It was a dark and stormy night….

Ok, actually it is a bright and windy day, but that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. It is sunny, HOT, and really windy in our neck of the woods today, but we are hoping for a dark and stormy night as we could really use the rain. There are some areas of green, a sign that spring has come, but the grass is withered and dry, looking more like yellowed straw than a lawn. The ground is parched and the dust is everywhere, and I mean everywhere.

It is Sunday, the 28^th of September. Another month is about to begin. Tyson and Jori will have a week off from school in October, then one more term until another year of school wraps up in December. Hard to believe we’ll have a 4^th and 6^th grader come January. Wow! When we arrived here in 2011, Tyson had just finished first grade and Jori was a newly graduated pre-schooler. Time flies.

We are keeping busy, as always and I have failed to keep track of all the details, as always. We celebrated Darin’s 37^th birthday on the 22^nd. Wow, talk about time flying! We also spend a fantastic weekend with a group of people from Take Action Ministries, an organization we are involved with here in South Africa, and Help One Now, an organization with a similar mindset from the US. It was truly a wonderful weekend and the fellowship was fabulous. I will have to write more about these organizations at some point, which means sometime between now and who knows when J

Today was the first day our family has been to church in a month, well most of our family as I have now caught whatever bug it was that has kept the rest of the family down and out for the past several weeks. This too shall pass, but I am hoping that happens sooner than later.

Winter is definitely over, as I mentioned earlier, and a lot of effort is being put into getting the pool clean and ready for swimming. It is kind of fun to be gearing up for swimming and watermelon eating while our friends in the states are thinking about snow pants and hot chocolate. For the most part, I am glad to be in this hemisphere right now, but with the warm weather come the bugs, and that is not so nice; Flies, mosquitoes, gnats, beetles, roaches and more.

We have a few children who should be moving on from TYB soon, either being reunited with biological family or fostered/adopted by new parents. It is hard to see this little ones go, especially the not so little ones who struggle with change and have found a home here on Plot 94, but it is also exciting to see them placed in families, hopefully for good. We also look forward to meeting the children who will take their place as we know they will quickly find a way into our hearts as well!

Thank you so much to those of you who have been praying for us. It is really such a gift to belong to a body and not be on our own!

Please continue praying for:

·         *All of us to be healthy again and to stop spreading all these germs around

·        * Rain to water the earth and calm the dust.

·        * Children who will be transitioning from Tshepo ya Bana into new situations.

·         *The students who will soon be starting their last term, especially those who might need to boost up      their grades before the end of the year!