Aug. 23, 2006 - Whew... a free moment
It has been so busy here that it seems like there is never a moment to get away to the computer lab without children in tow in order to blog. All is well, although the heat is really getting old. It has been 102 to 104 every time I've been out during the day for the past couple of weeks. The little ones have been playing at the preschool playground here on campus which nice and shady, so at least I don't have to swelter quite so much to get them out of the house to run around.
One of the biggest blessings of the past week was meeting a wonderful lady here who is a nurse who cares for the newborn babies in the hospital and teaches childbirth classes and is a pastor's wife and leads worship and homeschools... and has joyfully agreed to by with me during my labor with the baby in January! After having my two good friends with me for my last three labors I was a little unsure of who I would have here as a doula. This is absolutely heaven sent and I'm so thankful that God brings just the people into our lives at just the time we need them. All is going well with the pregnancy. I've got quite a belly now and we'll find out whether we're expecting a new little blue or pink bundle tomorrow afternoon at the sonogram.
We visited a church on Sunday that the kids and I are happy with, so we'll probably try to get involved there during the week. It is a mini mega-church with all the cool kids programs, so they all had a good time. The teaching on Sunday morning wasn't anything new or extremely enlightening, but it was good just to be in the body and hear the Word so I'll be fine taking the kids there. They have missionettes on Wednesday nights and another children's program on Saturday nights. I'm also trying to get some information about the local homeschool group and try to plug in there.
Everyone here on campus is just wonderful and I feel like we're one big family. Our neighbors in the apartments are especially great and it's nice having such likeminded young families within arms reach. I've been leading worship and helping out with music for chapel each week, so that's continued to give me an outlet since I hope to not be on the road with Ralph nearly as much while we are here. If I was stuck being completely without musical ministry I would hate it, but it's wonderful to be able to minister and not have to drive hours away to do it!
We went to South Padre Island on Monday and had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful and there weren't many people there, so it was really nice. The beach itself was lovely and the water was so clear that we could go way out and still see our feet and shells and fish swimming by at the bottom! It's a nice experience being only an hour away from the ocean now! I managed to get burned in spite of my abundant sunscreen, so next time I think I'll wear a shirt over my swimsuit, but otherwise it was a really great afternoon!
I guess that's all the catching up for now. Ralph's classes are extremely difficult and I'm selfishly thankful that I'm not taking them, but I am trying to help Ralph out as much as possible. Homeschooling is off and running and I hope to get our final books ordered this week. As it is we are taking all morning just to accomplish what we have now, so I guess I'll need this extra time before adding anything additional to get settled back into a schedule. Oh, another blessing... a lady here gave us the Powerglide Jr. Spanish curriculum! I had wanted this for a long time and was always detered by the large price tag, so this was great timing for us. Now the kids can learn some Spanish while Ralph is taking classes. We're supposed to visit the orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico on Sunday and hope to make it a regular ministry that we can take part in as a family. It is run by the school and I think it's only about 15 miles away, so we don't have to drive far to get to the mission field and get our feet wet cross culturally! It will give the kids a chance to use their new language skills!
