South Carolina!

Wrote this yesterday, just got chance to post it:

This weekend we headed to South Carolina. We left my brother's early Friday morning; we had such a nice time with him and his family, it was really difficult to say goodbye to everyone. We will see them right at the end of the trip again, but it didn't seem to make it much easier, hard only getting to see them all every four years. 

While at my brothers, we realized that the plug in for the RV wasn't working; we hooked it in the last day to charge and nothing happened. When we got to South Carolina, we plugged it in at a pastor's house who had an RV hookup on his land; it still wouldn't charge. We were planning on  just staying in the RV without AC but they wouldn't hear of it (it was pretty warm!). The pastor went ahead and pulled his HUGE RV out and we spent the weekend in that. We told the boys to not get too comfortable in it! Yesterday morning we left early to go to Camping World (90 miles out of our way) to get them to look at it. Praise the Lord, they had one part left that had gone wrong (the relay) otherwise it would have taken them 5 days to get the part in. It took five hours all in all, but we are thankful it is fixed and wasn't super expensive (we are sitting in cool AC as I type this :D). 

The RV that we got to spend a couple of nights in

The inside

So back to South Carolina, we had such an amazing weekend there. We had met a group of people from there in Cameroon when we were with Bread For Life and always had a great connection with them all. One of the girls, Megan, came out to volunteer at the orphanage in Cameroon for a month in May. She and another girl got the whole weekend set up for us. On Saturday we went for a beautiful hike in the hills. I never realized just how spectacular South Carolina is. 

Gorgeous waterfall in the mountains of South Carolina

Catching salamandas

Got one!

The face says it all!

Awwww!

Lori, me, and Megan (such great friends!)

Jordan was feeling poorly on Saturday so Jake stayed back from the hike with her. She had a fever and a sore throat; my nephew had strep while we were visiting him, so we were praying and believing that it wasn't that. We don't have insurance so we need everyone to stay healthy on our trip. Praise the Lord, by Monday she was completely better! We serve a faithful God!

Saturday evening we had a cookout with everyone that had been to Cameroon in the past years. It was a lot of fun to sit and reminisce and we had quite a few laughs. One girl had put together a beautiful scrap book of her time in Cameroon. It was also a very encouraging time.

Sunday morning we were able to share in the church. There is a new pastor since last time we came but he was just as welcoming. I must admit, I love southern, maybe a little more traditional, churches; everyone is just so friendly.  From the second you walk in the door, you feel right at home. I also really enjoyed the singing as it was all hymns without any bells and whistles. Now I love modern worship as much as the next  person, but I do miss hymns. I grew up in a church that sang hymns and I think the words are powerful. And to boot, they had some of my favorites. Somewhere during singing, the words overwhelmed me at the Lord's immense love, then I had to remind myself that I was speaking in 10 minutes and my mascara was running. We enjoyed sharing about our work in Cameroon. Then we went for lunch with a pastor of another church who is interested in sending teams to Cameroon in the future. So lots of good contacts made. 

Josh and Seth (on the drum) singing, "Jesus is my Friend" in front of the Earls Grove Baptist Church

Jake preaching (now you know why I don't take the pictures!)

Sunday evening we headed back to church for an evening of singing and food, another awesome night. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone again, but we are grateful for such a blessed time. 

We are meeting up with friends (former missionaries to Cameroon) tomorrow so we had a free day. We decided to hit the Chimney Rock State park that was on the way. We found a quaint little camp ground to hook up in that was just perfect for the kids to have a good run around and let some energy off. We head to the State park tomorrow.

Set up at River Creek Camp grounds (we could get used to this RVing life!)

With the big guys

Playground right by our site

Josh playing in the river right behind out site.

It really is a perfect place to camp

Our First RV Road Trip

We started our RV adventure Saturday morning. Our destination was Destin in the pan handle of Florida, a good 450 mile drive to let us get used to the camper. We praise the Lord that it all went extremly well, not one quirk. The RV ran smoothly and the kids did awesome. They enjoyed watching a movie, having cold drinks from the fridge, being able to color and draw on the table, using the toilet whenever they needed, and taking a nap on the back beds. We averaged about 55mph, not bad at all.

Stopping for lunch (in a Walmart parking lot)

Felt weird to be the slowest thing on the road, I didn't overtake a single thing... a first for me!!

Right now we are staying with my brother and his family (he is an associate pastor at a church here). They have three kids under 8 years of age, all the children are getting on really well. Josh and Seth will definitely remember their cousins this time round. Destin is absolutely b-e-a-utiful, the weather has been perfect. We had a fun afternoon at the pool today. Jude has been spending so much time in the water this last month he is just about swimming independently! He is my only one who has been fearful of water so it is great to see him so comfortable in the pool now.

I've also enjoyed going for some runs with my brother (we went for a 9 miler on Saturday). Always more fun to run with someone! We head out to South Carolina on Friday where we'll be visiting friends and sharing at a church (our first speaking arrangement at a church in the USA). Keep us in your prayers!

Packing Up Week

At the end of the week we will be heading out on our road trip across the US. The last couple of days we have been cleaning up the RV, checking out all the different compartments and gadgets, sorting out the bedding, and getting it packed up. Jake spent a night out there with the boys yesterday, they watched a movie and popped some popcorn in the microwave and had a grand ol' time. We've still got to get the water, propane, and gas tanks filled. It is all starting to get very exciting! 

This is my school book shelf for the next 4 months. We were blessed with a leapfrog preschool laptop sort of thing. It is going to work out awesome for Jude as he starts PreK and it will keep him occupied on the long hours on the road. School is certainly going to be an experience for the first term this year; it is my first time homeschooling 3 kids plus my first time schooling in an RV. Thankfully Josh and Seth are a getting a lot more independent. As usual, I am using Sonlight  as the core for History, readers, and read alouds, Saxon for Math, Abeka for language art and science, and then a few other workbooks for handwriting, map skills, etc. My goal is to get 10 week of school done before we  head back to Cameroon, we'll see how it goes. It certainly is one of the many blessings of homeschooling though, flexibility when it comes to traveling and time schedules. 

In the US of A

We have been gone from Cameroon for more than a month now! We are having an amazing time in Florida. The month of July is really a time of rest and relaxation for us before we start our road trip. We are so blessed as my folks live on the East coast of Florida, Jake's mum lives on the west coast of Florida and our next stop is my brother's in Destin, on the coast of the pan handle of Florida. So it is the perfect place to get some R&R. Since coming to the States we have just been overwhelmingly blessed by family, friends, and church. Sometimes in Cameroon I wonder if my kids are missing out on all the fun stuff that is going on in the other side of the world, but we are certainly making up for lost time. We have been to the zoo, beaches, pools, tubing, national parks, eating out all over, to name a few. Still on the list: deep sea fishing, legoland, four wheeling, zip lining, kayaking... we praise the Lord for such generous family and friends! God is good!

Things that have been awesome about being on the States so far:

~Electricity (all the time)

~Water (all the time)

~Hot showers (all the time)

~Not being stared at (all the time)

Church (even though I don't know ANY of the songs they are singing)

~Wearing shorts!!!

~Making a grocery list and getting EVERY single item on it

~Strawberries

~Play grounds

~Fountain drinks

~The speed of internet. No joke, I can get done in 10 minutes what would have taken me all afternoon in Cameroon.

Things that still seem a little weird:

~How fast food comes at a restaurant (and I'm not talking about fast food)

~How friendly people are in stores

~Light switches inside of the bathroom (I keep looking for it on the outside and it's not there!)

~People buying bottled water when the stuff out of the tap is soooo good

~Not hearing the rain from inside the house (I'm shocked when we open the door and it's teaming outside... the tin roofs in Cameroon get pretty loud)

~Remembering to give way to pedestrians (almost run over a few people in Walmart parking lot :{).

~How healthy and big pet dogs and cats look

~The amount of food EVERYWHERE (needless to say, we have all put on a few pounds!)

On the flight to the US... technically Jordan is still in her belt. The kids did amazing on the 9 hour flight, they loved their individual TV screens (something that was lacking on Ethiopia Air)

Riding the shuttle at Orlando airport

Fun at the zoo with my parents

A special 4th of July breakfast to celebrate Jake's B-day (at his mum's)

4th of July cook out with family and then an amazing fireworks display in the city of Largo

Jake having fun with the camera

The kids playing with their glow sticks

Jake sharing at a homeless outreach

Cocoa Beach

Anna Maria Island (Jordan examining some cool seaweed)

We are all getting a lovely tan! 

Fun with Grammie and cousins

Jake grilling with his mum

Treetop walk at Myakka State Park

Observation tower 75' tall

Gator! We also saw a deer and her fawn.

Jake found a tree frog

Boating and tubing with friends on Indian River

England (part 2)

So, let me finish off my English blog so then I can post some up about the US. Below are a bunch of snap shots of our incredible time there; very very special!

Cousin Joel and Jordan on their way to the park (they were in seperable)

Outside Peterbourough Cathederal... built in the 12th century

This works out to be $8.33 per gallon! And we though Cameroon was expensive at about $5 a gallon.  

Jake sharing at Gold Street Church in Saffron Waldon

Josh smashing plates at a village fete

The highlight of the boy's stay in England was visiting Kenilworth Castle

They enjoyed rolling down the hills :D

The Olej family; they are wonderful friends from Slovakia who now live in England.  It was soooo good to see them swell as freshen up my Slovak.

Figuring out puzzles in the science museum

More science fun

A highlight for me was running my first official race with my big brother Ben. I placed 100th out of 161... not bad for my first 10K. Official time was 55:52

A great cook-out with the Living Word Fellowship

Jordan feeding Uncle Bob :D

Sharing at the Living Word Fellowship (house church)