Graduation 2010

We graduated seven young people this year.  Three girls and four guys. Three Americans, two Koreans, one Beninese and one Chadian/American. One whose parents work in Cote d'Ivoire, one from Ghana, one from Benin, three from Niger and one from Timbuktou, Mali.  Four from our dorm, one from a hostel home and two who lived with their own parents.  They are going to Canada, Sweden and the United States for further studies.  They are only 17 and 18 years old but they have already experienced more than most people their age.  They have lived through many transitions and have many more to come.  Please pray for these precious young people as they leave the comfort of the known for the unknown.

 

Is this Heaven?

Our Four Graduates: Ha Yoen, Rebekah, Joon Hyuk and Rufus

We took our four dorm kids who are graduating out for Supper on Wednesday night to give them our gifts and parting words of wisdom.
We are so proud of them and yet anxious at the same time for the HUGE transitions they will have to make.  We are confident that The Lord will not abandon them even when they feel scared, that HE will always know where to go when they feel lost, and His love never fails, even when they are far from home and loved ones.  Please pray for these four when you think of it.  We love them very much and it will be a difficult transition for us as well!

"heaven means never having to say good-bye"  ah yes, that will be heaven indeed!

Bunch of Dorm kids

What a great bunch of kids eh? Left to right they are Front row: Mikaylah and Uncle Tim.

Second row: Zeb, Bethany, Nathanael, Hannah, Blessing crouching down, MiYoen, Mikaela, Rebekah and Deborah holding Jayson... back row, Aunt Janice, Asyncrite, Joshua, Elisheva, John Thar, Rufus, JoonHyuk, and HaYoen.

The Teagues invited all of us for Tacos!!  What a Blessing!

Rain!

Back up to April 26. Tim took the time to tell the kids that if the first rain happened in the evening we would tell them whether or not they would be able to play in it (depending on the intensity of the rain and the hour of the evening) and what to do (i.e. clean up before coming back in the dorm, etc.). We really thought we had another month or so before it would rain, and Tim had the kids guess dates when they thought the first rain would come. We had each child in order of age (oldest to youngest) choose a date. We told them that if their day won, they would get a milkshake and fries at the rec. The first day was April 29 and the last day chosen was May 30 (except that Tim chose June 1 and I chose June 2). After everyone chose their date I remarked to Tim that our own children never chose a date so Tim penciled them in on May 3rd and fourth because no one else chose those dates.
About 9:30 on Monday May 3rd the thunder and lightening gave way to RAIN!! Buckets of rain!! Mikaylah and Jayson were sleeping, but the little girls, (who had been in bed for an hour already) were begging to go out and play! Of course we all went out to play in the rain!! A rite of passage for most reveling in the arrival of rainy season! At about 11pm we herded them back in as the rain petered out and drank hot chocolate to warm them up again before falling into a contented sleep!
By the way, Jayson got his milkshake and fries at the rec on Tuesday! Rufus doesn't know it yet, but since his day, May 5, was closest (of the dorm kids) he will get his just rewards too!

Pirate Day

Since today was pirate day Jayson wanted to enter into the fray!  Here are a few pics of our kids all dressed up.

Arggg!  I Be John Thar!
Blessing, Mikaylah and Hannah in their finery

Jayson and Aunt Cathy Bliss in the library

Life is an adventure!

Mikaylah was overheard explaining to one of her classmates, "all my dorm kids are back!"... Finally on Thursday night we were a complete dorm family again. Thank you for those who prayed for Ha Yoen and Mi Yoen's return. All of our dorm kids returned to the dorm for the fourth quarter of the school year on Monday, April 5. All except our two from Ghana. Since their car broke down they had to be towed to a town close to the border between Ghana and Burkina Faso. Eventually they were towed back to their home town, then they took a bus the next morning to the border, then borrowed a car to the capital of Burkina Faso where they got on a plane which brought them to Niamey in time for supper Thursday night! Phew! Makes me tired just talking about it! Ha Yoen's words about it were "It was an adventure!" It was a reminder to us how God takes such fantastic care of His children!

Counting our Blessings

Well it is April... the last quarter of the school year always seems to FLY by... someone told me that there is only 47 school days left! Wow! Hard to believe that our four seniors will be leaving!! All four of them will be going to university in the United States, but only one of them is actually American! It is wild to think that we only have nine weeks left with them to make sure they are truly ready!! NOT... ENOUGH... TIME !!!!
Of course they are all chomping on the bit. We are so blessed to have such great kids! Please pray for them as their last year of high school winds down and life as they know it changes DRASTICALLY!!!


Ha Yoen J.



Rufus J D.

Joon Hyuk K.

Rebekah H. (on the left, her sister D is in the green)

Mikaylah's birthday party

Mikaylah's birthday is March 27, which falls during break. However, Mikaylah really wanted to have a "kindergarten" birthday with her classmates before the break.
My sister designed the invitation.

We invited all the classmates for lunch. Kindergarten is only a half day, so it seemed easier to have them all walk over after school.


We had pizza and koolaid (foster clarks) and carrot sticks. We played Musical Chairs, paste the face and duck duck goose. We opened presents, and followed clues to a piñata filled with candy. Everyone got to hit the piñata and since it still didn't break Tim had to break it to the delight of the kids. They were so sweet to share equally with each other I was really impressed! What a great group of kids! Jayson wanted to know where his birthday presents were. I told him that he would get a present (loot bag) at the end of the party. That made him happy. Mikaylah felt fêted but wanted to know if there will be more presents on her "real" birthday!

Coup d'étât Day

Thursday February 18 was my dad's birthday. It began as a normal Thursday morning, getting the kids out the door in time for school. Mikaylah came home from Kindergarden at noon, and by 1pm we had just finished lunch when we heard machine gunfire. Then a few minutes later we heard the school siren announcing a lock down. I was just wondering if it was another drill when we got a phone call from Dave Totman telling us this was not a drill, but to stay inside the dorm. When Mikaylah and Jayson wanted to go out to play, I nonchalantly told them it was too hot, let's play a game... my children were bewildered at mom's strange response but not afraid. The lock down lasted three hours, in which we heard many military helicopters and more gun fire outside the gate. We discovered that there was a coup d'étât happening. To my recollection of a few coups happening in Côte d'Ivoire, this was the most calm, and quiet military take over I have ever experienced. At no time did we fear for our well being. God's peace passed all our understanding and we were able to be in contact with parents. The dorm kids all came home at 3pm and when we told them that school was going to be suspended on Friday, they (most of them) were happy to be able to sleep in. There were a few disappointments: The outreach planned for this weekend was postponed, Neil and Lisa Sim (parents to Beth, Josh and Hannah) were not able to cross the border from Benin to Niger, and the accreditation team scheduled to come in were all rerouted all over the world (well, at least in Africa and in the US). So while those of you have been having your snow days, we here in Africa had a "Coup d'étât" Day. Just not as fun to play in!

One of our seniors, John's parents live in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, and they have been experiencing a coup of sorts as well.

Thank you to all of you who prayed for peace, please continue to pray for Mali and Côte d'Ivoire.

Une Nuit à Paris

Our Student Council recently sponsored a banquet that many of the kids claimed was a Valentine's banquet. At any rate, it was an opportunity to dress up, and our kids did a great job of that. Here are some of the photos Tim took of our kids on their way to the banquet:
Zeb and his sister Elisheva Zoolkoski are Americans whose parents are at the Sim hospital in Galmi.
Sisters, Bethany and Hannah, and brother Josh Sim are Aussies from Benin.
The two oldest of the Ottosson family, Nathanael and Mikaela, are also Aussies whose parents work in Burkina Faso.
Our own kids: Jayson and Mikaylah pose for Papa
Not only was it a night of good food and fellowship, Amanda Winsor taught our kids how to waltz Shelby Winsor and Mikaylah had a great time!
John and Bethany whirled around the dining hall, if only we had a disco ball!! HA HA

Even Tim and I dressed up and had a great time!

Girls' Hall

Our Girls' Hall has the most rooms (three) in the dorm and can comfortable fit six girls, though occasionally we will put three girls in "the big room" at the end of the hall. This year we were going to have to find a bed for one as we had eight on our list. When the girls found out, they all agreed they would rather be squished than lose one of their "sisters". This blog is in dedication to our eight girls down our girls hall. They are, Hannah, Blessing and Mikaela in the small girls' room,

Elisheva and Rebekah in the BIG girls' room, and

and Bethany, Deborah and MiYoen in the middle-sized girls' room... now I am starting to sound like Goldilocks and the three bears!!

Isaiah 58:11

One of our new students, 12 year old Mikaela wondered if she could plant a garden, "not a flower garden, but food".  So she and one of her room-mates, Blessing have hoed and watered a patch of ground that they call their own.  Monday Mikaela planted the top of the pineapple I had cut up for snack.  So we will see how it progresses!

"... He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land... like a well watered garden..." Is 58:11

pictiondictionary

Our first Saturday night in the dorm after Christmas vacation and the kids are not bogged down with a lot of homework (yet), so we played a game of piction-dictionary.  Everyone starts with a fresh sheet of paper and a pencil.  Each person writes a descriptive sentence and passes it to the person on their right.  The next person draws a picture of what is described in the picture, folds the paper so the original sentence can not be seen and passes it to their right.  The next person writes a sentence that describes the picture and so on all around the table until you get your original piece of paper back.  Then each person reads their original sentence and all the hilarious mixed up pictures and sentences that follow.  The kids had a great time seeing how their sentences got morphed!

Celebrate good times!

I know that it is important to celebrate joyful occasions, and so this week we celebrated!!

My good friend "Tanti Hadiza" who also helps me in the kitchen three days a week asked me if she could bake a cake for her friend who just had a baby. She had gone through the labour and delivery with her friend, so she was given the task to name the baby. She chose the name Arielle. Then she asked if I would decorate the cake for her. This is Tanti Hadiza with her cake for baby Arielle.

Joshua turned 13 in December (two days before Christmas) so we had an "unbirthday" for him on Wednesday. He asked for hamburgers and French Fries and Banana cream pie for dessert! It was a fun Supper, and Josh's parents were still in town so they got to celebrate with us too!!


On Thursday Rufus received a letter from Oral Roberts University that he had been accepted into the pre-med programme!! Whoa, are we proud or what?? John has also been accepted to ORU, so I baked a cake (chocolate since John brought us 20 boxes of cocoa from Cote d'Ivoire!! (Rufus on the left and John on the right)

Happy New Year 2010!!

Wow, hard to believe that 2010 has arrived!! Doesn't it seem like we are living in the future??
Tim and I spent Wednesday apart, which is unusual. Tim was over at the McIver's helping to build the new climbing apparatus for our playground. While Janice was over at the Beebout's house trying to get it clean before their arrival early Thursday morning. We met Jeremy and Susan and their two girls Lydia and Eliza ( aged six and four) in Quebec during our language study. They have become special friends of ours... They went back to America in August to await the arrival of their third child. Abigail was born September 9 (Labour day of course!) and they returned to Niger safely Thursday, December 31!
Thursday morning Tim and the rest of the men who helped create the climber brought it over to our playground and installed it into its cement moorings. After lunch with part of the crew we played our annual softball game, (even Janice played!)
Our friends the McIvers (also language study friends from Quebec) had supper with us Thursday night. Their two children are between our two, so they had a great time playing together. Since our kids are young we decided to have a sleep over!! We have lots of empty bedrooms this time of year while the dorm kids are with their own families. After the kids went to bed we played a game of "ticket to ride" (which was brand new to Tim and I). Chantelle won big time!! At midnight we walked over to the river to watch the hotels' display of fireworks (while most of you were eating dinner in North America). Happy New Year from Niger!

Merry Christmas

Mikaylah and Jayson met "Santa Claus" at the American Rec Center December 5th.

Mikaylah actually woke up this morning forgetting that it was Christmas!!  Tim asked her if she knew what day it was, "Friday." was her response... it wasn't until she wandered into the dining room and saw the Christmas presents that she realized it was Christmas!

Jayson slept in til 10 am!!  But Mikaylah was content to eat pancakes and discover her stocking while we waited for Jayson to wake up!

Mikaylah and Jayson with their stockings

We were spoiled by Tim's brother Ron and Janice's sister, Jennifer this year as both sent packages with gifts for us.  Janice made stockings and was still wrapping presents Christmas morning before the kids woke up!!

Mikaylah's favourite gift was the roller skates that we got her at a garage sale last summer. Uncle Ron and Aunt Linda AND Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Chris sent knee pads and elbow pads for her so Jayson got the black set and Mikaylah got the pink set!!

Daddy opens the walkie talkies while the kids look on.

Jayson's big tractor truck carrier

Jayson's favourite gift was a remote control car!  They were very spoiled! Mikaylah and Jayson in their new swimsuits (and Mika's elbow & knee "caps") and flashlights. We went over to the Riggs' home for dinner in the afternoon.  We were spoiled again with chicken, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy!!  And then four kinds of pie for dessert!!  Plus munching on Christmas cookies all afternoon.  We played a "Riggs' special" game the guys vs the girls and the guys won... It was a wonderful full day and we are very blessed!  Hope you had a great day too wherever you are and with loved ones close by.

It's Christmas Eve at Our House

Well, I have to tell you that this Christmas Eve was the first time Mikaylah was begging to go to bed on time. Her pappa had to go show a film in the neighborhood of one of our pastors tonight and he said that she better be asleep when he got home or Santa would skip right over our house. Her response? Don't worry daddy, Santa can't come here because it is too hot and Africa is way too far away from the North Pole. She knows that there will be presents under the tree tomorrow. She was in bed when I got home, but not asleep. I think she is a bit more than a little excited.

Tomorrow, I hope to bring you some Christmas pictures. I am really glad that while we joke about Santa coming or not, Mikaylah knows that it is just mommy and daddy pretending to be Santa. She will probably sing happy birthday to Jesus tomorrow. I will have to video that!

November Birthdays

November came and went pretty fast!  We had four birthdays in November,  Tim celebrated on the 8th, and everyone wore black!!  Mi Yoen turned 15 on the 10th, Jayson turned three on the 16th and Asyncrite celebrated sweet 16 on the 25th!!  We had Lots of Cake this month, especially considering we had no birthdays in October!!!