The Time to start saying goodbye...again...

May is a season of saying goodbye. The girls I have been meeting with for the past 7 years are graduating. Wow...time flies. I was their 5th grade language arts teacher, and then started Bible study with them in 6th grade.  Here is an old photo from memory lane when they were in 8th grade. Next school year, some of the girls from the class of 2013 girls can be found at Biola, Kansas State/Manhattan Christian, Anderson, Bryan, Princeton, Moody, Cairn, and Taylor University! Tis the season for grad parties, tissues, and the "Szia later!" 

 Josiah showing us his peg board master piece! :)

 Last week, during our ICSB basketball tourney.  We were blessed to have Maike, here with us.  She is in 9th grade was visiting from Germany to practice her English.  She sat in on many classes throughout the week, and was a real joy in have in our home.  We miss you Maike!

 Josiah LOVES to smile for the camera! And his Mommy loves to take his picture!

 We are sooo blessed to see our girls play so well together. They love to do "school" activities!

Its not too late for a Christmas update, right?!? ;)

 Alyssa always likes to remind us that Laura is her friend too! She loves Laura...we all love Laura!

 Yes, I would say, that she is loved by the Olsen family...wouldn't you?!?!? :)

 Lianna was super excited for her first school Christmas concert.  She did a great job singing on stage!

 Our little man...he looks so innocent here, doesn't he? Hmm.....what did he just do?!? ;)

 Merry Christmas from the Olsen family! We had a GREAT Christmas focusing on Christ's birth, WHO He is, and WHY he came! This year we had a lot of fun putting the Jesse Tree ornaments on our tree after reading the Advent devotions.

 This Christmas Eve we celebrated with Miss Mandie Maher and her mom, Natalie.  We had a wonderful Christmas dinner together and enjoyed each others company. We had fun exchanging gifts!

 Opening gifts on Christmas morning. When my Oma and Papa came in October, they brought a suitcase filled with gifts from their aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, and cousins.  It was so special! They were so excited to get these gifts from their families when they were so far away from Chicago.

 Christmas Day we celebrated with the Mullet family.  They had all four of their kids here with their spouses/ fiance and even their sweet granddaughter.  We had so much fun laughing and making a few more memories before the left for the states just a few days after this. Sniff, sniff. The girls couldn't get enough of playing with Uncle Peter!

 It was hard to have to remind the kids that Brad Baci and Kari Neni were leaving on the plane to go to America.  At the end of the night, Alyssa told us that she knew that they were leaving, and then proceeded to put her head down and frown saying, "It's just that it's so sad."  Brad and Kari recruited us to the mission field in 2005.  They have been our big brother and big sister here in Hungary, and have walked with us through some dark days.  We praise God for their friendship and miss them greatly.  However, we are excited to see how God is at work in their lives and leading them to a new ministry. So, alas, living the life of transition...we often have to say goodbye or should I say, "szia" later!

 Josiah was enjoying having some Daddy time eating a sandwich on the bench during the alumni game.

It is hard to believe that here is Miriam with Josiah..she is now in 5th grade.  It doesn't seem like that long ago that she was just a bit bigger than Josiah running around.  Now she is one of the big kids! Wow...time flies! Thanks for lovin' on Josiah, Miriam! :)

LAtely...

 Papa Stienstra enjoying cuddle time with Josiah when they came to visit for 6 weeks this fall!

 Lianna working with her teacher on fine motor activities, playing the harp, at ICSB.

 Oma Stienstra came to school one day to be Lianna's aide in the classroom while Laura had to get her visa papers for living in Hungary.

 Enjoying the sights of Budapest with my mom. I really enjoyed having my parents here.

 Lianna being silly. :)

 Oma's friend came to visit us from Germany.  She brought presents for the girls..and Bjorn and me too!

 Lianna attacking Papa Stienstra telling him it is time to, "Wake Up!"

 Celebrating Thanksgiving with our ReachGlobal family in Hungary.

 My sweet little boy! Poor guy stuck in girl bibs...

 Celebrating Alyssa's 3rd birthday with friends!

 Alyssa SUPER excited to open her gifts! :)

 Enjoying the birthday party...

Happy birthday, Alyssa! We all love you! :)

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! :)