They are off!

Noah and Shane have now left for Beeland. Noah was so very excited to be picked up early from school today and told that he was getting to go on this trip with Daddy. Shane just messaged me to tell me that Noah is worried that Dave will not be a good boy for me while Noah is gone!!

Shane had his language test this morning. He says that he did not do good on the test, and was very disappointed that the questions he was asked to talk about were questions that were not covered in the review. They told him that he passed, and I told him that is all he needs to worry about! He passed, and he can move onto the next book. That is all that matters. It is hard though-having a bad test and knowing that this weekend he is without an interpreter and will have official meetings on his own. He is so capable, but a lot of the language here is just having the confidence when speaking. I am just praying against the enemy's discouragement right now because Shane is awesome with language here and he will excel in Beeland!

So...it is just Maggie, Dave, and I for the next few days! How easy with only 2 kids! HA! I am still studying at home while Shane is gone. I have a really good grammar teacher this month so I am trying to get as far as I can with the grammar before my teachers change next month. I must say that I am looking forward to finishing up our language learning. I enjoy it, but it is starting to feel like it is time to move on and get to work. We are equipped enough now to get out there and learn on the ground. It is getting exciting as we start to think about moving!

However, we still have time here to work hard going further in the language. It reminds me of being a senior in high school. You are almost finished....but not quite and still have to keep working until the end.

Dave has really been struggling with Noah going back to school. He so needs interaction with others. I have decided that the Lord is sanctifying me through my children...nothing like my kids making me go to the Lord in prayer. We have recently become quite good friends with some people who have been here for some time. They run  local believer-like schools, and our friend has just taken over running Kidsland (remember Kidsland?). This was the preschool that Dave went to where he experienced some really hard discipline when we first arrived.  All last year there were problems with Kidsland, so he took it over, moved it and joined it with his schools, and changed most of the staff. There have been some really big changes there, and we just felt prompted to look into it again for Dave and Maggie. Please dont think we are crazy, but we are just trying to find what works for the kids and ways that we can provide for their needs.

We are pretty sure that we will let Maggie go a few mornings a week (her class is only for an hour!). I dont think she will have any problems because she understands and can speak the local language. We are unsure about Dave at this stage. We had a meeting a few days ago, and we took Dave with us. He seems to not have any issues with the discipline that he endured earlier, but he is very disrespectful to the teachers and just has no respect for local authority. We really feel that this is a problem, and we dont know if we can fix it by keeping him at home all the time. Once we move, we will have NO options to fix this problem. There are no local believer schools there. He must learn to respect authority no matter who is in charge. I dont really feel that there would be any more abuse or anything like that. I was real impressed with the new principle and the new school. I know that our friend has very high standards. There are more westerners there now, and he would be in a little class with one of his friends.

We are still deciding on what to do. Please pray for us. I think it will be difficult at first. We have noticed that Dave is increasingly disrespecting authority, and we feel that this must be dealt with while we still have time. If Dave does go back, then it will only be for a few mornings a week, and Shane will be going along this time. All of the rooms have walls of windows so that people can look in at the kids. Shane would be able to observe how Dave is going without Dave knowing that he is there.

Sorry....it is a complicated situation. I wish we had a nice little private preschool for him to go to, but we dont and we are trying to work with what we have. The school year has just started here so that is why we are thinking about this now. I really feel that my solution is to just run from the problem of respecting authority and keep him home, but as I saw the other day, keeping him home as not fixed this problem. I am learning a lot from this in my walk with God, and I feel that I am on the verge of another big teaching experience. Maybe not just Dave is learning, but me as well.

Well, I must run.....that gives you something to pray about I guess!