Carlyn

 Luther and Pearl finished Bigger Hearts for His Glory!   Ice cream to celebrate a completed school year   Knox loves to play on the Bingham playground while the big kids are at Amharic class  Pearl with most of her readers from this past semester  More fun books she read  Luther with lots of his readers   Some of our favorite history, Bible and story time read alouds   Family field trip to the zoo and airplane restaurant Last day of Amharic class of the school year   Playing some fun Ethiopian games with their class and teacher  Calvin super excited about his next story in his reader My sweet class!! I LOVE these CHILDREN!! Luther and Pearl love to build during read aloud time I have been working on a homeschool plan for the new school year. I like making a plan at the beginning of the school year of what curriculum we a...

     We have now lived in Ethiopia for 4 ½ months! Time has been flying by and we are all happy and enjoying life here. Yet, we are missing family more and more. This is the longest we have ever been without seeing my parents and siblings. Calvin had several days a few weeks ago that he said he was homesick, but it has passed for now and he hasn't mentioned it in a while.  After hitting the 4 month mark, I started bracing myself for culture shock.  But, so far, we have not experienced any.      I completed 12 week of language school which took me through the end of Level 2B(there are 4 levels) and through the end of learning the Amharic Fidel(alphabet). I am now taking an 8 week break before restarting language school on June 6th.  I felt like my brain was at max capacity and I didn't feel like I was learning anymore.  I knew it was time for a break. I also wanted to have some more time to spend with James and the kids. It has been v...

Timket- one of the biggest holidays in Ethiopia It's a celebration of the baptism of Jesus Knox playing with a little girl while we waited on the Timket parade Timket parade- lots of traditional singing and dancing Walking back to our house after the parade in a massive crowd Pearl and I cleaning the rocks out of wheat before we put it in the grinder to make flour Bingham Field Day: Pearl in the sack race  Holding Zolla's daughter  We see the best stuff driving around! Its pretty fun to live in Africa :)  The kids' favorite meal that Zegeyech makes them for lunch about one a week. I heard them says this week, "These are better than the chicken nuggets in the US!" First day of school at Bingham Knox has a love-hate relationship with this giant tortise on the Bingham playground.  The kids with their 1st pet, ever!!  Crazy long story, but we now have 2 puppies and a kitten and I have to make their food!...

We have now been in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a little over two weeks(17 days to be exact)! We have settled in very quickly and we are all happy to be here! We have so much to learn about the culture and the language. But so far, everyone for the most part has been happy and healthy, eating and sleeping, and dealing well with all of the changes. I keep asking myself, “How are we all doing so well?” I know the big answer is that God has been answering our prayers and the prayers of the many people praying for us. I am also reminded constantly that God has been preparing us to live in Ethiopia for our whole lives. There are so many trials and experiences we/I have been though in the past that have made moving here so much of an easier transition. We all feel at home even though it is very obvious that we are foreigners! I'm sure culture shock will come. We were warned at training that it usually hits around the 4-6 month mark. So, I going to enjoy this honeymoon phase for as...

We left at 7:30am on Tuesday morning from my parents house.  My dad drove his truck, towing the trailer that we borrowed from FBC, loaded with our luggage.  James drove his Blazer so we could leave it with his sister.  We picked up Meemaw on the way to Atlanta and met my sister Catherine, her husband, my mother in law, her husband, my sister in law and my nephew at the airport.  We were able to park on the curb side very close to the Lufthansa check in area.  The men all used carts to unload the trailer and bring all of the luggage in.  The Lufthansa staff were expecting us and were very kind and helpful.  They weighted all of our luggage and kept complimenting our packing and saying how easy we made it for them because everything was right at the 22kg(50.5lbs) or slightly below.  I'm so thankful it was because we had weighed everything just using a scale at home with James holding the boxes and subtracting his weight. We had one carry on suitcase...

Our move date got changed to December 22nd due to delays getting the paperwork that we need for James's business visa. I wanted my prayer warriors to know our new move date! It's one week from today!! James is back with us now and had a very successful trip. He was able to work for 3 week at the CURE hospital, register the kids for the homeschool program at Bingham, register me for language school and find us a house. He also learned the basics of getting around Addis Ababa on foot and on public transportation. He got to visit the international evangelical church and loved it! He bought us several appliances- washer, oven, refrigerator and deep freeze. He also purchased a printer, a pack-n-play, SIM cards for our phones and a 4G stick. He learned a lot in the process of buying all of those items that should help us out in locating and purchasing everything else we need to set up house.  He also hired day and night shift guards to watch over our house. So, all of his purchases ...

Going away party at my parent's house Building a fort with Uncle Patrick at the beach Having fun with Granddaddy Fishing Kids with my parents Picking up where I left off.... after our Disney trip the first part of September, we all headed to my parents house in Alabama .  The kids and I stayed there for 10 days while James went to Romania on a medical mission trip. The kids and I had a really special time with my family.  They had a going way party for us complete with slipping slides, a jumpy house and ice cream sundaes. We went to the beach, had a campfire and s'mores on a creek bank and went fishing.  When James returned from Romania we headed back to Arkansas to finish cleaning out our house and packing.  We had three full days to work and then we needed to leave on the 4th day to head to our training in North Carolina .  Krista fed us several times and watched my kids many hours. Anna...