Vacation ~ Friday

What a chilly morning! Fall has definitely arrived! We were all up early because we had to be out of the house by 10 AM. It was the mad rush to pack and get the house cleaned up behind us. For breakfast I ate a banana and a sunflower seed cracker while walking around doing this and that. It’s amazing how much work it takes to get out of a house that you’ve only occupied for 3 whole days. We did have a really enjoyable time at “De Kleine Beer.” We’re hoping to go back again some year. (Picture: Josiah giving a thumbs down; he doesn’t like my Acer laptop. Ha!)



We drove by the car racing place again. Dad and Josiah really wanted to go again, but we had to drop the key off at the main office by 10 AM. Mom, Dad, and I walked up the hill at the Ourthe en Somme head office. The view was spectacular. There was the cutest little barn all decorated with flower boxes. I love the way people do that in Belgium!


As I said, the temperature was cold on Friday morning. The grass was covered with dew and the air was nippy. Mom kept teasing as we drove that if the temperature would go up to 50 degrees we could go kayaking, so she was encouraging the temperature by talking it up from 46 to 47 to 48... The temperature did rise slowly, but we all knew it was still too cold to go kayaking. The water would be cold enough to give a person hypothermia. Already I felt miserable between my throat and fingers hurting and itchy nose. I’ve got fall allergies, and they drive my nuts!!! My poor family; I’m afraid I’ve been snappy. =(















On the drive into Belgium we had passed the American WWII Cemetery (see link here) that we’ve visited in the past. Mom suggested we stop, since she knew the three of us kids really wanted to. We love anything having to do with WWII history, both because of my grampa’s participation and my dad’s interest in it.

It was overwhelming to see all those white crosses. I believe 5,328 American soldiers are buried in that cemetery. The full impact of it didn’t really hit me until I started reading all those names and thinking about the lives and untold stories of those brave American men who were willing to sacrifice their lives that strangers in foreign lands might have their freedom. The only remembrance we have of them are their names, the units in which they served and their ranks, the states from which they came, and the dates of their deaths. Some didn’t even have that much.

As I gazed over that burial ground, covered with fresh morning dew, so many unanswered questions filled my mind. Who were they? How young were they when they died? How did they die? Did they suffer terribly? Who did they leave behind? A grieving mother and father? A wife and children? Two graves had flowers on them, meaning somebody must have visited from the States recently. I wonder how they felt having their loved one buried in foreign soil, so very far from home.


Then Mom said she wondered how many of their graves would burst open at the Rapture. How many souls received Jesus Christ as their Saviour? How many of those heroes would rise from their cold beds of earth to meet the Lord in the air? What a thought! What a day of victory when a moral shall put on immortality!!!

After looking around the burial grounds we headed back to the American memorial. Inside the huge building were three enormous map-like plans of the war on the walls, as well as two American flags and some beautiful inscriptions engraved on the wall.
Everything was beautifully kempt. One thing I love about America is this: America takes care of her own! Makes me proud to be an American!!!

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you,
Jesus Christ and the American Soldier
One died for your soul;
the other for your freedom.