So Nice to be in the Neighborhood...

UPDATE: I wrote this blog weeks ago but never posted it, thanks to our deluge of family challenges (hehe... our literal deluge, read previous posts, and then chicken pox for Sam and flu for Abe). Today is Sam's first birthday. I have lots of catch up to do in honor of our birthday boy, so stay tuned for more posts this week. Now, back to happyland memories...

Sam is having another monster nap today (Sunday)... day three of recovery from family vacation. We went to Bali for some family time (yes, it's so nice to be in the neighborhood) and to attend a parenting conference for overseas workers, led by Tedd & Margie Tripp (you might have heard of Tedd's book, Shepherding Your Child's Heart). The conference went well. It was nice to have some time away from the crazy life we live to get a glimpse of God's great plans for our kids (and our part in that plan as their parents). Probably most inspiring for us were Tedd's exhortations to "hold our for our children the wonder and beauty of God" through the daily rhythm of mealtimes, correction, play and worship. As Psalm 145 describes, "One generation will commend your works to another."
The trip began with a bumpy start... we had our first baggage casualty of all our years traveling as a family. Mark was unwittingly relieved of his backpack, containing our camera, Bibles, and some other precious possessions (like our prayer journals and my Ipod Touch). Thankfully, we had left our laptops behind, another first for our family. The rest of the week went splendidly and I found myself often thinking "OK, I'm taking another picture with my head" since we had no camera to catalog the moments.
The conference was held at Sanur Beach, in South Bali. Our balcony window afforded great views of kite surfers airborne above the ocean waves. Abe loved filling his play dump truck with sand, and Sam enjoyed its crunch in his mouth, despite our best efforts to keep it off his blanket. Our last morning in Sanur, we rented a glass bottom boat and Abe added a few new words to his vocabulary... "koal" (coral), "dawfish" (starfish) and "seeweet."
We moved north to the rice paddies of Ubud for our family time, and for the price of a single bed at Motel 6, were blessed with a beautiful garden view room and a pool nearby (so mom and dad could relax by the pool during nap times). There was an elephant park nearby, and Abe got to meet his first baby elephant, the first elephant born in Bali (elephants are native to Sumatra, another island in Indonesia, where this baby's parents had been rescued). We had some great family walks among the rice paddies and some good eats... Chipotle enchiladas that made me feel right at home. Thank you, Lord, you meet our needs, above and beyond!
I'll cherish those memories of sitting on the porch, gazing at the ferns climbing up the scattered palms, serenely reading a book, just for fun.