Our 1st Dominican Birthday Party 12-12-2009

1st Birthday's are a BIG deal here!! Shay's best friend Jorge's daughter Georgie. The invitatioin said `4:00pm, so like good American's we showed up at 4pm and the team was just starting to set up. Here the starting time of birthday parties, weddings etc... is when everyone starts getting ready for the party!! So about an hour later everyone started showing up and the party lasted until 9pm. The entire time was full of singing, dancing, clowns, cake (a huge cake), food, drink and last but not least the Pinata!!! There were two pinatas - one for the big kids and one for the little ones. It was total chaos, but lots of fun!!

Our new house 12-5-2009

When we got back from the US we moved! Moving here is not as easy as moving in the US. In the US we have Grandpa and his big furniture truck. Here we literally moved with multiple trips in taxis and a small furniture truck (4 trips). All this aside we are so excited with how the Lord blessed us. When Pastor Tony came to visit us this past summer he came during one of the hottest times and we didn't have power, so no fans. When he left he prayed that we would find a place that was cool and with trees. That is very unusually here, but guess what our God did?? We live in a very spacious two story house surrounded by huge mango trees that shade all sides of the house, a canal in the back and all for the same price we were paying in the little hot house we lived in!!!!!!!! God is Good!


Our front porchJesse's room - there used to be a bunk bed, but since Sierra currently has 6 stitches because of it we took it down. He likes his low bed, but we will get him a frame soon.
School room, Sewing room, Office etc... from up stairs
Damie's Room
Sierra'a Room
Kitchen
Our Room
Dinning Room
Other side of our room - which is also our living room so that Damie could have a room to himself.

When we got back from the US we moved! Moving here is not as easy as moving in the US. In the US we have Grandpa and his big furniture truck. Here we literally moved with multiple trips in taxis and a small furniture truck (4 trips). All this aside we are so excited with how the Lord blessed us. When Pastor Tony came to visit us this past summer he came during one of the hottest times and we didn't have power, so no fans. When he left he prayed that we would find a place that was cool and with trees. That is very unusually here, but guess what our God did?? We live in a very spacious two story house surrounded by huge mango trees that shade all sides of the house, a canal in the back and all for the same price we were paying in the little hot house we lived in!!!!!!!! God is Good!

Our Trip to the US Sept - Nov 2009

Grammy Sugar!
Grandpa Jack!
Grandmother!
Jesse with his new glasses!
Mama and Papa!

We had to go home to renew the kids passports so we took this opportunity to speak in a few churches and visit with family and friends!
The boys also got glasses!!
They have done pretty good using them, well Damie has, Jesse's are bent, the ear pieces are chewed off... He's 6 what can I say??

Camping at the Ranch

Shay took the kids camping at the Ranch. Why didn't mom go? Well I am kind of attached to my fan and when the power goes out at the ranch, it really goes out! OK I'm a wimp!! They had a great time!
They were very stinky and dirty when they returned, but very happy!!
We may not have trees in our yard, but I am thankful they have the Ranch where they can run and play!

Reina

The newest member of our family, Reina (queen). She is just a mix 2 month old. Does lots of sleeping now, but when she is awake she seems very sweet. I think she will be lots of fun.

New Do's

All the kids got new do's yesterday. Thought I would share.

Jesse has been begging for Shay to shave his head, and since he has tried on his own twice, we decided to listen, he is walking around rubbing his head!!!

Si lost her front tooth!!

She is offically snaggled tooth! Her grandfather called her that this morning and she liked it. Brook actually pulled it (one of the girls on the team). Sierra had played with it and played with it and she wanted Brook to pull it. They worked on it for about 30 min and finally pulled it and it flew across the room, we had to look for it!!

Our First Team

This is a team from Wadesboro, NC - First Baptist Church. Brook, Sharin, Callie & Mike. Callie is doing her senior project on missions and got this team together. They are working at Restoration Ranch for two days and then ministring to some children in Polo and then to the beach for one day. Yesterday they spent the day cleaning up the construction site. This is our very first team to host all by ourselves.

Beach Day

We took a day to visit the beach. We have been here for 3 months and this is the first time we have been. We are only 3 miles from the beach, but it is not a beach to play on. We have heard great things about the beaches at Las Salinas, so we ventured out. We grabbed a guagua (small bus) and took a 45 min bus ride and the bus driver said if you are going to the beach you need to get off here. So we got off and walked about a mile and found a deserted peninsula with a very dirty beach. We wondered if we were at the wrong beach or if this is a good beach?? We went to the other side and it was like stepping into a postcard!! It was calm and shallow and we brought our goggles and snorkles and we saw some amazing things. Lots of fish, starfish, huge conch shells, sand dollars, crabs, sea urchins etc...
It was amazing. Unfortunately even with lots of sunscreen, we are all crispy today, but it was worth it!!!
On our mile walk we pasted a salt deposit, it was amazing to watch them harvest the salt.

Restoration Church Team

We had the privledge of feeding the construction team from our home church Restoration Church. It was so good to see everyone. We wanted to feed them something special so I attempted a homemade bananna pudding, since you can't buy boxed pudding here. Everyone loved it! We also served my famous Lentil and Rice Casserole - it is one of 5 things I can cook and I know everyone will like it. They all asked for the recipe before they left - even the men!! We had a great time with them and I was so glad to see two of my favorite people - Dick and Ginne Rodermond!!