Dangly Earrings

When do you let your kids grow up? More specifically, when do you let your beautiful little girls start looking like gorgeous young women? Okay, what I really need to know is at what age do you let your daughters start wearing dangly earrings? If it were up to me of course, she'd still have the unpunctured ears God gave her, but she came to me pierced, and begging for earrings. So after 6 months I gave in and bought her some little stars for her birthday. But one pair of earrings only keeps one content for so long. So today at Cristo Viene Girls' Home's anniversary fair she just had to have some new ones, the problem was there wasn't a single pair of little studs, and dangly earrings just make her look all fancy and grown up, and I don't like it! But it was for a good cause, and everyone else gets their kids' ears pierced at 3 months old, so I caved.
I don't really identify with the moms who feel like time is flying by and it seems like just yesterday they were looking into their now toddler's little face for the first time. Ange and I have been together for nine months and it feels like about nine months. And I'm not too worried about her moving up into 3rd grade or having to buy her new used clothes like this skort we just got her on Thursday. I think what I am worried about is boys, and back-talking, and popularity, and vanity, and did I mention boys.

This week we were at a restaurant with a TV blaring music videos. Which interested Angie very much and made me very glad we don't have television and very empathetic toward my parents who didn't let us watch MTV growing up. After Beyonce's third nearly-naked video Angie asked, "Isn't she embarrassed to walk around like that?" Lord, please don't let her lose that modesty, please.

During her week of quarantine, other than replacing the clothes she's been outgrowing, she also learned a lot of English. We have two more months to practice before her English entrance exam into SCCLC, the English speaking missionary kid school, for next semester. So pray that we can keep improving as much as we did this week even though she starts class again tomorrow. As my director says, we don't want to let school get in the way of her education.

Quarantine

Nope, not a Rabies scare, however I think we have had a higher number of cases recently than we'd like to. And no, it's not to stop the spread of head lice that's been shared around here either. This quarantine is of the Swine Flu variety.

After two years of living here I still have no real access to news. As Angie tells me, we're the only ones in the country who live without television, the antenna's broken on our car radio, and if the newspaper writes on a third grade reading level, then third grade is over my head. So, I wait patiently for someone to call me when the university's cancelled for a strike or the kids are out of class for a parade, both of which have happened in the past 7 days.

But, from my inerrant sources, namely Facebook and word of mouth, I can tell you all the facts. There have been ~200 cases of H1N1 reported. The Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center closed last week for 3.5 days and the week before all the kids wore face masks to school. Another private school was reportedly closed for like 2 weeks. One of my students missed Bible study today because she was getting IV fluids. Ten Talita Cumi went straight from school to the doctor yesterday with suspected cases. Now there are 5 staff at the veterinary university with confirmed Gripe A (H1N1).

What does this mean for us... Well, basically it means that even though Angie woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and I prayed the whole way to school that hers would be the only school in the city that wasn't respecting the quarantine, God did not see fit to give us that needed separation. Instead He has decided that what we need is an intensive ten, count 'em 10, days joined at the hip. Yep, all the schools in the city are closed until the 10th of October. The university's up and running, except for the veterinary campus because of the five sick professors, but as far as I know our class schedules returns to normal on Monday.

I guess this is a good trial run for the quickly approaching summer break, where I'll have to learn how to occupy her 24 hours/day while juggling work and ministry. I'm not sure what she'll do for ten days, maybe I'll give her a new knitting project or maybe she'll perfect her surgical skills. But a few things are certain; she'll take lots of silly pictures like those seen here of our wait at the dentist today, she'll improve her English by leaps and bounds, and she'll probably grow out of some more clothes as she's been getting very good at recently.

She's getting big, and she's growing into quite a mature little señorita. It's pretty adorable.

(I take no responsibility for the accuracy of any of the data in this post.)

Parenting 101

I know it's possible to blog without including pictures, people do it all the time, right? I've even done it before, once or twice, but you probably won't remember those 'cause I'm pretty sure no one read them. It just makes me feel all exposed. My poor writing has nothing to hide behind. No cute little kiddos or puppies to distract you from the less than noteworthy event I'm capturing about my pretty normal life.

But I find myself left with no other choice. Well, except for the obvious alternative of not writing, but I prefer to face my fears head on. So, in spite of the fact that my camera broke Friday, and my back-up camera broke Saturday, and just to add insult to injury my Kindle also bit the dust, here I am. Do I have anything profound to say, no not really. Do I just like to hear myself talk, well I didn't think so, but it's looking more likely now isn't it?

So, what do we talk about when we don't have pictures of the recent Talita Cumi birthday party or the fundraiser dinner last Friday?

How 'bout parenting. Have you ever tried it? It's hard! Most of you know, the little Angel and I have had our fair share, plus maybe a few others' fair shares, of issues. She's got quite a history to work through and well, what do I know about parenting?!

A friend told me recently when they had their first little one a year ago, they started to read the books, but then got overwhelmed and decided to just do it by instinct. My instincts aren't so trustworthy. So, I've read Adopted For Life, The New Strong-Willed Child, The Post-Adoption Blues, Loving Your Kids on Purpose, Parenting The Internationally Adopted Child, Bossypants (Tina Fey's book which I found on a parenting website, however turns out to not be about parenting, but totally worth the read), etc. I'm listening to an audio series called the Total Transformation. I'm meeting with a counselor regularly. We have a weekly motivational behavior chart. We moved bedtime up half an hour...

So, what is the outcome of these gazillion ideas and messages (often contradicting each other) bombarding me all at once? That my head explodes, yes. But also that we had a "perfect" week. It was our second almost-tantrumless week in the four and a half months we've been charting. And of course, we're going to the movies!!

Like everyone else you probably want to know what's making the difference. But to really be able to identify the cause we'd only be able to make one change a week to isolate all the variables, and I'm just too impatient for that. So, we'll just be grateful for our great week and try to keep up whatever we're doing right!

Thank you all for your prayers, they're an essential contributing factor that we couldn't do without.

Roommates

I'll admit I've not always been my car's #1 fan. It's probably safe to say that most men are bigger fans of my gigantic, rugged, hardy old Landcruiser than I am. But she's grown on me over the year and a half we've been together toting countless people to countless places. And just this week I was thinking about how well she fits with the verse I try to live by, Proverbs 3:27, "Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it." With a car that supposedly seats 10, but actually seats somewhere around 20, in a country where seat belts are a thing of the past, or maybe the future, I can't remember the last time when we (the Landcruiser and I) have had to turn anyone away for a ride because there wasn't room. This weekend alone she transported 9 people and a dog to our vet student project at Cristo Viene, 15 people home from church, and 9 people and that same silly dog to the sand dunes.

One thing that I'm coming to understand about that verse is that it doesn't work quite the same now that I'm a mother. Whereas, before it basically meant rarely saying "no" to anyone with a request, now I have to weigh the benefit to the person in need over the potential burden it adds to Ange. I've yet to perfect this saying "no" concept, so I often add undue stress to Angie's schedule, but I'm working on it. So, you can likely guess what the outcome was when two of our dear friends from church found themselves between housing for a month or two (a situation we can empathize well with from as recently as April), while their next place is being built; two new roommates of course!

Rosenda and Silda, two sweet sisters from a family of ten kids, moved in with us about a week ago. So far we couldn't have asked for easier tenants. Silda works at Talita Cumi and was one of Angie's beloved tias (aunties) when she lived there. I'm sure Angie also doesn't mind that they're our first house guests whose mother tongue is Spanish. And if I can ever remember what adults do when their little ones aren't around, we'll be ready with a couple of live-in babysitters.

That Exciting Angie Episode I Promised

Here's that latest installment for the Angelica Addicts, i.e. Mom and Dad. Her second grade class participated in an English Festival, where they put on a production of Kung Fu Panda, in which Ange played the leading role in the dance number, leading role meaning she's in the middle, since the footage leaves something to be desired.

The estrellita (little star).

Writer's Block

So, I know no one, except maybe Mom, is waiting for my next blog post, but I do feel bad when I'm way overdue. It's not that nothing's been happening, it's more that a lot's been happening. The president of Compassion International was a missionary kid and he said the best missionaries always have the hardest time getting their prayer letters turned in. Which might subconsciously make me a bit hesitant about trying to write well, or regularly. Plus, I know as a reading audience, you really just want more stories about sweet little Ange, and there just hasn't been anything to tell except that she won a little race in school, and her grades went up enough in the second trimester to warrant a trip to the movies. We went to see Los Pitufos, anyone wanna guess what that translates to in English?

In between exciting Angie episodes I thought I'd tide you over with a few photo-stories of a project we're working on with the vet students. I think I'd rather tell you the whole story when we're finished, but this should whet your appetites.

Let's just say it's a project where they're letting me lay bricks,

Angie mix cement,

and our VetRed students are pretty much in charge.

Scary, huh?

Can't wait to tell you all about it, but in the meantime, better get back to working instead of just talking about working. ;)

Is it Weird to Love Your Office?

This morning, I said goodbye to two of the first fruits of our new office. For the past month I've been tutoring two cousins of one of the doctors that works in the veterinary hospital where our campus ministry office is located. They've been visiting from Spain on their summer break, and asked if I could help them with some English. They were sweet sweet kids, and I really enjoyed our hour together every day, where I tried to remember my British English and Spain Spanish. Sometimes just before I would correct them for some English error, I would realize,"ah, maybe that is how they say it in England." Today, as we enjoyed the Coke and salteñas they brought to thank me one asked, which is better English from the US or from Britain? I'll leave my answer to your imaginations.

Everyday, as I sit in the office between classes grading papers or planning lessons, random students and professors drop in. Sometimes to ask about our ministry, to find out when our Bible studies will be, to ask about the English class schedule, to fill time between classes reading The Daily Bread in Spanish, or my favorite -- two professors stopped in to ask for a couple Spanish New Testaments because they'd seen someone on campus reading one and asked where she'd gotten it.

And sometimes just to hangout. I met a student who's husband is a youth pastor at their church and she has a 6 year old daughter who I hope will someday be friends with Angie. My three lovely Bible study girls come by to visit and relax on the couch when they have breaks between classes. This afternoon Paola, my good friend and colleague at the university, stopped in to chat about our families on her way home to hers.

This Friday we hope to bring them all together to decide what material we'll dig into this semester, what hours work best for everyone, and start planning our chicken coop service project. I love the excitement of the beginning of the semester. And I love this new office!