Home For Christmas!

Thank the Lord we were able to come home for Christmas. It was a long day of traveling as you can tell but, we were so glad to be reunited with family and friends. I will write more about our Christmas later but will include a few pictures of Nathan and his cousins.

Jacob, Heather and Nathan.

Walker and Nathan eating dinner at April and John's on Christmas Eve.

Way To Go Nathan!

Last night was a very special night for Montego Bay Christian Academy. It was their annual Christmas program and at the program they presented a certificate to those who made the honor roll. There is an "A" and a "B" honor roll. Nathan made the "A" honor roll. To make the "A" honor roll a student must achieve a 94% or higher overall average, memorize each months scripture verse, complete the Readers 'R Leaders book report, have only one absence and no detentions. Only four or five made the "A" honor roll out of the seventeen in his class.We are very proud of Nathan! He has worked very hard.

Mr. Winkler, the principal, presents Nathan with his certificate.

The Christmas program was called Redemption, God's Greatest Gift. It wasn't exactly like a drama as we would know a Christmas program to be. They had the program divided into scenes. The first scene started with the Creation and the last scene ended with the resurrection. I don't know why they didn't go ahead and include the ascension while they were at it. Each scene featured either a recorded song with students dancing or doing sign language. Nathan was in the fourth scene. He did sign language with the older boys to You Are The Living Word sung by Fred Hammond and Radical For Christ.

At one point during the performance someone reached over and pushed the button on the smoke machine which was right in front of Nathan and he almost got tickled because he had not seen it before and wasn't expecting it.

The lighting was terrible and every time I went to take a picture some one's head was in the way but at least you can get the idea. Does anyone besides me recognize that Uncle Howie stance?

My Son...

...is full of surprises. Most of the time he is such a well behaved, polite, little boy. Then some days he turns into an alien child. At the most inappropriate times he decides to pitch a fit. I won't go into all the details but he had one of those moments on the CCCD field trip. Yes, in front of everyone, his principal, teacher, fellow classmates and their parents. Thank the Lord the deaf children couldn't hear his weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, which got louder and more intense when I told him he was getting a spanking when we got home. (DeeDee, Granddaddy and Uncle Howie don't label me as the cruel, wicked mother that mistreats your only grandchild and nephew. Because I don't.) Then because the threat of a spanking wasn't enough, he also lost his Nintendo for 2 days.

So, when we got home and he got through with more weeping and wailing and calling for his DeeDee, we had a nice long talk and I explained to him that he had to work on obeying and changing his attitude, you know the usual talk we give our children after the punishment. Then he goes and writes the following...(His Daddy helped him with the last part, but when he finished he was so proud that he had written 13 lines and in cursive to say the least.) Thought you might want to see it.


He sure was good on Saturday and most of Sunday. I extend him a lot of grace on Sundays because they are hard on him. Okay, Sundays are hard on all of us, but especially him. Church is very long and we don't have any children's program established yet.

P.S. Only 6 more days until we go home for Christmas. Nathan is so excited...and so am I!

Community Outreach At CCCD

Each term Nathan's school does a community outreach. The purpose is to teach the children to have compassion for the less fortunate. This term the community outreach was held at Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf. Each class bought Christmas gifts for students at the center and the PTA provided lunch for everybody which included a piece of chicken, a roll, an orange slice, a drink and ice cream.

The day began with, you guessed it, standing in line. Jaleel, who is behind Nathan, wasn't very happy about something. Mrs. Dixon, the school secretary, gave us our orientation and introduced us to CCCD's principal. She welcomed us and talked to us for awhile about the specifics of the school.

We then went upstairs to the multi-purpose room where they had chairs set up for everyone in front of a small stage. The principal of CCCD introduced each one of her staff members and our secretary introduced all of MBCA's staff and parents. We are finding that recognition is very important here.
The program began with the deaf students doing sign language to songs. They were very good but, just like all programs in Jamaica it was over kill and the younger students quickly lost interest. Each age level performed at least three songs, when one or two would have been plenty.

This group was the best. Here they performed My Redeemer Lives by Nicole Mullen. It was very well done and quite powerful. The principal explained to us that this is the group that travels to the states to help the school raise money and get sponsors for each child. They also have a lot of construction teams that come and make improvements to the facility.

After the program, the principal of CCCD taught the kids several phrases in sign language and that was fun but, again, the over kill thing. At the end of the program each one of the classes from Nathan's school came up, got a present and presented it to one of the deaf students.

That part was really sweet and that is, of course, what it was all about. Unfortunately, the student that was to receive the present Nathan and Jaleel had wasn't there.

So, one of the teachers took it from them and put it aside to give to the student later. I was waiting for Nathan to ask where his present was but, he didn't. I think Nathan's teachers did a good job explaining what the purpose of the visit was.