Blessings abound!

Winnie Kate (she's good at smiling for the camera!)
The 3 cousins on top of the car. They all thought it was fun...but Holly changed her mind quickly.
Obviously neither of us was ready for this picture!

The surprise "encouragement book" I made for Ryan. I figured that when he feels stressed with medical school he can quickly flip through this book and have his spirits instantly lifted.
"God does not offer us a way out of the testings of life. He offers us a way through, and that makes all the difference." W.T.P.

Andrea, Katy and me the first night back on the island. Katy and Chris are new this semester.
Chris, Kyle & Ryan.
Daily Bread Cookbook!
Don't try to steal the recipes!!! :)

I've been off the island for 5 weeks and, I have to say, it's good to be back. I had a great week on the mission trip to St. Martin and 4 fabulous fun-filled weeks in Tennessee and now I'm refreshed and ready for another three and a half months on the island! Ryan had a great two week break and was very excited about the encouragement book I gave him the night before we came back to Dominica. Thank you so much to everybody who wrote letters for the book. It's probably the best gift ever! It turned out very cute and there were 31 letters in it! Everytime he looks at it he will be reminded of how loved and blessed he is. Every single day at home was just perfect. We made the most of every day and got to spend a lot of time with many friends and family members. Coming back is bittersweet. We're sad to leave friends, family & all the comforts of home in the U.S. but excited to see our friends here and get back into our routine (although Ryan's routine isn't nearly as enjoyable as mine). We got back to Dominica Saturday and Kyle and Andrea came over soon after we were dropped off at our apartment. Andrea and I exchanged birthday gifts because we couldn't wait til June (for mine) and July (for hers). She gave me some really cute earrings from D's that I had admired one day when we went in there together and she also gave me a Daily Bread Cookbook! She had it published through Shutterfly and has all of our bread recipes, pictures of the bread, quotes from our regular customers, bible verses and a very sweet letter from her and pictures of us with our bread. What a great gift! I was super excited and will probably need to order more copies for y'all! So Ryan is officially a second year medical student! His first day of class was yesterday. The island is HOT! I keep asking locals and they all seem to agree that May is the hottest month for Dominica. Sorry, Julie! Julie is coming NEXT FRIDAY!!! Woo-hoo! I'm trying to plan fun stuff for us to do, including spending a couple of days on Barbados. :) Well, I'll try to update more soon.