Pictures...

Okay, so here are some of the pictures I promised in the last blog...

The story behind this wall hanging is...One day Arnett had gone to get us something to eat and was waiting on our food. Well, there was a man at the restaurant with these wall hangings. Arnett had no intentions of buying one but he loves to practice his bargaining skills. The rule here is...if you say a price and the seller agrees to it, you are obligated to buy it!! So, now this lovely lady is ours.

I got this made while we were in Dakar having Zeke. On the reverse side is a nativity scene.

 

The one in the middle came from Dakar, it was a birthday present from my mom. The two on the side were a house warming present from Sara, a volunteer that lived here when we got here. Notice the hole above the picture in the middle. That because it took like 3 holes to find a good enough spot to hang the pictures!

Now on to the cutest baby EVER!!!

Here's Zeke helping me in the kitchen, well until he fell asleep!!

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy these!! Until next time...

Finally making Mali our home...

Well, below is the blog I had originally typed. I was waiting until I had some more pictures to go with it before I posted it - which I still don't have, so I'll try to take some and post them soon!! Since I originally typed this things seem to have gone downhill!! Seems like every time one of us gets to feeling better someone else in our house gets sick. Started out with Zeke's weird rash last week. Then he got a stomach bug. Now, I think he's teething which is making him irritable. Then Tuesday, I cam down with mastitis. Which has not been fun and on top of all that, the antibiotics make me extremely sick to my stomach!! So, please pray for good health. All these sick days sure make us want to go home!!

Now, on to the original post...

Well, after 9 months of living here, we finally took the time to get some pictures hung up on our walls. Which is not an easy task here. The man came to drill the holes to hang the pictures and after drilling 4 holes he finally found one that would support the pictures. You see, our house is made out of concrete blocks but the Mali building codes don't really exist. So, there's a lot of sand and a little bit of cement. Now, don't think our house is going to fall in on us or anything it's just a little more difficult to hang a picture that's all!  They look great and our home actually feels a little more "homey" now.

Right now, life is good! Arnett and I both feel like we've broken free from the everyday, okay maybe not everyday but frequent, "ticket days" and feeling like we want to go home. Which is a huge blessing!! We are progressing in language. After a rough couple of weeks I feel like I've hit a breaking point. I was able to tell the story of Hannah to my language tutor this week. And it was NOT something I prepared ahead of time!! He had to help me some but seemed very happy with the fact that I was able to tell most of it!! Praise God for giving me this ability!

We've spent some more time out in the village. I really enjoy going out and spending time with the women out there. They are so very helpful in helping me learn Bambara.

Me, getting some more lessons in millet pounding. The ladies get a big laugh every time I try!

 

 

Zeke (not a happy camper)and a little girl that lives in the village. This little girl is the same age as Zeke.

 

Zeke turned 5 months old on the 28th. We went to the dcotor this week and he's up to 17 pounds. He developed a rash earlier last  week but Praise the Lord, I think he's over it. We think the culprit might be his shampoo. Which is strange because we've used over half the bottle. However, when we stopped using it, the rash got better.

Praises:

1. We've broken free from the frequent "ticket days"!
2. Zeke is 5 months old and healthy.
3. Our Bambara is continuing to improve.

Prayer Requests:

1. Language learning.
2. That we will have boldness in sharing our faith with those around us, even if our language skills aren't up to full speed.
3. Good health...Zeke's rash and currently I'm fighting a cold.

We thank you for your prayers! We can't say that enough!! One thing is for certain, we couldn't do any of this without God or you, our faithful prayer warriors! Until next time...