Our last week with Martin & Jani

Since the last time I wrote, so much has happened. Most recently though, 2 of our closest friends moved back to South Africa. This past Tuesday they left Joplin to go back home indefinitely. Good thing their last few days in America is something they will remember for a long time!

They stayed at our house the week before they left. We met with our small group.




We had our last meeting with our Financial Peace University small group.



Jani made us Roobis tea almost every night and we sat around in our pajamas and watched Mythbusters! We ate the Donut Hole donuts on Saturday morning.



It was great!...until our power went out Sunday morning because of the ice! They were supposed to have a big "good-bye" party on Sunday night that ended up being canceled due to the ice storm.

We stayed the night at the Spurrier's house, which then lost power Monday morning. We had to scrape Jon's car off which I'm sure made Martin & Jani glad they were going back to summer in South Africa!!




We stopped at Starbuck's, picked up kerosene and drove back home so Jani & Martin could back pack the bags they were flying with. Martin felt terrible, so he laid on the couch the entire day while Jani & Jon crammed as much as they could in their 4 checked bags and 4 carry-ons...in the dark.

Thankfully we had gotten a kerosene heater from Jon's parents when we got married. We were able to keep the living room temperature at about 65 all day. We got a little creative with our meals and our house smelled like the Yankee Candle Company! We had a slumber party in the living room that night. Martin felt much better the next morning. We were able to warm water on top of the kerosene heater and on our grill, so Martin & Jani could at least feel somewhat clean before they traveled for 40 hours!

Tuesday morning Peter Buckland and Scott Boudreaux picked Martin & Jani up to take them to the airport. They left on time and arrived in South Africa on Thursday morning.

We love you friends and we miss you so much already!