I am hosting the first Girl's Night at our place tonight!!!!!!

Since we have been here, everyone has welcomed us with opened arms! Talk about making a transition into a foreign country, new culture and environment as easy as it could ever be! We have made friends with several married couples all between our age and 30 and they are a blast. We go into Malabo once a week to eat at different restaurants. We have played "closest ball wins" golf together and attended quiz night at the Club House. We also try to do a dinner and/or brunch at someones house weekly. This week, the boys will be a few apartments away and I offered our apartment for the girls and am super excited to have them over! This will be my first time to have company. I am slightly nervous, not sure why........ :( We barely have any decorations and entertainment cookware :( I am sure it will be just fine.We have decided on quesadillas. So something that I have loved since being here is the sense of community and sharing. I do not have tortillas, sour cream or cheese other than Gouda :( In our email communication, we mention it, and then almost always, someone brings over what you are missing. Because you can not just go out and get what you need, it is the neatest thing to have a group of friends that are always so kind to share. The week before last, our neighbor had mentioned at small group that she did not have spaghetti. Eric and I went into town for groceries and I had remembered and made sure to get her some. It is the best feeling to give something to someone as small as spaghetti, but know how much it has meant to me to have that one thing to complete your dinner etc. Let me share with you the value of someone offering something so simple with great impact.When we received our air shipment, I was so incredibly excited to open the 14 boxes! One of the large boxes that I had made sure was in that shipment was the one with food. It was full of boxed brownies, tons of seasonings, numerous package seasonings, peanut butter, jelly, ranch dressing, ketchup, gourmet mustard, beans, rice, pasta, other condiments, all of the ingredients to our amazing chili, all of the ingredients to the awesome chicken and peanut wraps from cuisine (the ones Lindsey made for us in North Dakota), all of our cooking wines/oils/vinegars, GARLIC SALT (my favorite!) and a bunch of other things. I got about half way through the boxes and had not found it yet. I was about on my tenth box and started to get worried. Once I opened the last box, my stomach fell to my toes. Eric and I had talked almost daily about being so excited to get that box as there were copious amounts of recipes that we could not make without its contents and can not buy in town. Although I knew that the nail polish I had smuggled into the boxes may be confiscated, I had never considered not getting the food items. I was devastated! We went out to dinner with our friends and I shared this story. The next day, there was half a bottle of garlic salt on Eric's desk. He called me, and of course I was so shocked and excited I got a little emotional. Eric worked a little late that day and I was home alone and there was a knock at the door. It was our neighbors that walked in with a huge bottle of Tony's Chachere's seasoning, another bottle of garlic salt, several packages of fajita and taco seasoning and several bags of brownies. I could not believe it! It was the sweetest thing to have those few comforts especially in a time of so much unknown. The Lord has shown me in my short time here, how much joy there are in the small things! He is so clever! Anyhow, back from my tangent . . . I am sure we will be good with ingredients tonight.       I have also found what looks like a delicious dessert that calls for brownie mix, peanut butter and oreo cookies that I will try tonight. YUM! I am off to start getting everything ready. Wish me luck!