Much Needed Update

We enjoyed my cousin Morgan here for a week and are greatly missing having family in the house. I'm pretty sure she got a good dose of "I'm quite happy not having kids just yet" medicine ;). She's only been married 4 months. I don't have any good pictures of her visit on my camera, but here is one of her and Adeline from her wedding. Our gordito having fun in the tub. He desparately wants out of his seat and into the water!Adeline's Mother's Day celebration at her school. Not the best of pictures...and yes, they are swimming in their underware!

Circle of Blessing

Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with promise. That it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. Ephesians 6:1-4

I enjoy using the advice out of Tedd Tripp's Shepherding a Child's Heart. We recently saw a fruit of our labors when Adeline drew a self-initiated drawing of the Circle of Blessings. This is the idea:

In Ephesians 6:1-3, God has drawn a circle of great blessings. Children are to live within the circle of submission to parental authority. Submission to parents means honoring and obeying. Within that circle things will go well and they will enjoy long lives (p131).

Although Scott and I poked fun about trying to use it in our training/shepherding (i.e. "you want to be in the circle don't you"), it has proven to be a great image for the kids' minds when we are conveying why they need to obey mommy and daddy.

Local Beach

Since our friends moved up to the North Coast a year ago, we hadn't been back to a beach only 30 minutes out of the city. The North Coast beach isn't little kid friendly with the wind and waves, so although Adeline has been swimming by herself for 9 months, this was her first swim in the ocean by herself. It was also Matthias's first dip in the Caribbean.

My cousin Morgan arrives on Wednesday to bring me to relief! I now understand why it's important to live near family when you have a "quiver full of them."

Beating a Cold, Witnessing a C-Section, & Administering a Test

Scott passed a head cold onto me on Monday. I am on the up and up today after 2 1/2 days of feeling yucky and I believe that my number one ingredient in my cocktail below is the Sinusin product. I was also downing Immune Booster Tea and Yogi's Echinacea Tea since we were out of the vitamins. I believe Sinusin was key because only 12 hours after taking my first dose I was clearing up. A couple of weeks ago I transformed our living room!

BEFORE

AFTERWhat do you think?

Here's our 16 pounder! Adeline snapped this sweet moment when Darton fell asleep while I was reading The Lightlings.We celebrated Labor Day here on Monday and enjoyed a Church family day. Tuesday morning I began administering a standardized test for my son's friend which puts me out of the house for 3 hours every morning this week. It's been a nice break from my everyday routine, but it also reaffirms that I enjoy and desire to be a full-time stay at home mom. Adeline has gone to school each day, willingly, and Darton and Matthias stay at home with Ana.

Now onto the highlight of my week! My friend asked me to be a part of her labor and delivery. I nervously said "yes" and decided this was my chance to know if I really wanted to pursue being a doula. Unfortunately by the time I got to her she had decided to get an epidural at 5cm dialated, which stopped her progression, and two hours later (12 hours after her first contraction) the doctor told her it was time for a c-section. This was her second c-section and she was trying for a vaginal. I was the picture gal for the surgery and so yes, I got to see my friend's abdomen cut open and a baby being pulled-out. I "hid" behind the camera and chose not to watch with eagle eyes just in case I might lose it. No matter how Santiago entered the world, it was still a beautiful moment when he let out his first cry. I will spare all the details of opinions and whatnot, but I do want to pursue doula training. Believe it or not, the first doula training for the DR is being held in June, but it begins the day we leave for the States so this isn't God's timing for me right now. I led 2 birth art classes that Paula participated in this Spring. The first picture below was her depiction of her first delivery and the second of what she hoped her second delivery would be like. I believe she accomplished her goal. She went into this birth much more informed (Thank you Ina May) and her knowledge empowered her to experience a more controlled labor and delivery.

Bienvenidos Santiago!

Although everyone's first language in the surgery room was Spanish, they surprised me by talking in English for me. It was crazy! I don't go anywhere expecting people to speak my first language, but they did. I was very impressed and wonder why they did that??

Easter Egg Hunt...WHAT'S THAT!?

Scotty started off our Resurrection Sunday on the right foot by having us sing two hymns about the resurrection (this was especially nice since we attend church in Spanish). I even played along on the piano.

Yes, hunting for eggs is a foreign concept here. Most have heard of the idea but didn't know how it all worked. They had heard rumors of even hunting for colored hard-boiled eggs..."Really," they asked, "you do that?" We enjoyed having church friends over and introducing grown-ups to their first egg hunt. I included Resurrection Eggs in the loot to find and we all circled around after the hunt to see who had found which resurrection egg. The kids opened the resurrection eggs in the correct order and an adult told the history of its place in the resurrection story.

Adeline had a tumble, but kept on going. Darton is always quite clueless to what's right in front of him, but he did pretty good with the hunt ;)Abby found the egg with the cup representing the last supper Christ had with His disciples. Adeline was a champ and didn't whine once that she didn't find any resurrection eggs. She just listened and watched. She also did a great job pointing out candy to the small kids instead of taking it for herself.

Camping in the Dominican

We survived our first camping trip with 3 kids! I had my hesitations, namely being security, but the trip was great! Scotty found an official camping ground (rare and even unheard of in the DR) near the mine. Scotty grew up camping and I am so very thankful to Papa Geer for all the camping trips he provided for his family. Going camping with Scott isn't much work at all. He puts up the tent and cooks the food.

The kids loved playing around the fire. Hotdogs for dinner.

I LOVE watching my kids get dirty when they are having fun at it! I guess that's why camping doesn't bother me so much.

Smores for desert!

The kids COULDN'T WAIT to go "Fish n Caught." Adeline's coined phrase for going fishing to catch fish. She does this a lot actually and flips her words around. The one that comes to mind is "jacket lite" for life jacket.

Sarah's first vacation since we moved into the house almost a year and a half ago. She did great!

Our happy boy

Scotty trying to make the worms come out of the ground.

Adeline & Daddy going hunting for bugs

They found lots of termites! Our 10 man tentDarton chasing butterflies among the baby pine trees. Daddy and his girl. He told her last night that one day boys are going to like her but not to worry because he will help her pick out the best one. I love my husband!

Matthias has been my chubbiest and he's really not all that chubby. The result of on-demand feeding! Didn't know it existed with the first two.

Bobbin'

Daddy & the kids made boats for the pool.

I proudly cooked a dominican lunch the other day. The menu: Rice cooked with salt and a bit of oil (they say they have a headache if they don't have rice for lunch), vegetables cooked in oil & vinegar, and fried salami. I don't know if dominicans eat salami for lunch, but it is a staple in the dominican grocery basket.

This is an example of what I mean by Darton being "all boy." He hits his horses on the ground so hard while he is pretending with them that the back legs break off...of 2 horses!

Last week after about 2 weeks of feeling "off" I finally sank and was willing to label my thorn in my side as depression. Praise God for talking to the perfect person at the right time and after meditating on Psalm 91 and John 2-4 my faithful God answered my prayer to drench me with His everlasting water and to protect me under his wings.

How can a mom living a dream life in the Carribbean get depressed you ask? As mentioned, depression is my thorn in my side (or at least one of them). Day-in, day-out, same-o, same-o gets to me after a while; especially with an infant who's not letting you get full nights of sleep. Back in January I was pumped to get back to life here with my three blessings. Now I just want me time! Or at least I did for the last three weeks. I've come to realize that most expat moms need to get off the island every 3 months or so. But really? Is that all I needed? No, it wasn't. Ultimately I needed sleep and God. Once I received that dose of medicine and a good 4 day holiday weekend with the hubby at home, I am bobbin' now and not sinking!

I'm getting back on track with more "purposeful play" (aka Little Hands to Heaven curriculum) and activities with the kids (painting, reading, puppets, ect).

Adeline's Play-Do creations of Mommy & Adeline. However, she doesn't call me "mommy," instead she calls me the dominican "mama" with an accent on the last "a." It drives me nuts since she says it with a whine. But it's been about a year since she first started using it, so I suppose it has stuck!