"Hair" We Go Again!

This is "hair week."  I am taking Laila's braids out.  She gets new braids on Friday.  Each afternoon, I give up her nap and "my time" to take out braids.  It will most likely take all week.  If you see her during the week, she will look like this:

 I am trying to keep her fashionable despite the fact that her hair will be in various stages of braided/unbraided.  Surprisingly, it all seems to fall on the same week.  Cody, Lauren, Abby, and I are all also needing hair cuts.  Speaking of hair, Sam is also trying out some new "hair".  He came to me like this on Saturday:

 It is amazing what you can do with a Sharpie and a piece of tape.  Funny boy.

If I am honest, this has been a rough week.  We are walking through the transition of Rick's new job and our new church with the kids, and it is challenging.  We have had lots of really good conversations and the opportunity to talk to them about some really major life lessons.  If they can grasp even in the slightest some of these concepts at such a young age, what a blessing it is going to be in their lives as they grow older.  Change is hard and affects each one of them in a different way.  It is truly a bittersweet time, but that is how most of life is, isn't it?  Happy and sad all mingled together and intertwined in such a way that you have conflicting emotions that can literally change by the minute.  I would so appreciate prayers for wisdom in how to walk through this transition with each one in the way that accomplishes the growth of character that God has for each of them.

Over the weekend, I was making truffles for an adoption party.  I use the "cake ball" (by the way, I hate that name so I call them truffles) recipe to put together about 250 truffles.  I grabbed a big chunk of chocolate cake to crumble up, and then I looked down and saw this:

I promise that I in no way tried to create this.  It just happened and once again, I am reminded of Swaziland, our friends, and all the children.  Who knows what God is up to.  We are making progress with the setting up of Beyond Survival.  Every week something new reminds us that we are on the right track, but it is such a slow process.  If nothing else, these little "Africas" I see everywhere are God's whispers to me that He is still at work and  remind me to pray for those who are on the front lines there every day.  We love all of you, friends, who are daily living out the calling to minister to the Swazi people.  You are not forgotten, and you are not alone.

Now, I must go unbraid some more hair and watch some really cool kids' shows!