Wow time flies...

We are home!!!

It's a shame we lost track of blogging so for all those who were so faithful in trying to stay informed on what we were doing, we apologize.

Life really started picking up in February and we are so thankful for all the things that kept us busy. We also lost our convenient internet connection so it became a challenge to find an opportunity to log-in.

Here's a tiny summary:

We were the only volunteer's working with Agathos when we arrived. Just after Valentine's Day, Kevin arrived. He is 21 and from Connecticut. We then started teaching English at the primary school where all our younger ones attend. We taught three days a week for a couple hours each day.

In the beginning of March a football team from Wheaton College in Chicago came for a week and helped us get a lot of work done. They also left a lot of work for us to do after they left! The next week another volunteer arrived from New Zealand. Richard is 23 and is still volunteering at the cottages.

By then it was Easter which we spent with about 20 of our friends at Barbara and JD's house. It was a beautiful day and a total blessing to be able to be with all those wonderful people.

The day after Easter David, me, Kevin, Adam and Chrissy and their two kids Zek and Phoebe went on vacation. We drove 5 1/2 hours to Hluhluwe Nature Reserve and Durban for just about a week. We saw an elephant, tons of rhino, giraffe, zebra, water buffalo, wildebeest, antelope of every bread, hippos, crocs, vultures and more. The best though was seeing 5 cheetahs tear apart a fresh impala 25 feet from our pick up. We stayed until lunch was gone.

When we got home from vacation it was back to our construction work getting more rooms ready to house more orphans. And by that time we were using all our free time to hang out with the kids as our time grew shorter and shorter.

We flew out April 19th and spent a week in New York on Long Island staying with some friends (Katie and Josh). We LOVED New York! It felt so good to be back in the states! The highlight was seeing Lion King on Broadway and they spoke in Zulu instead of Swahili (like in the Disney movie). We could understand some of what they were saying and singing about which was amazing and a end to our South African experience.

On April 26th we flew to Cancun to be with Heidi's family for a week. It was very relaxing and a great opportunity to catch up.

Finally on May 3rd at midnight we arrived back to Edmonds and ready to sleep on our own bed for the first time in exactly 8 months. It was AMAZING!

We would love to catch up with everyone now that we are home. We have new cell phones. David's number is (425) 205-3051 and Heidi's is (425) 205-3129

OUr goal is to post a big album or several albums that have some type of caption with them so that everyone can see our pictures -- well the good ones at least -- we took 10,000 pictures!

We also just want to say thank you again to everyone who helped support us while we were in Africa and for all those who were praying for us. We were so blessed while we were gone and are so thankful to be back safely and in good health.

-David and Heidi