Fêtes, Famille, Farewell
Hi everyone, welcome. I’m glad you’re here.
After making it through January’s sicknesses, I was hoping for some rest in February. Thankfully we were all healthy (thank you Jesus!), however, it was an emotional month for me, ups and downs, holding the hands of both joy and grief at times. Take a walk with me.
We always love kicking off the month of February celebrating Papi Pierre!!!
Happy birthday Papi!
We said good-bye to Kisanet, who interned with us for a month. She and Daphné had a special friendship.
The joys of living next to the sea.
Django and Daphné.
The new sound and audio visual system has been such a blessing at church!
Bag man.
Tonio was gone for a week in Austria at a pastor’s conference, so we sent him this picture one morning to tell him we miss him and love him.
I finally made an appointment for Django to get his ears lowered.
Here is Tonio with some guys in Austria. They went for a run, and Tonio said it was pretty cold.
Our Robie went into the hospital while Tonio was in Austria, and his faithful wife Cricri was his ever-present companion, always by his side. Cancer is cruel. There’s just no other way to say it.
This was the night before Tonio was driving home from Austria. Bedtime routine in Mama and Papa’s bed. Oh boy!
Papi accompanied us to school almost every morning that Tonio was gone. I love this photo he took of us!
February = Carnaval. This is me getting dressed up to go help the parent association distribute snacks and drinks and candy to celebrate the last day of school before the winter break.
I just love my bud!
And this girl is such a treasure.
Django was invited to a friend’s house to play.
Since Rob was in a hospital in Nice, we saw Cricri more, which was a blessing. Here she is with Django and Nancy in the Sunday school classroom at church.
Lorena and Daphné love singing together. Their voices are so precious.
The local library put on a free magician workshop. The kids really enjoyed it.
Django and the weird carnival lady. This was the first thing you saw upon entering the grocery store…scary! Haha!
I don’t know if you remember, but I joined the gym in January. I’ve been going every week, and I love it. Here I am before a cardio class. The room lights didn’t work for some reason this morning, so it was like a super fun aerobic dance party. Haha!
Taking a little moment just for the two of us - post valentine’s day date.
Many of know I like organization. Since the kids had two weeks off school, I thought this would be the perfect time to create some order in their cute little shared bedroom. Here is a before picture. Daphné helped me remove all the books from the shelves and put them on the bed.
In process. The bookshelf moved into mine and Tonio’s room.
And drum roll please! Tonio ordered, picked up and assembled this massive beauty from IKEA (we love IKEA!).
Ta da!!! Now scroll back up 3 pictures to see the before shot again. Awwww. Isn’t it so much better now?!!! And what’s great is the kids can now find their toys easily AND put them away.
Daphné helps me make enchiladas. Mmmmm. So good.
Tonio watched the kids so I could go take a class at the gym. I choose the sea path. It does my soul good.
Ready to get my butt kicked. Working out has been really helping me stay more balanced mentally. I’m so thankful.
And this was the hardest day of February for me, my birthday, the 21st of Februray. It’s not because I’m sad to be getting older or that I miss my family in California. No, it was hard because Rob left his earthly body this day. In the early morning, he left his cancer, his sickness, his fatigue, his confusion, his pain behind… and he traded it all for peace.
I cried a lot. It’s hard to celebrate life on a day of death. I just felt strange. But after Rob committed his life to Jesus in the last days in the hospital, we believe he too celebrated life this day, eternal life with Jesus. It was hard at first, but I can now say that it is an honor to share this day with such a special man who loved us and our kids so well.
Nancy was working the Bible bookstore on my birthday, and Daphné begged me to let her help Mamie. Well folks, I introduce to you a young lady who is going to be a very hard worker in whatever field she chooses one day. She apparently rocked the bookstore and turns out to be quite the saleswoman.
Another trip to the gym, stopping to check in with the Lord and thank Him for His goodness in the midst of joy and grief.
Since the kids were still on vacation, we decided to visit the little local mini-zoo.
Huge turtles that are probably super old.
They look forward to this at the end of our zoo visits.
And the next day, we explored the castle hill park. It’s all redone and super fancy.
Helping little bro.
She is a climber.
The famous photo spot.
Oh man, these two.
Walking to church one morning. One day, he’ll be able to reach the peddles.
I have this friend who is just a treasure, and she sends me gifts in the mail. Thank you lovely. You know who you are. And I just love this super random family picture that transpired from me trying to take take a picture in my new shirt.
Every kid stage is my favorite, but I think I’ll really miss those cute rosy cheeks when he grows out of them.
We had our first home group for the month. I just love all the shoes by the door.
A couple people brought their kids, and Daphné was stoked!
Django tried playing with the big girls for a bit, but they were pretty rambunctious. I set him up with Paw Patrol and his headphones. We didn’t hear a peep from him. Haha!
Here’s our first home group : Tristan, Moïse, Claudine, Prudence, Blandine, Angélique, Shikata, Morgane, Tonio, Xavier, Michaël, Benoit, Marina and me. I love having people in our home, especially when it’s to worship Jesus and get to know Him better!
In the morning before this home group, we went to the crematorium for Rob. It was so hard. I love that God gives us the capability to hold sadness and joy at the same time. He is so amazing!
Thank you Lord that you know grief and sadness and pain and joy.
Love Linz