What a Great November and December!

Well, we are back on the continent of Africa! 

We left our American home in Charlotte, North Carolina, Saturday, December 26 and will arrive back in our Mozambican home this coming Saturday, January 2. 

Every year at this time our organization has a youth camp for the Missionary Kids (MKs) in Southern Africa. This year all 3 of our girls are attending MK camp. That means that Mom and Dad are resting and recovering, in South Africa, from jet-lag and a very busy November and December! 

In mid-November we took Meghan with us on a trip to New York City. It was a late 16th birthday present from us. This was a special time with her that we will likely not get again for long-long time. We had a blast!!

Time Square

The 9/11 Museum. So well done. It is worth a trip to NYC just for this.

The top of Rockefeller Center with the Empire State Building in the background.

My favorite thing we did.....Matilda!

For Thanksgiving we were able to visit my Grandmother's house and celebrate with many in my family. My Nanna has always been one of my favorite people on earth and she is my last living grandparent. It was such a blessing to be at my Nanna's house to visit with her before we returned to Africa. Plus we were able to eat her cooking!

My Mom's brother and sister and their families.

In early December we took a trip to Florida. After speaking to church in Daytona we headed down to Orlando for a week of fun.

Hard Rock Cafe

Meghan getting Henna

Diagon Alley!
We love Harry Potter (don't judge) and had a blast in Diagon Alley

Lilly's birthday is December 30. She wanted to celebrate with her friend Katherine before leaving the states. So the two of them went to an art studio and painted. They had a great time and their finished product was adorable!

Our last Sunday in the states was one to remember. Our Lilly was baptized! We are so proud of her and her decision to follow Jesus.

As our time in the states was coming to an end, we were able to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus, with our parents/grandparents. What a blessing to be together this year at Christmas!!

Lee's parents.....Granny and Pa

My parents......Grandma and Granddad

Many people have made the comment that we have been very busy. That is true. But, we are so thankful for all that we have been able to do and experience during this Stateside time. When we are in Mozambique there are very few things to do for fun. So we played hard knowing that it was just for a few months. Now, it is back to work!

Tracy

Time at the Lake -- By Meg

Last weekend we were able to go and hang out at the lake for a few days. Some very dear people let us use their lake house. It was such a special treat for us!

We arrived on Friday afternoon and we were able to spend a 

couple hours having fun on the water! 

The lake house. It had a huge front porch that was beautiful!

The dock

Dad and Emma on the jet ski.

Dad and Lilly

It was so beautiful!

The sunset on Friday.

On Saturday we invited some friends over to come and hang out at the lake with us! 

We had such a fun time!

Emma and her best friend Sophie kayaking.

Lilly, Katherine, Kayla, and Hannah

Lilly and her friend Katherine

Thanks Dad for taking us out on the lake for 2 straight days.

Meghan and some of her best friends.

Emma and Sophie

Our grandparents were able to come down and spend some time on the lake with us.

We had so much fun at the lake!

Hugs,

Meg

Trying to Catch Up -- By Meg

WOW! I have a TON to catch you up on. So much has happened since I last blogged. 
I so wish I could just say everything that I wanted to say. But, I can't. 

But, I will try to tell most of the bigger things that have happened. 

We had planned to leave our house in Nampula on May 25, and drive down to the capital city of Mozambique, Maputo. Then plans changed. So, we quickly bought plane tickets flying out of Nampula going to Maputo on May 28. It was a really good call, because I don't know how we would have gotten everything done in the amount of time 
that we originally had. 

Because we had a few extra days to get ready to leave, we made one last quick trip to Nacala.
This is Emma and I and the Journeygirls.

Our last Sunday was a BIG one. 
We had planed to eat lunch at church after the service. But, our national brothers and sisters had planed to give us a big goodbye service 
full of songs and goodbyes along with lunch. 

Benjamin (a.k.a. Megamind)

Dad was asked to preach his last sermon for this year. 

We had a VERY full church....probably because everyone heard there was going to be food. 

It was a very cool day!
Our blind friend Alfonso (the guy the in the black vest pictured above), who runs a blind school in Nampula,
was able to bring a couple of his students and friends to church.

Pastor's Son, David

Offering

Then, the church called our family to go up to the front of the church to 

shake all of our hands to say goodbye. 

It is hard to see, but they are putting a wrap skirt and head wrap on my mom. She was crying her eyes out, and the women did such a great job of making her feel loved!

We finished up the service, and waited for our food to come. 

While waiting for the food to arrive, the church sang songs. 

It took forever for the food to be ready. 

But then it arrived! We had rice, beans, chicken stew, beef, french fries, and grilled chicken.
It was so good!

The food arriving.

The table inside the church for our family, the deacons, and the pastor.

Lilly 

Mom

Dad

Lilly, Meghan, and Emma

The kids eating

Some of the youth

Dad, Claudio, and Montinho

Dad and Benjamin 

Alexander

Elsa

Some of the girls

More of the youth

Waiting outside

Emma and Sarah

Mom and her sweet friend Isabel, with her little girls, Linha and Sarah

Our family

Dad and Pastor John

Mom and the cooks

We then had to say goodbye to some sweet friends!

Our sweet friend Flora

Our houseworker Anita

We then had to leave our home and head to the USA.

Our luggage

Our house was all packed up

At the airport

One of our guards, one of our youth at our church, and our
houseworker, came to see us off at the airport.

Claudio, Albano, and Dad

Airplane food

We had 4 plane rides. Our longest flight lasted 19 hours.......it was awful. 

Sadly, I ate something that made me nauseous for the whole 19 hours. 

But we did make it! Our first stop in the US was D.C. We had Dunkin Doughnuts first!

Arriving in DC

When we arrived in Charlotte we had our grandparents and 
some sweet friends meet us at the airport. 

Sadly I don't have any pictures.

For lunch we had Chick-Fil-a! It was so AMAZING!

We also got almost 4 dozen doughnuts from Krispy Kream!

We did many fun things our first week! We also got to see many sweet friends!

I was able to go to a Taylor Swift concert with some sweet friends of mine! It was so fun! 

We have been having so much fun!

Hugs,

Meg