APRIL INTERNS

For the full month of April Dr. David Thomas, his wife and 2 children spent time with us in Paraguay.  David is currently a second year resident at the same residency where Jeff attended, which is how he learned of the opportunity to shadow Jeff and learn about rural church planting/medical work.  

We had a wonderful month together. 

The guys saw some great clinical cases and we all had some great discussions regarding culture and mission. 

They came along on visits and Bible studies and church. 

We fun times singing together and some fierce games of chess and Settlers. 

The loved Paraguay food and threw themselves into learning Spanish.

And I don’t think they cringe anymore at the layers of dirt caked on their kids.

 Hammock hang out

We were so thankful for the rain and the break in the hot temperatures.  The kids had a blast playing in the rain in the pool.

 We found kindred gaming spirits in our interns

We found kindred gaming spirits in our interns

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JEFF!

April 6, 2014

To have a big birthday party….or not to have a big birthday party….that is the question.

And just when we had decided to keep it small….well, it turned into a 5 family.

Which is great because we love hosting, love parties and love our team mates.

After church Jeff grilled a yummy lunch (which I think is funny because I always opt to not cook for my birthday and he always wants to cook for his).

He loved the gift from his family – a water balloon launcher.  A target was immediately taped onto the plastic kiddie pool and the launcher was tried out. 

 lunch preparation start pretty fresh....the doctors become the butchers...

the water balloon launcher was a hit!

JOSIAH at 12 MONTHS

1 year already?  Incredible.  Ginny said to me just last night that she can’t wait for Josiah to see what Josiah looks like walking around.  Yes, I suppose that is the next mile stone….sniff, sniff.   

With his 4 teeth…two on top and two on bottom (all of which came in all in the last month…ouch!) Josiah’s looks are changing from baby to toddler. 

He has learned to get off of beds and sofas by backing down feet first.  This skill was perfected on our recent Brazil vacation because he so desperately wanting to get into the swimming pool.

Josiah loves the water….a pool, the bath tub and especially puddles.  With a huge grin he flaps his hands across the surface sending water everywhere.   

He’s putting more and more sounds together and is coming up with quite a noise repertoire.  The kids love to interpret his noises.

He gives his right hand to greet, he gives high-fives and kisses.

Julia and Josiah are interacting more and more now that Josiah is mobile.  It is fun to see her as the big sister taking care of “her baby”.  She gets concerned when he cries and pacifies him by bringing him juice and toys.  She gets distressed and bossy when Josiah is doing something she thinks he shouldn’t – like getting into the bathroom or eating something inedible.  She loves to help feed and dress Josiah.  She makes games with Legos or stuffed animals for him and invites him to play with her.  She plays mommy with him.  She looks at me and says, “I mommy and he my baby”.  Then she’ll hold her arms out to him, he’ll go toward her and she’ll smother him with a big hug or she’ll pat him on the back and say, “shhhh, shhhh, shhhhh, shhhhh”.     

We had just a little home birthday for him (the Howell’s were also here staying the weekend).  The kids picked out his cake and Ginny and Joshua helped me put all the frosting dots on the dog.