Just a little video of the boys reading together. It's a little fuzzy because I exported it on the lowest possible setting because our internet here is so slow. Keenan has memorized this book and before Elliot's nap today he really wanted to read to him. I also had to turn off the fans in order to hear them clearly and I think that Keenan kept having sweat go down his neck so he kept trying to wipe it off by rolling his head around. I love watching these two together!!

The Holidays are here!!!!!!

Merry Merry Christmas season!!!!!! Our trees are up, the house is festive, and the boys are excited!!! Cant you tell :)!
Rewind a bit to Thanksgiving. Due to all the ins and outs at the hospital and all the pain that both Craig and I were in we didnt really fully get to experience Thanksgiving dinner or even get to make anything to have the house smelling like stuffing and pie. Craig and I did make it over to our friend's house to participate in the eating for a little while before the pain got too bad for me to sit still anymore and we were definitely grateful for that, but it just was not the same. It was a bit hard but our dear friends graciously gave us all of the leftovers and we had our Thanksgiving dinner at home the next day with our team. It was so delicious even the second time around!!!!
Then on Saturday I was feeling better and up for decorating the house a bit so we put up the trees and lights together.
The boys super interested in everything going on
Just playing with the ornaments. I am extremely thankful that they dont make glass ornaments here. They are all shiny plastic balls. The biggest reason why Im thankful for this is the way that Elliot thought the tree was supposed to be decorated. At first he would just take as many as would fit in his little fists and dump them on a branch somewhere. When he saw that they were all just falling to the floor and not staying on the branch he changed methods to throwing them one at a time as hard as he could at the tree to see if they would stick that way. Finally with some coaching he got the hang of it and decorated one branch of the tree very very nicely :)
Ahhh, still dont know why it puts everything out of order but this is just a sweet picture of the boys and their enormous train track playing together.
Elliot's spot on the tree.
Even though it's fuzzy I love the look of sheer concentration in his sweet face!
Keenan LOVES Christmas!
Reading stories together under the tree
Spiderman even showed up to help decorate :).
As a quick update on our health Craig is doing great and healing well finally. He still has a bit of sensitivity in his stomach but for the most part he is doing really well. As for me I tried getting up and doing some small things for a couple of days but began having stomach cramps again so I am back in bed pretty much full time. It has been a roller coaster of emotions where one minute Im doing fine and feeling good about even getting some things done (like posting pictures on here) as I rest but there are other times when the boys come in and want to go swimming or run around in the backyard and I have to say no with tears in my eyes because I just want to play with them. I really miss my family being stuck in my room all the time. I have to remind myself 100 times a day that I am fighting for this little life growing inside me and for me to be in bed is the greatest healing, fighting and helping that I can be doing for our little girl for the moment. So, while praying for patience and understanding, I stay put and so has baby girl thank the Lord! Two more weeks...two more weeks...two more weeks. We'll make it:)

Bouake

Our trip to Bouake was absolutely incredible!!! We loaded up two nine passenger vans with students and the kiddos and drove through the potholes for hours on end until finally we were in the town of Bouake! The kids did great in the car which was such a blessing and the ministry that we got to do while on the campus there was refreshing and gave us a new passion for campus ministry once again since the campus here in Abidjan remains closed. We were able to meet with the English students and share the Gospel openly numerous times which was so fun as well. We were able to encourage the students that lead the ministry up there since there is no staff on that campus and that can be challenging and they communicated over and over how much they appreciated the recasting of vision and training that we were able to do while we were there. Craig did a great job leading a seminar about stress that was written by our good friend Tom Dorsch and with that we were able to have Gospel centered conversations with the springboard of how the Lord controls all and deeply cares for our every need. It was great to have deep conversations about the Lord once again especially for me since most of my ministry is home with our boys or with students who are already connected in the ministry here. We all really really loved our time up there and plan on traveling up there a bit more often when we return to work more closely with the students there and hopefully watch the ministry up there flourish!
On the way up we go through another town Yamoussoukro and it is tradition that we stop at the campus director's house there for drinks, to share the news, and to pray together. Here is Keenan playing with Bill their son.
Here is Craig teaching one of the seminars
The boys patiently listening to their Dad :)
Another picture back in Yamoussoukro. The lady that I am talking with is the directors wife and the sweetest lady with the most generous heart! She was absolutely delighted that I was pregnant again and even more so that it was a girl. She nicknamed our little one Blessing which turned into Bennie which is french for to bless.
Me sharing with a group of students while Keenan colored quietly beside me. The kids did so great as we were in conversation groups with students and wondered from group to group hanging out but not in the way at all. I loved having them there to hear the gospel being shared and at one point Keenan was with Shane's group and he repeated to the whole group, "Jesus died for you. For your sins." Amazing little boy.
Elliot making the rounds to Matt
Keenan leaning on Micheline
Keenan decided on this trip that he wanted to use the camera himself. A lot. There are about 500 pictures of ridiculous things but every once and a while he caught something great like this sunset. He was so proud of every picture, good and bad.
Elliot hanging out with Dad
One of Keenan's masterpieces
And another
And another


And another
The most flattering picture of me with all the thanks going to our little photographer :)
The boys were very much loved on the whole time!!!


This was a fun trick that I found on a blog. I put the camera on timer mode and then spun the kids around and around to catch their little faces. Many were blurry but a couple came out.
The cheering section for the soccer game that the students had. This was a funny moment because Shane asked if there were any cheers or chants that they normally did to cheer on your team during soccer games and Im pretty sure it was all lost in translations because the Ivoirians just started singing praise songs, dancing, and clapping. I was just laughing but they all loved it.


At the place we stayed there were turkeys everywhere and the boys thought it was great fun chasing them around the property


We all arrived home safe and sound, refreshed and tired all at the same time. It was a wonderful trip to have before the chaos hit with the next post :)