Tom's first day at school

It feels very strange. Tom is now at school! Well at least for afternoons for the next 2 weeks, then just mornings for a week, then mornings and lunch and then finally a week full time. But then he gets a week off for half term - so not too bad!

It was very cute when Joshua cried because he wanted to go too.

Tom was very excited and talked non-stop when he got home. He rang Nanny and then proceeded to talk her ear off while pacing up and down the room.

Its official

Its hot off the press - we are off to Africa! It's finally now official for the first week in January. Tommy is dancing round the room and wanting the phone battery to stop dying so that he can talk to everyone he knows. I am feeling slightly more stunned into silence but will be in touch with people soon!!!

Thank God we have a cabin and that we have time to prepare to go. We are sooooo pleased that this time back here is only for a season, and while it is useful time in many ways we are soooooo pleased that it won't be long before we will be serving Him on the Africa Mercy.

Sarah

we wait...

...and in the mean time Tommy is adjusting to being at home and I am adjusting to being at work. The English summer is really not summer- Tom says its like winter - probably more like Autumn. We're enjoying catching up with everyone but miss our Gateway 'family' and are jealous of everyone else being in or on the way to Africa!! Still the timing is not our decision and we will keep trusting....and hoping....and praying....that we will hear something definate soon.....

We're off to London this weekend to mark my 30th birthday later this month so planning on having some fun here while we can!

Sarah

We're back!

We made it back to England yesterday. Thanks Natalie for the lift to the airport! We had to say our last goodbyes to Sam and Natalie in Dallas airport and then board the plane as a family of four! Our family suddenly seems very small, after living in community! We have made it to Essex (Sarah's mum's house) so far and will probably go home tomorrow. Its great having time to recover and we're looking forward to seeing Amy (Sarah's sister) when she flies back from Romania tonight. Uncle Sam has been promptly replaced by 'Nanny, Nanny, Nanny', Joshua who only infrequently puts two words together said 'look, Nanny' earlier. The boys are adjusting to being back and have been telling Nanny and Grandad all about 'America' (as if the base was all of it!)

We only slept about 4 hours on the plane so are still trying to catch up before resuming normal life. We'll let you know what that looks like once we've worked it out!

Sarah. (who is now on the same time zone so happy to accept phone calls in addition to any other means of communication! ;-) )

preparing to go home

We leave tomorrow night so I have had a little think about out time here and have concluded that...

We will miss
-fab friends we have met here
-having Uncle Sam with us all the time
-swimming outside every day (this is what Tom said)
-not having to cook (some of the time anyway) and wash up
-meeting green lizards and other interesting creatures
-big fridges with ice dispensers!

We look forward to
-seeing our family and friends (wooohoooo)
-being able to walk everywhere
-catching up on sleep
-not having to walk round the dorm to get to the bathroom or kitchen
-Tom and Joshua actually sitting down at mealtimes and eating
-having time to process the last month
-playing Bob toys (this is what Tom said when i asked him!)
-recycling
-finding some earings after losing one firefighting and one life-saving!

Sarah