Visitors From the East at Christmas Time

Two weeks ago we got a phone call from our friends who live in Bali.  They might have to travel to "Starbucks" for a visa renewal and wanted to know if they could come up for a visit.  Uhh...YES!!  Then just when it looked like it was not going to happen, they got the call to do their visas and everything quickly fell in place!  They just happen to have sons who are the exact same age as Marshall, Hudson, and Haddon.  So needless to say, my kids were SO excited to have friends come and visit.  It was very humbling that they would spend their time and money to come to "Folgers" for a vacation and stay with us.  Imagine leaving Bali and vacationing in........."Folgers"!  They came Wed-Sun.  A nice Christmas surprise.

You see, at our annual summer meeting the leader who was opening up the session started doing random introductions and happened to interview Barry.  He was asking him get to know you questions,  then he asked what the most exciting thing to do in "Folgers" was, to which Barry replied, "Eating grilled corn by the river where you can watch kids jump off the outhouse into the river!"  The man then said, "Wow, makes you want to go there!" and "Ya, that's pretty much what I heard about your city!"  LOL  Needless to say, after those comments, and our city having the reputation of being the "armpit" of Macchiato, we have not been expecting many visitors.  Campbell lovingly says we are not just an armpit, we are an armpit with deodorant now!  LOL

However, because the CEO is so good and understands our desires, not only this family but two other families have sent their sons up to visit and stay with our family while their dads came here on business a few months ago.  How cool is that?  My boys loved having their friends fly up to visit them.  Again, that these families would pay for a plane ticket for their kids to come see my boys is humbling and such a special gift.  Our family, my kids, are so blessed with the people and friends in their lives over here.   (Unfortunately, the other two boys came during Ram*dan and the corn stalls were not open due to the fasting. Boo!)  Guess they'll just have to come again so they too can join "The Order of the Corn", what we have affectionately dubbed this "Folgers" rite of passage.  :)

While the Basha family was here we went to our Team "R" Christmas party, the farm and orphanage, the water park, and the boys went to the PYP Christmas party.  Busy, but fun times!

Here is an explanation for mine and Campbell's water slide pic:  At the water park they barely had water trickling down most of the slides, therefore except for the wide green slide, we all got stuck and had to walk or push our rafts down the slides (um ya...that was fun!)  As Campbell and I come walking out of the tube slide, carrying our raft, the lifeguard made us get in it and insisted that he must push us the rest of the way into the water...no kidding.  I was cracking up, welcome to my life.  No wonder world peace seems so far away, people around the world do not have the same solutions for the same problems.  It never ceases to amaze me!  Oh well you have to embrace the differences or they will drive you crazy...and I would know...trust.

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas season and remembering to focus on people not things, busy creating memories not stress, and loving the CEO even more because of promises fulfilled in the Son!

One last note.  Barry leaves Sunday to get his cast off.  Can you believe it has already been six weeks since his surgery?  Please lift up him and us as we stay behind again, thankfully only until Tuesday.

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