Christmas in Columbia 2008

Sophia's first Barbie

Joshua

Merry Christmas!

E. Claire

Sophia and Emily Claire

Sweet Aunt Janet with the girls

Emily's First Christmas Gift

Christmas Morning

The Girls

Our gingerbread house and Sophia begrudgingly posing for a picture.

Aunt Sandy Christmas Day afternoon with Josh, Em and Canon

Yes, we are still alive and well. Well, "well" may be debatable but we are still alive. We all had a wonderful Christmas in Columbia which has been our temporary home for the past three weeks. My sweet mother came down for a visit the weekend before Christmas and we had a special time altogether. My in-laws have been the most gracious and helpful hosts since we have crashed into their home with our 10 suitcases, diapers, beaucoup de toys and a plethora of illnesses which we have all passed on to each other. Hopefully, we are all on the road to recovery.

Prayers are welcome for our 10 hour plane adventure to France this coming Tuesday. We will be leaving Columbia around 4:30pm and will arrive in Clermont-Ferrand Wednesday around 4:30pm France time. The time difference is six hours. Please pray that the children will rest well on the plane and that their ear infections will be completely healed before the cabin pressure changes. Also, we welcome prayers for lots of patience and grace for Freddie and me. We miss you all already but are very excited to share the adventure.

The emotional spectrum is broad as we get closer to our departure date. We are anxiously awaiting our departure with much anticipation but at the same time we are a little scared and nervous thinking of all of the unknowns that we will face. Those unknowns bring an element of exhilerating excitement, as well. We have thoroughly enjoyed the mini-vacation away from the responsibilities of a mortgage and bills and cooking (thank you Susan!) and the joy that comes from having family around but we also yearn for routine and being settled again. We miss our friends. The kids have mentioned many of their friends by name and you can tell that they think we will still be able to drop in for a play date. That is heart breaking. Joshua and I had a discussion last night about our upcoming move and how exciting it is. I was trying to be very encouraging. He paused and said 'Yes, but I am a little nervous too'. 'What makes you nervous, J?' I responded. 'Well, I am afraid you won't teach me french and we won't be able to talk to people. I am afraid someone will say 'Bonjour!' and I will say 'Bonjour!' but I won't be able to say 'It's nice to meet you'. Can you find out how to say that in french?'. :) My sweet boy. He also asked us to put in an order for a house that has a yard so we can have our sandbox (which was taken to the dump!). Surely France has the little green turtle sandboxes, right?

Between the blog, facebook, skype, email and web cams... it really won't be much different than us being in Greenville. Not much... right? Wishful thinking, maybe. Lets see what I am writing three weeks from now. Love to you all.