The Josh and Dagmar Jewkes Family

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Testimony Meeting

Sofia bore her testimony today about prayer. SHe is so good at doing this from her heart. She said something like: "i'd like to bear my testimony that prayer works. I know Heavenly Father helps you when you need help. Once [this was yesterday] I was at a garage sale with Lilian, and we wer looking at some things. When I looked up, Lilian had left, and I couldn't find her. So I said a prayer. I then thought of going back, but then she was right there. I know Heavenly Father helped me. In the name of Jesus Christ amen. So sweet.

She also had a talk in primary a few weeks ago. I had received a call that week, but as soon as I had listened to the message, I forgot about it, until we were already in church. So I whispered to her that she was supposed to have a talk that day, but she didn't have to do it if she felt uncomfortable as it was my fault she wasn't prepared. She wanted to do it. I told her the topic [missionary work] and she looked in the topical guide for some scriptures. She wanted 3, adn she wanted to read them to the class. She said it was ok if I wrote them down and some other things. So I wrote down like 3 sentences: 'you can talk about the experience of having the missionaries in our home with your friends frm school and their mom, or you can talk about hom mommy was baptized by papa. You can talk about how the Gospel makes you happy and that you want to share that. Bear your testimony'. That was plenty for her. She looked up some scriptures and while she looked them up, she started talking ' I was asked to talk about missionary work...' She kept talking about relevant things until she found the scripture, then find a way to weave that in. She did an amazing job, I was super poroud of her. There was only one thing: she was supposed to read Micah 4:3, but read Micah 3:3. That caused some raised eyebrows from her (please look it up, it will cause at least a chuckle, to some people a never to be forgotten funny experience), but I guess she assumed the relevant part was still coming, so she kept reading for a while. SHe finally figured it was wrong, so she apologized and read the correct one. She was amazing, and although it caused a lot of fun talk afterwards, I was extremely proud of her and the ease with which she does this. Go Fietje!!!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Tyrone Founders Day Irish Dance Performance/Parade

Yesterday, Tyrone was celebrating its founder's day, and the Drake school of Irish Dance participated in the Parade, adn had a nice performance afterwards. Lilian was part of it all ofcourse, as she takes dance classes with Miss. Rowena. Sofia too, was able to participate in both events, which was really nice, as last time (during St. Patrick's Day) she had broken her leg, and had to ride in the stroller mostly, or walk on crutches, and could not perform at all. Miss. Rowena was extremely nice in allowing Sofia to join in the dance rehearsals (extra classes to prepare for the dance performance,) all for free. It was really fun to walk in the parade for the girls, to be part of the group, to interact with their friends, to show off, to distribute info on the school (Sofia gave one to a police officer, which was quite hilarious, she thought she was really cool :)) ,a nd Josh, the boys and I had a great time following and seeing them enjoy. Espen enjoyed it the most, as he was in the baby bjorn and fell asleep. Almmost everyone on the side of the streets noticed him sleeping, it was really funny. Cute Knorretje.
At the festival, the school presented a very nice performance, in which Sofia and Lilian got to dance 4 or 5 dances. One of them was just the 2 of them, which they felt really neat about; they should, they did very well, knew all their steps, timed perfectly, danced well together, and best of all they smiled the whole time.

I'll try to add the videos I took, not sure if it will work [ADD VIDEOS]

Car Wash for Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Relay

AS posted before, we regularly wash our cars out on the driveway together with the kids (and neighbor friend Emma) in our swimsuits, so we can spray eachother. Well, I usually get the full load many times over, which is worth the laughter adn the help I get washing the cars! Well, on Wednesday, we were done, adn the kids were still full of energy, so I suggested to them to do a car wash. They were very excited, and started making a sign. We talked about how much they could ask, and then we discussed if they wanted to donate to a charity. They said they wanted to help my friend, who has had breast cancer, and is walking 60 miles next month in the Susan G. Komen 3-day walk for breast cancer, for which each participant has to raise (I believe) $2300! They did want to earn some money themselves too, so they decided to donate 50% of all the money to my friend. Their first customer was..... a police officer!!! Hahaha, we were all a little scared, so his car was superclean! :) They had a neighbor friend, and one more car, so by the time we were done, they had washed 5 cars (incl. ours) and raised $22 for my friend. They were very proud of themselves, earned some money, donated to charity, learned a little about advertising, how much money you can ask for certain services, how to add it all up, and how to take 50% for the donation. Not bad for a few hours work!

Here a picture of the girls w. the police car, it was just too funny to resist. (COMING)

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Sofia and Lilian's Birthday/Baptism

Knorretje with both girls' hairbows. Sweet! :)

Opa Piet en Oma Lina

Boefje, Opa, Josh w. Lilian, Knorrie, Oma Lina with Sofia

Oma Becky, Opa Poppy and Jordan

Sofia and Lilian with cousins Gabe and Hayden

10 July, 2011. The girls turned 8 on this day! EIGHT!!!!!! And they were not only excited about their birthday, but also about their baptism! In our church, we believe that children don't need to be baptized until they are accountable for their actions, such that they get to be baptized from 8 years up. The girls really wanted to try to do this on their birthday, which was possible! They were interviewed by someone from the bishopric, to see if they were ready adn understood the covenants/commitments they were about to make, and they seemed to be. We were (are) so excited and proud of them for this choice, as we know the blessings adn happiness it will bring to them to try to follow Jesus, and to be able to have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion to help them make good choices.

We ofcourse celebrated their birthday after church, then prepared for the baptism. Josh explained to them (again) how he would immerse them under water completely, and what the symbolism of it all means. I told them my experience of being baptized (also by Josh) only 15 years ago, and the special feeling I had when I received the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

We had a lot of special people come to join us in this celebration, and a special program to make this event memorable for them. The girls sang : "I like to look for rainbows' (or the real title is "When I am baptized'"), and I was honored to give a talk on baptism (Mosiah 18:8-10), and Oma Becky on the Holy Ghost. We both pointed out how special the girls are, as both of them LOVE people, how Sofia loves to testify of Christ, how Lilian likes to bear other people's burdens, ...etc, and what an amazing opportunity they have to be able to have the Holy Ghost with them to guide and comfort them.

The girls dressed in their white uniforms, adn as Sofia is the oldest, she got to be baptized first by Josh. He was a little nervous I think, such that he forgot to call her name in the baptismal prayer and had to do it again! (He had to'baptize' me twice too, different reason, but still funny). She came out of that water even more beautiful and pure than ever. Then Lilian was baptized by Josh as well, and she too looked more beautiful and clean than ever. It was a very touching moment for me to see each of these miraculous Heavenly Princesses make this choice and partake of this special ordinance. Feelings of joy, pride, gratitude, love, .... too many good emotions to express.

After they returned in their dresses (with white barettes handmade by their aunt Patty!!), they received the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, with each a personal prayer. I couldn't be more happy for and proud of them. And what a special Gift they received, a Gift for life, priceless.

Oma Becky had 'Bee bags' for them: Bee smart, bee clean, bee true, be prayerful, bee grateful and bee humble (not in order). What a perfect gift to give. The girls got their own scriptures, with their names imprinted, of which they were very proud, and my mom gave them a book called ' Daughter of a King' which really was a beautiful fictional story of how we believe we can look forward to live with our families and Heavenly Father (the King) again.

It was such a unique event for me, as a mother, and to be able to share that with family adn friends, especially with my parents made this day in one word: PERFECT!

Thank you all so much for being there with us! Thank you opa Pizza and oma Lina, for changing your normal summer schedule to be here with us for the girls' baptism. Kusjes

Pictures to come

Sofia and Lilian's 8th Birthday

We love celebrating the girls' birthday because:
1st) It was definitely the most special day in our lives to have these 2 special ladies finally arrive after a LONG wait (and a 38 hr delivery)!
2nd) We often have lots of family in town during this time of year, and we love spending time with family
3rd) this year my parents were here too, to celebrate
4th) we love celebrating anything with the girls
5th) we often get to celebrate several times: on their birthday, a party for friends adn a party for family
6th) This year they are also getting baptized on their birthday, what a special day!!!!

In short, we think they are pretty special! :)
We rented a water slide this year (Living social deal!!) and had many kids invited adn come to celebrate with them. We made a huge pan of hotdogs, had chips, ice cream, cake .... what else could they possibly think of? And it sure paid off, all of them were racing up and down, to get as many rides/slides down the slide, it was so fun to see them have sucha good time together. I wish I could have gone on the slide too, but .... oh well. :)
We were blessed that the rain and thunder storm waited until the very end (we seem to have had rain/thunderstorms every year on their birthday), during which we played pictionary with chalk on the garage floor, and freeze dance ofcourse!

What a happy birthday party, yeah!

Pictures to come

Beautiful Pictures of Sofia and Lilian

My friend Brandy Floyd is an amazing photographer, that I was lucky to have taking pictures of the girls for their baptismal invitations. We loved so many of them! Thank you so much Brandy. We used one for the invitation, for the Thank you card, and many for a special baptism memory book. The memory book idea was not born until the day before, when we went to see their friends Lana and McKaylin be baptized: their families had made those girls' baptismal day as special as a wedding day, including a guest/picture/memory book of those girls. It was such a wonderful idea, that I took all of Brandy's pictures of my ladies,a nd ran to Target about 3 minutes before closing, and printed them out, to make a special 'scrapbook for both Sofia and Lilian that night. I am so happy for that example, as the book turned out to be beautiful and full of written memories!

Washington DC

We were blessed to be able to go to Washington DC this summer as a family. I had a conference to (partially) attend: ESV, while also trying to meet with my professors from Holland and Sweden, to see if we can somehow work together.
Anyway, after the meetings, during which Jsoh took all 4 children on the tram into the city, I joined them all at the Smithsonian Air and space museum. I loved how DC has so many museums that are ALL FREE! Yeah, there is not much better for a Dutch girl than free stuff!!!! :) We took a double decker bus around the city, where you could get off at any location to visit any of the memorials or museums, and took a boat tour as well. SO many things to see and learn, the girls loved it, and so did we. I actually started getting interested in (some) history!