The Heymann Family Journal

Today is Halloween. In Germany, this is basically a new holiday. 10 years ago, when we moved here, no one went trick or treating. In the past two years they have really promoted the holiday, and just like kids in the USA, kids here love going from house to house collecting candy. I realize allot of Christians don't want anything to do with a day that gives credit to the enemy. I have a choice, I can be the kind that locks my gate to the kids, and shuts all the lights in my house, or I can open my gate and light the path to my house! I decided it was best to light the pathway, and have loads of good candy to pass out. I want the kids in my neighborhood to know a generous family lives here! My boys have been practising saying Süsses oder Saures (sweet or sour in German). This is what they say instead of trick or treat! Thomas is language delayed. He was saying Süsse oder Saubres. Saubres means to make clean, like clean the house! Nicole thought that was too funny. She ...

I'm looking for material to put on my how to become a Christian blog. If you have any resources you want to pass on that help explain how others can come into a personal relationship with Jesus, just let me know by posting a comment. If you don't know Jesus, but have questions about God, you can also post that too. I found this cute little video about trees, and how we should just be more like a tree. I did not feel it was the right stuff for my how to be a Christian blog, because it's basically for those who already believe. I don't know what the readers of this blog are believing(because I don't get your feed back...hint, hint).Anyway, I thought I would post it here. My birthday was great, and I'm doing good. I hope you are also having a really wonderful weekend!

Juergen is busy painting the living room and dinning room for my birthday. This was no small task. He had to move all the heavy furniture to the center of the room. We have a very large fish tank that had to be half drained to be moved. We are going with a darker clay color in the living room, a lighter off white on the top of the wall in the dinning room, and a dark brown on the bottom part of the wall in the dinning room.These are all colors found in the curtains we bought at IKEA. We want to get new cabinets in the living room. That may need to wait until after we get back from China. We may do it sooner. We actually received a 30% off coupon from a local furniture store today. If they have something we like, we may get the cabinets now? Anyway, the after shot of the room will come later! Some women only get flowers for their birthdays, I get hard labor! There are some really great husbands in this world, mine is definitely one of them!!!

I love this scene from THE PINK PANTHER with Steve Martin. The movie was only OK, but this scene is worth the movie! This is a Pink Panther cartoon about paint.Juergen is painting the living room for my birthday gift. I can not wait to see how it turns out!

I'm not sure if everyone reading our family journal actually reads out adoption blog . Anyway, we are in the process of adopting a 3 year old girl from Nanjing China. The paper work took allot more time then we had hoped. DHL even lost 3 of our important documents, and we needed to have them redone. How often does DHL lose a paper? Maybe one time in a million? Anyway, the papers are all ready to go to China today (by FedEx). I thank God for helping us make it this far. It would be a miracle if we could travel to China before the end of the year. It is realistic to think it will be January or February. I like the miracle scenario, but either way I will trust Gods timing is perfect! Here is Sarah our new daughter.

Wow! we have new readers from Hong Kong and Australia! That's so cool! Welcome to our family blog. I am so glad you are here! What a small world! Have I ever told you about the It's a small world ride at Disneyland? Jessica loves that ride! Every time we go to Disneyland Paris, which is only a 4 hour drive from us, Jessica wants to ride on It's a small world 12 times straight. She has a special pass that lets her skip the line, because she is disabled. I "get to" do the ride with her, because Juergen basically could not handle it, and the other kids want to hang out with dad. If there was anything in this life that would qualify me for Sainthood, it would be riding It's a Small world 12 times in a row! I do love to see her light up as we pass all the cute dolls! I would do just about anything to see her happy!

I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.

Hi, Juergen and I met 3 of my best friends for breakfast at IKEA. My 45th birthday is on Saturday. In Germany you have to trow your own birthday party's. I have always had a real problem with that. I remember being taken out to breakfast, lunch, and dinner on my birthday in California. Now I have to pay, or plan the party. It always makes me feel so unloved! Any way, I decided I did not want to clean my whole house, and spend a small fortune to invite my friends to a party. I asked 3 friends to IKEA for a very casual (and cheap) breakfast. After breakfast, we shopped for my gift, new living room curtains. I wanted to choose the curtains first, and then choose paint based on the colors in the curtains. Our living room and dinning room need paint pretty badly! It is one thing I know would be easier to do now, before we adopt Sarah. We found some very nice curtains in browns and tans. I will post a picture when it s finished. You know they are your friends when you...

I just read this great quote... Every man becomes, to a certain degree, what the people he generally converses with are. He catches their air, their manners, and even their way of thinking. If he observes with attention, he will catch them soon, but if he does not, he will at long run contract them insensibly. I know nothing in the world but poetry that is not to be acquired by application and care. - Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield in a letter to his son in 1750

Hi! I noticed on my map at the bottom of the page, we have two new readers from England! Welcome to the site!I love England!!! I took Nicole to London a few years ago for a mother daughter outing. I've got to do that again soon! I am happy you are here! This is really cool! We have readers from the USA, Germany, England, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Singapore. Thank you for giving us your zip codes, maybe you could even add your first names and even (may I be so very bold to ask) a photo to our map. I would love to see your beautiful faces! Come on!!! I showed you a picture of me getting a haircut, please add your photos and first names to my map! Also, I have not got a clue(I guess in British English I would say foggiest idea) why you would be reading our family blog.If you would leave your comments, I would know what kind of stuff you like reading. I'm not sure if it would actually shape what I write,and you're probably all just waiting for the photos of our new...

I just found this study on "Why IS Serving the Poor So Important?". God has been slowly cultivating a passion in my heart for the poor. It is my desire to share this passion with others, and especially with my own children. I would love to take each of my children on missions trips to help serve the poor. You can say to people "give to the poor", but until they go...they have no real heart to give! When they see poverty with their own eyes,and meet people who experience poverty,then it changes their world view. I am considering taking Nicole on a trip this summer.I'm not sure if it is do able,because we are adopting Sarah, but maybe we can make it work?

This is from our old homepage... · Many Mini Mouses misunderstood Mickey's mighty mumbling mama. · Billy Bungles baby-sat baby Barney before baby Barney barfed.

We are getting rid of our old family homepage. Here are some of the quotes and sayings frome that old site... That’s even more fun than blowing up a potato in the microwave. (Nicole Heymann after reading too much Calvin and Hobbes) · Philip had just come to live with us. Nicole asks: Daddy, do you think Philip believes in Buddha? No, I don’t think so—he is too young. That’s good! Then he doesn’t have to switch Gods. (Nicole) Chinese Proverbs (about anything) · The man who waits for a roast duck to fly into his mouth, waits a very long time · Man who run behind cars get exhausted. Man who run in front of car get tired. · Man who live in glass house should change in basement. · How can you expect to find ivory in a dog's mouth? · An inch of time is an inch of gold but you can't buy that inch of time with an inch of gold. · There are always ears on the other side of the wall. · Without rice, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook. · Your fingers can't be of the same length....

The weather was amazing today. After church Juergen said "lets get in the car and just go someplace". He did not need to twist my arm! We don't get too many fall days half so nice. We drove south towards the Black Forest. The popular hiking spots were pretty, well popular! We ended up on a small little way. Jessica did not want to walk. She was crying most of the way! You never no what is up with her. It could be she was tired, or her shoes hurt, or she hated the noise from the boys new swords! They got swords yesterday from the money Juergens mom sent for their birthdays. Mickey our dog had a great time in the forest. Here are some photos from our walk in the woods.

Hi,some of you know Juergen traveled with Reinhard Bonnke last year in Nigeria. Well Bonnk is doing a crusade in Lagos and they are expecting 6 million people to come! If you have the heart, please pray for this outreach. Juergen sat on the platform last year and watched Bonnke preach to small crowds of only half a million people! He saw people give testimonies who were healed (blind people, deaf people etc). He was blessed to travel with this amazing and humble man. It is one thing to see this famous man preach on TV, and another to eat lunch with him! Juergen was so impressed that he was just a humble man with an amazing passion for God! I am so grateful he had this privileged time with Bonnke. I can not get over the opportunities God has blessed both Juergen and I with! Life is never what you expect it to be, and so often it is much more!

Hi, Philip broke his glasses for the second time in a week. I wonder if Jackie Chan's mom had these problems? Anyway, I bought these 3 postcards after I dropped the glasses off to be repaired. This first post card reminds me of Thailand. They have elephants there. I love this second card! I'm sure the first penguin does not know what is coming! Finally,the last card almost brought a tear to my eye! We all walk in the footsteps of giants who have gone before us! I am spending way to much time working on my How to be a Christian blog ! I hope you'll take a look at it, send me material for it, and pray for the people who read it! Thanks

We got the school pictures from Thomas today. He is looking good. He is having some trouble in school. The teacher said he missed part of his homework two days in a row, and did badly on the test. I asked him about it, because I always check his homework. It seems he has only been doing half the work, and been saying it was done. He was crying when he told me. I was calm, and tried to be constructive. He said they gave him way too much homework . With this I can agree! He is in the 2ND grade and has 3 pages of writing to do everyday (too much)! We are going to be checking what the normal level is for the second grade. Thomas goes to a special language school. At our last parent teacher conference, the teacher said the level in the school was much higher then the normal German grade schools. I think my son is smart, but he already has enough pressure to learn both English and German (and he has only been in Germany two years). I don't need to have is spirit broken by some over achie...

Today is our son Philips 8th birthday. He was found in central Thailand when he was a baby. Someone in the government gave him a Jan 1st birthday. About 9 months before we adopted him, my mom had a dream. In the dream she basically saw that our next child was born on Oct 17th. The dream was in April of 2000. She did not know we wanted to adopt. Anyway, to make a long story short, Philip was found in Nov. 1998. He was only a few months old when he was found. He was probably born in Sept or Oct of 1998. This is why we are giving him the Oct. 17th birthday. Today Philip got a punching bag and boxing gloves as a gift. He also got some teenage mu tent Ninja turtles action figures. He and Thomas are in their bedroom playing with the new toys, and are very loud! We will give Philip and Thomas a joint birthday party in Dec. We decided to wait until then, because its a new school year...and they are just now making new friends. We thought it would be best to wait until they had clear friendsh...

One evening an old Chief told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between 2 "wolves" inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?" The old Chief simply replied, "The one you feed."