The Heymann Family Journal

You can follow us to Thailand on a very cool family vacation and a trip home for Thomas and Philip. HERE is the Thailand blog. See you back here in 2 weeks! http://heymann-thailand2009.blogspot.com/

I took the kids with me to drop Mickey off at the dog hotel. He is a loud and crazy animal, but I love him!!! We leave for Thailand (God willing) tomorrow. Almost everything is ready to go. I have a very short list of details to take care of today. What a great gift. Thank God for this time.

Philip was really touched at camp. He wants to pray, and he wants to read the Bible. He is respectful and thoughtful. Thomas is the same person...but Philip has changed. I was asking him about camp, and he looked me in the eyes and said camp was great but I don't want to go back to my school. Mom, please don’t send me to my old school. I wanted to cry! Please pray for him, we have zero idea where he could go? The environment at school is very hard to handle. Today Juergen took Philip to get an MRI. We need to wait for a final report, but the good news is the tumor was gone. He had a brain tumor...and now it is gone. I'm kind of stunned...I guess I should be shouting for joy but it just hasn't sunk in yet. Silly me. God can remove his brain tumor, but I have a hard time trusting God for a better school. I remember when God provided the ministry in San Diego with a brand new van. I was driving down the road complaining to God. I said, God I didn’t want a new c...

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The life of worth. It is not the rich life or even the long life but the life that gives worth to others.

We all went to pick the boy's up from camp. I could see Philip watching for us. He saw Nicole first, and hugged her and cried. Then he hugged me and cried. He had a great time, but was so happy to see us. I have to admit it surprised me. Thomas also cried happy tears...but nothing like Philip. Then we got a two hour non stop review of the camp. It was wonderful, and they want to go again next year. I think we will be hearing more as the days go by! They seemed really effected by the whole experience. Praise God! What a blessing for them, and all the 300 kids that attended.

I got a call from my Dad. He just got out of the hospital. He is doing pretty good. Mom is also doing well. She is finally allowed to put some weight on her broken leg. It's been a very long summer for them. My brother in law Paul is also recovering from surgery. He sounds good. He has a very high deductible on he's health insurance and also lost allot of income from this whole illness. It's a really tough financial hit for them. I'm sure that has to be hard, they were trying so hard to get debt free. I'm sure they feel like so many hard working folks in America (and all over the world). I'm just glad he will be ok health wise. I pray God helps them recover all that was lost. I'm getting nervous about Thailand. I always feel a little crazy before a big trip. Did I pack everything? Is everything taken care of? And how will Jessica be on the flight? I worry too much. We go in 4 days (God willing). I just need to relax and breath!

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8329297 What a women!

We will get our new car when we get back from Thailand. It actually came this week. I don't want it to just sit here for two weeks, so I said we would pick it up then. A big part of me wanted to back out of the deal. My old car seems to run ok, so why pay for a new car. I guess there is always going to be a tug between meeting the needs of the day and investing in the future. My old car is rusty, it has over 200,000 km on it and its 19 years old. It probably would not pass another State inspection, I know this. But it runs today...so I wanted to back out of the deal. But the new car is now here, and I can not back out. It is a wise deal, I saved 40% off the cost of a new car. I'm sure I will enjoy the car, but I was thinking I would enjoy that money too. So I get a new car the same day we return from Thailand.

We gave Nicole a very good Mp3 player for her birthday. I told her I would start buying her audible books. She takes the street car to school and back (nearly 2 hours of sitting per day). She can use this time to hear required reading...both in English and German. I found a list of the most important English literature for high school students (101 books). I just bought The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, 11 hours long. It's something for Thailand. Mark Twain spent allot of time in Heidelberg. I thought it was a good place for her to begin. She has 2-3 years to get through the list. Most of the books are not covered in German high school.

This is funny. Obama meant to say that a public option health care plan would not hurt a well run private plan. UPS runs fine and the post office has problems. But that is our point...the government can not even run the post office, so why should we give them health care?

You can not drive in Germany until the age of 18. Germany does allow you to drink at 16, but I don't think Nicole is going bar hopping any time soon. Here she is singing a German birthday song...and just being goofy! She had a good birthday! we are now packing for Thailand. God willing, we leave in 7 days!

Today Nicole is 16 years old! In a way she has always seemed like a 30 year old because she is so wise. In other ways she seems like a ten year old...just wanting to play and still hold on to childhood. I hope she always stays wise and young at heart. It really is the best way to be. We are already trying to prepare ourselves for letting go of our most beautiful child. A friend said I sounded happy about Nicole maybe (Maybe) going to America to University. I'm not happy, I'm sad. But I guess I've always known she would want to spend at least some time in America. Why not? And so if I'm happy about anything, it's that she is considering a move to Corvallis, Oregon. This is where my parents and sisters live. I could at least have the peace of mind knowing she is surrounded by people that love her and will care for her. She is not gone yet. Believe me, I will not just let these next few years pass by unappreciated. I have always loved Nicole, wanted her,...

Nicole had a great time at camp this week. About 100 kids gave their lives to Jesus! Wow!!! Philip and Thomas go tomorrow. I'm praying for them.

I don't want to fill this blog up with our Thailand vacation photos etc. I have made a new blog just about Thailand. We travel (God willing) in 11 days. I'm already packing. Our visit to the orphanage is scheduled for Aug 21. The social workers want us to visit them in their office first, and then we go to the babies home. I've got two very big bags of goodies for the kids. I'm also going to take photos of waiting kids. I had a good talk with Thomas about the orphan visit. I try to talk often to the boys about this visit. I want to be sure they know what to expect, and that they are not anxious about it. Any way, HERE is my new blog. It is also on the side bar.

My Dad will have surgery for a bowel obstruction some time today. I first read about this on my sister Shelley’s blog. Then I read e-mail from my mom. I guess it happened late last night and they didn’t want to phone me . We have a 9 hour time difference. I waited on pins and needles all day, then called mom. No news. I guess she will wake me tonight to tell me how he is. My brother in law had a small stroke last week. He goes into the Dr today, and will also get surgery to remove a blockage in his arteries. So we are a family with some medical needs. I am against the rushed “health care reform” being pushed through congress. I am not against health care reform. I feel they need to slow down and get it right. I also think the US government would do a poor job running things. I know what it's like to have a medical need and no health care. It strikes fear into a persons heart. I also have seen people who had a real need have to fight for coverage. We have “” good ...

They have the votes to pass any bill they want, but if they vote on a health care bill that is against the will of the people it will kill their political future! They can run but they can not hide. There will be another election!!!

I think most of us think for ourselves! If we do not agree with how Obama is leading the country we are now an angry mob...not an responsible American. If we think they should stop spending borrowed money, pay off the national debt and come up with real health reform, not just another welfare program we are a mob!

If you want congress to vote no on this "health care reform" contact your Congress person and Senator. HERE is a link. Write them a letter! Their reform is bad for the elderly and disabled. We need real reform. There are good ideas people can agree on. Everyone wants real reform, that's not the question. Now is the only time we have to prevent this Government disaster. HERE is a link to the Republican ideas on health care reform. They have some pretty good ideas that are not being heard. Maybe you can include some of these ideas in your letter. Contact Democrats. They are the ones who need pressure to vote no, and then give us real reform.

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