Controlled Chaos (In a good way!)

Whoa… May is quickly coming to an end and life really seems to be flying by!  The past two weeks have been a little crazy, but with some “relaxed” craziness, if that makes any sense.  Allow me to explain.

Last week, our family went down to a hotel in the city, just to get away for a little bit.  While everything was going on with Shyanne, we kept saying that, after that was all over; we were getting away for a few days!  So, we finally did!  We pretty much just sat by the pool, swam, read, watched movies and ate, and it was SO nice!!!  We were only gone for two nights, but it was enough time to relax a little and refuel for the coming days and weeks!!

Evening activity...  GLEE!!!

Yeah, we got a little bored...

Sunburn!!

View from our room

Swimming!!

We got back from our “vacation” on Thursday, then on Friday Abby, Risa and I went to a youth retreat with our church.  There were 20+ youth that came and we really had a great time interacting with everyone and making new friendships.  The time was split between active activities, free time and bible studies.  Saturday night our pastor came out and we had a worship/prayer/teaching service, which was really amazing!  It was quite evident that God was working and it was so awesome to watch and experience.  Afterwards we also had baptisms.  There were 10 of us that were baptized!!!  Sunday morning then we were woken up at 4:30 for a morning hike and bible study.  We all got back completely beat, but quite happy!!

Baptisms

=)

The group!

Activities...  our team won this one!!

Free time!!  Felt these the next day!!

Hmmm...  anchovies, baby food, capers, little sausages, ketchup, mustard, fruit loops, hot sauce, and tomato juice, YUM!

On Sunday our next team of the season arrived.  This team was from Canada and it had a whole lot of awesome people!!  There were two dental hygienists and a dentist on this team, so my job was to translate for the one hygienist.  We figured that, all together, we saw around 120 patients, which is awesome!!  The clinic was at the orphanage that everyone was working at, so we were very close to all the others and, during breaks, we could take some time and be with the kids.  Part of the team continued working on the wall, others worked in the kitchen, there were some with kids and even others were in the clinic with us!  It really felt like a successful week, but fun at the same time!!!  Yesterday (Saturday) we went to an orphanage and did activities with the kids and just enjoyed hanging out a little.  And then, of course, there were the goodbyes, but we won’t talk about those…  ;)

The team!!

Little bit of snuggle time.

Working on the wall!

I had to get a little baby time in!  =)

Teeth cleaning room

Face painting!!

"Work" room, lots of fillings!

Oh yes, and Kahleah came!!! 

Beads with the girls on Saturday

= )

They had puppies at the orphanage! 

Intentional fire that became unintentionally large, Mike to the rescue!!

Ok, a little more baby time...

Risa's painting skills

I would take her in a heartbeat!!

Saturday lunch, Chicken BBQ

These three are siblings...

We now have two weeks of no teams and a little bit of time to recuperate before really diving into the team season.  We don’t really have much planned for this down time, but I’m sure we’ll find plenty to do!  We are continuing to adjust to being a family of five, but overall things have gone very well and it is beginning to feel “normal”, which is a good thing!  I guess the next step is decisions about the future, but we’ll continue to trust that all of that is in God’s hands and He’ll guide us where He wants us!!