It's hard to tell who is more excited for summer break-the students or the staff! I don't know that this year has been any harder than other years but we are exhausted-maybe hitting 30 is getting to us? At any rate, we had a wonderful graduation last Sunday and then were busy shuttling students to Sioux Falls and wrapping up the year with meetings and checklists this past week. Now a holiday weekend is here and we can look realistically at what we will get done this summer! The above photo was taken at our Junior/Senior banquet in Pierre back in April. Apparently I am too tall for the camera.
The girls continue to grow before our very eyes. Both of them are very artistic and Darcy has recruited their help on a number of projects including painting custom cards. Dakota is too young for makeup but that doesn't stop her from trying-she painted above her eyes to pretend like she had makeup on!
Daraby finished her first year of preschool and is developing into quite the young lady. She is learning lot's of new things (including being able to swing on her own) and was playing at the park with some friends from church in this picture. Our friends at church have 3 children that our girls get along with very well and that makes for fun afternoons at the park. A trip to Zesto's (the local ice cream shop in Pierre) is a great way to end the afternoon together.
We've been spending lots of money lately including a purchase of a "new" (new to us) car. It's a 2004 Toyota Prius with 200,000 miles on it. We've enjoyed driving it so far and really like the 40-50 miles per gallon of gas it uses. Unfortunately, it left us stranded between Pierre and school (a distance of 75 miles with no towns between them) a couple of weeks ago. The trusty suburban hauled it to Pierre for a repair and we are back in business.
Summer time means horses and Daraby is starting to ride Dally on her own. Daraby is learning how to "be the boss" and making Dally do what she wants him to do. Dakota is content (for now) to ride behind Daraby and help with brushing and feeding the horses. The girls find all sorts of entertaining things to do at the barn which is what kids their age should be doing! One of the latest quirks of being at the barn is getting to go potty outside, however, it is hard for them to realize that this is only ok when we are at the barn, not around school!
Back in April we were able to make a quick trip back to MI to attend the celebration of life service for our long-time friend Ryan Prudhomme. Ryan was an inspiration to many in his determination to live his life for the glory of Jesus Christ even through cancer and the fact of leaving his wife and 3 year old son behind. We walked away from that experience encouraged and challenged in our faith in the midst of the sadness of saying goodbye for now to a dear friend. There were friends from Grace Adventures that we had not seen in years and were able to reconnect with them at the service. The beauty of something like this can only be described in the phrase "in Christ" because that simply is our hope, our salvation, our purpose, our meaning for existence, and our assurance of being together again in paradise for those who have placed their trust in Jesus. Are you confident that your hope in life is built only on Jesus Christ?
We have had a fair amount of activity in our adoption process over the last 3 months but nothing has materialized out of some possibilities that surfaced. Please continue to pray for patience and wisdom as we wait on the Lord and his timing in these things. Also, pray that God would re-sharpen us over the summer months as we prepare for another school year. I (Andrew) will be teaching an Introduction to Agriculture class next year as well as helping start an FFA program at our school.
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