So much for my attempt to update regularly: another six weeks have gone by since I last wrote.

Just for the record, I think Marie has practiced the violin about three times since then, and not been able to play with anyone else, because the person she'd just started working with left earlier than expected...

I'm now nearly 20 weeks pregnant and feel the baby moving often, and my husband has even felt the baby twice, which was very exciting! At the last check-up, we got asked who has big feet, and my husband said "I do" at the same time that I said "He does." We have a big-footed baby! :-)

We only have eight more days here  in South Africa (less, if one wants to count hours...), and are sad about leaving. The January DTS left on outreach and we're really missing them (they all got here at the same time we did), but the children have quickly been making friends with the new DTS, too, which started a week ago. Also, one of the guys from the previous DTS wasn't able to go with the other teams on outreach, because he's a refugee here (from Democratic Republic of Congo) and couldn't get a passport, so is doing local outreach. He surprised us with a visit a couple of days ago when he had a day off, and when Katie saw him from across the room, she froze, then FLEW into his arms, yelling his name, and just kept hugging him, again and again, saying his name and then laying her head on his shoulder. It was pretty cool. There's a team from Mauritius here at the moment, that the children hung out with a lot this morning, and another team from Réunion. One man on that team speaks English and one woman speaks German, but the rest only speak French and/or other languages that we don't speak, so communicating has been challenging, but all the children do now know how to say "bonjour"--and pronounce it better than I do, of course!

In answer to a question, we're headed back to Germany next week, where I've lived for over 16 years and where my husband has lived for his whole life. :-) We still have an apartment/flat there (well, most of it still belongs to the bank...), but will likely be selling it in the next six months. We're in the process of applying to go on staff with YWAM Cyprus in Larnaca, with the idea that we would go pretty much as soon as the baby (due September 5th) has a passport. My husband will go back to work at the bank when Katie turns three (July 24th) and his parental leave runs out, then will take another three years of parental leave for the new baby. (His boss is not going to be thrilled to hear about this! LOL) He's been working part-time (20 hours a week) at the bank for the last six years, as we didn't manage to raise enough support for him to go full-time with the mission work in Germany at that time, but we're hopeful that in the next three months we'll be able to raise more.

What else to write about? After taking something like eight months to finish the first quarter of third grade math, Jacob finished the second quarter in three and a half weeks. He's like this with everything: walking, talking, potty-training, reading...and now long division. iI takes him awhile to get something, but when he finally gets it, he TOTALLY has it! So Jacob is now math-free until we get home. (I have the next book at home!) And Marie finished sixth grade math several weeks ago, but at the moment she's doing a free one-month trial at www.aleks.com. There's no way we would end up subscribing, as it's pretty expensive (and completely on the internet, not very practical with one computer and a husband working from home), but it seems like a great program and it's a good thing for the moment, but I still don't know yet what she'll be doing next. Anybody in Ireland (or the U.S., for that matter) headed for Germany any time soon, so that I can order Singapore Math (NEM) without horrendous shipping costs?

I really can't think of anything else. When we truly leave Germany, I should probably start a new blog, with a more appropriate name, but I'm not any more likely to keep any other updated than this one, so it probably doesn't matter much...