Thursday, May 14, 2009

Our crate arrived!




Let's open it up and see what we got.....




Where are your books? That is all they were concerned about. Unfortunately the books were near the back of the crate. So, piece by piece they started unloading the crate.



This is Ron talking with the customs officer. Praise the Lord after about 15-20 things were pulled out Ron found a box with some books in it and thankfully the books were a writers' manual and a Rosetta Stone book and not the many, many evangelism books or books on Islam. God was good! The customs officer seemed satisfied and signed off of the crate. We think it helped that we talked a good bit of Wolof with him and he was very impressed (amused) with our attempt to speak with him. So they starting putting all of the things that they took out back in. Only 2 things didn't fit and had to be held off separately. It was fun to see their faces reacting to some of the items they had never seen before. The nerf dart gun, kites, candle warmer, Christmas tree topper - we did a lot of charades! It was delivered the next morning. They had a machine that dropped the whole crate over our gate. We hadn't told the kids that it was here - so they had a huge surprise when they got home from school! There was much shouts of glee and excitement.
Before we left the States, we read a book about a boy who collected his most prized possessions in a special box. So we stole the idea and had each of them collect their most favorite things and put them in a box - it was neat to see them pull each item out and reminisce about the memory or love on a stuffed animal. We gave away a lot of their toys when we left, but these special items helped them forget what they left behind and allowed them to appreciate what they chose to keep!

2 comments:

The McNeill family said...

We are praying for your family! I peek at your blog often and it's such a treat to read a new post. Are your children blogging or journaling about their adventures?

Jodie Waller said...

Yay! SOOO excited for you all! You've been waiting a while- I can remember how awesome it was to get our crate and we didn't have to wait half as long as you guys!