Oh Happy Day!

I PASSED! 

I am thrilled, elated, ecstatic, excited, overjoyed, any other words that mean thrilled, that's what I am! This morning I went online to find out how I did on my SAT. I logged on and saw that I got... nothing... the scores weren't up yet. :P They said they would be up October 23rd, they just never said whose October 23rd. So we waited... checking every hour... or twenty minutes :P And finally up they popped at noon. Damarise checked her's first and got a 1730! Woah! And I... tied! Yes siree Bob, Damarise and I got the exact same score! We were shocked and thrilled and happy as could be! My score before was a 1580 so I was glad to have improved so much. Someone had told us that when you take it a second time you hardly improve. I am so glad that theory was proved wrong! 

Right now, Damarise and I will start applying for financial aid, scholarships, and apply for college! We're hoping to get into Covenant College and now that we got above a 470 on our math scores we can apply! Yeah!

I really want to thank you all for your prayers for Damarise and I while we took the SAT! God answered them for sure!!! Yeah! 

Trip to Malawi.

Wednesday, we started our journey to Malawi so that Damarise and I could retake our SAT. 

We got to the Woodrow's place at 6:30am and dropped off Sarah, Ian, Andrew and our car. We packed everything into the Stolk's car and loaded up with them. The Stolks had to go to get there car permit renewed (Or something like that.) Anyways, we hit the road around 7:15am

Mom by the car at the stop we made to eat lunch :)

Dad and Oupa in the front seats. 

We got to Melanje, a town in Mozambique about 15 minutes away from the Malawian border, around 3:30pm. We spent Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday night with this South African couple. They had wonderful food! :)

Mom and I hanging out on the porch. There was a nice breeze! 

One of the flowers that covered the property. 

The back of the house.

Not sure why, but I like this pic :)

A cool shot of a bench seat. 

Oupa helped Damarise and I study for the SAT. It was a blast getting to study with him! :)

Friday morning we left Melajne to go to Malawi. 

The car at the Malawian border. I was SO excited to get to go to another country! The 9th country I have been to! How cool is that?!

In Malawi!  haha... while driving through this town we passed by a store sign. The name of the store was: "Hot guys carpentry" HAHA!

We arrived at a British couple's guest house around 2:30pm. They had a beautiful place!

I loved their landscaping!

We stayed in the place with the gate door. 

Us enjoying dinner Friday night. 

Saturday morning. October 4th! 2 years since we first came to Mozambique. And the day of our SAT! We woke up early and got to the campus around 7. 

St. Andrew's high school was where we took it. 

We took it in the room to the left. There were only two other kids besides Damarise and me. It was nice (compared to the 80 other students last time!) and definitely less nerve racking. It got kind of hot in the room, but the teacher put on a floor fan. In the middle of the SAT though the electricity went off. Haha! I was in the middle of doing a section, but it was so hard not to stop and laugh! Only in Africa would something like that happen :) It definitely made for a memorable SAT! :)

Dad had made us milkshakes to celebrate! Mmm they were good and had fresh nectarines in them! YUM! I haven't had nectarines since we came to Africa! 

Damarise and I happy... no... overjoyed to be DONE with the SAT!

The mall. 

A beautiful tree in the middle of a tea plantation. Malawi is covered in tea plantations. It is beautiful!

A stunning Jacaranda tree! I love the colours of the flowers! 

Damarise's and my feet at the Malawi border crossing. 

Entering Mozambique. 

The car on the Mozambique side. 

Ok, so this was totally awesome! Two years ago on October 4th we entered Mozambique (for the first time) now, two years later on the exact same day we were entering Mozambique again! How cool is that?! We now have two stamps for Mozambique in our passport on the same date... but 2 years apart! Amazing! 

Damarise's and my feet on the Mozambican side. 

And the beautiful Mozambican flag welcoming us back into its wonderful country! 

We got home Sunday afternoon safe and soundly! It's nice to be back and see my siblings! After the fist day without them I realized just how much I missed them! Life was incredibly boring! I don't how I'll survive college without them! Anyways, it's nice to be back home as a family! :)

Oh, and thank you all SO much for your prayers for Damarise and I as we took the SAT! The Lord most definitely helped us! Everything seemed to go smoother and easier. Especially the essay! So thank you! 

Extra: While we were in the car, Ouma had changed her mind about something and Dad and Oupa were saying how she couldn't change her mind that wasn't fair. Haha, I loved her reply and thought I'd put it here.

"What is a mind for except to change it?"

Hehe, that was great :)

Toodles!

We are leaving tomorrow! It was very short notice! We were planning on leaving Thursday, but plans got changed. So tomorrow we hit the road! Please pray for us! That we have safe travels, find the right roads, and get there safely.

Also please pray for Damarise and I on October 4th! We will be taking the SAT and I'm, again, pretty nerve racked! Please pray that it goes smoothly and that we remember everything we've learned!

Thank you SO much! Until I get back... or find internet :)

tchau

Randomness...

1. One week from today, Damarise and I will be taking the SAT. Wow! I'm, again, nerve racked! Please pray for us on October 4th as we take it. Thank you!

2. Speaking of october 4th, I have dubbed that day, "Day of Adventure". Why? Two years ago marks the day we arrived in Mozambique, Africa! That was one huge adventure! October 4th, 2007, marked living in one place the longest since Canada! Wow! And this year's big adventure, ah yes, the daunting SAT. 

3. The hot season is back and active. Kicking it into high gear right away. One day it was "cold" the next it was unbearable. If you move a lil' bit you feel like a melting puddle of mush! It is hot! Can't wait for the rains to begin though! 

4. I watched "Bridge to Terebithia" again last night. It's so sad! I've seen it three times and still start bawling at the sad part :'(

5. I'm trying to think of random facts that I won't make into a post... hmmm... :)

6. Right now I'm watching Damarise trying to play a song on the piano. It's quite the scene. She has our lil' speakers on the edge of the piano attached to her iPod (which is playing the song) sitting in front of her. Her left elbow is smashing down three of the keys and her head is resting on her left hand while her right hand is playing the song. Haha, she looks thrilled :) 

7. In a little of seven months we will, Lord willing, be back in the States! Wow! Time has flown by!

8. Ok, this is all the randomness that I can think of right now. Instead of thinking up lil' random tad bits of what's been happening, I'm think of stuff to post about :P Aw well. Thanks for reading this random post! 

SAT Studying... again?

“The bitterness of studying is preferable to the bitterness of ignorance”

It is back to the big SAT Study Guide for Damarise and I.  We thought we were done with the big book after May 3rd, but we were wrong. We're back to studying again. Getting ready for the October 4th test. We're trying to up our grades so that we can apply for more colleges. 

Before we took the SAT in May, we stumbled across a website, number2.com, it has so much helpful stuff. In the book, they have 10 practice tests, which are nice and I'm not complaining, but on this website they have practice tests and when you get a question wrong they tell you what you did wrong and how they got their answer instead of just giving you the correct answer! It has been really helpful. Mom also found a book online that has 1000 of the SAT vocabulary words in it. I read the first chapter today, and it looks like that should be helpful too. 

Right now, we're just trying to persevere with the studying ( I like that quote up top. It's a good reason to study!). I've been finding that it's easy to fill you brain with information, but it is so much harder to remember it all while doing the practice exams. Please be praying that Damarise and I will study hard and long and that in the end our grade can show an improvement. Thank you!

Ps- Isn't it funny? A couple weeks before we took the SAT in May we went to the beach. Now a couple weeks before we take the SAT again we go to the beach. Nice :) Maybe we should take the SAT more often. *Just Kidding!*

Busy!

I figured that I should probably update since I haven't done it in a while. It's been hard to find time though. Right now it is 10:01pm and I am wiped out, but here is a little bit of what I've been up to the last week. 

Busy. The word is describing my life. We got back from Beira and started into school again plus prepared a little something for the SIL conference. Damarise, Esther and I are doing the child care this week. I have never been so worn out! We get there at 8am and don't leave till about 4:30pm. It is a long day. We only have two days left. Yeah! An extra bonus to add to the busyness, I'm taking the SAT again. Damarise and I are both going to retake it in October (less than a month to study. Eek!). We've been looking at more colleges and realized we need to get our grade higher in order to apply. Please pray for us! It'll be a lot of cramming. On a less busy note, we get to go to the beach with the Stolks for a much needed time away. I can't wait! After all of this busyness, it will be good to unwind and hang out with the family. 

So, there's a mini update, sorry for not updating much. Hopefully once everything settles down I can get back to writing. Until then, "adieu adieu to you and you and you..."

The SAT!

Well, May 3rd dawned all to quick for Damarise and I. We had been studying since February and were, well, kinda ready for the test. Anyways, thank you everyone for your prayers for us! They, without a doubt, helped immensely!!! The test was a lot easier than the practice tests and it wasn't as nerve racking being in a public school as I thought it would be. :)

After the test Dad and Mom treated us to McDonalds, another treat we haven't enjoyed in a while. Thanks Dad and Mom.

We haven't gotten our test scores yet, we're planning on getting them in a couple of days... so we still aren't sure how we did ;)

Study, Study, Study... *gulp*

May 3rd is the day. That nerve racking day. The day when I'll be taking, gulp, that SAT! So, maybe I'm a little out of it, but I didn't know you had to take the test to get into a college. Now that I do, well it's all the more anxiety building up. Ok, ok, so maybe it won't be to bad. I hope! 

When Dad was in the States in December, he brought back The Official SAT Study Guide for Damarise and me to study from. It is 890 pages. Ha, I freaked out when I saw it! It is huge! But, we are getting through it, and are thankful that we can study for it! It looks harder that I guess I was hoping for, but hey such is life:) hehe. Right now Damarise and I are both trying to build up our vocabulary, which we realized wasn't to great. Like totally;) ... So yes, that is what we have been doing. And God is so good! His timing is always perfect!! Because, Damarise and I are done with all of our school with ACE (besides geometry... but that's another story) so we have from now until May 3rd, just for studying for the SAT! Wow!!! God is GOOD!!! :) Anyways, I should get back to studying:) Yeah!