Matthews Family Herald

(Clicking on any of these photos will give you much larger, and more importantly, much clearer views of them. The photos look MUCH better once you click on them.)

Rachel went to North Carolina to get married a little while back. She and her new husband are doing very well. They are decorating their new place for fall and getting settled into life together. One of the things that touched me most was when Rachel told me what she's really been enjoying is just getting to know her husband more. That was such a sweet thing to hold so dear and it means a lot to me. Well, she and her husband recently sent our family a care package filled with gifts for everyone. This dress for Eden was in it and doesn't she looks so cute in it?! I had to laugh because they bought me a coffee mug that looks like it's made of titanium. That's funny because Thomas has bought me several coffee mugs since he and Rachel met. They've all, for one reason or another, broken in relatively short periods of time. So far, I've had this one for about a month...




There are beautiful forests surrounding every city here in Germany. Connecting each city, aside from the streets that automobiles use, are trails through the woods. I believe that most of these trails are very, very old because of the landmarks within them, such as very old looking benches, stone forks in the road with chiseled directions and names, etc. Trust me, it looks and is likely very old. Kinda neat to imagine townsfolk coming down with packhorses carrying fruit, etc. Anyway, we have learned by watching the Germans to take walks nearly each day through the woods, especially in the wintertime. We took a family walk recently and while taking a break and letting the kids play in a wooded section, Heather and I picked blackberries and harvested apples from the ground from a nearby orchard. We snapped this shot of Nathan taking a break.




Here's Hannah playing with some of her most favorite toys. Prior to her birthday, I took Hannah to something akin to a shopping mall here named "Kaufland." "Kauf" in Deutsch is a reference to commerce and, of course, land is land. So while there, I steered her to the toy shop and watched what all she showed interest in. She really thought a mood ring there was neat but what she loved the most were these horses. I purchased the one she liked the most later on for her birthday, in part, with money sent to us for our birthdays from Grandpa Ray. Thank you, Grandpa and thank you, Dale, for your love and friendship. After Rachel married, she sent the care package I mentioned earlier. In it were more horses from the same series of toys which Hannah loves and that we saw at Kaufland. Oh, that table she's sitting on is an "L" shape bench table kitchen table which tucks into a corner and thus provides more kitchen space. It's made entirely of solid wood and was a gift from our friends and missionaries in Europe but from America, the Macy family. We've mentioned them before here and they live about 20 minutes from us.





Here is a picture of Micah, on the right, and Jacob just before going for a run held for all those in our area. The sweatsuit Jacob is wearing was bought with this occasion in mind. Jacob has always been athletic and competitive, and a good runner as well. I've taken him running on the trails with me before and he did over 3 miles with me, with little trouble. He's faster than many adults I know and has more stamina for distance. Micah has lots of talents and among them are his ability to entertain and amuse others. He's very good at impromptu and this picture captures just such an example.

Well, we recently went to the zoo and I want to upload those scenes for you but the boys are not here. They are out skateboarding and playing. They often take our camera and use it to make silly videos. Often, it doesn't make it back into the camera case and so I'll need to get it from them first. Grrr....it's one of my "pet peeves." I have about a million of them. :) Kids and pet peeves! I think each kid makes new pet peeves for me. :) Speaking of that, we leave it to God to decide whether we have any kids more. We've gone back to this way of doing things for the last couple of months but no baby yet. Must not be what He has for us right now. But we'll see...

Love from The Matthews,

James