.something.to.share.

A friend recently shared with me the devotional below. It convicted, taught and encouraged me. Hope it does the same for you! (Thanks, Alida!)

Mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. (Isaiah 38:14)

Hezekiah had been sore sick when he wrote the Psalm, or ode, from which these words are taken. A long and painful illness had brought him to 'the gates of the grave'; and he here expresses, in pathetic language, some of the groans, and sighs, and cries, which were wrung from his heart during the time when he feared that he might be deprived of the residue of his years.
"Mine eyes fail with looking upward." Upon first reading these words, my heart felt envious of the poor sick king's experience. What! To look up to God so constantly and continually that my eyes should be wearied with the upward glance? This surely would be a pleasant pain, a sweet sorrow, a most rare and blessed spiritual attainment. With me it is, alas! so different; my eyes mostly fail with looking inward! The fountain of sin within seems ever rising from the depths of my nature, and overflowing the banks of my life, and my gaze is too often riveted on the dark flood, instead of being lifted to him who has cast all my sins behind his back.
But I look again carefully at the text, and find that it should read thus, "Mine eyes fail upward." The two words 'with looking' are interpolated, they are not in the original Hebrew. The meaning is, literally, 'Mine eye-lids droop, mine eyes are too weak to look upward.' Ah! Now I can understand, and Hezekiah's words touch my very soul. It is as if he said, "What I have so often had to say,) 'I am utter weakness, Lord; a weight of sin , and sorrow, and sickness oppresses me, I am brought so low that I cannot even lift up my eyes to you; but come, sit by my bed, close to me, Lord, so that I need not look up, but can shut my weary eyes in the joyful knowledge that you are looking down in tenderest pity on me, and saying, "Fear not, for I am with thee."
'Undertake for me.' Oh, the blessed restfulness of putting everything -- physical, mental and spiritual -- into my Father's hands, and just leaving all there! When once faith can heartily make this transfer, all is well with the soul, and its peace is perfect. God does nothing by halves; if he undertakes our case, he will deliver us from all evil, he will blot out our transgressions for his own Name's sake, he will sanctify our affliction to his glory, he will turn our sorrow into joy."

Taken from Susannah Spurgeon, "Free Grace and Dying Love"

.piggie's.ride.

I have been wanting to share this photo for a few weeks. We stumbled upon this unforgettable sight on our drive home for Christmas.

As I was getting ready to take the photo, the owner came out from the pub (the car was parked right in front of it), and I got worried that he would have a problem with what I was doing. Alas, not quite! He was actually very excited, and quickly gave me his address and asked me to make sure I mail him a copy of the picture. Go figure ...

.airstream.mechanisms.

Nina discovered the use of her glottis and the use of her pharynx, so do we have some shrieking we want to share with you. Enjoy :)

.identify.yourselves.

We know the identity of some of our regular readers (I hope this does not mean that we should be called writers), but not all. Please take a look at the map below and if you see a red dot in your area send us a comment with your name, city and country.

.foodie.genes.in.action.

Click on the play button and you will see those foodie genes in action. Enjoy!

.foodies.

A friend of ours recently declared us to be foodies, as we are people who appreciate and like to enjoy special and well-prepared food. We have both been known to ooh and aah over a slice of scrumptuous dessert, a piece of excellent cheese, or some other delicacy. When in Budapest (a rare occasion), we will go out of our way to eat at Szeráj, an authentic Turkish self-service eatery serving wonderful hummus, chicken-eggplant salad, baklava and other yummies. Our other favorite is Taverna Dionysos, a Greek restaurant by the Danube, also in Budapest. Of course I could go on and on, about my addiction of hunting for new recipes (and testing them), or Arpi's specific taste in just about anything.

However, the reason for this post is that a few days ago we were very happy to discover that the tiniest person in our family DID in fact inherit some foody genes. We gave Nina her first try of apple-flavored rice-cereal a few days ago, and she had a blast! Here's a picture to prove it:

.dear.readers.

Please allow me to share about something new I have recently discovered! As you can see on the pictures below, I figured out that books are fun. For now, I love leafing through them (with some help). When doing this, I always wonder what it would be like to munch on some of those colorful things displayed on the pages. Unfortunately, my mom tells me that I shouldn't do it. She also says that it is much more interesting to read those letters that are around those colorful things. I guess I should believe her, because so far, she has been right about most things ... I can't wait until I am able to read!

Yours,
Nina

Let me tell you about reading ...

Here I am, hard at work ...

Reading is fun! You should try it too!

.dormant.

No, we are not in suspended animation because of the winter, we are just busy. If a news reporter would come to our house, here is what you would hear on the news:

• Father Works Tirelessly At College
• Mother Raises Daughter Nina
• Teething Kills Schedules
• Family Visits Relatives in Serbia and Croatia
• Non-Profit Work Keeps Father Busy
  
• An Appreciation for How We Survided Communism And Even Laughed
• Exceptional Artist Visits Family
• Parents Enjoy Crime Scene Investigators

Hello, my friend

What do you want from me?

Let me think ...

I think I know ...

You want to play with me and make me giggle :)

.still.

Y'all need to see the pictures that our friend from Texas, Mackenzie Rollins took of Nina this week, so click here and here to see the pictures.

.lost.in.translation.

This post has been in the making for the last two days. Serious things were taken into consideration, stories were told again and again, gestures were reinterpreted, the internet was consulted for the most appropriate expressions.

In thinking of the post I had several ideas about what the title of it should be, so here are some of my initial thoughts:

• ridiculous - to indicate the bizarreness of the situation
• afraid - to show the horror of what happened
• cry - to illustrate how emotional we all were
  

But before I could write the post our friend Mackenzie shared the story on her blog. Since she already did it, and because she is much better with words than me, you should read her account of the events in her longest post ever, here.