Where to begin. It seems like nothing new has happened around here, just living life and trying to survive like everyone else. Well let's just say it's been a very interesting new year. The lease on our house is coming to an end on the 1st of April so we have been tossing around what we are going to do. We are trying to do everything we can to stay here but unfortunately it still costs money. I've had my ups and downs with my confidence in my Spanish and at times some pretty major homesickness but i know this is where i (we) want to be. I battled feelings of wanting to give up and go home but when faced with the reality of really having to go home i soon change my mind. I'm almost at the end of the new year book and it really enforces the fact that i really have nothing to complain about and my life is pretty easy compared to what some of our brothers and sisters have been through.

Just when i want to give up on my spanish because i feel i'm not progressing, what happens? I start 2 doorstep studies and while reading, i realize i can actually read fluid sentences and not just words. For those of you who know me you might be surprised to hear that i'm pretty shy so i have a hard time to build up the courage to have conversations in spanish but when i try i find that i can actually do it. I still have a long way to go and to quote Lacey " somedays my spanish is like cockroaches. When i turn on the lights they scatter ". Haha yup some days it's just not there but other days i can see the baby steps.

I'm not sure if any of you remember but in the spring i wrote about wanting to take up sign language. Well we just had lesson number 3. In october we met some bro. and sis. from Samana (originally from the US) who have moved to the D.R. with their families to work in the sign language field. They made a few trips here to Las Terrenas to help out a sister who has been trying to learn on her own. The need is so great here and it was so exciting to hear their experiences that it lit a fire under our butts and got a few of us pretty excited about this new challenge. There is now 8 of us trying to learn together with the help of the Samana crew. One brother and his family in particular have been such a great help. They came for the weekend and gave us a crash course in ASL. You see the thing is, even though this is a Spanish country they still use ASL (American Sign Language). But the problem is none of the def in the area know it. Here the def ones are not treated very good and no one takes the time to try and teach them anything. In the Capital they have sign schools but nowhere else. So not only are we learning sign language but we have to teach it as well. We just have to stay one step ahead. Oso (from Samana ) brought us this amazing program on how to learn and teach sign language. It's going to be a lot of work but so worth it. Anyway we are starting to have one meeting every month in sign and saturday was number 1. There were 4 def from the territory and 34 of us all together in attendance. Not to bad for the first meeting. Two brothers from Samana came to translate for us but now we are wondering what we'll do if the def studies want to come more then once a month. We're the ones that have to do it in-between. That would be pretty funny to see. haha.

The other morning one of bens def studies from the next town over showed up on our door step. I guess he was in town and saw our bike so he came down our street looking for us. Levi looked up and there he was at our door. He's an artist and he had his drawings in hand and was eager to show levi. Seeing as at that point we had had only two lessons we called ben for some reinforcement but he was busy with work and could not leave so i called Hannah ( the first sister that was teaching herself). She was over pretty quick and was a big help. In his book of drawings he had some that were…….. well lets just say, offensive. Hannah pointed out one but we thought we would leave the rest for another day. We pointed out all the other ones and let him know how much we liked them and i think he got the point. By the end he was covering the bad ones with the good. All in all he was over at our house for a little over 3 hours and it's amazing how much he has picked up in just a few studies.

So now to the part about having to face coming home. Immigration laws have changed starting Jan 1st. You can no longer stay in the country for 10 months on a tourist visa. You now only have 4 months and after 2 months you have to have a medical exam. We have always kinda planned on getting our residence but we've never stayed longer then 10 months at a time and it's really expensive so we just haven't bothered. So now it looks like we will have to come back to Canada before we planned in order to work and save some money. We'll have to start our residence process while home so hopefully it will be smooth sailing when we come back to the D.R. The new law says that if you overstay the 4 months you are not allowed back into the country without starting your residence. Not that we are planning to overstay but before all you had to do was pay a fine at the airport and all was good. We're not to sure how long they will enforce this new law because it's really going to effect tourism but Caesars things to Caesar, right. And before you ask ,no we don't know where we will end up in Canada. It's all going to depend on where Levi will be able to find work.

So yeah just when things feels like they are falling into place and we have a new found love of the country things get turned up side down. Needles to say there has been a lot of praying going on. We know we have to leave it in Jehovahs hands and let what ever happens happen. All we can do is have faith.