Huge Blessing

Last week my friend Danielle decided to clean out her closet and then gave me all the clothes that she didn't want anymore. This means that I am now the proud owner of 11 new shirts, 1 belt, 4 pairs of pants, 2 skirts, 2 sweaters, and 1 scarf. This is not only a huge blessing for me because its fun to have new clothes, but because it is incredibly hard for me to find clothes in my size here. Just so you can get the full picture, here are three stories that have happened in the last year...

In one store I saw a shirt that I liked but wasn't sure if it would fit. As I was walking to the dressing room a woman came and took the shirt out of my hand and wouldn't let me even try it on because she said that it was definitely too small.

Once at a vitamin store I was approached by three different employees at three seperate times who all pointed me to the weight loss vitamins.

At another store the salesclerk cheerfully brought me the only shirt in the entire store that was my size and then showed me the tag in the back that said Large.

At the time all of these experiences brought me to tears (even though I am a really normal size), but I've now lived here for long enough that it doesn't bother me as much anymore. And, more importantly, Jehovah Jireh just gave me a whole new wardrobe. He's such a good provider!

~A

Slow Week

Well, its been a slow week for us. I (along with most of my classmates) have had a cold and last week L was gone soil sampling. He was originally supposed to be gone for one night but that stretched into 3 since it took anywhere from 10 minutes to one hour to get to each site and they had 20 different sites to sample from. They were taking samples from areas they had previously looked at in 2004. (Since this time 4 of those sites have been industralized which shows how quickly this country is changing!) Now they will do experiments to find out what forms the phosphorus is in. Being married to L, the soil scientist, is so interesting! For example, this is one of my new favorite L quotes that came from his sampling excursion, "Actually, can I call you back? I'm kind of on the edge of a cliff right now." I reckon that's right up there with my other favorites: "Don't tell my parents, but I'm under house arrest," and "Sorry I didn't call sooner. I was at the police station."

~A

A Reason I Love L

Although L generally feels that musicals are meant to be endured rather than enjoyed, he took me to 42nd Street last week. It was wonderful and I loved every moment. This was the first time that anything like this (it was an American group on tour) had come to our country so that was especially fun. The program was full of letters from American politicians (for example...Hilary) congratulating our country on their first taste of Broadway and expressing their hope that the two countries will continue to have cultural exchanges. Another really amazing part was that I could read (a small amount) of the subtitles and even laugh at the way things were being translated!

~A

An Out of Tune Week

This is what I found last Friday when I opened my case to lead music for a group of friends. It had fallen over before we left the house but didn't think anything of it since it was in it's case. If you are a guitar player or have ever owned anything that was highly valuable to you, you can imagine the pit in my stomach. That night when we came home, A and I laid hands on it and asked for a miracle. I mixed up some epoxy and glued it together. So, it is working again and we are just hoping it will last a few more months! There is a slight possibility I could find one here, but most are not very good quality, so I may have to wait until we come to the States. I would show you a picture of the restored version (ugly but functional), but alas, our camera is not working. Ahhh!