Platia Terpsithea

Last night, we went as a family to the local park. This is the highlight of Emily's day! She loves going and playing with the other kids. This is a nice park that's about a 10 minutes walk from our house. Since we live in the middle of the city, having a park close is really nice. It gives Emily a chance to get some energy out and interact with other kids. Enjoy the pictures!

Adalyn

Abigail

What does that sign say?

I'm sorry that it has been some time since our last post. I won't offer any excuses as to why it's been such a long time (other than old fashion laziness). We had an opportunity to see a different part of the country this past week and we found the following sign. Isn't it great?


It has been a very warm, sometimes hot summer thus far. The highest temp that we've been able to confirm so far is 102. It's still early though...August is usually the hottest month of the year. So, we're just waiting for the heat to come. We're not using both air conditioners in the house. We have one in our bedroom and one in the living room. They are like hotel units...not central air. But, we're not complaining at all. It's much better than just using traditional fans. Well, that's all right now. We'll keep you updated if anything exciting happens in the next few days.

Adam

Summer is Here!

Well, Summer is finally here and the temperatures are soaring. We have already had temperatures in the upper 90's and the beaches are full! As for our family... life has been a bit crazy for the past few weeks, but it is starting to slow down some for the summer. Adam has been teaching a Bible study in the home of an elderly woman who lives on the East side of Athens, but she and her daughter left this week for their island home and will be there until Sept., therefore that study is on hold for the summer. During the month of August, there will be a mass exodus throughout the entire country. Everyone heads to their island homes, or to other various vacation spots and the city is much like a ghost town. It is actually a nice month to be in the city if you can stand the heat!

The girls are all getting so big. Emily seems to have grown 6 inches in the past month and the babies are each a little over 10 lbs now. We took them for their first injections this past week and they let us know that they did not wish to do that again. They got over it though and we will go for a repeat performance at the end of the summer.

Well, there is not much else to report, so I will end with a few new pictures of the kids. Enjoy!

Aren't my girls sweet?

Emily playing with her little sisters.

Emily likes feeding her "baby" when we feed ours!

Abigail is on the left, and Adalyn is on the right!

My Beautiful Girls!

Just thought I would show off my three beautiful girls. The twins are growing so quickly and they are so much fun. They are laughing now. It is so sweet. Emily is a great "Big Sister." She is great with the girls. We are so proud of all three of them.

Can you tell who is who?

Abigail and Adalyn

Adalyn, Emily, and Abigail

Daddy and his "Girls."

Dedicated to God!

On Sunday May 11, we had a special dedication service for the twins. We invited many of our Greek friends and ended up with a total of 18 people in our home that evening. My mom and I prepared a meal and after we ate, we got a phone call from our home church in Missouri. It was the end of their morning service. Our pastor spent some time over our speaker phone talking about what it means to dedicate our children back to God and he explained that it had nothing to do with their salvation, but it was about Adam and I as parents giving our children to God to do with what He will. He then prayed over our girls. After he finished, my dad prayed over the girls and then Adam did the same. It was a wonderful evening and we were able to share Christ with many of our unbelieving friends. After the service ended, we had several questions from our friends as to why we do not baptise the children and what we believe. They were happy that we allow our children to choose what they will believe and that we don't believe that they are born into it. I found that very interesting!

Here are a some pictures of our girls and their special friends that shared their special night with them.

My mom and dad, Dr. Jerry and Christine Mullendore with Adalyn and Abigail

Costa, Nicole, and Daniel (Daniel is only 2 months older than our girls! AMAZING!!)

Tracy's husband Dimitri with one of the girls, I am not sure which!

Our Wonderful friend Tracy!

Our new friend and new Believer Irene

Adam praying over the girls.

A Visit From Friends

I know it has been awhile since our last post, but we have had a very crazy few weeks. Earlier this month, we had 5 men from Franklin, Virginia come for a visit. Adam and my dad had a great time being tour guides for the days that they were here. They went all over Greece. They visited many of the Biblical sites including a couple of sites in Northern Greece. They seemed to have a good time. They dubbed this trip as the "That's Just The Way It Is!" trip because they heard either Adam or my dad say that so much. Here in Greece, things are not always as logical as we think they should be, but there is nothing we can do about it... "That's just the way it is!"

The men left here and flew to Romania to do some electrical wireing for Missionary Keith Price. They were dead tired when we put them on the plane, but I hope it was a good trip anyway!

Here is a couple of pictures of the group.

The men with our church people on Sunday after our service.

6th Anniversary at Calvary Baptist Church

Yesterday, Adam had the privilege of preaching for the 6th anniversary at Calvary Baptist Church here in Athens. Calvary is a Filipino church and we attended and helped out there when we first arrived in Greece in 2004. We have come to love the people there and we especially love their food. We had a wonderful filipino meal after the service and spent some time catching up with our many friends there. We would like to say a special "Thank You" to Pastor Jimmy and his sweet wife, Vren, for having us in their services yesterday.

Here are some random pictures of the service and fellowship afterwards.

The chior did a beautiful job!

The children's chior sang and quoted scripture memory verses.

Adam preaching to the people.

The Church Family and many visitors.

Eating and Fellowship

Adam and Brandie along with Pastor Jimmy and Vren Siapno

Here are Emily and Pastor Jimmy's son Jeremiah snatching from the dessert table!

Abigail and Adalyn loved the attention from all of their adoring fans. (but then who can resist two cuties in such sweet little dresses?!) Emily was adorable also in her "Pretty Lellow Dress" as she called it!

Emily's Revelation

Tonight, my mom, Emily, and I went for a walk down to the port to do a bit of diaper shopping. We had to walk several blocks and as we were walking, we heard some American music coming from one of the apartments at the top of one of the buildings that we were walking by. We were looking up trying to find where the music was coming from when we noticed that Emily was looking up as well with a funny look on her face. My mom made the comment that she thought it was coming from a certain apartment when Emily said "Its GOD!" It was so cute because she was so serious. We couldn't help but chuckle though!

Emily has been such a trouper during this whole huge change in her life. She has had some jealously, but for the most part, she has become a wonderful helper. She is our little gopher. She goes for diapers when we need them and whatever else we need for the babies. She is also starting to help with feeding the babies. She is adjusting well. We are very proud of her. She is such a big girl, and she's pretty cute also, but what can I say, I'm a very proud momma of 3 BEAUTIFUL girls!

The Embassy Visit!

I know, I know, it has been several days since our last post and I know you are all wanting to see new pictures of our beautiful girls. We have had a crazy week with many things going on in our lives. I am just going to tell you about one of them.

On Tuesday, we took the twins to the U.S. Embassy to get their birth certificates, passports and Social Security numbers. The Embassy is in the center of the city and it is much too difficult to find parking, so we decided to take the girls in their carriers by taxi. We finally made it down to the Embassy and had to go through a tight security check and then took our number and waited in line. We finally got all of our papers filled out, got the babies pictures taken for their passports, and we were about to take our oath that all that we said was true when the alarms started going off. Over the lowd speakers, we heard the man say that this was not a drill and that we had to evacuate the Embassy. We didn't have to leave the compound area, but we did have to wait in a garden area outside. After about a half hour, we found out that their had been a fire in the cafeteria area and that it was really not a big deal. We finally were able to go back inside and gave our oath and waited for the Birth Certificates to be finallized. Now, to make a long story short, our daughters are officially American citizens. YEAH! Now we just have to wait for the passports to come back and then we can finalize the application for their Social Security numbers.

First Doctor Visit!

When we moved to Piraeus, we found a new pediatrition for Emily. Just after the first of the year, Emily was due for a couple of shots. Adam went to make the appointment and we found out that she had retired at the first of the year. When he came home and told me, and my first thought was "Great, here we are getting ready to have 2 more babies and now we don't have a pediatrition." We began the great search for a new doctor for the kids, but that is not really an easy task. We really wanted one that would speak pretty good English because we want to make sure that we understand what we are being told about our children's health. We looked and looked for almost a month and then we finally found a new doctor. We went to meet with him and liked him immediately. He lives in the same area that we have the Bible Study on Tuesdays. We were very glad to find him.

Last week was our first time to take the twins to the doctor for a check up. We were excited to see how much weight they had gained since leaving the hospital. Emily was also going for a check up and for a shot as well, so we piled all three of our girls into the car for our first road trip as a family. Adam was quiet nervous driving in Greek traffic with all of the kids. He said that every time he looked in his rear view mirror, he could see six little eyes looking back at him. I thought,"How sweet!"

We made it to the doctor and had a great visit. Each of the babies have gained a little over a pound each and are doing great! He is very pleased with their size, especially since they were born almost 4 weeks early and they were small when they left the hospital. He says that he couldn't ask for more healthy babies. Emily had a good time standing next to the table and talking to the babies during their exams. She kept telling them that it was okay and that they didn't need to cry. We were proud of her. When it came time for Emily to get checked out, she said "I don't want to take off my clothes!" We laughed! We explained that she didn't have to get undressed today and then her daddy held her while she sat bravely and got a shot in each shoulder. She did a wonderful job and was rewarded with fryfries from McDonalds for her efforts. I have attached a couple of pictures of our Doctor visit. Enjoy!

Dr. Vlagopoulos with Abigail and Emily

Dr. Vlagopoulos with Adalyn

A Good Big Sister!

During Brandie’s pregnancy, we tried to prepare Emily for the arrival of the babies. We drilled her every day about what was in mommy’s belly. She’d always answer, “Two babies!” We weren’t sure if she really understood this or not. My aunt Kathy even sent her twin baby dolls (two girls). She’d play with them and even named them the same names we were planning to use. But, when Emily first saw the babies, she just stood there looking at them and said…“Two babies?” and then smiled really big! She’s been a very big helper during the first days at home. She’s loved on the babies, held them, kissed them, and even read books to them. She’s done a lot better than we thought she would. She’s become like a second mother to the twins! Here are some pics we took today. Hope you enjoy!!!

Emily, Abbie (L), & Addie (R)

Emily & Addie

Emily kissing Addie

Emily & Addie


Emily holding both Abbie (L) & Addie (R)

NOTE: The twins were dressed alike this morning; however, Abbie had an upet tummy and kept spitting up. So, she got new clothes.

Trash Strike

As we have posted before, Greek have a constitutional right to strike. For the past three weeks, the sanitation workers have not picked up the trash throughout the country. The way it works here (since we don't have driveways with regualr trash collection) is we throw our trash away in dumpsters located throughout our neighborhood. These dumpsters are now overflowing. To make matters worse, yesterday it rained and some of the trash was ran over by cars causing a trashy "mush" in the streets! This makes for a very unsafe environment and possible health hazard. Right now, there is no end in sight! Take a look at the following pictures to see what we're going through right now!

YUK!