Such a nice birthday gift!

My birthday is July 4th. It's a great day to be born. As a kid I thought that all the festivities were for me! Who else got parades, picnics and fireworks for their birthday? I thought that I was pretty special!

But when you live in a country other than America, the 4th of July is just another day on the calendar. After 12 years I'm used to it. But this year I got a special treat for my birthday - I got to go to Holland to see some special people!

I did find a bit of 4th of July patriotism at the airport

Jason had just turned 2 months on the 3rd. It was amazing to see how much he'd grown and changed. He is such a love, always smiling and cooing. He's a real snuggly, cuddly baby too, and this Nana couldn't get enough of him.

 

Of course I had to share him with Grandpa too.

 

 



Yes, Grandpa was talking to him about guitars!

 



We had such a great time with Carly, Desmond and Jason. Carly made me an awesome birthday cake, we hit the sales and scored - (Yay for great deals and shopping with my own personal shopper!)

and we just had such a great time being with them - they're awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

It was fun to reminisce about Keith's birthday last year. That's the day we found out that Carly was pregnant! They told Keith in classic style, giving him a gift wrapped baby book and letting him figure it out.

 







It's hard to believe that was almost a year ago already!

 

We had another reason for being in Holland. Keith was asked to preach a marriage retreat in Amersfoort. It was such a fun time. I love those things, the atmosphere is always so great, and I'm a big fan of anything that strengthens and supports marriages!

 



 

It was such a treat to be able to spend my birthday with family and to be able to see everyone in Amersfoort. (Thanks Marlies and Martin!)



June went by too quickly....

I know that it probably makes me sound old, but it really does feel like time is speeding up. It's halfway through the month of July and I'm just now thinking about writing about June. I heard someone explain it once that time really does speed up as you get older because it's all proportional to how long you've lived. To a 5 year old, one year is one fifth of their life, to a ten year old it's one tenth, but to me, it's just one forty-something-ith, so of course it's shorter and goes by much faster.

Anyways, in June we had a wonderful impact team from Breda, Holland come to Cork for a few days. We put them to work Saturday. It was hot and sunny and the streets were packed. They did music and drama and preached on the streets. Many people stopped to find out what it was all about and were witnessed to and several prayed right there to be born again!

 

 

Then it was time to head back to the house for a quick barbecue before the movie that night. Breda people really do love their food!

 

 



At the movie that night and in the services on Sunday we saw visitors come and people get saved! Some of the people from the team also did some special music for us - it was a real treat!

 

 

We really are thankful for all their help, patience and good attitude (despite late nights, hot sun, bus accidents, airport evacuations, and pouring rain - I won't show you pictures of those!) I'll just show one more picture of our cheerful team! Thank you all so much for coming!

 

 



Dingle

Everyone here tells us that the summers in Ireland are very short, or even non-existent. The climate in Cork is very mild. It doesn't get too cold in the winter. I think we only had 3 days last winter when the temperature dipped below freezing, and we got about 1/2 inch of snow one afternoon, but it was gone within an hour. The average high temperature in the winter is a nice 47F, but the average high in the summer is only 65F. After 11 years of Lithuanian winters, I'm not complaining.

But we've had a pleasant surprise this year - a real summer in Ireland! The weather has been gorgeous, lots of long, sunny days.

When we saw the first nice forecast back in June we took advantage of it and decided to go and see Dingle on the bank holiday. (Bank holidays here are the first Monday in May, June and August. It's a nice 3 day weekend, kind of like our American Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day, except they're not celebrating anything, especially not the banks! No one is very happy with the banks right now, but that's another story) Anyways, since we made the announcement that we were coming to Ireland we have heard from so many people that we "must" check out Dingle. We did, and it did not disappoint.

Dingle is a little fishing village on the west coast of Ireland. It reminds me a lot of Wellfleet the town where I grew up (only we didn't have any mountains in the background.) The scenery is beautiful, a lovely harbor, gorgeous sunsets, quaint shops and restaurants, and loads of history.

Inch Beach

Rock walls and sheep are everywhere

 

 



The sunsets were amazing.

Dingle has an interesting story. In 1984 a dolphin showed up in the harbor and he never left. It's not unusual for dolphins to be seen there, but only in the summer months and in groups. This one has stayed for nearly 30 years. Some local fishermen had been struggling with lower catches and increasing regulations and costs when they came up with the idea of taking visitors out to see the dolphin.  The locals nicknamed him Fungi and he's been a huge boost for tourism in the area. We took a boat tour to see him, and he didn't disappoint!

 

 

 

We drove over Connor's Pass on our way out of Dingle. The view from it is incredible, but the road is beyond scary. It twists and turns and is very narrow in places with crazy drop-offs and very little guard rails. At the top you can see Dingle harbor on one side and lakes on the other. We were astonished to meet bicycle riders at the summit! We hiked up the short walk from the parking lot to the top of the mountain, and that was enough for us!

 

tradition has you bring one more rock to add to the pile

 

We also stopped at Killarney National Park while we were in Kerry. It's a really lovely park with beautiful grounds and the largest rhododendrons I've ever seen in my life. They weren't bushes, they were trees! And they had so many different colors. I was really amazed. We want to go back there again when we have more time to explore. They have horse drawn carriages that will take you on a tour around the lake and to a waterfall. Plus there is an old estate, Muckross House, that you can tour.

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

I'm looking forward to showing some of you these beautiful sights when you come to visit!