas here at home.  (I'm really tooooooo tired to go anywhere anyways. :-)

Merry Christmas from our House...

To your house!

~Baby Abigail says...PLEASE KEEP PRAYING!~

Jesus is helping us!  We have a few more suitcases to finish packing.
Then we'll clean this beautiful house that Jesus and U. Charlie, A. Yoli, and U. Willie have so graciously let us enjoy,
and leave tonight to fly home to the U.S.A.

Thanks for praying...PLEASE don't Stop...
While we pack our suitcases till they pop!... :-)
Then say those SAD GOODBYES and get on the plane,
To fly home to our U.S.A., family, and friends again!

As a missionary...one always feels torn in two.
Part of your heart is happy, the other part is blue!
You look forward to seeing the ones that have been so far away...
But saying goodbye tears your heart out, I must say!

Heaven will be wonderful in lots of ways!
To worship our Savior and give him Praise.
Then to not have to say goodbye again will be great...
Let's all be ready for that IMPORTANT DATE!

~Heather~

~We're back...PLEASE KEEP PRAYING...~

We had a Wonderful time with our Dear friends LM Hsu and Caro Juang and their children, seeing more of Beautiful Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, and enjoying God's BEAUTIFUL creation of the Iguazu falls! I have LOTS of pics to post...but that will have to wait for a later date, for I have about a million things to do. smile!
PLEASE PRAY WE CAN GET EVERYTHING DONE...for we leave for the U.S.A. tomorrow night! THANK YOU!!!

~Heather~

~Post #2 for Today...A BIG Birthday Bash!~

~I don't have time to write a bunch on this post, but here's a short explanation. :-)
Our Noah and Kimberly share a birthday in January.
You can imagine our surprise when we learned that our dear friend Elisa, and her twins Tom and Jenny SHARE this very same birthday. FIVE birthdays on one day! 
So, we decided that we had to celebrate these birthdays EARLY before we left. 
Aunt Elisa planned a neat gathering at an Hungarian club which had a restaurant.  We celebrated 7 people this day!  2 birthdays in December and 5 in January.
We had a lovely afternoon together, eating, chatting together, exchanging gifts, etc.~

~Aunt Elisa picked up 2 BEAUTIFUL birthday cakes, for you see the day we decided to celebrate was also her HUSBAND'S birthday.  And then, since Sarah had just had a birthday, they included her as well. :-) ~

~Aunt Yoli made a little bonnet for Abigail out of a cloth napkin.~

~Abigail was playing with the phone and changed the color...so I got a black and white pic. ~

~Yummy pasta and chicken.~

 

~The December cake~

~The January cake~

~The 7 birthday people we celebrated~

 ~A tad blurry~

 ~A Group-ie!~

~Aunt Elisa gave me a nice big bag.~

~Aunt Elisa and family gave Kimberly a very NICE PHONE...Kimberly was so happy and so shocked!!!  They also gave Noah a CAMERA and he is sooo happy as well!!~

~I found this cute little sign that said, "A cup of coffee shared with a friend is happiness tasted and time well spent."  When I saw this sign, I thought of Dear Aunt Yoli and wanted to get it for her.  Aunt Yoli loves coffee, and we have had the privilege of sharing lots of coffee and fun moments together!~

~Some cologne and a shaving bag for Uncle Charlie.~

~Aunt Elisa gave Phillip some yummy tea.~

~Aunt Yoli has a sister who lives in Canada.  Aunt Charlene has never met us, but has fallen in love with our little Elijah. :-)  She asked Aunt Yoli to get a gift for her little Elijah. :-)  ~

~Elijah is so happy with his Mini Cooper scale model car.  THANK YOU, AUNT CHARLENE!!!  We hope to get to meet you some day!!!  :-) ~

~Sarah is quite crafty with her hands.  She made this tree house out of cardboard and has enjoyed papering the walls, painting adding the flower boxes and grasses, etc.  She gave her little tree house to her friend Valen.~

NOW...If you will PLEASE keep those prayers coming, we'll keep trying to get everything done!  :-)
To see videos of our kids piano and guitar recital, read my post below!

~HEATHER~

~Post #1 for today, the kids' music recital!~

~I've got a million things to do, but I have to post all these pics before I leave TODAY for Iguazu. (Iguazu is the neat water Falls on the border of Arg./Brazil that some of our dear friends are paying for us to go and see.  When one of our president's wives saw it years ago, she said, "Poor Niagara Falls!)
Next week, I won't have time to post much our last 2 days here, nor will I have time when I arrive in the U.S.A. (For, I'm sure I'll sleep for a WEEK once I get to our U.S.A. house.:-)
~Last Saturday our kids had a music recital.  Jesus helped them and it was a nice evening.
Here are Noah, Elijah, and Mary with the Christmas Tins of Panettone bread/cake for their teachers.~

~Mary with her teacher.  These teachers have been such a God-send to our children.  They are GREAT piano and guitar teachers and we Thank Jesus for allowing our children to have the privilege to study under them for this time.~

~CLICK HERE to see a short video of Mary playing.~

 ~Valen (who attended our English classes) playing~

~William (who attended our English classes some)

~Tom playing~

~Elijah getting ready to play his guitar.~

~Elijah and his teacher playing. CLICK HERE to see a short video of Elijah playing his guitar.~

~Noah and his teacher playing.~

~CLICK HERE to see a short video of Noah playing his guitar.~

~Jonathan playing.~

~Sarah~

~CLICK HERE to see a short video of Sarah playing the piano.~

~Sarah and Kimberly's cute piano duet. ~
 CLICK HERE to watch Kimberly and Sarah playing, and Kimberly and her piano teacher play a duet as well.

~CLICK HERE TO SEE Kimberly playing the Moon light sonata.~

~Kimberly and her teacher playing a fun duet.
 CLICK HERE TO WATCH Kimberly's teacher play an very neat Tango with another student!~

~The picture Noah drew for his teacher.~

~What Elijah drew for his teacher.~

~Elijah and his teacher.~

~Then we stopped by McDonald's to celebrate the kids diligent efforts in practicing and playing their instruments.
(My parents always did something special for us after our music recitals, and it always made me feel so special, so I carried on the tradition. :-) ~

~Heather~