A titleless post.

10 days 'til the big day! Karis and I made another chain of paper links for her to take one off every morning when she wakes up. She loves this and hasn't stopped talking about the "jumbo jet" that we'll be stepping onto a week from Monday. I can't wait either but there's a lot going on that is preoccupying my thoughts!

I keep thinking about how I'm going to step on to the plane wearing jeans, a short-sleeve shirt and flip flops but will step off into really, really cold weather (like, below 70 degrees!)

Anywho, here are some highlights of our week...

1. Terantulla #3 was retrieved from the pool.

2. Moof is a rat-killer. Anybody forget who Moof is? Check out this fearsome canine below...

So here's the rat story. I was watching my friend's girls and had just taken them home to give them showers to go to bed when Jonathan called. He said that Moof found a rat which ran under the washing machine. Mike goes to get Moof while Jonathan lifts up the washing machine. Rat runs out, rat runs up Jonathan's leg. Jonathan screams. Jonathan shakes rat off of leg. Rat runs, rat jumps. Moof runs. Moof catches rat in mid air. Moof gives the rat the shake of death. It's all over, rat is dead. I am thankfully not traumatized since I wasn' there and now Jonathan thinks we have the awesomest dog in the world (yes, judging by the red squiggle underneath it I take it that awesomest is not a word).

3. I had minor oral surgery on Tuesday. That front tooth that got knocked out playing basketball over 10 years ago had to come out for good! Everything went really well and afterwards the dentist was very, very glad we went ahead and had it taken out now. So much of the bone structure has degenerated that I only have a 50/50 chance of being able to have an implant without a bone graft! Yikes, we're praying. It wasn't painful but I can't describe how horrific it was to hear and feel (without pain) the dentist drilling/scraping out the tooth cavity. I couldn't stop thinking about how painful it was going to be afterward! Thankfully I only took pain meds that same night! They were even able to use my old tooth by grinding it down, whitening it and then bonding it to the two side teeth. My mouth will need at least 5 months to heal! It's actually kind of nice because as long as my top lip doesn't raise up too much I went from having crooked, semi-white teeth with one gray tooth to crooked, semi-white teeth. How's that for looking at the positive side of things? :-) No picture for this portion of the post...sorry folks.

To be honest I've been battling with some internal struggles the past few weeks. It has been a real challenge to try and choose joy. Doesn't joy come so much more naturally when everything is wonderful? I've had a few highlights that have encouraged my heart...

1. My friend Angie sent me a nice email with some great quotes knowing that I was feeling rather discouraged (praise the Lord for thoughtful friends!). Here are the two quotes she sent me!

"The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own,' or 'real' life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life - the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one's 'real life' is a phantom of one's own imagination. This at least is what I see at moments of insight: but it's hard to remember it all the time." -C.S. Lewis

"What I do you cannot do; But what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful."

-Mother Teresa

2. Although we don't always make it we were able to go to prayer meeting on Wednesday night. It was such a special time! What made it special (for me) is that when the man who was leading prayer meeting asked for song requests he then looked at Karis and asked if she knew Jesus Loves Me. She said yes so everybody sang it for her! Well that got her really excited so she began giving out her own requests...including Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man & Read Your Bible, Pray Every Day. She really enjoyed participating and everybody was so gracious to go along with her requests and even seemed to enjoy songs they hadn't sung in years. I was so thankful at that moment for the family that we do have here among our fellow missionaries, even though our immediate families are not nearby.

Ok, this has turned into a lengthy post! Here's a random picture of my silly girl in one of her birthday outfits...

Signing off for now...