one more week...

It is almost unbelievable to me that we only have ONE more week of classes here for our first year at  NTBI!  This is bittersweet for me...I am excited for summer, to hang out with family and friends back home!!  That will be so awesome.  But we have made some really great friends here at NTBI who are graduating, so it will be sad to say goodbye.  And we are becoming close to some staff members, which is awesome.  But I know next spring will come quickly, and we will have to say goodbye to them, too!  Not to mention, we are one year of training down, and just 2 1/2 more to go!  This is so exciting, because we are pumped to go and do what God has called us to.  But that also means more goodbyes are coming...so that is hard to think about.  I know I talk about goodbyes a lot on my blog, but man, I just think about it a lot!  I realize that doing the kind of missions work that we are headed for means that our lives will be filled with goodbyes.  But studying the Bible so much here is helping me to really begin to understand God's faithfulness, so I am so thankful for these 2 years of training! 

Anyway...we are enjoying life here as the semester comes to an end.  On Saturday the school had a really fun picnic that lasted from 10am to 10pm!  Of course, we didn't go that whole time.  After our kids' naps, we headed out there and we had a blast.

It is always fun hanging out with Aaron and Jill's family!  Wow, I am so thankful that I have my sister here with me:)

Our friend Ricky helped Kaine across this tightrope thingy they had pulled between 2 trees.  One thing that I think is so awesome here...with ALL the missionary kids who are students here or staff kids, there are always kids in trees and climbing stuff everywhere!  I think it is great:)  (That is something Kaine is looking forward to in the jungle...climbing trees!)

Halle, Daisy and Ivy had fun with the swings...

Layla and her friend Sadie had a blast on the racing slides!  They climbed up and "raced" down soooo many times!  It was adorable:)  (Sadie's parents are some of the staff that we are becoming close friends with.  An amazingly Godly couple with 3 kids that our kids looove to be with!  We have appreciated Scot and April's friendship so much).

There was a bouncy house that was a hit with the kids.  I couldn't believe how much Layla LOVED it.  She jumped around for so long, no matter how many other kids were in it, too. Every time she got knocked down she just cracked up laughing:)

Here was a surprise...Daisy also looooooved the bouncy house!  I love her expression here...and her belly:)

Our friend Sue (another one of those amazing staff members!) loves Daisy so much.  She is one of Daisy's childcare workers and she truly loves the babies that she cares for.  She played with Daisy in the bouncy house a lot while I was busy with our other kiddos--thanks, Sue!

By the way, Daisy is officially crawling now!!  Yay for Daisy!  She is a little behind most kids, but oh well:)  She is definitely our latest crawler!  She was so content to just crawl (or try to crawl!) around the bouncy house.  It was amazing.

Our good friend, Alisha.  Alisha is so friendly and she helped me (and Jill) feel so welcome at NTBI when we first came.  She and her husband are seniors, which means they are graduating this week:(  We will miss them so much!!  One good thing--they are from Indiana, too, so hopefully we can still hang out every once in awhile! 

This is Alisha's husband, Ben...yes, he is IN the baby swing:)

The night ended with a campfire, complete with Reese's smores (soooo good!!!)

What a fun evening!

Our week will be very busy--filled with hanging out with lots of friends, finishing up our classes and homework, and packing for the summer.  I know I seem sad to leave NTBI, but believe me, we are super excited for summer, too!  We can't wait to connect with our families and lots of friends.  Nathan will be working at a landscaping job full-time, and I will be home (at the villa!) with our kiddos.  Kaine is going to be in tball, and we are involved in VBS in Bluffton.  I know the summer will go so fast, because it is sure to be extremely busy:)  Hope to see all of you Blufftonites this summer!

Thanks for reading my rambling blog post!  I tend to be a bit wordy:)

Have a great night!!