Oregon City, Oregon - Week 42 - October 15- October 21, 2018

The weather on Tuesday of this week was perfect - so perfect that children 'skipped' school and went to the beach...Canon Beach which is a good place for kids because the Ecola River flows  through the beach to the surf - - kids can play in water without worrying their parents.















While we were enjoying the warm sunny weather at the beach, we knew it was snowing in Astana and that the wheelchair training was happening all week long.  We were sad were weren't there to witness the fruits of our labors............but when we had to made a decision whether to extend or not so that we could be at the training, there was no SET date for the training and we didn't know if it would be weeks or months.........so we decided to return home at the end of our 18 months.



Our Young Volunteers helped out on the last day when the wheelchairs were actually distributed to some recipients.



Just a few pictures to give an idea.







Awards and accolades.



Because Ivan and family came to Oregon for our Homecoming, we planned for family pictures.














For some reason I don't have photos of Travis or Warren....sorry guys.



And all the girls went out to breakfast.





Friday night was a birthday celebration for October birthdays - Ivan, Renee, Abby, and Whitney

Guess who made the cake.



Saturday was Logan's baptism

















We had some special guests at the baptisms - the Mulberry family - Steve, Shelley, and Kle.  They are the parents and brother of Sister Mulberry who is still in Astana.  They live in Meridian Idaho and drove to Oregon City to be at our homecoming....and they cam the the baptism as well..and we went out to dinner at Buster's.





Sunday was the final hurrah of our mission.  We spoke at Sacrament meeting and had a fireside in the evening.  Both Dad and I gave talks which we had 'tweaked' from ones we gave as farewells in Kazakhstan.  The fireside was fun and well attended.  We did a power point for about an hour and then fielded questions for 45 minutes or so.  For me is was satisfying because a lot of people said that they were inspired by our mission.....and sometimes while we were in Astana, I wondered if what we were doing doing mattered very much.





We have kids over often to 'hang out'
Here Jude is working out.



And there are always art activities.