When It Rains It Pours

I mean that figuratively and literally. The rainy season was over due here, but on Saturday the flood gate flew open releasing a down pour complete with lighting and thunder. I love the rain, especaily when I don't have to worry about tornados. So literally it poured. The pictures below are taken only a few minutes after the rain began and as you can see it has already rained buckets.

So figuratively it has poured also. This has been a little bit of a challenging trip. I will not say all, but I will say thank you for your prays, if you are praying....as I know many of you pray for us regularly. About half way down here we stopped to go to the bathroom and change drivers and we neglected to assure Ollie was back in the truck and left him. We did not realize it for 50 km. When we went back the machine at the toll gate was broken and they could not take our card and would not let us pass to look for him. The ambulance at the gate took Sam and they could not find him. Then we where able to figure a way to pay and go look for him again with the kids. They really need a chance to look for him. Still no Ollie. The cows about a 1/2 mile away turned to look at us, so we know if he was near he would of heard us and come. We gave up the search when Samuel almost got bit by a rattle snack. It scared the wits out of him. So, many tears and two hours later we continued on with out Ollie. We hope another family picked him up and has given him a new home. That was my birthday and Ollie had been my birthday present five years before. He was a great dog. Protective of the children, accompanied them everywhere. We all miss him very much. Being here at the home has been a nice distaction.

When it rains and lightings....sometimes the electricity goes out. When the electricity finally returned it was only at half power....a "brown out" we were informed. Which is fine except during a "brown out" there is not enough power for the washer and dryer. A few days without a washer and dryer plus 30 kiddos equals a mountain of clothes and made dinner prep and little more involved. Powers back up today and the laundry is all caught up. YAY! I can't take credit for the laundry, we do have help.

We had one other misadventure I will detail later, but I will say thank you if you were prompted to pray for us on Friday morning and you stopped and prayed. We needed it. And praise God for his protective hand.

Also, Sam's Geneva died yesterday evening. She was his third cousin, but more like his grandmother. He sent the many nights at her and Glen's house when he was growing up. We are fairly sure it is not feasable for us to make it to the funeral on Thursday. We spent a little time today talking and remembering. Geneva had a very sweet testemony of her Salvation and I always like to here her tell it. The last time we spoke before we left, she was infatic that I needed to finish my midwifery training. I take my test on the 19th of this month. I was looking forward to being able to tell her I had finished, but I guess she'll know. Her going home was sweet, family spent most of the day with her. She mentioned several times yesterday that it was time and she was ready. She lived 98 years and shared a birthday with our Josiah. It has been and emotional day, especaily for Sam. I am sorry I don't have any digitail photos of her to share, as she was such a big part of Sam's life.