Isn't It Ironic?

It's funny to look at my last post, seeing that the last two days have been rainy and a little cool. Oh, well!! It IS Honduras!

Today was the 100th day of school, and my kindergarteners and I were able to dress up like we were 100 years of age. I am kicking myself right now because I did not have our camera with me at all today. Some of my kids were ADORABLE!! I had one little boy (Mrs. Halbert-he is your favorite) who looked more like a homeless man by the end of the day after his "makeup" had worn off. Another little boy came with a grey mustache and actual spray-painted grey hair. We did all sorts of things today with the number 100. It was a lot of fun, but by the end of the day I felt as tired as a 100 year old kindergarten teacher would feel!!!

February- dry, sunny, and beautiful!

Yes, the rains have pretty much stopped. It rained the other night and that was the first time in a long time. The rainy season brings at least one good rain every day or night. Now, the sun is getting more intense and there is already a lot of dust, which will only increase! It is still very cool in the early morning, but starts to warm up around 10 or 11 in the morning. We are usually still in the clouds in the morning, so once they move through, the sun comes out. It has been very nice but strange that it is February and so warm!

Things are moving right along in school. We had another group of 9th graders over for dinner on Thursday night, and it was very successful. I realized how much food a family goes through with 4 teenage boys!!! (A LOT) Aaron is enjoying the time that we have with these kids in our home. It is a nice change of scenery for him to hang out with them, and they also get to know me. They all wonder what kind of person I am because Aaron is so outgoing. They have quickly realized that I am not at all like him, but we create a good balance.

Kindergarten is going well. I was observed this week by my principal. It went very well, for which I am so thankful. I have a fantastic class, and they were perfect during the lesson!! He commended me on my classroom management, and I kind of chuckled under my breath. It is only by God's grace that I have been blessed with an overall obedient class. Overall, my class is very intelligent and I am able to speak honestly with them about their behavior. I only have one or two kids who are not ALWAYS very sorry for their bad behavior. I can only pray that I will have a class next year that is somewhat close to my class this year. I wouldn't mind teaching forever with classes like mine!

Some people you can pray for: 1) A child at the school is going through some pretty difficult things mentally and emotionally. Please pray with me that the Lord would save him at an early age and that he would find his security in only the Lord.
2) A friend of mine is going through some really rough financial situations. Please pray that the Lord would provide for her every need and to take away her worry. She has two boys.
Thank you and God bless!! ~The Halberts

Time Flies!

Time has flown by, and I did not realize it had been this long since an update.

The weekend after we got back, we drove to San Pedro (about 4 hours there) to pick up our luggage. Our friends Day, Leslie, and Laura went with us just for the ride. That was nice to make the trip not quite so boring. I would have slept much more if they were not in the car! Thankfully, our luggage was there when we got there. It was all about to be put on a bus to send here, so it was wonderful that we got there when we did!! You can't always trust that noone will bother your things on a bus when the owners are not present.

The second week of school was better because we had gotten a little more rest and felt more refreshed. My students are not supposed to speak Spanish anymore, so those first two weeks were pretty quiet! :) They are learning more and more, and it is adorable to watch them try! It is Spanglish more than English right now.

Aaron got back into the routine pretty quickly and has had soccer practice twice a week. We are starting a new thing tonight for all the 9th graders. Every Thursday night, we will have 4 of them over for dinner. This is a good way for them to get to know me and get to know Aaron better outside of school. I only know a few of his students, but most of them know who I am. They are so excited about coming to our home and seeing how we are here.

Thank you for being patient with us about updating our blog. You may not think so, but things are very busy around here. I have been so busy keeping up with Catherine's site that I kind of forgot about mine! We thank you for praying for us!!

Henry Forrest Flemming

We were very sad to hear last night that my grandfather passed away in his sleep. I am so thankful that we were able to see him over the holidays. He was a special part of the Flemming family. Aaron and I had just walked in our door to hear the phone ring, and his Dad had called to relay the message from my family. One of the first thoughts that came to mind was "How can I get back for the funeral?" The funeral is tomorrow, and seeing that my luggage is still lost somewhere between Ft. Lauderdale and Honduras, there is no possible way to make it there. My heart aches to know that I will not be there for all the family, but I know the Lord will give them all the comfort they need.

Please be in prayer for the family today and tomorrow as visitation will be tonight and the burial tomorrow. Jan-Jan (Janice Flemming) is doing as well as to be expected, after losing her husband. Please pray for her as things are very busy now and things will sink in more as everything slows down. Her five childern will be taking good care of her!

More to come later, but I wanted everyone to be able to pray. God's timing is perfect, even though we wish that we could be there for everyone.

We'll Be Home For Christmas...

As we pack our bags and clean our apartment, we are so happy that we will be flying home tomorrow! We will be somewhere in the air between Houston and Nashville this time tomorrow night.

We will be in Mississippi for the first half, and then Tennessee for the second half. I am pretty sure that my whole family, including Samuel and his family, will be there!! This is a rare occurance! The whole Halbert family will be there as well, and we are so happy to see our families.

We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

It's Not Just Another Day!

Hello to everyone. Aaron was so very gracious to update the blog this week for me. Some weeks, it seems like my grading pile grows when I look away. I know they are kindergarten papers to grade, but I have been wrapping up before Christmas holidays and my kids have done so many phonics papers this week!!

The Christmas party last night was fantastic. Even though there was not as much food as we had expected, we had plenty and it was good stuff! There was a good turn out on the number of kids as well. The girls were somewhat on time, and the boys showed up at least an hour late. This is to be expected in Honduras, though. The girls were actually going on our "American" time. Honduran time is always "an hour behind." A lot of times, brides are late coming to the wedding, people are late for funerals, and NOONE is EVER on time for a party!! Oh, well, we can't change the culture!!

We are headed downtown for some fun. Tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary (hence the title), and we are celebrating a bit tonight. It is so hard to believe that a year has gone by since our wedding. It was so much fun, and I can't believe it was all a year ago.

Alot has happened in this year. Personally, I never would have thought that May would hold such shocking news for our family. On the other hand, living in Honduras has been a bigger blessing than I had imagined! So, the Lord has surprised me in so many ways through His grace and mercy this year. He is the constant in our lives-the only One who never changes and the One who brought us here- both Honduras and one year together as husband and wife. To God be all the glory, for great things He has done!!

This and That

Sorry it has been so long since the last update. These past few weeks since thanksgiving have been rather hectic. As Christmas draws closer everything seems to have become more stressful as we prepare to finish school and come home for a few weeks. The kids have been extremely difficult to handle because they are all just as antsy as we are to have a nice break.
Over the past few weeks it seems like every night there is something that we have to do. This last weekend Rachel had the Christmas concert for the elementary school and it turned out to be wonderful. She loved seeing all the work the kids had put in come to fruition. I was unable to attend because I got a stomach bug the night before and wasnt feeling better until Saturday morning. Saturday brought more activity as we went to Valle de Angeles to do a little bit of Christmas shopping but, it was the same kind of Christmas shopping you do in the States. It was not crowded, hectic, or loud. It was actually very relaxing for both of us just to spend some time together enjoying the areas where we live. Saturday night brought a Quincineara, which is the equivalent of a Sweet Sixteen birthday party. It was one of the most extravagant things we have seen yet in Honduras. It was like something straight off of TV. It was very enjoyable to see these kids in their element and I was able to take some pictures that I hope to be able to post.
To continue on, Monday brought my Christmas concert, but once they get into High School they just aren't as cute as the younger ones. It was well put together and the kids seemed to have fun.
What we are looking most foward to is this Friday night when we are having a Christmas party at our house for all of the tenth grade. They are bringing desserts and appetizers and we are planning the games and activities. I have been dying to do some youth group type activities since we left and I think this will be a wonderful opportunity. We did do alot of preparation for this party while my friend Mark was in town because we decided to decorate outside. It started like most ideas do with two boys saying lets just do a little decorating and it ended with a hand made Christmas tree, icicle lights, bannisters wrapped in wreath and lights, net lights, and a blow up 8 foot polar bear that Mark bought us, a penguin the girls upstairs bought, and a snowman. So it turned into much more work than expected but the turned out way better than we could have hoped for.
With all that being said I hope to post alot of new pictures today and we look forward to seeing alot of you over the holidays. God Bless and thank you for all your prayers, interest, and support over these last few months.