A new post...

I can give a brief recap of happenings at Irby road the last few months:

Shannon has made her way into our family and sure does fit nicely. It's hard to believe she will only be with us a little over a month more. We are trying not to think about it! She has been such a big help and the kids really love her.

Josh has met with the pastors in the country about possibilities for his book "Meeting Miss Irby" hopefully going to be released next September. He's meeting with the national CCC Staff team about possibilities. We are really excited about this project.

The kids are enjoying homeschool. We are doing "My Father's World" kindergarten. Elijah sits in and participates in calendar time, song time, story time and as Israel does her work (she is learning to read!) Elijah colors in his Spiderman coloring book. While the kids do their "work" we are enjoying playing the CD "25 Classical Favorites". I have a plan to one day focus on a composer of the week (we did that once with Mozart) but right now it's too much.

Israel continues to excel in ballet. Her teacher came out of the classroom and got my attention to make sure Israel showed me how she was able to put her feet in 5th position. She was so proud of her and said she is "Fantastic and Excellent". Of course, we agree.

Elijah continues to pursue his dreams of actually being Spiderman. He turned 3 in October and had a Spiderman/superhero birthday party joining up with Tyler Trousdale (they share a birthday) who turned 2. Elijah loves Tyler. He calls him "TyTy" and "My Buddy". It's going to be fun to watch these boys grow up together.

We had a Halloween party last night at a friend's house. It was fun. Israel was a Flamenco dancer and Elijah was a pirate.

Last of all: I need to know if these updates are being read. Not many comments are posted, and if this is not an accurate way of notifying people, please let me know and I can find a different way to let people know what's going on. Thanks!

Our time in Croatia

Hey all,

Just a quick update. We returned from our annual national conference in Croatia. Josh went a few days early and then Shannon, the kids and I drove up on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I forgot our passports when we were about 1 1/2 hours out of Sarajevo so I had to drive back to get them. Praise God Shannon was with us! I don't think I could have done it without her!

We spent the night in Zagreb with some friends and then made the 3 hour trip the next day following the Trousdales up there. The conference was great. The kids enjoyed time with Shannon and Tyler Trousdale while we enjoyed the sessions. Josh and I led worship and listened to some great talks about the Gospel from a professor at a nearby seminary.

On our way back home we stopped in a small Bosnian town, Doboj, to have dinner with a Bosnian family we met on the beach. They have 2 kids, a boy and a girl who our kids get along great with. We stayed at their place for 3 hours, speaking only in Bosnian. It was really fun. We plan to stop by their place each time we go to Zagreb or along that route, as their house is pretty much on the way.

Shannon rode back with the Trousdales because they had a more comfortable place to sit in their car (we didn't think Shannon would enjoy being squished between 2 carseats and behind 2 tall people!) but their car broke down in Zagreb and so they are still there, hopefully to return today. Please pray for their safe travels.

thanks everyone for praying for us! we love you guys!

Shannon's here, more busy weeks!

Hey all,

Just another quick update:

Shannon is here! Shannon will live with us for 3 months. She raised support to come here and simply serve us. And our kids love her! Usually the kids will throw fits when we leave for language study, but now they jump for joy when they find out Shannon will babysit! She is such a blessing to have in the home. We went together with our STINT team to Vrelo Bosne (a beautiful park in Sarajevo) and played frisbee. Israel and Elijah learned how to climb trees last Saturday at Anni's birthday party, so they were practicing that and they tried their best to throw and catch the frisbee :)

The Trousdales arrive today! Please pray for Jonathan, Ashley and Tyler as the adjust.

Croatia next week! We will attend our conferences for Croatia/Bosnia staff. Josh will leave Monday for the campus days conference and then Shannon, the kids and I will join him on Thursday for the staff conference. Shannon will work child care. Please pray for us as we travel and for God to move in our lives at the conference.

We have started Kindergarten for Israel. Please pray for both of us as we work on this! It's fun, but also has its challenges.

Thank you for your prayers!

Busy week ahead...

Hello! We just returned from a very relaxing time at the coast. We met a Bosnian family there. It was wonderful, as the kids played together and we were able to have great conversations in Bosnian. The kids enjoyed playing in the water and in the sand.

We went from the coast to the Brents' house for 2 days. They have lived in Split for 10 years and they have 3 girls who our kids adore! We returned to Sarajevo a couple of days ago.

This next week and a half will be particularly busy, so we would appreciate your prayers as:

1. I have started Kindergarten with Israel. After much wise advice, I decided to purchase My Father's World curriculum . We started yesterday and it is really fun, just please pray for both of us! My goal is to get her reading before she turns 6 and then goes to Bosnian school where she will have to learn to read in Bosnian.

2. Our STINT team arrives on Tuesday. Before then, Josh and Djordje are trying to find them an apartment (the guy STINTers' contract fell through last week). Please pray for them as they look!

3. I'm looking for an apartment for the married STINT couple joining our team on Tuesday.

4. Shannon Murphy, our nanny, arrives on Saturday, Sept 1!

5. Jonathan and Ashley Trousdale , the first of our long term team, will be joining us on Wednesday, Sept 8!

Please join us in prayer for all of our "newbies" and lots of transitions. Thank you all so much for your love and prayers!

taylor

To the coast...

We leave for the coast on Friday! So excited! We will all stay in a one room apartment near the water. It will be great, but tight !

This will be our last "hurrah" before the school year starts and the pace picks up a bit. You can pray that our time as a family would be sweet and we would prepare for the faster pace ahead.

We also had 3 rooms in our house painted yesterday: Our bedroom (love it!), the office which will be Elijah's bedroom when Shannon gets here and Elijah's current bedroom which will be Shannon's bedroom while she's here. All are various shades of blue and I'm just so excited about the new changes!

Thank you all for your prayers and love.

Fashion Show!

Hey just wanted to tell you something funny: last night at Dzenana's shop our little girls were playing together with some other girls. Then, all of a sudden, Dzenana turned on Black Eyed Peas and started dressing up all the girls and they had a first class fashion show! Complete with poses! It was a RIOT!!! People on the street just stopped by to watch and take pictures! I'm going to post the pics on my facebook site so make sure to look. ! :)

Other news: It was my first day back in language class and I had a great time. It was so wonderful to see Sandra (my teacher). She answered the door and it was so refreshing to have what I felt like mirroring smiles! (my smile was as big as hers) "Ciao!!!!" And a big hug and kiss on the cheek . The class went great. 1 hour of talking in only Bosnian. I love my teacher!

Hey, if you would like to learn some Bosnian for free, check out www.byki.com...it's great!

Okay, just wanted to send a quick update. And please post comments, they make our day!

OH and (hint hint) here's our address:

IRBY

23 Veliki Alifakovac

71000 Sarajevo

Bosnia i Hercegovnia

English Camp! Karens...etc....

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to update you with this week's happenings. Another organization here "Nova Zora" (New Dawn) brought in a team from Minnesota and they did an English Camp for kids at a youth center here. Israel and I attended and I helped in the 4-6 year old classroom. For Monday-Wed. of this week we participated in group singing and dancing, games, and art. I got to know some precious Bosnian children and use my language a lot. I met the preschool teacher who works there and she asked me to help teach some music classes (maybe once a month or as I would like) in Bosnian!

Another really fun thing was last week: Karen Butler (on staff in Zagreb, Croatia) and her friend Karen came. Karen (friend of Karen B.) is an English teacher and was helping Josh get started on writing the Miss Irby book. It was very helpful for him. We also attended the Sarajevo Film Festival with them, such a treat!

Some more news: Our dear friends the Tinlins are leaving Sarajevo because of Dan (he's the dad) has some heart problems and has to have surgery. Please join us in prayer for this dear family. Dan is a pediatrician and was working on opening a clinic here, free for all Bosnians. Their girls babysit for us and Julie is a dear friend! We are praying that they will be able to return.

The Tinlins were expecting Shannon, a full time nanny, to arrive in September. But because they have to leave in 2 weeks, Shannon will now be staying and nannying for us! I talked with this dear girl (graduated college 2 years ago with an education degree) and I have a feeling we are going to get along great! This is a huge answer to prayer, as we didn't know what we were going to do after our regular babysitter has her baby (early October), or for childcare while at the national conference in September. Shannon just stepped right in and we are excited to welcome her to our team from September 3 until December 7! Please join us in prayer for Shannon as she prepares to come.

Just wanted to update you with this information...stay tuned for more very soon. :) And pictures are posted on my facebook.

--taylor