Merry Christmas!

Boys in their new PJ's on Christmas Eve

We had a lovely Christmas, a really wonderful day! Christmas Eve we did our family tradition of letting the boys open one present each. It's always Pajamas but they haven't worked that out yet :). They were really excited and it's so nice for them to go to bed and wake up Christmas morning with their new PJ's on. We had our missionary friends over for lunch and then another 3 families over for dessert later in the afternoon. It was busy but a lot of fun. Later in the evening we all played the Wii (a present from my brother and family for the boys for Christmas) and it was hilarious watching a bunch of grown-ups play it :). We praise God that we have such a great group of friends up here already.

Jake and I got each other presents when we were in the States but Jake broke our rule and got me some lovely little things anyway. He managed to find some almost new Crocs in a second-hand shop here, they are so comfy! He also got me some candles and chocolate, yum!

Highlight of the day was to speak to my family (thank you Skpe!). Such a huge blessings, managed to get a hold of all three of my brothers as well as my parents.

Sunday we head to the Beach for a few days for our New Year tradition of camping on the coast with a bunch of other missionary families. Really looking forward to it! It is out in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone reception, no electric, so all you can do is relax!Happy Baby!

Opening Pressies

Setting Christmas Table

Christmas Celebrations and Pork chops!

There's been lots of celebrating going on in the neighborhood as Christmas draws near. A big party's going on down the road where they are playing drums, singing and of all things, shooting their guns. We even had some pellets, or shells or something fall on our roof (told the boys to play inside today :). Jake drove by there and said that they were dancing with their guns and just shooting them off when ever they felt like it. At least they are all happy!

Can't remember if I blogged about this before but an American bloke that came to Cameroon for the summer taught us how to butcher pigs as it is really hard to get pork here and when you do get it, you never know how old it is. Well, Jake and I both enjoy a good pork chop, so we were thrilled when we got the chance to learn how to process all the pork, and when I say process, I mean we pick up the pig live and kicking and put sausages, chops, roasts, ribs in our freezer the next day. We did one before we went to the States and just did another one yesterday so we'll be having a lovely pork roast for Christmas (have to make some applesauce to go with it too). Anyway, will try to post some pictures in a bit, having a bit of trouble with the internet connection.

So much to do, so little time!

OK, I know I've been despicable with my blogging, I feel really guilty. Just soooo much going on right now (good stuff). In the last two weeks we've got the contract signed for the land and building for the orphanage (10 year lease); such a blessing, we can start renovating it now but it is officially WON's on the first of the year.

We also found a great location for the Car Wash and have a contract for that too, it should open in the first couple of weeks of January. Right now Jake and Tim have been working like madmen to get it fixed/cleaned up. I have barely seen Jake the last week, dawn to dusk he's been there :). But we are super excited about the whole thing, once the Car Wash is up and going, it'll bring in finances for the Orphanage.

Of course we have a lot going on with Christmas too, getting the tree up, baking cookies, wrapping presents. Can't quite believe it is already here.

A missionary family from the capital went back to the States for a few months and asked us to look after their dog, so we now have three large dogs, good thing we've a big yard. There was a bit of fighting between them all the first few days but they seem to all be friends now.

Seth turns six on Saturday. We are going to have a little party for him Sunday afternoon, he's excited. He's made lots of friends in the neighbourhood that will come, plus a couple of missionary kids as well. My babies are all growing up!

We've been doing really good about getting up and doing devos every morning since coming back from the States. When we moved up here in June we were super busy and always left reading our bible till the end of the day, something I don't recommend. Then when we were in the States our schedule was so different wherever we went it always felt like we were just pushing it in when we had time. So now we are up at 6am every morning and read till about quarter to 7. It's extremely refreshing! Josh gets up sometimes too and reads his bible with us, so cute! Also WON has a prayer meeting every Wednesday afternoon. It's powerful to get together and lift up all our concerns and needs to the Lord, things have been going really well with the ministry since doing it.

Anyway it is super late, need to get to bed. Will write more in a day or two!

Mountain climbing

Had a great weekend in Mbingo. We spent two nights at a little Guest House up there with two other missionary families, was a lot of fun. Mbingo is up in the mountains and sooo gorgeous. Friday we went for hike to see a waterfall. The weather was warm and a little overcast so it was just perfect. There was flowers of all different colors everywhere. We saw lots of birds including a green-crested Turaco (good job I had by bird book with me). Anyway we had planned to have a picnic up there and after about an hour of sitting up there, taking pictures, enjoying the view, the clouds started to roll in. We thought it was so cool and just sat there talking about them. About 30 minutes after that it starting lightning and raining really hard! Praise God our friends had brought an umbrella or Jude would've got drench. We made a mad dash for it down hill, I jogged most of the way trying to get back as quickly as possible to get Jude out of the rain. Praise God only his feet got wet. Everybody else was absolutely drenched and muddy. But it was still a great time and now we know next time to head back as soon as the clouds come!

We also got to relax, play games, read our bibles, watch a movie, and have great fellowship with our friends.

When teams come out, we'd love to take them up there for an afternoon to have a picnic and experience a bit of Cameroon's beauty (anyone interested?)

Hiking up, we're at about 5,600 feet here (and yes I am carrying Jude in my arms despite the fact that I have a baby carrier on my back :)

Looking down at the waterfall. This picture doesn't do it justice, it was actually a little scary looking over this rock, it was a straight drop down of a hundred feet or so.

Family picture, including our Stider with his tongue hanging out.

This is the exact same shot as the one above, just with the clouds that we though were so "pretty."

Lots going on

Well we've really hit the ground running, so many things to do, so little time :). On my end, I'm home schooling, home schooling, home schooling, and then some more home schooling. Jake and Tim (our fellow coworker) have been out almost everyday negotiating the price and writing the contract for the land we are going to rent for the orphanage. Lots of talking going on about all the specifics, they want to make sure they get it right the first time. Hopefully that will all be done by next week.

Jake has always had the desire to start small business here in Cameroon to help bring in funds for the ministry. While in the States he raised the money for a Car Wash business (Helping Hands). So that's also taking up a lot of his time, finding a good location, negotiating the price, filing all the business paperwork, etc. He is super excited about it though and we believe that it will be a real blessing to all involved. It will provide a good service for Cameroonians, it will provide several jobs and most of all it will provide much need finances for the orphanage. We'd appreciate your prayers on this, it's our first time doing anything like this; Need favour with all the paperwork, a good manager, good workers, and a good location at a decent price.

Well with all this going on we are actually taken a two day break this afternoon (after homeschooling of course :). Before we left we though we would be totally exhausted from coming back to the States and book a couple of days in a small guest house in a little town called Mbingo. It's only 30 minutes away but it is higher up in the mountains and absolutely b-e-a-tuiful up there! Much cooler, lush green mountains, we can go on hikes to waterfalls, can't wait. Even though we are not as tuckered out as we thought we might be, we'll still enjoy the little break. We are going with some really good missionary friends so it will be a great time of fellowship too,

We made it!

Finally made it back home safe and sound on Wednesday, PTL! The trip back was actually really smooth, all the kids did well and all our luggage arrived, always a bonus! Returned home to two very excited dogs and a cat that didn't remember us (or at least pretended not to :). She has warmed up to us again since them. The house is fine, the garden has bloomed, the nights are cool, our friends are all doing great, what else can one ask for! Thanks to everyone that was praying for us.

Now I have to switch my brain back over to Cameroon living, not freaking out when Jake is driving, the boys being dirty all the time (including Jude who is crawling and into everything), Gas prices (which haven't gone done a penny here), and how long it takes to go shopping. But it is super nice to be home! Got butterflies when we landed, so good to be back. Have been enjoying the bananas. Avocados are in season yet, can't wait. Lots of kids knocking at our gate asking for the Josh and Seth to come out, they've been loving it, playing outside all afternoon.

Went for a jog this morning, really tough as I haven't been for almost two weeks, but did finish my two miles, felt a lot better after it. It's dry season right now so everything is really dusty, especially so when a taxi or motorbike zooms past you. Need to get some of these extra pounds off that I gained in the States.

We have a new internet service since coming back, it's a lot faster and a lot more reliable so I should be posting a lot more from now on. I'm super busy right now; home schooling is top priority, need to catch the boys up on all their missed days... also lots going on with the ministry; While back in the States we manage to raise about three quarters of the money we needed to get the orphanage off the ground (the dollar going up really helped too). So that is enough to go ahead and start and believe the rest will come in soon. We are really excited. The next few week involves finishing all the paperwork for the children's home, closing the deal on the property we will be renting, visiting local pastors/other ministries to introduce WON to them plus lots more. Keep us in your prayers!