Ba La Mor REE...

is our little refugee boy's first English word! He and Silas (and his parents) have been watching Balamory spell bound most evenings at television time as it is Silas' favourite programme! Silas calls it "Baba" and is very excited about it! He found the Josie Jump doll today that Aunty Hannah had bought for Naomi a few years ago and was delighted with it! I only had to say to Silas at the park that it was time to go home to watch Balamory and he was ready to leave! It is very funny!

This week is the church camp for the older children and so I have taken Naomi and Esther there each day. They have had a great time and have enjoyed the science experiments that they have been doing in their classes. It is a bit hard trying to work out what the experiments are from Naomi's descriptions (with Esther's add-in's!) but I think it is to do with air as balloons and baking soda have definitely played a role in it!! What ever they are, it is definitely a high point of the day!

However, Esther is not too keen on the drama as it is about Pirates and some of the more dramatic adults at church have been dressing up very effectively as pirates, which is not Esther's cup of tea! She has been OK but has made it clear that she is not keen! It is quite funny though as one of the pirates is Pastor Ray, who is a really lovely guy and a complete softee, so the fact that he is scaring Esther is quite amusing really!

The bible stories have been about Moses and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo today (I forget what yesterday's was) but it has been a bit of detective work on my part to work them out. Esther told me that they had a story about a princess of a bad king who said NO but thankfully Naomi remembered about the burning bush so that was easy! Today, Esther remembered men going into the fire and Naomi remembered that they had funny names so we eventually worked it out!!

Silas and I have been entertaining ourselves in Seattle whilst the girls are at church. On Monday we went to the cafe and caught up with some people and yesterday we took the refugees in with us and went to the Fountain in the Seattle Center which went down very well! Today, Silas and I went to the park with another friend whose son is also too little to go to camp so we had fun together!

We have kept it fairly low key in the afternoons. Silas has been asleep for quite lengthy naps this week and so we stayed at home on Monday and Tuesday. I took our children to the park today but not until 4:20 and only for just over an hour.

Our refugees are still with us and likely to remain with us for a couple more days. They are easy to care for, in as much that they cook for themselves but they haven't received much care from the organisation that brought them here, which is frustrating. The family know that our house is 'safe' and yet they also know that they are going to have to fend for themselves in this world soon and to not know when they are going to be moving in or even meet other Burmese families is causing them some anxiety. Tim has written a diplomatic letter and we hope that something is done soon as a result.

Anyway, this is all for now! Will write on Sunday! Hope that this finds you all well!