Pictures - 1st few days back in D.R.

The children were so happy to be back in church with their friends. These 2 boys were the main reasons Ryan wanted to come back.

I love our church people! We especially are happy to have this family in our church. This is Yolanda, pictured with her husband and 2 daughters. They all attend church faithfully. Their son (not pictured) attends sometimes.
One of the first jobs that had to be done was to get 8 new batteries for our invertor to withstand the daily electrical outages. The batteries last about 2 years and the ones we had from the previous term were shot.
8 new batteries - thanks to all who gave toward this project! It makes our lives so much easier.

The month of February, we helped medical teams get to and from Haiti. It kept us busy, but we enjoyed having a small part in this endeavor. Here is one of the teams pictured in our home for supper after arriving on the bus from Haiti.

Finally some pics!

D. finally showed me how to access the pictures! Hurrah! So much has changed on our computer. This is what I would have posted a few months ago if I would have known how to post pictures. This is our family in 20 some degree weather in January getting ready to return to D.R. with all of our luggage.

Our children the next morning in the hot and sunny D.R.

Loading our luggage into our truck that some friends kindly parked at the guest house for us.

We found it HOT upon returning. Our bones were still frozen from the cold winter up north. It doesn't take much to work up a sweat!

Residencies

One of the things about being a missionary that most people don't think about is legal paperwork. It takes a lot of time, patience, and money to go through the process of being a legal resident.

My plans changed today when Doug called from the immigrations office and said we all had to be there. He thought we did not have to go to renew our residencies and he went to try to renew them without us. He said a taxi would be here in 4 minutes to get us and take us to the office where he was. It took us about 6 or 8 minutes to get the children ready, change my clothes, grab a couple of snacks, and secure the house before leaving.

I prayed and sang to myself while the driver drove 70 - 75 mph on the beltway around the city. It is frightening to drive that fast here with the careless patterns of driving. We arrived safely and in one piece. Thankfully, we just had to have photos taken and then wait for our ID cards. But with the time spent driving to get there and back, for Doug it took up most of his day.

Thank the Lord we are now legal permanent residents for 2 more years. :-) You have to renew a permanent residency every 2 years. I don't get it either, but such is life in the D.R.