Lost Moments

I've loved our time home. The one downside has been no internet at home, so no blogging after bed-time. Every day things happen that I know you would love to hear about, but alas. Here's the first in a LOOOOOONG while:

Today we had our first pet burial. Mimi Melanie bought a fish, Skittles, when Hunter was maybe 2. Today she no longer moved her gills...the only thing that had moved in a while. So, out we went with a post-hole digger, a cardboard jewelry box, and a floppy fish. We put her 6 feet, I mean inches under and covered her up. I paraphrased the "dust to dust" passage and asked Hunter if she wanted to pray and thank God for Skittles.

"Dear Lord. Thank you for Skittles (voice breaking, sniffles starting). We know you've brought these two dogs to heaven (the Brown's previous 2 black labs buried there), so please, Lord, (tears falling now), please bring Skittles to heaven too! Amen"

At this point I am trying to hide my chuckles but still peek at her and I see her catch her tears on her finger, lower her hand and shake the tears off onto the fresh grave. Several times. Ah, my darling. How I adore you.

Family FUN!

Christmas...American Style

Lookin' Pretty

December

Here we are

So after leaving our friends in the sweltering heat, we dragged ourselves across 10 countries, 8 time zones, 5 airports and one too many interrupted naps. We finally made it to the amazing U.S. of A! The weather is blissfully cool (supposed to freeze tonight!), the food is all too yummy (I threw away my fat clothes, I threw away my fat clothes) and the family/friend time is INCREDIBLE.Gramma and Papa came from Colorado for birthdays, Thanksgiving, first day of school (can you believe both big girls get to go?) and lots of quality time.
It's near heaven for us all to have Grams and Mimi and Grandad around the corner and we are just so thankful. These last two years in Africa have been incredible. We learned and loved and grew and thrived. But it was hard and we are so glad that we get to have this time to rest and recover and re-connect and re-focus. Thanks for helping us have this time; we can't wait to see each and everyone of you!

We are Back!

No, Justin did not talk us into trolling back from Africa by boat (although the idea did cross his mind). We actually made it back last week according to schedule. Sorry for taking soooo long to update the blog and let you know that we made it back safely and are all doing wonderful. Thank you for the prayers and we look forward to seeing all of you at some point!