Wedding...rehearsal dinner...

A post about the wedding. Finally. Well almost. Let me back track a little. I arrived a week prior to the wedding. Freetown-Brussels-Newark-Dallas. I was pretty happy to see Steef and Genae at DFW airport. And believe it or not I still had the energy to stop at the mall and go out for dinner. There’s nothing like being with family. I was happy to be able to stay at Genae’s parents’ house, with Genae & family. It was great! And it meant I was right there where everything was happening. Shopping, lists, lots of coffee, rain, more shopping, grandma ironing, getting ready on the day itself etc. Quite fun to say the least. And a privilege. That week was packed: wedding shower, dinner with bridal party, bachelorette party, 2 days of preparations (helping Genae with flower arrangements since she did all of the flowers herself!!!), rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding ceremony, reception/party, brunch the morning after.

To sum it up in one word: AMAZING

Really, not much more needs to be said. The pictures will say enough. Here are a few of the rehearsal dinner- a pool party. Friends. Family. Food. Fun. American flag. Dutch flag. Pool. Barbeque. Desserts. Catching up. Memories made.

Colorado trip...

After the wedding I decided to take a couple of days to visit a church that’s been supporting me for the past two years. I had never been to the church before and thought it was high time to pay them a visit! So, off I went, to the airport and before I knew it the plane landed at Denver airport where I was greeted by an old family friend and his daughter. It was great to see them again. They live about 30 min from Denver in a place called Parker.

I spent July 12 – 16th in Parker, Colorado and absolutely loved it. The house I was staying at was lovely and the family I stayed with is great (you know who you are!). There was a good balance between work and fun. We started with a business lunch- how bad can that be ??? : ) Then we went to the church. It’s a church of 4000 people; I knew it’d be big, but I was still a bit overwhelmed. It is amazingly big, well organized, etc. It was great to be able to meet people that I had been receiving emails from etc over the past two years. The next day we had a breakfast meeting, discussing possibilities of church involvement in the Sierra Leone project. And after that it was time for some relaxation- I was treated to a couple of fun things at a local spa. Very nice!

On Saturday we went hiking in a place called Evergreen. It was absolutely beautiful. The mountains were picturesque and even though my fellow hikers said there wasn’t much snow on the mountain tops, it looked like plenty to me : ) I guess you can tell which one of us lives in Africa! While there, I also went to Denver for an evening. We actually went to an improv comedy night which was hilarious. Great fun!

The work related part of the trip involved speaking in the children’s services. There are about 400 children that go to the three different services; one on Sat evening, and two on Sun morning. It was pretty high tech and I had to show up ahead of time to get wired up with a microphone etc. After my presentation I also had to ‘run down’ to the adult service to make an appearance there when they introduced me. I spoke at all three children’s services; showing a power point presentation with lots of pictures of the house, the clinic, my church, and cultural stuff (doing laundry in the river, carrying water, carrying baskets of fruit on your head etc.) I think they enjoyed it.

Of course there was time for questions & answers afterwards. There were many questions about reptiles in particular (are there snakes, have you seen a snake, how big are the lizards etc). And then some very thoughtful questions such as: what do the people there wear, what do they eat, do you have a television, why did you go to Africa. And then the random questions: are your mom and dad black or white. It was fun to be able to share with the children about Sierra Leone. Their theme for the month was Contentment: being happy with what you have. So that fit in really well, when showing them the cultural differences. Hopefully some missions seeds were planted.

To sum up my trip to Colorado...AMAZING and I’ll be back.

PS: my brother and sister-in-law are moving to Colorado which gives me even more incentive!

I'm back, I'm in Middelburg...

Okay, I’m back again. Nope, no excuses, just had other things to do. So, I have a lot to catch you up on and to make things easy on me, I’ll start with where I’m at now, then back track. That means that you’ll have to wait just a little bit longer for those wedding shots.

I’m in Middelburg, The Netherlands right now visiting family and friends. I’m here for another 8 days. My how time flies. Anyway, it’s good to be here and quite relaxing. Just too bad we’ve had so much rain. It’s been great seeing my nieces again. Zoey is now 2 ½ and Esmee is 8 months old. So cute!

Biggest event here so far was my 30th birthday. Yikes, that does sound different. Well, we were fortunate to have the sun stop by and had a lovely barbeque with friends and family. And thanks to all of those who sent cards etc. It was a special day.

More updates soon. Colorado, Texas, wedding. Stay tuned.

Parker, Colorado...

Greetings from Colorado!

I arrived in CO today and am here until Monday visiting friends and the church that has supported me over the past 2 years. So far I am having a great time.

The past 12 days in TX have been VERY busy with lots of wedding excitement: the wedding shower, Tate-Lako-bridal party dinners, bachelorette party, shopping, lists, rehearsal, pool party rehearsal dinner, wedding day itself, brunch the morning after etc. What more can I say? The wedding was absolutely amazing!

Don't worry - I'll send a more detailed update on my TX & CO trips soon...with pictures of course. But seeing as things continue to be busy, you'll have to be patient....

Vacation...

The week before I left Freetown was absolutely crazy… getting ready to leave, handing over to a German pediatrician, running the house etc. There had been a lot of transition at our house and I realized I was the only one at the house that had been there for more than 3 months! Crazy. So I was the trouble shooter for laundry problems, questions from the guards, checking the fuel levels for the generators, internet trouble, etc. And then of course there was clinic too, which kept me at work till about 8pm one night. The night before I left however, I did manage to get my laundry done, go to International Bible Study, prepare a guest room (for someone arriving while I am gone), and finally pack! My vacation was about to begin…

Well, the craziness continued the day I was flying out. I went to work at 730am and started seeing patients in the clinic as usual. Of course, there were many last minute things that needed to get done. I decided I would stop seeing patients at 3pm, which I did, but my last patient was one with malnutrition and needed lab work done. While waiting for the results I took a quick cold shower- since I had been sweating all day. I was supposed to leave at 415. Sure enough, at 410 the lab result arrived; just in time. I treated the child and left the rest of the patients for the pediatrician who is covering for me. It is kind of strange to leave everything behind…

The trip was pretty uneventful, although I did have to hurry to catch the flight from Newark to Dallas. The most exciting part of the flight was probably the dinner with a juicy piece of beef brisket, baby carrots and broccoli. Sad I know, but it had been 6 months since I’d had those veggies : )

Steef and Genae met me at Dallas airport which was great! We took a long route home (stopping at the mall first and Cheddars!). About 36 hours after leaving Aberdeen I arrived at my final destination…ready for the wedding week to begin!