crochet hats

I got to do a lot of knitting and crochet during the sessions of training we attended in Virginia. Some of what I did was experimenting with hats. I made lots of mistakes and they didn't turn out the way the patterns looked on the internet, but crochet is very forgiving. I highly recommend having a go! I learnt a lot from "Crochet Geek" on You Tube, and there are lots of other helpful clips out there.

32 Celsius

We finished our stint of training in Virginia and have now returned to Michigan to spend some time with family. The weather has been like a nice start to an Australian summer here. We celebrated by doing a good ol' fashioned sprinkler run!

One week left in Virginia

We've been in Virginia training for overseas work for the last 8 weeks. We have learnt about language acquisition, cross-cultural communication, family life, spiritual and physical health, safety, and strategy, to name a few of the topics!

We've made great friends during our time here, and it has been wonderful to see how well the girls have adapted to the changes and how quickly they formed friendships with peers their own age and with adults.

We've also learnt a lot (while only scratching the surface!) about African culture. We've gone without electricity, cooked over open fires, made our own biltong (jerky), made bread over the fire, killed and plucked chickens and shared meals by dipping our hands into a common bowl of food with each other. 

A lot of people here have commented on how Eliana has grown so much during this eight weeks. She is turning into a little lady. Lilah has had her first birthday here, plus her first steps and some more word firsts.

We thank the Lord for our time here, for our sending agency investing so much into us to help us have longevity on the field. While we are sad to be leaving friends and family in the USA, we're so looking forward to moving to Mozambique and pray that the Lord will speed the day for us to arrive there! Hopefully, mid July 2012!