Wouldn’t it be nice to say just once, “Life has really slowed down recently. I’ve had so much free time to myself!” Of course, that situation would be rather unusual. In case you haven’t been able to tell from my lack of posts, life has continued to be very busy. I feel like we’re falling back into a routine at school which is a nice thing. The 7:30 a.m. start no longer seems ridiculously early. J
This past week, we had a couple variations from the normal routine. (And truthfully, beyond our school routine, due to all of the transitions we’re facing, we no longer have a “normal” routine to our days.) Tuesday, we had a 5-year old birthday to celebrate. That was a lot of fun. We spoiled the birthday girl with gifts, and she seemed to have a great time being in the spotlight. After opening all of her gifts, the birthday girl gave a little speech: “Thank you everyone for coming to my party, and thank you everyone for all of my gifts. Now, I would like to share all of my gifts with you.” (Yes, that is truly what she said!) All who were listening to her speech started laughing and jokingly claiming certain gifts—the important ones like the Pringles and the Skittles. I wish I had gotten that speech on camera!
On Thursday, Valentine’s Day, the single ladies entertained the kids for the evening while the parents went out to eat. Per the kids’ request, we made pizzas. The older girls came over earlier in the afternoon to help us make the pizzas. We had a great time in the kitchen. When the rest of the kids arrived, Ellen took them out to favorite “picnic” spot where they played games and wore themselves out while I finished the pizzas. They returned filthy but hungry, so the pizza was almost all consumed. We finished off the night with a few rousing rounds of Mafia. Everyone agreed—the evening was a blast. The only downfall? The evening was too short!
Friday after school, several of the ladies headed out to Bandjoun to do some house hunting. Most of the group returned back to Foumban later that afternoon, but Ellen and I stayed to continue the search on Saturday. Despite the fact that I spent over 11 hours being jostled around over bumpy roads as we searched for houses, I had a wonderful, relaxing weekend. I got better sleep than normal and enjoyed hot showers (with running water!). We saw God answer specific prayer as he led us to houses we had not yet seen. In fact, we were able to find a very good possibility, and we were even able to talk to the owner (who was in town for the weekend). It’s so neat to see how God works all of the details together in his perfect timing.
This morning, I got a call from one of my parents saying that their kids were both sick. So, unexpectedly, I got this morning off. Without that unexpected blessing, this post would have been much more delayed in coming. I’m going to try to do better next month with posting. In fact, I’m going to set another goal for myself. It won’t be as lofty as December’s goal, but I’ll still have the accountability of a number. I’m not going to reveal that number yet—mainly because I don’t yet know it.
