Prayer Call

Dear Friends and Family,

Please keep my Mom, Mary, in your prayers. She is currently at St. Joseph's Health Center in excruciating pain after gallbladder surgery on Tuesday. Long story short, ever since her surgery she has been in terrible discomfort. The doctors thought they found the problem, but Mom has yet to find any rest from the immense pain.

I will ask you, dear prayer warriors, to lift my Mom up to the Lord! Please pray that the Lord will heal my Mom's body and give her comfort and strength beyond measure. Also, please pray that the Lord would give the Doctors wisdom to quickly address whatever is causing the pain. AMEN.

Thank you, my friends! My Mom is about the strongest, bravest woman I know. It's times like these that being on the other side of the world is the most difficult. Oh, how I wish I could be by her side as she has been for me ALL of my life.

Aloha!

Not tons to report here in the French household. After a somewhat sleepless Friday night, tonight it'll be nice to dream about...

THE TEN NIGHT VACATION WE JUST BOOKED TO HAWAII!!!

Okay, I'm not excited at all, am I? We decided to take a LONG pit stop on the shores of Waikiki on our way home from Korea next April. We will stay at the Hale Koa military resort.

(The first picture, from tripadvisor.com, is a view from one of the rooms at the resort.)

Woo-hoo! We are pretty jazzed to have the chance to experience God's beautiful creation Hawaiian style! Better yet, my parents are joining us, too! God is good.

I'm sure the thought of our warm, Hawaiian getaway in April will help me through many a long winter nights here in South Korea!

Slam Eagles in Vegas: A Slideshow

Okay... I'm finally getting around to posting some stuff from our Red Flag deployment! The following slideshow comes from our photos at Flickr. The photos were taken by USAF CMSgt Gary Emery. Most of them are of our arrival at Nellis Air Force Base, after ferrying the jets from the Boeing plant in St. Louis. Some of the photos are also from arming before, or dearming after, Red Flag sorties.

Enjoy!

Still Kickin'

Just in case you happen to wander onto our family webpage and think we've all but closed up shop-- it's not so! We've gone 'private', but would still love to have you along for the ride for our overseas adventure! Just e-mail me at jamie@thefrenchfamily.org and I'll send you an invite to our blog. Here's one of our most recent posts:


If you haven't had one of these in a while...


...we highly recommend it! ;)

Last night Rob and I enjoyed our first, official 'date night' since we left the states!! The evening was courtesy of our sweet friends SJ and Gloria who offered to watch the little ones.

It was a simple dinner and a movie night. We dined with friends at a really nice Italian restaurant complete with garlic bread and lasagna. After dinner we walked through downtown to see the movie, "MaMa Mia" which we both thought was a lot of fun! Hopefully we'll make this date thing more of a habit!

In other news...

Look who graduated to pigtails!

You. Go. Girl.

Daegu Nights

If you haven't had one of these in a while...


...we highly recommend it! ;)

Last night Rob and I enjoyed our first, official 'date night' in Korea!! The evening was courtesy of our sweet friends SJ and Gloria who offered to watch the little ones.

It was a simple dinner and a movie night. We dined with friends at a really nice Italian restaurant (yes, in Korea!) complete with garlic bread and lasagna. After dinner we walked through downtown Daegu to see the movie, "MaMa Mia" which we both thought was a lot of fun! Hopefully we'll make this date thing more of a habit!

In other news...

Look who graduated to pigtails!

You. Go. Girl.

Light the Night

While we are extremely grateful for our adventure in South Korea, it's missing events like this that really make me miss home:

My rock star cousin, Kimmie, is a cancer survivor.

Last year Kimmie was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and by the grace of God-- kicked its bootee'!

This past weekend many of our family and friends came out to support Kimmie at Light the Night, a walk to raise funds for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. Kimmie's team raised $2000 and the entire event raised a half million dollars! Woo-hoo.

From what I hear, it was an extremely fun and moving night. Raising money for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society is also special to our family because my Mom's mom, our grandmother, Cathy, passed away from Leukemia in 1979 at the age of 49.

Congrats Kimmie and team on your success! We love you and can't wait for your visit in December!

(PS-- Kimmie, I hope you don't mind, I stole these pictures from your facebook page!)

St. Louis Trip Entry #3: Did Somebody Say Partee'?

Before I start this entry, I just have to say how much it blesses my socks off each time I see a new name on our list of readers! Stephanie, Jessica B., and Terri Jo, welcome to the 'Eagles Over Korea' family! :) It's great to have you along for the ride!

I'm currently in the process of journaling about our recent trip the states while interspersing some current happenings. Bear with me as I savor up some super memories from our time in St. Louis!

Party Time!

Our first week in the Show-Me state was a whirlwind!

Shortly after our arrival, Rob's Mom, Susan, flew in town. It's always a treat to spend time with Susan! Unfortunately for her, her trips to St. Louis usually involve a major party or two which= lots of work! Thankfully, Susan is not afraid to get her hands dirty and graciously rolls up her sleeves to help. (Thanks, Susan!!)

Our first mission: The Welcome Barbecue for the Korean Pilots

Mom and Dad graciously offered to host the BBQ for the two dozen Korean pilots. If you know my parents well, this comes as absolutely no surprise to you. My family needs NO excuse to throw a party, but when we have one we're going to do it big and have a lot of fun doing it! :) One of the many reasons I love my family!! Anyhow, we hosted the barbecue on Thursday night and could not have done it with out the many friends and family who came to help. Thanks, guys!

All in all, the party was FANTASTIC! Our Korean guests of honor seemed to have a great time and were more than grateful for the party. Some of the highlights of the night for me include:

*Seeing our two worlds come together! I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to see my family interacting with our friends from Korea. It was a 'somebody pinch me is this really happening' type moment. As I think back on that night, I still stand in awe of our God!! To think that of all places, the Korean air crew stopped in St. Louis before Red Flag! Then, God opened the door for the kids and I to join Rob. To top it all off, my family had the chance to show hospitality to our new friends who have been so kind to us! I still get giddy just thinking about it! Thank you, Father! Oh, how you know just what your children need! :):)

*This is a random tidbit from the night, but it makes me laugh. My brother Matt was in town for his college summer break and at the party. He's a freshman at Drake University studying Pharmacy and enjoying college life (maybe a little too much!). Anyhow, at one point during the night Matt was playing ping pong with three Lt. Col.'s and didn't know it! It's hard to describe how funny it was then, but let's just say the sweat was dripping from his face. Koreans can sure play some ping pong! :)

*One of the neatest times of the party came towards the end of the night. We had an impromptu and wonderful sing along that one point included all of us singing "How Great Thou Art" in English and Korean. It was a very sweet time and won't soon be forgotten!

Thank you, my Heavenly Father for such a sweet night.

Our next mission: The Third Birthday Party-- now there's a story for 'ya!

We'll get there more next time....

Love you guys,

Jamie

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programming...

There's still lots more to share about our trip to St. Louis, but here's a look at what's going on nowadays:

Today is day two of getting back to our normal routine. And I must say, it feels good to get back into the groove! Rob had a four, yes, four day weekend upon our arrival to Korea which was HEAVENLY. Thankfully, our recovery from jet lag this time around was pretty easy. Everyone seems to be sleeping through the night. AMEN!

This weekend we kept things pretty low key with resting, grocery shopping, and laundry! woo-hoo. Sunday, our church family held its annual Duck Race, which was fun and amusing! :) After service, we went to a quaint lake just outside of the city where everyone got in paddle boats with big 'ole ducks on top. It was quite a sight to see. Will and Sadie loved riding in the Duck boats, but surprisingly we didn't win! ;)



Team French!



And, they're off!



Daddy's Co-Captain




Mommy tries to keep the life jack from swallowing Sadie!




They just don't make these boats for big folks like us, people!


PRESCHOOL: BACK IN CLASS!

Yesterday, we started our at-home preschool back up, which was fun. Will practiced his counting skills with Mommy's play-dough masterpieces...





and Sadie tried to eat fingerpaint!





Yep, it's good to be back!

Finally, this afternoon we took a short hiking field trip. Will did a great job hiking up and down the mountain, which in reality is a big hill in our "backyard" on base. Sadie took in the view from Mommy's back in her new carrier. It was a perfect afternoon activity after a particularly trying visit to the grocery store this morning.

Ahh, there's nothing like fresh air and open spaces to ward off whining!



View about half-way up the hill



My Little Hiker



View up the path



View from the top.
Gotta love the barbed wire, but look at those beauties in the distance!



Carefully making our way down the trail

Alrighty, that's about it from me! As always, thanks for taking the time to check out what's going with our family on the other side of the world!

Love you guys!
Jamie