Hola, It's been a while.

Hello to all of our friends and family from the DR!  We pray that you are all well.  We thank and praise God for each of you!  We apologize for the lack of updates from our end.  We have been very busy getting settled into our new house and into our new culture.  It has been amazing to see how God fills our needs and gives us even more when we depend on Him.  One such blessing is our house.  We found a wonderful house that is just right for our family.  It is about 10 minutes from the Makarios school.  We are getting settled in here and it feels like home now.  The girls are enjoying having their own space to play.  We also now have a puppy named Macy.  Macy found us and after attempting to find her a new home, came back to us.  So...Jenna talked Mom and Dad into keeping the puppy!

Our house

Macy (about 8 weeks old) and Jenna 

The month of February was a busy one for us, not only were we getting settled into our new house, but Darren had the opportunity to have a medical student work with him for four weeks.  Brad and his wife Brittany were so much fun to have around and were such a blessing to us and to the kids a the school.  Darren, Brad and Brittany had an opportunity to go to Haiti to help with a medical clinic for several days.  Darren and Brad worked with a Haitian doctor while Brittany helped to translate, she knows Creole!  They were able to help a lot of people as well as enjoy the Haitian culture.

Darren at the clinic in Haiti

Darren is working hard at the school taking care of minor as well as a few major health issues of the kids in the school.  He also provides medical care for the Dominican staff and people in the village when he can.  He is currently working on developing health education for the students and staff.  While Darren is at school working, Becky is at home with the girls.  Her day consists of many things, but a large part is homeschooling Jenna while trying to keep Audrey and Macy from getting into too much trouble!  We are both working hard on improving our spanish by taking classes four days a week.  It is helping but neither of us feel we have a handle on the language by any stretch of the imagination!  Please pray that we will continue to persevere in our language studies and have opportunities to practice it.

A few weeks ago for semana santa (spring break) we took a couple days to visit Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.  It was a wonderful family vacation and we all enjoyed our time.  There is a lot of history around Christopher Columbus and the Spanish settlers in Santo Domingo.  Were you aware that the Dominican Republic was the first island in Western Hemisphere that had a European settlement (first on the north coast near our house and then Santo Domingo)?  And according to our guide on the train, Christopher Columbus claimed the DR was the most beautiful island he had ever seen!  After learning about the history of the DR, we enjoyed hiking around Los Tres Ojos (the three eyes), visiting the national aquarium, walking around a very large mall in which there was a small amusement park, riding fair type rides at the mall, and finally enjoying a yummy meal at Johnny Rockets complete with a big milkshake!  Tasted a lot better after months of not eating that type of food.

Los Tres Ojos

The Columbus Grave

Darren and Jenna enjoying Jonny Rockets

Thank you all for your love and support of our family during our time here.  We have been studying the book of Ephesians in our bible study here.  Our prayer for you is this "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17-19).  We love and appreciate each and everyone of you!  Until next time...