Hello from Burlington, Vermont!

This is Ravenna Kaye Eddiston writing.  Hope this finds each and every one of you well and happy!

Hard to believe that a new school year has begun!  Paul is now in middle school (grade seven), and David is a junior this year.  As for Mukhtar, our only daughter (she's seven), she just entered kindergarten.  The only one of the kids who is still home is our youngest, Canaan, who will be three in December.

We also have our cat, "Ghandi" (Mukhtar named him), a little Ragdoll, and we have since acquired an Alaskan Malamute puppy that David named "Aurora Borealis".  Add to that our fish and two gerbils.  We have a regular zoo here at our home! LOL

Mukhtar is doing very well in her therapies and with her English.  Every day she is learning new words:  she may be developmentally delayed, but cognitively, she is quite bright.  We are impressed at how quickly she picks up on new things!  We are very proud of her progress!

We have started working on the Christmas music for our upcoming Christmas production at our church.  We've also been busy visiting the sick and homebound and giving them prayer, words of encouragement, and handing them Bibles.  We enjoy doing this very much.  It makes us feel good to know that we are making a difference in needy people's lives!

Right now, Mukhtar doesn't mind that she is a lot darker than her brothers; she's just a little girl.  She is more concerned in playing with her dollies and with her kitty!  She also delights in annoying her brothers! LOL

We don't care that Mukhtar doesn't look like us.  All we care about is that she is our little daughter, and she finally has a family to call her very own!  We plan on doing everything possible to help her reach her full potential and to love and cherish her as though she had been born to us!

Eventually we may change her first name, but right now, she's known as Mukhtar Grace Eddiston.  She's used to it, so this is what we call her.

We had a busy, exciting summer.  We went to New York City last month for our vacation; we took the kids to see "Lion King"; they all enjoyed that emmensely (as did we).  They even got to meet some of the cast members and have their picture made with them; that was very thrilling! 

In addition to that, we also went to Boston, Msssachussetts, back in July; we spent the fourth there.  It was crazy:  wall-to-wall people, as far as you could see, and the fireworks display was one of the best ones we had ever seen!  Poor Mukhtar, though, was scared of the fireworks; she cried and clapped her hands over her ears.  All Greg or I could do was hold her and try to reassure her.

Well, I hate to run, but Canaan is rising from his morning nap; I hear him cooing in his crib in his room.  I will write in here again soon; until later, this is Ravenna Eddiston saying so long and God bless!

~Love, your friend in Vermont, Ravenna.  :)

*To be continued.*