And Kali lost her FIRST Tooth!!!  Well, actually the second, but the first one was ripped out and shattered when she was 2 yrs old.  This was a MUCH nicer experience!!

l am happy to report - things have been much better here!!  Thanks be to God entirely!!  This house is beginning to feel homey and that is a nice feeling :)  We are just now beginning to get a feel for our schedule and to be able to reflect some on what we need to change and how.  Dave's schooling has been far harder than ANY other schooling that either of us has done (and we both have MA's!).  Dave's friend who attends DTS too, has a PhD and says it was NOTHING compared to the workload he has now at DTS!  It's an AWESOME school but WOW - demanding.  The good thing is, the goal is not the grades.  The goal is to be better prepared to preach the Word of God in the capacity that God calls you to.  The professors are very understanding when you need them to be and really really care about the student's whole family, not just the student.  DTS is indeed, very much a close knit family and we really like that! :)  Dave loves his classes too!  Well, .......ok, "Loves, Greek class" is probably not the phrase he would choose - LOL!!!  That one is just plain agonizing! 

Amy and the girls are doing better :)  Amy is fully recovered from the car accident (Praise God!!!) physically.  Though driving is still nerve wracking for the girls and she.  Those who told us that driving in Dallas is much better than San Diego, .....well, must not have ever driven in SD!!  We think quite the opposite is true.  The weather has cooled off and is even cold now - Amy is in HEAVEN!!!!!  We even have the heat on at night - WHOOHOO!!!!  Once in a while now, we will go out in the morning though and if it's raining and cloudy, it can feel like 90 degrees and humid one day and the high can be 55 the next day?!  We'll take the cold anyday!  Amy has had some success with a few playdates and finding activities and friends for Kali.  A few anyway. :)  It's not been easy, that's for sure.  But God has been faithful and present in so much of what we are doing, it's very encouraging!  And we can feel the prayers of many of our close friends who have been praying for us too!  We are tremendously thankful for them! 

Kali's head is healing great and Mei Mei's spider bite is all healed!  Kali is thrilled about her first lost tooth and enjoyed a visit from the Tooth Fairy! :)  Mei Mei is growing faster than we can imagine!! She is talking in long sentences a LOT (though we can only understand a word here and there....that's been very difficult not being able to know what she's saying, it will be a long road to intelligible speech), helping mom a lot around the house and keeping up with the big kids!  Both the girls are just delightful!!!!  We can't believe we get to be their parents!!  Mei Mei has even slept the past 6 nights!!!!  Well, we can always hope for more sleep, right!! :)  And we can't believe she has only been on solid food for the past 5 months - she is even starting to express feeling full at times!  That is new!  Up to now she has only felt hungry and we have had to cut her off when she has eaten enough.  Not popular, I say! 

Oh, I almost forgot the "trauma of the week" - Kali's room was nearly set on fire this evening!  OK, no thanks to her parents who neglected to see this danger in the works.  Thankfully we serve a God who is ALWAYS watching out for us and cares for us greatly!!!!  Kali had decorated her room by stringing a feather boa (dress up item) and a few other things from her blinds up to the ceiling.  Well, the feather boa was strung thought the lampshade and up through the hole in the top.  It was there 2 weeks and we neglected to see the danger (OH MY!).  Tonight when I went up to turn down her bed, the room smelled like it was burning, the light was on (and had been for the past 3 hours, while we were having dinner here with friends) and the feathers were BROWN near the lightbulb!!!  Talk about freaking out!  Dave and I were mortified at what could have been!!  Lesson learned:  It is not up to us alone to raise the children God has given us.  We are to pray and raise them THROUGH God's power and grace, not on our own, not all by ourselves!  We cannot prevent all accidents but God can.  And He works all things for good for those who love him!  We are not perfect.  God IS!  We are tired, we are neglectful, we are preoccupied.  God ISN'T!  :)