So much to share...where to start. We are currently in Chomo at the Museum. We just had brunch. We traveled to Livingston, bartered/shopped...some loved it, others not so much. :) It has been raining a lot here! We stayed in a camp for the last two nights. Yesterday, we went on a safari. Again, it rained! We were TOTALLY drenched even with panchos. We saw giraffe, wart hogs, impalas, water buffalo, zebras and a couple other deer like animals. When it started pouring, I am pretty sure we were on the far side of the park but we were so done. We then ate and went to Victoria Falls. Oh my...again, no words can describe the beauty of it! Kenny videoed it so everyone could hear the roar. It was incredible! Ash almost got attacked by a very large baboon. She was carrying a Fanta. They must LOVE Fanta. Blu came to her rescue. He was just waiting for an opportunity to throw a rock at a monkey!! He also negotiated for us to get to go back in the safari in "Bus Number New Day". Talk about an adventure! Our mission...to find an elephant and hippo. Blu let everyone decide what direction to turn. That may not have been the best idea. You know what happened next. We got lost. It was hilarious! We were trying to find the river and happened upon a lone elephant. No others were in site. It was like God just placed him there for us. After a long period, we managed to get to the main road and the river. We were driving along the river and found a hippo walking along the bank on the Zimbabwe side of the Zanbezi River. Mission accomplished! We then went back to the camp and ate. We got up early this morning to head to Lusaka. We were suppose to meet Darbi in Chomo but she could not get out because one river had a tree blocking it. The other river was too high. Blu, Ash & Red went to get food for New Day. Kenny and Blu are now heading to Mupanza to try to get Darbi and the kids & Debbie across the river and float the food. I hope Kenny thinks to get pictures. Please pray for them that it all works and everyone remains safe. They will then return to get us and we will head to Lusaka. We are hoping to make it in time to go to the market so we can get a few more things before we leave tomorrow. We want Chitangas!

It is so sad to be leaving New Day today. We are up early, had breakfast and are about to load up. The funeral was an experience yesterday from a lady using a rock for a pillow to a lady using a shovel to cut weeds only to be told by Margaret that she was scooping "doge sheet" right behind me! It took a minute to process what she was saying to me. LOL! Then when I figured it out, I shared it with Darbi and we decided that Margaret had the quote of the day...but Darbi can not post it on her blog! LOL! The kids did AMAZING in the nativity play yesterday. We have it on video. Well, we are headed to Livingston. Then we will go to Lusaka to get on the plane Monday. I will try to blog while in Livingston but we may have complications. Love to all!!

We had another good day of VBS!! We got so much accomplished yesterday. It is exciting to see everything come together. The start of school has aways been exciing to me. One focus yesterday was to get laundry done...interesting. :) Last night, Kenny and Blu had an adventure with all our kids. They loaded up on "Bus Number New Day" and headed out at about 9pm to hunt rabbits. Kenny was the driver and Blu was the keeper of the shot gun. Before I go any further, EVERYONE survived with no injuries so you can enjoy the rest of the story. :) Despite their attempts to find rabbits, they were unsuccessful so they decided to shoot a bee's nest. Blu shot it the first time. It did not fall so Tyler shot it. It fell and they all took off running. We heard both shots all the way at the house. Then, when they were almost home, they spotted it...the little bunny. It just so happened that it was positioned right between the houses and the water well. Yep, Blu shot at it but missed...scared us all. It is sad that today is our last day at New Day. Kenny led our morning devotional and did a great job. Mrs. Chomo, one of the house helpers, sang for us this morning. I asked if I could record her and she did not hesitate. I sat right next to her so I could hear her clearly on the recording. When the devotional was done, I played it back for her. I wish I had had my camera on her to catch the look on her face. It was priceless! After listening for a while I am pretty sure she had a tear running down her cheek. We are about t go to Margaret's father's funeral. Please keep her and her family in your prayers. I will try to post again later today. Love to all!

WOW...what a day! VBS went great again. We had about 98 kids. The river was running over the road so we suspect that is why we had fewer kids. Last night Red led our devotional and did a great job. After our devotional, for the first time since we have been here, we had a clear sky. We went out to see the stars. Oh my...words can not describe the beauty of it all! We all stood in absolute awe! I wanted to get my good camera to try to get a picture but I must agree with Tyler that no picture could capture the true beauty of it! God is so AWESOME! While we were looking at the stars, Aaron, Tony & Blu walked back up to New Day to get milk in complete darkness only to get there and realize Blu forgot his keys! LOL! So they walked all over the campus looking for the keys or someone with keys and had to return empty handed. Aaron said they raced back in the mud. I am so glad I was not in that race!! We made it in time for the morning devotional with the employees of New Day today. Kelly led and did a great job! This morning, Blu had to take little Ben to the doctor. Kailey got to go observe in the clinic. For those that do not know, she is studying to be an RN and would like to do work on the mission field. Who knows...she may work at New Day in the future. :)Cassie went too for a little extra time with Blu. Jimmy is tuning Darbi's piano and the other guys have been hanging white boards, curtain rods and rennovating the lunch room for the kids. Darbi, Kelly and I worked on setting up an office for the social worker and organized all the New Day school & office supplies. The girls have been painting and are covered with oil based paint. I forgot to tell y'all that yesterday, when Ash had paint on her, one of the little girls, Laurie, comes up to her and gets grass and rubs it all off. It actually worked well but Ash said it was a bit uncomfortable!! We have all the supplies ready for VBS. We have been working at night to get them ready. All of the costumes are ready except we have to make angel wings. Tomorrow is the program. Kelly and the girls have been practicing hard with the children. The kids want a dress rehearsal. :) We will video the program so we can share it with everyone. Things could not be going any better. Well, we could do with a little less rain. Speaking of rain, your prayers worked! We only had a couple short showers during VBS yesterday...not even enough for the kids to have to come inside. The funniest part was we got drenched walking back from VBS! Today, it is about to storm so hopefully it will not be enough to cover the road and it will be all the rain we get today! Well, that is all for now. It is time for lunch! Love to all!

Happy New Year!! We were so tired last night I do not think anyone was awake to ring in the new year. Maybe some of the kids made it but I know for sure Aaron and Tyler crashed. It may have had something to do with their staying up too late the night before. :) The adults decided to celebrate with our fellow Texans at 8am this morning. Our celebration...we missed it! Some were trying to make the morning devotional on time and some were braiding hair so we were not even together. LOL! I can honestly say this is the BEST new year EVER! What a blessing it is to be here! Yesterday, we had 110 kiddos at our VBS and it was POURING down rain!! The kids just kept coming. It was AMAZING to witness! The FBC students were all in leadership roles and did a phenominal job!! Brandi led our group devotional last night on spiritual gifts and did an outstanding job! We had another great dinner provided by Darbi. Debbie brought a "Jack Fruit" for dessert. Be sure to go to Darbi's blog to see pictures. I think Debbie was a little disappointed...she planted a Jack Fruit Tree in her yard not knowing what it was. LOL! She was like me...did not try it. It looked NASTY! We were also blessed in that we did not lose electricity for long yesterday. Blu was prepared with candles and flashlights so it was no big deal at all. As for today, the boys are all building book shelves for the school. The girls are painting the windows of the school. Kelly and Darbi are setting up a classroom and I am working on laundry and costumes for the Nativity Play and VBS crafts. Those that know me, don't be shocked! Our costumes are simple...masks and head pieces...things I can handle!! Prayer warriers...please pray for no rain from 2-6pm so the kids can move freely without getting drenched at VBS and make it home as well. Love to all!

I am posting early today while we have electricity! Yesterday we had lots of fun! The tour of the orphanage was amazing! The kids went with us. We experienced lots of whistle blowing (The kids make whistles out of grass...very shrill.) We gave lots of "piggy back" rides. After the tour, Blu needed to milk the cow. Several of us went to watch and yes, I have pictures of Blu milking the cow! Ash, Aaron, Brandi, Tyler, Cassie, Kailey & Kenny all milked the cow. I was their encourager/photographer. Kenny also had the opportunity to scoop some poop! I did not get a picture of that as I moved very quickly. I think my dad would have been impressed! LOL! We had an amazing spaghetti dinner cooked by Darbi. Kailey led our group devotonal and did an AWESOME job. We then planned for VBS that starts this afternoon! We all got to experience another downpour when going back to our houses. That is the muddiest my feet have ever been! The kids stayed at Blu & Darbi's house playing games until late into the night. I think they were feeling it this morning as we had breakfast at 7 am! We then had a devotional with all the employees of New Day led by Blu. As always, he did a great job! We are now all divided up working on various things. Some are working on the classrooms, some are playing with the New Day Kids (We do not call them orphans.), while some of us are preparing for VBS. Lunch will be soon. Tonight we will bring in the New Year before our friends & family if we can stay up that late. LOL! At least the adults are still hitting the hay early. I think we are going to build a camp fire if it is not raining. You never know, with Blu it may become a bon fire!! I want to let everyone know that Darbi just posted some pictures of our team on her blog at the following address: tidwelladoption.blogspot.com I am not that advanced yet...sorry! I will post more tomorrow!!

Slept great last night! Several people fell asleep sitting straight up. One slept in that chair until 6am! We were up early this morning. Right at the time for us to go eat breakfast, it came a DOWNPOUR! I was able to find some umbrellas. It got muddy fast! It was only by the grace of God one of us did not fall in the mud. LOL! Blu cooked AMAZING pancakes and eggs for breakfast. Church was awesome! Ashlee, Red and Brandi taught the children's Sunday School class with an interpreter. The rest of us enjoyed a lesson on loving one another. The song worship was a lot of fun. Trying to sing in Tonga was a challenge but everyone tried hard. It was a very intereactive service with scripture read by volunteers in both English and Tonga. Luckily Debbie and I did not get in trouble while she was catching me up on the group of people in church. Everyone thought we were crazy because we got a little emotional. One little girl from the orphanage turned to us and asked why we were crying. They think that you only cry when you are sad about something. Some of us rode the bus to take some of the church members home. The family sang the whole way. Their house had a thatched roof with solar panels on top. :) We then had a great lunch and are all relaxing. All the girls have their hair in braids...even mine for the first time ever. We are about to start preparing for VBS that starts tomorrow! Later, we have a tour of the orphanage and a birthday party for two of the orphanage children, one of the teachers and possibly two of our people on the Mission Trip who celebrate their birthdays on January 6th and 7th. Sh...don't tell them...I am pretty sure that it is a Zambian tradition to soak the birthday people in water on their birthday! HeHe! I will be sure to get lots of pictures! I may not be able to post anything tomorrow as Zambia has rolling blackouts to conserve electricity and our day is Monday. Love to all!