A Peterson Update

This is the last of my previously written posts, during the time when we had no internet. Hmmm… that means I’ll have to actually started thinking of new things…

What’s been going on in our lives lately

The house:

We’ve moved! Our new house is such a blessing. The neighborhood is super tranquilo (peaceful), the neighbors are friendly, and we haven’t slept so well in a long time, even the nights when J’s a little fussy. Other blessings include: a small front and back yard, a gazebo for eating/grilling under, a rusty but still usable swing set (we’ll need to buy a baby swing to hook up to it), beautiful plants and flowers, trees, enough hot water for a shower, etc…The house has 3 bedrooms and 4 baths, which means we have a guest room. So, now is a very good time for someone to come visit! It is also so much cleaner here than our other house. The brick walls were impossible to clean, as were the high, vaulted ceilings (where many spiders made their home). I feel much better about Jeremiah crawling, walking, and exploring here than at the other home!

When we first arrived here, we did not have power the first two days/nights so we ran an extension cord from our neighbors to our house so we could at least run one light and our fan. I had trouble sleeping the first night without the fan, as I wasn’t use to a quiet house! But as I sat on my porch, and looked around at our peaceful neighborhood, I realized that I hadn’t known how stressed the constant noise and dirtiness of the house made me feel. I am so thankful that God has provided this house for us.

Jeremiah:

Jeremiah seemed to adjust quickly to the new house. The Wednesday after we moved in (we moved in on a Saturday), we went on a trip. He did a great job and we had a lot of fun with him.

Jeremiah hasn’t learned to crawl yet, but he loves to eat! We feed him three “food” meals per day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). He enjoys rice cereal, carrots, bananas, apples, guandules (pigeon peas), avocado, green beans, papaya, and mango. He’s so-so on the aullama (squash). We are also teaching him to sign. So far, he’s learned “more,” “milk,” and “eat.” He really likes to make the more sign. He makes it while playing, sometimes during meals, as well as other times that I haven’t figured out yet. It’s fun to see him trying to communicate. (Updated: Jeremiah can now pull from a sitting to a standing position in his crib!)

Unfortunately, Jeremiah is still teething. It seems like his teeth will bother him a lot for a few days, and then stop for a while. So, it comes and goes. The teeth seem pretty close, and I keep expecting them to pop through at any time now, but I’ve been thinking that for a while… (Update: a tooth is popping through; I can see and feel the sharp white tip!)

Easter:

For Easter this year we had two families from our small group over after church. Each family has two children (6 and 8 yrs; 1.5 and 4 yrs). It was great to relax, have fellowship, eat smoked pork, and watch the children find Easter eggs. We also decorated some eggs later that day.

Prayer Requests:

Please pray for teachers and administration positions for next year. We need a lot of teachers to come down! (Anyone interested?) Also, pray for Daniel as he teaches, and finishes grad school, and for us as we continue trying to raise support. Probably due to the two tropical storms that hit the D.R. last semester and the rising oil prices, the prices of many food staples continue to go up (oil, butter, flour, milk, rice, beans etc…). Flour (and other) prices have almost doubled in the past year. This means we will need to raise more support than previously anticipated, especially as Jeremiah starts to eat more solid foods.

Next post: pics of our house. Hopefully I will get this up today (or tomorrow). Also, anticipate pictures of Jeremiah’s first haircut!