7 WEEKS....

The countdown has started! I officially have 7 weeks left in Kazakhstan. 7 weeks from today I will be on my way back to the USA!!! I'm ready to be back.

This weekend KELT (Kimep English Language Theater) has been putting on 3 original performances. My roommate is the head director for KELT. They had held a play writing competition last year and the top three plays are being performed this weekend. The plays are about the changes in Kazakhstan in the last twenty years since the Soviet Union collapsed. They are all fabulous! It was a great honor and very exciting to be in the first audience to EVER see these plays....a big historical moment :)! WAY TO GO KELT!!!!!

The beginning of an end.....

It seems so much has happened since I last blogged.....so here it goes...

I have officially decided to move back to Birmingham, AL this summer. During my time in Thailand I was really praying about it, and felt that God was calling me to go back. So...without a job in place and not idea where I was going to live I told my administration that I would not be returning in the Fall. 4 days later, I had a job! A week after that I had a place to live! God is SO GOOD!!!!

So I will be flying back to the U.S. on June 18th. I will be teaching 2nd grade at Westminster Classical School in Birmingham, AL, and will be living in my parent's town house :)! I'm really excited about ALL OF THIS! It will be hard to leave everything here, my new friends, my family, my home...but I am completely confident that God is calling me back to Birmingham!

Meanwhile....as I'm still here...we've entered into the last term of this school year...however, we don't finish until June17th...so I still have a long way to go. But my kids are the middle of their Exhibition project, where they have to chose a real world issue to have an impact on. They have chosen helping those who are less fortunate, and so every week...4 times a week....we are going to an orphanage and we're hanging out with the kids there. My students have done some fundraising and we will be purchasing supplies for the orphanage. They are really enjoying this project, and they it's been neat to spend some time with these orphans!

This is Artur from the orphanage...he's a sweetie!

My kids had to give a presentation at our Annual School Fundraiser to raise money for their orphanage project, too.

SO.....if you can......Please pray that I will be able to finish well these last two months. Pray that I say "good-bye" well. Pray that God uses the rest of this time here to draw me even closer to Himself! He has already been doing so much in my heart and my life....very hard stuff....painful stuff...ugly stuff...but I know He loves me and wants me :)!

Psalm 51:8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Aizhan, Me and Rufina at the Fundraiser

Me and Aliya at the Fundraiser

It will be hard to say good-bye to these girls