My cousins are visiting us soon...

My cousins from Holland are coming to Haifa this month for a one-week visit. Their names are Nadim Theodor and Minou Elisa. Nadim is already four years old while Minou will be turning two while she is here. I have not met them yet so I am very excited to meet them for the first time! I am of course also going to meet their wonderful parents, tante Molouk and oom Jorrit. I heard oom Jorrit is as tall as my daddy Maarten...wow!

Here are some photos of Nadim and Minou taken in the recently-held summer school in Holland:

Nadim running around the area

Minou playing water on the pool

Tante Molouk with Minou

Nadim and Minou

More Birthday Celebrants this October...

October is the month in which all the women in the Schoot family (except Enna-Marie) celebrate their birthdays. Mamma Ineke started off on the first of October, then on the 10th (yesterday) was Menchie's birthday, followed today the eleventh by our sister-in-law Molouk! Our almost two-year old niece, Minou Elisa, will celebrate her second birthday here in the Holy Land on the 23rd.

Menchie's brother Ramon also celebrates his birthday on the 26th.

Happy Birthday to you all!!!

Enna-Marie in blue jeans...

Thanks again to Auntie Ginger and Uncle Hank for the nice pair of jeans Enna-Marie got from last year's baby shower party. Finally it fits her now!

Daddy is away...

My daddy is currently in Malaysia for another business trip, he left early morning on Thursday. I didn't know at all that he already left as I was deeply sleeping. Whenever mommy ask me in Tagalog "saan si daddy Maarten" (where is daddy Maarten)?, I always look at the door to see if he has arrived from work. Now I'm spending all time with mommy, feeding, putting me to sleep, playing, reading, cooking, etc. She has to do all of these even dinner feeding and bathing which daddy usually does these. Poor mom with all the work, but as a consolation I give her a kiss whenever she asks for it, yeah I already know how to kiss! My daddy taught me, he was very persevere, although Uncle Shingo introduced this first to me.

Since daddy left, mommy and I hang out with Auntie Minoo who has a baby inside her tummy, and also we have gone to the mall for a lunch visit. Tonight, some Filipino friends will come to our house to watch movie and have dinner with us. So we are doing well...no worries...this is also not the first time he is away (although for mommy she is missing him so much at this time). Oh by the way, my daddy arrives on Tuesday...just a short trip! Daddy take care and we miss you lots!

Shiori in blue dress...

Shiori is wearing this beautiful blue dress in their visit to Bahji recently. These pictures are courtesy of the Ishikawas in their blog at ishikawasan.blogspot.com., which we also like to post here. Shiori also turned a year old last 2 September, she celebrated her first birthday in Australia.

Nafis turned one year old...

My friend Nafis Aboonour had his fist birthday and I attended his party last Tuesday. Mommy Mouzhgan did a fantastic job in organizing his party. Below is a group picture with our dear moms holding us, except for Nafis his sister Valeh is holding him.

The other picture of me and Nafis with our daddy Maarten and daddy Said holding us was taken some months ago in Bahji Visitors Centre. I think I was a bit objecting here, perhaps I was looking for my mom to hold me.

(On a side note, the Aboonours are leaving soon our community, they are going to pioneer in China...we will miss them :-(, their two other older children were also born here.)

Happy Birthday George!

Today is our dear friend George Costant's birthday...(Happy Birthday George!). He just finished his services at the World Centre and is now back in the States, lives with his wife Ria who is also a Filipina, but grew up in the States. They got married last April and their wedding was so beautiful.

We would like to post some of their wedding photos, hope they don't mind :-).

The bride and groom

with Ria, George and his family

Ria and her family

Baby-Google

How many people in the world do you think could still type just their first name into Google and get a link to a page that refers to them in the first few search results....? Probably not many! We found out that Enna-Marie is one of the exceptions! Searching on just her first name, resulted in three hits in the top-five search results already! So young, and already so famous :)

Enna-Marie moving around the house...

Enna-Marie is able to pull herself up against almost anything now, and her crawling speeds are reaching dazzling heights! And it therefore seems our restful days are now swiftly drawing to a close. She already walks around holding mommy or daddy's hands, and we think that its only a matter of weeks now before she will be 'running' through the house by herself!

In the sequence of pictures below she is going from the living room into the hallway, and back to her own bedroom and on to the room with the computer. With all due speed of course!

At the beach with Carmel

We went to the beach last Saturday and played with my friend Carmel. It was nice late afternoon visit to the beach. My mommy and daddy had a good chat with Carmel’s parents Auntie Sarah and Uncle Jalal talking about learning Hebrew. Mommy Menchie chat a lot with Auntie Sarah on parenting and babies.

Holy Day Observance: Martyrdom of the Bab

Few photos from the recent Holy Day observance…

Filipino group photo

Family shot

Taken before the programme starts

Again with the Filipino friends

Enna-Marie on the balcony...

Zubeyde is here...

Our dear Zubeyde Alici from Turkey is here serving at the Department of Holy Places for 2 1/2 months. She and sister Canan together with Arnold came for dinner last Thursday. It is her last week of stay, so it was nice to spend time with her before she leaves, she also enjoyed playing with Enna-Marie.



















Also, this month was Canan and Arnolds' birthdays. We'd like to post some pictures taken at their birthday parties...

Farewell to Faraz!

We had a farewell gathering for Faraz who is leaving the World Centre. He and his wife served for almost 3 years, Faraz in the Department of Statistics, and Swee in the Audio Visual Department. They will be travelling for a while until they reach Faraz' home country, that is Australia.

You can see from the photos below that everyone is enjoying the food and company. Faraz' sister Amelia, his brother-in-law Shingo and their baby-daughter Shiori came as well.

Faraz and Swee, all the best to you both as you embark on new avenues of service in your life! We will certainly miss you here!