Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the FREEZING midwest! We have probably a foot of snow on the ground. It's beautiful though. I am hoping for a true white Christmas--snowing on Christmas day. It's great to be home. I am enjoying being with my family, reading books, taking long baths, and seeing friends. It's been great so far.

What's even better is remembering what Christmas is all about. Remembering that little baby who was born to die. To die for you, to die for a me. To take away our sins. All of them. I recently had the chance to share that good news with a parent, that free gift that is ours for the taking. If you have never accepted the gift of salvation, it's never too late. Jesus' arms are open wide. Email me or leave a comment if you have any questions. I love talking about my best friend Jesus!

Here is a snapshot of the past couple weeks. I am not even going to try to put them in order. It won't work!

Amanda and I at the staff banquet. I am SO thankful for her wonderful friendship!
Cuties! Waiting for the Christmas program to start.
Umm, yeah. Notice the tree behind us. It looks like it's dancing. So we wanted to dance too :).

We had WAY too much fun with the automatic timer on our cameras. Picture this: four girls, three cameras, a table, and too many Dominicans walking by. Oh yeah, add a LOT of giggling. Posing nicely before the goofiness started.
Lovely teachers I work with. I am SO thankful for all of them!
Some friends came over Thanksgiving. I don't remember if I've posted these pics yet. Sorry if I already have! This is Jordan and I at the beach.
LOVE this lady! She has been a blessing to me this year.
As I have written about earlier, my kids LOVE to sing! The chapel band, including the principal they LOVE, had a concert one night. FIVE of my kids came! Here I am with four of them. AND their moms were there too! I am praying some seeds were planted!

Merry Christmas! May you see Him this season. I love how much God loves me. I love that he showed that love by sending His Son down for me. What a wonderful gift!

Thanksgiving

I have so many things to be thankful for. So often I forget to sit back and count them. God is so good! So often I dwell on the things in my life I don't like, and as Beth Moore says, it turns into "faithless fretting." May I do much more faithful thanking! Yes, life is hard, but God is good. And bigger than my fears. And I do have so many things to be thankful for! I know I have used this set up before, but it fits well, so I am going to use it again. A list of A-Z on what I am thankful for.

A-a break from school! Thanksgiving break was much needed! And only three more weeks until Christmas Break!

B-beauty! This country is so beautiful. I spent the weekend at the beach enjoying the beauty of the coast and drove through the mountains to get there and enjoyed the beauty of the mountains. I love how creative God is!

C-chocolate. Yes, I am thankful for dark chocolate :). As my mom says, "Love God, hate sin, read your Bible, and eat chocolate!"

D-drinking hot drinks. The weather has been cool enough to do that. And by cool I mean 70s. Yes, I am getting tropical blood!

E-eating. We went to an all-inclusive resort over the weekend. Needless to say, I ate a lot! So grateful for more than enough food. I take that for granted so often!

F-friends! Some friends came over Thanksgiving. It was awesome! My friend Daniel was injured in a medical accident, so his mom also shared his story in chapel for the secondary. Very powerful! I had so much fun with them and hope they can come again. My kids loved them too!

G-growth. The Lord is stretching me so much. It's hard but so good!

H-heroes. My first graders and I have been going through a devotional book of Bible heroes. There are so many incredible people in the Bible who I can follow their example. And I love that they made mistakes, yet God still used them.

I-important decisions. Funny thing to be thankful for, but I can be thankful that God will direct me in my important decisions! The one on my mind is where He wants me next year. Please pray with me that I will follow His will for my life and not my own desires!

J-Jesus. I am so thankful that He died on the cross for me even when He could have called down legions of angels to rescue him.

K-kangaroos? I can't think of a k word!

L-languages. I love that God gave our brains the ability to learn another language. And I am glad we can talk to people with words!

M-medicine. I am glad we have doctors who can help us feel better!

N-naps. What more can I say?

O-open doors. I have been able to talk to one of my student's moms about the Lord a little. Please pray that God keeps opening the doors!

P-parties. We had a Thanksgiving party at school. All my kids dressed up like little pilgrims. They were so cute!

Q-quiet time with God. I don't do this enough. May I really hunger for it!

R-renewing. I love that God renews our minds to make us more like Him!

S-salvation. Praise the Lord that I can be part of His family!

T-truffles. I haven't had any in a while, but am looking forward to one when I get home!

U-umbrellas. It has been raining a lot here. When I use my umbrella, it's great :).

V-victories. The Lord has given me many personal victories and victories with my students. Praise Him for that!

W-water. It really is a blessing to have water in my house. I need to remember that when I am not happy about the hot water only lasting about 3 minutes!

X-x-ray. But not the kind the doctors do. I am thankful that God knows my heart, that his x-ray is so much more accurate. I love that He sees the dirt inside me yet still loves me.

Y-youngsters. I am thankful for my 19 little blessings. They have taught me so much! And they did SO well with my friend Daniel who is in a wheelchair. LOVE them!

Z-zzzz's. I am thankful for sleep! I am hoping to get plenty of it tonight!

Making that list really helped me be thankful so much. Instead of focusing on the hard things, may I really focus on what the Lord has done for me and even more than that who He is. He is amazing! May you also count your blessings!

Lessons

Once again I can't get my pictures to move, so scroll down for the text :)

Amanda and I were counting sheep for the fall party with the teachers :)

We had a spaghetti party when we read "On Top of Spaghetti, as you can see in the following picture. One of the girls also brought cupcakes. I had to leave for chapel, but the guy who watches my kids used my camera to take a couple cool shots. This little girl is VERY silly :)

Our Joseph books. See below for an explanation :). I made these in Kenya too :)

Isn't it amazing how God teaches us? I feel like when we need to learn something, He teaches us in so many ways. He knows that I need to hear it more than once! I struggle a lot with people pleasing. Anyone who knows me will not be surprised by this statement :). In the past 8 months or so, I have been learning lesson after lesson about this. I have been learning how to fear God instead of fearing people. It's not easy, let me tell you! It always seems like when you are working through something like that, more and more situations come up where you have to practice what you are learning! It is amazing though how God has been using them to teach me. As I surrender a situation to Him, he shows me, sometimes within minutes and sometimes much later, that He is indeed in control and indeed does have a plan. One phrase from an amazing book, "When People are Big and God is Small, says we need to learn to "love people more but need them less." All my life, I have been so tied to what people think of me, needing them. But I am learning that that is not how God wants me to live my life. HE alone can meet my needs. Yes, we need the body of Christ, but when I don't get invited to something, it doesn't mean that I am worthless. God is good.

In other news, life here is definitely hard at times, but so worth it. When I woke up on Monday, there was a huge trail of ants from the doorway through my living room, into my room, up my desk, and into my computer. I am not kidding! I came to realize that it was because there were also baby spiders living in my computer that attracted the ants. And unfortunately, ants can destroy your computer. I was more upset about it than I should have been. God convicted me that He was still in control and that even losing my computer for His name's sake is worth it. Yes, I know in the scheme of things a computer is a little thing. It's amazing how dependent we are with our things! Thankfully, at least for now, my computer is fine. I froze it for a couple of hours, without the battery, and then one of the guys at school cleaned it out. I am praying for no more bugs in it!

My kids are adorable. One of my girls said probably the best quote ever. My kids were complaining, which is not unusual, and she said, "Stop complaining! Miss Seeman is NOT Moses and we are NOT the Israelites!" LOVE them and love that what we are studying is sticking! I have such a huge responsibility in teaching these precious children. So many days I take it for granted. May I see it for the huge blessing it really is!

About a month ago we studied the life of Joseph, as in the son of Jacob. We talked a lot about how God had a plan for Joseph and how He also has a plan for us. I need to remember that! God's plan for my life might look very different than I thought it would, but He is in control. His plans for me are so much better than my plans for myself.

Speaking of plans, I have no idea at this point where God wants me next year. Would you pray with me? Please pray that God would guide and direct me as to where He wants me this next year. I am open to staying or going somewhere else. We will see. I don't want to make my decision out of the fear of man. May it be God's will and His alone! His plan is always best!

Singing While We Work

I will never get tired of hearing them sing their hearts out to the Lord while working. Oh, the faith of a child. God, give me a heart like this!

Life in pictures

I haven't taken as many as I would like. Unfortunately, my camera has been going crazy. And we will see if blogger likes me today :)

One of my boys had both a party at his house and a pizza party for lunch. Here is the pizza party, complete with pizza in his mouth!

His actual birthday. It was beyond extravagant. This is the one I mentioned in the post before where he carried my present around. If you haven't read the story, please do. God is amazing!

Another birthday party. This one was for a little girl in my class and it was at the movies!

The birthday girl is on the left. Aren't they SO cute?

This was at our food pyramid party. Of course, if you learn about the food pyramid, you have to have a party with all the different food groups :)

We LOVE doing our spelling words in shaving cream!

The other half of them.

L00k at me with shaving cream ALL over!

Amanda, Sarah, Linda, Megan, and others from the school were in a concert for the church they all attend. Amanda and Sarah sang two duets. We invited the girls from the girl's home and our taxi driver and his wife. He is not a believer. Pray that he would come to know the Lord!

Singing

They LOVE to sing! They also LOVE the high school principal. So singing with the principal? There's not much better than that, at least to a first grader :). l

I love their sincere hearts and their love to sing to Jesus. I pray that they would make Him a real part of their lives!

And thanks Mr. Miller for coming in!

Our GOD is GREATER

So God floored me today. I mean absolutely made me want to fall down in worship in the midst of a giant crowd of people. Today, one of my boys was really driving me crazy today. I was having a hard time being patient with him. And tonight was his birthday party. I didn't want to go because I was tired and SO frustrated by him. But I knew he wanted me to go so I went anyways. Now you have to understand these parties. They are BEYOND extravagant. I will try to post pictures soon. As a teacher making very little and having 19 students, I can't afford to get them anything amazing for their birthdays. So I got together a few things, put it in a white lunch sack, and decorated the sack a bit. All in all, the things in there cost like maybe 7 dollars total. I was in a rush too and really didn't want to put in a lot of time into it because I was having a bad attitude. I always feel a bit embarrassed bringing this little gift and setting it next to all the huge expensive ones. Well, partway through the party I see the birthday boy come up to me proudly holding my present. He was like "Is this one from you?!?!" He was so excited. I told him it was. He carried it around with him for a LONG time after that. Then the mom that I came with told me he spent like TEN MINUTES looking through all the other presents to find mine. Everyone around him tried to get him to do something else, but he wanted to find my present. He didn't even open it. He just carried it around. Wow. So much for my bad attitude. Here is this rich boy whose birthday probably cost almost as much as my wedding will and whose prize bags for the other kids are better than my present, proudly carrying around a white paper sack with ribbon and green marker on it. It made me realize why I am here. Even in the bad days, God has a plan. I was and still am so humbled by that. God, you blow my mind. I am so glad He teaches me despite my hardheadedness. He doesn't let our bad attitudes throw Him off either. Thank you God for using a seven year old boy to teach me more about you. I pray He will use this cracked vessel to impact these precious lives. He is amazing!

After I wrote this, I realized something. This is exactly what God does for us. I might not be the prettiest or the best, but God searches for me and searches for me until I come to Him, and then He never lets me go. I don't have to be big or fancy or perfect. He sees me and smiles and never lets go. I pray that all you out there have let God seek you out. Let Him hold onto you. It will rock your world.

ANTS

So I thought I could handle a few insects. I thought I could live even maybe in a jungle somewhere. But now after tonight I realize just how spoiled I am. We had giant black ants all over our dining room. And when I say all over I mean ALL OVER. We spent forever trying to kill them. The little ones we usually have you can kill just with your finger. I was squishing these ones with a napkin--they would roll into a ball and then pop back up a few seconds later. And I just went out there and there are still ants. Uggh. I realized that I truly am spoiled that I don't usually live with that many ants. And I don't think I am quite ready to go live in the jungle with things a lot worse than that. May God give me patience and may the ants go away! ALL the way away!

Sometimes it's obvious I live in another country :)

So a short post with two, maybe more, funny stories.

A group of 8 of us are going to the beach after school tomorrow because we have no school on Friday. We usually take the bus. We had heard that you can prebuy tickets, so Amanda and I went down to the bus station to find out. Since it's a holiday, the bus will fill up quickly. We get down there to find out that that bus you can't prebuy more than 2 hours ahead. So much for that plan. In the taxi on the way back, he suggested taking a mini-boo. We had heard that term before, and it basically means van taxi. I still think it might be the funniest word ever. And really it's not even a mini-bus, as it sounds. It's a normal mini-van that is now a taxi. We asked how many it would fit, and he said 9 or 10. This does NOT include a driver. Yes, you are thinking of a normal mini-van, and that's what it is. Yes, riding in a vehicle is a little different here. The guy telling us all this is not our normal taxi. He called the mini-boo driver and he said he would stop by our house in 30-45 minutes. I gave him my phone number and we went home to wait. More than two hours later I started to wonder if he would show up. So I called my normal taxi driver and explained all this. Within 10 minutes the mini-boo showed up. I love my taxi driver! He showed us how he can indeed fit 8 people and him. Let me just say we will be a bit squished tomorrow. Then he asked us if he could bring someone along to keep him company on the way back. He said this person could sit between the two front seats. We decided we did not want to be quite that squished! We will see how this whole mini-boo experience goes tomorrow. But it sure beats the hassle of trying to get on a bus or it taking 6 hours instead of 2. That has indeed happened to us here too!

Another cute first grade story: One of my boys LOVES to pray. When he prays, he more just talks. It's super cute. Today he was trying to say something about how some people don't do the right thing and God will punish them. He definitely said "Some people do bad things and God you will punch them!" Somehow I managed to not laugh. I love that kid!

God has been doing amazing things in my life. It's so hard but good to work through things with Him. I am excited to get away and just spend time with Him this weekend. I am not bringing ANY work! It should be great.

My kids LOVE a song I have that says "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." Of course, many of you know that that's a verse as well--it's a straight up scripture song :). My goal is that I would be a righteous woman of prayer. May I continue to pray for my taxi driver, my crazy and wonderful first graders, and so much more.

I have more funny stories from today but it is getting late. I will have to write about them later. Let's just say we took a field trip to the main offices on campus today and my kids LOVED it! Haha. It's amazing what can make kids laugh. I am grateful for a patient and kind director and a high school principal who loves first graders and will let them distract him for a bit :). It was pretty cute!

First graders might be the funniest people in the world

My first graders make me laugh every day. A few good ones from the past few days?

We were talking about the word "until" as one of our new vocabulary words. The ESL teacher was in my room and we were trying to get them to finish sentences. She said "I am hungry, but I can't eat until..." hoping they would be able to finish it. One little girl raised her hand and said "until December!" I sure hope we can eat before December!

That same day we were talking about our book which has to do with a pumpkin. We were saying that we had talked about a farmer and the book would be connected to him. We were trying to get them to say "Farmer McDonald," who we had talked about. We told them he was a farmer. One little boy raised his hand and instead of saying Farmer McDonald, he said the PE teacher's name! I guess he's a farmer in his spare time!

Today we were out playing on the playground. I was playing on the jungle gym with them. They wanted me to go on the monkey bars. I unfortunately cannot just shimmy across like I used to. I did it, but not the normal way. I was kinda sideways. The kids were like "You are doing it wrong! I guess you are too old!" Haha. I am now officially too old for the monkey bars :)

They truly are like little mice following me every where. If I was playing tag and left and went to the monkey bars, they all left and went to the monkey bars. And of course all I hear when I play with them is "Miss Seeman LOOK!"

God has been teaching me a lot lately. I will try to post something more soon, but I wanted to at least write a little bit. I am praying for another good and of course funny day with my little mice tomorrow!

Life with first graders

So I can't get these pictures to move. You might want to read the text first and then look at the pictures :)
These boys think you have to wear your soccer socks up as high as they go. Notice you can see no legs :)
They LOVE to read the Beginner's Bible :)
He is one of my American missionary boys. LOVE him and LOVE the half smile. Anyone reminded of my brother? :)

Us being crazy

Trying to get a good class picture. It didn't work.

We have had 16 days of school. 164 to go. Haha. No, it's not that bad :). I am enjoying them, most days at least. It's definitely been a switch from third grade. I am slowly figuring out how to get and keep their attention. I still lose them at times, but we are getting there. I love the things that make them laugh! I love being goofy with them!

Please pray with me that I would really shine bright for Christ to them. I want to show them Christ's love. May none of me and all of Him shine through. I love working at a place where I can share my faith as much as I want. I don't always take advantage of that though.

Please pray as well that I would know how to reach each and every one of them. They are all so different, but I want to be able to challenge each and every one of them.

Amanda and I along with some others started going back to the girls home. The older ones were AMAZING last Thursday. I was speaking more English than I ever have and they got it! Now we just have to get them saying it :)

This year has been very different in terms of hanging out with people. The teachers do a lot more together, which has been super fun. Tonight we sang worship songs for 2 hours! It reminded me of my days at Emmaus. I love singing with people, and most of the teachers have AMAZING voices.

It's amazing how God provides and takes care of us. So often it's in little ways that we miss if we are not looking. I want to make it my goal to keep my eyes open this year, so to speak. I want to be aware of the ways God provides for me, encourages me, and shows me that He loves me. Some things I have noticed the last couple days? I love the people He has put in my life. The one He brought to mind is my taxi driver. Yes, I said taxi driver. Luis has become like an uncle to me. He watches out for me and always tells us that if we need anything he will help us. We invited him to a concert Amanda is singing in and he is coming! I am just amazed at how God cares about the little things, like great taxi drivers. He has also been teaching me a lot about how I need to fear Him and not people. There have been a lot of opportunities to learn that the past couple weeks. Hard lessons but good lessons :).

Amazed

Sorry it has been so long. I didn't have much to write about over the summer. Haha. And now I left my camera cord at home, so all posts will be boring for a while. But i thought I would write for the three people who actually read this.

Two of the three of you probably know I switched to first grade this year. I am loving it (most days at least) :). They are so cute! I will have many stories I am sure! They are a crazy bunch but so loving and so great. I am looking forward to getting to know them more.

I once again get to teach chapel with my amazing friend Sarah. We decided to go through the life of Jesus. I think it's going to change me more than the kids! I am blown away by just how amazing Jesus is. Wow. Life is hard, but God is good. I am more and more convinced that the harder life is, the more we feel God's presence. The more I cry, the more I can feel his arms around me. The more I feel abandoned, I feel loved by the One who truly loves me. Wow. He is amazing. I want to truly experience Jesus this year. I want to walk in His ways. I want to wrap myself up in His love to the point where nothing can get to me. May I shine bright for him!

My mom mailed my camera cord, so hopefully I will be able to post pictures of the cutest first graders ever soon!

Goodbyes

Let me just say, in my short 23 years of life, I have learned to dislike goodbyes. Many short term mission trips and living in different places around the world have cultivated many friendships. And the problem is, these friendships are all over the world. As this school year winds to a close, I have to say goodbye to some very dear friends whom I have spent two years laughing with, crying with, going on adventures with, and more. I don't think I can say another goodbye. At least, I don't want to. Sometimes it makes me not want to reach out again, but then I think of all the relationships I would have missed out on if I didn't reach out for fear of saying goodbye. So though it is sad, I can take joy in one day seeing my sweet friends in heaven. And I can look forward to remembering all the great memories with my friends here.

Speaking of the year being almost over, I can't believe I am almost done with my second year of teaching! Some days go so fast, others seem to last forever. I am not ready to say goodbye to these kids. I love them a lot. I have so many fun and funny memories from them. A recent favorite is from our spring concert last Thursday. The girls were supposed to dress up like princesses. I too wore a dress, and I asked some of my boys if I looked like a princess. One responded with, "You look like you are from New York!" Haha. to them, the US is basically New York and Miami. It was cute :).

For those of you in Washington and Iowa, I will be around this summer. I am looking for all different sorts of adventures. Shoot me an email or leave me a comment if you want to hang out. I love getting comments and emails :). May you truly feel God's love and grace today. He is amazing!

Springtime Adventures

So, I have tried several times to write a blog post and post pictures, but the pictures don't work, and then I get discouraged and don't even try. So, this is an attempt to update even if the pictures don't work. Let's see, life here...

Today we didn't have school because elections were yesterday and the president decided on Friday to shut the city down this weekend. Haha. So yay for a day off! Unfortunately, we have to make it up, but it was great to have a break.

Only 3 more weeks of school! The kids are so done, and I am in many ways as well. I will miss these kids a lot. I am looking forward to next year, but I wish I could keep the same kids again. They are such big sweethearts.

I LOVE third grade birthday parties! I went to one last weekend that seems like something from a dream. One of my little girls had 3 third grade friends and a sixth grade friend, along with her fifth grade brother and his friend, and me. The girls first went to get our nails done, then we picked up the boys, went to a movie, then went to TGI Fridays, THEN to Haagen Daaz. Wow. I have never been to a birthday party quite that elaborate before. It was really great though. I let the girls pick out my nail colors and designs. They were so happy I went!

A couple weeks ago, I went with some friends here to a coffee processing plant and a coffee farm. For those of you who are familiar with Julia Alverez, who is a Dominican writer, it was her coffee farm! I learned SO much about coffee. It brought back memories of writing a paper on coffee in ninth grade! I was amazed at how hard it is to pick and process coffee. And the best coffee is grown under trees and amongst brush and other plants, so it is not easy to pick. It was a great experience.

God has been doing a lot in my heart lately, which has been really hard but really good. Living in another country really brings out things about yourself you didn't even know. God has shown me a lot about what it means to surrender to Him and allow Him to take over my life. He also has shown me a lot about His unconditional love. I think in so many ways, though we know He loves us no matter what, we try to earn His love. Maybe that's not the case for everyone, but I sure have. I am learning what it means to be secure in who I am in Him and to serve Him not to make Him love me more, but because of how much I love Him and WANT to serve Him. Verses from Romans 8 have been really encouraging to me lately:
Rom 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I have read those verses many times in the past, but never really camped out on the fact that His love never changes. I can't do ANYTHING. And my motive for serving Him should not be to be loved more by Him or by others.

Hmmm... I don't know if there is much else in my life of interest. A couple weeks ago, I went and stayed with some Dominican friends near the beach. My mom met the husband at ISI a couple years ago. It was a great time of just rest and relaxation. And I also was able to practice my Spanish! That is always a great thing for me!

Well, the pictures didn't work. Oh well. I hope you all have a great day!

First Week Back

This was our first week back from break and on to the final home stretch! There are only 7 more weeks of class yet! In some ways I am so glad and in other ways it's really sad. I am not ready to give up my kids! It was hard to get back into the working mode this week. But enough about school. There were some other funny/strange/new things that happened this week.

I started working out with the new trainer at the gym this past week. The one I liked and knew left at Christmas and I was too embarrassed to work out with the new guy, so I just worked out on my own, and then I got sick and didn't go for a while. I decided to get brave this past week and work out with him. The old guy spoke English and that made it easier, but this one doesn't. Let me just say he is going to give me a run for my money! I worked on my abs on Monday and was sore until Thursday! Then I did more! Haha! I haven't been that sore for a while. It's good though. He told me that if I work out with him, I will be heavy! Good thing heavy means something totally different here--it's a good thing to be heavy! It means like cool, fit from what I can understand.

On Friday, my neighbor who is a medical student had a ceremony for going from being a med student to being a medical intern. He invited us to go with him! It was quite an interesting experience. He is Haitian, so we went with his family and friends, most of whom don't speak Spanish or English! Thankfully my roommate Megan came who can speak French. And Pierre the neighbor can speak them all, so when he's around, we have no problems. It was kind of like a graduation of sorts. I ended up having the four year old on my lap the whole time--he is so cute! They came over from Haiti after the earthquake and only speak French and Creole. He was trying not to fall asleep but did towards the end. I was surprised he stayed asleep because at the end they had a mini rock concert! Seriously, they were up there with drums, guitars, etc. and singing loves songs! Oh, complete with back-up singers who were basically dancing! Megan, Amanda, and I were like "what is going on?!?!" It was like a graduation and rock concert combined! I have never experienced anything like that before. Then afterward we went out to Chinese food. We were laughing because it was 3 white girls with a whole bunch of Haitians eating Chinese in the Dominican Republic! Talk about a mixing of cultures! We didn't end up eating until like 11 at night. The three of us were so tired, but it was a great time. I am so thankful for awesome neighbors!

Me, Megan, Pierre, Amanda, and Pierre's mom. She is still living in Haiti and came over for the ceremony. He was so happy!
Probably some of the cutest kids in the whole world! And this is one of my top ten favorite pictures ever as well! It was dark outside the theater where the ceremony was held, but there were lights shining on the walls. The kids were all looking at the light. This isn't posed--I just happened to catch them all at the same time!

The oldest one having a great time looking in the light! If you think of it, pray for the two boys. They both have sickle cell anemia. This one has been sick this past week. Look how cute he is all dressed up!
The three white girls at dinner. Can you tell how tired we are? We got our food before everyone else and waited to eat it. We were so hungry!

A HUGE blessing happened today--I could understand most of the message at church! There was a lot I could apply to my life and a lot to think about. The same guy is going to speak next week on the same topic, so I am excited about that. He talked about "the root of bitterness." One verse that really jumped out to me was Hebrews 12:14, which says, "Make every effort to live at peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." Wow. That's quite a statement. First of all, I need to live in such a way as to be at peace. That's hard sometimes. But what really stuck out to me is the part about how without holiness no one will see the Lord. We need to live in such a way that our lives point to the one true God. May my life point to Him at all times, for He is worthy!

Semana Santa

This past week was our Spring Break, also known as Semana Santa, or Holy Week. I really needed a break, so a few weeks before, my dad offered to take me on a cruise! We both flew to Miami and met there. We went on a five night cruise to Key West and to the Cayman Islands. A lot of time was just spent at sea as well. It was wonderful! It was my first cruise, and I loved it! The food was awesome and it was a great time to just relax and spend time with my dad. I enjoyed it immensely. We just walked around in Key West and went snorkeling at a reef and a ship wreck in Grand Cayman. We went to dinner in the restaurant every night and sat with the same couple and had the same waiter. It was great to get to know them and to have really good food! I wasn't hungry the whole week from how much I ate! The food was amazing! My dad even tried frog legs, and I tried a bite! I just tried not to think about what they were. It was a great time to rest and think about what our Savior did for all of us.
Our table with our two waiters. This couple was very nice and fun to get to know. She is a reading teacher :).

Our room!

The ship. It really is like a floating hotel!
Playing with angles :)
FROG LEGS!!!!

We were all SO ready for Spring Break! I can't believe we go back to school tomorrow. Last month was Reading Month, which meant more crazy activities. The kids had fun though. The highlight of the month is Dress Like a Book Character Day. They were all so cute! We also had a mystery theme--someone "stole" the Cat in the Hat and the kids had to figure out who by asking the "suspects" questions. I was one of the suspects, and that was great too. My class figured it out--it was cute! I can't believe I only have 8 more weeks with them. I will miss this group a lot!

Best buds reading. The third one of their group is to the left--you can see the one looking at his book :)
A Mummy!
Geronimo Stilton! He is the newest and biggest craze in third grade. The cool thing is, the whole series was first written in Italian and then translated to English! Gotta love the glasses in this picture :)
Reading under my desk! This is taken from the front, where a piece of wood hangs almost to the floor. He was peaking out, as I was reading on the floor in front of him :)
She should be reading "Rapunzel" :)

As far as summer plans, I still don't really have them nailed down. I was hoping to travel to Europe, but now I have nobody to go with me. So we'll see what happens. Any ideas from my readers out there?

I am excited for the end of the school year, but it is bitter-sweet. I love my kids. And, even more than that, a couple of the people I have really grown to love here are leaving. That makes me sad. I pray that the Lord truly directs all their adventures as they seek to follow Him. And I am praying for more awesome staff to come in that I can work and serve alongside. The cool news is almost all the elementary staff is staying, so that will be great to have consistency! Our school often struggles with consistency in staff, so we are all very excited!

I hope you all had a blessed Easter. He is RISEN! There is so much joy in that. May you all feel that joy as you seek to serve and follow HIM!

Picture Update

So, I was going to write a long blog this weekend, but then I didn't. I already had downloaded all this pictures though, so I will just give you a snapshot of my life the past few weeks. The above picture is of me and one of the girls at the girl's home at a birthday party for one of the girls.
Independence Day here--27th of February. Friday was the 26th so they celebrated then. The boys are all men from the campo--country men, and I think the girls are too.
Cute Girls!
More cute girls!
Really cute campo men!
March is Reading Month! This was bring your stuffed animal to school day!


And my favorite picture from the day! He was just reading with his bear on his head, not distracted by it or anything. Gotta love it!

Well, enjoy bits of my life here. I will write a longer post later...