It's a Girl!!

On Sunday, May 23 at 10.45 p.m. we welcomed into the world my newest grandchild, Mikayla Emilia Perez. She weighed in at 8 pounds, 1 ounce and measured 20 inches. It was my joy and privilege and blessing to be present throughout the birthing process - what an amazing experience! Marah and the baby are both well. Daniel is pleased as punch. Alejandro is proud to be a big brother to two little sisters and Eliana is fascinated with her new little sister. Grandma is burstin' buttons! :-))

Lady in Waiting

So here I am in Kamloops, BC, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, enjoying a warm Canadian spring with my daughter and her family as we await the arrival of grandbaby #3. But said grandchild seems to be in no hurry to make an appearance. In the meantime we are enjoying family time and getting to know Marah's friends and my grandchildren getting to know me.









Saturday was the day that had been identified as my daughter's due date. My son Josh came up to visit, hoping to be present for the "blessed event". Instead, on our way to pick him up at the bus station, Marah and I and the kids had a flat tire! I was very grateful, in fact, that she didn't go into labour at that particular moment! Marah's husband, Daniel was at work, so we waited by the side of the road for the nice man from Marah's church to come and help change the tire. (I am so grateful that she too has people that she can call for help when needed. She and I are both blessed that way.) Eventually we did get Joshua and it was so nice to have him around for the weekend. The kids had lots of fun playing with uncle Josh and this mother was grateful for even such a short visit with my favourite firstborn son. Saturday came and went and now it is Thursday. Still no baby. It's not easy to wait when you are expecting something of such incredible importance to happen any day. But waiting seems to be an integral part of life, doesn't it? We can either sit and do nothing while we wait, or we can carry on with life, preparations for "the event" and occupying our time with whatever the Lord has set before us to do.
I am blessed in that this waiting time is giving me a chance to spend time with my grandchildren, as well as my daughter and son-in-law. Just being part of their lives for a couple of weeks is pretty special. I'm washing lots of dishes, meeting many of their friends, getting to know the grand-darlings, and gaining a sense of what Marah's family's life consists of. On Sunday evening we had a lovely time at a backyard barbecue hosted by Dawn(lady with kids on back) and Stacey(lady with Alejandro in her lap). These young women are friends of Marah and Dan's who are also providing me with accommodation during my time here. I am not surprised to find that Marah has such wonderful friends, being a wonderful and encouraging friend herself.





Other friends at the barbecue were Marah and Dan's "twin" family, Randy and Jess, - another couple with whom they are close friends and with whom they are keeping up in child-producing. Randy is the guy socializing with Daniel over a chess board.


The little blond up in the tree with Alejandro is Noah, who is 6 months younger than him. His little sister is a month older than Eliana. And their third child is now 2 months old. In fact Jess is going to be Marah's 'doula' for the birth of this child, hopefully.
The difficult thing has been that everyone was battling colds for a few days, but thankfully now most of us - well, all except me - have recovered. Guess I don't have antibodies for Canadian germs any more!!
Another plus is that with my Canadian cell phone, I am able to text message friends and family in Canada. Especially, this means I am hearing occasionally from my favourite middle child, as he texts occasionally to inquire whether his new niece or nephew has arrived yet.
So here we sit, waiting and living in balmy Kamloops. When there is news, I will let you know. Or little miss drama queen Eliana will present to you her new baby brother/sister!

Catching up

When was the last time I told you about my life? Blame Facebook! I keep forgetting to blog because FB distracts me. Well, there are other distractions in my life as well! We have been so busy recently and I cannot tell you how happy I am that I have a few weeks vacation starting now. Tomorrow I will go to Canada to be there for the birth of my third grandchild! Can you imagine!! Awesome!!

It's lilac season and the lovely aroma of lilacs can be appreciated

everywhere. And it seems that there are enough lilacs for everyone to take a bouquet home!!! Besides lilacs, let me show you a few other things that have been happening in April and May here in Moldova.
So before I leave I just want to share some photos with you from recent weeks. Before too long it will be grandbaby photos I will be posting!!

For the whole month of April the Transit Team was with us, helping with various kinds of work wherever there was a need. They enjoyed working together with the Bus4Life ministry as this huge vehicle travelled from village to village bringing good literature and giving opportunity for children's programs to be run and elderly to have something interesting to do.
I was glad to be able to have them over for a meal to my place one evening.

As well as that team, I also had the opportunity to go to a village to visit one of our outreach teams with the missions training course. It was a beautiful day and they were working in a garden for an old woman, Sora Dunia. As they planted seeds in the ground, they were also planting spiritual seed of the gospel in the villages where they serve.

Sora Dunia was happy to share with me about her life and some of the problems she has had.






I met another very lovely and interesting sister in the Lord recently - sister Valentina. (see lady on left in photo) Valentina has made some slippers for us, for our little project. She is a cancer survivor who I think is still battling cancer. She had to rent her home in a village to come and live in Chisinau to obtain medical treatment. She and her daughter are living in a one-room "apartment" in a highrise where the lift is questionable. Their single room has no amenities and very little space. The only good thing about it was the view from 2 large windows out over the city.

One of the most noteable events recently was Vlad and Veronica's wedding on May Day. The bride was beautiful and it was a lovely day for a wedding.

There was all manner of Moldovan delicacies on the tables. Some are things we opt not to eat, if you can imagine that! But most was delicious and well-received. There were a lot of our team members there so it seemed like a real family affair.

I have to go and catch a plane now, so that's it for this post. Next one could be a birth announcement!!