Where Have We Been? (by Thom)

Over the last few weeks I've not only neglected our blog here but also my emails. I just looked and I've only sent one personal email in 2008! We also haven't posted much in over a month.
A big reason for that was our vacation. Amanda, the girls, and I were in the US for the month of December spending time with our families. It was a good trip, highlighted by a lot of fun moments with Miriam and Hannah (including their first sight of a Christmas tree, which they LOVED!, and their first time to walk in snow, which they didn't love so much.) but also marked by some difficult moments. I spent the first week very sick and Amanda's mom ended up in the hospital a week before Christmas. We ended up changing our traveling plans to make a visit to see her and, physically, she's doing much better now.
We got back to Mali January 4th and have been busy since getting caught up and readjusted. Four days before we returned our houseworker, Jeanette, ended up falling in our house and put her foot through a glass end table. She ended up in the hospital with several very deep cuts. Amanda has been out to her house to visit her a couple of times and she seems to be getting better but would appreciate your prayers.
Thanks to all of you who were wondering what happened to us and we'll hopefully start updating here again with the goings-on in the mission and church from Mali.