So much for my attempt to update regularly: another six weeks have gone by
since I last wrote.
Just for the record, I think Marie has practiced the violin about three times
since then, and not been able to play with anyone else, because the person she'd
just started working with left earlier than expected...
I'm now nearly 20 weeks pregnant and feel the baby moving often, and my
husband has even felt the baby twice, which was very exciting! At the last
check-up, we got asked who has big feet, and my husband said "I do" at the same
time that I said "He does." We have a big-footed baby! :-)
We only have eight more days here in South Africa (less, if one wants to
count hours...), and are sad about leaving. The January DTS left on outreach and
we're really missing them (they all got here at the same time we did), but the
children have quickly been making friends with the new DTS, too, which started a
week ago. Also, one of the guys from the previous DTS wasn't able to go with the
other teams on outreach, because he's a refugee here (from Democratic Republic
of Congo) and couldn't get a passport, so is doing local outreach. He surprised
us with a visit a couple of days ago when he had a day off, and when Katie saw
him from across the room, she froze, then FLEW into his arms, yelling his name,
and just kept hugging him, again and again, saying his name and then laying her
head on his shoulder. It was pretty cool. There's a team from Mauritius here at
the moment, that the children hung out with a lot this morning, and another team
from Réunion. One man on that team speaks English and one woman speaks German,
but the rest only speak French and/or other languages that we don't speak, so
communicating has been challenging, but all the children do now know how to say
"bonjour"--and pronounce it better than I do, of course!
In answer to a question, we're headed back to Germany next week, where I've
lived for over 16 years and where my husband has lived for his whole life. :-)
We still have an apartment/flat there (well, most of it still belongs to the
bank...), but will likely be selling it in the next six months. We're in the
process of applying to go on staff with YWAM Cyprus in Larnaca, with the idea
that we would go pretty much as soon as the baby (due September 5th) has a
passport. My husband will go back to work at the bank when Katie turns three
(July 24th) and his parental leave runs out, then will take another three years
of parental leave for the new baby. (His boss is not going to be thrilled to
hear about this! LOL) He's been working part-time (20 hours a week) at the bank
for the last six years, as we didn't manage to raise enough support for him to
go full-time with the mission work in Germany at that time, but we're hopeful
that in the next three months we'll be able to raise more.
What else to write about? After taking something like eight months to finish
the first quarter of third grade math, Jacob finished the second quarter in
three and a half weeks. He's like this with everything: walking, talking,
potty-training, reading...and now long division. iI takes him awhile to get
something, but when he finally gets it, he TOTALLY has it! So Jacob is now
math-free until we get home. (I have the next book at home!) And Marie finished
sixth grade math several weeks ago, but at the moment she's doing a free
one-month trial at www.aleks.com. There's no
way we would end up subscribing, as it's pretty expensive (and completely on the
internet, not very practical with one computer and a husband working from home),
but it seems like a great program and it's a good thing for the moment, but I
still don't know yet what she'll be doing next. Anybody in Ireland (or the U.S.,
for that matter) headed for Germany any time soon, so that I can order Singapore
Math (NEM) without horrendous shipping costs?
I really can't think of anything else. When we truly leave Germany, I should
probably start a new blog, with a more appropriate name, but I'm not any more
likely to keep any other updated than this one, so it probably doesn't matter
much...
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