Some pretty amazing things have happened in the last two
weeks and I have to share with you all.
First of all on February 2 my nephew, Lincoln Paul Bolte, was born! I am so thankful that both mom and baby are
healthy! I was able to skype with them
after he was born and as I watched him stick out his tongue and yawn I couldn’t
help but fall in love with him. I cannot
wait to snuggle that little one come April! Yes I said April, which brings me
to my second part of news.
On Monday Casey went to the U.S. embassy in Barbados to be
interviewed for his visa. I cannot put
into words how excited I was when I found out that he was approved for his
visa! I had not been very hopeful that
he would get it the first time he went as I’ve heard its not necessarily easy
to get a visa, however God answered our prayers and Casey came back to St.
Lucia with an approved visa. As of
yesterday he received the visa in the mail and now he can officially travel
with me come April! For those of you
wondering, Casey and I will be in Minnesota and possibly Wisconsin at the
beginning of April. I’m looking forward
to introducing him to the rest of my family and am sooooo excited to show him
around and see his reactions to what I know to be normal.
I realize that I have not been keeping up with the blog. I think this is partly due to the fact that I
am busy. Another reason is because I
have no energy when I come home from school, but I think the biggest reason is
that this year has not seemed out of the normal to me.
In January Kelsey and her friend Alexis came to visit me in
St. Lucia. It was so nice having them
here. They even came into my classroom and read to all 41 of my students! I was a bit jealous that while they were here
they got to see a lot of the island, however the Saturday before they left we
went down to Soufriere to the Tet Paul Nature Trail and then spent a few hours
at Sugar Beach. I have attached a few
pictures from our trip to the bottom of this post.
I can tell you that with all that good news there has been
some not so positive things that have also happened so far this year. Last week I was fighting some nasty virus
that kept me out of school last Friday and left me exhausted and not eating
much of anything until Monday night. I
can also tell you that while I started off the year with 21 students, I am now
down to 19 in my classroom. One child
moved off island in December and the other left this last week due to some
unfortunate circumstances.
Through good and bad times I look to God and I thank him for
the blessings he has given me. I know
that not every day is going to be perfect, but I do know who holds every day
and who is always with me. He hasn’t
failed me yet!
“For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11
Kels and I on Tet Paul trail |
The girls on the trip |
Couldn't ask for a better guy by my side |
Beautiful Sugar Beach! |