What a mighty castle this was in its’ day!!  We saw a drawing of what it was way back then – it had a huge moat and drawbridge.  I kept envisioning the battles that must have taken place right here.

Psalm 18:2       The LORD [is] my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, [and] my high tower.

Psalm 71:3      Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou [art] my rock and my fortress.

I love these verses – I love knowing that God is MY fortress … As the verse says, I can CONTINUALLY resort in the strong refuge of God almighty.  How many people sought refuge within the castle walls of Rokvere?  There had to be a sense of security for the people that sought refuge here.   God is our refuge … if we allow Him to be.    We may not be fighting against swords and spears, nor flesh and blood, but we are wrestling against the darkness of this world, against  wickedness.  I feel the Enemy of Satan even today in my own journey of life.   I am just so thankful for the High Tower that we can run into and be safe.

Okay … onto lighter and brighter things … my family!  : )

Lots to do at this castle!  There were quite a few people dressed up to make it more festive and fun.

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This castle has BOYS written all of over it!  I mean, is there not a boy alive who doesn’t like knights and castles to explore and swords??

Okay … this castle has LITTLE BOYS and BIG BOYS written all over it!   Just a little sword fighting thing going on here.

I mean seriously, I think Bob had just as much fun as Samuel!  How fun!

My sweet family.  I am blessed!

Ahh … my strong prince.   Sophia finally gets to lead her brother around, so she announced.  : )  These two are so much alike in personality.  They both want to lead and Sophia just had to rub it in.

My little animal lover.   Sarah played on this horse for a very long time.  I can’t remember what she named him, but I am sure she will remind me tomorrow when she sees this picture.  Maybe some day she will get a real horse of her own.

So, my Sophie girl thought this was going to be like a petting zoo.  It was NOT!  This poor little goat.  Can you see the terrified look on this little goat’s face??

And yet some more tortured animals …

and some more ….

and yet even more unfortunate animals!!

Sarah is “making stew” over an open fire.  And this is when I told my family that I am so glad to be living in the day that we are living in.  I just cannot see myself cooking a meal over an open fire like this.   Do you ever feel like you make the same meals over and over again?  Well, back then, I would imagine that really would be the case!

Just had to add this one.  I love this man!  : )

Well, Sarah has changed her mind about being a vet.  Since she was just a wee little girl, she has wanted to be a vet.  But, that changed this week.  Now she wants to be a “zoo nursery worker and feed the baby animals”.  Yessssss – she is MY girl!  : )   If I could choose any job in the world, it would be working in the maternity ward, giving babies their first bath and handing the clean, wrapped babies to the mamas.   Sometimes I just look into the green eyes of my daughter, and I see myself through and through.

Sarah is “training Rosebud”.  She loves running with Rosebud and taking her leash off and teaching Rosebud to stay along side her.

Every morning at family devotions we pray together.  Sophie prays for her little friends Esther, Ashton and Diana and her Mamas and Papa.  Samuel prays for his Uncle Jesse, Uncle Tim and Uncle Stephen.   Sarah Grace prays for the little boys and girls that don’t have a mommy and daddy and for the ones that don’t have any food to eat.  There have been times she has prayed for the less fortunate with tears in her eyes and a shaky voice.   Sarah remembers the visits we made together in Brazil, bringing food to children that didn’t have anything to eat; delivering milk to homes where the babies were crying from hunger.   She remembers.    I pray every day that Sarah stays close to God every single day of her life and that this girl of mine will yield herself to whatever God has for her.

Ahhh, my sweet Sophie girl.   I just cannot get enough of this one!   Do you ever get overwhelmed in a good way with what you have?  The other day I was doing dishes and looking out the window at the clouds passing by and I heard Sophie on the couch, “reading” a book and I just got this overwhelming feeling.   Just as those clouds were passing by, so were those seconds passing by – I will never get those seconds, minutes, hours, etc. back.  I dried my hands, realizing that time passes by so quickly.   I plopped down on the couch next to Sophie and read to her.  I kissed her chubby cheeks and twirled my fingers around her pigtails.    I get so sentimental when I think about the time passing … the moments passing.   I just do not want to take for granted what God has given to me nor do I want to miss a moment savoring my children.

Well, Sophie and I made a blueberry pie together the other night as we had some wonderful guests visiting our home who work with the Billy/Franklin Graham Crusades.  (There was a great turnout here for the crusade last weekend – thousands of Estonians present with over 1,000 desisions. )

I thought I would share the recipe if anyone out there would like to make a blueberry pie soon.  It turned out pretty good although I am not sure if the picture looks very appetizing.

* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 5 tablespoons cornstarch
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 5 cups fresh blueberries
* 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
* 1 tablespoon butter
DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cinnamon, and sprinkle over blueberries.
3. Line pie dish with one pie crust. Pour berry mixture into the crust, and dot with butter. Cut remaining pastry into 1/2 – 3/4 inch wide strips, and make lattice top. Crimp and flute edges.
4. Bake pie on lower shelf of oven for about 50 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

And as I write all of this about my girls and they have been asleep now for a little while, my son is singing in his room next to me.   He is singing “Holy, Holy, Holy – He is Holy, Holy, Holy … I want to praise You …. I want to praise You”.  I am truly blessed.  I think I will go snuggle with him and read to him about snakes.   Life just doesn’t get much better than this!!

My handsome boy.   I have so enjoyed the weather warming up here and watching Samuel play outside with sticks and playing Ninja against an imaginary person.  He likes to set up plastic army men and dinosarus outside and have an all-out battle with them.   He has been training our puppy to do tricks.  Last night I laid down with him for a few minutes before he fell alseep and we read a book about weather and all of his questions were making me dizzy.  : )

Now, how in the world can I deny these eyes??  I am in the kitchen so much and when Sophia looks up at me with her dark brown eyes and says, “Mommy can I be your helper?” how can I possibly say no??  This girl has such a spunky personality and is eagar to please.   I am in love with this girl!!

My sweet, sweet Sarah.  My angel girl.  My daughter who states daily that she is “God’s Little Girl”.  She has been such a joy.   I just love snuggling with this precious girl at night … hearing her pray for our puppy and for her Mama and Papa.

I LOVE doing my girls hair!!   I have always had this motto: “No Bow, No Go!”.  Ever since these girly girls were born, they had bows and ribbons in their hair.  Last year we had a little incident with Sophia’s hair and a pair of scizzors … well, she ended up with bangs from ear to ear … it is finally growing out.

I just love this picture … the girls are best little friends.  Sometimes when they are whispering to each other, my husband will sneak up and pretend to be eavsdropping on them and it sends them running and giggling.

God bless you all!

On Saturday we went to a Churrascaria right here in Tallinn, Estonia!!   This is a Brazilian restaurant where the waiters go from table to table with grilled meat.  Well, this wasn’t exactly authentic – we didn’t get very much meat – but the atmosphere was so wonderful!!   We met about 15 Brazilians and spoke Portguese the whole evening.  There were about six guys who play soccer on the Estonian team.  It sure made us miss our Brazilian loved ones!!!  The culture here is exactly opposite of that in Brazil.  I miss the warmth of the Brazilian people.  I miss Saturday morning art class at our church – working on projects and chatting with the ladies.  I miss our ladies meetings.  I miss our church family coming to our home for dinner.  I miss the Brazilian culture that allows you to go to a friend’s house without an invitation ( and tea and cafe are set into instant motion ).  I miss the young people who had such a desire to serve the Lord.  I miss going over to our friends houses for hours at a time and them wondering why we couldn’t stay longer.   I miss taking my kids to a park and chatting for an hour or two with a stranger … walking away with a new acquaintance.     We would love to make a trip to Brazil next year.  The pastor of the church is doing a great job and we would love to see our beloved church people.  Our girls were born there and so techinically we have two Brazilian children ( and we have permanant visas!! ).

The waiter/cook’s name is Jorge.  He is from Sao Paulo.

Sophia enjoyed her linguica ( sausage ) and both her and Sarah devoured the authentic Brazilian black beans and rice.

So, Bob wore his Brazilian tee shirt which drew the Brazilians attention.  He speaks perfect Portuguese and Brazilians always ask him what part of Brazil he grew up in because he does not have an accent.  Me??  Not so much!!   ( They ask me what part of the USA I am from : ) )   I really enjoyed speaking Portuguese with a lady at this restaurant, though.

These are four of the guys that play on the Estonian soccer team.  They are doing pagode – making music with what ever they can find.  The guy on the end has rice inside of two plastic cups.  They couldn’t carry much of a tune but it was a lot of fun.  They kept motioning for our kids to come up front and do the somba for the crowd.  : )       So, for our Brazilian loved ones that read/look at this blog …  Joelma, Ysmine, Fernanda, Eunice, Katia, Bernice, Nivea, Alana and Bia  ( forgive me if I have missed anyone ) …   You are in my heart and my daily thoughts and prayers.   I love you all.   Bracos e Beijos.

I just never know what is going to come out of my kids’ mouths!  It makes me nervous sometimes.  Last night Samuel brought out his Go Fish card game.  He said to Huang very enthusiastically, “Mr. Huang you should know how to play this game!!!”    Mr. Huang replied, “Why is that?”   Samuel says pointing to the back of the card game box, “Because it says RIGHT HERE that this game was made in China!! “   Huang burst out laughing, thankfully not offended.   What a fun moment!

This is Lisa.  She is such a sweet Christian young lady.  Sophia just loves her!  She sits with Lisa just about every Sunday.

One of our favorite ladies at our church in Minnesota, Grandma Srader ( as my children lovingly call her ) sent the girls some jewlery-making kits.  So, I pulled them out last night and we had a lot of fun making necklaces and bracelets.

Lisa went home with a couple necklaces and bracelets the kids made for her.

Yesterday also happened to be Independence Day here in Estonia.  The tradition is that everyone eats split pea soup for lunch and these pasteries for dessert.  My husband and at least two of my kids hate split pea soup so I decided not to go with that Estonian tradition.  I went to the grocery store around lunch time and there were about 40 people in line to get these pasteries.  So, I got what I needed and by that time, the line was down to about 6 people and so I got my couple of boxes of these pasteries, too.    They look pretty but Bob and I were trying to figure out what makes these so special??  They’re just a bread-type pastery with a glob of whipped topping and powdered sugar on top.    The day is also know as National Sledding Day – like a big outdoor festival.   I thought it was so neat to see all the people sledding down hills and cross-country skiing on the sidewalks.  It was really fun!

My husband asked me if I could get any more sentimental??!!   Probably not!  I knelt beside her bed the night before her birthday and just watched her sleep – her last few moments of being 3.  I was remembering how 4 years ago how sick I was with preeclampsia in Brazil and although I was a month from my due date, I had this feeling she would be born soon.  I am just so glad God gave Bob and I this girl!!  : )

Caroline and Sarah.

Sophia got a musical jewlery box with some jewelry of her own.

Sophia loves butterflies.  A VERY homemade cake.  : )

Sarah’s poodle cupcake cake.  She loved it because it looks like Mama and Papa’s poodle, Fofa.

Sarah’s present – a puppy dog, of course!  She named it Buscuit.

Sweet sisters.  The outfits were bought by my good friend, Tatyana.

The guys being good sports!  Bob, Dan ( our visitor from the USA ) and Andrew.

The girls bedroom.  Sarah loves puppies so she has her little puppy corner and Sophia likes butterflies.

Samuel’s dinosaur room.

Samuel’s friend Chad.  He is the son of a missionary couple here.  I am so thankful Samuel has this little friend!

My Love.                                                                   Best buddies!

Best Friends.                                                                Sophia Faith – age 3.