Bret, Seth, and Kenna were able to come over for a Christmas brunch before going to Denver. Mom made an egg casserole the night before and then bacon, biscuits, and homemade gravy (of course, I requested the biscuits and gravy :-)). Debbie made a braided bread. I love eating breakfast things like this but never make biscuits and gravy and rarely make bacon. It’s so yummy, but so bad for you.
Since Bret and the kids were going to Lori’s parents’ house for Christmas dinner, we did a Christmas dinner and opened gifts on Christmas Eve. Mom and I made the ham, and Debbie made the side dishes.
We got Ethan a transportation puzzle. All of the grandparents got him really “cool” gifts (and, of course, the gifts that make noise). 
Mom was planning to come to Budapest for Christmas, but was able to change her ticket once we found out that Lori died and that we would be coming back to the States. She ended up getting a ticket to come to CO for Christmas. We stopped in downtown Denver to see Christmas lights on our way to pick her up at the airport.
We had someone take some family pictures while Gary’s brother, Neil, was here from TX and we were here. We did them in front of a fireplace in the assisted living home where Gary’s grandmother lives. The background looked just as good as, if not better than, at a professional studio.
Merry Christmas to all of those reading this!
Now, I will go back to putting more pictures than writing. :-)
Here are some pictures of Ethan with the family from the last couple of days.
I’ll go ahead and say that this post will be a lot of writing and only one picture.
Probably most of you who are reading this know that our sister-in-law, Lori, died on December 10th after a 21 month battle with breast cancer. Bret, Lori’s husband and Gary’s brother, sent an e-mail out that was a great testimony. He wrote: “My sweet, amazing Lori has fought the good fight, and this morning she passed on to be with the Lord. Friday morning (12/10) at 5:20 am Lori gained full victory over the disease of cancer as her Lord Jesus ushered her to her forever true home. Her sister, Brenda, her wonderful children Seth and Kenna, and I were all with her to say goodbye. Shortly thereafter many family and friends have blessed us with their well wishes. Lori’s faith in Jesus to completely save is now beautifully realized!”
We were able to get tickets to come back the day before the funeral. Ethan didn’t have a seat, and it didn’t look like we would be able to get a seat with a bassinet, which meant over 10 straight hours of him being on our laps. God continually provided, and our trip was much better than we expected. We went from the very last 2 seats on the plane that didn’t recline to where one of us were able to get a seat with the bassinet and the other one would have to stay in the last row to where we were both able to get on the row with the bassinet but with 2 seats of other people between us. Then once we got on the plane, the woman next to Gary noticed that we were together and asked if I wanted to change seats with her so I could be next to Gary and she could have an aisle seat. So, Gary and I were able to sit next to each other AND have a bassinet for Ethan. The interesting thing was that the plane didn’t take off for awhile because there seemed to be so many people complaining to the flight attendants about their seats. Gary and I heard several people trying to switch seats with people and talking to the flight attendants about problems with their seats. Neither of us have seen so much changing of seats and problems on a flight before. That made me all the more thankful for how God provided for us. And, to top it off, we were on a plane where you can go downstairs to the bathroom which was better for me than just walking up and down the aisles since I needed to get up and move around every hour due to blood clotting being more prone in pregnant women.
We woke Ethan just before leaving the house, at 4:30 am, and just took him to the airport in his pajamas. Surprisingly, he stayed awake on the whole drive to the airport. The flight to Germany wasn’t full, so Gary moved to an empty row to get a little sleep. As usual, Ethan was a big hit with the flight attendant, so she carried him around the plane several times. Near the end of our 4 hour layover in Frankfurt, we were in the security line (which was very long). That was the first time that Ethan began getting fussy and having a meltdown. Before too long, one of the security workers let us jump line and go through since we had a young child. I don’t know if she would have noticed us had Ethan been quiet. We weren’t in a hurry but it was nice to not have to wait so long in line. After getting up so early in the morning, Ethan didn’t sleep until his normal nap time and only slept the amount of time as his normal nap time. He still did well on the flight. We know that there were many people praying for us and our travels here, so we are thankful for that! Please also pray for our return trip.
The funeral was a great testimony to the Lord. Several of Lori’s friends shared some stories about her. Bret played a recording of a song that Lori wrote a few months ago and he and one of Lori’s friends sang it and then taught it to everyone to sing along. Bret said that at least one of her doctors was there. He counted 470 people who signed the visitor book for the funeral. One of the people commented to me, afterward, that it was the best funeral service they had ever been to.
We are all so glad that Lori is not suffering or in pain anymore. I am sad for Bret and the kids who are 13 and 17 years old. Even though my dad died when I was 26 years old, I can’t imagine what they are going through. I do know that God is sovereign and His timing is perfect. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts. I do pray that Seth and Kenna will know His presence and peace and feel their Heavenly Father’s arms wrapped around them like I did when my dad was dying from cancer. I just don’t know how people handle these types of things when they are not Christians. I’m sure God will be using this family as an example to those who don’t know God personally.
Here is a picture of Ethan with his cousins, Seth and Kenna.
We had a good Thanksgiving here. The plans of where it would be and who all would be there changed around some, but it ended up working out well. And, the food was delicious!
Since Thanksgiving is something celebrated in Canada and the US, it isn’t a holiday here, but ICSB is cancelled and the Americans do celebrate it. Of course, you can’t just go to the store and buy a turkey like in the States. So you have to either fix turkey breasts or go to a butcher shop and order a turkey. Our group did the latter. Here is a picture, below, of Justin carving it.
We celebrated with an Albanian family, a family that is part American and part Belarusian, an American family, and one of the singles from ICSB. The Beatty family didn’t make it into the picture. Ethan was too interested in toys to eat, so we took his food home with us and gave it to him a few days later. He’s very social (wonder where he got that from!), so when we are with a large group, he tends to not eat anything.
November 1st is a holiday in Hungary, All Saints Day. It is interesting because in the States the only holiday around this time of year that I was familiar with was Halloween. That is not celebrated over here. However, Reformation Day, which is also October 31st is celebrated in Europe (where there is a larger Reformed population) in addition to All Saints Day which is celebrated in the Catholic countries of Europe. Since Hungary is a Catholic country and has a small percentage of members of the Reformed Church, All Saints Day is celebrated here rather than Reformation Day.
The CCC office and school have Nov.1st off (since it is a major holiday where places are closed). Gary had a meeting at the office in the afternoon anyway, but we decided to go hiking beforehand in the hills near his office. We enjoyed it because usually all of our Saturdays are filled with doing house and yard work. It was a beautiful day for hiking too!
I posted pictures from when Gary’s parents were here and talked about how his dad fixed a lot of things around the house. One of the posts talked about how he took the vacuum cleaner apart and how Ethan watched with great interest. Gary’s parents mailed a new vacuum cleaner belt to us, so Gary got the tools out to take the vacuum cleaner apart and replace the belt. Once again, Ethan watched enthusiastically. Except this time, he wanted to “help” even more than with Papa.
In the last few weeks Ethan has been pointing to screws when he sees them. Last week he pointed to a large screw that was in the bottom of a bookshelf. He went and got the tool box, brought it into the room with the shelf and wanted to get the screwdriver to take the screw out. I didn’t realize that he had picked up on where we kept the tool box, so now we have to find a new location where he can’t reach it. It’s not much of a tool box. It’s one that my mom got for me in college with a few things, but needless to say, even a screwdriver can be dangerous.
Well, little did we know that a vacuum cleaner can be dangerous too. Last week, Gary was vacuuming the rug that’s in the picture above. While he was vacuuming, Ethan turned the vacuum cleaner over and stuck his hand in it (while it was on). You can see the wheel of it in the first picture, so that was turning when he put his hand in it. It ended up taking a layer (or possibly more) of skin off of part of his thumb, index finger, and the corner of his palm. It looks much better now since the scab has been forming. I thought it would cause most of his hand to bruise, but surprisingly, it hasn’t. He still keeps his fingers bent down for the most part, trying to protect it, but each day has used it more and more.
Ethan has become quite the little helper around the house. Every Friday Gary empties out all of the trash cans around the house because that is the day our trash is picked up. Ethan has observed this, and has started empting the little trash cans himself.
I think I already posted a picture of him vacuuming, which he really enjoys doing. He likes to get the broom and dustpan, but ends up moving dirt around more than getting it swept together.
I miss seeing the beautiful fall colors in Boone. There isn’t much of that around here, so it’s nice to have a maple tree in our yard with leaves that change color. It’s a big tree, so Gary and Ethan have been raking and picking up leaves almost every Saturday in October. 
For several months now, Ethan has seemed to have a feet fetish, but specifically with my feet. He likes to take my slippers and socks off and then put my feet around his waist. He also holds my feet up to his face. At first I thought it was because of the toe nail polish, but then he still did it when I wasn’t wearing any. He doesn’t seem to do it as often as he was, but even this morning when I was getting ready in the bathroom, he was taking my slippers and socks off. Of course, when I’m standing it’s a little hard for him to wrap both of my feet around his waist.
These two pictures are the only ones that we have to show how he puts my feet around his waist. The top one is blurry, but you can still tell.
I think everyone knows the answer to this by now, but just in case I will post it on here that we are having a girl. We found out over a month ago, but I just haven’t had time to work on blog posts.
Of course, one of my first thoughts was that we would have to buy all new clothes. Most of Ethan’s clothes are blue or dark brown. I love blue (and actually don’t like pale pink), but I don’t want people thinking that my baby is a boy because of seeing the boy clothing. Nor do I want her to grow up and see that she was wearing blue in all of her baby pictures. :-) Thankfully, my mom has already mailed a newborn outfit over here for her. She’s very excited about having a granddaughter. Kristen’s parents also brought a 3 month outfit for a girl and gave us when they visited a few weeks ago. THANK YOU Doug and Patty! That was very thoughtful when you had limited luggage and 2 grandchildren of your own to bring things to (as well as Kevin and Kristen).
Sunday was our last day together before Kent and Debbie returned to the US.
The family who use to live here left an old vacuum cleaner. We have always used it for the rug in the living room because it’s basically the only thing that works to keep it clean. It messed up this past year, and we didn’t know how to fix it. So, Kent, being the handyman that he is, took a look at it and discovered that the belt had broken. I thought these pictures were cute of Ethan trying to “help” him. 
Thanks, Kent, for all of the handy things you did while you were here! We hope your grandson takes after you in this area. :-)
