It was Pentecost weekend, 2021, Panama City, Florida. It was a Friday night, and we were throwing a Pentecost party at our house. I was pregnant with our 4th child, another sweet baby girl, and was frantically trying to make a cake and clean my house for the party as our 3 young children… Continue reading In the Beginning
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Cape Coast
Not even 2 weeks after we arrived back in Ghana from our Egyptian adventures, we welcomed our first visitor…my youngest brother, Joe! Both for practical reasons (our car is not large enough to fit 7), and for the simple fact that Don and I were too exhausted to haul the children on another adventure so… Continue reading Cape Coast
Adventures in Egypt: Part 2
Its a little strange being part of the US embassy community right now. While the world has gone a little crazy since February 28th, we have continued to see the myriad of ways in which God has watched over our family. Way back in the fall of 2023, ALL of the following countries were on… Continue reading Adventures in Egypt: Part 2
Adventures in Egypt
We finally felt juuuust settled enough in Ghana to strike out on our first international family vacation in January! Destination: Cairo, Egypt! Now yes, Cairo is considered more of a challenging vacation destination for a family with 4 young children; we did get comments on how “brave” we were from other expats we passed sightseeing… Continue reading Adventures in Egypt
The Orphanage
I remember way back, in a different lifetime, when I was just out of college, young and single, sitting at my computer in my 1 bedroom apartment in Spokane, Washington, googling mission organizations to volunteer with in Africa. I thought about it, prayed about it, researched it, made lists of organizations to contact. But in… Continue reading The Orphanage
The Master Plan
4 months in and life continues to be a little crazy! In the past month we’ve had to move into (and then back out of) a hotel for a couple days, as our entire compound lost power. In this situation, the generator is SUPPOSED to kick on. Ours, however, just started sparking. Hoping to avoid… Continue reading The Master Plan
A Few of Our Favorite Things
Okay, so there’s been a lot of rough and rocky days these first couple of months. BUT there are plenty of things we love as well! Here are a few of our favorite things: 1. The fruit! There is a little roadside fruit stand just down the road from our compound. We stroll down there… Continue reading A Few of Our Favorite Things
Learning to Live
Well, after over a month of battling the ants and multiple rounds of pest guys coming to the house, they finally brought the right magic dust to obliterate the colonies…we are ant free!! However, whilst we were still in the throes of our ant war, one of our neighbors texted me a picture of a… Continue reading Learning to Live
African Ant Armageddon
After arriving at our house, our social sponsors offered to give us a quick tour and then, knowing we were exhausted, get out of our hair and let us settle in. Actually, the exact words Emily used were “leave you to grieve”, which made me laugh. And so began the process of figuring out this… Continue reading African Ant Armageddon
Into Africa
Finally, after being in airports/airplane for over 18 hours, we trudged off the plane in Accra with that I’m-so-tired-I-feel-hungover feeling. Luckily, 3 out of 4 kids were holding it together. The 6 year old was not, which we had both predicted would happen well before the trip even began. Thankfully, the embassy had sent an… Continue reading Into Africa
Between Two Worlds
The movers will be at our door in less than 2 weeks to pack up our house! In less than 4 weeks, we’ll officially be boots on the ground in West Africa. I get butterflies every day. It’s so thrilling and exciting and sad and gut wrenching all at the same time. Leaving and arriving.… Continue reading Between Two Worlds