Counting Our Blessings

We hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving holiday with your loved ones. It was bitter sweet here to be celebrating away from our biological family but thanking our Father and sharing a meal with our brothers and sisters here. We enjoyed a delicious traditional meal of turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, etc including DESSERTS!! We then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening watching Anne of Green Gables in its entirety; all eight hours. Neither of us had seen it before so it was a late rite of passage for us according to every other girl here. Watching 8 hours of anything is quite out the ordinary for us, let alone on Thanksgiving Day! It was a nice break though.
The picture above is from our adventure today visiting our nation's capital in Union Station. This was not a typical trip... this was purposeful work. We set out to follow a pre-made plan with goals to accomplish. One was to eat an ethnic dish we had never tried before - we chose a Somali dish which we thought was pretty tasty! The owner of this restaurant is from Mogadishu, Somalia. We mastered the metro - at least the Red and Blue Lines! We observed the behaviors and activities of people from many of the nations; taking note of the similarities and differences between us. Next week is one of the most difficult weeks of our time here... Security Contingency Training! The events of these days have been cloaked in secrecy. We believe we will be kidnapped and taken hostage with fake AK-47's - but remember moms and dads.. this is only pretend! It's only preparation for the pirates. :) Arrgghh!!