Update For those of you that haven't already given up on finding some news on my blog - here's a short update: We still haven't found a home that we can move into on Dec.8th. So keep up the prayers! After looking and looking for another rental and praying and praying, Rich felt strongly from God that we should pursue buying a certain home. If you don't receive our newsletters and would like to hear more details, let me know and I'll send you our recent newsletter. Anyways, yesterday we went to look at the house with the kids during an "Open Home" and happened to meet the owners (normally that doesn't happen during an "Open Home"). We found out that they actually go to our church!!! Interesting - - - The whole family loves the house - it seems perfect for all of our needs. We are now trying to work out how we could finance this purchase. Humanly speaking it is completely impossible - but with God, nothing is impossible. So we are pursuing this and praying hard! In the meantime, we are starting to pack - in the midst of very busy lives... Fascinating! I am so grateful that - after my initial grieving and sadness - I am walking in JOY and PEACE in this whole uncertain situation! Quite the supernatural work of God!!! As soon as we have some news I'll write more. Until then, we would appreciate your ongoing prayers! We need them!!! THANK YOU!!!

Picking flowers no more I may be just about to fall off the blogging-wagon. Just letting you know not to worry if you don't hear from me much in the next little while. Due to our life being turned upside down once again with an impeding move to who knows where - it's back to survival mode. Already without the move there was so much going on. We have a visitor arriving from Tahiti tomorrow after church (still got to get things ready). Next Sunday, Rich will be picking up friends from Germany in Auckland, a family of 5, that will spend the next 6 months or so in NZ. They are taking refuge here, since they are getting in trouble with the law in Germany for home schooling their oldest daughter who has some special learning challenges. It's a crazy - and long - story, but we've been helping them get ready and set up with a van, caravan and all the contents etc etc etc... The following week we were going to host a Thanksgiving dinner (cancelling that, sadly, it's just too much, since the German family will most likely still be with us) and then Nathalie's birthday. The next day (in 2 weeks), Rich is supposed to fly to Fiji again for 1-2 weeks - oh yea, can't forget Jeremie's rowing regatta the day before Nati's birthday (we all have to go and watch him - a whole long day event at a lake a bit over an hour from here - he'll have those about every other week-end from now til the end of March and training almost every day TWICE! - we get to drive him every time!!!) Then, we are having a family from Tahiti stay with us for Christmas plus a few days - - - and we were going to be involved in overseeing and planning (and helping run) the childrens program for a very significant camp in January http://www.malachi-4-6.com - we are not sure if we can still do this now - - - praying about it. Yes, life has once again become crazy - and I am going through some grief - dying to certain things I was hoping to be able to do which will have to be put on the back burner once again - like starting to work on the children's photo albums and putting some thought and effort into our family Christmas - this hasn't been possible in quite a few years now - back to bare bones. Lord, help us! Thanks for your prayers. I will write once we will have found our new home - until then - you know we're still looking :)

The Bomb I just came back from a meeting and will be heading off to bed shortly. I've just GOT TO tell you our BIG NEWS of the day: Ready? Ready or not - - - here we go: we will have to move again soon!!! We received the news today in a letter from the agency. At first it sent chills up and down my body (literally!). But not for long :) How good God is! He had already been preparing Rich and I. Although this is a fantastic house, we have never felt like it was "ours". As a matter of fact, we've never really felt that about any of the 16 homes we've rented - always had this feeling of a temporary home. But with this one, we were just recently talking that even if we could buy this home, we wouldn't want to. Not really any other reason but a feeling. Yesterday, for the first time since we moved in here 5 months ago, I looked out at our beautiful garden and thought to myself: "I have a feeling we'll be moving again from here soon." I didn't quite expect it to be soooo soon! But I'm sure glad the Lord prepared my heart!!! The owners had told us that they would for sure not be coming back for 1 year. And they really seemed to want to stay in the US and not come back at all. BUT - there goes the big "but" again - they are needing to return to NZ because of unforseen medical reasons. Normally, they only need to give us 42 days notice. We are glad that they are giving us a little more than that. We have to leave on January 15th. So we've got 2 months to find something else and move in. We are now praying to see if we should look for another rental or for something to buy. We would really like to buy a home at some point. Is the time now??? We don't know. All we know is that we have to find out very soon - either way. Rich is disappointed that a lot of the vegies he's been planting we will not be able to enjoy eating:) Bummer! Nathalie doesn't want to move, the other kids don't really mind. Wouldn't it be so nice if God led us to the right place without us having to spend endless hours looking around?! That is so tiring and time consuming - and our schedules are already packed as it is... The good thing is that all we need to give is 2 weeks notice. So if we find something we could move in within 2 weeks. We'd REALLY appreciate your prayers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That we would know if we should look for a rental or believe God for our own home. AND - that the right home would open up!

Now, guess who gets to pick gorgeous flowers like those from their garden??? You guessed it!! Aren't we ever soooo blessed?!!

Paper-war We're in the paper-war again these days, like we say in Germany when we have to deal with lots of paper work. First, it was our taxes. Then we filled out HEAPS of papers for the renewal of our 2-year visas. Then we found out, or rather, remembered from last time, that the visas are very costly when you have them stamped into a German passport. If you use an American passport, they are free - go figure... Since 2 of our children's american passports have expired and the 2 other ones will not be valid until the end of the 2-year period (which they need to be), we need to get new passports for them. So, after having New Zealand passport photos taken for their visas, we had to go back and have new photos taken for their american passports (oh yes, they are different!) Now I better get filling out those papers before evening church service so that we're ready to leave tomorrow morning early to Auckland. The whole family HAS TO show up!!! Quite a hassle, having to take the kids out of school and using Rich's day off - plus it costs tons of money. But we've got to do it. It's better paying the $$ for getting the passports than for the visas, since we need the passports anyways, sooner or later.

No more nap?! What do you get when you try to get your 3-year-old to go from taking a nap and staying up til 9:00pm and later to no nap and going to sleep at 7:00pm? A miserable afternoon - - - or, like today:

This is common for some children, especially in Tahiti, NOT for Kylie. I don't think she's ever gone to sleep like that on the floor. I guess all the playing at the church nursery and then with our guests took it out of her :)

Cultural differences We are still struck by all the little cultural differences we're learning. Take, for instance, the drink MILO. I don't know if people in the US even drink it. Definitely not in Germany. In Tahiti, however - AND New Zealand - it is a favorite drink for people who don't want to drink coffee or tea. They way it is prepared, however, is quite different. Tahiti: take a bowl, put 2 heaping tablespoons of Milo powder (a bit like chocolate), 2 heaping tablespoons of sugar, 2-3 heaping tablespoons of milk powder (enough to make the equivalent of one bowl of milk) and then add hot water and mix it all. New Zealand: take a cup, put 1 teaspoon of Milo, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of fresh milk and fill up with water. When we ask our New Zealand friends if it doesn't taste too watery, they say, "No, we just don't want to use too much milk, because it is expensive." Now to us, milk in New Zealand is quite cheap at NZ$1.25/litre! In Tahiti, we never even bought fresh milk because it was over NZ$3/litre. And the milk powder wasn't much cheaper. Now what can we learn from the simple example how people make Milo ? In Tahiti, food is VERY IMPORTANT!!! There's got to be loads of it and it's got to be rich. In New Zealand, food isn't that big of a deal and most New Zealanders are quite frugal - not just when it comes to food. It is so fascinating!!! We are also still having to get used to the fact that when New Zealanders come to your house for a meal, they hardly ever stay more than a couple of hours. In Tahiti, people wouldn't leave for HOURS. I guess Kiwis don't want to impose, which is fine sometimes (like today, when I am tired), but sometimes we just miss the hanging out for hours, the laughter and fun over food. One more advantage of guests leaving soon: I get to write on the blog :) Actually, friends that used to live in Singapore told us, if you have guests over there, they rarely stay longer than 20 minutes and they spend most of that time on their cell phone. Good thing God didn't send us there! What a culture shock that would have been:)!

Embarassing... Kylie is quite the little talker - getting more and more vocal. She's been a bit behind in her speaking, since she is learning 3 languages at the same time, but she's sure catching up. Her strongest language is English, since that's our family language and - hey - we live in New Zeland :). I speak German with her one week and French the next, but when I am in public, I mostly revert to English - especially when we're with other kids, which is most mornings. She understands both of those languages but speaks them only when I prompt her - otherwise she responds in English. The other day, we were at a store waiting at the counter. A young Indian girl was next to us with her father and she started talking to him in some Indian language. Immediately, Kylie tried to imitate exactly what she'd said - to my embarrassment (they heard it loud and clear!) - it sounded pretty much like she was saying blablabla - and mocking it. I know she didn't mean to mock her, she just figured there was another language to learn :) Then today I was back with her in the same store and she pointed out to one of the people working there (also quite loud and clear): "He's lugly". Now - knowing her - I knew she meant to say ugly. Good thing her speech is not that perfected yet. I was able to say: "Oh, yes he's lucky!" (of course, he heard the whole thing.) She repeated "He's lugly" a couple more times, realizing I didn't get what she was really trying to say. And I repeated my line. I don't know what I would have said had she actually said that he was ugly. She's never done this before and I don't think any of our other kids have. HELP! Any advice out there - besides using this as a teachable moment and telling her afterwards that we do not want to say things like that about people...??? Who knows what's going to come out of her mouth next?

Family and Guests Today, we were delighted to have the visit of Hinrich and Katrina Kranzlin, the YWAM-leaders for the Pacific region, with one of their sons. We relish the rare times we get to catch up with them, since we have quite a few things in common, not the least being that we are all German(Katrina is half-German, half-English). When they arrived, Kylie - social and hospitable as always - showed Katrina the loo (she needed to use it). For Kylie, Katrina was a perfect stranger. Katrina told us later - Kylie not only showed her the loo but made sure to get inside it with her - just to make sure she's alright - she was intending to staying there with her :) When Katrina gently pointed out to her that she should wait outside, she did just that - until Katrina came out - which took quite a while, also since she wrote down the "Quote of the Week" that is in our toilet as an inspiration. After that, she proceeded to show her the whole house (which we don't normally do for all our guests :)) Then she showed her the garden and sat on her lap for the rest of the time - our social little girl! Just before leaving, Hinrich grabbed the German flag that is next to our front door (along with flags of all the countries we've lived in) and started singing the German national anthem - I joined in - it was fun! You should have seen Kylie's face - she hadn't heard that since the Soccer World Cup and was just beaming! I've been a bit concerned about Jeremie eating so little since he started rowing and working out so much. Rich pointed out to me that the protein bars I gave him on his very strenous days, were actually hunger suppressants .... o oh... I better look better what I'm buying next time :) Rich's comment to Jeremie: "You are doing exercice for the two of us - AND - I am eating for the two of us - - - " Joke of the day at the Betts-house :)