New things to experience

So to give you a little picture of our new life....around our community is a loop we often are walking.  To the right it goes on a wooded path...where people will hunt for iguana!

Here is to the big hill we have to walk up to get to the school!  The school is close by, but first you have to conquer this hill.  Most of the locals zigzag it to get up it each day.  We have discovered our stroller does not make it up, or at least the stroller pushers can't make it up:)

And here is the iguana our neighbors found and cooked for dinner!   In Haiti we ate goat, cat, pigeon...but iguana we have not yet gotten to try:)

OCC with WISE

While we got to be the missionaries on campus last fall at Ozark Christian College...several students and staff helped make name banners for wall decorations for the female students here at WISE.  The girls loved them and quickly hung them up.  Here are a few pictures of the girls with their decorations in their dorm rooms.  I was not able to get all of them pictured. 

Thanks, Ozark!

Muffins & Kids

The street we live on is filled with families.  So, our family decided to make muffins to take to some of the families and get to know them a bit.  Few of them go to church, so we thought this was a good way to introduce ourselves and open the door for a relationship. 
To our left is a family that works at the mission that has a daughter near Naiyah's age.  Below our house lives a lady that has a daughter also our daughter's age.  But, then mostly everyone else on the street has boys and do not attend the church!  So we can really relate with the boys!  I am not sure how the muffins went over with them, but we had lots to talk about with boys.  Most of them had one & stopped as boys can be a bit of a handful in the early years...we understood.  But, also here it is a lot more expensive the more kids you have, as it is anywhere.  So, most just have 1 or 2.  We are probably an oddity:) 
We ecspecially enjoyed meeting the Asian family down the street, they too are from a different culture and fairily new to St. Vincent.  But, also they have a 5 month old son who is way chunkier than Pax.  Which here is unheard of as every baby is tiny, so we enjoyed meeting them too.

From a 2 yr old MK (Missionary Kid)

While on furlough in the States we got the priviledge of traveling to over 40 churches to share and speak about our family tranistioning to WISE.  The churches ranged from 15 people in attendance with no bathroom available to mega churches that had bounce houses in their kids play areas even!  At each and every church we visited, even our home based ones....our middle child (who is also 2) had such a hard time.  He refused to leave our side and would just cry and cry saying, "No class, mommy!" 
My daughter who is 5 of course has always loved meeting new people and going to any class....so this was a change for us. And with the nomadic lifestyle we lead, this was a bit of a struggle as lots of times we were sharing and teaching and he refused to be calmed.  I kept rationalizing to myself he had lots of changes going on and we would work on it once arriving in St. Vincent.
What do you know?  The first Sunday we were here Beckett walks away with all the other kids to class and stayed the whole time...no tears!  I don't get it....nothing fancy, he knows no other kids but his sister yet, he is the only kid besides his siblings with white skin, there are no toys in class to entice him or videos....and yet none of that mattered to him.  We are grateful he feels at home and a part here. 

New Photos- Thanks again to my in-laws (they were the photographers while visiting)

 Here we are at the beach with the students....one side of St. Vincent has black sand beaches and is very rough.  The students had a trip planned over their Christmas break, so we tagged along.

Some of the spiders we observed in the trees:)

Sister Angie helping orient us (she is a fellow staff  member at WISE)

Me with the students

Brice and the male students and Brother Cleton unloading our belongings...they are here!  Still have not put up curtains yet, as we have to make some rods...but we have most everything else!  Bring on the visitors!

Unpacking, settling in, & getting to know all

We will write more soon....setting up the house stuff and Brice starting teaching has been keeping us busy. 
Thanks for all the prayers customs was not too sky high and we got our stuff after a week of waiting and camping. 

Before pics of the house

We feel so blessed to have this house.  It was built by workteams over the years, but the top half never had anyone living here until us.  So, we are ready to break it in!   These are the pictures before we painted and us camping out here before stuff arrives.  We feel like it is a huge mansion with all the space...lots of room for friends and family...all of you to visit!

We are so very thankful to the WISE staff and students for preparing it and also to Discover Christian Church and Dayspring Christian Church as they came and put in the ceiling closets, and hundreds of other things!

Arrrival & Setting Up

The kids and I made it.  My mother-in-law volunteered to help us get down here, so that was a huge help!  Upon arrival we have been busy painting, unpacking, and exploring.  Since our stuff is still intransit with customs....the kids are having a blast thinking this is the best family campout together!  The kids have already been playing with neighbor kids and other staff children.