Madison's first day of Preschool

Today, Madison attended her first day of preschool--ever...She was so excited to be going. She knew she had graduated to a new stage in life and was proud of her "big girl" status...








O.K., I'm ready!!!














We're here!!!















and I'm super excited...





























She had a great first day of school and wants to go back tomorrow--success!

To celebrate her first day of school we went to lunch at her favorite fried chicken place and had a few gifts waiting for her when she got home.

New Cribs!!!

We are so thankful for our two new cribs and mattresses donated by the
Van Bale family from Holland. The Van Bales are in Bolivia adopting their second child from Casa de Amor. Please pray for their family as they are preparing to leave with their new daughter.

New Years Eve 2010

For New Years Eve, we went swimming with the kids from house 2. We went up to the top of a mountain where the water from a natural hot springs is put into 2 swimming pools. The journey up the mountain was quite interesting. Besides the washed out roads and driving about 5 inches from the ledge, it was perfect.

The Newest Member of Our Family

Right before Christmas, we welcomed the newest addition to our family--Domino the cat. (You thought it was going to be a kid, didn't you?) Madison loves her cat!!!

Christmas Eve

I have so much to blog about since we've been without internet for about a month now. I thought a good place to start would be our Christmas Eve celebration with the kids from house 2. Tammy and I have spent at least 2 days a week with these kids and have really grown to love them all. On Christmas Eve we had the 12 children who live at Casa de Amor's house 2 over to our house for dinner and gifts. After opening their gifts the kids enjoyed homemade chicken and dumplings...What a great time!

We Made It!!!

WOW! Have we really been here a week??? What an adventure! We traveled for 30 hours, lost Madison at the airport in Santa Cruz and ended up in Bolivia without half of our luggage. Madison was found pretty quickly and the luggage showed up after vacationing in Buenos Aires ;)!

We are getting more acclimated to the city and the altitude each day. We are learning to navigate the public transportation systems and have enrolled in language classes. Our house isn´t ready yet, but hopefully will be soon. More details to come as soon as I can get on my computer...

12 days 'til Departure

We are now in the scurry and scramble of last minute preparations with only 12 days to go. On November 9th we will board a plane for Bolivia. I continue to be amazed with God. I know I shouldn't be, but He just keeps doing great and awesome things that we never thought possible. As we are only days away from our departure we humbly ask that you pray for us. Here are a few of our prayer requests:

*A home for our 2 chihuahuas
*Safe travel
*Good health now and after we go
*Pray for those family members that we are leaving behind; that they may find peace that only the Lord can provide
*Pray for Madison as she adjusts to life in a new culture
*Financial needs (we are at about 75% of our annual target of gifts/pledges)

Please remember that November 7th is Orphan Awareness Sunday. It also happens to be our send off from the church. I've attached a video for you to view...follow the link below.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=12616432&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_por