Merry Christmas!

We wanted to wish all our faithful blog readers a Merry Christmas!

We are back in the States after a fairly uneventful trip. The kids were champs (thanks for your prayers!). Tricia, as she was trying to make sure she had all the kids with her, left her purse on the airplane in Zurich. They wouldn't let us get back on because of security reasons, so we had to leave Switzerland without it. Now they say that they found it and it made it to Chicago, but because of the holidays no one is answering the phone there! Hopefully we can get it after Christmas, but at least we know that it wasn't stolen!

It has been very hard coming back to the States, knowing that this time we are not returning to Africa after the holidays. Jeremy will be going again in January to help with the training of new missionaries, but the rest of the family will stay put. Please keep us in your prayers as we are getting readjusted to our home culture, which is of course very different from the one we lived in for the last three years. Jake is missing his friends from the complex, especially his best friend Manny, and also missing his friends and teachers from his school, Happy Hearts. It will be hard during this transition but we keep telling him it will be better once we get settled down.

The nice thing is that we are all distracted from our "home sickness" by all our friends and family we haven't been able to see for so long. It has been nice spending time with everyone! We are thankful for our family and friends that have been very supportive and thoughtful during our time of transition. Please keep praying for us!

Of course, all of these little "life" concerns pale in comparison to the significance of the event we celebrate tomorrow. Our hope is that among all of the presents, food, family and fun that we remember that into the messy stables of our lives (he didn't require the Four Seasons!) came a Savior... what a cause for celebration!

Once again, thanks for all of your prayers and support during our three-year term as missionaries. We will have a couple more updates, and then will transition to a new blog about our life in the US (we will make sure to post the link here). In the meantime, have a very merry Christmas, and please pray for Jeremy to find the job that God has waiting on him and a smooth transition for our family.

Gloria in excelsis deo!

The Johnson Five

So much going on!

We haven't blogged about our trip to Cape Town or of Jake's end of year concert and awards. Here are some pictures.

Ryan was just happy to sit back and watch, when we put his feet in the ocean he did a crazy growling noise, we figured he would rather just relax on the towel.

Katie really enjoyed the sand and ocean, she didn't want to get out.

Jake having fun swimming with the penguins. Man, this kid has had so many wonderful experiences. (Notice the penguin posing for the camera)

Kids at the beach.

Jake touching a starfish at the Two Oceans aquarium.

The torture chamber in the Castle we visited in Cape Town.

Babies playing at Mineral World. We had to keep dummies (pacifiers) in so that they wouldn't eat the rocks.

Jake is looking for the perfect rocks to fill his bag and Mineral World.

He was the best little pirate at his concert.

He won a trophy. ("what he always dreamed of") It was for the best swimmer in each class. His teacher was great and Jake really liked him. Thanks, Uncle John!

This will most likely be the last post we do before returing to the States. We have alot of work to to before we leave on the 15th. We are very sad to be leaving Africa and all our friends. There has been alot of tears around here as we close down our lives in South Africa and prepare for the move. Jake is having a really hard time with leaving. He is such a special kid in the way he makes such deep friendships at just the age of 5. His friends have been crying to their parents telling them they must also move with Jake to the States. At school they gave him a certificate, he won the Best Buddy award. We are so proud of him for having so many great friends but that just makes it REALLY hard for him to go. Please pray for him as he goes through a very tramatic experience in leaving his "favorite place in the world" and all of his "hundreds of best friends".

The babies don't have any friends but sure do love the lady that comes to babysit sometimes and also helps us with a little cleaning. Here are a couple of pictures.

Everytime you think of us, please pray for all the things we are dealing with right now. Here are a few but I am sure you all can think of more.

1. Job hunt

2. Jakes coping with leaving

3. Our coping with leaving

4. Safe travels

5. Flying with all three on a 20 hour flight

6. Getting our shipment off and all things packed up.

Thanks for praying!

Until next time,

The Johnson Five

Thanks for the Prayers!

Jake is home and his surgery was successful. Apparently, Jake will continue to have ear problems, most kids grow out of it, but the Doc said that Jakes ears are bad and don't seem to be getting better with age. So once we are back to the States we will still have to keep getting him checked out and watch for more hearing loss. Jake is in a little pain but is still enjoying himself. We rented three movies for him and he is enjoying popsicles and lots of juice. Thanks for your prayers.

Prayer Request

Just wanted to let you all know that Jake will be having surgery tomorrow (Wed. at about 1pm South Africa time). He is having trouble hearing and has lost 30 percent of his hearing. This is the third time he is getting grommets(tubes) put in so hopefully this is the last time. Please pray for the doctors and for Jake as this is a little scary for him.
We have lots of pictures to post, just no time to post them. We hope to get some up before this weekend.

8 Months!

We took pictures of the kids in their Chiefs gear. We ended up taking about 15 pictures because it is hard to get everyone to look at the camera and smile, at the same time. Each picture showed alittle personality so we decided to post a few of them. Enjoy!

The following are pictures of the babies on their 8 month birthday (the 15th)

Ryan practicing sitting up. He is so lazy and if a pillow is by him he just lays down. He still has alot of work to do but it able now to sit by himself for about 2 minutes which means we are making progress.

Katie eating her first teething biscuit. She thought she was pretty cool. She can now accomplish getting what she wants by rolling and scooting backwards. We have also seen her a few times up on all fours rocking so she is getting closer to crawling. We are hoping that she holds off on crawling until we arrive in the States. It will make are lives alot easier while traveling if she isn't wanting to crawl around everywhere.

Prayer Requests:

1. Safe travels as we visit lots of places during our last month here.

2. That even in the midst of all the stress we would have the wisdom to know how to help the kids (Jake specifically) through this huge change.

3. Our friend Tougida as she is in the hospital in ICU after complication from a surgery. Also, for her husband and son during this time.
4. For Jeremy as he will need to find a job at the beginning of the year. We keep hearing of the massive lay offs, but pray that God will have the perfect job for him.

Until next time,

The Johnson Five

Rhino and Lion Park

As our time here is coming to an end we are trying to visit some of our favorite sites. We took a trip to the Lion and Rhino park this weekend and had a wonderful time. This was the babies first trip on a safari and they could have cared less, they just enjoyed being able to get out of their car seats while we were driving. Here are a few pics.




Jake all ready to explore the "Wonder Cave". He brought his head light and his glow in the dark necklace (which had stopped glowing about a month ago). The cave was 60 meters underground and Jake thought is was awesome.

They were getting ready to feed the cheetah you can see what they were about to feed them in the back of the truck.

We have never seen wild dog this close so we took quite a few pictures it was pretty cool.

Warthog mom with three little babies, we got some funny videos of these babies chasing an ostrich.

Until next time,

The Johnson Five

Lots of Fun!

This last week has been quite busy. Jeremy is in Kenya working with communications equipment and this left Tricia home by herself for the first time since the twins have been born. Now granted, she takes care of everything by herself during the day normally, but this has been four days now. The worst part is first thing in the morning when all three kids are starving and one of the babies is crying because they have to wait their turn. The next most difficult time is right before bed when everyone is very tired and not wanting to tolerate Mommy taking too long to get them to bed. Jake is a big help but he has his limits also. We are all looking forward to when we are all back together and on our smooth schedule again.

While Daddy was in Kenya, Jake's school had a fun walk. Jake worked really hard doing chores for neighbors and raised R100 (about 11 dollars).

The crew Tricia walked with for the Fun walk.

Jake and some friends after the walk.

Jake and his girlfriend Gabby.

Jake and his friend Emmanuel showing off their medals they received for completing the walk.

Next are pictures taken over the last week around the house. The babies are 7 1/2 months now. Katie is finally sitting by herself and has her first tooth. Ryan does really well holding himself up while on his tummy but has a long way before he sits by himself. The therapy is going well but it will just take him some time.

It is amazing how one little toy can keep all three entertained.

Cuddling before bed.

I had to take this picture because this is how Ryan looks most of the time. He likes to have his bib in his mouth. So funny!

I asked Jake what he learned at school today and he said, "I learned how to make glasses from pipe cleaners". We think that is a very valuable skill.

Katie relaxing in her boat, reading.

Please Pray:

1. For Jeremy's safety while in Kenya and during his travels back to Joburg.

2. For Ryan, as we are trying to figure out how to get him caught up physically.

3. For all of us as we deal with packing and selling things.

4. For Jake's emotional state during this big move, he is very nervous and sad to be leaving South Africa.

Jake's Quote:

Jake: "Mom I feel like I need to cry now because I don't want to leave South Africa and all my friends"

Tricia: "Go ahead and cry, it will make you feel better. I am going to go to your school and take lots of pictures of your friends so you can always remember them."

Jake: "No, you can't Mom, because I have hundreds of friends."

Until next time,

The Johnson Five

Haircuts!!!

Tricia's expertise of cutting hair has its limits. There is either the really short cut done with the clippers, or she can do minor trims as it is growing longer. Once it gets too long, it is out of her league. Jake's hair was longer than it has ever been before and it was either a minor trim or a massive cut. We think this time he needed more than a minor trim. We like to call it a "summer cut"... so out came the clippers. Ryan didn't escape the fun, and got his first hair cut also. Lots of fun around the Johnson house!

Jake loves that he can spike his new 'do.

Katie is holding Ryan's hand, giving him moral support before the big hair cut.

Ryan before his cut.

He is getting a little nervous.

He got his bangs cut and realized that he isn't having fun.

I don't think he likes his new haircut.

But... he really did enjoy wearing the haircutting cape!

Until Next Time,

The Johnson Five

Lots of new pictures, enjoy!!!

If you have been following our blog for a long time, you have heard about Lindi. She is a little girl from an orphange that we volunteer at. Jake loved her when he first met her. He thought she was the cutest baby there. She is now three and living in a foster home. The lady that is fostering her is the music minister at our church. Every Sunday we would go pick Lindi up from the orphange and bring her to church. Cathy, the music minister, fell in love with her too. We are so happy that now she is living with Cathy and we still get to see her every Sunday. Jake has been begging to have her over to play again so here are a few pictures from her visit last Saturday.

We took the babies to the doctor this week for a regular checkup. Katie is doing great and staying on track for a preemie baby. However, Ryan is still giving us trouble. While at the visit the doc diagnosed him with asthma. He also thinks it is best to send him for some extra help from a neurophysiotherapist. Katie is behind appropriately for a premie but Ryan is even more behind than that. Ryan keeps us on our toes with the medical stuff while Katie keeps us on our toes with her behavior. :)

Katie trying to escape her bouncy seat.

Jake and his friends all wearing goggles to play in the sprinkler.

Katie modeling her new outfit from Don and Cheryl at the Spanish Church in KC. They also sent outfits for Jake and Ryan but it has been hard to get them all in their outfits at the same time. Someone is always needing to be changed. Thanks for the Chiefs outfits, soooo cute!

Just relaxing, they sure do love each other.

Ryan and Jake cuddling before bed.

Ministry Update:
World Mission Communications is partnering with our French Equatorial Field on a DVD of a drama geared towards children at the end of this month, which is an exciting project. We also have gotten approval to proceed with finishing our animated DVD of the Articles of Faith StudyMap. This is a the teaching tool that the Africa Region is using both for evangelism and discipleship purposes. It uses graphics to teach the Articles of Faith. The creator of the AOF StudyMap is also working on a series of StudyMaps to teach the entire Bible, book by book. It really works too! It has been an awesome tool that we hope to teach other regions (including the US) to utilize.

Prayer Requests:

1. Prayer for the millions of things we need to do to close out our time here.

2. Ryans health: his eating problems, his asthma, and his physical delays.

Jake's Quote of the Week:

"Feel my finger, it feels so soft. It feels so soft because it loves people."

Until Next Time,

The Johnson five