Snapshots of 2010

2010 was our family's first full year to spend in Africa, and it was Josiah, Anna, and my first year to spend entirely away from America. After a year and a half in Tanzania, we all feel very comfortable with life here and this place feels quite a lot like home.

As I look back on 2010, I can say wholeheartedly that it was a very good year. Sure, it held it's fair share of challenges, but as a whole, we have a ton of good memories of 2010.

Here are some snapshots of our year:

January

Paul traveled to Dar es Salaam to take part in his first consultant check on the books of Acts and Revelation.

The kids and I ended that week without Daddy by getting our first real aerial views of Tanzania as we flew in a Cessna 206 to meet him in Dar and then drive our new (to us) Land Cruiser home to Dodoma a few days later.

February

Josiah and Anna made fast friends with the other children on our housing compound in Dodoma. We feel so blessed to have such a great community of friends in our area.

March
We've learned to do a lot of things "by hand," including grinding our own fresh-from-the-market beef.

April
In April, we took a safari to Ruaha National Park.

We added an animal (Chica) to our household as well.

May
Josiah took part in Sports Day for the Nursery and Reception Classes at his school.

June
I got the chance to teach a few of my friends how to cook Mexican food.

July
In July, our family traveled to Kenya for our branch conference. We loved fellowshipping and worshiping together with our colleagues.

And the kids had a great time at the beach too.

AugustJosiah and Anna started back to school after a 6 week break.

And we celebrated our 6-year-old birthday boy!

September
This month is was Anna's turn to celebrate a birthday - her 4th! I had a birthday too, but we'll keep the age part a secret. :)

October
We traveled up north to Musoma to visit friends and co-workers and to bring back a computer server for our office in Dodoma.

November
We celebrated Thanksgiving with friends and even had a turkey!

December
Early in the month, Paul and I took a day trip to some nearby mountains to celebrate his birthday.

The kids and I made Christmas cutout cookies.

Paul enjoyed his week off from the office and put together the puzzle he got for Christmas. (Unfortuately, we think our dog already got one of the pieces.)

The kids made the most of their Christmas break by spending the majority of their time outdoors playing. While playing one day, they discovered this colorful chameleon in our backyard.

I'll say it again: 2010 was a very good year. We look forward to all of the memories we'll make in 2011.

Happy New Year, everyone!