Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We survived the holidays! Why do I say it like that? Well, a lot of you know that since we've moved here our kids have been almost constantly ill, but we especially had a LOT of sickness in our house over Christmas and New Years. It all started the week before Christmas with Anna in the hospital because she had a chest cold and had a lot of trouble breathing. She's doing much better now and has been prescribed an inhaler that helps keep things under control. After she got home from the hospital I (Ashlee) got a 24 hour flu, the next day Anna got it, and the day after that Josiah got it. Lots and lots of throw up... which brings us to Christmas day. We had a great time celebrating with the Betel 'family'. It was our first Betel Christmas and we will always remember the joy and generosity of the holidays at Betel. After all the celebrations, Evangeline started refusing to eat and had trouble breathing. After 24 hours of not eating and struggling to even get one decent breath, Evangeline went into the hospital also. Thankfully with a little oxygen and a feeding tube she recovered quickly and all she has now is a bad cough. We came home from the hospital with Eva on Monday, and the very next day Josh got that 24 hour flu bug. Now we are all on another round of head colds.... oh it never ends! I've been told by the doctors that all the viruses here are different than the States so we will be constantly ill our first year here. Well, it's been almost a year, and we are ready to be well again!

Josiah with his secret santa gift, he was impressed!

Can't stop Evangeline from smiling!

On New Year's Eve we had a big party at the church here, complete with costumes! We went as a hick, a person with the chicken pox, a cowboy, and two princesses!



All of the sickness and visits to the hospital does make us thankful that besides colds and flus, we are all healthy and have so much to be thankful for. This was our first Christmas away from friends and family, and we really did miss everyone. We hope you all had a good holiday, and here's to a healthy new year for us all! Check out Ashlee's facebook page for videos of the kids.