Bitter Sweet - Bitter cold

Beautiful Budapest with its postcard views around every corner. January has been a busy month with project proposals, project closing, visits, conferences, and very brisk walks along the Danube.

We close a couple favorite projects that had continued all year. Working with the youth in afterschool programs is always enjoyable to see. The youth receive support with academics, music technology and other fields. These programs have been a great help to prevent early dropout rates. We were able to provide some mobility equipment to a K-5 school for children with disabilities.

This is new playground equipment for the hearing impaired school They have an increased number of children with autism. They wanted more stimulating playground equipment for the little ones. The smiling faces melt our hearts each time we visit the school.

We enjoyed our last visitor to Budapest with Clark's sister Gail. She was here for our version of the Polar Bast of weather and braved the cold days with us. We walked, we dined, we walked some more.

As we prepare our paperwork for our replacements we were visited by managers from our Area Office in Germany, Ward and Karen Anderson. Between visiting and evaluating our projects we saw the sights of Budapest again. It never gets old.

How do we describe this magical adventure. We have submitted two projects with a Foster care program and a pig and garden project that our replacements, Steve and Lu Duke, from Utah will take over and follow through this next year. We are so excited to welcome them in February as we close out our service. The thought of seeing our friends and family again is very exciting. Our flights home have been bought, and the next Blog post will be from Oklahoma. One month left, and it is full of visits with partners, training for the new missionaries and a conference in Vienna, Austria for 3 days. This experience will be difficult to top, but life with our family and friends has always been our greatest joy. Keep a light on for us. We will see you all soon.