Cupcakes and Cruises

We are continuing to settle in here on the Africa Mercy and it is feeling more and more like home.  We have several boxes that we will not see until Guinea so we still have bare spots in our cabin but I know they will be filled soon enough.  Adalynn is beginning to learn her way around the ship and is very social with everyone.  She continues to sleep better and better and we are so thankful for this!  Thank you for your prayers! Cora has been so amazing and is just happy and content most of the time! 

 John has been busy working and learning his job.  It has been overwhelming at times but he's starting to learn the ropes.  Thankfully for him, life on the ship is a bit slower right now as the full crew is not yet here. . I know that a lot of work and activity is going on but it is hard to see it all since the hospital is not functioning at this point.  I’ve been told to enjoy this quiet time as things are about to pick up significantly.  We will have a couple hundred more people on board soon!

The rest of our team from Texas arrives on Thursday!! We are so excited to reunite with them.  The other 30 or so memebers of our training group spent the last 2 weeks in a village in Ghana doing a work project.  We miss them and Adalynn is very excited to see her friends again!

Saturday was John’s birthday and I was able to make some gluten free cupcakes to celebrate! 

Also on Saturday there was a huge cruise ship parked right next to us. It was amazing how tiny our ship felt next to the cruise ship! I wish I would have been able to get a picture side by side but here is the ship sailing past us out of the port.

Sunday we went to the beach. We were able to walk to the bus station and take the bus. . .we felt pretty adventurous taking a public bus with two small children, a stroller and all our beach stuff. Adalynn LOVED the water and the sand and we were all worn out after only a couple hours but it was well worth it.  Cora mostly hung out sleeping in the stroller as the sun was very hot and the water was a bit chilly.

Today the ship turned around as they needed access to the other life boat. Some of the crew is going through lifeboat training while we are here in Tenerife. We now have a new view of the island out our window!

Thank you for your continued prayers!  Please pray for the advance team that is in Guinea right now as they are preparing the way for our service there.  Everyone is very excited to be going back to Guinea after over 10 years!  We will set sail on August 15th!