The Craziest of Months!

Our last few weeks in America were always going to be a little bit crazy ... so much to do and time ticking away much quicker than we would have wished for, with Christmas celebrations, getting last minute things we would need for Tanzania, packing up and saying goodbyes. Here is a snapshot of just some of the things we were able to fit in before leaving the States on December 18th ... the very day our visas expired!!

At the beginning of December, Abigail was in some of the Christmas performances at church with lots of singing and she even had her own line to say ... which almost a month later she can still recite word perfectly ... "'C' is for the Christ-child, born upon this day."

We were able to get a class photo of Abigail, her school friends and two of her three teachers before the end of term. In the end she only missed the last week before the Christmas break but has loved every minute of being part of that pre-school.

Nana (Jenny's mum) arrived as 'reinforcements' in the first week of December, both to help pack and amuse the girlies amidst all the craziness. It really would have been a whole lot more difficult without her and we really appreciated having an extra pair of hands during such a crazy time. THANK YOU NANA!

Within about an hour of her arriving in the country we were at the zoo for the Wildlights they put on each Christmas. Having had very little sleep in the last 48 hours she found herself whizzing round on a carousel with Abigail and then we all watched a scuba-diving Santa feeding the fishes in the aquarium!

While there were lots of goodbye's for all of us ... I think it was almost more sad to see Abigail having to say goodbye to the first real friends she's ever had. Here are just a couple of photos of some of her buddies in the States, Brianna, Annamae, Abi S, Matthew and Mim.

 

Our church does a drive-thru live nativity which is really cool and a totally different way to experience the Christmas story and life of Jesus. You drive around our very large church building and see different biblical scenes depicted ... from a market scene, to an Inn with 'no room', to a choir of angels, Mary and Joseph in the stable, the wise men and their camels (yes, real camels!) ... to watching Jesus grow up, be crucified, the empty tomb all the way to the heavenly gates. We have really enjoyed the experience and this year even got to take part as Mary and Joseph one evening too!

Because of moving from the States to England and then on to Tanzania, we had to do Christmas presents a little differently this year! The girls were able to open their main present from us before we left the States, so it could be shipped with the rest of our belongings in the container. We had two very excited girlies one Sunday afternoon when they opened their eyes to find a bright pink trunk for all their dress-up things!!!

Packing seemed to consume an awful lot of our time in those last few weeks and was just a never-ending pastime which wasn't all that enjoyable but a totally necessary stage as our adventure as a family in missions continues. We sorted and stacked, sifted through stuff and began to pack and then the shipping company came and did the final bit ... wrapping and packing it all and loading everything into a container ready to make the journey to Tanzania ahead of us. It was a little strange saying goodbye to literally EVERYTHING we own (bar a couple of suitcases), in the hope that it will all make it safely there without us.

Having an empty house at the end, meant a few days to clean through, tie up some loose ends and a chance to say some final goodbyes to friends ... and also to take advantage of the pool in the hotel that we spent our last couple of nights. We all love to swim and the girls were super excited to have the opportunity to go every day. It definitely made up for the lack of a house, bedroom and toys in their eyes!

Jenny's mum had booked on the same flight as us back to the UK. So the five of us travelled together and arrived in England on the Wednesday before Christmas ... with an awful lot of luggage between us! It was a really uneventful journey, which we were very grateful for after the previous few weeks!

We have kept this first couple of weeks in the UK free to adjust and unwind with family after our whirlwind last month in Ohio but look forward to catching up with everyone else soon, now that things are beginning to settle down.