simply grateful

It has been some serious work, but we are finally getting everything settled in.  The mission kindly provides us furniture while our crate is in process.  What that means though is that when the crate arrives you have to pack up and move all the mission furniture/kitchen items/ etc... to make room for your personal items.  So it is both a time of packing and unpacking.  Here are a few more pics of the house with our own furniture in place.  

745 days after packing it, our crate arrived at our home in Zambia.  We were thrilled to find after unpacking that nothing was damaged, not even a scratch!  For missionaries, getting your crate is like Christmas as we often forget what we packed.  I thought you might enjoy some pictures (click on pictures to enlarge) We were told the crate would arrive on Monday, but were not told when.  We received quite the surprise when the truck showed up at 6:45 a.m.   The kids were still asleep, but quickly woke up and it was a bit like Christmas morning! We were given a sheet of paper and told to circle the numbers as they pulled items out of the crate.   The movers opening one of our crates.   The kids loved playing in the paper as I unwrapped the items.  Makayla was great at helping drag the paper out to the back porch.   Poor Rameses and Raider had to be chained up while they were unloading.  (The dogs are still...