August Update from Indonesia

Hello everyone!

I wanted to write a short update as to how we are doing and give a couple of prayer requests as well. We are almost halfway through Unit 2 of language school (there are 9 units) and are slowly feeling more confident in communicating with people. There are days that we feel pretty good about what we know, and then there are days when we feel like we will never get there. We try to remind ourselves to take one day at a time and not look ahead too far. One thing that we find kind of funny is that random Indonesian words will often pop into our heads at the most random times, like when I'm about to go to sleep for the night and a word like "istirahat" (break) keeps repeating itself over and over in my mind. The same thing happens to Matt. We like to blurt out the words as they come......it gives us a good laugh. We go to school for four hours each day and have Indonesian house helpers (Ibu Agnes and Ibu Yani) that watch the kids and help with various other things as well, including our language learning. They have been such a blessing and we have grown to love them both so much!

Blake has started preschool and he absolutely loves it. He has a personality that needs constant stimulation and he loves to do crafts etc. It is run by a very talented and energetic American woman and has a mixture of expat and Indonesian children. At home has been a bit of a different story and we could use a lot of prayer. Blake has been acting up quite a bit with the house helpers, and with us a little bit too. We have heard (and seen) that this is pretty common with kids moving to a new place with all new surroundings. I share this not to ask for parenting advice, and I won't go into all the details, but would really appreciate prayers for this! Also we could use prayers for us....for wisdom and patience with him.

Callie struggled at first with adjusting to the new place and the house helpers, but is doing awesome now and loves Ibu Agnes and Ibu Yani! She is talking in full sentences and sometimes surprises us with what she knows....she's a smart little thing!

Eva is still our happy little baby. She's almost 10 months and is crawling and now pulling herself up. She is also a little celebrity here! Everywhere we go she attracts attention....and pictures. Sometimes there will be a whole crowd of people around her, wanting to touch her face and look at her blue eyes. Luckily people are pretty respectful so far and it hasn't been too overwhelming.

I (Ellie) am still dealing with back pain and have been trying to strengthen my core muscles, but unfortunately that takes time and my back and hips continue to get out of alignment quickly, which causes the pain. Please pray for healing and that I would be able to get strong again.

Thanks so much!

 

Isn't she cute?

 



 

Preschool summer camp

 

Blake and Callie playing at Blake's preschool