God Answers Prayer

When Ethan and I joined the GIAL campus last July we quickly began using the services of The Boutique and of The Warehouse. These facilities act like thrift stores, except that they are free for members of our community. One of the first things we acquired was an old, dilapidated two-seater stroller which we grew to love. Last week I rolled over a bump and the front wheel snapped off. The ancient pram is now in a landfill somewhere and I've been letting Dorie trot along behind me everywhere I go, while I push James in our umbrella stroller.
This morning the children and I went for a walk and I found myself heading toward The Warehouse. I told Dorie she should pray for a new stroller but I seriously doubted that we would find anything. I'd recently looked and, besides, there are a lot of young families here--surely anything nice would quickly be snatched up! Look at the new arrival that I saw when I walked through the door! Dorie's prayer was answered and my faith was strengthened as well. Seeing his faithfulness in small areas makes me feel secure about larger ones. Finding a place to serve, tuition money, computer problems--God is our provider, and I don't need to worry.

'I see that the girl is sitting.' -E.

The following tree diagram illustrates the constituent structure of the sentence 'I see that the girl is sitting' in Lebanese Arabic. Syntactic constituents are in red, phonological representations of words are in blue, and glosses are in green.

Yep, this is what my day has been like today. And not a bad tree diagram, if I may say so. My current class has had me working on Arabic like this for the last six weeks. It can get tiring, but I like this stuff. Can't help it. And I remind you all (as I remind myself) that this is not pointless. Analyzing a language well improves the quality of any translation of texts into that language. Wouldn't it be something exciting to be a part of quality translation? I'm hopeful.

We have so much to be thankful for this Holiday Season!

Our time with family was so good; we miss them a lot. Even though we were far from our family--Holly traveled home for Thanksgiving--we had such a relaxing time with each other and with friends. Scott and Christa Dysart invited us to their house for Thanksgiving supper; Dorie was just thrilled spend time with her friend Edward. Our friends Jeremy, Danielle, and their two girls spent all of Saturday here playing games. Nothing makes me feel like the holidays more than a whole day of board games!

I love putting out the nativity! I've had mine since I was fourteen or so. My parents also gave Dorie a toy nativity last year. She loves playing with the sheep, the wise men, and baby Jesus.

This picture is so dear to me because when I was Dorie's age I used to sit on the back of my mom's sewing chair. I'm not much of a sewing girl at all, but maybe Dorie will be, if she takes after her Grandma!

Life is just more fun with Omi and Opi around!

(Left to Right: Opi (Dean), James, Ethan, Omi (Esther), Dorie, Phoebe, Rhoda, Keziah, Sam)

Ethan's parents and his four youngest siblings are making our lives very rich right now. Dorie just thinks she is one of the big kids! She always has someone who has the time to read to her, draw with her, or play outside with her. Today we all went to the Children's Aquarium, even Ethan, who has been incredibly busy with his Field Methods class. We had such a good time petting stingrays and touring a nearby garden. It feels like I'm on vacation!

Opi and James during lunch at the Dallas Zoo

Uncle Sam and Dorie chilling at Fair Park

Wonderful Weeks

My mom has been here for almost two weeks. We have had so much fun together! Here are a few pictures to highlight our good times.


We went to the zoo at Fort Worth--the reptile house was splendid!














Dorie and her Grandma had a "Grandma Day." Mom took her to McDonalds for breakfast and then to Walmart's toy department. They found all kinds of fun things but when the shopping cart went by the Crayola section Dorie asked Grandma to put everything else back! I had just done an art project with her and she fell in love with cutting and pasting paper. Dorie chose some red safety scissors, some construction paper, and a pack of crayons. Happy creating daughter!



Mom found this toy guitar for James at Texas Thrift. James had already discovered a love for his daddy's guitar; now he has one of his very own. :)

Dorie loves to sing, and the first song Dorie learned was "Who made the pretty lilies." Her grandma taught it to her while swinging on her front porch. Here is my mom revisiting those days.
We have had such a wonderful time!
( blog is www.xanga.com/pollythepatchworker and she has even more pictures than me about her week!)