Hong Kong Accreditation

Doug spent a week at the Island School in Hong Kong working with an accreditation team.  It was an incredibly rewarding and challenging professional experience.  The chairs of our team were amazing, and the team was lots of fun!

We stayed in a nice hotel near Causeway Bay in Hong Kong with spectacular views from the roof.

Reeve Wins Gold!

At the KL track meet, there were 13 schools and hundreds of athletes from Grade 3 - 12. It was a big meet and Reeve was excited to be competing. He threw the shot put, did the long jump, ran the 50, 100 and the 4 x 100 Relay. It was the 100 that put him on the map with a gold medal from all the individuals!

The above picture shows him as he nears the finish line in his 100m victory.

He did not do as well in the long jump as he had the previous week, when he got first place, but he still had some valiant jumps. He also threw the shot put, but not as well as the previous week.

What an accomplishment and a great performance by Reeve. Above you see his start in the 50m

Katerberg Visit!

How incredible and what a privilege to have Cristina Correa and her husband, Craig come and visit us during part of their vacation.  Cristina was one of Doug's students back in 1994 at Colegio Roosevelt in Peru -- so how absolutely wonderful to see her after all these years.

Our kids absolutely loved playing with them and it was such a great experience to catch up and hear stories about former students who are now scattered all over the globe.  What a delightful evening -- and I certainly hope that it isn't another 15 years until we see each other again!

Malaysia Week Coming

Part of getting ready for Malaysia Week is the silly antics to get kids excited.

Thanks to our Malaysia Week coordinator, Karen Palko, here are some of Doug's contributions, now ready for all to see on YouTube.

Science Museum

 

After church on Sunday, we went to the Petrosains Science Museum, which is a great place for kids.  As always, it was impressive to see the number of staff on hand to help our kids.  Reeve got to help with the classic Coke & Mentos demonstration.  The kids really loved practicing to be astronauts, where they were in the cocoons needed to sleep with zero gravity.

And somehow Tracy managed to survive a return to the scene of the crime -- the helicopter simulator where she broke her foot last year. 

After the science museum, we were able to join Grandpa Levi and Grandma Ramona, Grandpa & Grandma Woodward at the Thai restaurant for some delicious food!

Midwest Picnic

In the great tradition of the Midwest, Doug's mom and some others at school decided to host a Midwest Picnic.  Just as most in the midwest spend Saturdays in February gathering around the watering hole, we gathered around the pool for a delightful evening of great food and fun conversation. 

The Iowans definitely dominated, but there were some from other parts of the Midwest, especially Ohio.  Throw in the pool and nice evening weather, it was a fun gathering. 

Saturday Soccer

Our Saturday mornings have been filled with soccer.  Gabi has her league that starts at 8 am, and Doug is the coach.  As soon as Gabi finishes at 9:15, Reeve's team picks up, and Doug is only the assistant coach.  It is fun to get out and watch the fun games, and most importantly the kids have a great time.  Rania even loves to come as her friends are there "watching" their siblings. 

Gabi has been doing great and has some really good friends on her team.  Reeve is the superstar of his team and has scored many goals -- even getting 4 goals in one game!

Here is some of the Saturday action! 

Don't miss the last highlight where Reeve just misses scoring off a corner kick!

FRIM

While Reeve was at the track meet, Doug was with the 7th grade students at FRIM - a forest reserve north of Kuala Lumpur.  It is always fun to be hiking, outside, exploring creeks and camping for one night -- even in the heat.

We saw some spectacular glowing caterpillars on our night hike, and there are few sites more spectacular than the trees with canopy shyness in the rainforest.

We came back with hundreds of pictures, so we'll just include one showing the fun times the students had.

First! Second! Third! (3 Ribbons)

Reeve was absolutely amazing at the track & field event hosted at Mt. Kiara on Thursday, Feb 17. He got a first place in the long jump (check out his great form). He got second place in the shot put. His relay team got third place, and he also competed in the 100 m, but there was no where that they could run 100m in a straight line, so it was pretty crowded at the start of the curve.

One hilarious note when we came home was that he received a "Firts Place" ribbon -- as the spelling was a bit off.

Horray, Reeve!

Rania's Prayer

One of the things that is so precious is how sweet kids are when they are young.  It is such a blessing to have Rania still seeming so young and so not-grown-up.  It almost breaks our hearts thinking that she'll never be this young again. . .and it the cute way she says things, the bit of a lisp she has on some words -- that it will never quite be like this again.

So sad, but yet a reminder to cherish every moment.

And Rania's prayers are so absolutely adorable.  I've been wanting to capture them, as most nights they are so similar.  The part about praying for sea animals and land animals. . . praying for all the people in different places to have a good sleep and in the same places to have a good sleep. . . it is just so precious, it breaks my heart. 

Indeed, how easy to see the simple child-like faith of little children. 

Grandparents Squared

 

How wonderful to have double the grandparents in town.  Whether reading stories, playing games, going swimming or enjoying meals together, having Grandpa Levi and Grandma Ramona is such a treat for all of us. 

Grandpa Levi & Grandma Ramona

How absolutely wonderful to have Grandpa Levi and Grandma Ramona come and visit.  They were always the first to come and visit everywhere I've lived -- Peru, Jordan, Kuala Lumpur -- and even in Kenya before that.  So when they came 3 years ago, we thought that they wouldn't make a second appearance.

But how wonderful to have them coming and visiting.  We were delighted to be able to host them the first couple of nights before they moved to stay with a bit more room (and fewer kids.) 

We've been delighted to have our kids spoiled with stories and special times with Grandma Ramona.  Grandpa Levi has sure spoiled us with some great meals as part of his incredible generosity.