Language Acquisition Training

this past week, we were in class from 9-5pm every day for language acquisition training.  since all of us here are going to different countries all over the world, i was very skeptical about how a general language acquisition training could benefit us more than the time spent to work on our language specifically. 

i was very wrong.  this was one of the most helpful weeks we've had in our preparation and training.  i can't tell you how excited it got greg and i both about starting our language study again, but also gave us very concrete tools, strategies and ideas to approach our language studies in the most efficient and beneficial way possible. 

the large group broke up into 4 groups - each one practicing the tools that had been presented in class all week to learning one of four languages:  Korean, Japanese, Arabic and Portugese.  My group learned Korean.  I can't say that my Korean is very good after 2 days of studying it, but I feel much more confident and excited about going back to language school!  Very thankful for this past week.

jude's terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-day

little man LOVES to eat lemons

... even though this is his face while eating them.

note: the above pictures are irrelevant to the story, but since it's about him, i thought i'd put some cute pictures of him to go with it.  :) 

last thursday, jude had quite a rough 24 hour period.  after getting out of class thursday night, we grabbed some dinner at a thai restaurant and took it to a park on our way home so that we could observe people there for one of our ethnographies.   without thinking, i fed jude several bites of chicken from my pad thai dish.  this was his first exposure to nuts, and sure enough, about five minutes later, a splotchy red rash began to appear all around his mouth.  surprisingly enough, i did not panic, but for good measure called one of my friends who is a pediatrician.  unable to get a hold of her, i called our pediatrician's office and spoke to the on-call nurse.  she made me feel a little more panicked as she was very urgent in her instructions to get benadryl in him immediately, that our pedi wanted to call in an order for an epi-pen, and telling us to watch for swollen tongue/lips, difficulty in breathing, vomiting, etc. and when to call 911.  so we get home, i start getting jude's bath water ready while greg goes to rite-aid to buy the benadryl and i realize that the silence is a pretty good indicator that a catastrophe is looming.  so i went looking for jude in our apartment only to find him chugging a sippy cup of milk.  this would have been fine if we had actually given him a sippy cup of milk.  so i looked at him while my pregnant brain replayed the events and realized that no, he had not been given a sippy of milk, which means that he was chugging his morning cup of milk that had been sitting out in our HOT apartment for 12 hours.  fantastic.  i jerked the sippy cup out of his hands to find that he had drunk about 2 oz. (discerned from the visible line where the curdled milk had stuck to the sides).  fabulous - of all nights when i didn't need for jude to drink curdled milk, it was this one.  all i could think about was the inevitable conversation with the on-call nurse that would happen during the middle of the night:  "hi - my son is vomiting, but i'm not sure if it's from the allergic reaction he had tonight or the curdled milk i let him drink....any thoughts on what i should do?"

while worrying about when the vomiting would come, i bathed him and put his pjs on, went in the kitchen to get his nighttime milk (we generally keep milk refrigerated) only to see jude come blitzing in the kitchen and run full-force into the wooden island and fall backwards onto the floor (nailing his head in the front and the back).  could a concussion make you vomit too?  this was not turning out to be the best night. 

thankfully, the benadryl made him sleep soundly all night.  and thankfully, i think the apple he ate off the ground last week in the middle of NYC strengthened his stomach enough to make curdled milk digest with no vomiting.

so while getting him dressed that morning, he suddenly stood up on the bed and in a split second, ran towards the edge (imagine a child with no fear, no concept of what causes pain, and reckless) and did not even hesitate at the edge - just kept running off the bed.  i dove across the bed for him (onto my pregnant belly) only in time to grab his legs as he went head first off the bed - body rumpling backwards in half as he landed on the hardwood floor.  you can imagine the screams.  my heart-rate didn't come down for another 30 minutes.  thankfully - he survived with no broken anything.

and if you think that the 12-hour period couldn't get any worse....  we left the house for class; i went to get coffee and met greg and jude back at the bus stop.  while i was gone, greg and jude were waiting for the bus.  jude's stroller was laden with his diaper bag, our backpack, and lunch sacks all hanging on the handles.  while greg was looking down the street to spot a bus, he noticed that a women kept staring at jude with a strange look on her face.  so he looked back at jude only to see that jude's stroller had tipped over backwards and jude was laying there strapped in with his feet up in the air and head near the ground ... not making a sound.   poor guy, by that point, i think he was feeling like nothing else could really make the day worse, so why not lay upside down waiting for the bus....

i promise - we actually do watch him - but it's moments like that when i think people look at us with jude and, seeing me pregnant, think to themselves, "and she really thinks she can do this again?"

ministry in astoria, queens

lest you think all we do in nyc is eat (considering my last three posts were about food), i thought i would give you an idea of our days here.  our team is partnering with astoria community church (a site of queens presbyterian church).   the first two weeks, we spent our mornings in the community of astoria meeting people, observing the community, assessing the needs, and advertising, planning and teaching an ESL course. we loved the students who came to our class - from mexico, bangledesh, and korea.  while not professionally trained ESL teachers, Greg and I enjoyed teaching the intermediate class together and I realized how helpful my job training (SAT tutoring) in helping me know the grammar rules and how to teach it!  our students were wonderful, our team made incredible conversation partners, and we pulled it off somehow!  our last day, we had a party where we had asked our students to bring food from their culture and explain it to us in English.  it was delicious and so fun to see them excited to share their culture with us!

jude doing his part and keeping us in line.

In the afternoons, we are in class - learning a breadth of things about culture, raising kids overseas, contextualization, etc etc.  jude is in the childcare all afternoon while we're in class - the childcare interns are amazing and really love our kids well - the only challenge is getting jude to nap in the "sleeping room" with other toddlers!  i thought he was flexible before....but he's going to be a whole new little man when we leave here!

this week, we are in class all day from 9-5pm doing language acquisition study (more of a practical linguistics study of learning a new language).  Next week, we'll go back to the ministry/class schedule.  i'll share some of the things i'm learning as we go along in case you are interested.

the food in nyc

we are a family that loves to eat.  we love trying new things, so living in an ethnically diverse community has immense benefits.  there is a vast array of restaurants on our one main walking path:  thai, indian, greek, middle eastern, bohemian, italian, chinese, mexican, japanese, korean, french, brazilian.... and the list could probably go on.  we rarely eat out in boston, so we're usually limited to my breadth of cooking.  it has been so fun for me to not cook very much this month and just try different things here.  i am paying close attention, asking lots of questions, and taking notes (literally) so that I can broaden my cooking horizons at home.

We went to a Brazilian BBQ buffet last week - $6.99/plate.  It was so delicious.  Jude ate my meat faster than I could cut it (he rarely gets meat, so I think he ate so fast in fear that the supply might end soon)!  This was my plate:

I had the best Green Curry at a nearby Thai restaurant - and the cashier has really taken to Jude, so we love to go by and visit sometimes.  The Chicken Tikka Masala we ate tonight was one of the best I've ever had.  But yesterday's lunch might take the cake for me so far.  We've mostly been eating pretty unhealthy compared to our normal diets (very few greens, lots of white rice, etc), and this poor baby boy inside of me is definitely getting second rate treatment compared to how I ate when I was pregnant with Jude!  So I was craving a really good salad this weekend.  Yesterday, we had the day off, so Greg, Jude and I went to Soho to walk around and grab a sandwich for lunch.  The only sandwich-ey place we found was from following a name on my iPhone - and we happened upon a JEWEL ... Le Pain Quotidien.  I love this place.  I love the freshly baked bread, the pastries, the way they mix flavors, and I love sitting at their communal tables.  We became fast friends with the family beside us as Jude thought it was his duty to provide entertainment for their meal.  Greg had a really delicious chicken, mozerella, and tomato open faced sandwich.  I captured a picture of his below.  I had the most wonderful salad I've ever had: a kale caesar salad.  It sounds plain - but it was so fresh, with the best combination of flavors and I can't wait to make it all the time when we get home. 

i promise i won't bore you with what we eat each day, but i am super excited to get back home and try lots of new foods - and if you'll humor me on my blog, then you can come over for dinner.

chinese noodles!!

after class one night during our first week here, greg and i decided to head over to the 'real' chinatown in flushing (queens) (rather than the more touristy chinatown in manhattan) for some good spicy chinese noodles.

so speaking chinese definitely has its advantages.  even if it's done poorly :)  we must have asked 6 different people on the street for recommendations on their favorite place for good chinese noodles.  after being unable to follow directions very well in chinese to find one of the places, we finally found another one that a sweet lady had recommended to us.  it was definitely a hole in the wall within a hole in the wall.  the napkins, tables, chairs, everything made if feel just like we were in china.  i loved it.  jude had his first taste of chinese food and LOVED it (i took out a good bit of mine before he added the spicy paste).  while the noodles weren't the best i'd ever had, our company sure was.  we had lots of chinese ladies fawning over jude, met an older chinese woman who has been in america for 25 years and has been a believer for as long as she can remember as she is a 3rd generation christian in her family.  it was such a wonderful night ... igniting my heart for why i love the chinese people and their culture.  three cheers for chinese noodle night.

nyc life: weekend excursion #1

last weekend, on saturday morning we walked a couple of blocks to eat breakfast at our favorite little coffee and bake shop, Astor Bake Shop. 

i have fallen in love with this little bake shop.  everything i have had there is excellent - breakfast pastries, coffee, lunch and dinner foods - everything.  i live rather vicariously through them as i dream of their pastries, how i could make them, and how i would love to own a bakery/cafe one day.  my daily almond croissant makes me so, so happy and i eat it freely since i am pregnant and gaining weight anyway. ;)  (i know that is flawed thinking, but just let me lie to myself this month and maybe i'll make almond croissants for you one day.)

then, we went to a local park where there was a farmer's market, free yoga in the park, and met an awesome couple in their 60s from Armenia.  they have lived in astoria for 26 years and gave us all their best restaurant recommendations.  i love meeting people here.  people have been so friendly and warm and welcoming.  not the nyc most people imagine.

after jude's morning nap, we took the staten island ferry to see the statue of liberty.  i hadn't see the statue of liberty since i was 11, so it was fun to go again.  jude enjoyed the ferry ride. :)  and then we had dinner at a great little hole-in-the-wall pizza place with only 2 tables inside but a steady traffic of people testifying to the yumminess of the pizza.  it was a fun day as a family.  we haven't had many days like this over the past year of just enjoying a day with no responsibilities and nothing we need to do.  it was quite a blessing.

kisses!

nyc: one month as a local

we arrived in nyc on july 1st to live here for the month.  this is our month-long cross-cultural training before we head overseas.  we have a sub-leased apartment in astoria (queens) and are here to be a local for a month - submersed in the culture(s) around us, serving local churches, studying language acquisition skills, etc.  we have been unbelievably busy, but i'll blog a couple of entries to catch you up and then try to blog more regularly while we're here.

a stroller, toddler and all the gear that comes with a toddler were quite the challenge as we learned to navigate our community, the subway, buses and manhattan in general.  while accustomed to urban life in boston, it is radically different here.  in boston, we drive our car to the city.  while used to the commuter rail and the T in boston - it is never with a stroller laden with gear to make it through the whole day.  but now...we feel like pros :)  we have a well-oiled system and function rather smoothly (considering one of us doing the lifting is pregnant)!

unfortunately, jude would often rather walk and push his own stroller than be pushed in it.  this would work out well if i could fit in his stroller, because being 5-months pregnant in this heat, i would love to be pushed around the city in a stroller. :)

jude is adjusting - he's been sleeping in a pack-n-play since we left boston at the end of may.  this is our 6th house to live in since we left.  with all the traveling, flights, new places, new people, new sounds, etc. he has been such a trooper.  but he's had some difficulty with naps, night terrors, and throwing some tantrums. but overall, i'm really proud on him - i know it's a hard season on him too.  but it's fun seeing him make little friends here with other families' kids as he is in childcare with them every day.

more to come!

jude is going to have a......

 little brother!!!

 we found out 2 weeks ago that we are having a boy!  we are so excited to add another little boy to our family!  i always thought i wanted to have a girl (and i'm sure girls are great!), but after having a little boy, i have fallen in love with mothering a little man and i think i would love to have a family full of boys!  so i was super excited to know that we are getting another one - and jude will have a good buddy to play with since they will only be 22 months apart.  it is our prayer that the Lord will use them in each others' lives to help each other walk with God.

we would love your prayers right now.  we found out at the beginning of june that there are some complications with this pregnancy.  it's a very long and confusing explanation, but the short of it is that i had some bloodwork come back with a rare antibody that could be life-threatening to the baby.  they are monitoring me closely throughout the rest of this pregnancy - we have an excellent OB, are now also meeting with a high-risk OB, are at a great hospital in boston and just feel like we have the best care possible.  we would love for you to join us in praying that my antibody level remains low throughout this pregnancy and that the baby will remain unaffected.  this also provides complications for future pregnancies, so pray that the Lord would give us wisdom as well as comfort in knowing that He has ordained this for us and has great purpose in it.  

thanks for celebrating with us!  can't wait to meet this little guy around Dec. 5th!

Family Reunion in Charleston, SC - June 18-25

my entire family (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) gets together every 2 years for a reunion/vacation.  this might have been the craziest year yet since we keeping adding little ones to the mix.  there were 26 of us there... in one big house on the beach.  it was an awesome trip.  i love being with my family and it's such a gift to get together every 2 years since we are spread out everywhere - new hampshire, boston, chicago, st. louis, alabama, and florida.  we had a great time seeing charleston, playing on the beach, riding bikes on the beach, lots of walks, games and eating together.  i'm still waiting to process my film from the trip, but here are some digital shots:

Father's Day

He really wanted to ride in the cooler while grammy pulled him around outside :)

special friends

while we were in austin, my close friend, caroline, drove 4 hours from tyler, tx to come see us.  nick had to work so caroline and ellie made the trip on their own and spent the night with us.  i can't tell you what a refreshment it was for me - the smiths (along with all of our other gordon conwell friends) moved back to texas last summer.  we have missed them terribly over the past year.  jude and ellie were born 3 weeks apart and it was so fun to be able to experience the new realms of parenthood together.  caroline is an incredibly gifted singer/songwriter and she is working on a great project called the "scripture to music collective," where she is writing a song for every book of the Bible to tell the story of scripture in song form.  (you should check it out - her songs are so rich and you can download them free) :)

just a little progression of jude and ellie's friendship:

Ellie just home from hospital; jude 3 weeks old

ellie and jude at 2 months old

ellie and jude at 16 months

my favorite shots from our time with caroline and ellie:

bonding at Hula Hut over tortilla chips

pajama time!

time for milk and then bed

right before the ball hit jude in the head :)

they didn't think bath time was near as fun as we thought it would be!

other close friends of ours from gordon-conwell, daniel and heejei, actually moved to austin while we where there. we spent an afternoon with them - it was so great to see them!  their little boy, nathaniel, was born 13 hours before jude and they lived in the apartment right below us!  daniel was a groomsmen in our wedding and met heejei when we got to gordon-conwell and they got married the following summer.  greg and daniel have been friends since they first lived in china in 2004.  it was really wonderful to be with them and to see the boys together again!  heej cooked an amazing lunch for us - i have missed her cooking!

nathaniel and jude playing the drum together - each with a drumstick :)