Blue Christmas

Remember me saying that I've never seen a bluer sky than here in Africa? I'm sure there's some really good scientific reason for it that I'll google someday. While many of you will enjoy snow and a fireplace back home, I'll literally have a blue Christmas here. It has been ridiculously hot the last 2 days. We have spent the afternoon in the pool every day this week. I have about 3 layers of sunburn going on right now as well as an amount of freckles I haven't seen on my face since I was about 5! These two sweet things seem to enjoy being sisters more and more every day. It precious to see this bonding occur. Having two sisters of my own, I think it's pretty awesome that they have each other:) We got our first Christmas package from back home today. It's about a mile walk up to the shopping center where the post is so we did some grocery shopping and knocked out some errands while we were up there...the stroller was a little full! My girls LOVE to ride in the stroller.

This box was from some friends back home. We were blessed to recieve some shorts and shoes for Evolet, some fruit snacks, ramen noodles, a carrot cake mix with cream cheese frosting (New Year's Cake!?!?!? I'm sensing a new tradition beginning here) some drink mixes, a Jesus Storybook Bible for the orphanage, an awesome kids Sovereign Grace CD (I think I could listen to it even without the kids around:) some band-aids, benadryl, and easy mac!!! You all just don't know what a blessing it is to have a little piece of home mailed to you. I know postage is ridiculous and I'm so thankful for my sweet friends and family who are mailing us stuff anyway!:)

Had some dear moms over for a pizza/swim party on Tuesday. It was a blessing to have some adult conversation while our kids played together. I felt recharged!

I'm so thankful for the internet! We've been able to even video skype a few times with friends and family. Evolet loves to skype with Darren. Sometimes we can only do audio, but it's so awesome to be able to talk for "free". I really miss him. Christmas feels different over here for sure, but it's also a neat experience to know that all around the world, Christians are celebrating the birth of our savior! I'm not going to pretend that it's not hard having my family split at this time of year. I wish we could all be together, but there is joy in knowing that this is God's plan for our family this year.

I think once January gets here it will start to feel like things are coming to close. This middle part has been rough, but I can see the finish line nearing with each day. Keep praying for us!