And another chapter ends...

In June, Daniel and I were thinking we'd be with JCS for at least another two years or longer. Now, four months later, Daniel just finished his last day at JCS and will be starting a new job on Tuesday. How'd we get from there to here? It happened gradually...

At the end of the school year, we both agreed that Daniel would need some help in administration if he was going to make it another year. Since we've been here, there have always been two education administrators, and usually a secretary. However, last year Daniel was the only one. He was doing the job of two admins, plus a secretary (he had none), plus trying to work on accreditation (ACSI suggests hiring someone full-time for that job alone). So, he was pretty overwhelmed. To our excitement, someone applied for a teaching job at JCS who was way over-qualified and had been a superintendent. As a result, the thought came up that this person could do the director role, and Daniel could take on the secondary-admin job (which is what he wanted to do in the first place). We were happy with this, as it meant less stress (which was super important with a newborn coming!).

However, things did not take that route. The person who would have come down to be the director discovered that he needed heart surgery and, as a result, could not come. After being excited about Daniel taking on less responsibility, it was difficult to think about him picking it back up with no assistant administrator to help him. On top of that, several questionable decisions were made with which Daniel did not agree. Finally, we realized that he could no longer continue in the director role. He announced his resignation in August but agreed to stay on for the beginning of the school year to help with the transition. Meanwhile, we began to pray about what God wanted us to do next.

In the midst of this, Timmy entered the scene. Though this added extra stress, it also gave us something more important to think about. It reminded us that no matter where God leads us, our family is our primary ministry to Him. He has led us far from where I thought we would go. Instead of becoming more involved in the Dominican community, he has led us to a different type of community. Instead of staying in our beautiful, big (comparatively) house, we will be moving to a house half the size (but with a gorgeous view!). Though at first these things made me anxious, I now have peace remembering that it doesn't matter where we are, or how big (or small) our house is, or what we own. What matters is that we are serving God, first through our family, and then through the place where God has led us.

We would appreciate your prayers during this time of transition for us and for JCS.

Happy 1 month, Timmy

Okay, so I'm almost a week late. I meant to post this earlier, but time just got away from me some how, probably because I was chasing a toddler, caring for a fussy baby, and trying to keep on top of dishes, meals, etc.
Anyway, last Thursday Timmy was one month old. It just so happened to be a day off from school, so we had a family day! We enjoyed a yummy brunch, took a walk down to the river (Jeremiah played in the river and found rocks for his collection), had an afternoon treat of ice cream, and relaxed in the evening (and ate smoked fish caught by a friend). Here are some pictures from the day:

Ready for our walk!

Enjoying ice-cream

Jer "holding" the baby

Random pics of the boys:

What big eyes you have!

Sleeping baby

Jer attacking the camera (wearing his Wisconsin outfit from his aunt)

Wearing his cool Illini clothes

For more pics of the boys, view my picasa albums:

Timothy Birth

september

Life right now...

Here's a glimpse at daily life right now:

-Nursing, nursing, and more nursing
-Burping a baby; cleaning up lots of spit-up (we think he has some acid reflux- we can't lay him down flat without fear of spit-up and lots of crying; he's sleeping reclined)
-Changing baby diapers
-Dealing with temper tantrums from a 2 year old (but they're really not too bad considering all the transitions going on)
-Napping
-Staring off in to space/playing spider solitaire on my computer/attempting to think but having a difficult time because I feel like I'm in a daze most of the time
-Thinking about getting things done around the house, but am too tired to do much of anything (I wasn't nearly this exhausted with Jer!)
-Trying to figure out if we have any water left in the cistern and where we can find more (hooking our hose to a neighbor's pump when they're willing)
-washing diapers
-trying to figure out Jer's next health issue (first pro-longed severe diaper rash; then cold and ear ache when baby came home that he shared with everyone in the house- the cold, not the ear-ache; now a wierd skin rash on most of his body that the doctor thinks is a skin-strep infection. the strange thing is that it doesn't even bother him
-wondering why my jaws feel tight and constantly ache (since Timmy was born; I must be too tense)
-Trying not to be anxious about the future and all the changes coming up

So, I haven't put any energy into blogging. I have pics I'll need to put up, but it takes so much energy to upload them with our snail-paced internet connection...

I can't think of anything else to say, so bye for now...

Things I found myself telling Jer today...

"Suave con the baby!" as he forcefully rocked Timmy in the baby seat (okay, my Spanglish is pretty bad too)
"No, don't lick the baby!"
"Please don't blow your nose on the baby." (as he put his nose on the baby and blew)
"Don't put the blanket on the baby's face." (as he tries to use the burp cloth as a blanket )
"Don't cough on the baby!" (as he purposely leans over and coughs all over Timmy)
Jeremiah really does love his baby brother and wants to help take care of him, but he's still a little rough (which is to be expected).
But, on a positive note, Jeremiah did tuck the burp cloth nicely around Timmy in his baby seat, helped do the dishes, and wipe off the place mats and table for us. I do think he'll be a great big brother!

My Little Spanglish Boy

He can count to 10 in English... almost. When he gets to 8 he says 0cho instead of eight. Then he says nine and ten in English. I'm not sure how he figured out that ocho and eight are the same thing, since we always count to 10 in one language. He know the Spanish numbers to 10 too, but he skips 5. Not sure what he has against it. And we've noticed a new Spanish word he brought home from school- "Mio!" (Mine). He already knew mine, but now he says it in Spanish. Which I think is cuter (if saying "mine!" is ever cute).
As far as letters go, we're focusing on just English right now. It's so confusing between the vowels, etc. that we decided to stick to one language at first. Though he doesn't know the order of the letters, he can recognize and name each letter!
And thus concludes a brief "Jer update."

Our Weekend Adventures

Starting with Friday:

We had the firetruck follow us home to put water in our cistern (still trying to figure out the water problem, and why we don't have city water).

I snuck a picture through the window; there's the fireman filling the cistern

Jeremiah helped Grammy Dee make lasagna for dinner (he's putting on zucchini)

Now for Saturday: We went down to Santiago for my check-up; while there we took a trip to PriceSmart (like Sams club), bought a pizza there after shopping, and went to the monument to eat it (the pizza, not the monument).

Daniel carrying Timmy in PriceSmart

The monument; the parking lot was filled with pigeons. If you wanted, you could buy feed and have the pigeons swarm your car... not sure why you'd want to pay for that...

Sitting down for pizza

View from the monument

Our family :)

Making a potty stop for Jer on the side of the highway

Sunday we went to church; it was fun to introduce Timothy to our friends

Another family photo (at church)

After lunch and nap-time we went to a neighbor's birthday party (Anthony turned 3)

Timmy with Grammy Dee and Grandpa How

The birthday boy is standing in the middle; Jer's on the far left

And now for other random pictures:

Snuggling with Jer

Me and my boys

Jer and his new blocks

The First Week

Here's a brief recap of Timmy's first week:
-Born Monday
-Grandpa How. arrived Tuesday night to take care of Jer
-Went home Wednesday afternoon
-Jer stayed home from school sick on Thur.
-Grammy Dee arrived Thursday night
-Jer stayed home again Friday; Both Timmy and Jer get lots of good attention from grandparents
-Mommy, Daddy, and Timmy went down to Santiago Saturday for a check-up; Timmy is doing well and the jaundice is normal (nothing excessive, not beyond what many newborns have, just need to give him sunbaths in morning and evening like we did with Jer, who was worse)
-Sunday- relax with family; meet Nonna and Grandpa Rod via web-cam
-Monday- Jer. goes back to school; Grandpa How. subs at JCS; big thunderstorm; yummy pizza

Timmy enjoying his rocker/baby seat

Timmy and Grammy Dee

Jer and Grandpa How going on a walk

The boys :)

Playing "dress-up"

First day wearing his uniform to school

Grandpa How dressed to substitute teach with Jer in his school shirt (notice the matching logos)

Enjoying his pizza :)

Mommy and Daddy enjoying pizza