But most of all . . . Jesus loves you

We've been having fun with Noel Piper's book as we put Ethan to bed. All our kids get into it, and when we had Kim's parents together with my parents, the whole family got into it.

The message of the book is very simple . . . as a mother puts her children to bed, she goes through each member of the family telling the kids that, "Mommy loves you. Daddy loves you . . . "

And at the end, "But most of all, JESUS LOVES YOU!"

Ethan loves hearing each person say, "I love you!" Then with anticipation, he crinkles his nose and squints his eyes as we all say, "But most of all . . . Jesus loves you!" And then he follows with, "keesus."

Travling and Storying

October and November were months filled with traveling and sharing about Indonesia. Kim and I loved telling the story of Jokotole. He is a hero from the Madurese folk stories of East Java. In the story we tell, he marries the blind princess of the Majapahit Kingdom, and then she miraculously gains her sight.

Civil War History

This year, since we're in the US for at least half of the school year, we've been studying US history with the kids. Before we left Minnesota, Steve Ruud showed us what it would be like to be a Union soldier in the Civil War.

Little known fact about the Civil War: the city of Anoka, where we lived for the summer, sent the first volunteers to the Union Army. The governor of Minnesota happened to be in Washington, D.C. when Fort Sumter was fired on. He offered a regiment to the War Department, sent telegram to officials who happened to be meeting in Anoka when they received it. As they announced it, several men stepped forward to become the first volunteers.