A Few More Firsts~

Sunday night out
Sunday night we drove into Kaohsiung to visit a new church. We drove our own van and followed some friends from our building. The evening turned out to be really nice. We enjoyed the church service and then on the way home we stopped and ate dinner at a local restaraunt all on our own. This may sound silly but when you don't know the language or the driving etiquette it is a big deal. The food was great at the restaraunt. Our entire family loves beef stir fried with onion and peppers and most of us like beef fried rice. Even though we had a little trouble ordering, it was fun and cheap. We then stopped on the way home for a "Bing Tza", a frozen smoothie. They are made with fresh fruit and very delicious, also cheap. We were so excited to have a family evening out on our own. It was a taste of independence long forgotten back in the states.

Driving 101
Today, Tuesday, was also a first for me. I drove all the way to Nanzih and back with my friend Karen, about 20 minutes one way. Many of you know our van is a manual and very tempremental, especially reverse. We drove to the grocery store and drug store. It was an interesting drive to say the very least. Talk about being vulnerable around new friends...try stalling in the middle of a few intersections, it adds new meaning to the word. Fortunately Karen and the other drivers on the road were very patient and by the end of our outting I was doing well with everything but reverse. I guess I will just have to avoid the need to drive backwards at all costs!! There are some nice parking lots in Dashe and Nanzih and for now I think I will just pay the extra fee to use them. As you can imagine having the ability to get around on my own is pretty important to me. I thank God that the van looks like it might work out after all, if we can get it to pass inspection.

Prayer concerns:

Matt's first day to coordinate afterschool activities at school is today, Tuesday.

Caleb is struggling a bit to stay organized in his new intensely academic world.

We have an interested buyer for the house, "May God grant us the sell of our home"