New Friends, New Faces and the Love of God

Hello Everyone,

Let me say, We've never been so excited as we were today just to be able to sit down at a table and carry on a conversation in English. We have 2 new friends, Rick and Melissa. They are from Ohio and are adopting from the same orphanage. I forgot to get permission to post pictures of them so hopefully tomorrow I can post those. They are both wonderful Christians. James and Rick talked about guns today but mostly sharing our faith journey with one another.

We are able to share cab rides with them which is helping with the cost. A cab ride to and from the orphanage is $10 and we do that twice a day. It can be more if we go to the bank or market. We also sit at the same table in the dining hall. We know God placed us together to be here for one another. Please remember to pray for them when you pray for us. They have a journey ahead of them. They are also adopting the brother to the other 2 children and he is in an orphanage about 30 miles from here.

When we arrived at the orphanage this morning we were unable to get anyone to come to the front door so we walked around to the back. We spotted several squirrels in the trees. All the squirrels here are red. When we arrived to the back door Micah came busting out the door. His teacher said he saw us thru the window and said "Mama, Papa!".

I must say, James and I are getting nice farmers tans. We are outside so much with the boys. Today the boys were getting a little bored with their normal toys. There is a walnut tree that hangs over the playground. They like to climb up ond pull the walnuts out of the tree then stomp on them and eat them. They are not very tasty right now because they are not ripe.

The boys worked on the tricycle again today. We are down to 1 since the other is now torn up. They only have 2 tricycles in this entire orphanage. When they got bored with fixing the tricycle they showed us another talent we had not seen yet. They are both painters. We looked on the side of the little house and Micah had made some marks with a stick. We wondered how he was doing this and then we saw him spit on the stick and put it in the dirt. He made his own paint. They are very clever.

We went back this afternoon and spent time with Melissa, Rick and their 2 children. As usual Micah started showing off. He loves the attention. On the other hand, Luke was sharing his Cheerios and playing with the other children.

The little puppy you see in the pictures always comes around and wants to play. The boys fed him some of their cheerios. He has a bad eye infection. As you all know, James is so tenderhearted when it comes to animals. He got a baby wipe and cleaned the puppy's eye and put some triple antibiotic ointment in it. You would have thought he had give the puppy a big old bone.

After we loved on our boys we came back and had dinner with Rick and Melissa. Tonight was surprise meat and rice. We had a nice conversation and then walked down to the river. As we got closer, there were 3 little girls trying to get their bikes thru the gate. Rick offered to pick up their bikes and put them over the gate. One little girl spoke a little bit of English. We spoke with them and they let us know they lived nearby. They went on and played by the river. James decided to give them all a $1 bill. At first they would not take it but then decided to. They said thank you and then before you knew it they had picked some flowers for us. They were actually chai plants (tea). I explained to her I would save it and put it in my scrapbook. Her name is Clover. She is 13 and the other 2 girls were 9.

I talked with them and they love disney animation. They like the Spice girls and Hannah Montana. We said good-bye and shook their hands. We went back to our room to retire for the night then we heard a knock on our door. It was Clover and she had brought us a small cake. She called it bisquit. It touched are hearts so much. I hope we get to see them again so we can take a picture of them.

Jon- update me on the Auburn game. War Eagle!

Mom- Luke really enjoys taling to his Meme on the phone. Kyle was so sweet. Tell him the boys say Hi.

Love to everyone- Penny, James and the Holcombe boys