Renovations and a Road Trip!

Whew, it's been a busy month. Before we get started with the news, here's the super-cute Thoughtful Apple Fairy.

So the people who owned all the furniture in our house came and took it all away, and we've slowly been replacing it all. In the meantime it's really barren! We got the appliances and beds, though we're waiting on some renovations before getting the rest. We wanted to repaint most of the house, and redo the wood floors which are scratched beyond belief. Unfortunately, a lot of the old paint on some walls and all the doors and windows had to be scraped off first, as it was peeling off in many places so we couldn't just paint over it. So here's Kyran helping one of the workers with scraping a wall:

And here's Jariel "helping" me scrape a closet door:

Jariel thrilled to be allowed to help paint:

And Kyran too 

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The house isn't quite done yet, but we had to put it on hold while we are taking a trip to the capital, Maputo, to pick up the car we ordered from Japan! It's at the port, but we are still waiting on all the paperwork to clear so we can go pick it up. We took the night bus down, the kids did pretty well sharing the narrow little bed:

(I love the night bus. Actually being able to lie down makes the 17 hours go by so much faster). Now we're at the Iris Ministries Zimpeto base, visiting with old friends and teaching them new games, like Pirate's Cove (and yes, Kyran is wearing an official pirate eye patch :-) ):

There's a missionary here, Laura, who was one of the first to befriend us on our very first time here in January 2008. She loves games, and over the years we bonded over many a board and card game. It's good to be back and catch up with her and our other friends from a bygone era! The kids are loving the base, they get to play outside almost all day (a luxury for these city kids who can't get out nearly as often as I'd like). It's also nice to be out of the chaotic house for a while, it was getting stressful having workers in the home all the time, hardly being able to go anywhere, and not being able to invite people over either. Hopefully we'll be able to finish up the painting and floors within the week or so after we get back, then I can finish buying furniture, make a few curtains, and actually FINALLY settle in a bit and make it "home"! I'll definitely send pics when it's all done :-).

We're definitely looking forward to having a little more freedom once we get our car! It's been challenging using the public transport, especially for shopping trips :-/. 

I should go now, but I'll close out with one more pic of cuteness: