Changes and Spirit Week

This afternoon I have spent some time reading a friends blog where she was grieving the loss that comes with change. As I was reading her blog I was relating my last few months and I had to agree with her victorious ending that no matter how much she loved where she presently was this was not her home and that the One that she loved even more was calling her family somewhere else. I think that I might have to work a little harder to recount the praises of Niger It isn't that I can't come up with a number of things that I can honestly say that I love about this place, but lately it has been a little harder to love. But God does know what he is doing and I am trying to rest in that.
This week we were able to get an internet connection (after visiting three different locations on three different days and spending another entire day in an office working out a contract with the phone company!) Yeah! Unfortunately, I'm not sure that the connection is actually fast enough to post pictures on the blog with, but we will keep trying.
Ben also got his new glasses this weekend and so he is able to see the blackboard at school. We still aren't sure whether it was quite the prescription that he needed or not, but it is better.
This is the last week of school before the kids have a break. The school always schedules this break around the Canadian Thanksgiving (partly because it is the mini hot season when we are blasted with heat and humidity as the sun slowly burns away the moisture in the air that has been left over from the rainy season). So we decided that because Dave hasn't had a vacation in the past year and a half that we would take this opportunity to go to Ghana on vacation. We are hoping to connect with the Cockram's another FM missionary family from Barrie, ON that are working there. Hopefully, we'll still be able to afford the washing machine &/or the air conditioner when we get back.
I am going to try to include a picture of the boys in their "Super Hero Day" outfits. (Note: Cole is dressed as"Pumpkin Man" a super hero of his own making). This last week of school is also "spirit week" where each day there is a different theme that the kids dress up for. Tomorrow is "class spirit day", so Ben's class is having a "stripe day" and Cole's class is having a "western"day. On Thursday they are having a hobo day and everyone is supposed to bring in a can of something to make into a hobo soup (hopefully they will choose wisely what they bring with them). You'll notice that everyone gets in on the costume design. I'm not sure that you will be able to see from the picture, but Dave cut up an old inner tube (that he had used part of the day before to fix the sink) to make Ben's mask.