Up into the Mountains

Something that Mikayla requested as part of her time of closure for her time in the Philippines was a trip up into the Bugkalot mountains with some of her friends and her families. That was very meaningful to her, and Zach requested the same thing for his senior year. So on the first of the year 2020, we left bright and early for the mountains with some of his closest friends. A couple other parents joined us, and we had a great week of camping in our house in the clouds (which was in rough shape and needed a fair amount of repair when we arrived - so we wedged paper plates into the thatched roof :) ). The kids slept in hammocks, played lots of games, bouldered along the river, went cliff jumping, hiked up a stream, visited in the village, had devotions on the porch overlooking the valley (Zach led us), and of course had our traditional hot dog roast where the two rivers meet. Special memories to cherish!

Holidays and a Visitor

We had a very special visitor for the month of November - my mom! We absolutely loved having her with us to just enjoy "normal life". She was also here for Thanksgiving, which was a huge blessing. At our Thanksgiving celebration, the oldest and youngest kids - Zach and Zoe - did the wishbone thing. Zach felt pretty bad when he "won". :) So thankful for that time with my mom.

 

 Something we especially enjoyed while my mom was here was getting to watch the boys play rugby together (see post here) and they also were in the play Diary of Anne Frank. They played the Nazis who came in at the end. Tough role for them (one little girl screamed and ran away from Zach when she saw him in the hall afterwards - out of costume!), but they did a great job with it. And it was so cool that my mom got to be here for it.

We had a fun family Christmas with my sister and her family, including a white elephant gift exchange with gag gifts and good gifts. Here's one of the cousins with some of the gag gifts.

 It was our first Christmas without Mikayla at home, so that was hard, but we are once again so thankful that she has family in the States. Meanwhile, we tried to do our regular traditions - like sleeping under the tree on Christmas eve - and have a good last Christmas before Zach flies the coop too. We went light on gifts because our main gift to the boys was a planned trip to watch a rugby sevens tournament in Singapore with friends. That ended up getting canceled due to the pandemic, so that is sad, but we still had a nice family Christmas remembering the Reason for the season. 

The day after Christmas, we left for a conference up in the mountains. Steve was speaking at the conference at a seminary, and the boys and I went along for the family time. We had a relaxing couple of days, and the boys got to ride horses while we were there.

The People We Love

We truly love the tribal people in the Philippines. Such beautiful people with such a deep need for the Good News. It is such an amazing privilege to serve them and partner with them. 

Rugby

We as a family have fallen in love with the sport of rugby. Both Zach and Ben had amazing seasons this year. They served as captains of their teams (Ben for JV and Zach for Varsity), and Ben also played as a sub on varsity. They led their teams well and were both so much fun to watch on the pitch! Ben tackled a new position this year as a forward, and his defense was phenomenal. Zach shone in the fly half position, and his powerful running scored many tries for the team. Varsity took gold in their division (first time ever!), and JV took 3rd in that same division (amazing showing for them too!). Steve and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them both play. The team will graduate 5 seniors, but there a whole pile of sophomores with Ben who are coming up through the ranks.