Quick Update

These past couple months have been a whirlwind, so I'll try to do brief summaries! But first, I'd like to publically thank Micah for carrying the full load of updating this blog while I've been so busy! Just one of the many things he carried while I focused on school! That's really been the story of his life since we've been here! He's my hero!
November was packed full of open-houses and programs and presentations! I'll mostly tell you all about these things in person, 'cause it would take too long to write about! But, suffice it to say that November was a really important month for the life of my program. Many of you know (I think!) that I've been really involved in establishing a bilingual program at the 1st grade level for my school. In November, we held an open-house for all the teachers in our school. Many of the teachers were skeptical of the program and its benefits, as well as how it affects the well-being of our students. This was our opportunity to show them that it does work and that they too can help facilitate a program like this. All I'll say about it here is that it went GREAT!!!
Next, we held a Thanksgiving Festival in which my whole class and their families got together to eat a traditional American Thanksgiving meal. After the meal there were student presentations, part of which included an oral presentation given by each student. They shared what they were thankful for. As a surprise, at the end my Korean co-teacher got up and shared why she was thankful, and I got up and shared in Korean why I was thankful! I was really intimidated to speak Korean in front of native speakers! Parents were really happy though, and everything went off without a hitch!
Ok, fast-forward now, past the English teachers' TG meal, past our friends moving back to the States, past the English teachers' Christmas dinner, past all of our staff Christmas gatherings, past all of the last week of school activities - you have now arrived at Christmas day:) We spent the morning opening presents sent from our families, which was a blast! We also read about the first Christmas together and thanked God for sending us Christ. At 2:00 there was a special Christmas service at our church, then at 4:00 we were picked up by a Korean family who whisked us away to their lovely home for a lovely Christmas dinner and wonderful fellowship together. We talked and ate and looked at pictures and ate and talked and just in general had a fabulous time together! They have 2 really neat kids (a boy and a girl), and had many stories to tell us of their missionary experience in Albania. We didn't leave their house till after midnight! We couldn't believe how quickly the time had passed! By the time we got back home, we were just overwhelmed by how rich we felt. God has blessed us so much, all along He has taken care of every detail of our lives.
It's now midnight, here, and I could write more, but I know that the later it gets, the less sense I'll be making:) We're looking forward to spending a few days in Japan in January, then we just have a couple of weeks till school starts up again - then a couple more weeks and we'll be home again! We are really looking forward to being back in Pittsburg! Love you all! Thanks for reading this hastily written blog post! We'll try to post more soon, and we'll be sure to include pictures! Love, Sarah