So much to blog about, so little internet...

The Internet has been so incredibly spotty lately. Last night, it was completely turned off, but thankfully, it has been steady enough for me to update y'all. Many things have been going on here at ABCCA, as well as around town.

Let's begin with this cute picture of two of my students, Robyn on the left and Bess on the right. They are dressed up in some of Robyn's things that she had brought for show and share. Last week, we were focusing on the color black. These girls are very funny, and have become close friends over the past few months.

Here are two hilarious things that they told me last week:
Robyn: "You know what?" (she always begins with this little saying in her South African accent...) "My grandpa is coming for a visit tomorrow. He is the nice grandpa. I have a naughty grandpa, and I do take after him."
Bess(who is left handed, and often has to ask for her left handed scissors when doing crafts): "Can you go get me my left handed glue?"


Now, lets have an update from last week. Last Friday, Reception 2 went on their first off campus field trip! I say "off campus" because we are always taking little field trips to the upper school and to the garden, but this time, we boarded a bus and left campus! The kids were so excited, they said goodbye to everyone and everything as we drove away from school: "Goodbye grass, goodbye school, goodbye other kids who have to stay at school, etc.".
Here we are on the bus. We sang songs the entire way there!

It was quite an exciting day. We were on our way to the Wild Life Center. It is basically a very small zoo, except for the fact that the animals have HUGE living quarters, and the goal is for the animals to feel like they are in the wild, so that when show signs of readiness, they will be released back into the wild. It is a temporary home for animals who used to be in captivity.
Anyways, it was fun to see all the different types of monkeys, even though they all looked similar to me:) We also got to see a huge cougar, who was very hungry and cranky, and often jumped at the cage, scaring my kids.

That was really funny to see! The grossest thing was seeing the hyena up front. It wasn't much smaller than the cougar, and was very smelly and dirty. The kids loved it though.
Here we are trekking through the "wild". It was so nice walking through all the trees, and passing over a little creek. I haven't been in that much of a "natural" environment in so long. Of course, the kids complained about walking so much. It was a hot day.

After being out in the heat, we boarded the bus for the ride home, but got stuck in a "traffic" jam while on our way back to the school. The president was driving past our way, either leaving or going back home. His mansion is about 7 miles away from our house. Anyways, we spent quite some time in the bus, waiting for him to go by, and so we missed chapel. In the end, it was still a great day though.

So, this week, I was feeling pretty well, comparatively speaking. I was able to visit the Crisis nursery twice! I love it when I get to see more of the babies. There is much change and progress happening at the nursery, so please be praying for all the babies, the volunteers and the administrative staff. The changes are great, but need to be permanent which is hard to encourage, especially with all the different volunteers in and out of the nursery.

Here is a cute clip of me swinging on the playground while my kids push me. I don't know why, but my kids think it is so funny when I join them on the playground. Sorry, but I LOVE to swing! So often times, I go out there and push them, or I swing while they push me. Here they are, all gathered behind me (of course it made me a nervous wreck) pushing me on the swing.



This week, it was our turn to sing the special song at chapel. Well, the Stoms had just given us these cute cd's called Questions with Answers (done by songs for saplings). They are so great, I have been using them in class, as they address many questions that kids have about who God is: Can you see God?, How did God make Adam and Eve?, Where is God? Can God see all things? Will God ever die?. My kids ask these questions all the time, and I do my best to answer them, but these songs just have a way of putting things simply. So, I chose to have our class sing a song from one of those cd's. The question in the song is "How can you glorify God?". Since our memory verse came from 1 Corinthians 10:31 which says "whatever you do, do all to the glory of God", I thought it was the perfect song for us to learn and then share with others. Of course, I wanted to learn how to "play" it on my banjo, so I quickly figured it out with the help of my friend Danny. Really, I cheated because I learned the easy way to play the chords, but hey, it was for the kids, right? So here is a clip from chapel.

On the baby front, I am now at 13 weeks, and feeling pretty good. I did catch a little cold or something last Friday, and tried to fight it off yesterday by eating oranges and the home made chicken noodle soup that Dan worked on all afternoon. I finally slept through the night last night and am feeling much better today. Tomorrow, we go in for our first official prenatal appointment. We will get to hear the heart beat and of course, have some questions answered. As well, I am going to see a South African Airlines travel agent tomorrow with Ari. Hopefully, after talking with her, I will have a better idea of how much this trip home will cost us, as well as find out our travel dates. Please continue to be praying for littlest, and Dan and I as we prepare to be parents. Also, be praying that I will have a calm heart about all of this traveling. I get nervous thinking about being on along flight later in pregnancy, but I want to feel peace about it as we know it is the right thing for us to do (come home to have littlest). Thank you for your love and support, and of course for your prayers!!!