it's been so long

we have a lot of life that has passed over the days that have gone by. our internet has been down. we were barely able to receive emails. and we had to wait days for our emails to be sent. we had the internet guys in our home several times and they finally decided they would put our tower a little higher to reach above the trees instead of going through them...soooo...now we have internet again! yeayheeehahhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we very much appreciate technology but we do not know what to do when we don't have it.

today greg and i had our evaluasi untuk unit satu...evaluation for unit one for all you english speakers :D and we passed!!!! we get to go on to unit 2! another reason to celebrate! man? what am i doing sitting at the computer when we have all these things to be celebrating???!!! :D we are amazed at our level of understanding and ability to talk already. after sitting in class all day i can close my book and say "what did i learn?" and think nothing soaked in...but as the days go on i realize...yes...it's working! kind of like the tide at the beach...you know it moves...but you just can't see it making progress...we have much more hope today than we did earlier...we have come over a big hump in the culture shock.

gavin now says "i sometimes want to go back home." this is improvement over him saying "i don't want to be here...i just want to go back." he has been invited to many friends houses and he is getting a "california boy" reputation at school with his faux hawk and his leaf green converse shoes.

we also adopted a new little kitty into the family. her name is orangy rose. paul is especially happy with this "model of cat" -- he says "it comes with those things that go in AND OUT (interpretation...claws) and that way it just sticks to you while you walk around." she was a stray but we have cleaned her up pretty good and she will be on the blog soon. hazel carries her around by the neck mostly and the cat just takes it. funny thing about cats here...the genetics are sort of different...they don't have tails...but ours has a half tail...so we like that!

work keeps getting done on the house little by little so we feel more settled all the time. this week they are leveling the backyard and putting in a patio area. soon we might have another place to play! i couldn't quite believe they just leveled over all the garbage in the backyard. it's like we have our own dump now. our fruit trees consist of two types of banana, papaya, orange, lemon, mango, and durian...but we are cutting down the durian...is smells bad :( blah! i guess you can acquire a taste for it...if you can get past the dirty sock smell!!!!

thursday is thanksgiving! we get to start class again on that day. and we even have class on friday...isn't that suppose to be the biggest shopping day of the year? yeah...so a bunch of ladies are leaving their families behind on sat. and going to yogya to shop all day!!! and i am one of them!!! but first for celebrating thanksgiving, we will gather with our org. to dine in style with real turkeys!!! quite a treat! even homemade cranberry sauce. i am bringing carmel apple ciders...(i just buy the juice and add cinnamon right? and then to make caramel you heat sweetened condensed milk over a flame and it becomes caramel! ) and i am also in charge of chocolates...what more is there to be thankful for!!!!!!!!!

greg has started to play soccer on tuesdays with the jagas (the indonesian guards at the school) and he really likes it. he feels so tall and big going up against them. it's full on team though...they have jersy's and everything....it's good for him to get out there and learn some more indo words too...he always is yelling out his Spanish words for hurry! go! here! and all that!

we are missing friends and family. it's hard here for many reasons. we go up and down so fast emotionally. but we keep knowing why we live---for Jesus...not for me. we just have so much to learn on this side!

i have just a little encouragement for the "moms" out there. i know many who are full timers at home with their kids. i used to be that! and there were days that were sooo hard...soooo long and sooo far removed from the real world!!! i love being with my kids...but i had to grow into that. i have not been a typical mom. God taught me a lot about what it means to be a mom and how to do it and the high calling he puts on it. so i figured that i must be learning all this so that when i go to Indo i will be better equipped to REALLY stay at home with them. nope. he just needed me to know all of that so that when i now have to leave them for most of the day and gavin goes off to kinder...i can miss "staying with them" and i miss not knowing their every tear that falls...and their laughs and funny comments and the ways they are learning and discovering this new world. i miss out on the joys of life...the simple things...that only children can really show you...i know being a mom will never leave me...that i am still a mom ---just the same---only it's different...so no matter your situation or your stage of being a "mom"...i just wanted to say...it's the best thing ever and i love the sweetness it brings to my life. please enjoy your kids every day... God has so much to teach us through them...it's so far removed from the real world! and to those of you who do not have kids yet...take this as encouragement for what may come. God knows just what you need, when you need it and how to get it to you. he can't be limited to the real world either!