Mid-January update

So we'll officially stop apologizing about not blogging more often. We would love to think that we would blog more often, but as you can see from over a year of blogging, we're just not good at blogging consistently.

So here's the run down:
We rang in the New Year's with a bit of a get together in our apartment with fellow gringos. We ate, played board games, and had a great time hanging out. Just before midnight we gathered up our loot (fireworks) and matches. About midnight we began to light one by one the biggest fireworks that we've ever lit. There are a lot of things here that differ from that in the States. One of those is the control of fireworks - there just isn't much control here. So, we purchased 100 shot roman candles - they were about 5 feet tall. Lee got to blow up some huge, very loud firecrackers.

Our kids enjoyed their last two weeks of freedom before school started on the 15th.

We had a team of 6 from Pennsylvania from the 8th - 16th. This team comes twice each year - our kids dearly love them and an always anxious for their arrival. While the team was here, and with their help, we took 18 of the kids to a water park that is located on the pacific beach. What gets better than a couple of pools, a few cool slides, and the beach? For many if was the first time that they saw the ocean. For one little guy it was the first time he'd been to a pool or the ocean, it was a bit of fun overload for him, he hardly stopped playing to eat lunch.

During the rest of their time here, the Pennsylvania team got our phone intercom system working properly again, we know have wireless internet in more areas, they demolished a couple of walls (on purpose), and put doors on a couple of medicine cabinets - oh yeah, and fixed several leaks!

Now that school has started, a change in schedule happens for everyone - it was no fun for the kids to wake up at 5:30am last Thursday. Most of our kids struggle with academics and would appreciate your prayers for their school year.

Without going into details, we'd ask for your specific prayers over New Life Children's Home as this new year has brought some new challenges that it has never faced before.

Thanks for standing with us,
Lee & Staci