Progress

Progress is being made on the game room. We're all excited to see it come together. The plumbing is almost complete and Joey and Mark are scheduled to work on the electric this week. Once that's done, and the central heat and air is installed they'll be able to sheet rock. Then comes the really fun part, putting all the fun stuff in the room. But until then things around the house are a little bit messy.

The new bathtub and shower. Can you see how far up the rain head is located? We are tired of showering in spaces for small people so now that we've started from scratch in a bathroom we're moving it way up! Preparing for those two tall boys to shower without getting a crook in their necks.

We relocated one of the windows, choosing to have it look out into the backyard. It'll allow plenty of light into the large room without people from the drive way being able to see into the boy's room.

Sheet rock sitting and ready once the electric work is done and central heat and air are installed. There will be a large walk in closet from the bathroom and then another utility closet next to that. It will house the full extra refrigerator and have additional shelving for storage. Mark Thomas was not too thrilled to find out that Max and Allan would have their own refrigerator in their room. Well, kind of!

A little humor during home work time! With the weather being so warm down here, it's hard to get the kids to come inside after school to even do their homework. I'm thankful for the warm weather but as the homework load increases, so does the struggle to do it.

Two sets of queen size mattresses temporarily located in the dining room.
Some of the new bedding and linens for the boy's new room located in one corner of the living room.

Ella and Ben having a great time with the new Wii they got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa. It's been a lot of fun! It's been something the whole family has enjoyed.

Ella was Mary in her pre-school play this year!

What a pretty girl posing in front of the poinsettias!

This was the Christmas photo we sent out. I apologize if we missed some of you. Our list has gotten amazingly long so unfortunatly we've had to trim it down a little bit. Hope it's not too late to send out a Texas size greeting full of good wishes for the new year.

Progress is also in the making with Allan. He traveled to his home village yesterday to say goodbye. His health has improved and Jamil told me that Allan's uncle goes wherever he goes, telling people not to touch him, so that he won't get sick again. I can only imagine how that would look. They're so overjoyed that Allan has an opportunity to come to America that they want nothing to keep him from coming. We too are overjoyed that he'll soon be here. Please pray for his journey this Friday. He's scheduled to leave Entebbe at 10:55 at night so that he'll hopefully sleep most of the way to Amsterdam. He'll then connect to a flight that will bring him to Houston around 1:35 in the afternoon. All six of us will be waiting there to welcome him! I thought the feeling of preparing for a new child ended with my pregnancy with Ella but this feels so similar in many ways. We're thrilled to be welcoming someone else into the house and yet a little bit unsure as to what changes will occur. We're preparing a new room, full of new accessories and people are showering us with clothes and other things that will help Allan to adjust to being here. We've seen God provide in ways we never could have imagined. We are excited, but to see the church and other people in our community who know us be so excited too is just an amazing thing. Our God is so good!