Hi. This is Laura Swartzendruber, Ange’s mom. We’ve been back home 2 weeks since visiting Ange & Mark and I wanted to catch you up a bit on their doings.  An amazing event was attending Ange’s ultrasound and seeing Baby Beaker at 19 weeks! What a miracle!  Have you seen an ultrasound?  The technician points out different organs and tells you some of the things she’s looking for. Notably absent at this hospital is any search for the revealing organs defining a boy or a girl. Notices are posted to not even ASK the technician the sex of your baby. So, if a picture might reveal it, we are not capable of reading it. It was exciting to share this moment with our children. Ange certainly has that special glow. She is beautiful.

It was also exciting to see God’s provision in their lives – the large new house he’s supplied for their ministry of hospitality plus the gift of kitchen basics.

Mark is very disciplined in working his job on the computer every afternoon. I think it would be hard with people around who are doing fun things. Ange and I did ‘projects’ – made a diaper bag, jewelry, meals and such. Lloyd walked and walked every day. He always power walked up that last steep stretch to Ange’s house. After hearing more and more daring tales of where he wandered around the mountains, we got so we were afraid to let him out of the house by himself!  Finally, on our last day, Lloyd and Mark climbed to the top of Slieve Donnard, the highest mountain in N. Ireland.

We travelled to Cork over Memorial Day weekend and played the tourist role for a bit. Happened on a festival of sea chanties in Waterford. A night at Waterford Castle was so cool. Check out hotels.com for great rates.

Some observations: Mark is amazing on the bodhran (drum); 10 pm is hardly even dusk, but between 10:15 & 10:30, it gets dark for about 5 hours; even on sunny days it’s rarely very warm; it costs $80 to fill the car with gas; Mark is an excellent Bible teacher; Ireland is too far away.

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