August 1st Update

Laura and I were able to find a house less than 24 hours after landing, which is a huge blessing. The house is only a half of a block away from the school and has plenty of room for guests (pictures will be posted within the next couple of days). We looked at the house that we were originally thinking that we would be renting and to be honest, I am glad that the lady raised the price and made it so we were no longer interested! I like the house that we are renting a lot more because it is brighter inside, bigger, and it is also far less expensive! So praise God for that! We should have internet and phone within a few days because the school has an account that it will be moving over to us, making service far quicker than if we were a new account. Tomorrow is the official "move-in" day for the apartment and the school has bought us a new bed and will also be providing a refrigerator, washing machine, and some random pieces of furniture.

We spent some time today looking through boxes of supplies and materials in Laura's classroom for this next year, trying to decide what she wanted to keep and get rid of. We really enjoyed this time of preparation, as it was a taste of what we will be experiencing over this next year. Laura enjoyed it up until the time that we ran into a few cockroaches in the boxes of books (her comment was, "It took me a while to get use to spiders... I don't know about these..."). I won't have a classroom this next year, since the middle school and high school teachers move around to the kids, so I enjoyed seeing Laura's classroom come together. Laura might even give me a small table and a shelf to use in her room!

We have been blessed to stay with Daniel and Teresa Peterson since we have been in the D.R. They have exposed us to a lot of Dominican food and have taken us places to have a few new experiences, among them being a trip to the vegetable market and the furniture store. At the furniture store we made our first purchase in the D.R., a large fan! Not only do fans cut down the outside noise (which is ridiculous at times!) but it also provides a continual circulating of air throughout the night. After the first night without a fan it was of high priority to purchase one ASAP.

We will be sure to send some pictures out within the next few days, and even try to do some video stuff (if you are lucky!). We love you all, and hope to hear from you soon...