Update

We are continually amazed at how fast the time flies here. We just finished our first quarter and only a 1 1/2 months until Christmas break. The kids did great this first quarter. Zach received straight A's, with one of his classes being AP French. He is really wanting to be on National Honor Society, so that really motivated him. He was cast in the play "The Curious Savage" and that happens in 2 weeks. He is nervous, but really excited. He was also selected as 1 of 12 high schoolers to be on a peer mediation committee. He had to be recommended by the faculty - we were very proud of him. He continues to grow in the Lord and has quite a reputation for spiritual maturity. Luke did well on his report card - with all A's and B's. He probably won't be the scholar that Zach is, but has so much personality teachers love him!! Luke has really thrived in the dorm. His dorm Mom says that he is her right hand man and is constantly in the kitchen helping her cook. He really has taken an interest in cooking - he even joined the cooking club. Faith loves being in the dorm surrounded by all of these girls. She did great on her grades, earning all A's and B's. She loves her teacher and still loves being in Africa. She is on the junior basketball team and really likes playing.

Electricity has been much improved in the last month. Although we have lots of brown outs, we rarely lose power. That is great! We have heard that this is just until February when the elections are being held. You can pray about that - pray that it is a smooth, fair process.

We are excited to be in the process of coming home for furlough. While we love being in Africa and know that this is where we are supposed to be, there are days it is hard. We are excited to be back in the States and see our family and friends. We are continuing to work on figuring out schooling for the kids, living arrangements, travel, visiting churches, etc. We know that time will fly and we will be home before we know it! We love and miss you all greatly and look forward to when we are hanging out!

We have finally settled in and really feel like we are in a groove! Our transition to the girls has been a smooth one and we really feel like this is where God wants us! We love being with the girls and love discovering all of the differences between parenting both. School is in full swing and has started with a bang. In addition to being dorm parents, we are also in charge of student senate. We host our first event this Friday night and are hoping it goes off without a hitch. Zach is a rep for the sophomore class and really enjoys being part of this leadership team. Luke is finally adjusted to being downstairs and has settled in to the role of helper. He loves being in the kitchen and helping his dorm Mom and she loves his help too! Faith is playing basketball and learning piano and is doing really well with both. She loves being with all of the girls and is totally included in their lives. She has been given a secret sister and loves writing and receiving notes and gifts. The kids are really thriving here and are growing in their relationship with the Lord!!

We are continuing to plan for our time in the US this summer. We are happy to report that friends of ours are letting us use their mini-van, so our transportation is covered. We are still looking for a furnished apartment or in-law suite, if you know of anything please email us!

Life in Dakar continues to march on - power still has been an issue, despite tons of money being dumped into the economy. The economy still continues to be an issue with the nationals. There is an election slated for February and it promises to be interesting. Our current president Abdoulaye Wade wants to run again, but has already met his time quota. Some want him to continue more want another leader. The people are tired of no electricity and staples being so expensive. We pray that it is a peaceful election!!!!! Many of the staff here have gone through an evacuation and nobody wants that. We are preparing for the worst - praying for the best! We will continue to update as the time gets closer!

We love and miss you all!

School is here

Our 3rd year of dorm parenting started Wednesday with the arrival of our 12 girls. They arrived with lots of luggage and hugs and giggles. Faith has loved being with the girls - she definitely feels a part of the dorm. We have some younger girls, so that has been nice for Faith. The boys are down stairs and are loving being in the dorm. They have come upstairs often - so that has been nice for us! We definitely miss them being in our apartment though. But the fact that they have amazing dorm parents with 23 years of experience, I think is going to be such an great time of growth.

School started Thursday - so we only had 2 days of school and then the weekend. That was nice to be able to get started, but then have a break to get settled. We are finding the differences between boys and girls pretty great - not that we didn't know that with our own children, but when you have large groups of boys and then have large groups of girls, the differences are vast. The biggest difference of course is food - they barely eat compared to the boys. However, I did discover they can chow down on some brownies!! I have heard that the first week is a little bit weird with nervousness, etc. So hopefully it will increase a little bit once they get settled. Another big difference is communication - in these 4 days the girls have talked with me about missing their parents, periods, nervousness, etc. Boys tend to keep it tucked inside. But so far it is great - we love the girls and think it is going to be a great year!

PRAYER
Here are our girls names if you ever want to pray for them: Erin, Susanna, Akinyi (pronounced like bikini with an a), Yea Lim, Hannah, Rebecca, Heather, Gloria, Ha Young, Grace, Allison, Yea Rang.

Pray that they would transition quickly - especially the new girls. Pray that the home sickness won't last long.

We continue to make plans for our stateside time - pray that the detail will come together.

Thanks again for your support and prayers for our family!

Zach took this and edited it - the roman aquaduct in Segovia.


Royal church by the palace

Royal palace

In Mallorca

Statue in the park

Went to the bull fighting arena - there are bull fights every Sunday



Streets of Madrid - 11 o'clock at night

In Segovia



Mallorca


Met this priest and his brother who is a baker and baked this bread for communion - they loved Faith!

5 days left

Well, summer here is officially winding down - we have 5 days until the girls start showing up. We have had a great summer, full of fun and lots of memory making things. Kids had a great summer, but are ready for their friends to come back. Faith is excited

We have 12 girls in the Fall and then 2 more come in January so it is not too big. We have 2 seniors, 3 juniors, 1 sophomore, 4 freshman, 4 middle schoolers. So it is a pretty young dorm. We are very excited to start this new transition and look forward to experiencing the differences between parenting a group of girls versus guys.

The electricity has been a constant source of aggravation for us - it is a little bit better now, going off for 2-4 hours a day. Unfortunately alot of those times are at 10 pm - ugh. It hasn't rained that much for rainy season, so I suspect that there will be a lot more rain coming soon - hopefully it will help the heat - we start sweating the minute we wake up, gross!

We have only minor things to do for the dorm to be ready thanks to our predecessors! We will try to be better about blogging - our internet is a little slow, but will try to post pictures soon.

Our plans for furlough are starting. We will be leaving here around June 10th and flying into Washington DC - we will be in Maryland and also go to North Carolina to visit our friends there!
I know it is a while until that happens, but want to get things lined up - does anyone have a vehicle that they would be willing to let us use/rent for the 7 months we are in the States? We are trying to reserve a vehicle with some of the companies that rent out to missionaries, but they are all booked right now, but will keep looking. We are also looking at some options for housing - anyone have a guest house, missionary apartment or in-law suite (preferably with separate entrance or kitchen)? Please email us if you have any information - we are just starting our planning, but wanted to throw it out here first.

We are starting our planning for visiting and speaking at churches as well, if you would like us to visit your church and speak, please email us!

Summer

Wow - it is hard to believe that it has been a month since I last posted. We have been jet setting in Spain, moving, taking a French class and trying to relax with the kids by the pool. We had an amazing time in Spain. We started by going to Madrid for 3 days and enjoyed some museums, parks and fast food. We then flew to Mallorca - a little island off the coast of Spain. We rented a car and drove around this amazing little island. We saw beaches and mountains and lots of beautiful countryside. We spent 5 days here and we all felt that we could have stayed longer. The beautiful Mediterranean Sea was absolutely gorgeous. We then headed back to Madrid for another week. We saw more museums, went to malls, drank Starbucks, walked through parks, went to a zoo, and enjoyed amazing architecture. Overall it was an amazing opportunity, one our kids will hopefully never forget.

As soon as we got back, we started a French intensive course at the university. It is 8-12 everyday for 5 weeks. It has been a huge boost in our language, but our brain hurt at the end of the time. We also joined a pool here and that has been fun. We meet the kids here after class and hang out for a few hours to play and swim.

In the midst of all these things we moved to another apartment. Our new apartment was painted, and it looks great. It was a good opportunity for us to clean out some things, go through clothes that were too small and reevaluate what we are choosing to keep around us. So overall it was a really positive experience.

The kids are having a good summer too - they are spending the night at friends house, enjoying some independence while we are at class and love being lazy. Ron has been taking the time to hang out with some of the nationals and practice his French while drinking tea. It has been good to try to build some good relationships.

Well, in the next post I will put up some pictures from our summer. Internet and power continue to be an issue, although this week the power has been much better. The president promised to keep the power better since the last riots and demonstrations. So hopefully it will continue! Enjoy your summer! Drop us a line if you have some time.

Off to Spain

We are heading off to Spain tonight - we are very excited. We will arrive in Portugal and spend the day touring Lisbon and then we will head to Madrid. We will spend 3 days in Madrid and then we fly to Mallorca. We have rented an apartment and will basically soak up the Mediterranean sun and relax as well as see the museums and culture. We then will travel back to Madrid where we will spend a week touring the city and getting a little Western culture. We arrive back on the 29th and then proceed to finish moving upstairs to our new apartment. We are really excited about this opportunity and will post lots of pics and info when we get back. Thanks for all your support for our family. Love and miss you!