God's Power is not like that!

Hey all. Hello and want to fill you in on the last week.

Well, report cards came out last Friday. Good news all around. If it wasn't, I probably wouldn't be blogging it! haha. Everyone works pretty hard around here with school work, so we're blessed as parents. Attitudes are excellent. Grade are good or great, and where they're not good or great, future improvement is the goal. Even Maya had lovely comments about her unabashed enthusiasm for school. She's one big bundle of excitement. Today she brought home a big science experiment book from the library, and was begging me to try them all the minute we walked in the door!

Last week we had a power problem. We felt it a bit at school, with losing power here and there throughout the week, for not too long periods of time. But Thursday night, Dean was at ball hockey, I had just cleaned up maya and was ready to put her to bed (8ish) when there was a huge surge, and then 3 seconds later--nothing. Hoped it would be a short one, but unfortunately, 20 hours later, we received power again at the house.

Well, I brought lots of tea lights and some nice and functional candle holders from canada, so we were set for light. It's the heat that is unbearable. It was pretty hot that day, and it is just impossible to sleep with no airflow in the bedrooms. I decided to lug the mattresses outside on our deck and put up the mosquito nets and sleep outside! Yes, just like many cambodian's, sleeping under the stars. Except that we're rich beyond compare to them, and we had an overhang from the house, and our mosquito nets were "pop up," like an umbrella, AND we had padded mattresses--most people out here sleep on a straw mat, c'est tout!

So, the dogs barked incessantly all night. The illegal chop shop just down the street got a "shipment" that evening; some container full of cars and parts and who knows what all else. That was noisy. Then, sometime in the night, I saw lightening, but it didn't rain on us! (That would have been funny!). And the worst part is, we thought we were protected under our nets. Well, what I learned about myself that night is that I actually do get bitten by mosquito's, I guess I just don't feel it! 7 or 8 punch-drunk mosquitos, barely hovering inside my net when I woke up that morning--full of my blood! I killed them all, don't you worry! Unfortunately, some elbows or knees were sticking out, or holes in the seal of the nets, or the buggers are just so dang small they fly right through--whatever the reason, Steph and Julia were pretty damaged. You should see their welts right now! Nasty. Otherwise, they're ok.

Well, on sharing our torture the next morning (actually it was cool enough that Julia wanted her blanket in the middle of the night), seems we were the only area without power, everyone else at school was fine! Nice. Then others had to laugh, "why does this stuff always happen to you guys?" I guess we need fodder for our blog, I'm not sure.

To make it more interesting, since there's no power, no way to make coffee in the morning and I don't want to open the fridge to lose what's left of the cool air, I figure we'll just head to school early, and pick up some snacky breakfasts on the way. No small task out here. The coffee shop made me a lovely tasting latte--the largest size stood the size of those mini can drinks, (I coulda had about 4 of them!) we bought these deep fried donuty type things that ended up being quite gross, I stopped at a western type place, but even though the shop was open, the owner was still sleeping upstairs, so no cinnamon buns, AND the quick stop at the local corner store produced some puffy Korean snacks, (don't know the name of them) and some crackers just like what we had at home! We should have just gone for the buns and PB in the fridge! Barely made it to school on time, but the kids were happy. Glad it was Friday!

Also, found the signs of a rodent in the back trunk of our car one morning. Like, droppings, a chewed up water bottle--I mean, to be on the safe side, let's call it a mouse. Does the thing LIVE in our car, or does it just GET IN at nights to chew stuff up??? Either way, I'm not too impressed! having the car sure has been nice, though, a huge blessing actually, now that I'm getting used to driving it. We're dry and quite frankly clean, by the time we get to school, AND I don't have to balance Maya on a bike afterschool when I'm beat! I'm not too bad at driving it now, either. You get used to creeping out into oncoming traffic to stop it so you can get through, edging people off the road, cutting people off, honking for motos to move, turning and racing to get away from the police--as just a normal part of driving! Somebody ask Ange Booy about my driving! She'll tell you how great it is!! haha

This losing power story just makes me think: At least God's power is not like that! He doesn't go out on us! He doesn't force his way in to our lives, the way I have to drive me car out here. He is constant. He knows what He's doing, and He's good at guiding. He knows everything, so why do we have to worry? He's got everything working together for a purpose. He is good, all the time. No matter what, whether I feel it or not, or whether it's obvious or not.

Fianlly, I am busy preparing the preparations for the christmas concert. I will have two to do this year--elementary and the middle school band will join the High school. Of course, my main goal for the elementary is to have a good strong message about the story of Christmas, which is so lacking out here. So far, things are going well. I'm a bit overwhelmed by a few work related things, but nothing too serious. Just want to get things done with small amounts of time--welcome to the club, right??

We've been ever so much enjoying the basketball season, with both our older daughters playing on the same team! It's so fun to watch. Steph is point guard and Julia, well, she's just always trying to steal the ball and take off for a grand slam lay-up! Saturday all morning was a tournament. Due to changes in the draw, the girls played the FIRST game of the mornign (we missed it, still at home) AND the VERY last game of the day at around 1pm. What alot of sitting around and waiting! Only two games and that was the timing of them! And there's no McDonalds to run to, or Tims to sit around and have coffee and bide the time. There was a nice playground at NISC, the host school, so Maya had a treat!

Will sign off for now. The new school is still progressing well--Dean and Dan head out there on a regular basis. We've been enjoying time with Ange Booy--a good trip to Russian market on Sunday was a blessing for all of us. I'm trying to send out e-mails to say hello to many of our supporters personally so bear with me. We are thankful for everyone who reads and prays for us.

Take care all, and love you lots!