I'd like to introduce you to Emily

6 weeks ago, Zephaniah our guard asked if he could be excused from work to take his wife to the clinic in town to have her baby since she was in labor. Of course we agreed. 10 minutes later he returned saying it was too late and she'd already given birth at home. This was a shock to me, not because the labor was so quick but because Fatna, his wife, is a friend of mine and I'd never even noticed she was pregnant! You're asking me, how does that happen? I have no clue!

The next morning when I asked Zephaniah how Fatna and the baby were doing, he said fine and that he wanted me to give the baby a name. She was a perfect little girl. I felt so honored and took a few days to think about it. I've always wanted to have a daughter to name Emily after one of my close friends. Seeing as I've had all boys, I haven't had the chance. But now I've finally named a little girl Emily in honor of my sweet friend Emily Greene. Emily's parents are proud that she's the only Emily in Yabus. Just last Sunday they dedicated her to the Lord in church and formally gave her the name.

Happy Baby

I want to take this chance to thank Heather Dunham for all the great baby things you sent. How many things can you count in this picture that are from you? THANK YOU! And for you worry warts, no it is not a snake in the background. It's a train track. Smile.

Learning early

Eli and Joshua decide what to do to speed up this motorcycle.

We're back!

Not only are we back in Yabus, we're back on our blog. Sorry we haven't updated in a while. We accidentally left our camera cord in Sudan when we flew to Kenya for a few weeks. We just returned yesterday, January 26th, and are happily resettling again.

We want to share a few highlights and pictures from our time in Kenya. Shortly after we arrived in Nairobi, we attended our SIM Sudan Spiritual Life Conference and enjoyed meeting new colleagues and socializing with good friends. We then spent a week shopping and running around the city purchasing supplies and coordinating a lot for the bridge. One weekend we escaped as a family to beautiful Lake Naivasha, about a two hours drive out of Nairobi. We stayed at a nice lodge with buffets at every meal, a swimming pool, a playgrounds, and lots of wildlife. We returned to Nairobi feeling refreshed as a family and ready to head back to Yabus.

Joshua sits up by himself now and eats all kinds of foods
His favorite: spaghetti!

So here we are. Yabus turned brown while we were away since there has been no rain for months. However, I was delighted to find my flowers and other plants still thriving thanks to Daniel, our guard, who watered them while I was away.

We have a short term team arriving on Friday to spend two weeks doing some Bible teaching and helping out at the secondary school. Please pray for us as we coordinate that but also pray for their time to be a fruitful experience they will never forget