7 Years of Life

Our Judah is 7 years old!

He’s grown up quite a bit this last year. He’s started to develop a sense of humor that has us laughing out loud often. He carries around his baby brother (something that surprises many Americans but is very common in Tanzania), feeds him baby food and plays with him. He’s even tried to change his diaper. He switches easily between English, German, and Swahili, and often amazes us at the English words he uses and at the amount of Swahili he understands. He is a social boy who is often heard saying things like, “Are we going anywhere today? Is anyone coming over toady? Can Jonas have a sleepover?”

He loves knowledge and has a million questions in his mind. He is enraptured by stories and would have me read to him all day long
(but doesn’t care very much for practicing his own reading skills). He loves learning about Columbus and Leif the Lucky and the Pilgrims and is getting pretty competitive about memorizing his AWANA verses. He likes to be the leader and can be quite bossy. But he is also shy and timid when it comes to new situations and likes to send little bro Elias first to check things out before following him.

It is our prayer that, ultimately, Judah will learn and grow in following Jesus as the guide of his life and the light of his path! Judah’s name means “praise” and there is nothing that we desire more for our firstborn than to praise the Lord our God with his whole heart, soul, mind, and strength!

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Here is his annual birthday interview with 22 Questions for Judah:

1. How old are you? “Seven”
2. How old is Mommy? “33” (not quite but on most days I even forget how old I am…)
3.  How old is Daddy? “34” (right on)
4. What is something Mommy says to you? “Wewe!’ (“You” in Swahili)
5. What makes you happy? “God, my Kindle, Mommy and Daddy.”
6. What makes you sad? “Fighting with people, people dying, trees dying, and forest fires.” (he apparently cares a whole lot about trees!)
7. What makes you laugh? “Daddy tickling me!”
8. What is your favorite thing to do? “Speak with God, talk with Mommy and Daddy, playing with Jonas.”
9. What’s your favorite thing to do outside? “Snowball fights!” (The boys have been catching up on winter and snow and are loving it.)
10. Who’s your best friend? “Jonas, Willy, Elias, Mathayo, that’s all. Oh, and Selah and Gideon and Elliott and Emery.”
11. What are you really good at? “Being the leader, and finding the way when we get lost.”
12. What’s your favorite Bible story? “David and Goliath, because David beats the giant and later becomes a supercool king and fights a lot of battles.”
13. What is God like? “He’s gentle and kind.”
14. Which superhero do you want to be? “Ice-Man! Then I have ice power and can, like, do stuff with ice and build cool ice machines and then I have water power too because ice turns into water!” (he’s always valued efficiency)
15. What’s your favorite food? “Ice cream and french fries.”
16. What’s your favorite book? “The Green Ember! There are so many battles!” (he has a thing for battles)
17. What’s your favorite movie? “That movie on snakes I watched at Nana and Papa’s.”
18. What’s your favorite song? “Baby shark, doo doo doo doo doo… and Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.”
19. What’s your favorite color? “Black. Because ninjas are black…and I like ninjas.”
20. What’s your favorite animal? “A wolf because they’re so cool and can jump really high.”
21. What’s your favorite toy? “Löwi and my blue sword.” (Löwi is his favorite stuffed animal since he was a baby)
22. What do you want to do when you grow up? “First of all, an archer, then go to different countries and make movies, like Planet Earth… a forester or whatever that’s called. And a painter!”

Happy birthday, Judah!