Once we dropped the crew off in Atlanta, I got tons of pictures! Strangely, the majority of photos I received weren't from our people...rather, they were from our translators and many Dominican friends! Grateful for these precious people keeping in touch. One of them told my mom she is also pregnant and due in October. She begged us to pray that her baby boy would be kept safe from any effects of the Zika virus (and update ... he was born a healthy sweet boy on the 18th of Sept!)
Nancy, a translator sent me this bumpy bus ride picture to prove that my people made it to the DR safely!
The kids were allllll about some Mr. Micah! He spoke the language and was definitely a fan favorite.
Some sweet pictures from the week, showing the local people, the work (construction, kids club, and sewing class), and other happenings.
Two days, a group got to participate in a sports camp. Micah shared his testimony and they were truly able to connect with a group of basketball players. Both Mackenzie and Micah were able to share their shoes with some players who played competitive ball. Love this!
To share one more quick story, you may remember that my trip last year was "laborers". Moose went this year, and his trip was wheelbarrows. Moose did not get as much person to person interaction as I did in the Dominican republic. He did a bunch of construction and spent a lot of his time wheeling sand from place to place. They also did a lot of painting, building walls for several locations, and constructing a bathroom. His trip was wheelbarrows because during several of the trips back and forth, back and forth, many children would jump into the empty wheelbarrow. This gave the men a unique opportunity to play with the children and reach out to them in a special way. These kids were not kids from the school. They were street children or children from the inner-city part of the community. It shows that even in the most menial tasks, one can reach out if they take the opportunities that God provides for them. While it was more difficult to push a wheelbarrow full of children, these kids were touched eternally and hopefully will begin to attend a church and Sunday school activities at the building where the men were doing construction.
Chelsea and I painted our nurseries. It resulted in a beautiful pink one for her, and a gray one for me. However, as Murphy's Law would have it, we found a house that we are in love with that very next week! Here is hoping that The next owner likes the gray nursery that we worked so hard on!
I also got to work on several pieces of nursery furniture… Luckily those will go with us! I did this cube organizer and had to paint it literally five times plus polyurethane it…phew! Then, this cute little end table that we had found at a yard sale also! Thank goodness for Downton Abbey to keep me occupied during this time :-)
I was so grateful to get my people back! I missed them so desperately on this trip… But I was so grateful that Moose got to experience this time! The Dominican people are some of the most generous and precious people that I have ever met and I am so proud to claim them as some of our own brothers and sisters in Christ.
Hopefully, we will get to share this joy and brotherhood with Eva Kate one day.
