Royal Wedding -- We watched it live!

I am a sucker for weddings, and especially wedding gowns. Pictures of pretty dresses make me happy, and wedding gowns are the most beautiful of all. So I've been anticipating the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton perhaps more than the average overseas worker. I looked forward to seeing the pictures the day ofter the event.

But my dear husband, knowing how much I would love to see the event live, heard from another teacher at school that she was having a little royal wedding party at her place. For most of you there in the Pacific Northwest, the wedding was sometime in the middle of the night. Here it happened at 5 pm! So he packed up Jonathan in the stroller and we walked a few neighborhoods over and he dropped me off at BJ's house for a fun hour. My new friend Chris from England and her husband David from New Zealand were there -- dressed in their patriotic boxer shorts and hats and waving their UK flags. We ate scones and cream. There was even a pork pie ...although I didn't partake of it.

My impressions of the wedding were -- so BEAUTIFUL!

Kate was definitely one of the most beautiful brides the world has seen! Kate chose her dress, veil, and hairstyle perfectly, but it all would have come to naught if not for her beautiful smile that started from her ride to the church and didn't end until ....well, actually I never saw her stop smiling, except perhaps during the sermon.


This wedding was a good start for the young bride and groom, who have known each other long enough to be good friends first. I do hope and pray that they will do well and have a long, devoted marriage to each other and serve their country well. I think they will!

Thank you to my dear husband David for making it possible for me to watch!

Happy Easter 2011!

Happy Easter 2011!  He is Risen Indeed!

Easter 2011 family photo.  Our Walla Walla church is making a new church photo directory so we want to send them a new photo.  I'm not sure if I want to use this one, though.  We all look kind of tired, don't you think?

Our international fellowship had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids!  Jonathan got to find EIGHT eggs! 

 

Grief is a strange thing.  I found myself missing Bethany today -- really hurting because she wasn't riding on my hip, an almost 3 year old girl in pigtails and a frilly Easter dress.  I hugged Jonathan with so much gratitude in my heart, but wished I was holding my girl, too.   I felt ashamed to be feeling this way, on Easter, when Jesus rose from the grave and made it possible for us to know that Bethany also is alive and we will be with her again.  I cried almost all through the church service, resolved in the knowledge of the Truth that gives me hope, but still hurting and missing Bethany Joy.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the world's greatest miracle for so many reasons -- for me it means that I will be with Bethany again, and our tiny one we lost in January.  The sermon yesterday was from I Corinthians 15:1-11 -- the witness of the Resurrection.  I glanced ahead and God met me in the next passage, I Corinthians 15:12-28 (excerpts below).

"For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.  BUT CHRIST HAS INDEED BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD, 

the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.....

THE LAST ENEMY TO BE DESTROYED IS DEATH."

Blessings to you as you celebrate the Resurrection today!

 

Learning to eat my banana oatmeal!

I finally managed to get some decent pictures so am posting them without further delay! 

"You should try this Mom!"  "No, that's your food.  You eat it."

After successful loading of food on spoon, now see the successful maneuver of spoon into mouth!

Bullseye!  And I did it all by myself!

Yeah!  Let's do that again!

This one is for free!  Jonathan often sees his daddy reading on the couch, and he is becoming quite the little copy cat lately!

Jonathan is making friends

I have confession to make.  I haven't been blogging much lately ...and the main reason is frustration with my camera!  Jonathan does so many cute things....but he does them so quickly and our little camera just can't catch the action shot!  90% of my pictures are blurry, and the ones that aren't have no little person in them because Jonathan has already run out of camera range.

What I most want to blog about ...Jonathan and his little friends...is also difficult to document.  In the process of making friends, I don't want to alienate the parents by taking too many pictures.  The other problem...I need BOTH hands to catch my little squirt, who knows no fear, before he jumps into ditches or critter-infested rock piles or in front of a speeding motorbike!  So often, the camera is left behind. 

Yet it is happening, and gives me so much pleasure!  Jonathan is making friends with other children in the neighborhood, and so we also are slowing getting to know other families who live close to us.  Every morning, when Dave leaves for work, we walk him down the road a little ways and then continue our way around the block.

Our neighbor girls, Safira and Alisia are usually out at that hour.  Safira is always in her school uniform, waiting for her mom to finish getting ready and take her to kindergarten on the family transport vehicle, a motorcycle.  Alisia, at age 2, goes along for the ride.  They like to chase our 2 good-natured cats, and Jonathan likes to chase them!

Often we go around the corner, where Rasha and Aria, brother and sister, live.   They toddle around in their driveway while their mom or grandma follows them around with a bowl of porridge, feeding them a spoonful whenever they stop long enough to breathe.  It's just not the culture here to restrain a child in a high-chair during meals. 

Naufel, 3, is often out, although we haven't seen him for a week or so.  Riski, another 3 year old, is also frequently helping his daddy sweep in front of the house.  We usually only see him for a few minutes before he has to go inside for his morning bath.

Four year old Didi, is very fond of Jonathan.  We usually see him in the mornings before he goes to school.  He attends a Muslim pre-school, and his family seem very faithful.   He has a little green bike, and an old push-car that Jonathan likes to ride.  If we've passed his house before he comes outside, he will walk along the street until he finds us and invite us to play in the yard.  His doting Grandma is always there too.

Here are a few (admittedly poor quality) pictures of Jonathan with our neighbor girls.

A visit from Grandma Coral and Traveling with a 16 month old!

My mom is here for a 3 week visit from the US!  Dave said "Wow!  This is the first time anyone's ever come to visit me overseas!"  Well, we know that the real draw is Jonathan, her only living grandchild.

It's interesting.  My mom has commented that Jonathan is stubborn and strong-willed.  It's true that he is a very busy boy at 16 months, but I hadn't thought of him in those terms, probably just because I don't have anything to compare him too.  Guess we need a lot of wisdom from the Lord how to help Jonathan learn how to manage his personality.

 Last week was Spring Break, so we took the opportunity to travel and make some family memories.  We had already scheduled to go to Singapore for my 20 week ultrasound, and after the miscarriage we couldn't refund the tickets.....so we went.  

Singapore has a large population but a very low birthrate of only 1.1 children per woman.  As a result, the government is trying very hard to get people to have babies and we found it to be the most child-friendly city we've ever visited!  Every restaurant had multiple baby seats and didn't mind the mess that Jonathan left on the floor!  Here we are at a Chinese place we found that had excellent vegetable dishes!

We were able to stay at a mission guest house that saved us a few dollars and also gave us the comfort of home and lots of room for Jonathan to run around.  Here are Jonathan and Grandma Coral playing with Bananagram tiles in the master bedroom!

One morning Dave had a business meeting, and we went along to wait until it was over?  What to do with our very busy and energetic kid?  Ah, bliss, we found an empty tennis court with a fence all the way around it!  We could relax a bit and Jonathan could run freely with no danger of injury or escape!

Singapore being the baby friendly city that it is, every establishment had a well-stocked diaper changing station.  You know those Kangaroo diaper changing stations in the U.S. at restaurants and airports?  I never found one that had supplies or a working safety belt.  I gasped at the Singapore airport when I found their spotless Kangaroo diaper changing station had a full pack of liners and a functioning safety belt!  In this picture, Dave is changing Jonathan's diaper at a department store we visited.  There were about 5 well padded, well supplied stations!  It was beautiful, but changing Jonathan's diaper has become a wresting match no matter where we are!

Well, it might seem a little silly, but we visited Ikea while we were in Singapore.  It was the real deal -- blue building and everything.  Dave and Jonathan spent about an hour playing in the children's department.  Dave said it was practically his favorite experience of the whole trip!

Even more wonderful, the Singapore airport had this lovely family center complete with a Burger King, cartoons, padded play area, private nursing rooms, diaper stations and this play structure!  We needed that wiggle opportunity before boarding a 2 hour flight!

Vacations are fun, but getting home is fun too.  Jonathan likes to help with every now, and here he is helping us to unpack!

Things that are different: Going to the doctor

What is she doing?   Dr. Yos prepares Jonathan's DTP vaccine.

The lady in the head covering and flowered shirt is our new doctor! Jonathan is 15 months old and it was time for him to get his next round of shots. This dear lady was recommended to us because she routinely orders the Belgian vaccines that most foreigners like to give to their babies. We can get to her place via mini-bus with one connection, but Dave discovered a way that we can walk there by taking some of the smaller roads. So walk we did.....

Over the river...I mean ravine...

Past the cemetery....both Muslims and Christians are buried here

This "alley" is actually the main street for a whole neighborhood.  It works fine if your only transportation is a motorcycle, which is true for most people here!

We're almost there....just a little further.

Here we are at the Doctor's office!  She has clinic hours in the late afternoon! We arrived at about 4 pm.

In the waiting room....

Jonathan weighed 10.4 kg on Dr Yos' scale -- almost 23 pounds.  So she prepared the vaccines while we talked about her five grown daughters who all have PhDs.  She told us that she is 67 years old ....which is 12 years past retirement age in this country!  I'm thinking she must still be working to help pay for all those college educations!

And here is the second shot (varicella.)  Yep, he screamed, although we didn't get a picture of that part!

Now walking home.  I still have a hard time believing this is the most populated island on the planet, yet there can still be patches of thick jungle like this!  I expected a concrete jungle like Los Angeles!

Things that are different: Neighborhood work parties

Dave (in hat) cleans up with our neighbors

So the same neighborhood association that organizes the monthly baby clinics also arranges for a neighborhood work party every month or so. We usually get the official written invitation (complete with letterhead and offical stamp of the village leader) on a Saturday, calling for the work party to commence on Sunday morning at 7 am. Dave really enjoys these work parties because they happen at a good time for him and he can contribute to the effort while at the same time practice his Indonesian and meet our neighbors on a low key basis. Jonathan and I like to make a short appearance, and then head home for the baby's pre-church nap. (Okay, I must admit he is a toddler now, but we still like to get that nap in if we can!)

This week they were just doing superficial clean-up stuff -- picking up trash and leaves, cutting down the long grass, etc. Sometimes they do bigger things like dig drainage ditches or paint lines on the roads. They are always well attended -- I saw at least 20 people at work and more people were arriving as Jonathan and I were heading home.

The systems we have in America are nice, such as city street sweepers and road maintenance crews.....but at the same time, this is a great way for a community to take ownership of their space, hang out together and make fun out of a lot of hard work.