Jackson, as usual, is keeping life interesting these days! He is imitating everything we say which is really fun but also makes us more aware of how important it is to protect him from things we don’t want him to hear or say. His words for “sit” and “truck” resemble some not so nice words. Our favorite word that he just learned is “birthday”. We got to call Seth on his birthday at work and Jackson could tell him happy birthday!

Here is a little video we made of him parroting Seth. These are a few of his words. I wish I could set up a video to get a day in the life of him talking because he surprises us with every new word!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBgPWlMb5H8]

This past weekend when we got to the finca we went to get settled in our room. Jackson was exploring…mainly checking out any cords and plugs in the room to make sure everything was in hand’s reach. After a few minutes of checking out the room Jackson started shrieking “Jesus”.  Seth and I were both busy and didn’t look up until he said it about 5 times. (You have to understand that he says everything 10 times at this stage…on average we respond somewhere between the 1st time and the 5th time :)) When we finally looked up we saw that Jackson had spotted an old Catholic rosary-type thing on the wall with Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus.  He has learned who Jesus is through his little cartoon looking Bible and when we look at nativities but I thought it was crazy that he knew instantly that it was Jesus. From then on every time we went up the stairs to our room he would say “Jesus!”

Seth turned the BIG 30 on Friday! We headed out of town to the finca with some friends for the weekend and celebrated there! We didn’t take many pictures of the birthday festivities but have a few.

Jackson and I are so thankful for Seth! He is such a loving father and husband! He is the most wonderful friend and I really cannot imagine living life without him!  My friends keep warning me that turning 30 can bring on an early mid-life crisis. So far Seth is his normal cool, calm and collected self! Maybe just a little bit sassier than he was a few years ago!

We celebrated Seth’s birthday a little early (since we were going to be out of town) last week by going to dinner at an Argentinian Steak house

We had a wonderful dinner with grilled beef tenderloin, etc and our friends Nicholas and Kima brought desserts from a wonderful bakery!

Jackson had a great time at the finca this time! He did last time too but was old enough now to really enjoy it!

snacking on the porch, EARLY in the morning!

a little grumpy on our hike

Ben and Katie, our fellow travelers

All geared up!

Valentine’s cookies!

Reading on the way home!

So like living anywhere there are good days and bad days. There are days when I love that Colombia has no seasons and days when I need a new spring day. Just like what many of you experience wherever you are. There are a couple things about this place that I will never adjust to…

the honesty policy here just does not exist!!! You are told what you want to hear! A promise is a hopeful thought that something might occur.  It is perfectly acceptable to say you are going to do something and never follow through. Thus the phrase “que pena” like “my bad”. I was a bit overambitious over the past month and scheduled for furniture delivery, rug cleaning and 5 interviews with maids. If I had been wise I would have scheduled 1 of these numberous things so that I would not have the constant reminder that things do not work on a time system here.   We attempted to hire 2 different maids,  neither showed up on their start date. There was no confusion with time, they just didn’t feel like calling when they decided they didn’t want to work. Our carpet guy for 3 weeks now has not shown up. He showed up yesterday 2 hours late. When I asked what happened he said “oh Senora, que pena. The traffic was a little bad”.

Kids are constantly sick here. Jackson has had congestion since we got back from the US over 6 weeks ago. If he hasn’t been totally sick he has had a constant runny nose. Yesterday I noticed he kind of had faint black eyes, by this  morning he looked like he had been in a lively fist fight! The doctor said this is perfectly common when infection festers quietly and then gets trapped! We finally have an antibiotic. It is not unusual when someone gets pneumonia here for us to say “you have a Bogota cold”.  The “common cold” is just not so common to us. The altitude and pollution just make things horrible for health!

A praise after venting….Most of you know that Sonia our previous maid decided to stay home with her baby. After our new helper didn’t show up for her first day yesterday Seth had to come home so I could work with my patients. We had already interviewed 5 people and experienced another no show so I was pretty upset with another no-show.  I called another maid to come for an interview last night and she miraculously was able to start this morning.  In her interview she said she was happy to do whatever because first and foremost she was serving the Lord.  So, I believe she is a Christian which is a rare find here. She will be Jackson’s caretaker when I am working which is why it is so critical that she be good! She is on a 1 month trial so we will keep you posted . We are so thankful something worked out after much stress!

Sonia brought Santiago for the day on Friday while she helped do her final day. Jackson and Santiago “helped” . Santiago is wrapped up in true Colombian fashion…they are heading outside but he was dressed like this in our house all day! Poor little guy!

My conclusion after the past week here is that I can’t wait for our move to DC in Sept!! I am trying to stay plugged in but with each honking horn, puff of pollution and no-show appt I am having an increasing excitement for the US! We will miss Colombia but at this point we have had our fill!

We have expressed already how thrilled we are that our friends Bo and Leigh are going to be in Germany when we are in Switzerland!! I can’t wait to be able to see my best friend on a regular basis! Bo and Leigh are serving at Black Forest Academy in Germany. They are both teaching and doing a thousand extra things on the side to invest in the lives of students and other missionaries. Their transition to Germany has been tough, leaving friends and family and jumping in to a whole new world, 2 really, one at the school and one in Germany! That is a lot. I can say that because we too have been there done that with the leave and cleave and enjoy your new life abroad.

Bo and Leigh raised their own funding but never could have anticipated that getting internet installed in their apt would cost them over $1000. They need to have some kind of hardware installed to make it possible. We can all imagine what life would be like without internet. They have spent the last MONTHS trying to get it all sorted out.

They have no idea I am writing this but…If you aren’t currently supporting missionaries and you want to participate in an unusual “missions project”  by donating to their internet fund please let us know and we will send you info.  Seriously consider it. How exciting would that be for them to have the ability to connect with family and friends through skype etc once they are able to access the world wide web!!!  It would be an amazing blessing that we all take for granted!!! Let’s surprise them!

(All of us at Bo and Leigh’s wedding. I take liberty to give the disclaimer that I was 6 months pregnant and bridemaid’s dresses are not designed for people that are 6 months pregnant! Just look at the bride and groom!!)