This is "Isaiah" (name changed) - the only one-year-old we had during the pre-Forum over the weekend of Nov. 16-18. I felt bad for him since he came with a cold that he still hadn't totally shaken by the end of the week. :( But he was still really well-behaved and a lot of fun to have extra-long. I'll probably get to see him, his sister (who was with the preschoolers), and his parents when I go to Mali next month - they live the city of Segou, which is about halfway between Bamako (the capital, where our plane lands) and Koutiala (the location of the hospital)!
One of my favorite parts of this whole trip was meeting "Andrew". (I don't have a picture of him yet - I should hopefully be getting one from one of my teammates soon.) He and his parents only stayed for the pre-Forum orality training (specialized training for Western missionaries to oral-learning cultures). They aren't deployed yet - they leave next month for 6 months of language training in Paris before starting their first term in Niger. They live in Holland, so Andrew speaks very little English. Since we had 4 adults to 11 children during the pre-Forum- a very healthy ratio! - I was able to be Andrew's buddy much of the time. He's very smart and super-sweet; I only wish I could've understood what he was saying in his extremely articulate Dutch. ;) I had a lot of fun learning a couple of *very necessary* Dutch words from his parents and am so excited for them as they begin their overseas ministry.
Meet "Jack", who joined us during the week of the regular Forum! He loooooves people and wants to be held as much as possible. If you can't hold him he uses you as a jungle gym! He's almost ready to start walking and laughs a lot. :)
This handsome redhead is "Pierre". He's not quite walking yet either, but he's still very busy! He's pretty squirmy, and when he can't walk while holding your hands he scoots around in this adorable one-legged crawl. Too sweet!
Hello, "Caleb"! Caleb was fairly quiet and self-entertained. When not playing with a book or studying a toy he was very happy watching the antics of the other children. For the most part he was quite easy to care for.
And this is "Joseph" (also seen in the background of Caleb's picture above). Here he's sitting in Nicole's lap (Nicole joined Gloria and me in the baby room once the Forum officially began on Monday evening, Nov. 18.). We jokingly nicknamed him Nicole's "jealous boyfriend". He loved her to death, and if she started playing with one of the other children, he was right there wanting to know what she was doing! He cracked us up with his drooly smile and deep belly laugh. :)
I don't yet have pictures of our other two babies, "Natasha" (our only girl!) and "Adam", but I'll be sure to share once I get them. :)
So, besides taking care of kids, what else did I do? Being sick unfortunately put a damper on some of my ability to do extra activities. However, I was able to go to the beach a couple of times (as you can see on my post "From Spain"). We also did some shopping, where we saw street scenes like this one:
Annie and I were also able to go out for lunch one day. This is our delicious Spanish pizza, which we ate at a little restaurant on the beach!
Other than that, all my time was spent with this guy:
Yes, this is the latte machine. Enough said. :D
If you're interested in seeing more Spain pictures, check out this link: https://www.facebook.com/monica.wacker.1/media_set?set=a.690095524343013.1073741828.100000277140840&type=3. I posted an entire album to my Facebook profile, but you don't need a Facebook account to see these pics.
Now for Mali matters: I got my last shot on Friday. Woot! "Uncle" Erv, "Aunt" Barb, and I will probably buy plane tickets this week - we'll tentatively leave January 12 and get home either February 28 or March 6. Things are coming together really well - thankfully Aunt Barb got me going on my visa and other preparations early so all I really have to focus on now is shopping for the last few things I need. I'm definitely praising the Lord for being able to enjoy a relaxing few weeks at home, tying up a few loose ends and enjoying the Christmas season with my family. I hope you can do the same! Much love to you all! :)
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