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Well, furlough is over and we got back to Lima on July 29th.  We hit the ground running as usual, because we only had a few days to unpack and get Jake ready for his first day of school!  Here he is:  School uniform? Check.  Transformer backpack? Check.  Star Wars lunch box?  Check.  Batman water bottle?  Check.  My cute 5 year old ready to go?  Check.  Sweet little brother, Derek, happy for his big brother?  Check.

So last Wednesday he went to his first day of Kindergarten at the International Christian School of Lima!  He was very excited and walked right in like he had been there a hundred times already.  His teacher’s name is Mrs. Mysheel Kerekes.  She is very sweet and can relate to the kids in a lot of ways, because she is a “third culture kid” herself.  She was born in Ecuador, but spent at least 18 years in the States going to school and working, she’s also travelled to other countries like, Hungary, where she met her husband.  There are 9 other kids in Jake’s class, and they also come from different parts of the world–Korea, Mexico, USA, Australia, South Africa, and Peru!  How cool is that?!  When we picked him up after his first day he said, “Do we have to leave? Can I stay here?”  I smiled and told him not to worry, he would be coming back the next day (and the next day, and the next day…little does he know he’ll be going back for the next 12 years at least).  :)

On his way to big kid school!

After school: Jake and James, his friend from Australia that we met several months ago.

On furlough we got to visit my good friend, Kimberly, in San Antonio.  She has three little boys and her sister-in-law made her a sign that she hung up in her house, and I absolutely love it!  Because the sign says it all,

“There’s these boys who stole my heart.  They call me Mom.”

There’s no way to describe how proud I am of my boys and how thankful I am to be their Mama!