European Birthday Celebration

**As a side note, we are back in the US now!  I fell behind on blogging last week, so I will spend this week with a wrap up of our last few days in Europe.**

Isabella's birthday was a little different this year being in a different country/continent.  But there were plenty of people around to give her birthday greetings!

First, at midnight Brussels time, sweet Kirk & Anna came to our door to sing Happy Birthday!

At breakfast, there was candy & candles for her.

There was more singing & chocolate given at the beginning of our last training day.  The afternoon was hard & full of tears as she said goodbye to dear friends.  

We then boarded a train to London!

Once we finally arrived at our hotel, we walked to a local restaurant for dinner.

It was a good, long day full of many emotions.

There's A Teenager in our Family!

There is a teenager in our family now!  February 5, 2014.....Isabella's 13th birthday.

We are so thankful for her life & especially for this last month with her in Belgium.  We leave Belgium today so we started celebrations last night here.

At our final farewell dinner, Isabella got a few gifts.  She got a candy bar from the pastor of our Persian church.  Then she got 2 gifts from Bruce & Susan, our mentors.  

She got a bank & a frame with our family picture in it.

We love Bruce & Susan so much, & the girls love them a lot too.  They have spent the entire month here with us.  I'll have more pictures of them & from our farewell dinner later.

And these are pictures of the first birthday card she received this year.  It was a thoughtful gift from our Iranian friend.  He gave Isabella this card on Sunday.

Happy Birthday Isabella!

We love you!

Paris

Our schedule has been busy for the month, so we were glad to get our first full week day off last week.  We were given Friday off, so we headed to Paris for the weekend.  Some others of our group also went to Paris, and some went to Amsterdam, Brugge, London, & Luxemborg. Everyone traveled somewhere different!

Here is our photo story of Paris........( I know it is picture overload.  I deleted some, but wanted to get this all in one post).

This is our fast train we took direct from Brussels South station to Paris.  The train took 1 hour 22 minutes & went so fast.  I was actually a little dizzy just by how fast we were traveling!

Our hotel

It was great for us to experience a European hotel.  When we arrived, the lady looked up our name in a book!  No computer!  And no elevator either. The beds were all right next to one another.

There is so much history here in Paris.  I wish I knew the stories behind these buildings!

This is a sample of what it looks like walking down the streets.  Beautiful.  I have many more if you want to see them :) 

I spy....the Eiffel Tower!  This was our first view.  Do you see it peaking out behind the trees?

And there it is!

We couldn't believe we were there.  This picture almost doesn't look real to me!  The sky was just beautiful though.

From the first overlook of the Eiffel Tower

Arc De Triomphe

Leah traveled with our family to Paris & shared a room with us.  It was fun having one other daughter for the weekend!

We had lots of bread.  Good thing we walked the city!

The Louvre

Isabella, Brook, & Leah in front of the Mona Lisa

One of the ornate ceilings of the Louvre

Eiffel tower at night

Leah took this picture of Avery & I reading our maps of Paris in the hotel room!

Notre Dame

We saw it by day & night.  Our hotel was only a 5 minute walk to this.

Inside Notre Dame

famous stained glass window

Isabella, Leah, & Brook

getting our pastries!

a cute little Parisian girl!

The Elswick family

We met this family back in March & have attended all of our training events with them.  They live across from the hall from us here & will be moving to Nicaragua.  It was so fun to run into them on the streets of Paris with smiles & these cute sweatshirts!

French onion soup

This is apparently how you say my name in French (according to Starbucks anyway!).

I was so cold I had to get some hot chocolate.

This is a group picture on our train from Brussels back to Zaventem at 10:45pm Saturday night.  It was so fun to meet up with everyone again!  We had only been apart 2 days, but missed each other & was loving hearing about everyone's adventures.  Some of this group had been to Paris, some to Amsterdam, & some to London.

Tonight is our last night here....bittersweet.

Thanks for praying

Thank you for praying for our requests last week.

Our friends back home, had a very God honoring service for their son's funeral last week.  Continue to pray for Kevin & Lee.

Thank you for praying for our dinner with our Iranian friend.  We were honored & blessed to be with him.  Hearing his story is incredible.  He asked Avery to write in his bible.  The girls & I signed it too.  This is his bible written in Farsi.  He said we are his best American friends & he is our best Iranian friend :).  We will miss our friend. Sunday we will say goodbye until we spend eternity together.  This night was the highlight of our month here.

Our friend gave me permission to post this picture.  Here is Avery signing his bible.

It was memorable too.  My debit card was stolen, or possibly lost.  Either way, it didn't make it back on the train with us that night, nor did it leave the restaurant.  Avery & our friend both helped to recover it, but no luck.  We all ended up in the police station of the train trying to call the US. Things are a little harder being out of your home country!  But all is well now & we were safe.

I put some pictures on our www.bogotabridges.com blog last week, but here are a few more from our language training & some life pictures around our home here.

Avery working on vocal sounds with his group.  We were all given mirrors to look at our mouth & learn to make new sounds.

Our mentors Bruce & Susan giving us a demonstration of learning small conversation skills.

Avery with our language helper

Isabella working on some Spanish with our language helper

Brook, Nicolette, Isabella

Bethany & Brook

John & Avery on dishes duty

We all rotate & wash all the dishes during the week.  This was their night on duty & they always have fun together!

Leah & Isabella with matching sunglasses.

I am going to miss these ladies! 

I'll be posting lots of pictures this week as we finish our time here.  Where did it go?  It went by so fast.