All Moved into our new home!

It is hard to believe that only 2 months after we started building this house, we've moved in! Now, that doesn't mean it's completely finished. There are still quite a few little details like screening in the windows and getting our toilet set up, but we have officially moved in and slept our first night in the new house on Saturday night!

Eli's putting in light bulbs (notice the nice stone work our builder did)

On Thursday we went over to clean. We knew we'd be busy on Friday celebrating Good Friday at church and we wanted to have the house ready to move in on Saturday morning.

We had some super cute helpers

I'm so excited about my kitchen counters complete with tile tops!

On Saturday, moving day, most of the college families came and helped out. Here John and Marko are helping install the bar for the boys' hanging shelves.

The boys figured out that with the help of their triple bunk bed, they can peep over their wall into the main area. :)

To add to the excitement of moving day, as we were enjoying a lovely lunch at the Cross' house, we were attacked by mean bees and chased across campus - what a site we were! Poor Josh was stung 7 times, Eli 2 times, and Bethany 3. Here Josh was sleeping off the Benadryl in the heat of the afternoon.

In true Sudanese culture, we arranged a coffee/tea time in the afternoon to say "Thank you" to all our friends for helping out. Thanks to Miriam who roasted and brewed the delicious coffee for everyone.

The men and women drank their coffee separately

Eating calzones made by Amie Cross for our first dinner in our new home - on our porch of course!

One of the amazing things about our big move has been seeing what it's like to have a larger team. Our team has been so supportive, helpful, and loving towards us as we've cleaned, packed, moved, and then unpacked all in a matter of a few days. David Heska spent hours helping with odd jobs during the last week, Claire came and cleaned and carried trunks full of food and kitchen stuff to our new house, and Amie Cross cooked us 4 meals in a row!

This morning God gave us a beautiful "Welcome Home" sunrise.

Praise the Lord for His amazing timing and for how He caused everything to work out so beautifully.

Palm Sunday

This Sunday we did something a little different. Our whole team took a boat ride down river about 30 minutes and found a beautiful spot for a picnic.

We found a patch of shady trees where we could spread a blanket and have a picnic. After lunch we sang a few songs and David read the Triumphal Entry to us from Scripture.

It felt so good to get away from the campus for a while and enjoy the peace of the river and the sweet fellowship of our team. The kids had a great time exploring, climbing trees, and swimming off the boat.

Celebrating our 7 year old

I still remember this precious moment when Evan came into the world crying his little heart out. Then the nurse placed him in my arms and I introduced myself and he recognized my voice right away and calmed down.

I like how Eli held our babies like they were a big rugby ball.

Isaac became a big brother at only 20 months old.

Such a smiley baby

Little Buddies

 

Evan was only 15 months old when we moved to South Sudan. This was their usual attire.

Fun ways to keep cool in the heat

 

Evan loved the planes we used to fly in and out of Sudan.

Always surrounded by friends

At only age 2 he was given his first safrock (throwing stick.)

Age 3 - playing in the Yabus River

Age 4

 

1st home assignment in the United States at age 4. He got to go to a semester of preschool in SC.

Age 5 - spent a year in Khartoum, Sudan and got to visit the ancient pyramids.

Driving a boat on the River Nile

Playing on the beach of the Nile River on his 6th Birthday

A few months after Evan turned 6 we moved to Melut, South Sudan

Our new home is a little boys' paradise!

March 17, 2013 - celebrated Evan's 7th birthday all weekend long with an outdoor theater party on Saturday night with 50+ children from campus, then waffles for breakfast Sunday morning, lunch in town, and a fun party with our missionary family in the evening with chocolate doughnuts and ice cream given by our UN friends. I told Evan last night as I tucked him into bed, that it's going to be hard to top this birthday!

A Lovely Ladies Tea Time

 
In celebration of International Women's Day on Friday, March 8, Joyce, our secretary here at GTC, hosted a lovely tea & coffee gathering at her house for all the GTC wives. Though it was a very hot afternoon we all happily drank cup after cup of delicious tea and coffee and enjoyed fun conversation and even a few lively songs and tribal dancing! Yes, I joined in!

Group Photo

Karen wanted to see how they roasted the coffee beans and make the fresh Arabic coffee .

Our House Progress!

Building this house has been quite the adventure, quite the journey. But these last few weeks we have seen so much progress and it's very exciting to think of moving in soon. Last weekend our building team started the roof. You can see that they began work right at sunrise while the tin was still cool.

Only 2 days later...

 

This will be our screened in porch where we will spend a LOT of time looking out at the Nile and hosting our friends and visitors here.

Evan thought he'd test out our new toilet. :)

Yesterday while Eli wired our entire house for electricity, our boys "helped" out.

With this new style of construction with ferrocement, fencing and wire mesh is first put up between the metal poles. Then cement is "slapped" onto the wire mesh. This pictures is BEFORE...

...and this is the same wall AFTER!

 

So today was the first day of cement work and the first layer of cement. Once this first layer has set (about 3 days) they will put the next layer of cement and finish the surface. I'd say we're getting very close to Moving Day!