One Year Later

This week has been an interesting one. Just trying to get back into routine after being gone for some of the month of November (to Dallas) and then Marc went to Moscow right after that and then of course our recent trip to Africa. We're all battling some sort of cold or sore throat or cough. We're all tired and having to force ourselves out of nice, warm cozy beds in the mornings. It's just too dark and cold to even think about getting out of bed!


Monday we celebrated my 31st birthday. How in the world can I be 31? The day was uneventful in a good way. We had plans to go out to dinner, but Cerys started running a fever on Sunday, so we stayed in. But who am I kidding? Out to dinner with 2 kids is not really a relaxing time. So we put the girls to bed early and Marc went to get take out for us and we ate while watching We Are Marshall (great movie if you haven't seen it! grab a tissue!).


Tomorrow marks one year since we arrived back in Cardiff. It's technically our fourth year here, if you count our previous three years of service...and we are totally counting them. So, this time last year we were packing the last of our things and saying goodbyes to family and friends. The girls have grown so much in this last year- and have just blossomed in their new home and culture. We've grown as well, with new challenges that we have faced this time- like moving all this way with two young children, setting up a home all over again and buying furniture, and remembering how to drive on the opposite side of the road.


So, in honor of our first year anniversary, here are a few pictures of our first month here!

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Leaving Dallas, headed for Wales! Back when Bailey slept on airplanes! ;)

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Cerys playing in her wardrobe that Marc was building.

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Our little kitchen!

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Our first outing, all bundled up!

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First snow of the year! (And only I think!)

And Yet More Pictures...

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You can't really tell from the pictures, but this tree is brown from all the dirt.

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The school Marc attended and graduated from!

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She was excited about the picnic on the balcony!

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The Baptise Centre, used for offices now. Texas Baptists help build this in the 80's I think. Marc's dad has his office here too.

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Salon anyone? Just choose the picture you would like your hair to look like!

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Cerys walking down the stairs in Marc's old house

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Fun on the tire swing in Daddy's yard

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Our first annual Happy Birthday Jesus cake! Cerys helped me make it and decorate it, Bailey just wanted to eat it. :)

More Africa Pictures!

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We only lost power once the whole time we were there, that's pretty good. The girls thought it was fun!

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The view from the end of the street where Marc grew up. So sad that he had to grow up seeing this every day, what a poor, deprived childhood he had. :) Ya right!

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It was just too much for Bailey to handle!

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Sunday at the French Baptist Church...Bailey was interested in seeing what these girls were doing and had no problem walking up and getting right in the middle of it. Cerys stood back saying to me ,"Those girls told me not to come over there." I told her that they were speaking French and she had no idea what they were saying, but I doubt it was that.

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We spent an afternoon at Magic Land! It was a neat little amusement park and Cerys rode this ride many times with each of us, she loved it!

We're Home!

Well, we made it home. We arrived Friday morning around 6:50am- when we landed in Bristol is was dark, rainy, foggy and COLD. Not really what we wanted to come back to, but that's life here! We had an uneventful flight, thank you to those who prayed for us. Bailey slept more on this flight than she did on any of the others in our recent travels. She slept a total of 2.5 hours out of the 6 so that was a success in my book!

I'm still processing our trip, but I'll go ahead and share a few pictures with you. You can expect more over the next few days. We took around 500 pictures, but don't worry, I won't post near that many.

Some funny things that I was thinking about this morning are:

1. We spent 5 nights at a resort/beach area just outside of Dakar- and one day I thought I had really gotten a good sun-tan on my feet. That night it all washed off in the shower, it was just caked-on red dirt. I was so disappointed.

2. I was thinking that the bottoms of my feet were permenantly black from the flip flops I wore all day/every day- but it all finally washed off this morning. No matter how hard I scrubbed it would not come off!

3. It's really clean here compared to Senegal.

4. It's really cold here compared to Senegal.

5. I miss Senegal. Which is really strange because I was the kid in GA's when I was little praying that God would not send me to Africa. Then I married an MK from Africa. Then I visited Africa. Now I like Africa.

From the beginning of our journey-

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The morning we flew to Brussels- while waiting for our delayed flight to leave. It didn't. If you read our previous post you will know that we ended staying the night in a super nice hotel courtesy of Brussels Airlines. Two blessings came from that stay- a good night's sleep and a fabulous magnifying mirror in the bathroom in which I could easily pluck my eyebrows because I had forgotten to do that before we left. :)

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Bailey, after I can't even remember how many hours in Brussels Airport. I know sweetie, I felt that same way too, trust me!

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The chapel where I jokingly- sort of- told Marc we needed to take Bailey in to pray over her before the flight.

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Trying to keep them entertained at the airport- Cerys was not in a good mood as you can see.

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We finally made it! The next morning we walked out onto the balcony and saw a herd of cows come down the street.

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Enjoying the sun!

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The only picture I have of her in shoes I think.

Out of Africa

In a few hours we will make our way to the airport for our flight home. Please pray- I don't even know what to ask you to pray for this time. I just want to get home without any major problems and I would like for our girls to get some rest since it's an over-night flight.

We have so enjoyed our time in Dakar, it's been everything and more I thought it would be. Even though I've only been here for 2 weeks, I already feel like I will miss it for some strange reason. Things that looked so strange to me the night we got here, now look almost normal and I wonder what I will do back in Wales without such interesting things to see- like a herd of cows passing in the street below, Rapides (buses) filled to the brim with people and even sheep, and even people trying to cross a major highway like there is no on-coming traffic. The traffic, oh the crazy traffic! Cars, Taxis, Rapides, sheep, horse carts...I told my mother in law that God sure give you LOTS of opportunities to practice your patience in this country!

I'll have more pictures and stories after we get home!

Blessings!

More From Africa!

Two things I thought I'd never hear:

"We're gonna stop by the doctor's office to get some chickens, okay?" - my mother in law

"Let's go by the French Fry store to see if they have the cereal we want." -my mother in law

Apparently, the doctor keeps a refrigerator of chickens she's raised herself for her patients to purchase. Convenient. And we stopped by a small store that is right in front of two tall monuments that resemble french fries, so they call is the French Fry Store. :) And no, they didn't have the cereal she wanted.


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This is the house-helper and she is just as nice as could be! The girls love her! One day she taught me how to wear my baby on my back like they do here. Bailey was all for it since she likes for me to hold her constantly. Cerys just wanted to take a picture and then she wanted off- however, a few minutes later I walked by the laundry room and saw her on Abi's back while she was ironing! Funny how you can communicate so easily sometimes even though you don't speak the same language!

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This is Hautie, she worked for Marc's family the entire time Marc was growing up. We went by to see her one day and even though you can't tell from the picture, she was thrilled to see him and meet his family!

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Poulet Yassa: Before

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Poulet Yassa: After

This is Marc's favorite African dish of all time- the chicken is cooked along with onions, carrots and who knows what else and is served over rice. I had this about 9 years ago at his friend's rehearsal dinner- but this was my first time to have it made by an African and it was delicious! We had no trouble finishing it off. They did give us spoons, but it would traditionally be eaten with your hands.


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And these two were seperated at birth. Just kidding. This is Marc's best friend Aaron- they grew up together here in Dakar. Aaron is back here serving with his wife and 2 children. We went over to see them today and Aaron lives in the house he grew up in, too cool! These two could sit in a room all day and never say a word. Seriously. They did everything together from jumping off cliffs to spear fishing. Marc has always talked about Aaron and what good friends they were and how they could spend all day together and never say a word. (Of course my personality just can't understand how you can be best friends and never speak to each other, but whatever, it worked for them!) They have a very similar personality and even look alike too...except you can tell who lives in Africa and who lives in Wales by the color of their skin! ;)

I went into downtown today with my mother- in -law and we did some shopping. That was an experience! I forgot my camera and I was so disappointed! It was an outdoor market area that was so crowded you could hardly walk and people were constantly coming up to your face asking for money or wanting you to follow them to their shop. I just stayed right by Ann the whole time and tried not to make eye contact with anyone, which is very hard because I feel really rude if I don't nod and smile at people! At one point we were trying to cross the street and Ann said to me, "Just hold on to me and I'll try not to get us killed!" Gee, that's comforting! :) I did buy some nice things though and even got the girls some fabric so they can wear their baby dolls on their backs now!

Meanwhile, the girls are still covered in dirt and having the greatest time playing outside all day, every day. We are off to the beach tomorrow for a few days, so it will be quiet around here.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas From Africa!

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Is this not great?!? Bailey's foot after only a few minutes playing on the balcony...and don't think my in-laws house is not clean, because it is! It's so dusty and dirty here that it just covers everything in a matter of minutes! The girls are having an absolute blast getting to play outside so much and they are both covered in dirt by the evening...bath time has a whole different meaning here!

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This is a very special picture to us. This is the house Marc and his family moved to when he was just 11 years old. I've heard about this house for so long and to finally get to see it was awesome! Marc had just a huge grin on his face when we walked in, and I got all emotional again. :)

Merry Christmas from us to you!

43 Hours Later...

We made it to Dakar! After 43 hours, and way too many delays to even mention- we are here. I can not thank you enough for your prayers for us during travel. We left our house at 4am on Thursday and drove about an hour to the airport. Both girls stayed awake- so they were just in lovely moods by that afternoon. :) We made it to Brussels only to find out that our flight to Dakar would be delayed 3 hours and that was just the beginning. Although we were inconvenienced and annoyed, I had a supernatural peace the entire time and I know that is was the Lord. Once we finally took off and were in flight, about an hour into it they announced there was a technical difficulty and we would be returning to Brussels to see if it could be fixed. Oh the joy. Actually, it was a blessing in disguise because the mood Bailey was in I was wanting OFF THE PLANE NOW. She was an absolute bear that one hour of the flight. Anyway, after landing and sitting on the plane (more joy) for about 45 minutes they announced that we would all have to stay the night and we would fly the next day (Friday). There were many Africans on the flight of course and it got loud after that announcement. Mine and Cerys' eyes were as big as saucers during all that commotion. :) I was talking to my mom on Marc's mobile phone during that time and I'm sure her eyes were big too :) Anyway, they put us in a NICE hotel- Crowne Plaza 5 stars y'all! We were like a bunch of hillbillies walking into that lobby. They gave us dinner, but by that point Bailey was beyond anything I've ever seen and so I left Cerys and Marc in the restaraunt and Bailey and I sat on the hotel room floor while she thrashed about and screamed and got it all out of her system, then she stopped as quickly as she had started, got up and looked at me and then gave me a hug and was happy as could be. Whatever.

The next morning, after more delays that I won't even go in to we got back to the airport and were blessed enough to go back through the process of checking our bags in and going through security- we got sit for 5 or so more hours. Bailey and Cerys ran around the airport like the owned it and I didn't really care. There was a small chapel upstairs near where we were sitting and we jokingly talked about going in there and laying hands on Bailey to pray for her. Instead we just did it right there on the benches. We finally left Brussels and 7 or so hours later we made it to Dakar. Oh, and it was not on our intinerary but we made a stop in Banjul, The Gambia to let people off and more people on. After 6 hours, we stopped in Banjul and sat on the plane while they "cleaned" it and loaded more passengers. By this point we are just laughing because it seemed funny and we were too tired to be mad. Bailey did so well on that long flight, we did have a few episodes of explosive fits, but over all she was rather calm and that was totally super-natural y'all- that was your prayers! We got to the airport in Dakar and well, that is just something I don't really have the words for right now. Although hot and smelly come to mind. We were at the end of a very long line for passport control I guess (?) and a "police" man came and said something to Marc and he put us up at the front of the line. What a blessing that man was. I did feel bad for the people still in line, it didn't quite seem fair, but at this point in our journey I wasn't too bothered about being fair.

So, anyway, we are here. Today we've already been out the see the ocean, which is not far at all and we got to see the house that Marc grew up in and it was a sweet, emotional time for us. I got all teary when we drove up because I'm just that way- but having heard about this place for 11 years and finally getting to see it was really cool. It's warm here, but feels great and the girls are filthy as could be, but who cares!

My favorite quote from Cerys so far was last night coming from the airport, it was dark, but you could see the poverty and dirt and I leaned down all sweet in her face and said "Baby, what do you think about Africa?" She just stared out the window and said, "WHAT is this place Momma?" We all cracked up!

More to come I'm sure...

Oh, and if you ever get to fly Brussels Airlines...don't.

If Anyone Reads This...

Here are several things you can pray for right now:

1. Our early morning drive to the airport- cold, dark, sleepy girls, etc.

2. On-time and no problem flights- one flight is about an hour long, the other one is 6 hours long

3. Health- we are all still battling this cold- Bailey especially has had copious amounts of green stuff coming out her nose (sorry, but it's true) and we need her to clear up for the flights and just so we can have a good time!

4. Safety while in Africa

5. Anxiety (Charity) over everything I just mentioned above :)

Thank you!

We're Packing...Again!

In the not too distant future we will be trading our winter coats for some shorts and shirts (well, skirts for me!) and soaking up the sun in Africa! Things are crazy around here as we try and pull out summer clothes out of the attic and pack again...and prepare ourselves for another long flight with Bailey. Sigh. Please pray. Seriously. Marc's parents are excited about seeing us and I'm sure we will have lots of interesting stories to share!

We hope to post some while we are there, so stay tuned...

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