1/3

It's been a while since I've been connected to the internet, so: update.

Zephan made it across the country. It took 22 hours and one axle replacement. He met a man from Liberia who spoke English, so the trip wasn't too lonesome.

Since he arrived, he's been visiting some friends from the US and visiting with the church and different leaders there. He's a little overwhelmed with all the options and ideas he has and can't wait to come back and mull them over a bit. 

Tomorrow, he's off to a city nearby to stay at a clinic with a guesthouse, where he'll be until the end of the week. He's hoping to catch a ride back to the capital so he doesn't have to take the taxi again.

Silas and I are doing just fine. I am one tired momma, and getting sick (strep?).  So maybe when I say I'm just fine, that reflects the best part of my day. And so now, I will sleep.

Day 3

Just talked to Zephan.  It was pretty choppy, but I did gather a few things:

He's doing great, and so far has talked with some other PBT-ers and gone shopping.  They have Ovaltine there, so that's pretty exciting.

Tomorrow, he's headed out of the capital to visit the region we may end up working: a 20-hour taxi ride away. 

Silas and I are visiting in Columbia. Tonight my friend Jeanie is watching him and I'm going to do some shopping all by myself.  Yay!

Day 1

Silas and I took Zephan to the airport this morning.

Silas has been an angel today—a great way to start out our three weeks together.  I'm just hoping it will last . . . the whole time.  That would be grand.

After the airport, we headed to the botanical gardens with Zephan's parents.  They know someone who works there, so we got in for free and got to go backstage to the greenhouses.  I had my camera and had lots of fun taking pictures.  Silas slept through most of it.

I haven't heard anything from Zephan yet, but he should be headed across the Atlantic by now.

Since we've been home, I've had a little bit of that giddy home-alone feeling of my childhood.  I can watch any movie I want and eat anything that I can afford to buy (we haven't been home for a century, so our fridge is very empty).  Wooohoooo.  Tomorrow Silas and I are cleaning the house, running errands, and heading to Columbia.  I am SO looking forward to staying with our friends there :)

Weekends

Our last two weekends have been quite enjoyably spent enjoying family and festivals.  One weekend, Zephan's sister and great aunt were in town and we spent a day at Old Ironworks Days eating pork sandwiches and listening to a local band.  The other, we stayed with my sister and went to the Maple Leaf Festival to watch my brother march in the parade, introduce Silas to horses, meet a college buddy, and buy some delicious gyros from one of the vendors.

The great outdoors + the baby + lots of family inspired us to pull out the camera.  It's been sadly inactive lately.

We've now booked all of our weekends until Zephan leaves for Africa.  Hopefully the weekend weather keeps up its record—after the cold spell we've had this week, we've been digging through boxes for warm clothes and thinking about a winter coat and hat for the little guy.

Newsletter

We sent out a newsletter today.  Check our blog faithfully but aren't on our email list? Send an email or facebook message to Zephan or me, or comment on this post and leave us your email.

One Month Photos

We've finally gotten these pictures that our friend Mark took last month all sorted through, and we're ready to share!  There are a ton of them, but here are some of our favorites:

Advice

All new mothers should live in someone else's basement.  Especially when that someone else includes a stay-at-home mom with six children.  Because someone always there to hold the baby while you do laundry or go to Sonic really makes motherhood something grand.

Little Guy

Our son Silas was born twelve days ago, a whopping 12 days late. He was born in style--in a cabin out behind the wood shop, right next to the most productive garden I've ever seen.  While I hung out in the whirlpool, our midwife and her helper were in the kitchen peeling peaches and chatting in German. We all stopped in between contractions to pray together when the pushing got rough. 

I could include all the gory details, but chances are I'd never finish this post if I did.  Our birth was great almost every way, but following the birth things got a little rough.  But thank God, we made it.  We are still making it.

In the end, I must say that this little guy is my greatest accomplishment.  Waiting for him to arrive was the hardest thing I've ever done.  Giving birth to him was the hardest thing I've ever done.  Recovering from giving birth, tearing, postpartum hemorrhaging, and a very rough start at breastfeeding was (and still is) the hardest thing I've ever done.

But things are looking up: I can scoot around and change positions in bed all I want.  I can hold and maneuver him with ease.  I no longer dread going to the bathroom.  I can breathe and walk at the same time.

I'm thankful for all of these things, for my wonderful husband (who didn't let me change a single diaper for a whole week), and for our future together as a family.

Nesting

I've nearly run out of things to do in preparation for the arrival of our kiddo.  Everything's clean.  Everything's packed.  Our car has functioning seat belts.  Most of my MFW jobs are as complete as they have a hope of being.  There's food in the freezer for lazy days to come.

Thanks to a well-placed phone call this morning, though, I have one project left.  Rolla-Mom and I took a break from work this morning to go to a yard sale where three ladies were unloading all of their baby stuff.  Unfortunately, their most recent babies were all girls.  If I knew I was having a girl, it would have been a problem.  All the clothes were SO cute and in SUCH good shape.  I would have had a hard time restraining myself.  As it was, I picked out all of the plain and yellow things and grabbed one or two especially cute girly things just in case.  I also got a Rubbermaid storage thing with three drawers, so now I actually have a place to put all the cute baby accessories we've been accumulating.  So now I can find logical, convenient places for things.

And also, I need to quilt my baby quilt, and I can't find a leather thimble anywhere in Rolla.  I have one last place to look, or I'll be going back to WalMart to get the next best thing.

Beach

Something like a month ago, Zephan and I spent a day in Biloxi, MS getting our beach on.  It was the perfect day - not too hot, not too cold, not too crowded, nothing to worry about or rush to . . .

*sigh*

We took some pictures which, I'm sorry to say, hasn't happened a whole lot in the last few months.  And I actually found one that doesn't make me look quite so pregnant as the others :) . . . but extremely freckled, somehow.

Eating Breakfast, Thinking

It's Friday morning, and I have to be somewhere soon.  I've been reflecting on how busy it's been.  We graduated, packed, started working in Rolla, moved while working in Rolla (which means that we may never actually be done unpacking), went to Dallas for Orientation with PBT (which I want to write about, sometime -- maybe when I can be at home and not distracted by all the putting away that's left to do?), came back to Rolla on our anniversary, visited the midwife, celebrated my birthday (Tuesday night with the in-laws and Wednesday afternoon with my mom), hung out with family here for the wedding, today Zephan's sister's getting married, after which we're meeting more of Zephan's family in St. Louis for a surprise family reunion/birthday celebration for Grandma.  And of course, we'll probably get back from that in time to get not enough sleep before we start our next work week.  It promises to be less busy, which I'm really looking forward to.

And besides all of this, I'm all of a sudden feeling about 120% pregnant.

Monster Project Update 3

Well, I finished it. 

Not particularly well, maybe.  The beginning was killer, the end . . . eh.  But I did it.  And then left to spend the weekend in Lebanon.  And then started packing and stopped coming in to town.  Tomorrow we begin our drive to Georgia.  We'll see how it ends up - by the way things have been going, it may be a while before I hear back from my professor.

Zephan's last day of work is TODAY.

Hallelujah. 

Monster Project Update 2

My paper is due tomorrow, ideally by around 4.  My final draft currently consists of 11 pages.  So . . . 13 pages to go.  Think I can do it?  I'm starting to wonder.

The Last Hurrah

Zephan is on a four day weekend that ends tomorrow.  And then he works ten days in a row.  And then we leave to go to a Be In Health conference in Georgia.  And then we'll be in Rolla for the rest of the summer.  Meanwhile, I have a monster paper to finish and turn in on Thursday.  And then I'll be packing, packing, packing.  :)

We've been trying to smooth out some details, so we spent yesterday in Rolla looking at basements and interviewing midwives.  It. was. exhausting.  But now we have some ducks in a row.

We saw our midwife here in Columbia for the last time this morning, which makes three midwives in 24 hours.  It was a pretty sad thing.  She told me that I had a beautiful belly.  Everything looks fabulous.  I've gained 9 pounds in the last three weeks. (!).  We'll miss her.

News

So, we found out earlier this week that we are now official PBT recruits.  Wooo!

We've been waiting for this news so long, now that it came we're not really sure what to do with it.  I guess it means that our plans have potential to change from "we might" and "we want to" into "we will."  And we can officially accept money from supporters now.  That's good, right?

Our summer plans still include living in Rolla, going to PMI in Dallas in June, and having a baby.  All, of course, after school is over and Hyvee is no longer Zephan's employer.  Which is soon, I keep telling myself, very soon.  But not yet.

Decisions

We still haven't heard from PBT yet, but we have decided to move to Rolla after my semester is over.  Which is like, in three weeks. This will give us a chance to get out from under Hy-vee's tyrannical rule over our lives and make opportunities to bond with people and share our plans.

At this point we're not really sure how long we'll be there.  At least until August, but we feel like staying longer might be beneficial as well.  We'll be able to have flexible, consistent work schedule for Zephan, which would be nice as we begin parenthood.  We'll be closer to family and our home church communities.  And there are lots of productive things we could do or training that Zephan could get if we decided to stay there longer. 

Of course, Zephan's generally of the opinion that faster is better, so as our plans take shape, we're continuing to pray for wisdom as we make decisions, especially about our time line.  But also about things like houses and midwives. 

Walking

Zephan and I went for a walk last night, despite the wind and the cold.  I took my camera along and played with it a lot.  It was a good time.  I love where we live.

Pistol insisted on following us, but wouldn't stay out from under our feet.  So Zephan carried him for a while.  There was point, though, when he would go no farther and just stood at the side of the road meowing for us.

Good News/Bad News

Good news:

• I'm at Coffee Zone drinking the Brazilian and a blueberry muffin.
• My friend Gwen is engaged.
• I bought a new battery for my computer this morning, which means that I no longer have to be attached to a wall in order to do anything.
• I have 18 pages of stuff to turn in for my rough draft today

Bad news:

• I paid $75 more than I was expecting to for the battery because apparently someone used my gift card I got for working ONITA over winter break to buy underarmor and Skittles.
• The 18 pages - it's mostly stuff that other people have written.  But man, is it well-organized.  Hope it's ok with my adviser . . .   Of course, so far he's been thrilled with everything I've done.
• It is unbearably windy outside.

Other news:

• Zephan and I are waiting on the Lord.  Still.  And so, Zephan will be fasting (a modified Daniel fast - complicated) and we'll both be praying a lot over the next few weeks, at least until we hear from PBT about becoming recruits.  And then we'll have to make some decisions about when to move to Dallas.  We'd love for everyone to pray with us especially hard during this time.  If you're up to it, give us a comment/email/text and let us know.  We love knowing that we've got people supporting us :)

Spring Break I

It's spring break.  So far, it's included:

• Coffee Zone - working on a creative writing paper, half of which was lost somehow
• snow
• coffee with Martha
• delicious food with Jeanie in Ashland - all. day. long.
• bargain shopping at the mall with Mary while Zephan and Simon built a chicken coop
• many, many pancakes
• considering the future x100 - some decisions made
• grocery shopping and errands on Zephan's day off

The rest of the week must include:

• finishing the creative writing paper
• writing a 25-page rough draft of my research project (while finishing researching)

 . . . *sigh* . . .

At least it isn't going to be warm and make me want to do fun outdoor things.

Weekend

This weekend I went to visit my mom.  Zephan was working and had to stay behind, so I got some good girl time in with Mom and Grandma. 

The goal for the weekend was to get started on a baby quilt, which is the project that will be absorbing my prepare-for-baby energy for the time being.  This meant that I had to tackle the sewing machine.  My sister gave me one to use for this, and it's probably one of the most intimidating things that I've ever owned.  My mom was much more patient teaching me to use it than she was teaching me how to drive.  I was much less patient at learning to do this than I was learning to drive.  Probably because I spent hours ripping out seams. 

Also, I went to church at Southern Heights, and after the service a group of people prayed for all of the crazy undecidedness that is our lives right now.  It was perfect and encouraging and I can't wait to go back next month.

Quilting

This is something I don't think I've ever imagined myself wanting to do.  A sure sign that pregnancy does weird things to women.

I'm making a baby quilt.  I spent probably two hours at JoAnn's a few days ago selecting the perfect material (in brown and orange and green and blue, in order of prominence) and listening to the employees discuss their dinner plans.  Said material has been washed and ironed and is now waiting to make the journey to see my mom this weekend.  It's going to be a party.

Monster Project Update 1

So my life is all about African literature this semester.  Most of things I've read are pretty depressing and culturally startling, but good for me to read, I think.  Definitely an area I'd recommend delving into.

What I've read:

The Joys of Motherhood - Buchi Emecheta 
Houseboy - Ferdinand Oyono
The Dark Child - Cameron Laye
The Abandoned Boabab - Ken Bugul
Nervous Conditions - Tsitsi Dangarembga
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe


Plus maybe something else that I can't remember.

Anyway, so I'm doing a giant research paper for one of my classes, and I'm writing about Nervous Conditions.  Here's an abstract that I wrote today (kind of needlessly - long story).  So if you want to know what it might possibly be about when I actually write it, read it!  And give me feedback!  Encourage me!  Offer me rewards for working on it!


Here it is:

Intercultural interactions are notoriously sensitive and have been problematic throughout history.  In a world that is becoming increasingly aware of the potential disasters involved in cross-cultural relationships and increasingly bent on preventing them, it is difficult yet constructive to process past events that are poor examples of successful intercultural relationships.  A prominent event on this list of failures is colonization of the Americas, Africa, and Asia by Western powers.   

In this spirit of retrospection, Tsitsi Dangarmbga’s novel Nervous Conditions tackles the enormous problems inherent in colonial societies as they occur in Southern Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe) in the 1960s.  Her narrator and main character Tambu shows readers her black and white world through the eyes of a Shona schoolgirl.  Tambu’s colonial experience doesn’t involve governmental authorities, regulations, and injustice, but missional authorities and regulations.  Through her we see the good and the bad of life on the mission and the enormous complications it presents for those who try to partake of both missional and Shona society.

Dangarembga’s idea that juggling two standards of behavior causes strain in colonized communities, families, and individuals and her connection of these double standards with missional institutions need exploration that examines concrete historical examples of mission organizations acting as colonial forces as well as the missionaries’ points of view. Using my research I hope to create a historical background to interpret the novel and also use the novel to bring light to historical accounts of missionaries and their activities.  How can natives’ negative experiences be reconciled with the good intentions that many missionaries and their supports had?  What cultural and political miscommunications added to already touchy situations?

Intimidating School Things

So today, my delightful Rwandan French professor informed me that after spring break, I will give her a 20-minute presentation in français impeccable about all of the books I've read this semester and the impressions they've given me about African society.

My response to this was:  "Oh, dear."

Her response to this was to laugh real hard and say, "Yes, dear."



Also, she says she's going to find out about the local church services for African refugees for me.  And introduce me to a TA she know who's from Guinea.  Did I say that she's delightful?

A boast

We would like everyone to know that we made the most fabulous pizza today.  It was a copy of something we had at Shakespeare's once, but was great nonetheless. 

Crust:

whole wheat, lacto-fermented

Toppings:

chicken
onion
green pepper
artichoke heart

The only thing that could have made it better was tomato slices.

Midwife 2/15

We had an appointment with our midwife this morning.  She says the baby must have read the book.  I got blood drawn last week and everything is looking perfectly normal!

I also turned in the food journal that I did a couple of weeks ago.  Who knew that oatmeal cookies could cause so much trouble?  She says that I should try to limit myself to one treat a day and eat it with a meal or something with protein to avoid crazy spikes in my blood sugar.  This comes with a promise of no headaches and a healthier baby. *sigh*

Also, apparently everything that Zephan likes is fabulous.  I've been told to eat like he does. I don't want to. 

Our birthing classes start tomorrow night.  The topic this time is nutrition and exercise.  Maybe I'll be inspired.

The highlight of midwife days is that afterward we always go to Clover's and we always get some healthy snack that's on sale for Katie.  Previously, this has been Kombucha and Spritzers.  Today: flavored peanut butter packets and potatoes (not for snacking). 

Home on the Range: Cats

These are our friends Sweet Pea, Pistol, and grumpy, unsocial, fluffy cat whose name I can't remember.  The two gray cats have very recently been kittens.  They love attention, leave paw prints on our car, climb on our window screens, cling to the window in our back door, meow outside the room they think we're inside, follow us everywhere, etc. 

 

The only time we see this guy is when we're responsible for feeding him.  Like when this picture was taken.  Does he realize how bad an idea it is to sit on top of the box your food comes from?