Really, has it been 2 months already?

No one is kidding when they say that life flies by faster  as you get older. It should also be said that the more kids you have, the quicker the days zoom by. Sometime I really need to sit down with my Grandmas (one a mother of 13, the other a mother of 9) and ask them just what it felt like to keep track of all those kids and what they needed from day-to-day. Truly, the heroines of the world should be those who have managed to successfully raise 9 or more children. I cannot imagine such a life.

All that to say, the last 8 weeks seem to have zipped past. Moriah is 2 months now, and is taking after her brother by putting weight on quite nicely–she is at 5.9 kg (about 13 pounds). She also takes after her brother with her napping patterns: one nap might be 30 minutes and the next 3 hours, and I have no idea what causes the discrepancy. But I have learned to enjoy the long naps and take the short ones in-stride. After her long naps and good feed, she is full of kicks and smiles. We are anxiously awaiting cooing and giggles.

Jacob is learning to love his baby sitter. He hasn’t quite figured out that she can’t play catch yet. Just this morning she was nailed in the head by a flying beach ball, followed by Jacob saying, “Mommy, I throwed it at her head.”  It will be a miracle if she doesn’t sustain any minor head injuries in the next 10 months.  Jacob is also a big fan of reading. It is very convenient to live on campus because we can go to the elementary library to read and check out book almost anytime we want. Currently, Jacob’s favorites are The Bernstein Bears, Clifford, Blue Clues, and Franklin. I think he would sit and listen to books all day if he could. Jacob was also very excited to start going to “school” ! Since I have gone back to teaching, he has started going to the ELC (Early Learning Center) during the blocks I am teaching. So, every Monday and Wednesday for an hour and a half he gets to play and create. Usually, he first response when I pick him up is, “Mommy, I had fun at school!”  Let’s hope he can keep that enthusiasm for the next 15 years.

That’s us in a nutshell. We are getting back into the groove of dorm life, but will be taking another break soon for celebrate the Lunar New Year. International teaching  has a rough schedule:) Here are some recent thoughts I shared with the dorm staff  meeting this week. We were asked to evaluate where we are with our goals for the year. One of my goals was to make decisions based on the priorities I feel God has given me for this year.

It has been really freeing to let me decisions be based on the priorities I feel God has given me for this year. It has challenged me to evaluate how I spend my time and has helped me to say no to things or spend less time on things that aren’t on the priority list. However, I think the reason it is so freeing is because I have tried really hard not to let what I think other people are thinking about my performance be my source of motivation or purpose for completing a task or project. Instead, I have tried to spend the most time on those things I feel God has helped me to determine are my priorities and work toward them because he has asked this of me. And this sometimes means being late on a deadline or showing up to class with a lesson planned in 15 minutes. But in place of spending time on paper work and planning I have been able to feel free to work on relationships, with my family, students and friends. To some this may seem easy, but I am one of those task-oriented, type A folk, who would usually prefer to work than have a conversation, because work is almost always safer and more comfortable. But through God putting on my heart that being a mom needed to be a top priority has helped me to slow-down and think about what kind of mom those around me need.  In this process my 2 year old has taught me that love is truly spoken with time…time spent dancing around the house, reading books, making bird feeders out of peanut butter and apples, spilling flour all over the kitchen floor, and watching “something” fun together. Crazy enough, teenagers, in a lot of ways, aren’t all that different than my wild and needy 2 year old–so I am realizing. They too need time, it is just much harder to get because they aren’t screaming for it, usually aren’t even asking for it. In addition, they don’t get all teary-eyed or stick their thumb in their mouth when they are sad or hurt. Instead, they might lash out or slam a door–not quite as enduring as the thumb or the tears. And let’s face it, it is much easier to pick up a 2 year old and wrap him in your arms to make sure he knows you love him than a 16 year old. Here in lies the quandary, how can I take what I know is true of being a mom to my 2 year old and apply to being a mom of some one else’s teenager? If God has called me to be a dorm mom, how do I do it?

Below are some pictures of our amazing and adorable children: ENJOY!

Yay, Moriah is here: Adjustment to a new way of life in progress.

Moriah at 4 weeks old

On November 19th we began a new way of life. Our beautiful daughter, Moriah Therese, was born, weighing in at 9 pounds, 2 ounces and measuring 22 inches. She was delivered by Dr. Park (the same Dr. who delivered Jacob) at the Seoul Women’s Hospital in Daejon. We enjoyed 5 lovely days, and 4 peaceful nights at the hospital before heading home to the adjustment to life with two adorable kids.

Our "little" 9 pounder

At first, Jacob loved to hold and kiss his baby sister. But I think the newness has worn off. He does get a bit protective when he sees her being passed around and reminds everyone that she is “my baby sister”. I think he will grow in to a fine big brother, after working through the reality that his parents’ attention is now divided.  The adjustment has been made smoother by the fact that “Auntie Jo” has been here to play, bake cakes and cookies, color, make snowmen, and many other entertaining activities. There will be a big gap in our home once she heads back to Minnesota. Jacob will especially miss being able to say “happy birthday Jo” (It is our theory that instead of I love you, Jacob uses the phrase happy birthday. He wishes each of us happy birthday several times a day. Maybe he does this because he thinks he will get cake?) .

Adjusting was also made easier by my parents coming to visit from November 26th-December 4th. Even though it was rough for them to conquer the jet-lag, they managed to get meals ready (including an amazing Thanksgiving dinner), clean up the kitchen, entertain Jacob and bring a piece of “home” to our little apartment in Korea. Jacob loved the fact that they let him open his Christmas presents early. One gift in particular, Boz, the Green Bear’s Christmas, has provided hours of entertainment–especially when Moriah is nursing and I am stuck to the chair. Since watching Boz and celebrating Christmas, Jacob loves to walk around singing Jingle Bells, and saying “Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas…and Happy New Year”. He also likes to yell, “Happy Birthday Jesus!” I don’t know what we will do when the Christmas season is over.

Yesterday marked the 4th week of Moriah’s life. Wow! She has already out-grown a lot of her newborn clothes and moved up the 3 month old outfits. We will find out tomorrow at her check-up just how big she has gotten. Like her big brother, she likes to eat.  She is an amazing night-time sleeper (knocking on wood here). The last two nights she has only woken up once! We are still trying to figure out how to get her to take good naps so we can get some rest time during the day. But I have to continually remind myself that as much as I want to figure her out and know exactly what is coming and why this or that is occurring, it isn’t going to happen. Patience, patience, patience…how would I have ever learned the true meaning of this word without having children?

Other events of the past few weeks: Mike turned 31, I turned 28, JoAnna came for 6 weeks to cover my maternity leave in the dorm(I have an amazing sister!!!), and we completed our 3rd semester as dorm parents.  Events that we are looking forward to in the near future: a 3 week break from work (I don’t know if we will ever be able to give up international education jobs), Jeff, Robyn, Owen, and Eliott coming to visit, Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, going sledding and skiing, and justing being together as a family.

Unfortunately, we will not be getting a Christmas card out before Christmas, but hopefully by the beginning of the New Year. For now, you can enjoy the pictures below.

Mike's 31st Birthday Cake

Moriah with Mommy for the first time.

First Family Picture with Moriah

Saying good bye to the nurses.

Happy Birthday Moriah! Now we can eat cake.

Cookie time with Jo

Moriah with Grandma--Happy Thanksgiving.

Moriah with Papa

Cookie time with Grandma & Papa

Three generations...

Early Christmas brunch (December 2nd)

Jacob opening gifts from Grandma & Papa

Moriah on quilt that Grandma made

Jaci's 28th Birthday cake

Christmas Card Picture 1

Christmas Card Picture 2

Christmas Card Picture 3

Jacob is 2, already?

October is here, and I cannot believe how quickly the time has passed since our summer in MN. Life hasn’t even been “that” crazy, yet the time continues to fly. I just keep thinking, what are we going to do when we have two kids requiring our attention and care?  And then some times I wonder if the time is going so quickly because my ability to hold memories seems to have decreased greatly since September of 2007, causing the days and months to blur together because I can not remember what distinguishes one from the other.  Whatever the reasons for the speed of life seeming to hold steady at too fast, I am still sure of one thing, God is amazing and has blessed us with an awesome life.

One huge blessing we have been given is Jacob! It is hard to believe that he has been ours for two years already. He is growing and changing so much; each day he astounds us with a new saying or a funny idea. There is such an abundance of joy in our home and dorm because of his personality and antics. We were able to celebrate all of these things a few times during the week of his birthday. First, he had a party with all of his friends from the ELC (Early Learning Center), the next day he got to eat cake with his friend Theoren. Then, on Sunday, we had a “God-family” party with friends who have become like family to us–most of whom were at his birth or helped in the days following. Lastly, we made a trip up to Suwon, to see our friends who are members of the band, Station 2. Station 2 has traveled to Korea many times, the first of those being when I was in my second trimester of pregnancy with Jacob. They returned to Korea a few days after Jacob was born and have been around a few times since. Needless to say, they have seen me in more stages of pregnancy than most of my family, and they have become wonderful friends to us.

Jacob’s favorite member of the band is Josh, the drummer. Josh let Jacob play his drum-set last spring, and ever since, the word drum rarely exits Jacob’s mouth without the word Josh to accompany it. So, when Jacob was given the chance to see Josh and play drums with him again, the word ecstatic doesn’t even begin to describe his emotions. To top things off, Josh, Dave and Andrew played the drums with Jacob for over an hour! I have never seen him focussed on one activity for that long during his entire life. I am pretty sure that if he could analyze the gifts given to him for his birthday and place them in order, the one on the top would be the hour he spent playing the drums with is friends, Station 2.

Other blessings in our life  in the last month have been a dorm that has been running smoothly, a pregnancy that is proceeding normally, good health (no H1N1 for us!), awesome weather for spending many hours outside, and just two days ago, we bought a vehicle. I think you could say we are settling in more and more to life here at TCIS. And even though each day and week have challenges, God has given us strength and peace to remain focussed on the ministry he has given us at this point in time. We are thankful for the prayers and support of family and friends that help us through each day.

Below are some pictures and video clips from the past few weeks. We hope you enjoy them!

Playing soccer near the river at Expo Bridge.

Jacob, Nina and Tavin walking to the park.

Jacob waiting for his friends to arrive.

Family picture with Tavin

ELC friends eating cake and watching Blue Clues

Some of the kids eating on the balcony.

Opening gifts--everyone had to see what he was getting.

Eating cake with Theoren.

Opening card from Great-Grandma DeAnna.

Opening guitar from Mommy & Daddy.

Drumming with Josh.

Family picture with Station 2.

At GeryeongSang with Mommy.

At GeryeongSang with Daddy.

One of Jacob's new favorite activities, "helping wash the dishes"

The End is Near

Crazy, crazy, crazy!

I am amazed that after a long winter, the time to wrap this year up has come so quickly.The spring has zipped past, and the beginning of the end is near. This week the TCIS class of 2009 will graduate and say good bye, while the underclassmen will prepare for final exams.

The campus has been a buzz ever since the calendar flipped to May. The students (and staff) have kept busy with I-Fest, Mother’s Day,  IB Exams, the Spring Musical,  Prom, IB Music Recitals, Dorm Family Night, and enjoying the sunshine and green grass! It has been hard to keep up with everything, yet enjoyable to have the opportunity to see what amazingly talented students we work with at TCIS. The sunshine and warm breezes have made for a lot of time outside, and that always makes Jacob happy. And if Jacob is happy, everyone is happy!

The next two weeks hold even more busyness in store. Amidst packing and getting students moved out, we will be seeing the seniors off at graduation on Friday night and wishing friends who are not returning next fall a farewell on Saturday night. Not to mention, I will be getting my last stack of grading done and grade reports completed. However, this busy time is met with great excitement as we are eager to head home for the summer!

On June 6th, we will leave Korea to stay with our friends, the Brownlees, in Seattle for couple days. Then we will be headed to Minnesota for a 6 week tour of family and friends. I can not even begin to describe how excited I am to be home and see everyone. I don’t know if it is the pregnancy sickness that is making me more anxious than usual, or if I am just so excited to see Jacob interact with everyone. Either way, I am simply ecstatic about getting on the airplane in June.

And for those of you who are excited to see us, here are some pictures and videos to hold you over until we get to hug and kiss you soon!

For Mother’s Day we traveled up to Seoul to eat at On the Border and Caribou Coffee and see Station 2 perform at Yoido Full Gospel Church (the largest church in the world).

Jacob sitting on a bear at Caribou Coffee in Seoul

Jacob sleeping through the first part of the service.

Jacob after waking up from the very loud music.

Prom, quite the experience!

Jacob sitting in the limo one of our dorm students hired for prom.

King and Queen: John & Jiwon (she is one of our dorm daughters)

All dressed up to chaperone; we got a little dancing in too.

Dorm Family Night!

Entire Dorm at Cin Cins, before going to a movie.

Another trip to Seoul to see Station 2 and meet Dave & Travis’ wives.

Jacob LOVES to play the drums!

Jacob with the drummer from Station 2, Josh--his favorite person of the day.

Posing with Travis and Jenn before saying good bye.

With some of the stars of the Spring Musical: Urine Town

Mike and me with Grace Shin (11th grade)

Me with Ina Kim (10th grade). Ina was the first girl's name Jacob could say.

Mike & me with Minji, one of the main characters of the story. Minji was the second girl's name Jacob could say.

Jacob hating getting his hair cut, as usual.

Our little musician:)

What happened to March…and April too?

Okay, so instead of getting better at keeping up with blogging, we are getting worse. For some reason I thought that with moving to the dorm and being required to monitor a mandatory two-hour studyhall each night, I would be able to keep up with our blog, Shuttrfly albums, Facebook and any other internet related hobbies. Yet, the time slips by and I accomplish little more than catching up on emails–that is just reading them. Seriously, without Webmail I would get so much more accomplished in life; Maybe I need to quit reading the message board posts.

Anyway, enough of my excuses. Without  a doubt the last six weeks have flown past. Part of that is a result of the weather turning to sunshine and warm breezes, allowing for more time outside. Secondly, Mike and I directed the 2009 Dorm Spiritual Retreat at the end of March. With the amazing help of our fellow dorm staff and God’s presence, we were able to be a part of a delightful God-centered weekend. Another reason is that we have been anxiously waiting to be able to say “hey everybody, we are going to have baby number two next November!” (One more excuse:  Once I was into my fifth week of pregnancy my productivity at anything declined immensely, due to sickness and fatigue. Therefore, even more delay with the blog.)

Now it is  April and May  is peeking out just around the corning. WHAT! Some of the highlights of April were Spring Break–sitting around and doing nothing but playing with Jacob. I attended a weekend conference in Seoul to learn more about how to reach the current teen culture (very insightful). We celebrated Easter with an egg hunt after church and a delicious dinner with friends. Lastly, this weekend many of our dorm students are involved in the Spring Musical, so we will be heading out to see that on Saturday.

It is soooooooooo crazy to believe that summer is coming and that we will be leaving South Korea in a little more than a month! The next few weeks promise to be just as busy, if not more so, than the last few. (I will try to post more regularly until the end of the school year.)

Below are some pics and videos from the last two months. We hope you enjoy them.

March

Family Fun Run (5km)

Jacob and I tied with Heather for 2nd Place

Jacob in his Mom's Shoes

Jacob and Theron at Body World

Jacob & I and Laura & Theron on one of our many trips to Body World

Lunch with a few of the Dorm Students' Moms

April

Easter Basket from Grandma & Grandpa

Jacob after eating blueberry pancakes

Family Picture on Easter Morning

Jacob in his pool on the roof

Jacob is going to be "The Big Brother" in November 2009

Wow, we have gotten behind…

As you can see by the date of our last posting, we have not been keeping up with updating our blog. Sometimes it is just so much easier to throw all our pictures on Facebook, than sit down and write a post. But I hope we will not let that happen in the coming months.

Things that have happened since our last post: We celebrated Christmas with a few friends in South Korea, went to Boracay, Philippines for a sunshine get-a-way, my (Jaci) sister visited us for two weeks, we spent a long weekend in Seoul exploring, and are now looking forward to heading the Shanghai, China on Wednesday (to help sponsor the APAC band trip).

Amid all the above listed events, small things have also occurred: Jacob has acquired a few more teeth, now knows the words ball, baby, uuh-oh, owie, mama, and dada, can sign to communicate please, help, more, milk and all done, and is practicing his batting stance for a future career in baseball. The other day when I went to pick him up out of his crib after his nap he just sat there and blabbed to me for a while, and then signed “all done” to let me know I could take him out of his crib. In the moment, it was pretty cute.

Mike and I on the other hand, haven’t really changed all that much! We don’t know any new words, but are learning to be better toddler-language translators. We haven’t learned any new signs, but are looking for God to give us the signs we need each day to keep pressing on in our ministry. We don’t get too many naps in (or hours of sleep for that matter), but when we do it makes a huge difference in our perspective on life. I believe more now than ever before that sleep is the cure-all for almost anything. Too bad I live in a culture that thinks sleep is the last thing one needs to succeed.

Below are some pictures from the last few months. We hope you enjoy them. We are already making plans for summer vacation, and looking forward to seeing everyone at home soon.

Jacob posing for a picture on our patio.

Jacob and his dorm sister Sharon Kim.

Jacob trying to steal my coffee.

Jacob playing at the park on a very nice winter day.

JoAnna & me at Starbucks…we only went once during her stay!

Jacob helping JoAnna color;)

At the Seoul Tower

Lunch break at a bread & coffee shop.

At one of Korea’s most famous palaces.

SMILE!

On the patio of the Blue Mango Inn.

Sandcastle art work found along Boracay beach.

Playing in the sand…we would build sand castles and Jacob would smash them.

Enjoying the waves and the sand.

Christmas morning, opening gifts.

Jacob emptying Mike’s stocking for him.

Jacob and his first sugar cookie. I think he felt ripped-off because there was no frosting on it.

The Giant Christmas Cake Mike requested. (Okay, so he said a box cake would be in fine, but I would not settle for that on Christmas.) This cake was so huge, I am sure it weighed at least five pounds.

Jacob reading with his stack of pillows.

26.2 and 30!

Yay for leaves and fall colors!

November is quickly winding down, and we’ve had quite an eventful month. But when we look back, some years from now, there are a couple events I’m sure we won’t soon forget. On November 2nd Jaci and I ran a marathon (26.2 miles), and on November 4th I turned 30!

Some of you might recall that I ran a marathon last year, and others of you might recall that I said “never again.” But Jaci was in need of a training partner and I wasn’t about to let some other guy do the honors. So in September we began an expedited training program that kept us quite busy throughout the fall. The race was in South Seoul, and we went up the night before to get a good night’s rest (it was our first time leaving Jacob). On race day the weather was nice and cool, and the course was scenic as well as historical (it started and ended in the 1988 Olympic Stadium). There was quite a turn out as well: 23,000 people! Jaci ran the race in 3:24:51, and I ran it in 3:41:35. Both of us exceeded our goals and Jaci even placed 3rd in her age category! Overall it was a good experience, but we’re glad to have a little more time on our hands now that it’s over.

Our good friend Christie came up to support us during the race and afterward we all traveled back to Taejon together. What I didn’t know was that Jaci had assembled our friends to throw a surprise party for me. So, was I surprised? Definitely! I had no idea what was coming. In fact I am pretty sure this is the first surprise party I’ve had in my life! Jacob wasn’t as thrilled as I was and he showed it by balling through the loud rendition of “Happy Birthday.” It was an honor to have so many great people show up to wish me a happy birthday.

Many of you are thinking: “This is all great Mike, but what about Jacob!?” Well our little man has really mastered walking, and has become an accomplished stair climber as well. He is also quite into dancing (check out the clip below). In addition he’s become a more picky eater, and has decided he hates bath time (specifically hair washing). Some of his favorite things to do are: play at the park, play with any sporting ball, watch / chase birds, carry small a small broom or stick around, and eat out of the garbage. Although he can be a handful, he’s certainly a cute handful and a true blessing from God.

The Marathon:

At the 12km mark.

At the 12km mark.

Can you see Mike crossing the finish line?

Mission accomplished!

Christie: cheerleader, photographer & friend.

The Big Party:

Below are some of the many decorations made by our “dorm daughters” who are very creative and like to tease Mike about his age. In order to get the message you have to read from bottom to top. The first phrase you will find a little humorous if you know Korean.

Mike before entering the party: Notice the instructions on the sign.

Mike and Jacob at the party.

Out enjoying the colors at Geryeong Sung with Brian & Julie:

Our little family.

Jacob and Jaci posing in the colors.

With Julie & Brian

13 Days To Go

On Sunday morning Mike and I completed our last “long” training run of 20 miles. In 13 days we will be running the 2008 JoonAng Seoul Marathon (along with about 22,000 others). Neither of us can believe that it has come up so quickly or that we have managed to run nearly all of our training miles in the midst of an absolutely hectic first quarter. We are now praying for a quick recovery from Sunday’s run, and protection from any injury between now and Sunday, November 2nd.

Speeding right along with us is Jacob. He took about 4-5 step on his own at a park the Sunday before last. The following couple of days he took a few more steps. Then over the weekend his confidence picked up, and he is now able to toddle where ever he wants to go. Yesterday, I as I was outside on the lawn in front of our dorm, I witnessed quite the comical sight. Jacob was walking with a push-cart and noticed the sound of a bird tweeting. He scanned the area for a while trying to locate the noise. Then when he saw the bird he quickly let go of the cart and tried to hustle after it. The innocence of it all wiped a smile onto my face. Unfortunately, the bird flew away before Jacob could get to it. But then he spotted two more birds and tried to track them down. If he could talk, I am sure he would have informed me that he was quite disappointed.

On Saturday, we were able to get out of Daejon to see the cross-country team compete at the conference meet. Six of the students are in our dorm, so it was a blast to cheer them on through their 5km race. Also, it was a beautiful fall day: the leaves were showing their beautiful colors, the sun was out and the voices of people cheering were everywhere! (It really made me miss watching Saturday afternoon football games.) The Dragon’s had two All-Conference runners and three JV runners place in the top 20! Maybe some day one of them will run a marathon:)

Well, I am going to keep this short and sweet. We have been very busy, but with meetings and such things that are not too interesting to write about. Check out the pictures below.

Mr. Choi and Jacob at the TCIS 50th Anniversary Celebration Picnic.

Jacob & Song Jo at the TCIS 50th Anniversary Celebration Picnic.

Jacob at Zachary’s birthday partin (in the Loween Dorm Rec Room).

Darren & Jiwon at the Sadie Hawkins Dance.

Mike & Jaci at the Sadie Hawkins Dance.

Varsity Girls at the starting line at their last home meet.

David & YaeChan (both our dorm students) pushing it up the hill at the conference meet.

Grace (one of our dorm students) & Jacob watching the outdoor performances.

Out door IB Theatre performance (Aaron–second on the right–is in our Dorm).

Belated Birthday and Baseball!

 

As most of you know Jacob turned one several weeks ago (September 22).  However due to busy schedules and other various circumstances we have not been able to celebrate our special guy’s big day.  Until today that is!  Today we had a wonderful party for Jacob, and he had a great time with some close friends.  Baseball was the theme, and so we served up some popcorn, peanuts and crackerjacks…(oh wait, they don’t have those here), with some ballpark dogs too.  In addition Jacob’s cake was fashioned after the Metrodome!  It was quite the afternoon.  The house was packed for a couple hours and when it was all said and done Jacob had some great new toys, frosting in his hair and some tired little eyes. 

Since we’re on the subject of baseball I should mention that Jacob made it to his first baseball game yesterday!  Jaci and I took him to see the Hanwha Eagles play there season finale.  While we didn’t last the whole game, we did experience some things unique to Korean baseball including: cheering and songs lead by cheerleaders with whistles, the smell of fried squid, and fans screaming for a home run on every placy.  It was quite the adventure!  Here are some pics of the party and the game:

Notice the Metrodome replication!

Cake Inspection...

Can I get more cake please?

Jacob's First Baseball Game!

Thanks for stopping by!

Time flies…

(picture at Kolon Hotel: TCIS & GSIS Staff Retreat)

Well, it is already the middle of September and life has been shoving us along quite quickly. It is hard to believe that school has been in session a month, and that we are wrapping up the Chusok holiday tomorrow.

The last 6 weeks have brought a lot of changes for us, mostly vocation related. We moved into a different apartment. We began our venture as dorm parents. I went back to teaching (just one class, three days a week). Jacob has become more mobile, vocal, and adorable. In addition, we decided to train for a November 2nd marathon.

We love our new apartment. It was painted the colors we requested (which may not seem like a big deal to most people living in the states where you can buy whatever color paint you like–here the seller can choose not to sell you certain colors just because he thinks they are not good for inside or he doesn’t quite know how to make darker shades of paint.) Our new place is also great because it is quite spacious. Jacob can roam around in his walker for quite a while without getting board. Also, we have a little “deck” that overlooks the school grounds and is big enough for a couple wicker chairs, a table, and the plants I am able to keep alive! Jacob loves to sit out there and watch all the people moving about below.

Learning to be dorm parents has gone pretty smoothly. Jacob has transitioned well to all the students being around–he loves being able to stroll up and down the girls’ hall in the morning when I am making sure they are awake and have cleaned their rooms. We certainly have a lot to figure out. I for one have to learn how to deal with the non-scheduled structure and staying focussed and motivated on meeting relation goals, instead of always working on tasks. Mike is a great dorm dad and has been a great leader for our team, helping us to focus on loving the students and helping them to grow because of the relationships we establish with them. All in all, though we don’t feel like were understand everything that our ministry entails, we are excited that God called us to this position at this point in our lives.

I have enjoyed being back in the classroom. There are only 12 students in my class and they are all pretty awesome. I teach a Higher Level IB A2 English course, which means the students (for the most part) are quite motivated and bright. This makes the task of teaching a lot easier. One of the best parts of this year so far, is that the students happen to mesh well together, making for some amazing classroom discussions on the literature that we are studying. Last Wednesday we went to a coffee shop for a discussion on the novel, The Color of Water (a must read), and I really didn’t want to let them go to their next class because the discussion and learning that was going on was amazing. So, this little class has become one of my most productive hobbies–I don’t seem to have time for any “real” hobbies anyway.

And on to Jacob. Wow, have the last few weeks changed him or what? Since arriving back in Korea he has gotten 2 more teeth (he is up to 6 now), learned to walk around chairs (and push them around the house), and babble (especially when flipping through the pages of books). He has learned that his voice can make different sounds, which has lead to a lot of experimenting with pitch and volume! He especially likes it when we walk down our four flights of stairs because then his voice echoes. Some days I just cannot get over how fast he has picked up social skills and motor skills. I am just waiting for him to take off walking and then starting to talk a mile a minute–I know both will come too soon.

Lastly, sometime in the middle of August Mike and I decided to go ahead with training for a marathon. We decided this a little late, which left us with only 10 weeks of training…oops! It has been fun (Mike would probably use other words) to go out on our long runs together and just enjoy the amazing fall weather. Usually these long runs are between 12-20 miles, so it gives us a lot of time to talk and enjoy each other’s company–and we have learned which babysitters don’t mind getting up at 6:30am to earn some money! So, God-willing, we will make it through training without injury or pregnancy and be able to run in Korea’s largest marathon (they are expecting 22,000-24,000 people to run).

I suppose this is getting a bit long and what you really want to see are pictures of Jacob, so I will wrap things up. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we continue to dorm parent, teach and parent. We hope that all is going well for each of you, and look forward to hearing from you soon (however, our Vonage phone has been out of commission for a while and might not be up and running for a couple more weeks).

Blessings!

We celebrated our 4 year anniversary with a nice dinner out at Casa Biancas.

We had a little party for the August birthdays in our dorm (Sarah, Eunhee, David, John & Alex).

Jacob has become fascinated with books–mostly with chewing on them and bending the pages.

Playing at the playground right outside our front door!

Aawwww…the two cutest boys around.

Mom, how did this yogurt get on my face?

Walking around the couch to catch Mom.

Sorry, Jacob kind of sounds like a monkey sometimes!