Happy Birthday K & A

Today was Kristen's 24th birthday so we spent the afternoon together Then met everyone at Red Lobster for supper (to celebrate Kristen and Adams Birthday's).

Then it was back to mom and dad' s house for cake and ice cream.

Have a great week. I love you

Be blessed and be a blessing

Erin

A Very Davis Christmas

Wrigley in his Christmas sweater
Christmas dinner

then the video games

then the gifts....

more fellowship, food, and video games

Peyton and Wrigley

Kyle, Aunt Becki, Dad

Blessings

Erin

Merry Christmas!

Pictures Top L-R:

Interpreting for Church

With some of my girls

Making rebar cages

Helping Britania take her braids out

Bottom L-R

Painting door frames with a work team

Sashania and I

Taking work team pictures

Deneisha and I

Be blessed and be a blessings!

Game Night

Last Night I had a Wonderful Opportunity to go and hang out with people I love. Our turn out is usually a little better but with weather, and Christmas time the group was small but we still had SO MUCH FUN!

I would guess this entire things started about 6-7 years ago after our first Jamaica work trip we started doing these game nights to keep in touch with those we met in Belvidere (Chad and Kristy mostly hosted...and still do) and now that they moved to central IL the fun continues, any chance we can get.

Kristy, Kristen, Adam, and Chad involved in 25 words or less
Chad willing the answers out of Travis with just a word or two of clues.

Travis, Jaclyn and I

Such great friends... So many good memories!

Kristy and I...

She is a true blessing in my life

Group Picture

Me Kristy, Chad, Jaclyn, Travis, Adam, Kristen.

This time we actually played different games. Its usually remote possibilities, dutch blitz,and when it gets late/early in the morning and some have gone we start euchre. I love that I hear the same stories over each time, I love the feeling of comfort with being with people I know and Love. And last night I was able to introduce them all to how the Jamaicans drink coffee (mixed with "sweet milk") and before I left I think everyone drinking coffee had tried it MMMMMMMMM. I praise Jesus for each and everyone of you!

Blessings

Another Day with the Boys

Peter is a constant around the house
This Morning I woke up to Wrigley

So today I get to hang out with both dogs

I hope your day is more exciting then mine!

Tuesday

Last night I had a WONDERFUL opportunity to spend a night with 2 girls that I love and have blessed my life more then they will ever know. Both became mommies in the last year and I loved getting to watch them and spend time with them and their babies! I'm so proud of them! I loved getting to catch up and spend some great girl time with them. Sadie we sure missed you!

Blessings!

First Snow!

So its been Years since I have been in snow and then today it started snowing! It was beautiful, cold, made the roads awful, and shortend my day because I didn't want to be out on them.

Running outside to take a picture when dad in his hoodie and jeans asked if I wanted to help hang outside lights up. I looked at him like he was crazy, asked if he was serious, took my pictures and ran back inside to my space heater. My Jamaican blood is not doing so good in this cold. brrrrrrrrrr!
Have fun in the Snow and Be Careful!

Ball Game

Last Night I got an opportunity to go and watch my brother shine as he coached his team. It was so much fun to go and watch the game. I met some of Mr. Davis' fan club who came up and told me everything they new about me. It kind of freaked me out that these two little girls came up and knew all this stuff about me and I had never seen either of them before in my life.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Monday

So this morning I tried to get all the must do's done so they are out of the way. My first stop was the dentist... and who would have guessed because of my new diet I now have more cavities then I have ever had my whole life combined! They found 3 cavities and their guess was it is because of all the fruit I eat, and the sugar and acidity that fruit has (who would guessed fruit could be so bad for you?) Yuck! Then it was off to the Dr. and I'm still kicking and from what they can tell me so far I am good. I have to go in to have my TB test read Thursday but so far I have no red spot on my arm so I think I will pass this test as well. I couldn't go to the DMV to update my license because its closed on Monday, and now I am off to make travel arrangements to go home. Wow its cold!

So Far

I feel like I have done nothing since I have been back.

I know I have done things but its just so different from my normal life,

I had a great opportunity to visit with my aunt Pam, uncle Mike, and cousin Luke for a day when they came up from Al. (and that rest of my family that came to visit with them too!)

I got to take my grandma out for her 81st birthday

I got to stay home and hang out with peter (my sis dog...pic above) while they went to something at church.(if you can't tell peter is growling at me he didn't like me laying on his back)

I got to enjoy the Sunday school Christmas program at church today.

and I got to go out to eat with my granny tonight.

Other then that I have been content to sit in front of the space heater in the basement trying to stay warm.

I will be here for a while so if you have any odd jobs that need to be done let me know... I can see myself getting very bored very quickly.

Have a great week!

Blessings

Erin

Prep Time

God has given me a wonderful opportunity to hang out and serve the past few days here at the Mobay campus. This campus has YEARS of great memories for me. There isn't one place I can look here and not have a great memory of friends, family, and seeing God work and move in great ways.

I love going up at night and hanging out with the kids.

Getting to know them and their stories.

Last night was the kids Christmas party and I felt honored that

I could join in a be a part of that with them.
Love... there is always so much love.

If I get all my work done early enough in the day I let myself go to the beach!

It's so nice to have a beach 20 min. away and not 3 hours away:)

I praise God for this down time to prepare my heart as I get ready to transition

back to the states.

I love going out and watching the sunset each night.

God is SO cool in His creation!

I love you.

Be blessed and be a blessing

Erin

The Past Week

Sheldon, Felicia, Phoebe, Damian, Blake, Brianna, Erica, Trishana, Letricia, Damion

I feel like I have just lived a month in one week. A week ago yesterday. Blake flew in for a week,(to visit his family down here) but missed his morning flight so his ride on this end was not able to pick him up. Because of this I was running around like a crazy person trying to get a ride set up for him from Mobay to Mandeville. Once that was done I headed over to the great house because our 4 Goshen girls where leaving and I needed to clean up after them, and then set up for the audiologists that were to arrive sometime this week (we didn't know when). On my way over to clean up after the girls, I got a call informing me that the girls where not leaving, but that the rest of their group was coming to knockpatrick for a few days, and that I needed to set up accommodations for 16 more people! So I started running around doing that. Thankfully two of my girls where around that could help me before we sat down for our bible study. I then had a down day (Sunday, Praise Jesus!)) before my final week began. Whenever I am going to be gone (for any length of time) the last week is a cram week trying to get everything put together as much as possible for when I am gone. I get daily emails/calls reminding me of all the things I can't forget to do. I would say by Monday afternoon I had about a good 2 weeks worth of work to do on my list. The Audiologists showed up Tuesday and so I was with them doing whatever was needed for the next two days. I praise God that I was still able to spend my normal scheduled time with my kids. I hate to throw off their routine to much. I want to keep as much structure in their lives as possible. They had a special goodbye chapel for me on Friday, and it was great. Part of the deaf culture "fun" is mimicking people and how they act then everyone guesses who they are acting out. So I had a few different staff members and students get up and "play" Erin. It was fun to watch. The hands and praise then got up and made me cry as they ministered to us all. I tried to pack up as much as possible but now that I sit in Mobay I realize what an AWFUL job I did as I continually can't find things I need... like a toothbrush. Yesterday a bus full of us drove into Mobay to enjoy the campus here a while. Today we had a special Christmas service for the students before they leave on Christmas holiday this Friday. There was a group that came with us from JDV Church, and did a great job with Clowns, Songs, and Dramas. And now after a week of complete chaos, very little sleep, and a very long list of things to do. I have nothing. After dropping Blake off at the airport, and saying goodbye to the group from JDV... I had time to take a nap... and it was great! I now have 4 days to relax, and prepare my heart to come back to the frozen yuckiness of central IL. I hope you have a great week, and I will do my best to soak up as much warmth and sunshine as I can to bring back with me to the states!

I love you

Blessings

Erin

Goodbyes

Yesterday I had to tell my kids bye for the next few weeks and now my heart feels broken. This will be the longest I have been away from them in the last year and after a day I miss them already. They are such a HUGE part of my life and a little piece of me feels missing without them. Please pray for them as they go home for Christmas holiday. Please pray for safety, health,that they are all able to make it back to school in Jan. when it opens again, and are not kept home because of financial reasons.

Paris,Me, Alesha
Stephan, Jessimar, Sankeer,w/Me

Sankeer And His Heart He Drew On Our Last Day Together.

Kim, Tattiana, Me

Me and My Buddy Laverene

Blessings

Erin

The Audiologist

The past two days I had the honor of working with 4 wonderful ladies from Tenn. These women work together as audiologists and came to work with our kids. When the audiologists come they bring very long busy days but they are so worth it for all the good they do for the kids.

Kelly, Me, Kim
Blake "playing" Audiologist to Jen

Kim and Kelly testing Maleak

Deb testing Claudine

Blake and Deb working with Kadeem (one of our special students)

Deb, and Kelly working with Daymar. Susie working with Kyle.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Blessings

Erin

Did you know...

That Milk is part of the cornflakes food group?

That the 4 main products of milk are: Chinese, Indian, American, and Jamaican?

That Water Buffalo is a use of milk?

That Water Buffalo is a type of cheese?

That 3 ways to take care of milk in your home are: cake, ice cream, and cheese?

That 3 sicknesses from bacteria in milk are: not, clean, dirty?

So I gave my final exam on milk yesterday and after studding this very interesting topic for the past 14 weeks these where some of the answers I got on the exam.

I think this goes to show that I am not cut out to be a real teacher!

Have a great Day. I love you.

Be blessed and be a blessing

Erin

Still Her Little Child

I'm so proud of my kids they do such a great job! Every Friday we have a "special" chapel in Nov./Dec. Everyone has chapel together then a group does a special number. This week the kids acted out the song "Still her precious child" The song is SO good and SO powerful. I know the video is not the best and I apologize for that, but I had to shrink it to fit it on the blog. Also if you look really really hard (they are standing right in front of the windows, and with the light coming in you can't really see them) there are two kids signing the song as it is being acted out. Enjoy!

Be blessed and be a blessing

Erin

Girls Night In

Last night after a long day some of the girls came over for a girls night in. We chatted, they watched cartoons (to help them relax), ate, they did my hair and we de-weaved Sabreke's hair. Praise God for Girls Nights!

Today

I was walking down to the school and as I was on my way a car pulled in so I stepped off to the side let the car pull in, park, then I continued walking. Well I guess the car wasn't where it wanted to be because as I was talking to Jen, all of a sudden she yells Erin watch out! and from the corner of my eye I see the car coming at me(backing up). My reflexes threw out my arm (I don't know if I thought I could stop a moving car with my super human strength or what) and it thumped against the back window before the car bumped into my hip. The car was not moving that fast and my arm thumping the back window alerted the driver that he had just hit something so he slammed on the breaks honks his horn (in a friendly way) and I kept walking. Sheesh... the one time I am not completely focused I get hit by a car. Happy Black Friday to me:)

Wishing you a...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Please Pray for the Plattners

Tomorrow.... (Wednesday Nov 26th) the Plattner's leave the Island to fly back to the states for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Please keep them in your prayers as they travel. Thanks!

Plattner Picture Fun!

Because they don't really have a lot of options I got the honor to take the Plattner's O8' Christmas picture. These are a few of my favorite. Hopefully none of these were their top pics, otherwise their Christmas pic. is already out:)

Drew sticking out his tongue and Truitt playing peekaboo
Spike wanting to join the picture

Spike wanting to be the picture!

So much fun!

Have a great week.

Be blessed and be a blessing

Erin

Love

My greatest lesson here has been about Love.

To Love....

without dissimulation
without fear

without expectations

but to simply love with my whole heart because that's whats truly needed.