Jaylin is 6!

Yes, the last of our family birthdays for the year. Jaylin was so happy that the Porritt family was here to celebrate her 6th birthday...and then the day they left, Pavel and Jelka came with her special "Jelka cake", so Jaylin was able to celebrate twice this year! The Porritt's wanted to be in on the Slovak tradition of tossing the birthday girl into the air 6 times, but neither Debbi nor I caught her on camera in the air...any of those 6 times! :-() Oh well...maybe next year!

Visitors from the West

Well, at least they came from west of us...but that's not hard to do; we seem to be farther east than most everyone we know. Anyway, last weekend we had some friends come here from the Czech Republic. They are other JV missionary kids: Hannah, Hayley, and Noah Ellenwood, and Caleb and Claire Patty, all in high school, plus Seth Miller and Kari Grissom, our two interns that have now spent 5 months with us here in Slovakia. Jayce and Tate were at JV kids camp with the five missionary kids, and we have been wanting to have them come visit, as our kids love every minute of being with these older kids. It is great spending time with this group, as we are always encouraged to see how these JV kids have all grown up as missionary kids, here in Eastern Europe, and are so mature and fun! They are all just great to show our kids so much attention.

Our kids just love having people over, and are always asking "Who's coming over today?" Our kids have definitely grown quite close to our interns, Seth and Kari, as these two have treated our five incredibly special from the beginning. It is fun to see how much Shaylee especially loves to walk over to Seth to have him pick her up, and how often she asks for "Kari???" These pictures are a great illustration of just how much our kids love these people!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

GUILTY!!!

The Porritt's are here!

We have been enjoying quite an exciting week this week, as our great friends from our home church in Tremont have been here visiting with us! Luke and Debbi Porritt and their four kids came last Sunday, and will be going home again on Tuesday. Those of you who know the Porritt's will not be surprised to hear that the week was full of fun and laughter! What a refreshing time to have great friends with us, to have sweet times of talking, great fellowship, adventures with the 9 kids, and games played almost every night! Our kids loved every minute of it...except for when they had to go off to school! :-( And a huge thank you to all of you who sent goodies along with them to bless us! We are now fully stocked with peanut butter, Parmesan cheese, cooking spray, taco seasonings, onion soups and beef jerky! Thank you!!!

The Porritt family was truly a blessing to us as they spent the time and the money to be with us. Having them see our world over here was so fun, and they saw just about everything in Bardejov. They are quite adventurous as a family, and don't sit around doing nothing very often. Therefore, they were able to see the boy's school, the kid's preschool, our church, meet our pastor and youth group, go grocery shopping and souvenir shopping, tour an old castle ruins, visit a couple of our restaurants, and even visit the grand hotel up the hill to try out their pool! They definitely made the most out of their vacation, and we are so thrilled that they did!

We are currently spending the weekend in Budapest, Hungary where they will fly out on Tuesday. This is also an adventure, and we are loving it! So thank you, Luke and Debbi, for choosing Slovakia for your 10th Anniversary trip, and for blessing us as you did! We have all made some wonderful memories that will never be forgotten!