I really had wanted to post an update sooner than this, but August ended up being a pretty busy month. A lot of you know that I have an Etsy shop (see righthand sidebar for a link), and I’ve been working on updating my designs and that’s been keeping me pretty busy in my free time here lately. It’s been a fun hobby for me that I would love to see turn into more of a real part-time job one day. I started it just to kind of keep my hand in the design world, but I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve actually gotten to work with a lot of people from different parts of the US and different parts of the world that I probably would have never been able to otherwise. Jen, Charla, and I traveled to Urubamba, a nearby city in the sacred valley, for a little girls’ retreat of sorts a few weeks ago. Mainly we went for some relaxation and renewal, and it was a really nice break for a few days. The guys stayed home and kept the kids, and they did great with their dads, which we all expected. It was the first time I’ve ever been away from Cole for more than a few hours, and I’m thankful that Barton was able to keep him because of course I felt much better being able to leave him with his dad. Our work here continues to go well, and yesterday we had another Bible student put on Christ in baptism. Her name is Margie and she is actually from the U.S. and was working here in Cusco doing some volunteer work for several months. She was near the end of her visit, and had been studying with Gary, so she decided now was the time to give her life to Christ. From here she will travel on to Bolivia to work there for a while, and eventually will travel back to her home in Washington, D.C. Please pray for her as she begins her new life in Christ and that she will find a good congregation of Christians to work with when she returns home.
Cole turned 2 1/2 years old yesterday! He has really grown up a lot in the past few months. He’s still shy, but is becoming more social, and is constantly talking about the people we see on a daily basis as well as his family back home. When we pray, he mentions all of our teammates by name, and also all of his cousins, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. He makes sure that we don’t forget anyone! He and the other kids on the team are starting to play together more and interact more as they get older, and lately he and Brody are really becoming best buds. Brody just turned 2, so he is just about 6 months younger than Cole. Cole still sleeps well at night, and takes a decent nap most days, but I’ve noticed that if I don’t get him down before the late afternoon, he will almost always refuse to nap. So that’s tough when we have to do stuff in the afternoons because he’s pretty cranky by suppertime. He loves to read books of all sorts, and a lot of times he pulls out old photo albums and wants us to “read it”, so we tell him what’s going on in each of the pictures. He’s talking all the time now, and his little vocabulary has really taken off in the past few months. He’s forming sentences pretty well, and he’s starting to speak a little more Spanish as well. On a regular basis, he says, “Hola”, “Chau”, “Gracias”, “Casaca” (jacket) and “De frente” (giving directions to cab drivers!). He will repeat (or try to repeat) a lot of other Spanish phrases when we ask him to, and he understands most commands and a lot of other vocabulary in Spanish. He is really fascinated with learning his numbers and colors right now, and a lot of times he prefers to count in Spanish rather than English. One thing that amazes me with his numbers is that he recognizes numbers when he sees them written in books. The other day he even picked up a 5 soles (the currency here) coin and handed it to me and said, “Cinco”. Santa Claus and Christmas are two big things with him right now, and he has a Santa hat from his first Christmas (that is way too small!) that he somehow found and dug out the other day, and now whenever he catches sight of it, he insists on wearing it all day! He wants to read The Night Before Christmas and The Polar Express most nights for his bedtime stories, and now when Barton is shaving in the morning, Cole asks to have shaving cream put on his face so he can be (in his words) “Santa Cole”! He also is really in love with his shoes, and one of his favorite activities is taking them all out of his drawer and lining them up in a (very) straight line! He definitely gets his organization skills from Barton and not from me! The other day he woke up from his nap early screaming (I think he had a nightmare), and he kept asking for “shoes”. I tried rocking him back to sleep, but the only thing that would calm him down were his new pair of shoes! I finally gave in and handed them to him, and he pointed to his bed and snuggled them and went right back to sleep! He is still not a huge TV watcher, but in the mornings while we eat breakfast we put on one of his shows and he will watch it pretty well then. He still likes Elmo and Sesame Street, but his new favorite is a British cartoon called Pingu about a little penguin. We are able to watch it through our Roku player (which is amazing! especially when you are a missionary and miss American TV!).
I can’t believe it’s already September! Our fall campaign is just a month away now, so we are busy making preparations for it. It’s a little bit of an unconventional idea, but what we’re going to do is have a big carnival at our building, and at the same time do a parenting seminar in the back classrooms so that we can hopefully draw in a lot of new families to the church. I’m really excited about it, and hopefully we’ll make a lot of new contacts from it. Barton and I celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary this weekend, and we were able to go out last night to our favorite restaurant on a date. We had a great time and it was nice to go out without a two year old for once!
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Thanks for the update and the pictures of the family. We miss you guys.