To add to the homesick note: please pray for the boys when you think about it. This is really the first time we have had this problem. For Jesse, it's off and on (more off than on....), but for Jamin, he is quite homesick for the states. Everything the boys know about the states is based on our furlough experiences. They don't remember living there much, especially not Jesse, seeing that he was 3 when we moved from Texas. Furlough for them is always a time to see old friends, have camp fires at MeeMaw's house, go swimming at Grandma's, spend time with cousins, eat lots of really good food at our favorite restaurants, and then of course, Disneyworld. Those are fond memories, and they are missing those.
It's really hard knowing that we don't belong in the States (for now), but then we don't really belong here in the Philippines. I'm not saying that God doesn't want us here anymore, I'm just saying as Americans, this is not our home country. We are here temporarily until God is through with us. And it is extremely hard for kids, at times, to find where they DO belong. Missionary kids are considered 'third culture kids'. Sorry, I'm rambling. Anyways, please pray that they will find contentment in being here for now. Our furlough is not scheduled until next Sept, and they are having a hard time knowing that it's still over a year away. I keep telling them that it will fly by fast.
All that to say, haha, we are having to keep them busy. Below are just a few things we have done recently....ok, so like this week for example....haha!
It seems like most posts have our boys swimming in a pool, but it's just how life goes;) I'm so glad that they swim like fish, and enjoy water. And especially that they love for their picture to be taken.
We pulled out the ol' Bingo game, and even took the challenge of 4-6 cards each. I know, you are saying "ewwww, ahhhhh, ohhhhh"!!! We were playing for candy!! Their Grandpa and Grandma Bruce sent about 20 or so packs of Certs (their favorite) from the states. They are constantly asking, ok, let me restate that....begging for me to give them some, so we put them up as a prize for winning Bingo rounds. Jesse looks real enthusiastic, but he really did enjoy it, if nothing else for the prize!
We have also pulled out the sidewalk chalk. This is something that is not rarely seen in the Philippines, or at least not in our neighborhood. When we started to write on the ground, we got many a stare from all the neighborhood kids. For a long time, they wouldn't even come near us to see what it was that we were really doing.....those crazy American Murphy boys...what are they up to now?? I'm sure that is what they were thinking, haha! But our boys were having a nice therapy session, as you can see with the love notes to their Grandma and MeeMaw!
This was an 'I love you' for Grandma Bruce from Jesse, but he never did finish the 'Grandma' part. Some of these pictures I messed with, to make the neon chalk stand out, and just because I was bored the afternoon I was editing these:)
Here is Jamin writing a note for MeeMaw Murphy, and Jesse with his silly head in the way;)
I know this one looks weird, but I thought it almost looked like someone had drawn Jesse in chalk on the ground. Ok, maybe not. But he did help his Momma color in the letters in his name.
Jamin is our artist in the group. Here are all of his chalkings....in case you can't tell what everything is, there is a mountain with sunset, a bowl of fruit, and banana (split), a dinosaur and a J-Rox, and some other stuff I can't remember what he drew. We have since then rinsed it off the road, so I have forgotten.
Can you tell Jamin is missing the states in this picture? :)
In the previous post, I had mentioned about a team from MS coming to Cebu. With them came a bunch of goodies from my Mom. She really gets into holidays, and since the boys missed being in the States during Easter, she sent them Easter Eggs for us to hide for them. We decided to take one of the rainy/windy typhoon days this last week to hide them in the house. They had help with Peter (who didn't have school because of the typhoon). Peter is their Korean friend that they have known for several years here in our subdivision, and is the same age as Jesse.
Anyways, the boys really enjoyed running around downstairs, (partially destroying it) to find these little plastic camouflaged eggs. My mom had even put prizes and Pokemon trivia questions inside as well, along with a bunch of "unnecessary" confetti.....thanks Mom...haha! I would put video on the blog of the hunt, but everyone has seen an Easter Egg hunt (though ours was in June), and it's too long to load, sorry!
Jamin showing off his booty.....I mean his treasures inside the egg: pirate eye cover.
It's amazing how cheap little plastic tops and yo-yo's can easily entertain our kids. They spent hours with Peter having "top" wars. See all those pretty colored pieces of paper on the table. Those were all over the floor, too:) haha! Probably can't tell in the windows, but it was pretty nasty outside. Oh yeah, and during all this, we were having a brown out, so that is why the boys were looking pretty sweaty through this whole egg hunt, besides the fact that they had been running around a good bit.
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