Update on the Parents

Oh, where to begin. :)

(By the way, if you missed the update on Cass yesterday, scroll down. I don't usually post 2 days in a row these days, so I don't want you to miss her.)

Joel continues to plug away at the aviation dept of our mission. He is more and more focusing on the maintenance and avionics side of things. He is the maintenance coordinator at the school now, which basically just means that he is in charge of making sure the school airplanes are up and running and the students are gaining the most experience possible. He really loves it and finds satisfaction in it. He has done a little flight training but not as much as before. He is currently working on a WYCLIFFE Cessna 206. This project has been really interesting for him. One of the things he said was so neat was that at one time there were people from JAARS, SIL, New Tribes, and Asas all working there together. Mission aviation is really, in some ways, becoming more of a partnership at times and it's really neat to all pull together and share resources, working together for the good of the people we are reaching.

I continue to be in the process of language learning. I found the perfect teacher for me back in August. She lives very, very close to the seminary. I was going every Tuesday - Friday, but now (at least while we are living here in the apartment across town...a good drive) I am only going Tuesday - Thursday. This schedule works out great. It's a LOT of work for Joel. I leave when he gets home from Asas, so I'm basically gone from about 6:15 - 8:15 those three nights of the week. That means he has to shower, feed, and put the kids to bed all by himself. That is the 'high traffic' time in this house, but we both agreed it was the best time to do it, even though it's lots of work for him and I miss out on those family times too for those nights. But, of course it's worth those things for right now...it's only temporary.

Anyway, I just L-O-V-E this teacher. Her name is Kelma (if you want to pray for her by name with me as a student). :) It's really awesome because it's just more of a friendship than a teacher-student relationship. She's LOTS of fun and I really do enjoy it...that makes learning fun.

Homeschooling here in the Ebersole household is completely underway now. I'll post more later about what we are doing exactly, but needless to say, that is a daily time commitment for me also. So, that's some of what I do with my time each day.

Other than that, it's just the normal everyday living. Taking care of a baby, a toddler, and 2 small children. Cooking. Cleaning/organizing. Nursing. Feeding. Laundry. Showering. :) Thank goodness. Playing. And, of course in our case these days, packing and more packing.

We are all settled in to a routine here in this apartment after 3 1/2 weeks of being here. Now we are starting to look ahead to when we move again in 2 1/2 weeks.

December is going to be a WHIRLWIND!! It always is for everyone I guess, isn't it? :) Some have very different reasons though.

We will be moving to the seminary house starting Dec. 11th. We will have our end-of-semester meeting with the Asas leadership sometime around then. We will start unpacking and organizing. We have to do some Christmas shopping and attend at least 1 Christmas party here (remember, Christmas isn't quite the huge celebration it is there in the states). So, LOTS to do in the first 3 weeks of December. Including...

We will be traveling to the US Embassy on the 5th to apply for Cass' (I'm going to try out the possessive spelling this way for a while...then I'll decide at a later date which I like better...Cass' or Cass's) passport. We also have to get her Brazilian passport taken care of. We will be headed back to the US Embassy to pick up her passport on the 19th. We also have to get Joel's Brazilian passport renewed. Why is this so important? Because...

WE ARE COMING TO THE STATES!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's right...you read this right. My mom is completely and totally done with not seeing her grandchildren, so she bought us tickets to come home. We will be arriving in America the Beautiful on Dec. 23rd. We will be leaving Feb. 24th.

You have no idea how excited I am...to be somewhere familiar and eat my most favorite foods and be able to understand even the smallest details of what EVERYone around me says. :) I know that I will also miss the things that I adore here, but it's only for 2 months...I won't have a chance to start missing those things that much.

Anyway...SUCH a great gift from my mom (not that we asked...she insisted that we come home...those grannies!). :) In my head, I'm ready to go NOW (!!), but logistically we have SO MUCH to do. It's going to be crazy, but so much fun too. Can't wait.

So, maybe we'll see you there? Can't wait! But for today...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!