September « 2008 « traveling light…

Time flies…

September 15, 2008

(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!