2007

2007! Since it has been a whole year since we have written in our blog we thought it was time to write another blog. Actually, a still small voice beckoning in the distance encouraged me to write – her name is Jeri.

We are now living in our third house since arriving in Alotau eight months ago. We are currently living on the employee compound for Nawae Construction. Nawae is the company who is building our house. The perks associated with this house include air conditioning, waterfront location, and 24 hour security. God truly has blessed us in the midst of these many moves. When you check out the pictures it will be hard for you to feel sorry for us.

For about three weeks they had suspended construction on our house. Currently they are back to work and anticipate finishing in 3-4 weeks. However, skeptic that I am, I hardly trust those numbers. When we bought the property at the end of May it was going to be 6 weeks until the electric, water, and phones were installed. At this point only the electricity is ready. Hopefully, the 3-4 weeks is a little more accurate than those initial predictions. We have been over to the house and are looking forward to being in our own house. We will buy a water tank and live off rain water. Also, we will just get used to living without a phone for several months. All things are possible …

A week ago we purchased our tickets for furlough. Of course we are excited about the chance to return to North America. We arrive in Canada on June 22^nd (the last official day Jeri can fly because of the pregnancy). On the way we will stop in Tokyo and take a week in Sendai, Japan while we have a chance to visit with the Sendai Mission Team. We are very excited about going as we have longed for the opportunity for a long time. We figured that since we were going through Japan either way, we might as well stop and enjoy some time there.

Hannah’s speech is coming along. She now knows the animal sounds for dog, duck, rooster, cat, pig, cow, gecko [I don’t even know what a gecko says], and tiger. She can now point out where her nose, mouth, hair, head, tummy, shoulders, knees, and toes are. She is saying ‘no’, but fortunately has not used it in context yet. I’m sure that will come quickly. Needless to say, our little Hannah is growing up! For those of you who have not seen her since we left get ready for a totally different girl. She has a mouthful of teeth and long curly blond hair.

Christmas in Alotau

It was a Christmas like no other for me. I guess Craig had similar experiences living in PNG as a child, but it was my first year ever to swim on Christmas, or not be bundled up in a sweater, or feel too hot to drink apple cider. Since this is the hottest time of year we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to go snorkeling and swimming over the holidays. I was a bit nervous that this Christmas might be especially hard since we’re so far from family. But we managed to have a fun time together creating our own Christmas traditions! (Of course we missed our families though!) My favorite part of our Christmas meal was the shrimp that Craig cooked. It was delicious – I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t have to do the work or because it was really just that tasty. Watching Hannah open gifts was lots of fun. She especially enjoyed the ribbons on the packages. I decided not to throw them out because she still plays with them nearly every day. On both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve we had an outdoor party with the church. It was lots of fun – games, skits, lots of food, and singing.

Hannah was quite disappointed yesterday when I took down the Christmas tree and other Christmas paraphernalia around the house. She still says, “ho ho ho” when we go to the store that used to have the big dancing Santa. She must’ve gotten the love of Christmas from her mother! If we move back to North America one day, Hannah will be writing a blog saying, ‘This was my first year ever not to swim on Christmas, or to have to wear all of these heavy sweaters, but that apple cider tastes so good…”