Reflection

Hi everyone.  This blog is going to be several unrelated paragraphs that each share different aspects of life for me at this time.  I am starting to get pretty busy.  I just sent out an email update related to my trip in April, so if you have not received that and would like to ... please let me know.  

I am starting preparations for my return to Kazakhstan in April.  I will be there for four months as many of you already know.  I am getting near the point of purchasing tickets and starting to apply for my visa.  Between this and delegation planning I am keeping pretty busy at work.  I am working on helping to develop a curriculum that we can use in our English classes at our orphanage camps that encourages life skills and problem solving.  We are wanting to have different material for each grade that can build as the children get older.  I'm excited to see how this comes together.

This has been a week of reflection for me.  Last week a friend of mine passed away and I have been in this state of processing it this week.  The memorial service is scheduled for tomorrow and I look forward to being able to celebrate her life with her friends and family.  It brings back memories of others that I have lost in my life and reminds me to cherish those that are currently in my life.

The weather here has been frigid, as it has been in much of the country.  Thankfully, we missed a lot of the bad weather that other States experienced.   Our storm was much better than expected because we were expecting a lot of ice which would have caused power outages.  Instead we received mostly sleet and a few inches of snow.   I worked at home for two days last week due to poor road conditions, but otherwise things were pretty uneventful.