Dinner out with Nick and Susie Bates



It's been way too long since I have updated here. Life has been so busy, and the weather has been amazing, so not much time is spent inside! We have been saying goodbye to students the past month, and that has been sad. I read once that missionaires are grieving people because they are always saying goodbye to people they love. I am beginning to understand that. I didn't believe that it would be so difficult when the college students left, but there is a definite void here now. We are also preparing to say goodbye to a number of families who will be leaving for the summer, but will be returning in the fall.
Our social calendar has been full the past few weeks with goodbye dinners and birthdays, and we've squeezed in a playdate or two also. This past week we had a very fun dinner with a French/German couple, and also had a rare night out with another couple without the kids!!
Our girls got to spend the night with Hilary (who is returning to the states for the whole summer:( )and they were so thrilled to have a special night with her.
We are all looking forward to school letting out in a few weeks, thought it won't really mean sleeping in much at the beginning! ICCP has it's week long summer day camp the 2nd week of July, and while we are all excited, the girls know they will be getting up at the crack of dawn (for them!) to get there. I know it will be a great experience for them, though, and then they have weeks and weeks to laze around. I am having them do some studies this summer, and I think Olivia is actually looking forward to doing some research and writing! She has been concentrating so much on learning French this year that we haven't done much extra school work. We'll start easy this summer and build up next year. Lexi is really coming along in her reading, which is very exciting. They don't start teaching it here until first grade, so it's nice that her teachers don't have any expectations in that area.
My french continues to be pitiful, but I now do not need an English menu when we go out, and I can order a meal properly (including asking for all meat to be "well done") Boy, I learned that lesson the hard way, several times! They even bring children's hamburgers bloody in the middle--eewwww.
So, there's life in a nutshell. Tons of stuff happening, lots of it GOOD, some of it hard. But still we live with the faith and belief that God brought us here for a reason, and that He will carry us through. He is good to us, of that we have no doubt.