back from a winter wonderland

We made it back from Minnesota. It was such a great trip. We experienced quite a different culture up there. One of MUCH snow. Did you know it gets too cold to form snow balls? I didn't, but now I do know from experience. Crazy! The day before we left Moorhead we got to go cross country skiing. I think that was my favorite snow event we did. It's quite a workout but so beautiful and fun. We went with the couple we stayed with as well as another couple they are friends with from their church. We all left our kids with babysitters and enjoyed a few hours playing in the snow and had hot chocolate after. We didn't just play the whole week, we also spoke about Mattaw in several places. Not that that isn't fun for us. We can talk all day about Mattaw and our Kenyan kiddos. We've showed the new Mattaw promo video (posted below a few posts back) over a dozen times and Sunday morning when we showed it again in a church, it STILL brings tears to my eyes. I just might have mentioned how much I miss our children. I really miss them being a part of our everyday life and just knowing every little thing going on. Of course we hear often from them and they are all doing great.

So I found my camera battery charger! YAY. It has been far too long. Not really, but I feel like I have missed a lot of events. I hope those that have used their camera when we were with them are going to follow through and email me them! (HINT HINT Teri and Lindsay!) I will have to post later all the pictures from our winter we just went and had the past 10 days.

For now though, I can recall Hollie and Matt's wedding! This was when we went to California. Joylyn and I were Hollie's bridesmaids. We had a lot of fun and it was a gorgeous wedding. I'm pretty sure I already talked about it so I wont repeat myself. I would think to take pictures at random times so I really didn't get a lot of pictures from the week.

Joylyn, Hollie, Me

Hollie getting her hair fixed

The wedding party

Joel and Joylyn

Bud and I

And as for today, Bud and I have been catching up on a lot of administration work for Mattaw. There is a lot of behind the scenes work that had to be done. One of them was finally getting the last of the updates out to all of those that sponsor a child at Mattaw Children's Village. In the picture above I am toting them away and got them all mailed off. Inside there's a Christmas card made by each child for their sponsor, a new picture of them that was taken in December by the same professional film maker that made our recent video, and a letter from us with some updates and info. I am VERY sorry they didn't make it to the sponsors by Christmas. But better late than never! It's been quite an adventure living out of a suitcase with a three year old and almost one year old. Our kids are amazing at going with the flow though. I'm so thankful for how easy they adapt to many different environments.