My Arms Ache...

...not so much from hugging and letting go of my girls but from holding this little? thing.

Melissa forgot her glasses and so we had to make a lenscrafters run.  Ruth and David are in the teen-age discipline mode and David offered up this:  "If she was 15, instead of 21, you could march her into the one hour lab and make her pick the ugliest/cheapist pair of frames.  The next time she might not be so forgetful.  

He wasn't too far off with that scenerio.

Speaking of family---I love you guys!

Still can't say enough about the effort you put in to this send off.  The upstairs suite, the carry-in dinner, going home and coming back, the wine that flowed freely, the Italian Farm Market embryonic dream, the tears that weren't mine, the longing to get your hands on more babies and the prayers.  Even though I know you all have your own, thanks for sharing your hearts with us while the girls began to live their dreams.

E-mail from Africa:

HEY MOMMA!!!

We are HERE! It's still not real. We walked down the stairs to baggage claim and saw a crowd of people with signs on the other side of the glass. We saw one red sign bouncing around in a sea of white ones that read: hh Babies home! Laizer saw us and was jumping around and blowing kisses! We got our stuff and ran out to greet her. The first thing she told us was that this was all God's plan and timing because the peace agreement has been signed while we were on our way over, Praise HIM! Then we arrived at hh and took a little tour...most of the babies were sleeping (tucked away in their cribs covered with mosquito nets) But a few mischevious ones were awake and excited. We walked down a little hall where we saw a door cracked open and a tiny little face staring back at us from his crib. We peeked in the room and met a few of the toddlers who didn't want to sleep. One of them (my favorite already) name is Steven and he's a little spitfire! he was running around his crib like it was on fire! We left the hh and met our  family and got situated at our homestay. The first thing we did when we got to our home was circle around the living room and thanked God for our safe arrival, and prayed for our stay here. They are incredible.
Today we were picked up by Wally and he took us to the market. Then we headed back to the valley and stoped to take pictures of the view.......they will NEVER do it justice.......you'll just have to come here sometime and see it with your own eyes! We just got back from a tour around the campus and tonight we will eat  in the village and have a "real" African meal.
We will try to call you on amy's card tonight but if you get this before that could you email us back with the phone numbers for both Mars Hill or that new church we go to and Crossroads. And we're wondering if you signed amy up with the embassy and if not, could you still do it?
We love you and we are so Happy to finally be in AFRICA ! Tell dad we love him and EVERYONE else!

Talk to you soon! Yours girls