He shoots...he scores!

Now that the weather is cooling off...for Houston that means it is finally below 90...we have pulled back out the outdoor toys and Tye has really enjoyed rediscovering them (we had to put them away due to Hurricane Ike). Here are a few photos of him shooting baskets. He has quite good form for a 22 month old.







Blessings,
Bethany

Our Turkey Slideshow

Here is the slideshow for our pictures to Turkey. Sorry there are so many, but I promise...I did condense.

Jetlagged, but home!

I know, we said we would post while we were in Istanbul, but that did not happen...sorry. We are now home and settling back into our somewhat normal routine. That means, we are not waking up at 3am wide awake and falling asleep at 8:30pm every night. Tye has done the best of all of us, though. He did not seemed phased by the crazy 8 hour time difference. Anyway, we had a fantastic trip full of fun in the Turkish sun, sightseeing in Istanbul, and many laughs. Much thanks to Ryan and Laura for their fluent Turkish that helped us survive in the country, and their wonderful hospitality, as well as a playmate for Tye while we were there.

There was no rest for the weary because we flew to the beach the morning after we arrived in Istanbul. That means...we evacuated for Ike on a Wednesday, came back into town with no power the following Tuesday to pack. Thankfully, my cousin, Troy and his wife, Alyson let us stay with them to do a little laundry and get a good nights sleep and then we flew out on Wednesday. Our 8.5 hour full flight to Paris, then 4 hour layover, and another 3.5 hour flight to Istanbul...not fun, but hey, we figured we can do anything for 1 day. We got into Istanbul that evening and flew out to Kusadasi (the beach) the next morning at 8am. Whew...after settling into our villa, life settled down a bit. We were a short taxi ride to the beach, and about 30 minutes from Ephesus. We enjoyed them both, and as you will see from the pictures...the docked cruise ship tourists enjoyed Ephesus the same day as well. It was sooo crowded! We tried all week to take a ferry to Samos, one of the Greek Isles, to get Laura her much anticipated Greek Salad, but never made it bc the Port workers were on strike all week...bummer. The beach water was beautiful and the scenery was spectacular.

After a week, we flew back to Istanbul. We had a babysitter for the kids the first day and had a chance to do some sightseeing in the historical European side of Istanbul. We visited the Blue Mosque, the Aya Sophia, the Basilica Cistern, and the Grand Bazaar. Let me say...us pregnant women were TIRED! We were there during the last week of Ramadan, so that was an interesting sight to see the festival atmosphere they had set up for every evening. The people there were so friendly and often enjoyed a cup of "chay" which is like a very strong hot tea. We spent most evenings, enjoying fantastic Turkish dinners, hanging out at the house playing cards, their wii, and lots of laughs since there were 2 one-year olds and 2 pregnant women in the house, we layed low by 8:00pm.





Okay, so that was the trip in a condensed nutshell...I will put a slideshow up as soon as I can, but here are a few pics to get it started.

Blessings...
Bethany

Evacuation from Ike

On Thursday, we left Houston and headed for Fredericksburg, TX. Bethany's family has a house just outside of this town and so we had a place to go to retreat from the hurricane. As most of you know, Ike came on shore about 2 am Saturday morning and we were all watching the news and the weather channel for the most up-to-date information that we could get. All of us evacuated except Ray (Bethany's dad) and he and Don Allison stayed behind in Porter. Don Allison is a friend that is driving down to Guatemala and his family will be flying down to meet him this Thursday. He and his family ( http://www.allisonfamilyinguat.blogspot.com/) will be living in the Canilla/San Andreas metro area ;) for the next 6 to 7 months doing medical mission work in close coordination with the Ficker family ( http://www.adonaiinternationalministries.org/documents/23.html ). John Villanueva, who works with us and specifically with Agape in Action is driving down with Don in Agape's 4 runner with a 4 wheeler stuffed in the back of it. (Please see previous posts for pics on this event).

All of this to say that we are all safe and were mostly spared from the wrath of the hurricane by the Lord's hand but some of our neighbors and friends had some damage to their homes and property. We plan to make the trip back to Houston tomorrow to get ready to leave for Turkey on Wednesday. We have been planning a trip to see our friends "Los Lobos" since March and we are hoping that everything is still ok for our flight out of Houston. We have heard that they just opened the international airport today in Houston. Please be in prayer for the citizens of Houston and the surrounding areas during this time of recovery. We hope that all power and utilities are restored by the time we get back from Turkey. ;)
Our next post might be from the other side of the globe.

The "Tyeland" Park is completed!

Here are a few pictures of Tye's new playground at my parents house. Tye has loved helping put it together and now is enjoying playing on it. He absolutely loved the gravel and I think he has enjoyed that more than anything so far. He just fills up his dumptruck and dumps it out to only do it again, and again and again. He is learning how to maneuver through the playground and is also conquering the tire swing and the big boy swings. I have thoroughly enjoyed the swings as well. Thanks "Gadat" for the "Tyeland" Park.

We are having a boy!!!!!

We had a our first big Ultrasound appointment today, and we are having another boy. Looks like Tye will have a little brother and we are very excited for many reasons and some of them include that fact that the placenta is normal, there is a good solid cord insertion, and in general the entire preganancy looks very healthy. (If these things sound odd to you, then you should ask us about the last pregnancy...we will be happy to share the history with you). We are very happy and are praising the Lord for what He is doing and the way He is forming the child He is giving us. We ask you to continue to pray with us for our soon-to-be-born child. Please be in prayer for Russ also, as he is going to Haiti this Friday to visit some missionaries that we support through NBRI. Above is a picture we got at the doctor today. Enjoy.

Its been busy aroung here

Last week we had a guest staying with us and his name is Matt Bell. He was in the Houston area for about 4 days and spent all but one night with us. It was a pleasure having him here and we did our best to help him get ready to continue on to NC. Matt and Heidi Bell, along with their son Isaac have been in Guatemala for that last two years doing medical missions with Agape in Action. It has been a joy to work with them these two years and if you want to check out some of their adventures while in Guatemala you can check out the Agape in Action blog, bookmarked on this blog.

Russ did his best to help Matt get things done while here in the Houston and Matt and his friend Martin (from Guatemala) got back on the road to NC on Wednesday night after driving to the US from Guatemala the weekend before.

Did I mention that it has been quite warm around here for the last few days? Well it has. This past weekend, Bethany attended the local Scrapaloofa at her mom's church. It was a Friday night and all day Saturday event. This meant that Russ and Tye got to have some guy time. They definitely had a good time and on Saturday, they went to Tye's grandparents house to help Granddad assemble the "park" for Tye. Tye's grand parents have a park for Tye which is the best way we know how to describe it to Tye at this point. It is basically everything a kid could want in a playground. It has a slide, swing set, bridge, climbing wall.....you name it they've got it. Needless to say, Russ, Tye and Granddad had a good time working on the playground on Saturday and Tye did his best to contribute to the effort. On Sunday afternoon Russ went to the lake with Chuck and Adam and they had a good time after a little bit of a battery fiasco with the boat (but that is another story).

Well that was our week, more or less, so we invite you to let us know what you have been up to lately and we will check back with you soon.

Peace,
R, B, T and ?