14 Weeks

I'm not sure why, but the picture won't load right now. You'll just have to wait and trust me that it looks like Anne has a plate stuck in her belly.

Showing

Anne is.

I'm going to take a picture right now. :)

Solomon's Wisdom

So Chris and I decided to lead a bible study this year for some of our fellow staff. We did this in Bloomington, too, and really enjoyed doing it, so we're taking it on again. So far we've met a few times and we're studying Ecclesiastes. Our goal is to open the Bible, read it, and talk about it. It's just a simple time to come and eat and talk. Honestly, I thought the book was all about wisdom, and how things are meaningless! There is much more to be learned, as we've noticed over the past few weeks. We're also making dinner for them, too, which is a huge blessing especially to those who are coaching high school sports who make it to our place just in time after practice. I LOVE being able to do this for people, and Chris is doing a great job guiding our study through the Bible. Stay tuned for more:).

Letting Go

I'm learning of this process as I watch Elizabeth, my student teacher, take over my fourth grade class gradually. Right now she is teaching Bible and in charge of all the procedural things including lining kids up in the hallway and taking them to special classes like music. Next week, though, she takes over math, and then science and language arts. Then she'll be the full time teacher and I won't be needed anymore. Wow! Part of that sounds really enticing...what will I do all day long? Email many of you! Part of me, though, is already sad at this idea of losing contact with my students even if it is for only a few weeks. Hmm. I'm learning that letting go and letting someone else take over what I thought was "my" domain is harder than I thought. How can I teach Elizabeth to care for those kids' hearts like I do? How can I teach her to be creative and be sensitive to the kids' learning styles and quirkyness that allows them to succeed? These are questions I've been asking myself recently, and I come up with nothing. A healthy tension between Elizabeth and me needs to exist where she can function freely within my classroom boundaries. Yikes! I need to let her fail sometimes, reflect on her progress, make mistakes, and succeed, because someone did that for me not too long ago. It's just a hard thing to watch and I'm not to the point yet where I'm thankful this has come my way this semester. I've been reading Ecclesiastes for the past few weeks on the U-Bahn in the mornings on my way to school, and one piece of wisdom Solomon discovered in his life was that people come and go and are replaced. Such is life, people are dispensable. So how can I do my job well and still know that someone else could and probably will someday do it better than me? Tough questions to ponder. And with Baby Frank coming next spring, I will face this issue of letting go once again on a grander scale. Maybe God is prepping me for the next step. Letting go of teaching, for a while at least, for something He wants me to invest my time into. Wow. That's big. All for now!

Shelley Comes to Town

It was almost as good as Santa Claus coming to town! Our good friend Shelley came to Vienna last weekend. She just earned a Master's Degree in Counseling from Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle, WA, and treated herself to a vacation! We spent a few days in Vienna shopping, eating, and hanging out. She met a lot of our friends here from VCS, and then on Sunday she boarded a train to Switzerland. Bye, Shelley!

The latest Baby Picture

So, this little baby inside Anne's belly is 6 or 7 cm long now. I think that's 3 or 4 inches. Pretty amazing. We saw him/her moving his/her arms and stuff all by him/herself. Wow - that's a pain to type it all politically correct. It's easier to use it until we really know.
By the way, our doctor couldn't tell yet if it's a boy or girl yet.
Next month :)

Windy Words

The US national soccer team recently beat Mexico 2-0 in Ohio. This is matchup between two pretty serious rivals, so you can be sure the smack talk was flying.
The win for the US qualified them for the World Cup next year in Germany, while Mexico has yet to qualify. Even after being shut out, Mexico's coach Ricardo Lavolpe said, "The US is a small team. They play like my sister, my aunt, and my grandmother."

Maybe he should recruit some women from his family since they seem to be good enough to beat his national team.

Back to the 80's

Anne, Andie, and Becky decked out in their

80's outfits for a friend's birthday party!