God saw everything that had been created, the whole wide world: and God knew that the Good Earth was a beautiful planet, full with abundance, teeming with life, and supremely good.

Genesis 1:31 – author paraphrase

This is an exciting moment for me! I get to feature photographs of our amazing grandson and his parents. The Pashby-Mauls had a professional family photo shoot on the grounds of the beautiful Schloss Pillnitz (or Pillnitz Castle), just outside of Dresden, Saxony, and some of the images fit their criteria for on-line sharing.

• BTW – if you want to see some stunning photographs around Schloss Pillnitz, here is my post featuring our visit there with Andrew and Alicia just 24-hours before their son – Mr. T. – was born: That Little House in the Country You Always Wanted.

(For those of you who do not know, Andrew and Alicia have decided to keep their son’s name and likeness off of social media until he is old enough to make his own decisions regarding privacy. Consequently he is “Mr. T.” and all I get to share here is the back of his head!)

Our international grandson is now almost two years old, and from all the videos we see and the FaceTime conversations we have it is fair to say that he is thriving. Mr. T. is curious, always busy, energetic, determined, and – in a word – beautiful. We can’t wait to get together before too much more time goes by. The Dresden Mauls will soon, as of August 1, be the Bahrain Mauls, as both Andrew and Alicia been recruited to work as teachers at the state of the art American School of Bahrain.

This is especially exciting for Andrew as the post will be his first full-time professional teaching position. His previous career was in civil service, where he worked as a planner and a logistics specialist. He was then employed as a classroom substitute and school activities coordinator while adding both a Masters in Public Administration and a teaching certification to his Curriculum Vitae.

Since their marriage in 2013, Andrew and Alicia have lived in Italy, in Uzbekistan, and in Germany. The Kingdom of Bahrain will make for continent number three and country number four.

Rebekah and I are beyond happy that Andrew and Alicia found each other, and that they are so fulfilled as they follow their dream to live as Global Citizens. They, along with Mr. T., are an important part of God’s gift of light and grace to this broken world.

Peace, for all of us and to all people – DEREK