Sam officially graduated from college! Yipee!! It was a gorgeous day to have an outdoor ceremony, and I wish everyone could have been there. Thanks to everyone for all your cards and congratulations!

This weekend CRU hosted the ” Bowling Green Amazing Race,” a photo scavenger hunt for international students to get acclimated with the town. Afterwards, they all came over to our place (the Armentano house) to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on the big screen TV, which was especially fun for some Chinese students to see their home country hosting the event.

On a random side note, I have been reading the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn, which is really intriguing because I feel like it is the first time I have ever really deeply thought about what heaven will be like. And, although we can not know everything about heaven, we can make some educated and inspired guesses. Something that really struck me, was the idea that peoples groups and cultures and nations may still exist in heaven. How amazing will it be for culture and nationhood to be redeemed? We will rejoice in each others’ strengths and differences instead of being dragged down by misunderstanding.

“Your gates will stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations- their kings led in triumphal procession.” (Isaiah 60:11)

“The Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” (Isaiah 60:3)

Someday every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and people from many nations will worship the Lord together- how beautiful!

(Anna, Pavarthy, Solmaz and me)

I guess the problem with getting to know people from all over the world is that, no matter where in the world you are, you are always missing someone. I found this eighth grade class picture (before we got 4 additional boys added to our class at the semester). I wish I could be there to see them all move up to high school next week!

I just realized that we would have left yesterday for Nairobi had we kept our flight back for the year! The summer has just flown by! I was chatting with another teacher from West Nairobi School who is going back for another year, and it makes me sad if I think about my students too much, but i really am counting the blessings of being back in America.

I spent a long weekend in Stow with my family, and it was wonderful seeing my mom looking back to her chubby cheeked self, even if she doesn’t have all her strength back. I took Sam to Firestone Park to see his first ballet. And then of course, who can forget that football is just around the corner??!

My old school in Nairobi finally found a replacement History teacher, Hallelujah! I think he is going to end up showing up a bit late, but better late than never! I am sure the kids won’t mind a few extra recesses in lieu of history class

We are also praising God that Sam has a second interview with a community development organization in Toledo coming up, and my support is coming in slowly, but surely (I am at about 67%).

So, life may be different than we anticipated  this year, but I guess I am just learning that even though life and circumstances change, we have a God that is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow!