We are here!!!!

I woke up this morning feeling the urge to write a post to everyone letting you know we are still here!!!  I know it has been forever since we have updated anyone in any way and I wish I had a really really good excuse.  We have started over a dozen of new updates and never got around to finishing and posting them and then it seems too late.  The past 3 months have been the busiest months of our lives.  The craziness is still going on but seems to have dulled a bit.  I guess it has slowed down long enough to make sure this is posted!:)  These past 3 months we just wanted to update you briefly about everything that has happened. 

-First of all we have been adjusting to life with 3 kids (especially getting used to a toddler again).  We have loved it but there have been a lot of times of struggle.

-Someone in our family has been sick almost every day for the past 2 months.  It started when the lice came at the beginning of July and the sickness hasn’t let up since.  In August we didn’t have one day where one of us wasn’t dealing with some sort of stomach bug.

-Lice… All I can say is I am praying every day it doesn’t come back.  With no running water, no dryer to help with the girls stuffed animals, no lice shampoo I went out of my mind. I never knew bugs could do so much harm and could affect someone mentally like they did our family.

- The literacy and English courses out in Maasailand ended well and they seemed to have learned quite a bit in the past 6 months of classes.

-preparations for  Taa ya Mbali (Maasai discipleship school) took a lot of work but it was well worth it.  The maasai that came were excited to learn and left with a lot of great knowledge. We had a teacher come and teach about circumcision among the girls and the harm that it is causing.  The greatest part was that he is a maasai himself and had a lot of good understanding of culture and ideas to help them continue their rites of passage without causing harm. 

- Nick has been getting ready to lead the DTS here in Arusha.  The leadership team asked nick to please consider leading the DTS this one time to help the base out.  Nick and I prayed about it and agreed to give this next 3 months of the lecture phase to the Arusha DTS.  Meanwhile the literacy and English schools in engikaret will continue through another staff that has committed to take over.

-Building this house has been such an amazing miracle and blessing but has come with a lot of work.  Honestly the beginning was not much work at all. Nick just loved being down at the house, helping but it was necessary for him to be there all the time because we had a good contractor.  But, that all changed at the end. The problems starting showing up when they were putting the finishing touches on.  A lot had happened with the plumbers and they had forgotten a lot of little things that seemed small but meant that a lot of things didn’t work.  We moved in September 1^st with water spilling out everywhere on our floors and our kitchen being unfinished.  The upstairs, which nick was in charge of building, is unfinished because the wood is still wet and was actually growing mold.  But, we moved in!  We had to because my parents where coming in 4 days and we wanted to be settled before they got here.  The kitchen was finished 3 hours before they showed up and we were putting things away until the moment we left for the airport to pick them up.

-2 volunteers from Wenatchee Valley Praise Center came here to volunteer for a month. We are so grateful for their hearts to come and serve. I am in charge of their schedule and their transportation so needless to say, I have been busy with some sort of ministry every day with them.  With 3 kids, it has been a little overwhelming and crazy busy but I just have to take some breathes and continue on!

-Hannah started school!!! Which is a huge improvement from last year. Last year she had a very hard time going but this year she LOVES it and is already starting to read quite a bit. She loves to learn and we are so thankful she has such amazing teachers at her school! 

-As I wrote above my parents came!!!! They came to meet their grandson and see the family as well as do ministry with faces for hope.  I was quite nervous that they wouldn’t get to know Nolan because he is so shy around strangers.  Well, not just shy but screams if they look at him!! But he attached to my parents right away. It was such a blessing. The girls are loving having their grandparents here as well as Nick and I.  We realized we hadn’t played games late at night for a long time!

 

So, that is what has been happening over the past 3 months.  We are so grateful for your support and your prayers over this time. Thank you for loving us and encouraging us.  We will update you with pictures soon but just wanted to get something out there to say “WE ARE HERE!!!”  That is how we have been living every day in this crazy chaos we are in right now.  I wake up and say to Jesus, “I am here” and that is about all I have to give right now but I know that is enough.