A little September so far...

 Josiah and Mandie hanging out at Laura's surprise birthday party

 Alyssa and Lianna were SUPER excited for Laura to get here

 Surprise!!!

 Jon, a former ICSB student and his wife, Megan at the party

We were so excited and thankful to have Laura here working in the classroom with Lianna. We wanted to show her some love by having a surprise party for her! She was surprised alright!!!! Thanks for praying that God would provide an aide for Lianna.  The girls are doing great in school and we are soooo grateful to our God for hearing our prayers!

It is amazing to see how God brought Mandie here to ICSB too! Mandie is loving being in the different classrooms. She even got to sub for one of the elementary teachers the other day. It is awesome to see how God put Lianna on both Laura and Mandie's heart.  Mandie is doing an awesome job working in different elementary classrooms and is also the general classroom aide in Lianna's prefirst class.  Lianna is actually the only student with two American parents. There are two other kids with one Hungarian and one American parent, a little boy from Korea, a little boy with one American parent and one parent from Belarus, and the rest are Hungarian. There is an aide in Lianna's class that is Hungarian, and is busy doing LOTS of translating this first semester! :) Review all the vocab and short phrases has actually been really great for Lianna's speech development!


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As we were busy unpacking, I unwrapped out sweet picture of The Moody Church from our dear friends before we left.  Our friend, Julie Jones, took this picture and had different people write messages on the back to send us off to the mission field. When we first arrived in 2005, this frame was broken in our suitcase.  We took it to the local "glass guy" in Diosd and he starting ripping off the back where all the messages were written.  Bjorn yelled, "NO!" The poor guy had NO IDEA how much this frame paper meant to us.  AFter replacing the glass, he carefully taped the brown paper back together so that we could read our little messages.  With each move, when we take down this frame we get a little sentimental from the messages, and thank God for the different people that wrote on the back. 

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We are back in the routine of  enjoying  our family walks and stopping to admire our local Diosd neighbor's chickens! :) 

A little August and September...

 Stienstra family breakfast to say goodbyes! So thankful that all for of my (Trisha's) grandparents could be there..including even some of my great aunts and uncles.  Aunt Lucelle is in the middle (age 95) and Aunt Jean on the right! Seriously, we are soooo blessed to have such a rich legacy of a Christian heritage! Praise God!

 My cousin, Brittany, came too! We were soooo glad to have her and my Aunt Michelle! All of Trisha's siblings and neices and nephews were there too. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of everyone...

 Lianna's first day of Kindergarten! She LOVED it!

 Lianna was SUPER excited to see Laura at school! Alyssa was super excited too to go to school. She had to make sure she brought her backpack.

 My little "Spit fire" Alyssa Noelle, got right in there at sat down at the table like she belonged there! I was a afraid I might have a fight to get her out of there, but she was VERY excited to go home and have "school" with Mommy.  Everyday, she reminds me by telling me, "Mommy, right now I  am only 2. But when I am 5, I will be big, big like Lianna and then I get to go to school too!"

 Lianna and Alyssa having fun at our church outreach in the park across the way from our church. They LOVED getting their face painted! We are still finding glitter around here at home...

 Lianna and Alyssa playing with Miss Heidi, one of Lianna's teachers from school.  Heidi is also a dear friend of mine (Trisha).  She and I have been leading our girls' Bible study together for the past 7 years! Yes, a good friend, indeed! :)

Lianna playing at school.  Yes, friends, that is our Lianna Joy...climbing the ladder!!! CLIMBING THE LADDER!!!! ALL BY HERSELF?!??!?! PRAISE GOD! Lianna is playing at school during recess with her new friend, Katie. 

July Days

 Getting ready for the birthday party at Gramma and Grampa Olsen's house

 Aunt Kim came to celebrate Josiah's birthday with us too! :)

 Cousin Sophia and Lianna having fun

                                                            Yum!!!!

                                         Sweet Abraham playing with Lianna!

                               All the cousins hanging out...we missed seeing Kaylen though.....

                                                 Some meals require no shirts.... :)

                                                  1st Hair cut on Josiah's birthday

                                                                Alyssa's first haircut

                                                         Now it is Lianna's turn

 Sophia and Lianna hanging out at vacation Bible school at The Orchard in Barrington

Catching Up With the Olsen family...

 Josiah is our little love bug! He loves to give BIG kisses!

 Here we tried to take a quick picture of the family...we have been trying to get a new picture for a more recent prayer card...we are still working on getting a recent picture where everyone is looking at the camera.  At least here we were close! ;)

 Here is Alyssa playing with Izzi.  Izzi LOVED Alyssa! Alyssa could get her to laugh sooo hard! It was hilarious! Izzi is the daughter of Whitney and Clint Teders (granddaughter of Brad and Kari Mullet). Here is picture of the next generation of friends! :)

 We celebrated our cousin Delaney's first birthday (along with her big sister, Sammi and big brother Connor.) It was the first time we have ever been in the country for the Olsen side cousin's birthdays! It was a blast to celebrate with them!

 Josiah Richard Olsen was dedicated to the Lord at The Moody Church.  It was a very special day.  We are so grateful for our sweet Josiah.  He is such a gift, and continues to teach us to rely on the Lord.

 Here is a picture from Alyssa's hospital stay when she had her colonoscopy.   She was such a trooper.  We are so grateful that the Lord blessed us with good test results.  Praise God, Alyssa is still doing great and has been healed from her bacterial infection in her colon. 

 Here was the beginning of the tests when we had to put in the tube that went through her nose down into her stomach.  It pumped the liquid that she needed to flush out her system.  It was a long night, and couple days, but she was such a good patient. 

 This is a picture of Laura Decker.  She is raising support to be at ICSB serving as Lianna's special need's aide in the classroom, discipling students, and coaching.  She is SUPER excited to be at ICSB, and we are SUPER excited that she is coming! She is an answer to our prayers!  She is raising her support with ReachGlobal. To check out her blog and how you can support here click here www.laurainhungary.weebly.com

 I just had to post this little cutie! :)

Lastly, here is a cute snap shot from a family BBQ. The cousins had lots of fun running through the sprinkler.  Lianna stopped to get a quick hug and kiss from Papa Stienstra.