October was a busy month and November is off to a very busy start as well. We kicked off this month with a staff retreat to Casa de Campo in La Romana. This was our first time to this part of the island. Brad Burkholder lead us in a few sessions over the topic of Identity and who we are in Christ.
Following the retreat, our family greeted our next team at the airport, a small medical team from Peoria, Illinois. It was great to have friends at the guesthouse again! Along with their arrival was a sweet surprise from my dad. My 35th birthday was a week ago Sunday. My dad had coordinated all of his travel details through Jeff. (Jeff informed me later that it was so hard to keep me from finding out.) Along with my dad’s arrival, my mom had coordinated a card shower from some of my closest friends, and I enjoyed reading notes from everyone on my birthday.
With this time of year comes the update of our student sponsorship program. This entails a lot of organization of logistics with our 5 schools throughout the country. I gather letters from each of our students (close 900) and update their photos and personal details on our online database. We spend close to 40 hours between the 5 schools. I enjoy talking to the kids, it’s been 2 years since we were going through this process, since last year everyone was remote due to COVID. If you are interested in sponsoring a student, please check out this link, and watch the video below.
Braegan continues to stay busy with school at Lucille Rupp and homeschool. We’ve been doing a lot of reading and writing. She’s enjoying homeschool more than I thought she would. Her favorite part is “definitely the science experiments!” (Those are her words exactly.) Below is a picture of her island that she created when we were talking about landforms.
Brantley is loving school too. It’s fun to watch him interact with his friends and listen to his stories. He’s quite the talker.
And lastly Jeff, he’s been busy too. He’s been organizing our staff Christmas party and taking care of end of year details. He was able to fit in a spearfishing trip with all of the guys a few weeks ago too. They made out pretty well. We’re hoping to enjoy fish tacos soon!
I still have not regained my taste and smell, this is quite discouraging. As much as I’ve come to accept it, I wish I could enjoy food and the fall smells. I’ve started dipping my food in ketchup and sweet French dressing just to be able to have some flavor. (I can only taste food that is super sweet.) I still pray daily for them to return.
Lights are glowing all through town, the traffic is increasing, and the music at night is getting louder. Holiday time is here. Brantley’s classroom even has lights strung and a decorated tree in it. We’ve started to decorate our house as well.
Prayer requests:
- my taste and smell to return
- our pending permanent residency application to be approved
- safety during the holidays
- health – covid is still present and there is a nasty cold going around
- our 2022 schedule – at this point our January and February are pretty busy