All good things must come to an end...

Two-and-a-half wonderful weeks with our family have come and gone. Very early this morning Jorrit, Molouk, Nadim, Minou and Nushin started on their journey home, and they have in the meantime arrived in the Netherlands. We had such a wonderful time with them. Its amazing to see how Enna-Marie has thrived with the presence of her aunties, uncle, and cousins. She played so well with her cousins. Nadim especially loves her, treats her like a little sister. Also Enna-Marie's speech has greatly developed. She understands most things we ask her in Dutch, and she is now able to construct some simple-but-slowly-growing-more-complex sentences, mostly in English, such as "Enna... tea... drink", "Enna... eating", "Minou... sleep", "Enna... sit auto", or "Enna... toys... pease (please)". Her favorites are "there she is..!", "Peekaboo... I see you..." :). She will say sorry even if something isn't her fault, and is also learning to say please when she asks for something.

Last night we all went for one last visit to the Shrines of the Báb and 'Abdu'l-Bahá. It is so wonderful to see the children pray at the Threshold. Minou said a short prayer out loud in the Shrine of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and that was just adorable! Also Enna-Marie is beginning to repeat some words of the prayers we say each night: "O God, Guide me...stars...powerful", and "He is God, oh God my God..."

After the Shrine we went to Leggenda in the Merkaz for delicious ice cream. Enna-Marie had her first ice-cream ever and she loved it! After ice-cream we quickly stopped by at the 19th terrace on the top of the mountain to enjoy the panoramic view of the city of Haifa one last time.

Here are some pictures of their last few days with us.

little cookie lovers...

visit at the terraces

playing slide at home

playing at the camel beach

eating lunch after a nice swim

group photo after the Rose Garden children's class

Bahji visit one last time

dinner at Faces

Visit at the Shrines of the Báb and 'Abdu'l-Bahá

enjoying her first ice-cream

want some...?

yummy ice-cream cone too!