Our Little Thumb Sucker

Here she is, at her 26 week ultrasound. She was just sucking her little thumb the whole time. When the doc went in to get a close up of her face she covered her head with her arm (she has done that at the last 2 ultrasounds), so we think she is either sleepy, or a bit dramatic (wonder where she got that from).

Winter in Germany

Thanksgiving evening it began to snow and it didn't really stop until the Monday after. In total it dropped about 8 inches. You can see our little town of Mettweiler covered in snow. Isn't it cute?

On Monday it snowed so much we ended up being snowed in. The plows couldn't get to our town because of construction so Dave stayed home from work and worked on this little snow fort. He finally knocked it down yesterday because this crazy German grandmother didn't like it. Long story!

We went on a walk while it was snowing which was fun, and here we are in TONS of snow.

Strasbourg Christmas Market

Every Christmas in Germany and other parts of Europe the towns and cities open up little markets where you can go and purchase little trinkets, ornaments, etc. for presents. Every town and village in Germany has at least one day before Christmas for their market. Some larger cities have their markets open everyday from Thanksgiving until Christmas.

One of the big markets in the area is in Strasbourg, France which is about a 2 hour drive from us. Strasbourg is a wonderful city and we thought it would be fun to visit their market this year. Saturday we piled into the Cubby Mobile and a couple other cars and 11 of us headed down to Strasbourg.

As you can see from the picture they have little stands all over the main square of the city, in this case, right under the main cathedral. Christmas market food varies from region to region, but in Strasbourg they had crepes, waffles, pretzels, and gluwein (basically similar to spiced apple cider only with wine).

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving this year with 12 adults, 2 children and 4 babies. Dave cooked the turkey and we made a few misc. items while everyone brought something to pass. We had food coming out of our ears. Of the adults 7 were women whose husbands are now deployed. During the meal Dave made a rule that everytime someone said "like" they had to name something they were thankful for. Let me tell you, we had one VERY thankful meal! After we had finished eating we pushed our chairs back and sat around talking and playing an exciting game of Bop-It. TO name our desserts alone you can imagine what we had for dinner- pumpkin pie, carmel apple pie, pumpkin frosted cake, chocolate cookies, ice cream, chocolate cheese cake and banana frosted cake. We hardly touched the desserts, but the ladies were nice enough to leave some of them for Dave.

We were certainly thankful to the Lord for many things this year, especially for our large house that enabled us to comfortably feed a large group of people. We are thankful that we were able to serve the ladies in this special way. All of them repeatedly thanked us for opening up our home making it possible for them to celebrate with friends.

Picture: Sara and baby Ellie trying to figure out Bop It.

Saying Goodbye to 2BCT

If you had asked me in April 2004 what 2BCT was I wouldn't have had the slightest idea. But now as we say goodbye to our good friends, fellow believers, brothers and sisters in Christ who serve our nation and fight for the freedom of others with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, it is more than just an unknown acronym. 2BCT represents more than 4,000 soldiers who will soon be leaving Baumholder. A small cross-section includes 4 men from our community group, Chaplains who preached and taught us the truth of the gospel, fellow dentists, husbands of co-workers, and many, many friends.
The fact that your new friends embody sacrificial friends who will place their life on the line for the well-being of the oppressed in Iraq and the unoppressed in the United States sobers quickly. The community group men I have grown to love, respect and confide in are going to engage bullets, explosives and pain for my sake. Sounds much like Christ to me. I encourage you to thank every soldier you meet in everyday life, especially at your local international airports.


The above photo is that of a 75mm cannon just as the blank round explodes from it containment. It's often difficult to describe sound, but imagine yourself very near the fireworks on the fourth of July. Many of you love the small white balls that are entirely for sound excitement as I do, now take that explosion and that is what is going on here. What you do not know can be a detriment to you, because in this instance the cannons are not firing for celebration but firing for the sole purpose of saluting fallen soldiers from Baumholder. Every five seconds these cannons went off totalling 18 cannon blasts, each person Killed In Action within the past year.

Just as these men and women passed and have been remembered so the smoke from the rounds fired hangs over the heads of each of the deploying soldiers. None of them is safe. None of them have not considered the nearness of death. None of them will return the same. You have to know that God has interceded on your behalf. The smoke still looms but the Son still shines through giving us hope beyond our life. I think the heaviest things in our lives are what shape us most.

Pictured above: Jim and Kristen Hannigan (standing), Rich and Jan Phillips, Grant and Jessica Flynn, Jon (with baby Ellie) and Sara (sitting below) Adams, Karie Costin (with baby Ben), and Dave and Ami.