Missions and Missing Grandparents

In the next few weeks all of our children's grandparents but one will be leaving to serve as missionaries overseas. Kent's mother and stepfather are headed to South Africa for 2 years, and my parents are going to Norway for 18 months. I'm not sure how we will survive without them, and it makes me sad to think that our children won't have contact with them for that long. Well, I guess they'll have contact, but not in person. We are proud of their commitment to serve but we will miss them terribly.

With all of the recent events Maija has been asking a lot of questions about Africa, "What does 'African' mean? Why is Forest from Africa? Why is Grandma going to Africa? I want to go to Africa...." and the best one, "Mommy, will you take me to Africa?" :-) I told her "yes" and that's a promise. One day I want our whole family to go to Africa together not only because our son is African American, but also because I want my children to see the world and to have firsthand experience with other cultures.

I guess in that way I want them to have what I did growing up. I always knew about other cultures, languages, places through personal experience living all over the world, and also through my mother who was born and raised in Finland. I can still remember hearing her speak in Finnish on the phone to friends and family. Now my kids hear me speak Spanish and French, and they hear their father speak Chinese. I hope they will understand what a beautiful place the world is and how amazing people come from every corner of the globe.

The update on Forest is that he is almost TWO MONTHS old already! I can hardly believe it! He is seriously (and I'm not just saying this) the CUTEST baby on the planet. He is all smiles these days and does the cutest little tongue twists while he flashes his big smiles. He's cooing and trying to vocalize, and he laughed today at a funny face I made. He is extremely strong - I thought Maija was a strong baby, but Forest takes the cake. He will be crawling before 6 months I guarantee it. He is all muscle. We are so lucky to have him in our family, and I am helplessly in love with him. Here are some pics: