Happy December Birthdays and Happy New Year!

The day after we got back was New Year's Eve! After a very hot church service, we unpacked in the afternoon and then headed to the annual New Year's Eve party in the New Day garage! We also celebrated the December Birthday people!

Cynthia turned 15 on December 30th!

Francis turned 13 on December 15th!

Laurie turned 12 on December 9th!

Phillip turned 11 on December 28th!

Mama Yolantah turned 40 on December 28th!

We danced the night away!

Cambree & Justin

Cason & Joseph

Some late night Charades with volunteer Gaye acting something out for the girls!

Me reuniting with Blesten, who came about 3 weeks before we left on furlough!

Me and my Daddy :)

Helping the little turkey Luyando to eat!

The Freeze Dance was so much fun!

Gaye and a baby! (Which one?!)

Gaye, Mama, and Daddy (who made it until 9:45pm!)

Laurie and the boys

Limbo is always a huge hit!

The kids love doing line dances like the Cha Cha Slide and Cupid Shuffle!

Lulu and Luyando, making one of her super silly faces!

Mariah and Prince

Miriam and Liz with some babies!

Misheck, Caed, and Emma

The seat stacking game!

Mama and Papa Tembo

Wes & Joy

Due to jet lag, it was the easiest year ever to stay up until midnight! We ended the year with a countdown and water balloon fight and then everyone headed to bed! We stayed up and got the whole garage cleaned up and finally made ourselves try to go to sleep at 2:30am! Happy 2018 from New Day!

The Trip Back Home

But first, goodbyes! I hate seeing these sweet girls say bye to each other! Next time they're together, they'll be 8th graders!

Caedmon and AJ

The two video gamers, Cason & AJ

I LOVE this picture of Caedmon and Paw!

A backseat selfie on the way to the Dallas airport!

At the airport! Unloading all 16 pieces of luggage..

The only hiccup so far - Cason left his carry on suitcase in Brownwood!

We met up with one of our 3 month internet, Trevor from Missouri, who flew with us to Zambia!

And Blu promptly took a pre-flight nap.

On the first plane, with seats together (which was a miracle!)

After a pretty good flight, we made it to London!

A 6 hour layover..time for some games!

After a HORRENDOUS flight to South Africa (people throwing up all around us!), we arrived in South Africa! Almost there!

Cason was so tired they gave us a wheelchair to push him to our gate!! #spoiled

I got to ride home from the airport with these two! So happy to be with them again!

Home sweet home!