Well, today is our first day back at school. An alumni asked as Joy and the younger girls were getting ready to leave - "Are you ready to be back in school?" The answer - "Ready, yes...prepared, no." Somehow the vacation got away with us, well actually Joy actually treated it as a vacation and didn't do any work after finals were all graded. That, of course, leaves her with a lot of planning to do - and quickly.
Sara went to her first class this morning and did quite well. Thankfully Joy can play some things on the piano one handed while holding her. The students either are all from big families, or already know our girls, and aren't really distracted by her presence. Thankfully there is a nursery at school when we are ready to put her in, and it is free of charge.
Emma hung out in Daddy's office, scratching his head. It's a real hardship to have to take your own head scratcher to work with you. She did have a good fall on the way to the van though and had to quickly be taken to the nurse to mend up some scratched knees.
Abigail is very excited to have a new friend in her class - from New Hampshire! Until today she was the ONLY student from NH on campus. Praise God the Wilson family, who have been raising support since before us, have finally arrived here in Guatemala. When Joy was out at recess Abigail and Claire were playing together on the see-saw. We are hoping that they will be able to build a great friendship, since that is one that can travel home with us in the summers too.
Please pray for us as we adjust back to our busy ministry schedule. Pray especially that we won't lose our focus on God - the whole reason we are ministering anyway.
We would like to ask special prayer for some former youth groupers of ours, who are now raising their own TCKs. We don't have all the details (in fact some of you know far more than we do,) but wish to bring this to your attention. Our youthgroupers, and friends, Ainsley and Ben are a military family - which means their children are TCKs because of all the moving around they do - even if they never actually leave the USA they will develop some of those qualities. Anyway, late last fall they were transferred to Hawaii. They received their shipment on December 3 and no doubt went into heavy unpacking mode just before the holiday season. Well, right around Christmas doctors found a mass in Ben's chest. The family has been transferred back to NH so that Ben can receive treatment in Boston. Praise God their children are young, but still all the moving has got to be hard on them, and the whole family. Stability is one thing that TCKs crave the most, and the constant moving many of them experience can really mess with that. So - all that to say - please join us in praying for Ainsley and Ben, Ariel and Gideon that they will be able to find peace and stability even in this rough time. Thank you! (And while you're at it you can remember to pray for all the TCKs that we minister to here in Guatemala as well.)
God's blessings to you this day!
