Day 169 / 28 To Go: Juneau & Nova's idea of a perfect day

Posted by: Cris

Juneau and Nova had been waiting all week for today - they knew they were going to get up and get ready to go and spend the whole day with Aunt Beth and Melody. So, after rushing around to get everything packed up and out the door by 8:00 (actually on the road at 8:06 - not too bad), we were on our way. I dropped the girls for their day of fun and headed off to work. Aunt Beth did a great job of documented the day for me and my camera didn't take a single picture all day. The girls were in a muscial mood this morning. Nothing better than vanilla wafers at snack time... They talked Aunt Beth into this after she suggested something more healthy - an apple. They informed her that they had already eaten an apple for breakfast on their way in the truck (which was true so they weren't totally conning her). Tim commented on how funny it is that they all SCREAM everytime they see each other - after Tim brought Melody home from school, the real craziness began. A little ballet... Nova loves to sit down and just read a book by herself Let the Wild Rumpus Start!! Time to make brownies!! Juneau tested them out tonight and gave them her seal of approval!! When I went upstairs to Melody's room (which looked like a tornado had torn through it), even though they had been at Melody's house for approximately 12 hours, Nova was NOT ready to leave. She wanted SOOOO badly to stay and play some more but because she hadn't actually had a nap, she was SOOOO tired that having to leave nearly caused a complete meltdown. They were both asleep before I even got onto the Likelike and started up over the mountain. But, I think spending the ENTIRE day with Melody and Aunt Beth (and Uncle Tim...don't forget him) probably qualifies to my girls as a perfect day.

Keep Emilie in your prayers as we move into the final days. You will likely read in the news today about a suicide bomber attack at a base in Jalalabad where a bomber who was actually wearing an Afghani National Army uniform was able to get right up to the front gate and detonate his vest killing 4 Afghani soldiers and 5 other foreign troops. This was NOT Emilie's base but a nearby base that appears to be more of a NATO/International troop base. I just talked to Emilie a few minutes ago and they did have 15 wounded from this attack end up at their base and she had just finished stabilizing a guy not too long ago. She is definitely ready to get out of there ASAP. Also, as time winds down, other little things start to happen like they turn off their internet and are trying to make her move out of her room into a big tent with 60 people and a cot. So, that is making our communication which has been super easy and consistent up until now start to become a little more difficult.

But, on the bright side, she is scheduled to be on an airplane out of there 2 weeks from Sunday. Then the commute back to the U.S. could still be a bit of a hassle so prayers for a safe and smooth trip would be appreciated as well.

The long awaited arrival of Grandma Saccenti comes tomorrow night...there will probably be some days in the next 2 weeks that qualify as pretty close to perfect as well for the Stickley girls.