6K Race in Their Shoes

Our high school did a fundraiser for the refugees in our city, a 6K (the typical distance a refugee would have had to walk to get clean water in their home). Phil took the girls and went. He helped and they ran/walked. 

Thanksgiving 2019

We celebrated this year with the staff from the school where Phil teaches. There were so many good friends that came and so much good food! I cooked for a week to get ready for the big event. We had 32 people that came. We read a liturgy for feasting with friends, spoke about why we have reason to be thankful, played games, ate, and visited. Such a fun time! 

Imported from the states-worth every penny! 

Lots of desserts! 

We watched a parade from a previous year. 

Part of the group that came

Christmas here??

We have started seeing things that we've not seen here before. This is a country that does not celebrate Christmas, they have a big holiday around the first of the new year. Well, this year we have seen many decorations that actually say Merry Christmas. Now, there is still no mention of the reason for the season, but we are thrilled with the Christmas decorations we are seeing! Feels a little more like home. 

John is Noah

John's class did a song in chapel where they sang the Noah song. John was Noah. It was very cute and well done. The kids were so happy to do it. 

November Homeschool Co-op

 In the month of November, we went to the Book Center and I was in charge of the activity. We ready some books about Thanksgiving and talked about ways we can be thankful every day. We then made a thankful turkey. After the activity, a few of us went out to eat. The girls had waffles and I had eggs and veggies. So yummy and such good company. Most of the kids in the group are much younger than our kids. It is a sweet time for our big kids to be helpful and be friends with those much smaller than them. 

Treats From Home

Our friend's mom came (she lives in Nashville) and brought us treats from friends back home. It's always fun to get things from friends, not because of the treats, but because of the people we know that so lovingly picked them out for us. 

Volleyball/Soccer Tournament

Anna and Kate both participated in the volleyball/soccer tournament this year. The kids practice for two months leading up to the tournament, then they play for three days, and then it's over. Kate was technically too young for the games, but they allow us to draft younger players if we don't have enough kids to play. It is amazing how our school does every year. We have the smallest school, with the smallest kids (in number and size), we practice outside in the courtyard on a not real court/field, and then the kids come out and do super! Our teams did great. In volleyball, our Sr girls (kids 14 and up) got 1st, our Jr boys (ages 13 and down) got 2nd, and our Jr girls got 3rd. We had eight girls on our Jr team and two of them were 9 years old playing against 13 year olds. They got 3rd (with one of our oldest girls not being able to be there for the 3rd place game!)! In soccer, our Sr girls got 2nd, our Jr boys took 3rd, and our Jr girls were 4th. The Jr girls only had one girl that played last year. Rachel got to coach the Jr boys and girls volleyball teams and be an assistant for the Sr girls volleyball team. It was such a fun weekend, but everyone was exhausted after it was over. They played four or five games every day, came home and ate dinner, showered, and then went to bed. Such a fun weekend! 

A Fun Local Wedding

Most weddings here are all the same. The food, music, set up, etc., is all the same. You eat the same thing, you get up and dance a little, you sit down and eat some more, dance, eat, dance, eat, and so on. This wedding was a little different. The groom had spent some time in the US, so there were some traditions that were more American than local. They played American songs throughout the evening, they had fun wedding dances, they did a Just Dance segment, and was very fun. Because the two people that got married are in the volleyball group we attend, a lot of people from the group went to the wedding. It was so fun to be there with a lot of people we know and have a very fun time! 

A student of mine from last year. She is in John's class. 

Some of our volleyball group