Mom's visit

Oh, the amazing things that come out of Grandma's crayon!

Happy Birthday, Will! A whole airport of your own!

Riding the 10 minute ferry from Lyttelton over to Diamond Harbour

Mom & me at Diamond Harbour

Grandma Ros with her TWO grandsons!

We have had a wonderful time with my Mom these last two weeks... it was really hard to say goodbye at the airport yesterday. She was amazing-- cooked meals, cleaned our bathrooms (only a mother could do that!), played with Will hour upon hour, burped & changed Ben and Will (she didn't even mind doing the dirty parts!), babysat so James and I could have some time out, encouraged all of us, and just generally brought sunshine.

The hardest part for me yesterday at the airport was not actually saying goodbye to her myself-- it was watching her say goodbye to Will. When she said, "I'll see you when you're 3, Will!" that's when I started crying. And I just kept crying all the way home. The real cost of this life God has called us to is sinking in even more deeply. It is so incredibly hard to think about our family not getting to see our precious, adorable boys until they are 3 whole years old and 1 whole year old... All the growing and moments and relationship-building we are all giving up... I said to James on the way home, "I know God promises to reward us for giving up family, houses, lands, etc, for Him, but even though He gives us surrogate grandparents for our boys overseas and my parents have surrogate grandchildren, there just really can't be any replacement for specific relationships-- between my sweet Mom and my sweet Will, for example. I guess that's why the second half of that verse says 'not only in this life, but also in the life to come'... some things are just simply irreplaceable and we just have to wait for heaven. It makes heaven seem a long way off..." :(

more pictures of Benjamin

Ben fell asleep with both hands in the air-- praising God early?

sunbathing for jaundice... posing for the camera?

proud Dad