Bank Holiday . . . and Trinity College!

Today, Monday 4th May, is a bank holiday in Ireland.  What, you may ask, is the holiday for?  That's a good question as there is no particular reason.  It is not designed as a celebration for a historical evernt such as 'President's Day' or 'Independence Day'.  It is just a really nice holiday!  There are four bank holidays in Ireland this year:

                        May 4th         June 1st          August 3rd          October 26th

So, we have invited a family over for a BBQ later this afternoon.  They live across the street in our estate (sub-division) and down about 10 doors or so.  Sarah does child minding (baby sitting) for them on Thursday and Friday afternoons most weeks.  We are looking forward to having them over and hope the rain stops long enough for us to fire up the wonderful BBQ provided for us by a wonderful family in the states (well sort of).  At any rate, we are thankful for a gas grill as we, along with our Irish friends, very much enjoy a good BBQ!

We also received more great news this past week . . . our second son, Mark, has been accepted into his PhD program here in Dublin at Trinity College.  There are still details to be worked out concerning funding/scholarships but we are trusting the Lord to continue to do what He always does - (work everything together for good for those who love Him).  Mark and his wonderful wife Aubrey (see pic below) finished with Mark's master's degree at Hebrew University in Israel this past spring and are now living in Northern California.  Since Mark's doctorial program will be a research degree, he will only need to be in Ireland about 4 weeks per year.  Wow, is that great for us or what!  Amazing!