We Have a Senior

Blog Post about November 2021

Did I wait until November to take "first day of school" pictures?

Yes, I did.

Does anyone know why?

No, they do not.

Do we have a SENIOR this year?

YES, WE DO!

The current academics presently living at home

Since it was only 10pm in Nashville, our distant academic joined us.

Our fourth grader at the French School

Our very tall Sophomore

AND....OUR SENIOR!!! 

Karis is amazing, and this house will feel a void when she is gone.

She is funny, kind, smart, caring, clever, and she is such a hard worker!

She has plans to pursue an education in dance science, working toward a degree in physical therapy.

Porches are for People

Blog Post About May 2021

Our front porch area doesn't have a ton of room for activities to take place, but Keira does manage to go around in circles on her scooter, Doug grills some amazing meals for us, and visitors greet us at our gate.

Sometimes a beggar knocks asking for money; sometimes our neighbors bring over some of their food to share with us; sometimes a man representing the water company or the generator comes by asking for payment (there is no mail system here - it's door-to-door); and sometimes a salesman will try to sell books, soap, beauty products, etc. (remember door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen)??

Anyway, one night, daughters, nieces and cousins from a house down the street came knocking for Keira. 

The girls don't know English except a few phrases: 

How are you?

What's your name?

Where's Keira?

Most of the time, during the day, my answer is, "Keira la muxtapa" (She's at school), but this night, she went out to see them, and they were so excited. 

May 27, 2021

It makes me very aware that I have never seen any of these girls in a school uniform, and I have never seen any of them coming from or going to a school. 

I don't know how they are educated or even if they are, but it is a good conversation topic for Keira and I about how appreciative we should be that she is allowed an education.

It's the little things.

One day, Caleb was washing the porch for us, and he and Keira decided to play in the water after the porch was clean.

I don't know how Keira's knees could handle it, but she would run and slide across the tile. Ouch!

Caleb would spray her as she went, and she loved it. 

I stopped cutting up a watermelon to video her, and then they both wanted watermelon.

Caleb suggested I video Keira in slow-motion sliding across the tile, eating her watermelon.

I took some still shots to show you, but the video is so much better (and I have no idea what Caleb's hands are doing). Maybe he's praying she didn't get hurt as she slid into the wall each time.

I wish you could see the videos :)

May 29, 2021

I like that they find fun things to do even though we don't have a yard or grass.

Life is what you make it :)

Side notes, if you're curious: the propane bottles to the right are what we use to run our oven and heat rooms with individual propane heaters. 

And across the way, is a house to the right and an empty lot to the left. Our neighbors have a pick-up truck they use to drive around to neighborhoods and sell fruits and vegetables out of the back. This lot is where they store their empty crates until they can haul them off.

*Karis took some of her senior photos this year in front of the crates, and they turned out so good ;)

I was so thankful Kylie said she could take Karis' senior photos. 

These were taken two weeks ago when she was here:)

January 5, 2022

A Blast From the Past

Blog Post About May 2021

To help take Keira's mind off of Kylie leaving, she went swimming at some friends' house.

May 8, 2021

While Keira was swimming, Doug was discussing things with the neighborhood guys.

And soon enough, Kylie was back in Nashville, back to school, and back to babysitting.

May 11, 2021

This sweet, curly haired lady is the mom to the four children above. We met her in 2009 before we went to Africa. You can see how young Kylie is in this picture (7) when this lady babysat my three one night.

Now, we've come full circle. 

This lady lives in Nashville, and Kylie babysits her crew weekly.

I love how God connects us.

Caleb's team won a soccer tournament in May.

You can see that Caleb is one of the tallest guys out there.

May 15, 2021

And the cat (Aoife) continues to be a source of entertainment for the kids.

May 16, 2021

February Happenings

Blog Post About February 2021

How many men does it take to hang curtains?

I'm just kidding, of course. I was so thankful Doug hired these guys!

They hung curtain rods in 6 rooms, and in two of the rooms, they added custom curtains and/or blinds.

These (and the kitchen blinds) are the only two sets we bought from their store.

They weren't too impressed with the curtains we already had for each of our other rooms, but they faithfully hung them anyway, and it was nice to get a little privacy.

February 17, 2021

February also means the time of the year when we have to renew our visas. 

I think this was the last year we will have to drive two hours north to get our particular visas.

They are building a new highway, which makes the drive faster and smoother, but I must say it was a little frightening to drive on it.

Can you see the arrows facing us?

There were cars coming from the other side (since our side wasn't complete and we had to drive on the wrong side of the partition). Some cars obviously didn't know they were on a highway with two-way traffic, and we had one or two incidents where we had to swerve to miss oncoming traffic. 

That evening we travelled that same road back in the DARK!

I'm always SO glad that Doug drives us :)

February 23, 2021

We also visited a coffee shop up north and discovered they had "Prmkin" spiced lattes. 

My boy's first shave :)

February 26, 2021

Karis teaching one of her ballet classes :)

Happy 15th, Caleb!

Blog Post About January 2021

We settled in as quickly as possible, even though it would be months before we finally finished all the projects that needed to be done.

First things first: shopping for razors for the first time for our almost-15-year-old!

January 22, 2021

And until we got carpets in the house, Keira took advantage of space to roller blade with the wheels our friend Keaton gave her before she left.

 

Shortly after arriving, it was time to celebrate Caleb's birthday!

Thankfully, we found the birthday banners and a Glade candle to make the morning special.

Caleb is a pretty great brother and a good sport.

And Kylie even stayed up late so she could celebrate with us before she went to bed.

Happy 15th, Caleb!

Snow Day

Blog Post About January 2021 ☃

After coming home from church on January 10th, we got the blessing of seeing snow before we left the country.

1:11pm

1:30pm

2:20pm

3:03pm

3:05pm

4:30pm

4:36pm

And then this happened...

I mean, who doesn't want to go out in the snow and pretend they're Kylo Ren?

Later, we had such a peaceful evening walk.

But we knew it was time to get down to business and start packing.

Our flight was in two days.

10:18pm
 

January 2021: Beginnings and Endings

Blog Post About January 2021

My kids wanted to host a New Year's Eve party for their friends in America. 

Now that they're older, it was easy enough. 

They planned, they bought what they needed, they had the party, and they cleaned up.  Doug and I spent all evening in the bedroom reading and watching a movie, and it was a pleasure to go to bed well before midnight.

We started our goodbyes. 

Kylie was leaving on January 9th, and we were leaving soon after. 

We took a family walk with another family we enjoy being with, and had fun being silly together.

January 2, 2021

The morning of my birthday, we all went out for a country breakfast.

For dinner, I was treated to Olive Garden, and year 48 was off to a great start.

 

The six lovely ladies I did Bible study with (and continue to meet with over zoom) kidnapped me for one last night together. They had arranged it with Doug ahead of time, and he had taken care of everything on our end. 

We had such a good time, but I hated that I wasn't feeling better. As you can see I was in my pajamas, ready for bed, far earlier than anyone else. 

These ladies continue to be such a blessing and an encouragement for me.

At 5:30 am on January 9th, Kylie went in to tell Keira and Caleb goodbye before Doug, Karis, and I drove her to the airport.

Sad tears.

At 6:10 am we were saying goodbye again.

In September we said goodbye knowing we would still be in the same country while she was in school.

This time we said goodbye knowing we would be moving back overseas and not sure whether we would see her in May or August during her breaks or if we would have to wait for her to come home next December.

Sad tears.

January 9, 2021

The afternoon Kylie left, Keira and I went to hang out with a friend and put puzzles together.

In the meantime, Doug and Caleb went hunting with our fishing friend, Tim. Caleb had never been hunting before, and Tim was so excited about Caleb possibly getting his first deer.

And HE DID!

January 9, 2021

Caleb brought the shell of the bullet back with him when we left three days later, and when we landed in our country, we went through one last x-ray before leaving the airport, and they confiscated the shell from Caleb.

So much for memories :(

We were SO EXCITED about snow predicted for January 10th! 

And God did not disappoint us.