The Best Christmas Present EVER

So we did receive the best Christmas present on Friday last week. It was the rest of our stuff!!!! :) It felt like Christmas since we hadn't seen these things since the end of Sept. I can finally start decorating the house and scrapbook! Spencer didn't know what to do with so many toys. He's only had 5 things since Sept. so he was very overwhelmed. We can read books, play games, print things out on our computer, and watch other movies!! We weren't sure if we would get our stuff on Friday or not, and that was the last day to get it before Christmas. One of the guys that works to get our things from customs worked very hard to get all of our things, and we are so grateful for him. He saved Christmas! :) It's a Christmas Miracle! :)

So we were able to get all of our Christmas stuff out and put up our tree that night. It felt so much more like Christmas with all of our things. Spencer kept saying that the tree was so beautiful and he wanted to look at it forever. So sweet.

And while we were putting up our ornaments we opened our curtains on the big front windows/doors we have, and outside we saw our guards standing in the front lawn looking at the Christmas tree. They seemed to like what we had done to the tree. You have so many mixed feelings here this time of year, because you are so happy to have your Christmas, and presents. Then you think of the people here that probably will be getting one or two things this Christmas, but are so grateful to get those things. We made sure that our guards (we have 5 that rotate) had a good Christmas dinner. We got them for their Christmas gifts food, they were very happy. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

We hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas today! It's only 2:30am on the east coast right now and we are all done with our Christmas! :) It was great! Who knew Christmas in Congo would still make us all happy. I guess getting presents will do that anyway. We have so many things to be thankful for and the presents we got are just icing on the cake! Hope you all got what you wanted, and that Santa visited your house. Spencer was so excited to see that Santa ate the cookies and milk he left out for him. He told me this morning when talking about Santa "I didn't even hear him come." I told him that Santa is really quiet when he leaves the presents. It's so fun watching him opening presents and getting so excited about all of this. We took pictures so we'll try and get them up here this week (no digital camera, or I would have the pictures up today, just a regular camera with film).

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Christmas Holidays, Tanks, Rumors of War. 'Tis the season!

Got your attention eh?

So the Christmas Holidays are coming fast, and we are excited to have them come. Even though we don't have any of our decorations yet, so it doesn't feel so Christmasy in our house yet, but we are hoping that the rest of our belongings will be delivered to our house this week. We know that it is all here in the country, just not at our house. But what a Christmas gift it will be to get all of our stuff here! It's weird to think we could end up having Christmas twice! That's alright....we are in some unusual circumstances. But Happy Holidays to everyone! :)

Tanks....well I don't remember if I put this up here or not, so sorry if I have. But I was informing some family this weekend about how we have a military tank right down our street. Yes a real, big, Congan military tank. So I was telling them that when we go on our walks around the loop by the river, Spencer will always say "I want to go by the tank, let's go see the tank." Now, is it normal for a 3 yr. old to know what a real tank is, and see it all the time? It will have to be I guess. :) It's there, by the way, because at the other end of the street is one of the Presidents houses? maybe office? I don't know, but it is there for protection. There are soldiers all over here too. They look mean, but sometimes they smile at us. :)

And that brings us to the rumors of war. I don't know what the news is saying about Congo back home, but there is a rumor that a war could break out in the eastern part of Congo. We are fine, and are on the western part of Congo. My analogy is that if the fighting is in Ches. Virginia, then we are in like Nebraska or Kansas. It is kinda scary to know that there is some brutal things going on right in the same country, but we are safe. So no worries! :)

Oh and our camera should be here VERY soon! So...pictures on the next blog? We hope!

Post Birthday...

So I had a great birthday WEEKEND! That's right three days of fun! :) Friday night Tyler got some of our friends together and we played games and talked and ate. It was great!!! Always fun to have friends around. Then Sat. was a lazy day, my favorites! So we didn't do too much, except play with Spencer and look at all of my birthday gifts staring at me in the face. Sunday though was good, Spencer did sleep in a little but was not good during church. But I got to open up my birthday gifts and I loved them! I got gifts, e-mails, e-cards, and I called people on the phone. :) It was wonderful. Tyler worked so hard this whole weekend to make it great, especially since we are in the Congo (and actually while I'm writing this there is a baby gecko on the wall watching me), and it was fantastic!

Now it's on to wondering if we will be getting the rest of our stuff soon. It's in the country we know that, but we may not get it for 2 to 3 weeks. We are just hoping before Christmas. Even if it was the day before, we would have all of our Christmas stuff up. We miss all of our family and friends, but are excited to start our own traditions of Christmas, and have our first just-us-3-family Christmas.

Oh and we should be getting our new camera soon! I hope. :) If you don't know, our other digital camera was stolen, so that's why there are no pictures on here. But as soon as I get the new one, we will be downloading like crazy! I already have a list of all the things I want to take pictures of around our house. So keep checking back here.

One of Tyler's Car Stories

I've decided to take advantage of Becca's blog and post a few of my own stories from Africa, I won't put them all on right now as it may be over whelming, but here is one of them.     I don't profess to be an excellent driver, in fact I am quite the novice. When it comes to driving a stick shift, I am very inexperienced only having learned just recently without much time to practice. So as luck would have it, the car I have here is a Nissan Xterra, nice rugid car, but a stick shift. So I get the chance to learn how to drive on these crazy streets and learn how to drive stick at the same time. Well on the second day we were here I was driving some visitors of the embassy back to their hotels after they came to our house for dinner. It was about 900 PM so it was dark (there are not too many street lights here). We had a map and thought we could easily get them back to the hotel. (Becca and Spencer stayed at the house). Well at the first traffic circle we came too, I went the wrong way. Needless to say we got lost and ended up driving around town for an hour, some areas we drove through I am told are known to be dangerous places. Remember that I don't know how to drive stick, so that only added to the problem of being lost. There were hundreds of people on the street, lots of traffic. At one point we were crawling along when we noticed a congolese running next to the car, he had his hand on our side mirror and was yanking on it, trying to steal the mirror to sell later. So I just hit the gas a little more and he let go. We were told not to get out of the car at night so we couldn't really ask for directions. Eventually we stopped at a gas station and I ran over to ask a worker where we could find main road that would take us to the city center. He was more than happy to help, mainly because he knew we would probably give him money. We eventually ended up back by our house and realized where we had made the wrong turn. None of us knew how we ended up doing a circle, but we did. So that was my first experience of driving in Kinshasa. We made it home safe and with our mirrors still intact. MBOTAY Tyler

Monkeys...as pets??

So I've changed the background for Christmas, since none of our Christmas stuff is here yet, I at least can decorate my blog. :) And I'm hoping to figure out how to put music on here too.

Today was an average day, we did a little shopping then we went out to lunch with some people. Then as we are almost to our house we pass by some vendors, and we see them holding leashes up high with something dangling at the end of it. I thought it was a rat that they are selling for food or something? Then when we got closer, we saw it was not a rat, but a monkey! Two monkeys!!! They had one really big monkey and one kinda small monkey. They were selling the monkeys as pets! Crazy! I thought I had seen it all here, but obviously there is still more to see. MONKEYS!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope we remember all that we are blessed with. Even though we are far from any family we are still thankful to be here in Congo and experience all that is here. And I'm thankful that my brother puts great songs on his blog so I can still have some kind of music and rock out on Thanksgiving day. :) Thanks Seth! We love you all!!

What do I hate most?

BUGS!!! I've killed about 100 today! Well...okay not that many, but there was a whole ant colony go up and down our wall, and I killed all of them....so maybe 100! :) Today is just full of bugs, ants, spiders, beetles, and I actually killed a cockroach yesterday! :) I'm so proud of myself. Spencer helped me kill a spider today too, he is so good at helping me out with that. But maybe I should teach him how to just smash it with a shoe instead of the big Swiffer. :) heehee. O-well. Hopefully there will be no bugs tomorrow...but they always seem to come back. It doesn't help that under each of our doors there is an inch opening that any ol' bug or animal could just come right in. Living in Congo is great, right?

Walks along the Congo River

So we went for a walk last night along the Congo River, we live just one street over. So we are starting on our walk on our street, and all of the sudden we hear some shouting, in French of course so I have no clue what is being said. Well we look behind us and there is someone on a motorcycle coming down the street with two black kinda SUVs behind him. Tyler then realizes oh we need to stop walking, so we stop, thinking it was some ambassador or government person.(just to show respect for anyone here, we stop if there is any motorcade) After they pass Tyler realizes that that was the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo!!! It was President Kabila!!! We knew that one of his palaces is right up the road from us, but we've never seen him out like this before! Turns out that he is a huge motorcycle buff, and was just taking a cruise around town I guess? Tyler told me that when he went to the States just a couple of weeks ago to talk to President Bush that Pres. Bush gave him a gift, it was a Harley-Davidson jacket!! Pres. Kabila didn't have it on. So we continue on our walk, and then we see a soldier walking up away from the River, and then all of the sudden he is running back to where he was at by the River. So we knew something was going on, oh and there are soldiers everywhere down our street since the President lives on this street too, so then we turn around and there is President Kabila again!!! This time I got a good look at him, and he was just having a nice slow stroll along the river too, with the guys in the cars carrying guns!!! Yeah, crazy!! :) Oh and we saw 5 parrots up in one of the trees!! They were gray with red bottoms, and red tails.

Things I miss or will miss....

Here is my list of things I miss from home (and of course Family and Friends would be number 1, but besides the obvious):

1. Pest Control
2. Bugs that are WAY smaller
3. Clear water for baths
4. Carpet
5. Wendy's and Olive Garden
6. No bugs in flour
7. Driving rules (there are not very many here)
8. Target (the store)
9. Parks for Spencer to play in
10.Cheaper internet
11.Being able to talk with everyone, even at church
12.Watching TV shows when they originally air
13.Going to movies, amusement places, or museums
14.Water I can drink from the tap
15.Using checks/ debt cards/ credit cards
16.Being able to eat the fruit when you get it (we have to have our fruits and vegetables soak in bleach and water for 20 mins before we can eat it)
17.Being able to go out with Spencer and walk around the neighborhood
18.Having things be reasonabled priced (a small bottle of toliet bowl cleaner $5)
19.Scrapbooking stores
20.Washing your clothes in your house (our washer and dryer are outside in a garage type thing)

Here is a list of things I will miss about Congo after we leave:
1. the Congo River and taking walks along it
2. The birds that sing here, they are beautiful!
3. Having fruit trees in our yard
4. Feeling safe with guards at your house
5. The flowers (cheap and beautiful!)
6. The simplicity
7. Everyone does everything so slow here. Sometimes I like that and sometimes I don't. But pretty much....what's the rush.
8. Our family togetherness we've had

Good News and Bad News

Alright, so I'll start off with the good news....we have the INTERNET!!!! :) So I will be able to post more on here, and stories that are still fresh in my head, since Sat. mornings when I was writing I could never think of something to write. Okay onto the bad news, we think someone took our digital camera when we moved here on Friday. So sad! So I have no pictures to show you. We are still trying to go through some things, maybe we missed it somewhere, but we are pretty sure someone has taken it, and probably sold it that night. O-well. We will recover and get a new camera and take more pictures, you guys will just have to wait longer for any pictures though. So sorry.

New stories for the week....Wed. night we were woken up at 2am by some beeping noise. We thought oh maybe it's from across the street, because in our bathroom we have a small circle window, and it doesn't have a glass window in it, just a screen. So we could hear it really well, but then I started wondering....what if that is coming from upstairs, no one lives up there, but there have been workers up there all week banging windows out of it and new ones in. So Tyler goes outside to the guards, and they go up to the apartment and it is the smoke alarm upstairs! Our poor neighbors! Anywho....Tyler and the guard take it down, but can't get the battery out because it's enclosed in this plastic covering. So the guard just rips the wires out of it, and it stops beeping. We were so tired after that, but it was funny to think of Tyler in his pajamas with a guard upstairs ripping out smoke detector wires!!! :)

Then yesterday, I was walking into Spencers room to check on him during his nap, and I went through the bathroom that connects to his room. Well right there in the bottom of the tub, bottom up was a HUGE cockroach!!! I mean at least 2 and a half inches long, and probably 4 with the antennas!!! So I thought, well I'll get my Swiffer and be done with it, but then I looked up on the tub and there was another one on the edge of it!!! So I just couldn't do it, so I went out and found the guard, and of course this guard doesn't speak English! (some of them do) Well, I got him and he came in and killed them for me. He pretty much just picked them up and slammed them on the floor then carried them outside in some toliet paper. I'm glad we have guards!!! :) I know I'm a wuss. O-well.

Today Tyler came by and picked up Spencer and I to go run some errands, and while we were sitting in traffic, we had a kid, probably around 9 or 10, come up to the car windows and start tapping on them. We just ignore them because we know they want money, and if we gave some to that one kid all the other kids on the side of the road would see and start coming at us for money. It's so sad to see this, and it was really hard today because we were sitting in traffic for at least 3 minutes, and they just kept tapping away. They also checked our doors to see if they were open, yes they will hop in your car. Spencer saw them and was like hey there's a kid out there. We tell him just to wave at them and be nice.

New House!

We have moved into our permanent housing yesterday! We are very excited to be actually in the place we will be for two years. No more moving until then!!! The house is very beautiful, almost looks too good for us. We are now living in the ritzy part of Kinshasa. By all the different Embassy's (British is across the street, and the Swiss are next door), and also Ambassadors resisdences. We are one street over from the Congo River, which is beautiful! We will be taking lots of walks down there every evening while the sun is setting on the River.

Halloween was different here. We didn't celebrate it on the 31st, it was on a Saturday when no one was working. Because only us Americans celebrate Halloween, we did just an Embassy thing with all of the kids. Spencer dressed up in his Care Bear outift, Bedtime Bear, and had a blast! He was so excited to go trick or treating. He got some candy and then we went to a party and Spencer and Tyler went through the Haunted House they had. Spencer was so brave, plus it wasn't too scary. Spencer tried to convince some girls who were around 6 or 7 to go through, but they thought it would be too scary. He played games while we were at the party and won just some fun little prizes.

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is only a week and a half away! We will be spending it with some of the people here that work at the Embassy so that will be fun. Other than that...not too much is going on. We miss everyone so much! And I am planning on getting the internet hooked up this next week, so then I'll have LOTS of pictures on here!

Partying...in Congo?

Well this week was an eye-opening week. Let us start on Sunday. We went to church, and I learned in Relief Society, mainly through the senior missionaries there and others who could translate to me, that the men here sometimes have more than one wife. I know...polygamy here. The missionaries told me that before anyone gets baptized here they have to go through lots of interviews to understand that there is only one wife, and no other girlfriends or wives. Never knew that happened here. But the reason they were talking about it was because our lesson was on Family Geneology. They weren't quite sure how to do it if there were two or more wives in the family, like their dad or grandpa having more than one wife. They also were talking about how it was difficult to understand when things happened, because they don't have seasons, they just have the rainy and dry season. I never really thought about the family history of Africans, but it is hard for them. Especially here, since most likely there is no record of anything. They just don't keep them. So we, me and the missionaries, might start helping them to see if we can find anyone for them. Oh and we had four little kids sit with us on Sunday, because they were amazed at Spencer's I Spy books, and his Magna Doodle, because they can't get things like that, no money.

Then on Wed. night we were invited over to the Mission Presidents house here, the Livingstones, to have dinner with them and some other missionaries, and Elder Young, from the South Africa General Presidency, and his wife. It was fun to meet them all and one of the couples did a presentation about the service projects that they are all doing here. It was awesome to see how they have gotten water pumps to people, and done eye surgeries. Amazing! They had a quote on the slide show from one man here in Congo, and he was saying how if someone was coming here to put in a water pump for them it probably wouldn't get done. But then he saw that the Church was involved and he was like oh I'll help how, because I know that this will get done now. It was great.

Other than that....not much is going on. Oh Mom wanted me to put this little fun fact about our lives in here. They, mom and dad, were asking me about the walls that surround the compound that we are in now. They are made from cement blocks with mud, like stucco, on the outsides of them. Then I told them that on top of the walls was barb-wire. Yes we are enclosed with barb-wire walls. It's common here so I didn't think anything of it. Everywhere here there are walls, and there is either nothing, barb-wire, or shards of glass on top of the walls. Oh and the rainy season for sure is upon us. Sometimes it's sunny and raining, or like the other night we were woken up by the rain, it sounded like we were under a waterfall! But it's starting to make everything green here. Well, that is about it. We are moving into our permanant house next week, which I'm very excited about. And then hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll have internet at home. Write more then!

Pictures...

So I hear that you all would like to have some pictures. :) Well...let me tell you the deal with that. Since I'm using the Embassy computer right now for the internet, I don't want to put all of our pictures on this computer. So when we get our computer set up, since we got all of our air freight stuff yesterday(HORRAY!!), then I will be putting lots of pictures on here. Another reason there are no pictures, is because I can only take a limited amount here. I can't take any out on the street, or of the Congo River, but I might try. They have a rule here that there are to be no pictures, but we'll take some of our house and the geckos of course.

Things are going well though. Spencer is getting excited about Halloween, and I took pictures of him last night in his Care Bear costume...it's the most precious thing!! :)

Oh one more thing. We made it to church last Sunday. It was great, even though everything was in French, I could still feel the Spirit there. Everyone was so nice, and some people spoke English to me, which was nice. Our bishop can speak English and we talked with him before church started. He's very nice. All the kids LOVED Spencer. Mostly because he's the only white kid they have ever seen! So they kept touching his hands, arms, hair, and Tyler saw one girl looking at his ear. The Primary people said that he acted like he had been here his whole life. He loved it! Then after church he had six girls just surround him. It was so cute! There is a senior missionary couple here, and then some other Americans are here for a humanitarian project. So there are 6 white people in the congregation. But it's great!! Lots of people introduced themselves to us, and they are all so nice. We are actually in the stake center, and there was probably in our Kasavubu Ward about 150 people there. So lots of members. Something different for our Relief Society and Priesthood meetings is that they don't use the Presidents of the Church manual. They use the Perfecting the Saints book. Just so they all can get the basic principles down first.

Well I suppose that is all. I will write more next Sat. hopefully we'll be in our house in two weeks so then I can start writing e-mails more often. Until then...au revoir!

Business Class

HI!!! We did make it, and I'm glad that Dad got on here to let everyone know. We are doing fine, and have been just trying to get used to living here. It is very different, and most definitely a third world country. There are lots of people...EVERYWHERE!! Walking, driving cars..it's crazy to me. Most likely I will not drive in this country. There aren't really any traffic signs, and if there are, people don't follow them. So it's quite nerve-racking. If you have to turn you just kinda put yourself out there, and hopefully the other people are watching and don't hit you. Spencer is wide-eyed everytime we go out. There are people all up and down the road, selling things and just walking. I'll tell you about what they sell later. I did want to tell you about our Business Class experience coming here. Now that is the way to travel!!!! We had a 17 and a half hour flight here, so it was great that we got Business class. They had reclining chairs for us to sit in, and Spencer slept probably half of each flight because of those seats! :) We also had individual TVs and could watch movies or different channels or play games. The food they served to us was wonderful too!! I've never had beef like that on an airplane, let alone anywhere else! It was great!! Oh and when we were waiting for our flight to leave we went to the first class lounge, I had to go to the bathroom...HOLY COW!! There was soft lighting, a rose in a vase, AND the toliet seat was warm!!!!! Quite different than what we are living like now, but it was a nice little present. :) So yeah...that is about all for now. I will write more when we get our internet or when we come back to the Embassy and get on the internet here.....Maybe next Sat. But let me tell you real quick about the sellers on the side of the road. They sell EVERYTHING! From fruits and bread, to office chairs, eggs (that they carry on their head!), clocks, maps, books, furniture, and I thought I saw someone selling parts of a gun...but not positive about that one. But the thing is, if you are in the car driving and they are walking up the side of the road right by your car, if you catch their eye or they see you looking at their stuff, they run up to the window and press it onto the window so you'll buy it. crazy! You just kinda have to look up in the sky or off to nowhere, or just ignore them. We've also had some beggars come up to the window of cars we've been in and want stuff, sad to say that we have to ignore them...but that's what we do. It is really crazy here, but good too. We've had 3 geckos in our house so far, cockroaches (the biggest being around 2 inches), and ants. But they say you'll never get rid of the ants, which are all different types. Oh and a flying bug that was in the house last night, but we weren't really sure what it was. Tyler said it looked like a huge ant that could fly. It was probably an inch to two inches big. Well I should go now. I will write more later. We are doing fine, and would love to hear from you all! I'll be in more contact when we get in our house, by the 1st of November, and we'll have internet there. Have a great day!

They made it!

Hi all - this is Becca's dad and she wanted me to let all of you know they made it to Kinshasa. They arrived Thursday evening and were quite exhausted after traveling since 6 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. We have talked with them twice since they arrived and they are doing well. Their sponsor took them out for pizza and to the grocery store on Friday - she said the Golden Grahams and Frosted Flakes taste different from those in the states. Spencer was excited over seeing geckos and some other lizards while having pizza. They are currently in an apartment but should be able to move into their permanent housing in a few weeks. It will likewise be several weeks before they have internet access but she will be contacting you as soon as she is able. I'm sure there will be lots of news to share!

We've packed our bags, and we're ready to go...

I just wanted to write a quick note to you all to say that we are flying out today, or well tonight, and we are so excited! We will let you all know that we got there safely hopefully on Friday. We'll see what the internet situation is over there when we get there. We will miss you all, but are excited to see these new things and tell you all about them. I can't help but think how great it is that we are going to Congo, a place where not many people know about, and be able to share with you the wonderful things that are there (not just the bad stuff the media gives out). It will be a learning experience for us all. Thanks for all the help everyone has been, and we will be safe and take in as much as we can while we are there. We just really are ready to get going and be where our stuff is going to be. Let the adventure begin! We love you! Bon voyage! :)

Moving....

The packers are coming tomorrow to get all of our things into their rightful places. Some things go to storage, some things are going to be coming to us on a boat and won't get to us for 8-12 weeks. Then we have our other things that will go on a plane and meet us in Congo in about 8-10 days, but most likely two weeks. I can't believe that we are going to be packing up tomorrow and flying to the Congo next week!! It's exciting, confusing, stressful, and sad all at the same time. Who knew you could have so many emotions for this.

Spencer keeps asking if today is the day that we are going to go to Africa, and I just have to keep telling him not yet, not yet. I think he will be very happy to have his regular parents back when we all start settling down in Kinshasa. Maybe he'll start preschool once we get there, he would love it!

We did find out that we got a house, well duplex there. We are on the bottom, which is great, because then Spencer won't have to worry about being too noisy for neighbors. The best part is we get a swimming pool too!!! YEA!! 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, we are moving up from our little apartments we've had. We've seen pictures and they are so cute!! I will share some pictures when we get to Congo and have a chance to get internet there. Which will be as quickly as possible. So next blog will be maybe in 3 weeks or a month. We'll see. But it'll be a good one!! Bye America....Hello Kinshasa!!! :) Should be interesting!

Moving- Stressful, International Moving- Almost Unbearable

Okay so I am a little stressed at this point. We are actually going to be flying on an airplane in 3 weeks to another country. But I can't even think or get excited about it, because there is so much to be done. Literally, shutting down in one country, and trying to turn on in another country. I thought it was stressful when we moved five times in the year after Tyler had graduated college. This is those five moves combined x 100 stressful! But somehow we will get there, and everything here will be taken care of. Somehow things will get done, I hope. One of the great things that is getting me through all of this is seeing what we are flying in over to Paris and then onto Congo. It is NICE!!! Reclining seats, a menu, our own TVs with movies and different channels on it. I'm excited! Plus we are getting a house once we are there!! We've lived in apartments for our 6 years of marriage, I'm ready to have a house! Also, with the house, our very own swimming pool!!!! YES!!!!! Just whenever we want, we can go swimming. How nice! And we'll need it, because I know it's going to get unbarably hot there. Well, this has helped. But before you decide to move overseas at all, be prepared to have stress up the wazoo! Of course, by next year I'll probably think this was nothing, and wonder why I stressed at all.

Also, how can I be stressed with these two boys??

I can never be stressed for too long, because Spencer just makes me smile everyday!

Rewind

So Spencer's 3rd birthday was on Aug. 30th, and I got some cute pictures of him screaming and being so excited he got presents. I just wanted to share them. And he really did scream, like a girl, and if anyone has ever heard Liza on Christmas morning...just like that! Oh and he kept saying "Oh my gosh!" I love how he says that! Anywho, he had a great 3rd birthday, and now says "I want that for my birthday." whenever we go to the store and see toys.

In the middle of "Oh my gosh!"Just finished screaming, because he was soo excited he got a Care Bears movie. :) Yes he loves the Care Bears. Birthday Cake: Heart shaped, pink, with Care Bears. heehee. Have to joke on Tyler for that one! But how precious is he for loving the Care Bears.

Start of our Journey

So I'm starting this blog to let family and friends know about our life overseas. Our first big move is to the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC, or Congo. But it's in Africa. We are so excited to be starting something new and different. It will be challenging but we are ready, we think? Hope you enjoy all that you read.

As with every beginning it can be rough. We have started to prepare for the journey of going to Africa, shots included. Spencer is showing off one of his many bandaids he has gotten in the past month. I think I've gotten around 7-8 shots and Spencer has been lucky to have only 5-6. Only one more visit to the "shot doctor" and we'll be done!!! Oh yes, and in the middle of getting our wonderful immunizations, Spencer decided to bust his head open. He had to get 4 staples in his head. What a fun week last week was!