Hannah just turned three on April 10th and we think she’s got to be one of the funniest, cutest three year olds on the planet. Of course we realize that most other parents think the same thing about their children but we rejoice that God created us to really love our children and think these kinds of things. Sure helps with the rough times. It seems like she always has something funny to say: ie: she walked into the room a few days before her birthday with her elbows up to her ears and her hands hanging down and told me, “I’m a switch.” When I tried to flip the switch on I said, “Well then let’s see what happens when I turn this switch on.” She quickly said, “NO mommy! Don’t turn me one! I’m almost three years old!” If she’s not saying something funny she’s saying it in a funny way, maybe with overzealous enthusiasm, “We’ve got to be SOOOOOO careful when we’re cutting onions with a sharp knife or we might REALLY REALLY REALLY hurt ourselves.” These kinds of comments help us know that at least some things we say are sinking in. Other times it’s mixing Tajik with English, “are those onions tez-tezzie-tez-tez?” Tez means sharp, hot and fast here and we use it to describe onions that make your eyes water but of course just saying “tez” isn’t enough, it has to be “tez-tezzie-tez-tez.” When we can’t keep a straight face any longer she quickly reprimands us saying, “That is NOT funny! You do NOT laugh!” Which makes us laugh even harder as she stomps out of the room. We are so thankful for all the laughs and all the sweet and remarkable things about her. The difficult things are really difficult (that little will is really impressive) but we continue to try to keep things in perspective and tell her frequently that she’s a leader – don’t think she knows what that means but she will someday.
Emmett is 10 1/2 months now and I don’t know how he does it, but he’s just cuter and cuter all the time. After crawling backwards for 2 months he finally started going forward at 10 months. That same week he got his first tooth – both to which Hannah gave him a big cheer, “Way to go Em! You got a tooth! Good job!” His temperament is still super sweet and slightly particular. He’s really happy crawling around our apartment and I’m really thankful for the smaller space and the Tajik standard of frequently cleaning your floors because I don’t have to worry so much about him finding things on the floor he can choke on. It’s funny to think that at this age Hannah was pointing to anything sparkly or shiny and whispering, “pretty” while Em is crawling around the floor growling like a tiger. I love seeing the differences between them. Hannah was never really enthralled with one object for very long, whereas Emmett could spend all day examining the vacuum cleaner and still look forward to checking it out again tomorrow – even better if we moved it from room to room and allowed him to crawl around trying to find it.
They’ve both had their sicknesses but we are happy to report they are doing better now. Hannah had scarlet fever (thanks Andrew for helping us figure that one out!) and it took us a month to finally figure it out (what seemed to be different, un-related symptoms every week). She took antibiotics for the first time in her life and as soon as she was done with them, Emmett got sick with nasty chest and sinus congestion and a raging fever. Thankfully, they are doing great now. Em still has a little residual cough but they are both acting like themselves again.
Rees has been playing football with a very competitive team here and enjoys it most days. It’s a little complicated because we’re learning Tajik and the coach coaches in Russian so someone always has to translate into Tajik for him (and Troy is playing too) and they have to try to figure out what the Tajik means. He had a bummer of a day last week where he went to the field that another player had told him their practice game was at only to get there and find the field empty. By the time he got to the other field (which is outside the city – not convenient or quick to get to) he was late and the coach made him run 10 laps and then he didn’t get to play in the game. Of course, he would have been on time at the correct field if he had understood that. Fortunately, he has a great sense of humor so it became tragically funny pretty quick. He’s also working with the English club here – helping come up with a vision for how it should run and what should change. He’s already taught a few classes and enjoyed it and both of us are looking at teaching some more. He and Troy are also working on marketing (more or less) and fund-raising for the NGO (non-governmental-organization) we are working with here, Millennium Development Partners. Get ready, very soon you will be receiving a link to the revamped web-sight and you’ll be able to check out all the projects Millennium has going on both here and in other parts of the world.
I am staying busy with language lessons, visiting with neighbors (hospitality is HUGE here so there’s lots of visiting), taking care of my kids and the usual washing, cleaning, cooking, shopping – all of which take way more time here than they did in the states. I’m looking for a house-helper to help me with all of this but the process is a little slow. I should say it seems slow. I’ve been praying for the right house-helper for a year before we even came so I know there’s someone special out there for us. There are definite differences in how we raise children here so I’m looking for someone my kids will feel comfortable with and that won’t be trying to constantly give them chocolate or tell me to leave them alone, “they’re only playing” when Hannah is dragging Emmett around by the leg and he’s crying. I’ve used my skills as a nurse fairly regularly in conversations with neighbors and as they’ve asked me what I think they should do for various ailments. It seems that everyone has high blood pressure and it’s also really popular to give someone (even little babies) an IM injection of antibiotics when they’re sick so I’ve had lots of conversations about blood pressure and diet and proper use of antibiotics. I don’t think anyone has changed their practices because of a conversation they’ve had with me but I do hope that as they see how we live and treat illnesses, they’ll take note of what works for us. On the other side, there’s also a lot to learn from them about how to treat things. They are really adept at using mountain herbs for certain illnesses and many people try herbal remedies before anything else, trusting that our bodies are made to fend off illness and even get stronger after fighting a cold or something. I certainly don’t want to paint a picture that everyone is inept at healthcare, there’s just certain things that are astonishingly antiquated or wrong and other things that are impressively healthy.
So that’s the update for now. We just got our MagicJack working so if anyone is up for a phone call, let us know. From the states, morning and evening are better times as we are 10-12 hours ahead from most places. I find myself wanting to call people but evening is the best time and I’m frequently so tired in the evening I feel like I couldn’t do a lot more talking, but I am hungry to just hear about life from everyone else. There’s at least three birth stories from friends I haven’t heard and I’m really looking forward to hearing them. Justine – I’d love to see some flamenco footage too if you have video uploaded somewhere. Signing out with lots of love to all of you who are reading this.
