Welcome rainy season

This year's rainy season started late, but it came in strong.  There have been floods in many places in the city and many deaths due to drownings because of how fast it has come.  A lot of the city streets don't have gutters that can take all this water at once and then even if the gutters are there they have been full of trash and sand for a while now and it backs things up like crazy.  I took some pictures around our neighborhood just to show some of the flooding where we are.  It is much worse in lower parts of the city for sure, so it makes me so sad for all the families who do not have adequate housing and have to wade through their belongings after a night of heavy rain.

A restaurant we like that is down the street from our house

This is at one of the busiest intersections in our neighborhood.  Because it turned into a lake one day, it took me literally an hour to go from one city block to the next while driving.  

A van coming to join in the traffic jam

Some water rushing down an alley way off the main road

A stranded bus

Gushing water

This is the road outside the kids school the last day of school.  The rain and floods have washed away so much of it and left it undrivable.  So much work to be done!

But not everyone has negative feelings about all this rain!  The boys are in heaven playing in it and jumping around in puddles!  And I cannot complain about the cooler temperatures by any means.

Ten years

On May 29th, Craig and I celebrated 10 years of being married.  10. Like a whole decade. Crazy to think about all the things we have done and all the places we have lived in this journey!  But I am beyond grateful for him and all the madness that is our lives together.  There are so many times where I do think that I cannot go through with another transition or move or meet another person, but Craig has been a rock through it all, encouraging me and giving me strength to take another step, and supporting me 100% along the way.  He turns my focus back to the bigger picture and the glory of the Lord and he makes me laugh like crazy. He leads our family and those around him so well and selflessly and I am beyond blessed to call this guy mine!  These ten years have been a whirlwind for sure, but so incredibly fun in the midst of it all!  Here are a few pictures of our ten year celebration fun.

The Tuesday before our actual anniversary we got a call from our boss here saying that him and his wife had something for us to celebrate our anniversary.  They came over and presented new outfits for us which is traditional way of celebrating a couple.  It was so sweet of them to do that and we looked dang good for our date that night that our team put on for us.

While Chrissy and Kelsey came over to the house and watched the kiddos, Nikki put on her best hostess outfit, Bobby got into character being a server, and Nathanael and Liz created amazing food in the kitchen.  We went over to their house and it was all decked out in a pretend restaurant and it was incredibly fun, not to mention delicious!

Their decorated dining room

Our menus that they designed and printed off for us

Nikki ready to seat us :)

Then on our actual anniversary, we were able to sneak away for the night to a place on the beach and just relax for a bit.

The hotel was literally right on the beach

Happy to have some time together just to hang out, share memories and highlights over the past decade, and dream for the future.

We had a wonderful time celebrating together and are grateful for our team going above and beyond to spoil us, allowing us to get away and have time to connect!!