Finding Faith in the Battle

We went 5 hours south to the towns of Blantyre and Zomba a few weeks ago. Chad had an all-day meeting on Saturday, and then we visited with two seminary students on Sunday. Overall it was a great trip...definitely true-to-Africa, but good. The first night we stayed at a guesthouse which was not so cheap, so we had higher expectations than we should have. They wouldn't let us make reservations over the phone ("just come, you'll find plenty of rooms") and of course there were plenty of rooms...just none with more than one bed at our price range! They upgraded us to a 'nicer' room for free, and that gave us a twin and a full--for the 5 of us! So Ethan and I slept in the full, Chad got the twin, and Anya slept on the floor covered in coats because they didn't have any extra blankets. Isaac was in the pack-and-play, at least for the first 3 minutes. Then he discovered he could climb out of it, so it was the three of us in the bed. Then Anya woke up in the middl

It's quite cold here, on the second day of 'winter break'! Will I ever get used to this? BBC reported that the penguin population in South Africa has been hit hard by the 'cold snap' which has wiped out a large number of the baby chicks. If the penguins are dying of cold in South Africa, something is wrong!!! Anyway, we're surviving with our wool slippers and sweatshirts. Day 1 went well--all 3 kids slept in until 7am which was blissful. Of course, this morning they were up at the usual 5am. Why didn't anyone tell me that the parenting lack-of-sleep extended PAST when they start sleeping through the night??? What I wouldn't do for an IHOP or Sherry's to send my morning-loving family to! We don't have any major plans...Chad only has 3 weeks off between his terms. My class and the kids' school start up in mid-August again, so we have a little more time to enjoy each other's company. We'll try to get to the Lake, I think, and maybe a sm