You Can Never Have Enough Baby Dedications

All the children and parents that were dedicated

Back in July Sidney was dedicated at our church in California, Bouquet Canyon Church. It was really special to do that with both of our families present and with our church there as well. Well a week ago Sidney was dedicated at our church here in Brno. Apparently they haven't had a dedication in 3 years because they didn't have enough babies. 2008 was the year for procreation though. About 7 babies were born this year, including Sidney. For some reason some people call Sid, James Bond (his middle name being James) and they all think it's hilarious. So he was introduced as "James Bond." They all laughed, including us so we didn't look stupid (any more stupid that is.) So anyways, we just wanted to share the pictures with you. It was a really special time. They gave us this wonderful Czech, Christian book and a flower. Most of the kids were girls, so Sid will have his pick of the litter.

Waiting for the night to begin.

Our friends Julie (American), her husband Marek (Czech) and their daughter Ruby. They are also missionaries in Brno.

Sid hanging out with Mirka, Jana, and Adam from church.

A New Home for Koda

So Koda has a new home on the balcony. We bought Koda a traveling cage so that he has a place to protective from the weather, but also so we can travel with him on a plane at some time.

We'd been looking for this type of cage for a long time, but hesitated to buy one because they are more than twice the price that you would pay for one in America (gulp). A few weeks ago Wes and I had a free afternoon without Sidney, so we decided to go to the mall for lunch and walk around. We found ourselves in the pet store and low and behold, they had these dog cages 50% off. Wow, we were so excited because this way it made the cages reasonable. Stick with the story here . . . there is a point! They didn't have the size we needed so we asked if we could order it. The lady told us that they actually had that one in the back. She brought it out, we even bought the wheels that went with the cage. We paid for it with a credit card and thought everything was great. When I went to sign the credit card receipt I saw that she charged me full price for the cage. I explained to them that the cage was on sale and showed them the advertisement. What was there response? "Oh well this is a different cage, the clipper 7 is the one on sale and we don't have it. You have to order it." Duh, that's why we asked if we could order that one.

Normally this wouldn't be a big deal. They just needed to refund our money and order us the proper cage . . . the problem was that refunds don't really happen in this country. None of the workers had ever done a refund, so they had to go find a manager. So instead of refunding our credit card, they gave us cash, which they had to scramble for since it was a bigger purchase. Isn't that the point of credit cards so that you don't have to deal with cash? It's just another one of those cultural things that make you go . . . what?!?! That makes no sense. But anyways, Koda has his cage and fortunately likes it a lot.

Fog, showers, and a preacher

The view from our balcony all day, every day for two weeks. Beautiful isn't it?!?!

I suppose it's time for an update for all our faithful readers. Our city has been quite ugly the last two weeks. We've seen only fog and clouds and today the sun made it's premier for practically the first time in October.

Our friends Marian and Sylva are due to have a baby girl in less than two weeks. One of the Sunday School classes from our church in PA put together a baby shower for them and put a personal note with each of the gifts. The shower was a complete surprise and they were completely overwhelmed by it all. In the Czech Republic, or probably anywhere else in the world for that matter, they don't do baby showers. As the night concluded and all the gifts were opened they told us they couldn't understand that type of generosity. It just doesn't exist in the country and they can't understand how people that don't even know them would do such a thing. It was a really wonderful thing and we're so grateful (as are they) for all our church did.

Sylva and Marian opening their BOXES of presents.

And finally, something I'm so proud of (as the wife) is that this past Sunday my very courageous husband preached in Czech for the first time. He did awesome and was so brave. I can't imagine doing anything like that.

So there it is, basically. Our little man is 5 months already and can scoot backwards. He gets so frustrated when he's in front of a toy and 2 minutes later he's at the other side of the room wondering how he got there. He's the greatest, happiest baby I've ever met and changes every day. Until next time we finally update . . . Michelle for us all

Such a stud preacher!

Sid and I FINALLY understanding every word of the sermon.

Only the cutest baby in the world

2 Years!

Happy Anniversary to us! Today we celebrated our 2 year anniversary of being in the Czech Republic. It's so hard to believe that we've been here fore two years already. God has blessed us beyond measure with relationships, our family, home, etc. We were reminiscing tonight about all that God has done in just two years. We can only look forward to the years to come and all that God has in store for us.

September Newsletter

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