Roberts' Ramblin's

Just some random pics...

2007-04-03T15:18:00.000+09:00

We wanted to share some pics of the kids, just to help brighten your day...
Kaylee is obviously related to Elton John in some form or fashion.

Ethan takes his sunglasses very seriously.

I don't really need to make any comment at all about this picture.

It's always fun to have a present big enough to hide behind.

New Beginnings

2007-04-01T12:19:00.000+09:00

Well, we are here. We are all finally in our new home in Alamogordo, NM. After a 3 week separation, the family is all together again and we are settling in to our new home. It is a beautiful house that was built back in 2004, so by military standards it is brand new.

The kids love the new place and the new climate! They each have their own room.

This is our new van...it is a Toyota Sienna. Rachel loves it!

This is Josh's truck. Even though it is a Chevy, it's still pretty cool.

The Im Jai House

2007-02-14T09:11:00.000+09:00

Here is the Im Jai House. We got to do and see a lot of other things while in Thailand but this one of the main reasons we went. There are about twelve kids living in each of these houses. Each house has house parents. Some of the house fathers are pastors and some of the staff have been through seminary. Christian teaching, living, and growth are a big part of life at Im Jai. They have devotions each night in each of the houses.
The Im Jai kids are fun and full of life. We had so much fun with them. Most of them remembered Josh being there twice in 2005 and so I was a celebrity when they found out I was his wife.
They sang for us when we fist got there and some of the girls danced for us before we left. They are taught music along with art, computer, and sports there on a regular basis. It was neat to see the talent of these kids.
Jay and Toon were both attached to Josh both times he was there. They were immediately attached to me when I showed them his picture. They both wanted to me to be sure to tell Josh hi for them.
This is Oi. She is the secretary in the office. She also helps with the kids after they get home from school each day. She has a son of her own that lives with her at Im Jai. She and her husband are separated because she is a Christian and he is not. Being a Christian isn't a real popular thing in Thailand. Pray for Oi when you think about it. It is not easy for her to raise he son and have so many other responsibilities at the same time. We had an English camp for the staff for three days that we were there. She was one of the staff members that I worked on English with. It was fun to get to know the staff. Oi really became a good friend while we were there and I was sad to have to leave so soon.

Huay Numrin Children's Hostel

2007-02-14T08:44:00.000+09:00

Huay Numrin offers village families a way to help their children get schooling past grade 6 and while living in a Christian camp environment. In the above picture I am with two older girls that hung around me the whole morning that we spent visiting there. We didn't do to much at Huay Numrin. We did take a bunch of soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and powder to them. We mostly just spoke English with them. (Thai people love to get to practice and learn English. Everyone learns in school but have few opportunities to get to speak it.) We also got to tour there hostel. It was amazing how poor they were but the joy that they had. I don't know if any women that went on the trip will ever complain about their situation while thinking about the children of Huay Numrin.
There are 67 children there and about 10 of them are orphans. The rest have the freedom to go home during school breaks. Most of them cannot though because their families live very far away and they are too poor to be able to afford to travel back and forth.
This is the group of them and us. We had such a good time with them. They were located up in the mountains a little and it was so beautiful up there.
This was right as we were getting ready to leave. We would have all loved more time to stay longer but that was the day that we went bowling with the Im Jai kids and staff and we had to leave to go do that.

The Team

2007-02-13T23:29:00.000+09:00

It was so great to be able to go to Thailand with some of my best girl friends. The picture above is Jen Oshman and I. She is one of my closest friends and mentor. Her family lives right across the yard from us. Her two daughters are some of Kaylee and Ethan's best friends.
This one is Michelle and I. I didn't know Michelle too well before the trip. If you want to get to know someone, go on a trip with them. We had so much fun!!!!
Here is Michelle and I again. The girl in the middle is Amanda. She is one of my best friends. I have the privilege of mentoring Amanda. She is also dating one of Josh's best friends. She is like part of our family.
There were thirteen girls in all and not one fight between any of them. It was a great trip and there were many friendships built or strengthened. It was so neat to be able to be part of this team.

Chiang Mai

2007-02-13T22:51:00.000+09:00

Here are just a few pictures of Chiang Mai, the city that we were in. Thailand was great. I can't wait to go back.
The night market was right outside our hotel and they set it up every night. You could find so many neat things and it was so cheap. It was great!
This little girl was dancing at the Sunday night market. It was a lot bigger than the walking market that was right outside our hotel. The Sunday night market was interesting. There was so much to see but our legs gave out way before we could see it all.
There were Buddhist monks everywhere. There were even a group of them staying in our hotel. This picture was taken at a flower festival that we went to the day we left Thailand.

SOME CUTE PICTURES FROM TODAY

2007-01-25T21:18:00.000+09:00

PLAYING AT THE PARK

2007-01-25T20:56:00.000+09:00

It was a beautiful day today so we took advantage of it and spent part of our afternoon at the park.

Even Toby had fun.

The only thing that would have made it more fun is if dad had been there to play too.

Kaylee and Ethan love playing together. Kaylee is getting pretty good at keeping up with her big brother.
This park is about a three minute wagon ride from our house.

Isn't She Cute...

2007-01-20T21:25:00.000+09:00

Kaylee gets up from her naps before Ethan does and she is always so happy in the afternoons so I have taken advantage of this and gotten some really cute pictures.

Here she is with her first ponytail. Her hair is so fine that I had a hard time trying to make one before.

Missing Daddy

2007-01-19T13:05:00.000+09:00

We are tring our best to keep our happy faces on even with Daddy gone to Texas. It is not as much fun around here without Daddy.

Kaylee was happy to take a picture for Daddy.

Keep warm Daddy. We love you!!!!

Some hard news...

2007-01-07T14:42:00.000+09:00

This is very difficult to write, but I feel that I must write it. We learned yesterday that we lost the baby. Rachel has been in Thailand for the past week and experienced some complications that led her to go to the emergency room. While at the hospital, the doctor checked for the heartbeat that had been there and it was no longer there. He said that probably the baby passed on about a week ago.
This is hard news...there really is no easy way of saying it. There is never an easy way to face that circumstance, but Rachel and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is in control and that His will is perfect. It is tempting to allow the enemy a foothold into our life and mind and listen to his lies and accusations, but who are we to question God? I think that God understands and honors the gnawing pain that we feel, and yet He is God...His plan is for our good, not our harm. We can do nothing but trust that He is in control, as cliche as that can sometimes sound, and marvel and revel in His comfort. And He has comforted us...Rachel has been surrounded by ladies that love her and care deeply for her and can connect with her in ways that even I cannot. I was allowed the privelege of leading worship at a Calvary Chapel here on Okinawa of about 200 people, and even while singing I felt the hand of God strengthening and comforting me. How great is our God! How marvelous are His works! Blessed be His name...He gives and takes away, and yet forever we will choose to say Blessed Be HIS Name, that glorious, perfect, awesome name.
I ask your prayers for Rachel and I as we heal and grieve. May God's Glory and Renown be spread across this earth, and the mission be accomplished for which we were left on this planet of suffering and hardship, to see the name of Christ be praised by every tribe, tongue and nation. To Him be the glory, forever and ever, amen.

We miss You Mom!

2007-01-05T13:10:00.000+09:00

HURRY Home and Stay Safe! (and take care of that little one!)

Just The 3 of US

2007-01-05T12:37:00.000+09:00

Well, Rachel is in Thailand now, and there is just Ethan, Kaylee and I to fend for ourselves. We took a trip to Comprehensive Park today, a massive public park here on Okinawa that provides jogging trails, bike rentals, playgrounds, wide open grassy fields and a lazy river packed full of Coy fish. These pig-like fish are so disgusting...they will jump out of the water on top of each other just to get a tiny piece of bread, and they are pretty big fish! The kids obviously love it, so we went and the "fissss" today. It was awesome. We were also priveleged to have a group of pigeons decide to hang with us, so the kids fed them too.

Ethan feeding the "fiss" and "budzz"

Kaylee and her pals

Ethan and Snowflake the pigeon...

Disgusting pig-fish

What????

2006-12-19T11:51:00.000+09:00

Christmas time

2006-12-16T12:51:00.000+09:00

So it is Christmas time yet again. I can hardly believe that a year has flown by so quickly, but believe it or not, it has. This year has been full of changes, surprises, hardships, joys, laughter, tears and all of the other emotions that we consider part of the day to day life experience. This Christmas is bittersweet for us as it will our last in Okinawa, Japan. We have come to think of this little island as home, and our Church body here has become our family. We are excited at the prospect of moving, a little nervous even, but we know that God will take care of us no matter where we go. Our little family is growing and changing, especially the kids and we thank God for His constant hand of Grace and Love that has provided us with such special little blessings.

2006-12-03T09:40:00.000+09:00

Sometimes you can just get a picture that doesn't need much explanation...Kaylee is a happy little girl who likes flowers and snails.

Ethan never stops smiling for more than a few seconds...he loves aewwpwanes, cows and foo-ball

He has such a great personality...we marvel sometimes at how sweet he is. So many singles have told us that Ethan makes them want to have kids...we take that as a HUGE compliment.

Kaylee is just a little jokester...her favorite thing to do is perform, whether in front of Mommy and Daddy or in front of 100 people. She is a little angel. Her favorite thing to do is dance with Daddy, whether to Pachabel, Jars of Clay or Farmer in the Dell.

Is This A Toy???

2006-11-28T21:46:00.000+09:00

We were putting the toys away in the kids room tonight and I saw that Ethan had put a gecko in the barn. It looked so cute until I realized that we don't own a toy gecko. I got the camera to take some pictures and Ethan saw the little gecko and was excited to have a new toy. He started calling him Mac and opening and closing the barn door. I told him to be careful not to hurt Mac. I guess I should have told him that Mac was real. When he poked Mac and Mac ran off it scared Ethan half to death. Goodbye Mac.

Fake Fall is Here

2006-11-07T12:42:00.000+09:00

It would be nice if these leaves were real but we will take what we can get. At least they weren't too hot in their long sleeved shirts. We are happy to have some cooler weather.

Happy Fall everyone.

Our Friends Zoe and Abby

2006-11-07T11:07:00.000+09:00

Here is Kaylee with her best friend Abby. Abby is two weeks and a day older than Kaylee.

Ethan likes Abby too. They thought that they were pretty funny peeking out of the house at each other.

Here is one of all four of the friends playing together. There is nothing that Kaylee and Ethan like better than playing outside especially with Zoe and Abby.

They are all so cute. They love that wagon. Ethan and Kaylee love to go for a wagon ride. Now that it is not so hot we go for a walk with the wagon most afternoons.

Ethan and Zoe

2006-11-07T10:47:00.000+09:00

Zoe is Ethan's best friend. She lives about 100 feet from us too. It is great. The yard that this picture was taken in is what separates our house from hers. Zoe is about nine months older than Ethan. Her parents are Mark and Jen who happen to be some of our best friends as well. We consider them family. Zoe is Abby's older sister.

Everyone needs a friend like Zoe.

All clean

2006-09-26T14:50:00.000+09:00

Isn't she cute!

And he is so handsome.

I was going to put a bath picture on here too but I wasn't happy with how any of them turned out. They were all a little to revealing.

So happy together

2006-09-26T14:39:00.000+09:00

These two are so much fun. They just love to have fun with each other and to laugh at how funny they are.

Best Friends

2006-09-12T18:17:00.000+09:00

These two love to play together. Kaylee is walking now and I think that a lot of the motivation behind it is to keep up with her brother.

Ethan

2006-09-12T18:05:00.000+09:00

Ethan is a busy boy and it is hard to get him to slow down enough to get a picture of him. I did manage to get a few that I really liked.

Kaylee

2006-09-12T17:49:00.000+09:00

I just thought I would share some pictures that I took this evening when we were out playing. It has been nice the last two evenings to be outside and not get too hot.

.

Kaylee loves to play outside

One of her favorite things to do is to swing.

The Day Kaylee Started Her Journey "Up the Hill"

2006-09-03T12:07:00.000+09:00

September 1st...the Big Day. Kaylee turned one year old, and we decided to celebrate with a party. Our house designed to accomodate 10 people max was filled with about 30 people, all standing around crowded and hot to help us celebrate the life of our daughter. As we remember the health concers that Kaylee has had, we are thankful to the Lord for this year that we have been given to enjoy her. She has continued to improve in her condition, and we cannot thank the Lord enough for that!

Kaylee truly was the little belle!

She really liked her cupcakes!

Kaylee got some really nice presents from her friends. Here she is happy to receive a stuffed bear. She likes to sleep with her stuffed animals, so she appreciated that one. She also got some dolls, books and new clothes. Thanks to all the grandma's who sent her some special things.

The Kids

2006-08-22T17:36:00.000+09:00

The top picture of Ethan was taken at a friends birthday party. He loves those bouncy play things. Kaylee has been standing on her own for a while now. She isn't quite ready to try taking steps without holding on to mom or dad though. I thought that it looked like she took this bottom picture herself.

4th of July

2006-07-09T21:36:00.000+09:00

For the 4th of July this year, we were able to celebrate with our Harbor Family. We had a huge B-B-Q, a bouncy castle for the kids, a swimming pool for the kids to cool off in, a game called Bocci Ball, great music and lots of people. It is always such a great outreach time for the local community. Afterwards, we were able to enjoy an awesome fireworks show courtesy of Kadena Air Base. Kaylee was dressed in her finest, and got to wear a ribbon in her hair for the first time. She looked so cute. She was definitely the belle of the ball.

One part of the festivities that Ethan particularly enjoyed was the food. He just couldn't keep his fingers out of the cupcakes. He gets pretty serious when it comes to his eating as you can see!

Here is a picture of the group together. This Body of Christ that gathers at the Harbor has been such an encouragment to us. They really have become our "family" away from family. Please pray for the ministry here as it continues to reach out to the US Military stationed here on Okinawa.

Try number two

2006-06-27T18:11:00.000+09:00

After trying to do something with our last blog, I somehow managed to mess up the whole thing, so here is another try at it. We will post weekly pictures on here and it'll give us some space to talk about the pics as well. I will make a link to it from our website at www.joshandrachelroberts.com as well.