Pigtails

Hey prayer warriors!  Things are going really well here.  We continue to play with the neighborhood kids almost everyday and yesterday we had 14 (including Aubrey) in our driveway.  Fun but exhausting.  Sometimes I think J enjoys it more than they do as I watch him running around screaming or bending over making farting noises.  Oh boys!  :)  It has been VERY hot, but I am hoping for some "fall" weather soon.  We start the Bible study/ESL tonight for the coaches and people we know from the community (it will be Wednesday and Saturday nights from 4-7 pm), so please be praying for this.  Also, we will be making a trip to Haiti later this week, so please pray for travel mercies.  So, I just wanted to let you all in on a few recent conversations in our lives.  :)

Allow me to set the scene...
Sunday morning I asked J if we had anything going on today besides church.  J responded, "No, dear, we don't have anything going on unless they surprise me with needing to translate or preach of some kind."  To which we both chuckled knowing it's just like those Dominicans to call you on the spot.

Fast forward six hours later...
J, Aubrey and I are sitting in church worshiping and attempting to listen to basically everything said.  Now you must remember, I hear bits and pieces here and there.  J can understand more, but it is still easy to slightly drift away for a second.  One of the men in the church is speaking in between worship songs when suddenly we both hear, "Mi hermano Jaime..."  Knowing J is the only Jaime in the church, both of us look up unsure of what's to come.  J walks up there as the man finishes his statement and quietly asks:

J:  What do you want me to do?
Man: In Spanish- You have the opportunity.
J:  Blank stare
Man: In Spanish- If you want to sing a song, if you want to say something, whatever you want.
J: I ain't singing...  Candace let me have that Bible.

Luckily, our nephew Cael was learning Bible verses before we left to which we were a part of.  So, J used Joshua 1:9 ("Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid." - with motions).  Big thanks to Cael for saving the day!  :)


Another sweet moment...
Neighborhood kids: In Spanish- How old are you?  21?  (Bless those sweet kids.)
Candace- (big smile) 27.
Kids- (shocked faces) 27.  Wow!!
Candace-  J is 30.  (yes, I totally threw him under the bus.)
Kids- (larger shocked faces- I might as well have told them we were 100.)


Lastly, God again placed another missionary family in our lives (they are originally from Tennessee) and have been here 2 years.  They work with youth in the area, so after exchanging contact information, we are looking forward to meeting up with them to talk about their work, our work and what we can do together.  It is amazing to meet so many people working for God in the Dominican.  As we keep saying, God is moving in the DR and we are blessed to be a part of it!!

And a few pictures...

 These are Aubrey's first pigtails!!  It was basically a pigtail mullet with business in the front and pigtails in the back.  But I thought it was too cute.  :)

 Another picture of the pigtails.  You can see the business side here.

 And I didn't think we had actually posted any pictures of the outside of our house.  Obviously we are living on the ground floor.  They are still working on the second and third story.  It will probably take another year or so to finish all of it.  The house to the right is where the awesome Jose and his family live.  He is our "fix it" man who can do everything.

A little closer up.  We actually have flower beds to keep up with. :)  That's our water storage and our propane tank for the stove/oven.