Christmas Shopping for Little Billy's SIDS Support

Just a quick request for those of you who shop online for Christmas presents. (And if you don't shop online, maybe you could this year to help out a wonderful cause.) If you do your shopping through GiveBackAmerica.org, you can select a charity of your choice to receive a portion of what you spent. This benefit comes at no extra cost to you. Many of the biggest online retailers participate, like Wal-Mart, Amazon, Target, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Expedia, and many more. Clothing stores like Gap, Old Navy, Motherhood Maternity, and Land's End are there too.

This Christmas, please consider shopping through GiveBackAmerica.org and choose Little Billy's SIDS Support as your charity. Each retailer gives a different percentage of your purchase to Little Billy's SIDS Support, and every little bit counts.

Cheryl sent an email just last week telling about a sweet family in D/FW who lost their daughter to SIDS the day after littlebilly.org was launched. Cheryl and Bill were able to visit with that family and offer hope and comfort to them as they grieve. They would like to be able to support these families financially, as well.

So if you are going to shop from these stores anyway, why not take ONE teensy extra step and go through GiveBackAmerica.org? To see the list of retailers or to shop, click here.

Thanksgiving

Ok, I'm a day late on this post! Sorry - but we had to WORK on THANKSGIVING at the AMERICAN International School! We didn't even get to leave a little early, though it was a half-day for students and staff development for teachers, so that was pretty nice. Luke didn't have school on Thanksgiving, but Leni forgot and took him over there anyway! Oh well, at least they got out of the house for a while.

Luke came home Wednesday with his Indian feather hat, singing this cute little song his teacher taught him:



Last night we had our life group families over for a Thanksgiving pot-luck. We had just the right amount of delicious food! The kids played together so well, and the grown-ups had lots of time to talk and get to know one another. I think it was a great thing for our group.

I have to brag a little on Luke. In all my years of babysitting and watching kids, I have never seen a child so willingly share his toys the way Luke did last night. Keep in mind we don't have friends with little kids, so he pretty much gets his toys all to himself all the time. He rarely has to share anything with another child, so I was a little worried about how he would handle having six other children in the house playing with all his things. We talked briefly beforehand about sharing, but maybe for only a minute or so. Not ONCE did he complain or worry about the kids playing with his things. I was, frankly, surprised, and very proud!

Here's Gabe playing in the Mustang (which was a BIG hit with ALL the boys!)

Naomi, Paige, and Micah playing with the school house:

Luke and Janaea playing pirate ship on his bed:And here's sweet Landon with his daddy:

I think Janaea is Luke's favorite friend. When I asked him what he was thankful for today, he said, "Janaea. She's my good friend." I am so thankful he has kids to play with!

Today we're having Thanksgiving with the Simons. We had a FABULOSO breakfast this morning that Noel and Rachella made. Biscuits, eggs, SAUSAGE gravy, BACON, all goodness. Pork is not readily available here, so that was the first bacon and sausage I've had since August. YUM.

This afternoon we're having real Thanksgiving dinner with all the right stuff...except I think we forgot cranberry sauce. :( That's one of my favorite things, but at least I can get some at Christmas.

I found a recipe for school cafeteria rolls on the internet and tried that this year. They are not as tall and pretty as cafeteria rolls, though, and I'm not sure where I went wrong (the pan, my oven, the recipe). They taste and look more like the cafeteria spoon bread at North Ridge.

Here they are before baking:


The best part about these rolls is that I used some of the dough and turned them into cinnamon rolls. DELICIOUS (Thanks, Anne Marie!). Jason nearly ate the whole pan of them before I had to get him to stop!

I'll take pictures later today and add pictures of our obscenely large feast for five people. :) Happy Thanksgiving!

Plans

"I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Here are our short- and long-term plans, for those who are curious:

Tonight: watch TV, go to bed early. :)

This week: survive till Thursday night, when our life group from church is coming over for a pot-luck at our house. (What was I thinking? I am the only working (outside the home) woman in the group and I volunteered my house?)

Thanksgiving: We are celebrating Thanksgiving on Friday with the Simons. It's an all-day program. Breakfast at their house, dinner at ours. We've divvied up the food and we're all excited to gorge ourselves! We have a TWENTY POUND turkey. Jason can't wait to cook it. I can't wait to use the pecans I got for my birthday (and have been hoarding in the freezer) to make delicious pecan pie!! We already have a lineup of movies to watch as we laze around on the couches after dinner. Yipee! I love turkey day! The only thing that would improve it would be FAMILY and FOOTBALL.

Week off in December: We have the week of the 7th-13th off in December. We had plans to travel, but have decided to stay in Cairo instead. Luke has asked to go to the pyramids again, so we will probably do that. We may do some other Cairo things we haven't done yet, too.

Christmas: We will only be home for ten days. We're going to try to make it to all our traditional Christmas activities, but then I plan to be really devoted to family time. I want to see everyone I can, but the reality is that those ten days are going to go way too fast, and I want my family to spend as much time with Luke as they want to during that time. I hope our friends will understand if we don't get to see everyone. You all mean so much to us, and we appreciate those of you who read and keep up with us through this blog, our facebook pages, and email. We hope you won't be disappointed if we miss you this trip.

January: There is a job fair for international teachers in Bangkok. We plan to go to that and see what jobs are out there. We are not sure yet that it is time for us to leave Egypt, nor are we sure we should stay another year. We are trying to do our part to follow God's leading. We're keeping our options open and having faith that we will know what the right choice will be when the time comes. We will keep you posted on what happens as it happens.

So, as you can see, the next few months hold lots of exciting and wonderful plans for us. Please pray with us that God will show us His plan, and that we will be ready to jump on board and be a part of it.

Reflection

Ten Not-so-nice Truths about me: (this started as FIVE but there are too many)

1. I bite my fingernails.
2. I twist my hair even though my Daddy has been telling me to stop for years.
3. I am very selfish and think of myself first before others.
4. I judge others too harshly and myself not enough. I am very black and white and have little compassion.
   
5. I forget to pray a lot. When I pray, I forget to listen and spend most of the time telling God what I want.
6. I would rather be by myself with a book than with people most of the time.
7. I have zero self-control where chocolate and cookie dough are concerned.
8. I am lazy about keeping in touch with people, even people I care about deeply.
9. I deal daily with depression, take medicine for it (most of the time), and cycle through periods when I think I can "do it myself" without the medicine, even though I know I can't.
10. Every single month I hope we will miraculously get pregnant without needing infertility treatments, and every single month there is a part of me that is disappointed that we haven't.

Ten Nicer Truths About Me: (These were harder to come up with than those above.)

1. I am a good mom. I love Luke and thank God for him every single day, and I try to take nothing for granted.
2. I am still Jason's best friend, and he is still mine.
3. I make really good desserts (homemade peach cobbler, apple crisp, cookies, chocolate butter roll...yum! I am getting hungry now!) and Very Delicious Pizza!
4. I am still a good teacher. (Yes, I did fear I'd lost my touch.) Last week for parent/teacher conferences, I had one mom whose little girl gave her WRITTEN instructions on how to get to my room and informed her that she MUST go meet the art teacher because art is her favorite class!
5. I love my friends with all my heart. I am not always good at corresponding, but I have a best friend from every season of my life and am thankful for each one.
6. I am a good daughter. Even though my parents aren't happy about us living so far away from home, I still live each day with the thought that I want to make them proud. I remember who I am, Daddy.
7. I am creative.
8. I am not too old to be goofy and silly and dance crazy. Hopefully I will never grow out of it.
   
9. I am a good judge of character.*
10. When God looks at me, he doesn't see those ten not-so-nice things (and the hundreds more I did not share). He sees my belief in Him and credits it to me as righteousness. Not because of anything I have done, or because of who I am, or because of what I say or write. But because I believe in Jesus.
    

Galatians 3:5-6 (from The Message) Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don't these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.

I am so flawed. So not perfect, no matter how hard I try to appear to be. But I believe God. I believe He loves me, He sent Jesus to redeem me, He continues to forgive me, to teach me, discipline me, and draw me nearer to Him. I pray for a life that is right with God.



*one exception duly noted

Great Weekend

This weekend was good. The weather in Cairo has turned cooler. Not cold yet, but cool enough to wear jeans and not sweat. The days, when they are not polluted, are beautiful right now. Here's how we spent our weekend:

Our life group from church meets Thursday nights, so that's how we started off. Leni went with us. I was hoping that she might find a friend in the Filipina lady who keeps the kids at the Bible study, but I am not sure how that is working out... Anyway, she went and stayed with Luke and the other kids while we went and had our study. There are four couples, all very nice, all American, and we meet on the roof of their building. (For now - soon it will be too cold.) We're starting a four-week study called The Abundant Marriage.

Friday morning I got up with Luke. We had an extended movie-watching time together. (He watched, I dozed. He's waking up at 6:30 nowadays. Ugh!) Then we all got dressed and went to the 11:15 service at church. The youth pastor preached, and he is a very gifted teacher. After church, we decided to head to Kimo Market and have some sandwiches made. We took the sandwiches, some drinks, and a big bag of Doritos (a treat) to the ballpark and had a picnic while we watched the AIS girls' softball team play. Luke got to play on the playground, Jason and I got to catch up with some friends, and I enjoyed being outside, feeling comfortable, and enjoying the beautiful day. By the way, Meg - those Doritos were the best ones I've had since the bag we had on New Year's Eve 2000!!

We spent the evening together at home. Then today I had my ladies' Bible study, which I enjoy so much. I have only discovered as an adult how wonderful it is to have GIRL friends - I've always had more guy friends -- but now I think they're indispensible! This group of girls is so caring, fun, and genuine. I only wish we'd all gotten together and started this group LAST year. But God's timing is perfect, and I am thankful to have them now.

This afternoon the family just hung around the house. I got my first two scrapbook pages made that I've made in at least a month and a half--maybe longer. I think I like them... maybe I will get around to taking pictures of them and posting them sooner or later.

Luke and Jason had all kinds of fun together this weekend. They had their weekly father/son breakfast of eggs and toast. Then they built an "awesome track," which is what we call a track we make using all his train track pieces. It's the greatest one ever made in the Deutsch house to date. They also built a tent and played cars inside. They danced to music together. And before bed, Jason has started saying The Lord's Prayer with Luke. Jason is so wonderful with him.

Luke informed us however that I am his best friend, and Daddy is his "wrestling friend." I do have to admit that I coach him a little bit on the best friend thing... :)

I made a horrible dinner tonight of chicken foldovers - puff pastry with chicken, mushroom soup, peas and carrots inside. Except in Cairo I can't get mushroom soup for less than $4 a can (so I refuse to buy it) and I couldn't find puff pastry, so I made do with a Phyllo dough type product. The carton told me to put it on an UNGREASED baking pan. I will never follow that direction on any recipe again! I have layer upon layer of caked on dough in my pan. Oh well, Jason redeemed the night for us. After my frustration with the chicken, he asked, "What can I do to make you happy?" Initially I said "just eat your dinner." After further thought, I said, "Make me some snickerdoodles." He's never made them before, but he is quite a pro at peanut butter cookies. So I printed out a recipe and they were the BEST snickerdoodles EVER. I could've eaten 40 of them but very heroically stopped myself after 5 or 6!!

So that was it... later I will write more about LAST weekend, when I got to go away to the Red Sea with the ladies from my Bible study, but I am waiting for some super-cute pictures from one of my friends to go with that post.

TTFN!

What a Wonderful World

An early birthday present for Mimi - some of Luke's best singing.





Yes, that was "bright blessed day, and dark separate night."


And this one is, "Someone's spraying, Lord, in my eye."

That's what you get when you leave a 3-year old to learn "Kumbaya" by listening to it on a CD!

Little Billy's SIDS Support

One year ago today, William Thomas Darnell, Jr. was born to two of my best friends, Bill and Cheryl Darnell. He was a healthy, beautiful, joyful little boy, loved so much by his parents and big sister Avery. On March 29, Little Billy died of SIDS. This loss has been devastating to Bill and Cheryl and all who know and love them. However, God is good. In the process of healing, God has led the Darnells to begin a nonprofit organization, Little Billy's SIDS Support, to help other families who experience the tragic loss of a child due to SIDS. Their website is up and running today, and they're beginning a 149 day campaign to raise $1.49 million. Will you take a few minutes to go to littlebilly.org and read their stories? Please consider giving, too, as we approach the holiday season and you choose charities to support. And, please continue to pray for the Darnells today on Billy's birthday and in the days ahead.