Despedida

According to the Tagalog-English Dictionary, a "despedida" is listed as a "party given for people leaving".

SIL gave us an official despedida last week, and quite a few people stood up and spoke some nice things about us. Davis was passed around from person to person and generally stole the show (as usual). Here are some pictures from the tearful celebration.

Special People: Girlfriends!

This past weekend Wendy, one of my best friends in the Philippines had a brunch for me to say goodbye to my closest friends from Faith. It was such a special time as we just enjoyed each others company by laughing and crying while we ate such yummy food! These ladies are precious to me and I am going to miss them so much!!

(from left to right: Jean, Kelly, Wendy, me, Karen and Kristen)

Trip to Faith

Well, I wanted to let ya'll know I had a super trip to see my kids today. It was wonderful to share one last lunchtime with them and to visit with many of them. My 3rd graders, who are now 4th and 5th graders were taller, and looked so much older then when I last saw them. They are precious kids who will always have a special place in my heart!

3rd Grade 2005-2006

3rd Grade 2006

2 more weeks : (

As Dan, Davis, Scruffy and I prepare to leave our home here in the Philippines I know there are so many things that I'd love to be journaling and sharing with all of you. SO, today, I think I'll share a little bit of my sadness. You'll notice my frowning face in the title. That is not there because we aren't excited, we are thrilled to move closer to all of our friends in the USA...

BUT, these next 2 weeks are very hard for us because they are filled with closing this chapter of our lives of having our home in the Philippines and saying goodbye to so many precious friends that have become family.

If you think of us in the next few weeks and what runs through your mind is "oh they must be so excited!" please follow that by praying for us that we can have a lot of strength to get through the sadness that is also happening!

Tomorrow I am going to Faith Academy to say goodbye to all of my students and many friends. Yup. Hard.

"Hi Aunt Ellen," I believe are my favorite words in the Philippines, and here are some of my favorite nieces and nephews. We aren't "officially" related, but they are definatly family to us. We love getting together with all these kids (and there parents also!) A couple of weeks ago we had our last dinner all together before we leave. It was very special. (and yes, some of my tears did flow!)

Alma, Leo, Bea and Nina have become good friends of ours.... Leo works in the computer department of SIL... we had dinner and swimming with their family last weekend and had to say goodbye.

WAR EAGLE!!! This is the Manila chapter of the Auburn club! For 3 seasons we have been getting together with this family to listen to or watch Auburn games. Yesterday, we tried to listen to our last game together.... unfortunately we weren't able to get it, but we still had Auburn spirit! (Though Davis didn't do too well with all of the cheering for this picture!)

Caleb was in my first 3rd grade class here and his Mom and I have become close friends. Scruffy even got invited to a final lunch together before we leave. We'll miss them so much!

Check out my teeth!!

Over the last month Davis has been growing adorable little teeth! (Also, sharp ones!!) Davis loves to "kiss" my chin, but we've had to stop since it hurts!! Hopefully soon he'll kiss more gently. He has been hiding these teeth, therefore we have found it hard to capture them on camera. Here we are in the car with a little help from me so you can check them out!

Tracking Davis's New Friends

As some of you know, I've been dabbling a little bit in Flash programming. I put together this little widget to help us keep track of some of our friends that are having kids in the near future.

If you are expecting a little one sometime soon, and would like to be added to the list, let us know!

Dan Eats Balut

For the uninitiated, balut is a delicacy in the Philippines that is created from a duck egg. A fertilized duck egg. A duck egg that was cooked while a partially grown duck was still inside. There's no yolk or egg white to deal with here.

Over the past 2.5 years, everyone has been telling me that I haven't truly been to the Philippines until I've eaten my first balut. I finally had my chance to eat it tonight.

For those of you with weak stomachs, you might want to skip the video. (Did I mention that balut was featured on Fear Factor?)