September

Celebrating 10 years at Village of Hope - the Children's home near us. The children are raised by families instead of the classic-style orphanage. One family has 8 children, the other has 9. There are several other families just starting out who have one or two children. There are plenty of children, but not enough parents to go around because the commitment is so huge - 20 years in Morocco raising 8 children! Abir, who stayed with Ron and Laurie for a few years is at the front in the pink sweater. They are also trying to start a school on the grounds for the kids and the very impoverished community surrounding them. Their website is: http://www.voh-ainleuh.org/

There is a whole 'forest' of these cool rock formations near us that are really easy to climb.

In our guidebook, it describes "The Three Lakes Tour" with a picture of a completely dry lakebed. It goes on to helpfully tell you exactly where to go in order to see three dried-up depressing lakes. But we knew that with a lot of rain/snow last year, our chances were better. Besides, it's only 15 minutes away, so what could we lose? And this is what we found - beautiful! It's really amazing to see a country racked with drought transformed into a glimmer of what it used to be!

Further proof that there was, indeed, a lake - there were paddleboats! That's Melody, my niece, in the middle.

I stumbled across this cave the same day. Although the people in the surrounding area obviously knew it was there (there was evidence of a stable inside), we pretended we were the very first to discover it!

The girls were bursting with excitement - "We should live here...We should show all our friends...We should have church in here...I'm so excited I could scream...Can I scream, Mommy?!?" And on and on it went. Further excitement followed when we discovered there was another entrance to the cave - a tunnel that led to the surface through a skylight! Kids are so honest - if they know they should be happy about something but aren't - like a birthday present they didn't really want - they politely do a lousy acting job to make us happy. But when they truly are excited the result is so much fun!