Well in about an hour and a half i'll be heading to Cape Town International Airport to see my family!!! Can't believe they are actually almost here. It's so surreal and really just shows how FAST time has gone by since I left. They will be here for 10 days so I probably won't be posting anything on here until after that. But with all that said just wanted to talk about this past week!

So this week was my first week of moving up with the older kids. Instead of working with Roger and teaching the 5(&younger)-8 year olds I am with Ilana teaching the 9-12 year olds. I love it so so much. I already feel less stressed and it has just been a week. I am a person that feeds off of peoples emotions. When you look happy, I am happy and when you look sad or frustrated i'm usually the first to ask what is wrong. So working with the younger kids, especially during story time, when all I would get back was blank stares, it just made me feel like they were not understanding anything I was telling them, which stressed me out! So with that said I can't begin to tell you how nice it is to say my tid bit then actually have kids respond with questions or answers to questions. SO AMAZING. :]
Well this week our curriculum was on Being Alert. The story we did was Noah and the ark and how he was alert and listened to God when God told him what to do. Since he listened, unlike everyone else, he was saved and as christians we need to be alert at all times and listening for the times when God is calling out to us. The story went over good, Ilana said it and I did the visual. I got a shallow bowl, made a town out of paper and set it all up on dirt, then during the story I flooded it and showed the town disintegrate and just fall apart. The kids thought it was pretty awesome. shout out to Jennifer....it was her idea! haha. After the story we split up into our two groups, the older kids and the younger kids. Every day we do a story, craft, game/activity and then the memory verse. So since I was now with the big kids I wanted to do something different for them so for the memory verse I made it out to be a code method. Code Method is where each letter has a symbol and they have to look up the symbol to get the letter to spell out the memory verse. At first they just stared and were like what in the world, but after I showed them they took off with it! Loved doing it and it made me feel awesome! Jeremiah and Denzil, two of the boys that I have mentioned before, even brought it back the next day to show me they finished it. :] progress!!

That was on Monday/Tuesday. We do the same thing those days because were in two different communities. This was outside of our container in Overcome. On Wednesday and Thursday the big thing I did for the craft..I guess is what it was for... was I drew a big ole tree with no leaves. I then printed out some verses about being alert and got some of the kids to read them out loud to everyone else. I then gave all the kids a leaf and asked them "what happens to leaves when they die...they fall down....okay good, now who can tell me what temptation is...it's when the devil tries to get us to do something bad!...fantastic!" So on the leaf I told them I needed them to write down something that they could do to not..wait for it...'FALL into Temptation' haha clever aren't we ;) Their responses were actually awesome. Had many pray to God...not bully people and have good friends. Safe to say it went over quite well and in the end we had a nice lookin tree with new leaves!

this is Denzil...got him to smile!! rare sighting.

the older kids and myself after club in Capricorn

these 3 are my boys. The ones I mean when I say I am drawn to the 'troublemakers' of the group. Still praying for patience with them and ask God use me to leave any kind of footprint on their hearts to follow him and have a want to be good.

Woohoo so great first week with the big kids. I'm looking forward to getting to bring my family by club one afternoon to see what its like! It's going to be weird yet fantastic to have them here! So excited to go see them. They actually have no idea I am going up to the airport. Nanny just told me to go check in at the hotel and hang out there for awhile until they get there....but what's the fun in that! It's always SOOO nice when you get off a long plane ride..walk out the doors and see someone there waiting for you! One thing I really appreciated after traveling through Europe and never seeing anyone on the other side of the doors. So yes I will be at the arrivals gate waiting anxiously to see them :] They might suspect something....because it is very unlike me to NOT do something like this.

&& as if my week wasn't already going wonderful..it got better! So awhile ago my mom had told me she invited Eric and the guys to come and go to a Rangers game one night before they left. Eric had some stuff he wanted to send me, because he is the best bf a girl could ask for, but seriously, takes a big heart to want to be with someone who is continents away. :] Anyways so she told me that they were coming in Wednesday night, the 30th, to go to the Mariners game..I still can't believe how BAD they got there ace kicked. SERIOUSLY it was awful. BUT besides the point. So my mom, being who she is, bought them peanuts..sunflower seeds and whatever else to bring to the game with them. I told her now I know where my awesomeness comes from haha. But she sent me these pictures and I just about died. I absolutely love him...even though I think my mom was behind this, but still!! && I don't know what I'd do without these other hooligans in my life!

Blessed I tell ya!