Paul turns 10 on September 8!

Perhaps it is because he is the youngest that I can take the time to reflect on these previous 10 years with a little more thought and sanity...or maybe it’s just my age and stage…

2006: One year ago, Scott and I missed being with Paul on his birthday. We were in Moscow en route to Kyrgyzstan on an official YFC trip. Because my brother with his wife and children had recently moved to Kyrgyzstan, we were also able to mix a little “extended family time” with a work trip. It was a special trip for the two of us, but it was so hard not being with Paul on his birthday. In the rush of preparing for leaving, I had forgotten to make a cake. When we finally got around to it a couple of months later, I got a store-bought TOW-Mater cake from the movie CARS from a local bakery…hard to believe we can get store-bought cakes here in Chiang Mai much less with movie themes iced on top. I found out after the fact that Paul just wanted a cake with lots of icing…is he really my child? Anyway, Paul was a great sport about it all…following in his sister’s footsteps. Faith has probably had more birthdays with one of us gone than she has had with both of us present.

In my opinion, turning 9 brought a year of intangible transitions for Paul and some fantastic first time experiences. His transitions ushered in evidence of a growing and quiet maturity…not that he is quiet, by any means, but it seemed to be very evident on our trip to Indiana this past summer. He had developed a very “seize the moment” attitude which was dormant during our transition time from Australia to America just 2 ½ years earlier. Paul took up writing with a fury during 2006 and he completed his first couple of stories--Jonny and Pipen and Worms. Another couple of highlights were his participation in an unplanned chess tournament and his plans with his best friend, Dong Bin, to run a pub in Tasmania while his mom and dad cook and he writes books…Hmmm…what’s in store for us all in the next decade?


2005: 2 years ago Paul was graciously being home schooled in the home of the Vickery family in Indianapolis. Our planned move to Thailand had been postponed due to Faith’s surgery and recuperation time. Paul was thoroughly enjoying playing soccer on a nearby church team, Wednesday baking and art days with Maw and Paw, additional trips to Steak and Shake with Momo and Papa, extra playtime visits with the Botta boys, and runs through the “big back yard at the Noblesville Mission House” with his many sticks as guns in hand. His birthday was a double birthday celebration unknowingly for one last time with Great-Grandma Boyer. A day or two later, another celebration for Paul took us to Uncle Dean and Aunt Carrie’s with his siblings, parents, grandparents, and cousins---the 3M’s---Madi, Merrill and Mollie and Cocoa too. We let off balloons of many colors with our addresses attached announcing the special occasion. Paul chose the orange one and it traveled straight up high and darted South to where it disappeared from view with all the others. We basked in the refreshment of one last Indiana autumn before finishing our around the world trip and subsequent move to Thailand. Paul had just turned 8 when our family left Indiana and traveled 2 ½ months through Ukraine, Northern Ireland, England, Lebanon, India, Australia once more…and finished in Thailand.

2004: 3 years ago Paul’s 7th birthday was celebrated with one friend on an adventure to Healesville Sanctuary and a quiet walk through grape vines at a Yarra Valley vineyard on the way home. Before turning 7, he had visited his favorite place on earth---Tasmania. He had also hiked Rawnsley’s Bluff in the Flinder’s Ranges of South Australia. Paul had developed a solid Aussie accent, learned to read, cut his reading teeth on a young reader’s Story Bible and Tin Tin books, learned he was allergic to ant bites, and was preparing to leave the only home he could really remember. He felt the sadness of leaving the loved ones he had adopted as family. As his body prepared for another Australian summer, he returned to the bitter cold of an Indiana winter. It was here where he encountered the painful realization of momentary friendships which led to withdrawal for a while.

2003: 4 years ago Paul couldn’t remember what Christmas in Indiana was like, the smell or feel of snow, or the names of people he used to know. Paul also put a hole in his head that earned him six stitches and an ambulance ride to the Free Masons hospital down in the city just days before turning six. Both sets of grandparents had made visits to see us in Melbourne. Maw and Paw were able to time their visit to be with Paul on his birthday.

Paul was halfway through his first year of school which had been a rude awakening into the beginning realities of life. Aussie Rules Football was an enormous part of Paul’s activities as he chose the Brisbane Lions as his team, played against himself wherever and whenever he could find enough space and watched our adoptive family grow to include many others…many of whom were present for another celebration.

2002: 5 years ago I think I realized that over the course of our busy lives the celebration of birthdays in a special way had taken a back seat. I baked another cake---a chocolate race track cake--- made pizza and had our “newly adopted family members” over for a birthday celebration…the Rhyders, and the Blythes. Paul was my helper at home on Shorts Road and as we navigated and learned our way around the streets, roads, and nearby bush of Melbourne on the other side of the road and the other side of the car! We also spent gorgeous days watching and feeding exotic birds with fantastic personalities. For the first time in Paul’s life he was an only child at home for 4 months---and he really rose to the occasion. Goodonya Mate!

2001: 6 years ago Scott and I made the decision to join YFC which meant a move to Australia. This began nearly a year of transition and a life altering time for the entire family. Also, three days after Paul’s 4th birthday the planes hit the World Trade Center and our country unwillingly entered a new season in its history---and this event is something of which Paul has no recollection.

2000: 7 years ago Paul was wearing a Belle dress so he could participate and be Queen Lucy when the kids played “Narnia”. He was the only one who had to cross-dress to be in “the play”---now that’s Shakespearian! Paul and Matthew had their days together as true pirate-cowboy-builder-explorer-hunter-playmates while Faith and Tim began their third and unknowingly final year at the Oaks. Many cold days we sat in the crazy quilt chair snuggled with bears and blankets and read books in front of the bookshelves. The upstairs sunroom was a special place too as I did laundry and the boys had floor space for their toys. In the warmer seasons we found ourselves in the front porch swing singing songs and swinging high. And the backyard provided a natural place for explorations, yard work, and playing ball.

1999: 8 years ago because of a shift in jobs, goals, and growing principles, we downsized from our newly built home and landed ourselves in Irvington for a third time. I remember my mother asking me as we carried things in the front door, “So do you think you can stay put here for a good long while?” I finally was able to answer---“you know, I just don’t know anymore.” I think I was beginning to really believe that only the Lord knows the plans He has for us.

----I must stop a minute before moving on in years to notice something…when Faith was born---each day, week, month, and year seemed to stop and revolve around her growth and changes and how she fit into the picture or how the picture framed around her. This was by no means her fault, but more the way we are and were as first time parents. With Paul, even as I reflect right now, the years following his birth did not (could not) revolve around him at all in the slightest like we let them for Faith. He just fit in to a life that seemed to be already in motion.


1998: 9 years ago Paul was sitting on the green island in the kitchen spinning on the backs of his heels with a big toothy and joyous grin. He also shouted “Yikes!” loudly enough to rattle my nerves from the back seat of our white mini van. Faith and Tim started at the Oaks Academy at the same time on the exact day of Paul’s first birthday. As I hung in the halls with a tight throat and butterflies in my stomach, Margee Boswell (Tim’s new Kindergarten teacher) wisely said, “Its okay---it’s time for you to go home now.” Scott went to the office and I went home to a half empty house and baked a birthday cake through a rising tide of tears and a knowing sense of this was a new and different season. The Lord will sustain! When the kids returned from school that day, Faith pulled Paul in the wagon in the back yard and played in the leaves. We had dinner and ate the cake with our extended family on both sides and people who could have easily been family.

1997: 10 years ago when Paul was born, we had just finished building our house on Meridian Street in Indianapolis, Indiana. We had a bumper crop of hydrangeas that I learned to dry and gave many away to Mrs. Wruble…and we had very little grass. I remember Scott’s grandmother quietly reminding me that it wasn’t the time to grow grass…but to put my time into the children. That year, the autumn was clear and crisp and our backyard was full of tall sugar maples that turned brilliant colors under the sunny blue skies and our youngest entered our lives!