Elise's Baptism

Elise has been wanting to get baptized for some time now, and this morning, she and her good friend Elwina (standing to Elise's left [right in the picture]), along with a few other kids and several adult new-believers were all baptized.  She was a bit shy to share in front of the whole church, but she did it!  Rough translation: "Hello everyone.  My name is Shi YunJie (her Chinese name).  I've known Jesus since I was very small, and have wanted to be baptized.  I feel that Jesus is a great help to me, and has taken me out from the darkness."

Back to School!

Elise & Kenna are back to school!

Elise is in 2nd grade and is so excited to see her teacher again (she gets the same teacher for both 1st & 2nd grade) and catch up with all her friends. There are about 350 2nd-graders at her school (one of 8 elementary schools in our area). A little bit different to home! She loves learning (especially Chinese) and overall enjoys school very much.

Kenna is in the local public Kindergarten (attached to the same elementary school Elise goes to) and is very excited to be at school where she gets to play quite a bit and do lots of activities with all her "best friends" (she came home with 5 new "best friends" after just the first day of school). The food however, is not her favorite... but she'll get used to it. At least this kindergarten doesn't serve quite as much pig's blood for lunch as last year's kindergarten! :-P

Reading Practice

Termite Killers

About twice a year we have an invasion of flying ants - a.k.a termites!

They come in through the windows, cracks, airconditioner vents, and anywhere else they possibly can!

Usually all the walls of the house that have a window on them are literally crawling with hundreds of termites -- and we get to have fun for a few hours swatting, stepping, wiping -- trying to exterminate them all before we go to bed.

Here are Elise and Kenna self-armed for termite battle! We lost count after awhile -- but they got an awful lot!

One year we forgot about the laundry room -- and found the bottom of a laundry basket just crawling... and one of Michael's good shirts full of eaten-through holes. :P