Well, we are never too old to learn something new. I suddenly became curious about my word "detrious" and found out that there really is no such word according to the dictionary. I was able to find plenty of people writing on the web who THOUGHT it was a word though. The actual word we all were searching for was "detritus" which can mean accumulated debris. Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about.

I am sitting at my fully hooked up computer here in Newark. We have actually been here for 1 day shy of a week. It is peaceful in a city way. The peace comes from our assurance that we have followed the steps God has laid out for us.

We live on the top floor of a 3 story brick apartment house. It is quite secure, in fact one of our bigger adjustments will be all the locking and unlocking we have to do everywhere. We are fortunate to have trees outside our windows and I can hear birds singing as I read my Bible in the morning. This morning there was a very loud bird chirping just outside our bedroom window and our cat Sarge was most interested.

Today we will make our last trip back to Wyckoff to get half a truckload of what I call the 'detrius of moving', you know the stuff I mean; the things that you haven't been using but have been collecting in the corners of your life. We also have lots of items for our next neighborhood garage sale to take place here in Newark on the first Saturday of September. It creates a wonderful opportunity for us to see and be seen in our new city and to get to know our neighborhood. We have fun.

God bless all of you who prayed us through to this point.

Today is the last day before we move to Newark. The apartment here is looking pretty empty on the one hand, and still with more to pack. Where does all the stuff come from? Everything calls for a decision. Is it being stored?, Are we taking it to the apartment? Do we still need it or want it? Could someone else use it? Moving is just no fun. But God's faithfulness is new every morning and His love never fails. And don't forget that in our weakness He is strong. God's promises are the stuff that gets us through the day.

We will not be in our house till near to Christmas but we will be in a spacious 3rd floor apartment in a building with other missionaries, owned by World Impact. We've been in a 2nd floor apartment so one more flight of stairs is ok. I'll enjoy the friendships of the other people and the help in getting acclimated.

School starts after Labor Day so as soon as I am unpacked I have to begin my lesson plans in earnest. I have ideas about how I will structure it all but need to flesh it out. The internet is a wealth of lesson plans and ideas that work for other teachers. Remember, I have no training. I plan to teach music basics plus chorus. If God ever sees fit to send a trained music teacher, one who can teach instruments, I will gleefully step aside and be an aide. Until then, I will do my best with what I know. I love the kids so I am highly motivated.

I just thought I lost this whole post, but thank God I recovered it. Again God is faithful.

Just think, my next post will be done in Newark for the first time. We will finally be the "Hoernigs in Newark".

This will be a quick one. Micah and Kim (my son and daughter-in-law) left for Aruba this morning at 5:00 to attend her brother's wedding. We are babysitting for Caleb and Isaac for 1 week. Wow! Caleb is your typical extremely bright and precocious 3 year old boy. (o: His brother Isaac, 4, is anything but typical. He was born with 5P- disease, a genetic condition that causes retardation with its own little twists. One of these twists involves digestion issues. We are thankful he has not needed surgery or a feeding tube and he is even considered high on the weight charts for Cri du Chat (the other name for the condition) children his age. And you should see what a long, skinny little guy he is! He semi-woke up this morning with what Kim guesses are gas pains and he is just so unhappy. Apparently this happens infrequently and he just has a bad day. Poor little boy is just whimpering in his sleep and nothing will make him more comfortable. If this had to happen, I'm thankful it happened while Micah and Kim were still here so I knew it was not some kind of emergency. Cri du Chat kids don't speak till way late so he can't tell me what hurts or where. If you are reading this, pray for him and pray for us as we parent a 3 year old and a special-needs 4 year old for a week. I'm tired already. Good thing I know God's strenghth is perfect in my weakness.