A house FULL of joyful noise!

Joel, Annie, and all four kids have finally arrived safely in Rwanda!! They had QUITE the journey getting back...one of the worst traveling sagas I have ever heard...BUT they are now enjoying be back home. Today the house has been full of the kids squeals and laughs and many visitors coming to greet the family.

It has been so interesting to watch Daniella (5 1/2) go through reverse culture shock...even as a little girl, being able to see a portion of the world and returning to Rwanda has changed her. After about 20 minutes of being very excited about ALL the new toys and things they were given in Australia, she started walking around her room and just looking at all her toys. She started telling me, "But Alyssa, we have so many toys! We can't use all of these toys. We have to give some of them away. Let's bring some to church, to Sunday school...we have SO many toys. Look at these ones, look at those ones, SO many! We have to give to the other children." I tried to capture it on video...but really this does a poor job of showing how she really was reacting!



Daniella's other wisdom she is bringing from Australia is "boys are so stubborn! Why can't they be more like girls?!? Girls they sit nicely. But boys...they stand up...and start running and running and asking for ice cream and everything!" Sounds like she had some interesting experiences!!

And Joella...sweet joella...is trying ALL her best to speak only in English. Adorable. You can't understand her...but adorable. However, she has picked up quite a few more words and the ability to REPEAT English very well...listen to her tell about her time in Australia as prompted by Annie!

Breaking the Silence

Yes. I have been rather silent. Ok, so maybe 10 months accounts for more than RATHER silent...but you get the point.

Speaking of silence, Joel, Annie and all the kids have been in Australia for the past 3 weeks...our house certainly has seemed VERY silent without the 4 little ones running around!! On Friday they will return and the house will once again be filled with the joyful noises of 4 kids ages 5 and under!

Tomorrow will begin another stab at conquering the ever-failing church membership program...Sometimes I think they might have had a better idea when they were just using paper and pencils to track information!! But, I truly am excited about the potential for how our church can track and use the information of our people...great potential. Great Potential.