A Cute Herd of Turtles

The photo above is of Annette pushing our triplet nephews and niece, followed by her sister holding hands with our 3 year old nephew George, followed by Hermione the dog and Saint Diane the nanny.

As you can imagine with a group of this complexity, going anywhere is an event...Do we have diapers? Enough water to maintain proper hydration? Baby wipes? Insect repellent? Umbrellas for all? Snake bite kit? Life raft?
As the father this non-standard family says, "It's as speedy as a herd of turtles in a sea of peanut butter."

We're back from our trip up the east coast to deliver a much needed minivan to the group above. With 4 children in carseats, if the family wanted to go anywhere, they had to take two cars. But now, for the first time since the triplets arrived home, the whole family will fit in one vehicle.

Up the East Coast

Annette with our friends and hosts, Scott and Minnemie Murphy and their two boys, Neals and Devan, in Florence, South Carolina.

Annette and I spent the 4th of July with Hill and Susan (in pink) Davis and their boys, Ben and Caleb. Caleb's favorite part of the celebration was the squirt gun...mine was the bottle rockets.

This is our way of saying thank you to these friends for their hospitality. They're way better than Motel 6!

Where Are We?

Have you ever had that feeling of momentary confusion when you wake up in the middle of the night in a new place and don't know where you are. Annette and I will have plenty of opportunities to experience that sensation over the next month since we will only get to sleep in our own beds 4 nights during the month of July.
Here's where we'll be:

• July 1 - 5th: South Carolina visiting friends
• July 6-8: New Jersey helping with Annette's sister's triplets while one has minor surgery
• July 13-16: Lookout Mtn., TN, a friends' wedding gives us the chance to see family and friends
• July 18-25: Santiago, Chile for Dimension Juvenil youth leaders convention
• July 26-Aug 1st: Cochabamba, Bolivia for La Red, annual youth leaders training camp
• Aug. 3-9: Guatemala City for Youth Specialties Central American conference

To view our travel itinerary, tracking us like an over-
protective parent, click here>>

Ain't a Feeling Like It in the World

Do you remember that cat herding ad that first appeared during the Superbowl in 2000? Our life was kind of like that from June 6^th to June 17^th as we herded a group of 13 Argentines around Orlando. (Just for the record, Argentines don’t scratch or shed but they sure aren’t sheep :-))

For more about the what and why of the visit read this article Annette wrote for the Northland newspaper.

For a glimpse into the transcendent purposes of the trip in the life of one of the Argentines read this letter by Camila.

In the memorialized words of cat herders who came before us, “It ain’t an easy job, but when you bring a herd into town and you ain’t lost a one of ‘em, there ain’t a feeling like it in the world.”

Annette's Birthday

My favorite girl in the whole world celebrated her birthday today. It's one of those milestone birthdays... not 16 or 21, not 30 or 50 but somewhere in between those last two.

She's wittier and prettier than when she was 20, and oh so wiser. 

Outta Sync, I Think

“I’m sorry. He’s not available. Most people are out of the office day because of the hol-i-day.” The receptionist said this last word slowly and very distinctly as if she were talking to a small child, or someone with a ve-ry low IQ.

“Holiday?” I was confused. “What holi…oh..wait…is today Saturday?” We’ve been in such a sort of time and space warp for so long now, rarely sure of what season or month we’re in, let alone day of the week, that I figured I just hadn’t realized it wasn’t Friday but Saturday.

“No,” she said, again very di-stinct-ly, “Memorial Day.”

“I thought Memorial Day was on Monday,” I said to Annette after I extracted myself from the chat with the helpful secretary. “When did it become a four day weekend? You don’t even get that at Easter, do you?”

This was just another reminder that we might be in the US but we’re not yet in sync with it.

Another Incredible Day

We woke up this morning to the bells of the monastery (they're loud) and looked out the window of our simple little room. I took some pictures and here is one of them. Under those clouds and a couple thousand feet closer to sealevel is Barcelona. 

Montserrat, Spain

We're in a 986 year old benedictine monastery surrounded by monks in black robes who maintain - for the most part - a vow of silence, there are people from at least 7 different countries and 6 different languages, we're talking about how to communicate the good news of Christ in a world that is growing in it's openess to spirituality, Jesus and God but not to the church. It's incredibly stimulating and fun.
(In the photo, Felix Ortiz translates for Jusep, our host monk, who speaks Catalan)

In the Air Again

We're on our way to Spain. (In fact, I'm on a plane filling out the visa in this picture) We've been invited by Felix Ortiz, one of the authors that Annette wrote the youth ministry textbook with, to be part of roundtable discussion on how to impact youth in a post-Christian, post-modern Europe. We're also continuing our work with Felix on the online, interactive youth ministry courses that his organization, Campus Crusade, is presently promoting.

Just One Day

We've been back in the U.S. a month and wanted to give you a peek into what's up. So here's an excerpt from a day in the life story that Annette wrote:

We woke up early, as we do every morning in Florida, with sunlight flooding our bedroom. After a bowl of cereal we set out on our morning jog. Today it ended up being six miles. Back in Mexico, my long runs weren’t quite that long, but since we were running around a lake here there were no shortcuts home, and unlike Mexico there are no taxis to jump in if you decide you’d rather get home sooner than later. We had just walked back into the house when the phone rang...[click here to read more]

Family-o-rama

A rare confluence of family members created this snapshot worthy moment. It was the St. Patty's Day parade and both my parents and Annette's sister and her family showed up for the festivities. Just another one of the things we're enjoying about being back in the U.S.
(See, Mom, you do show up in our blog every once in a while)