Well, right now as I write this, I'm sitting out on the front porch and it's so cold! I don't think any of us will be making fun of Webster for carrying around his bucket of hot coals anymore!

Today was a really great day! Yesterday, we found out that Sidney, a little twin in our feeding group who lives in the medically fragile dorm, has pneumonia and she had an asthma attack. It scared us all yesterday and she was immediately rushed down to the clinic. Today we found that she is doing much better but she just rested most of the day. We are so thankful that she's doing better, but she still needs your prayers! This morning in language class, we tried a few new strategies and they ended up working wonderfully! We set up the little chairs at the end of the porch so there was less distraction. Then we called them individually, "Weston, it's time to go to language class!" and when they heard their name, they were allowed to walk over and take their seat. They LOVED it! It made each one of them feel important. Jaime and I also found a new song to sing with our animals so that was good for the kids and all of us! Beauty and Cleatus, some of the aunties, also got involved and sang a few songs to help us out. That was great! That's what we want! We are hoping to get the aunties at each Haven to get involved with what we're doing so they can keep it up after we leave. So far, they are pretty hesitant, so any time they watch or help we are so pleased! Our language group at Haven 1 this morning went great, too! One set of twins, Bester and Elias, "talked" the entire time! Mostly just "da da da" over and over, but at one point Bester had perfect inflection to answer my question even though all she really said was "da da". We were so excited to see so much talking and gestures from the little ones. We have a few who are still feverish and cranky, but overall it was great. This afternoon we headed back to Haven 1 to do our individual language classes. I was in the girls room with Nita, Donna, Lisa, Teagan, and Kritz (who isn't a girl, but is in that room). Nita was such a little stinker! But she was doing a great deal of talking so it was hard to get too frustrated with her. At one point, they all sat quietly in a bed and I read "I Am Special" by Max Lucado to them. The entire book! That's saying a LOT! When we moved to Haven 3, the kids were a little more riled up but we got through our lesson with only a few behavioral problems. It's pretty difficult to get 15 toddlers to sit still and listen for an hour! Overall, I thought it was a pretty great day. And tomorrow is Friday. We aren't doing anything on Saturday and we are all so excited about having a day of rest.