Baby Will

I got home just in time to be here for my nephew's birth! Of all the things I missed, I'm glad I got to be here for this one!

William Copeland Lansford

November 16, 2009

8 pounds, 6 ounces. 22 inches long.

The good news is, he's not spoiled. Yet.

On the Way Home

Jessica and I made a couple of stops on the way home. We loved being in London! But it certainly seemed weird just the two of us. We kept feeling like we'd forgotten something...Alyson!

Sweet See You Laters

I love these ladies! It's been a privilege to get to work with them. I'm going to miss The Trio!

The Trio with the Greatest Supervisor on the Field...I'm convinced!

Our two years would have been a lot harder had it not been for these two wonderful ladies! Falafal!

The whole Special OPS team.

We love us some Crystal! Moving away from our people wasn't fun, but I'm sure glad we got to know you and your family, Crystal!

"We all do crazy things"

When we went to say bye to our backtranslator, he insisted on making tea for us. We had a great time visiting with him. He had some departing words for us. When mentioning that we could stay in touch through Facebook, Jessica warned him that "sometimes we where pants (not just long skirts) on Facebook." And his response was, "It's ok. We all do crazy things sometimes, like wear pants." In that case, I've done a LOT of crazy things since I've been back home!

Week of Final Recordings

I can't believe final recordings have come and gone! We were so nervous when we realized the big week had arrived! It was what we had been working toward for two years...and it came so quickly!

Alyson and Jessica studying for another story. Notice the furniture. We had to use all the cushions in the house to build our recording studio!

Us in the studio making some corrections.

Happy Baby

Our oldest and youngest sisters came into town for a "summer vacation" two months after we changed cities. It was so great to see them! The youngest earned the nickname of "Happy Baby" because she is always...you guessed it - happy! She almost leapt out of her big sister's arms when she saw us. The whole afternoon we were with her she just continued to shrill with excitement. We found it necessary to take our sisters out for their first bowl of ice cream! We all really enjoyed it!

Sadly, a week after Jessica and I left the country, we heard word that Happy Baby had gotten sick. She was taken to the hospital and died there. No one knows what was wrong. When I remember how happy she was to see us that last day, I can only imagine what kind of excited screams she must have let out when Jesus took her in His arms!

One of My Favorite People in the World!

So Fatalmoudou is one of our village sisters. She's severely mentally and physically handicapped, and a lot of people treat her as a dog. We love her, though. She's so smart and just desires to have love and attention. She also loves our supervisor, Nafi. So on our last day in the village, Nafi gave her a t-shirt with a picture of the two of them on it. Fatalmoudou immediately recognized Nafi on the shirt, but she's seen so few images of herself that she had to be told that it was her in the picture. Fatalmoudou didn't know that was the last time for us to see her, and the village says she still doesn't know we're gone for good. They said, "No one is going to tell her." They say she still guards our hut, though! I can't wait to see this little girl in heaven, though, when she has a perfect body!

A Special Birthday

We always try to make birthdays really special here in Mali! This one was great....my 24th included hotdogs and hamburgers (with real buns!), coconut cake, special friends, my mom, a stack of birthday cards, and a swimming pool. It doesn't get any better than that!

Me and Johanna with my coconut birthday cake!

Aquatic Birthday Events

Me and My Trio...thanks for a great birthday, ladies!

Mo's first hamburger!

Grilling hamburgers and hotdogs African style!

Yummm!

Jessica starting the fire. We've all learned a lot of new skills since we came.

Island

And our last stop on the One Love Toga Tour 2009 was Santorini Island. It was more gorgeous than the pictures can even show!

Jessica, Alyson, and me on our way to go watch the famous sunset of Oia.
Special OPS team at the volcano

We rented a little Barbie Jeep to cruise around the island in!

And what fun is a Barbie Jeep if you can't climb in it???

We're a little excited after watching the amazing sunset!

See, how could you not get excited after watching this. Everyone was quiet as they watched the sun set. There were hundreds of people gathered at one spot to watch. After the sun had completely fallen, everyone broke out into applause. Now we were giving praise to our Almighty God. Was everyone praising Him? No. But they were still recognizing His mighty work!

Our whole crew having dinner one last time!

Me and Reaiah chillin out on the boat...do you see those long sleeves???

Me and Aly on our way to the volcano

The Blue and White City

Our hotel view. No sand. Only rocks.

Athens, Greece...Not Athens, Alabama

And then we were off to Athens Greece for two nights.

In front of the Parthenon. I studied Greece heavily in the 5th grade. Ever since we learned about the Parthenon I've been fascinated - that's one more thing I can cross off the bucket list!

All dressed up for the Opera! We went to see Ainta..in Italian, with Greek translation screens. So you know what that means - we made up our own story line!

Mars Hill where Paul addressed the Athenians in Acts. We just traced Paul's footsteps on this vacation!

I Heart Roma

We had the great opportunity to go on a European vacation. My teammates and I, along with two of our teammates here in Mali, and other friends from around the world, found our way to Greece and Italy. We started our trip with three nights in Rome...

Me and Reaiah mailing postcards from the Vatican

Timbuktu Trio checking out Roman architecture

The prison where Peter and Paul were held. We had a cool little time of worship here! It was so humbling to be in a cell where these men of God had been.

Trevi Fountain

Chasing Dumbo

On our way into Bamako, we had the opportunity to go searching for desert elephants! It was incredible to find them in their environment! We saw three different herds...probably about 80-100 of them! Out of our crew we could speak 5 different languages, and only had 1 common language with our guide....Songhai!

There's elephants behind us somewhere!!! This is our guide beside us wanting to get in the picture, but he's being very African and will stand beside us...rather awkwardly.
Look, we found some!

Everyone wants a good look! But be careful, Alyson...the driver must ALWAYS be ready!!!

He has to be the king of the desert!

A Little Lost

On our way back from the new village...we got a little "lost." So we had to take a new road, one that went right by the river. It happened to be the first day that they opened the dams, so EVERYONE came to fish and buy fish. While we were there we were interviewed by the local television/radio station. Then they heard a Story. Later in the convo we learned that this was one of the "head honchos" of the radio station, so we talked to him a little about getting our Stories on the radio. So what we thought was an unfortunate event, turned out to be a divine appointment!

Moving Day

This is the day we helped move our friend to her new village. She is the one on the right. While we were driving we reminisced a little about places we had been with her and langauge that she had helped us learn! She got our phone number and has called us since we have been out of town! We can't wait to go back to visit her. We hope that her living there will allow us to work there as well!