Wow!  It has been a difficult few months for our family and there have been times of real joy!  Most of the joyous times have come from our family!  The kids are getting more and more adorable!  Daniel is talking... well, I was gonna say "talking like a girl," but when you compare him to Emma, there's no contest.  He is definitely much more confident and is able to tell us stories about things he's done at school or things he's playing with his toys.  But, his sister is clearly the girl in the family.  She wakes up talking and goes to bed singing herself to sleep.  We are really proud of Daniel.  He is doing great at school.  He knows all of his colors, recognizes a 'D' for Daniel and Daddy and an 'E' for Emma, as well as some other letters that go with the names of kids in his class.  He can count to 5 on his own and is working on going up to 10.  Emma knows a few of her colors and can count with Daniel.  She also knows the Alphabet song.  Actually, they both know lots of songs now.  We sing a few songs each night as they're going to bed.  For a long time, "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man" was the most requested song.  The funniest thing was to hear Emma sing the first verse of "Joy to the World" all the way through by herself at Christmas.  You could understand most of it. :-)  Daniel's big thing is to shoot the monsters around our house. :-)  Here, when you make a gun with your hand, you use the first 2 fingers for the barrel and the sound is more of a laser gun sound... "Den den den."  Daniel and Emma run around the house outside, killing the monsters! :-)  It's nice to see them, especially Daniel, using their imaginations!  One of the funnest things to see has been Daniel growing physically.  He was below the lowest point on the American height chart when we first brought him home.  He also had a big ole belly! :-)  He was cute, short and chubby, but now that he's 4, he's grown into his body.  He's gotten much taller and he's thinned out... the belly's almost gone.  And his face has slimmed.  He's gone from looking like a toddler with round chubby cheeks to looking like a little boy with bright eyes!  We are so blessed that our kids bring us such joy!  They have made the last few months so much easier!

It has been a difficult few months for a couple of different reasons.  I have been fighting boils and a stapph infection since August.  In the beginning, it was very, excruciatingly painful, mostly as a result of the way the doctor's here dealt with the boils.  (I'll spare you the gory details.)  After going for painful treatments with the first few boils, I decided to try my own treatment and, to my great relief, found a much, much less painful way of dealing with them.  The last 2 (they come in 2's or 3's) healed almost 2 weeks ago and there is usually 2-3 weeks between outbreaks, so I'm due for another round.  Please pray that they won't come back.

Also, on Wednesday, I fell at school and broke clean through the fifth metatarsal in my right foot.  The doctors here say that this is the kind of break you can't walk on, so I'm in a plaster cast about halfway up my calf and will have to wear this for 5-7 weeks.  I'd like to tell you some glamorous story, but the truth is it was just a clumsy fall.  Thankfully, it didn't hurt.  It's more just a huge pain trying to keep the cast dry.  Since it's my right foot, I can't drive, so Dave is taking Daniel and me to school each day.  And I'm pretty tired from trying to get around on the crutches without falling again! :-)  But, the hardest part is that I can't help Dave with much around the house.  Please pray that the break will heal quickly!  And pray for strength for me as I try to get around, but mostly for Dave as he has to take on more responsibility!

We'd also like to ask you to pray for us to have wisdom as we are in the process of making a couple of difficult decisions over the next couple of months.  We don't really need to go into detail yet, but will share more with you, when we know more.  However, your prayers would be greatly appreciated!

Lastly, I'd like to ask you to pray for Dave.  He's doing the scheduling for our program right now, which means he is in charge of most of the operations side of our program.  It's a huge job and very time consuming.  The different pilots take turns doing it and February and March are his turn.  He doesn't fly much while he's scheduling and he's on the phone alot.  The job can overwhelming at times and Dave struggles to keep all the loose ends tied up neatly.  Please pray that between this huge responsibility with MAF and the huge responsibility of taking care of gimpy me, he won't collapse from exhaustion. :-)

Thank you for your support, your prayers and your notes!  We would not be here, if it weren't for you!  I hope that over the last few months things haven't sounded too terrible here. :-)  Yes, I have been struggling with different health issues, but God has blessed us in so many ways, and I've been able to remain joyful during these times... and that has opened doors to share my faith with others.  We are living a full life here... just like in John 10:10, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly!"  So, thank you for your support and prayers!  God is being glorified and His love is being shown to many people!