We have Great prizes for the winners! We have stationary to write Tara letters on, colorful pens to write her colorful letters, birthday, Halloween, & Christmas cards to send her when she is gone. As well as the Grand Prize of......books of stamps to use to send her letters!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Where in the World is Tara Going?
We have Great prizes for the winners! We have stationary to write Tara letters on, colorful pens to write her colorful letters, birthday, Halloween, & Christmas cards to send her when she is gone. As well as the Grand Prize of......books of stamps to use to send her letters!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Welcome Home Jordan!
Here is Jordan in front of her favorite garden!
Every time we have gone to Paris, it has either been for work or with our kids as tourists. This was our first time to just get to mosey around the city, sit in the gardens and have absolutely nothing to do or see. It was so fun.
This is where you exit on the Bastille metro stop. It is where Jordan lived. If you turned the camera around her apartment is right behind us.
Sitting on the Seine!
We were able to visit all of Jordan's favorite gardens!
Jordan saying good-bye to her companion! She had trained Sister Smith so it was like watching them cut the umbilical cord.
Then we rented the smallest car ever and drove up to Normandy.
Along the way we stopped and had lunch in this town called Rouen. Whenever I have watched Beauty and the Beast, I always thought it was weird that Belle was in France because it just did not seem like the France I knew. But after going to Rouen, I know where Belle lived. I kept expecting a little baker to step out of his shop and say, "Bon Jour!"
I don't know if you will remember in Jordan's letters when she talked about getting pooped on by pigeons EVERYDAY walking under a bridge on her way to the church. Well funny thing is, she forgot to mention it was a 1,000 year old bridge that was the entrance to William the Conqueror's Chateau. I think when you live in places like this, you forget that us Americans think stuff like that is totally cool! I think she should have felt honored to be pooped on by those pigeons.
After we left the cemetery, we went and visited more of the beaches. Here is Brad in a crater made from a bomb hitting the ground. The entire area for miles was just like swiss cheese with these craters.
And the highlight of the trip was going to visit with Marie Laure and her kids in Caen. This a lady that Jordan and her companion started talking to on a bus one day. Marie Laure told the girls that she thought they "glowed" when she saw them and wanted to visit with them. Marie Laure was baptized this past spring. Here is Brad looking at a picture book of Jesus with Gabrielle.
Here is Jordan with Rapael, Marie Laure and Gabrielle. It was amazing to watch Jordan and this little family sit on the floor together and chat like they had been best friends forever. Even though Brad and I couldn't understand a word that was said, it was easy to see how much Jordan loved this family and how much they had meant to her and vice versa. Marie Laure asked me how could I have ever let Jordan go out on a mission and leave us for a year and a half. After sitting in this little family room and watching them all together, I had an easy answer. I told her that I could let her go for a year and a half, so that she could come and help families like hers find the gospel so they could be together forever too!