The Details...

At this stage it’s so hard to capture Jude in a picture. He’s always going, talking, reading , riding, running, and BLINKING. He TOTALLY takes after me! If I had a dollar for every picture I caught with his eyes closed I could BUY the country we live in!!
He's totally into playing pretend, helping us cook, reading books to himself, riding his tricycle (...well sitting on it at least!), playing in the SUNshine, and tickles!
Jude is running hard and fast to the terrible twos. He’s giving us a LOT of opportunities to learn about parenting THIS child. Over the past few months we’ve learned…

-that Jude needs bunches of hugs and kisses
-that he needs EYE CONTACT
-that he wants us to get on his level…in play and in discipline
-that strong, harsh words are NOT successful in convincing him of what’s good for him...he needs gentleness and patience! Who knew that the fruits of the Spirit applied to parenting!!!???
-that reading a book ALWAYS calms him down and puts him in a good mood
-music in the morning makes for a good day
-that he WANTS to make us laugh…and when he succeeds in this venture he is VERY pleased!!

Cutie J and my new Tun Haircut
(I was so nervous!!! But I'd say it turned out ok!)

We are immersed in language learning at this point. We’re in an Arabic class 5 days/week, 2 ½ hrs per day and both studying individually with a tutor 2-4hrs a week. Not to mention all the time we spend in personal study and of course time out with our local friends!! We have AMPLE opportunity to practice our Arabic and PTL! It’s coming along quickly for us!

Our little HAM!!

For Jude this means that a 20-something local girl comes to watch him almost 4 hrs a day while we’re in language learning (travel time included). At first he seemed to not be adjusting very well…but after talking to my friend Jenn with a lil’ Treston the same age, I found that Jude is QUITE normal! Jude LOVES our new nanny Hoodea!!! His little eyes get bright when she walks into the room! From the moment he met her they’ve had a connection…which is such a blessing to me! She speaks a little more English than I do Arabic, which means we can communicate well enough to tell her what we need her to do for Jude. We’re hoping that during this time we get to bless her and love her!!

My neighbor downstairs, Emen, has become a WONDERFUL friend!! She is always welcoming me in for coffee and a treat and bringing me yummy local delights! We have been able to share together about our “rough spots” in life as well as our joys. When we look back and wonder how we ever ended up in this apartment (it didn’t meet ONE of our top 3 criteria!!), we know for CERTAIN that there was something stronger leading us here! And amazingly enough…she speaks ENGLISH! This meant that I had a friend from the moment we moved in! And Lord knows I needed one!

As most of you have heard…WE’RE EXPECTING!!! Things are coming along very well, it seems. I’ve not had much morning sickness (PTL!), and I feel like I’m gaining more energy every day. I’ve tried to be disciplined about getting at least 8 hrs of sleep every night and exercising regularly, and this has improved my life DRASTICALLY! I don’t even need naps! During Jude’s pregnancy I was VERY sick and napped EVERY day! Of course that meant that I hardly exercised…who wants to when they’re sick every 5 min?? Anyway, we have our first appt on Friday and can’t wait to hear the heartbeat! We should find out the gender sometime in March. We’re due at the end of July…which puts us at 14 weeks today!!

Jon has been working terribly hard at acquiring internet these past few days (which also means LOTS of practice in Arabic!). He’s such a hero for me!! And Jon’s hardwork has been matched by favor from the Almighty One in the eyes of the internet company! So…we’re now on a temporary dial-up connection until our wireless is set and ready to go. Woohoo!! PTL!!!

He’s also reading a book called Tender Warrior which seems to be having a powerful impact on him. He’s also started his seminary courses this semester as well! But I am thankful to say that he’s 3 weeks ahead and STILL excelling in language learning!!

Funny story…
We were on a way to school one day in a taxi (now we take the metro-rail), and we were trying to direct the taxi driver in Arabic. We wanted to tell him to go the big stone archway near our school. Well…the words for arch and diaper are apparently VERY similar! You guessed it!! We told the taxi driver to go to the Big Diaper!! …leave it to us…haha!

I’m sorry you’ve waited SO long for pictures…I hope it was worth it!!

We’ll load some cute videos of our Jude-bug when we have a faster connection!!

We love you!!!!