Goodbyes

This year has been full of goodbyes for our family. Quite a few people left this year who have been our friends throughout our 3 years here. Others were only here for a year or two, but have also been great friends to us. Most of the time I forgot my camera or forgot to take pictures, but last night we did get some of Linda, who has been part of our family while we've been here. We'll miss her so much!

Here are some of us with Saroj, who has worked in our home for 3 years and taught me all about surviving in India. She's taught me a little about cooking Indian food and has been a huge help in getting all the housework done. On top of that, she took care of our kids during our first two years when I was also teaching- we will miss having her with us. She has found another job helping a family with a new baby and it will work out better for her to help them, but she was so sad to leave and we are sad to see her go. Thankfully, we hope to see her around next year and maybe she'll come and visit sometimes too. :-)

Today we'll say goodbye to our home for a few weeks too. We're leaving to go on vacation to Korea to visit my cousin and his family. We're looking forward to getting away from our mountain, seeing a new country and culture, spending special time with our family there- (getting to meet little J), enjoying the 4th of July with fellow Americans, and eating Korean and American food!! I'll share some pictures when we return.

Redwood Cottage

REDWOOD COTTAGE:I completed this small 'tapestry' as a surprise gift for Nate and gave it to him a couple of weeks ago. I haven't finished a project in a long time, and this one went quickly and was so much fun to make! It's a very simple style- almost completely vertical stitches, but I did it while Nate was at school, so he didn't know I was making it. :-)
Next month we will celebrate first, 6 years since we started dating, and then 5 years of marriage. I am SO thankful for my husband- what a gift from God! It's fun to have something hanging in our home that I made for him, and, although it looks nothing at all like our current house: Redwood Cottage, it still reminds us both of this cozy home and of God's faithfulness in providing for ALL our needs through the years.

Wrapping up 08-09

One of my favorite things at Woodstock is the Baccalaureate service each year. This year I was able to attend all the graduation events that I wanted to go to including, the senior recital, baccalaureate and graduation services.


I am sure I'll never forget my first year of teaching, and walking into my first period class that first day: a group of 25 tenth graders, only six of whom were girls, and most of the boys towered above my head. I felt young, naive, and like I had no idea what I was doing. The textbooks hadn't arrived yet and I had never taught French before, so I had no clue where to begin. I still don't know how I got through those days, weeks, months... The students were sometimes angry with all the work I made them do and they didn't appreciate how I dealt with cheating- it was a rough year. However, by the end of that year, several of them expressed an appreciation for learning something in my class, and some even begged me to teach them French 2. My efforts seemed appreciated. Those students had a big impact on me. I enjoyed their class and appreciated their comraderie as a group. I learned a lot through their questions and the ways they challenged me. Those same students were seniors this year and since that first year of teaching, I have been able to get to know more of their class through outside activities. It was a joy to watch them graduate this year and I will miss them.


I took a lot of pictures of the Baccalaureate service especially, because I think it's so neat to see all the students dressed up in their own cultural outfits. It is such a colorful, beautiful ceremony.

Here is the Woodstock graduating class of 2009:

Below are some pictures of our final staff banquet yesterday.

Blessings during Epilepsy

In a few days, we'll head down to Delhi and spend a crazy day in the heat, with crabby kids, passing the hours before our big trip to Korea! I booked an appointment with Will's doctor so that we can talk with him about what the plan is with his medication. Getting that lined up reminded me that this month we will celebrate 6 months of no seizures. It seems like yesterday that we had to wrestle with the helpless feeling of daily having our 2 year-old crash to the ground, body writhing out of all human control... and yet, I look back to that time, and what stands out are the blessings.
-Overwhelming care and support from our colleagues/friends here, and friends and family back 'home'.
-Excellent doctors in Delhi who were able to correctly diagnose the problem and offer us solutions right away.
-Since we are in India, we could afford the tests, doctor visits, travel and hotel costs.
-Will's last seizure was on the train on our way to Goa for our winter holiday: we didn't have to deal with seizures while away from home for a month.
-Will takes his medicine quite well, and the doctor recently adjusted the dose so that it's much easier for us too give to him.
-Will is back to 'normal' now - he runs around and plays hard like other kids his age, and we dont' worry about him- what a blessing.
-He'll probably grow out of his epilepsy in a few years - wow.
Blessings : gifts from God. A Bible verse comes to my mind about how God will never give us more than we can handle, and I look back and see how God has cared for our family through everything this past year. Another verse is close to my heart- that God always carries us in His arms. In July it will be a year since Will started having seizures, and we have had 6 months without seizures now- God is so good to us. He has helped us in every way and given us a time of rest from those hard days of seizures.

Gotta love bags!

Looking down the path in hopes of seeing her Pappa coming home from work.

We've been working hard on potty-training. The weather has been perfect to hang out outside all day long. Annie seems to be getting the idea - but she still won't tell me when she needs to go... in fact, her communication is very poor overall, but we think that maybe someday she'll learn English.

NEW things!

KEYBOARD (note: noise is not new)

PIGTAILS!

BIG BOY BIKE (with training wheels!)

At our house

The Band

(they really look like they know what they're doing, don't they?!)

........................................

Today at our house:

That's right, Mamma cooked up a little cornstarch and water, gathered some food coloring, empty tea-light candle containers and tiny useless spoons. She wrapped those kids up in aprons, set blank sheets of paper in front of them, and they were FINGERPAINTING!!
" HEY!!! He stole all the paints!!! NO FAIR!"

"Oh, and by the way, it doesn't taste so nice..."

"But it sure is fun to smudge that paint round and round 'til the whole page is brown!!"

It was a lovely day at our house today. I sure enjoy these kids.