{ONE month!!}

I can hardly believe it has been one month since we first arrived in Tanzania, and what a huge difference a month can make! The first couple of weeks here were hard, and I would even say hard is an understatement. :) I am so thrilled to say though that I have seen and experienced God's grace and peace in such a deep way over these past couple of weeks. Once I worked up the courage to fully submit myself to His will for my life here in Africa, everything started to change. I was able to sleep soundly and on my own at night {I had been taking sleeping pills to help me the first few days}, joy and laughter were making appearances in my life again, my heart was open to be excited about the work we will be doing here, I started embracing relationships with new friends here, and so on and so on. I feel like a completely different person than the girl that was here the first night. I am SO thankful to be on the other end of that first major transition of adjusting here! I am realizing {even daily still} that just because our family is here, in Africa, doesn't mean we lost our family and friends back in the States. Those relationships will always be there, and it has been amazing to see them even deepen with us being here. Even typing this my eyes are full of tears of thankfulness, as I am truly amazed at the work He has done in my heart. He is such a good and loving Heavenly Father.
This past month has flown by! It has obviously been a month of adjusting for our family. Our older three children are attending a school here called Hope International. The school has been such a blessing to our family and the kids are loving it there! Sophee and Emmersyn attend for a half day {this year} and Kayden is in school for the full school day. They are all thriving and making new friends here. It is such a blessing as their Mommy to see them doing so well, and fitting right into their new lives here. I am so proud of them. They struggled with the food when we first got here, but we are finding things that everyone likes, and they are doing much better now. Our little Harper Praise is LOVING it here. I could have never even imagined how much she would enjoy being here. She loves to play outside all day, and loves here one on one time with Mommy while the older three are at school. We found a play group with a lot of children her age and have gone one time, and she really enjoyed it. The only thing Harper isn't super crazy about is that when we are out in public the Tanzanians will just come up and try to grab her right out of my hands. It is just a cultural thing here, but she wants nothing to do with it. She has learned to stiffen her arms up so they can't grab her, and they get the point.
Brian has been asked to lead chapel at the kids school every week, and is very excited about it. I often wondered  why God would take Brian out of his youth and children's position at our church, when that was so obviously one of his major gifts, but doors are opening here for him to just jump right back into working with youth. I love seeing him in his element, working with precious children. He has also had a couple of drama practices, where he is teaching the youth one of the human dramas we did back in the States. The youth are doing a great job picking up on it and they hope to be bringing it to the streets in town very soon. I will for sure try and get a video of it!
Last Sunday Brian preached at a church in one of the villages right near us. It was so great to be back in a Africa church! Next weekend we will be heading to another church, where Brian will be preaching as well. We are also working a lot on our house, and hope to have it move in ready by the time we get home from language school, which is mid-May.
So there is a quick update on what we have been up to this past month. We are working on a newsletter right now, and hope to have it out in the next couple of days, and it will have more details about our home project, and more details and pictures of what we have been up to.  Thank you all so much for you love and continued prayers!