Life Here At Home

Communication from Africa has been slim to none. Supposedly there are no phones available, but one mom posted an update on Facebook that she had received an email from her daughter who said that they were in the biggest squatter camp of Diepsloot, which is north of Johannesburg, and that things were going well and that the Lord was present and moving! How they can randomly get online is beyond me, but I'll take it! I so wish I could give you more than that, but since I can't, I will post a few pictures of life back here at home.

First of all, we welcomed our French student, Charlene, into our home on Tuesday evening, and she has been a delightful addition to our family.



The kids went to Splash Landing on Wednesday afternoon, and then Kelsey took Charlene to youth group while Keaton and I went to his first piano recital on Wednesday night.



The idea behind Charlene's visit is that she's just supposed to live life with us as an American family. Kelsey introduced her to making chocolate chip cookies on Thursday, and she has accompanied Kelsey to dance recital rehearsals on Thursday and Friday nights. We had a big Primerica weekend, so we took her with us to a big party on Friday night, and then Saturday was the big dance recital day for both Kelsey and Heath's girlfriend, Jenny, who happened to be in one of Kelsey's classes this year.







Once the recital was over, we took Charlene for a major grocery shopping trip, and we were excited to find sweet corn worth buying for the first time this summer! This was a whole new experience for our guest, and it was so much fun to see them interact outside on the deck as they cleaned the corn for a little family cookout.







Keaton left for church camp in Michigan early this morning for a week. This picture makes him look really short, but he just happened to position himself right underneath the hatch, and the angle is just all wrong. He really seems to be getting a lot taller lately!



After church this morning, we had a nice Father's Day lunch complete with the children who are here, and then Harris took the girls for a drive. I hear they have lots of cool new pictures from a visit to LeClaire, but they're all more interested in cooling down and relaxing in front of a movie right now than handing over the goodies to me.

Happy Father's Day to my husband, who's the best dad in the whole wide world and who our kids adore, and to our dads back home in Pella! We come from a long line of God-fearing, Christian parents and grandparents, and my heart is full of love and appreciation for them today!