Happy New Year!

This past week we went to apply for Congolese passports for Eileen and Aravis (Molly already had hers) and then after lunch and naps we hired a taxi and went on a family outing.

We weren’t able to drive around as much as we wanted because there were roads blocked off due to the president being in town, but we got to see some helicopters parked in a field, the hospital and gardens and then we went to a restaurant and pool area and watched some kids swimming and then sat and ate special treats that Orcxance had bought.

The girls enjoyed seeing the small fake tree at the hospital.

We also got a quick look at a local cemetery, which was decorated with lots of fake flowers.

Esther took a turn driving and we only got stuck once briefly, due to poor instructions from the chauffeur.

It was a really fun evening and nice to go do something all together outside of the house, which is a rare event for us.

Christmas Day: Stockings

There were too many good photos to do only one post for Christmas Day so I’m going to divide it up. Here are some pics of opening stockings.

Notice Molly's outfit change; Aunt Esther got cute new outfits for both girls.

Joy to the World! The Lord is with us.

Christmas Day Family Photos

Christmas Day: a few more pictures

The plastic chairs were a gift from Orcxance that the girls have been wanting for a long time. They are getting a lot of use already.

Christmas Day: Gifts and the Christmas Story

On Christmas Day we wanted to continue the tradition of Christmas gifts for the kids in our old neighborhood, especially since none of those kids would have a chance to get shoeboxes. So we piled up the baskets of gifts (thank you Barry family!) and headed over to our old neighborhood. A lot of our neighbors there are Muslim so it was a chance for them to hear the story of Christmas even though they don’t celebrate it.

We do this every year and they don’t mind, although we ask the adults permission before telling their kids what we believe about Jesus.

After reading and telling the Christmas story and talking about it, we handed out little gift bags to everyone. There were enough leftover for some of the kids to take some home to siblings who didn’t come. It was a really fun event and my favorite Christmas tradition since moving to Congo.