News Flash

Rachel passed her test! Yay! (the first of two Texas teacher tests) Not by a lot, but a pass is a pass.

In other news, I got some Ethiopia photos out of my camera. I'll have to be posting a few of them as the days go by.
  

David is Home, Rachel is Working

Yay, David got home safely last night after a journey of more than 24 hours. But his luggage didn't. So he will have to try to sort that out today. Later today I hope to download all the photos he took while there with my camera, so soon I'll post a few of those.

Rachel's new job, which starts at 5am on Monday, is supposed to include driving a large SUV. She never was a confident driver in high school, then went off to college for five years and didn't drive hardly at all, so now she needs to relearn how to drive. We've begun practicing and there will be more of that today, in David's car and in our van too. I'll post more about her job after she's survived a couple days of it, but your prayers for her adjustment would be appreciated.

I am still working on getting my shiny new computer set up. I was happy to get a cheap yet legal copy of Microsoft Office in the mail the other day (there are some distinct advantages to being a "poor missionary") so now I have installed that.

Then Rachel introduced me to and helped me install a program to manage music on my computer, iTunes. I think iTunes was originally a Mac program, intended to work with those little iPod things. I'm now "ripping" the Christmas CDs--downloading them into this program--before I pack them away. The program makes a database of all your CDs and lets you sort them in multiple ways. It also lets you pick out a certain subset of songs you like and make them into a "playlist" for different types of music. You can make a playlist of songs for when you're happy, one for when you're sad, and--a perennial favorite--a set for when your heart is broken.

Shattered Dreams

 
I had hoped to get a new crockpot for Christmas, and my dream came true. But look what happened the first time I used it.

Please Pray for Rachel and David

I'm spending today getting reorganized--putting stuff away, getting groceries, doing laundry, etc. I didn't go to the office, but I don't think I'll be missed since large numbers of my colleagues are away between Christmas and New Years. (Many are busy with pious pillaging of prosperous patrons--formerly known as "deputation.")

Later today Rachel will be interviewing for a temporary nanny job. The husband and wife are both lawyers, but the wife quit working several years ago to raise three boys, now aged 1,3,5. The wife recently fell and seriously broke her leg, such that she cannot put any weight on it for 2.5 months--not easy to do when you have three preschoolers! So they are looking for live-in help, and they got Rachel's name via the church and office network of sympathetic women. This sounds like an ideal job for Rachel in many ways--she'll be great at the childcare aspect--but it will also require some driving for the family, and that will be more of a challenge. It will also require getting up EARLY--something she isn't so good at either :-)

Anyway, the interview will either be late this afternoon or tonight, depending on when the woman gets out of the hospital, and Gary and I will go with Rachel to meet this family. Pray that God will clearly guide as to the outcome, and, if she gets the job, that she will be able to quickly transition into it.

In other news, Gary and I started looking over the itinerary David left with us, printed directly from aa.com, and found something worrying. It said he was leaving Addis on Wednesday at 6am but we knew he really wasn't supposed to be leaving until Thursday am. So I called him in Ethiopia and tried to explain the problem. They said they had reconfirmed the flight, so they didn't know what the matter was. Then an hour later I got an email saying that when he logged onto his AA.com account and looked at the flight reservation, it looked just fine. But when you pushed the "Printable Version" button, the date changed--apparently a programming error. Let this be noted by any nerd, geek, or programmer who is reading this blog--do a good job or you may cause unnecessary maternal worrying!

The wayward golf clubs arrived in Addis safely, so that made Andrew happy. Pray for a safe trip home for David.

We're Back from our Christmas Trip

I'm pooped after a long day of driving, but just want to thank the Lord for a safe trip to south Texas and back for a short Christmas vacation with my mom. A special treat today was to stop in San Antonio and meet friends for lunch. This couple were the youth pastors in my childhood church, so we've known each other for a long time. They are missionaries to an Indian tribe in Venezuela, and have just been kicked out of the part of the country where they've worked many years. Sad tale there, but I don't like to talk about international politics, so I won't mention the country's president. :-(

There was a phone call on the answering machine for Rachel when we got home. I can't go into all the details now, but she has a job interview tomorrow evening, so please pray about that, if you see this blog in time.