Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Well it was our first holiday here in Cameroon and first holiday away from home! We had Thanksgiving dinner with the other missionary families that are here at the hospital! There was about 26 of us! It was interesting cooking for the dinner. Jen made glazed carrots, herb chicken, and gravy. I made stuffing and a pineapple upside down cake. I think we did pretty well for having to make everything from scratch and use a gas stove and oven!!

 

 

We had so much good food!

 

 

 

Gretchen got to play with Issac and Cathen tonight! Issac is Gretchen's age and Cathen is a little younger! They had so much fun!

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see we had plenty of food!

 

 

 

 

We went for a walk on Wednesday! This is right by the hospital. I know Gretchen and Elliott are hard to see but wanted to get the whole palm tree!

 

 

 

One last picture!!!

 

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPPY!!!!!(Dad)

Miss and love you!!!

 

 

Our first week

Hello everyone! Well the kids have their first week of homeschooling done and all is well! The kids and teacher have not lost their minds yet!! Both had tests today and did really well! Jen has her first week in at the hospital and she is finding her groove. She was in the OR today and did surgery on a 4 year old boy who was hit and dragged by a motorcycle!! He is going to be okay but has a long recovery! I never tell my sister this enough but I am amazed at what she can do! Randy has been getting the hang of going into town to get our supplies! It is a very tiring job because it is an all day trip and very stressful! Besides helping the kids with school work and playing games, I have been working on my rugs. Megan is making one too. When we get them done we will post pics of them!  

        This was in Douala. Our first day here. We left here and traveled by car 6 hours to Mbingo. No that is not a banana tree, for some reason they had the bananas tied from the branch of the tree!

This is our home for the next nine months! It is a very nice house much nicer than we expected. It is very roomy! 3 Bedrooms, a school room, living room/dining room, and a kitchen  The kids have already decorated their rooms! Elliott has half of a bedroom decorated as Star Wars of course. Megan has the other half decorated with flowers, a guitar, and lots of peace signs. Gretchen and my room is decorated with Mickey Mouse. Both rooms found space for the Steelers Stickers that Uncle John gave us!!! (and they didn't save me any stickers for Randy and my room so ours is bare)

Everyone likes the Star Wars room!!

This is after we decorated our room!

This is the view from our front patio!!! We can go hiking to see waterfalls on these mountains! We have not done that yet, but soon!

Here is one of the cockroaches that welcomed us to our house on our first day!! We are happy to say that we have gotten them under control!! Maybe one or two a day instead of 100 like the first day!!! 

(this is the best kind of cockroach----dead)

We have gone on little hikes or walks! This is a road out past the hospital and the church.

Meg made friends with a local girl. Her name is Chi-Livette. She is deaf and does not speak. She knows some sign language but she communicates by reading and writing!! Meg and Chi are learning some signs together. She lives in a small town not to far from us. 

Jen and Randy bought the kids some musical instruments! Gretchen loves the drums!! It looks like the Eckenroads have another person that would like them to teach them how to play the drums!!

Well, I better stop for now!! I have so much more I would like to show you all but there will be time later!! Thank you for all the prayers! Please continue to pray for our journey and that God uses us as he sees fit! 

We arrived!!

Hello from Cameroon!! We have arrived and are getting settled in! Jen started at the hospital today and the kids started school! We are trying to get the hang of things but we are still learning! We have many stories and pictures to share already. We are trying to get them loaded on the computer. We will post again soon!
Megan, Elliott, and Gretchen have been seeing and learning so many new things! We have seen some crazy looking bugs and also big bugs! The kids really like our house and have decorated their rooms already! We attended our first African church service on Sunday! We finally found prayers that are longer than Pastor Mark's!!!! Ha!ha!!
Please continue to pray for us as we continue our journey.

Hey Everyone,
We are busy getting ready to leave next weekend!! We fly out on Sunday, November 4th. Where has the time gone!!!! A few things have happened since the last post. We had our auction. Jen and Randy's house did not sell but the rest of the auction went very well. Elliott had his follow up MRI in Pittsburgh and was cleared to leave. The growth has not changed or grown so he will not have to go back until we return around August. Megan and Elliott are officially done with school. Well, public school. Much to Elliott's disappointment we will start home school very soon!!!

We took a couple of days to spend sometime together as a family and spend sometime with my Mom!! It was nice to get away but also made me want to hug my Mom and never let go! Since moving back home from Atlanta, I have taken for granted that I see my family everyday. I forgot that feeling we had every time we would get in the car to head back to Atlanta! 

  Gretchen decided that the cats needed mouse ears too!!

Please pray with us this week as we pack and also as we get ready to leave family and friends. Pray for our travel to the airport and our plane ride over!

     Elliott and Meg with a 30 foot snake!!!

My first post!

Well, I finally figured out how to set-up our blog and begin posting to allow everyone to follow along as we prepare to go to Cameroon!
We received our letter from Mbingo Baptist Hospital and can now hand-carry the rest of the necessary documents to the embassy in Washington, D.C. to have our visas processed.  Pending the outcome of Elliott's MRI in early October, we are on schedule to leave in early November to begin the journey.
What a wonderful group of friends who turned out to support us this past Sunday at the Tee and Friends variety show.  We can never express our heartfelt thanks to all who participated and especially to the Eckenroad's for all the hard work and sacrifice to make it all happen.  It was a wonderful night of singing, skits, music, and of course laughter!
We have scheduled the auction of our house and contents for Saturday, September, 29th at 9:00 am.  You can view a listing of our home and see a few pictures at auctionzip.com

Please pray for our continued preparations, specifically that God will continue to keep us focused on the things that matter most and to not become distracted by details that He will work out....I am not in control and I sometimes need a not so subtle reminder to let go and remember who He is and how tiny I really am!!