If you're interested...

More pictures of the kids can be seen on their online photo albums. The link is http://www.elsamorrell.shutterfly.com/ .

Flying!

So with kids anything is a photo-op...including a dreaded plane ride. On our flight from Denver to Grand Rapids, we were fortunate enough to have two empty seats by us (a huge blessing as anyone flying with two lap-babies could testify), and Ezra did us a major favor by conking out on one of the empty seats. Elsa was entertained by crawling through obstacles created by Caleb's legs, a huge sandwich, and by watching "Little Einsteins" on our new portable DVD player (THANK YOU, Mom and Dad!). Feast your eyes on these cuties.

Christmas Cookies

"MORE!"

On one of our last nights here in Colorado at Mission Training International, we had a Christmas party. Elsa got to decorate Christmas cookies for the first time ever and it produced such great photo-ops that I have to post a few.

Elsa tasting the fruits of her labor. Elsa showing off the fruits of her labor.

Elsa's First Friend

There are kids a-plenty here at Mission Training International...I think there are close to 30 adults here for these three weeks, and I think something like 15 kids under the age of 10! So there have been lots of playmates for Elsa and Ezra.

Elsa immediately took to this little girl. Her name is Emerson, and is about 6 weeks younger than Elsa. I think this is truly Elsa's first friend. She and Emerson love to play together. They chase each other, tickle each other, give each other hugs, get into trouble together, and basically just have a great time. This is the first time I have seen Elsa and another kid really interact the way they have. It has been so sweet to see.

Emerson will be living in Argentina. Her mama and I are going to try and keep them in touch from across the globe. Elsa has her first pen-pal.

Generations

We've been in Colorado for the past week, attending a pre-field orientation near Colorado Springs. We have our weekends free from the program, so we took off right after the afternoon session on Friday and headed south to Canon City. Caleb's Grandma Morrie has lived in Canon City since she and Grandpa Bob retired nearly 20 years ago. It was a sweet visit with Grandma Morrie, especially at this time in our journey when we're about to leave for the home that she left so many years ago. Caleb spent hours looking through old pictures and reading some of Grandma's great books on Ethiopia and the OMO. He can't get enough of things like that!

The stomach flu hit Elsa on Saturday night, so we were up a lot of the night with her, you can pray that it doesn't get passed on to Ezra or to us.

We are headed into week two of our three week orientation here. It has been great so far, the kids are doing pretty well in their classes while Caleb and I attend the sessions. We have met a lot of great people and the sessions are really good, so we are feeling like this is time well-spent.

"Cousins!"

That would be Elsa's new word of the week! I've posted some pictures of Elsa and Ezra with their Judy cousins. Brennan is in the first picture with Ezra, and Sam is in the second picture with Elsa. Kellan, Brennan, Ethan, and Aidan are Jeff's boys, and Sam (one month older than Elsa) is Jonathan and Beck's son.

She LOVES her cousins...although I have to admit she is most partial to Aidan, Jeff and Amy's youngest. But if any one of her 5 boy cousins are around, Elsa is a happy camper.

We are in Washington spending Thanksgiving week with my family. It is a bittersweet time, sweet to be here with them for this one last week, and bitter because it is that one last week. Having lived in Atlanta for the past three years, we are used to coming and going from Washington, but it is beginning to sink in that this time is different. It is hard for me to look ahead and count off the years in increments of three...I cannot imagine coming back and my 11 year old nephew being nearly 15! And for Elsa to be nearly school-age the next time we return to Washington...It is difficult to wrap my mind around the thought of missing all of the 'details' of those three years. Pray for us as we say our good-byes.

Tickets in Hand!

We have a date for departure! We are so excited to finally have a date set...we will be leaving for Ethiopia on January 6th. The Lord has been incredibly faithful to us these past three months. We have to admit that there were times when it felt like it would be months and months before we would raise all of our support, and then all of a sudden we were nearly fully-supported and given the go-ahead to buy our tickets. After a long three years of waiting and planning and speaking and praying and waiting some more, to have an actual date set for our departure has been an incredible high. Thank you to each of you for how you have played a part in getting us to this point!
We leave this coming week to spend Thanksgiving in the Northwest with my family. From there we will go to Colorado Springs, CO for a three week orientation that will help equip us for going to the field. Mid-December we will head down South to spend the holidays with Caleb's sister, grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. After Christmas we will finish our packing and leave from Atlanta on January 6th. It's a lot of moving around for our kiddos the next couple of months, and then one huge transition across the globe, so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. We ask a lot of them, we are in awe of how well they respond to all we put them through!

Holland, Michigan

We've been living up in Holland, Michigan since the beginning of August. We left Atlanta after I finished school there and moved up north to stay in an RCA mission house and to have better accessibility to RCA churches during our support-raising. (Atlanta has ONE). We have loved living in Holland for these couple of months. From our house, we can walk to seven different playgrounds and parks, the downtown area, and we're only a quick drive from Lake Michigan (the second picture is of Elsa playing on the beach at Tunnel Park). It has been such a nice change from Atlanta--to be able to step outside our door and walk to so many fun places rather than having to load up the kids in the car and drive to be able to get anywhere. Elsa has especially loved the parks (Caleb and Elsa and Ezra on the slide in the third picture). Ezra is starting to get into the swings (the first picture is Ezra's first experience on the swings).

But all in all, these last three months here in Holland have been a great time for us as a family. We kept a hectic schedule in Atlanta for a number of years, so it has been so nice to slow down and focus on each other and what we have ahead of us. We'll always have great memories of these months, and we'll look forward to coming back to Holland during our furlough times.

Keeping In Touch

Welcome to our attempt to keep in touch! We have set up this blog in hopes that we will better be able to communicate with friends, family, supporters, and churches. When we are in Ethiopia, we will have limited access to the internet and the ability to update this blog frequently, but we hope to add new pictures and entries a couple of times a month. So, please keep checking back! We will be making our best attempts to reach out from our small corner of the world to share with you in your's.