Great Start to February

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!