Jacob's Birthday

This is a rather quirky picture of Jacob's 34th birthday party. The boys are showing off the gifts they made for Papa.

Diversity Within Savoonga

One thing that I have missed from living in Bellflower is the great cultural diversity that surrounded us! Living in Savoonga, we are exposed to the Yupik culture which is wonderful and I love learning about their rich history and way of life, but living in Savoonga, one is exposed to the native people who live here and to the white teachers and that's about it for cultural diversity. We recently had a group stay with us for 3 weeks. One of the women was Bolivian and we had fun speaking (or at least trying to speak) Spanish with her. It had been awhile since we had heard Spanish on a daily basis.
Today, we were walking home from the store when a little girl (4 yrs old?) came up to us asking, "Which one is Logan?" We told her and Jacob said, "What is your name?" No response. "I forgot. What is your name?" No response. Very slowly, "What is your name?" No response. Not knowing how to ask in Yupik, Jacob tried another route, "Que es tu nombre?" She quickly replied, "Bonita!" It was quite hilarious for this little Yupik girl, who speaks only Yupik and English, to respond to a question in Spanish with her beautiful answer!

The Most Attentive Mom?

Sunday, I was joining some women in our church for a meeting during the boys' nap time. As I plugged in the baby monitor, one of the women asked me what it was. I told her it was so I could here Logan and Owen if they cried. She responded, "You are the most attentive mom that I know!"
I do tend to be a pretty attentive mother and I think that a big reason for that is so that occurences such as the one today, don't happen ALL the time!
I left the boys playing nicely upstairs and went down to finish something in the kitchen. When I went up to check on them, Logan was unloading all of the clothes from the hamper. Our conversation went as follows:
Me: Logan, why are you taking the clothes out of the hamper?
Logan: Potty.
Me: You pottied on the clothes!!
Logan: Uh uh...nooooo. Potty stool.
Me: You pottied in the potty stool?
Logan: Yes.
Me: Then why is your underwear wet?
Logan: (proudly) Me pottied in potty stool in underwear.
Me: Oh...so why are you taking the clothes out of the hamper?
Logan: Me pottied in potty stool in underwear and then (he showed me how he dumped the potty from the stool into the clothes hamper.)
So why was he taking the clothes out of the hamper? Hmmm...maybe so they could air dry? And this is why I strive to be a much more attentive mother than I was this morning!!

Some of you may be thinking, "She hasn't posted for over 2 months and this is all she has to write?" I figure I have to start somewhere:) Now that we have Internet in the house!!! you should be getting a more well-rounded post about the most recent happenings in Savoonga soon.

My Blog's a Failure!! :)

I haven't posted for so long that I forgot my password. Bummer. I'm still writing another post because I still have hopes that I will write regularly in the near future. We now have the antennae needed to get Internet at our house...now we just need it installed...give us a couple more months:) The shameful thing is that I've been in Seattle with Logan and Owen for over a month and had access to Internet, but still didn't write...okay, I'm sorry and I'm moving on now!
We've had a beautiful time visiting with friends and family over the last month +. Jacob and his mom arrived the same day, last Thursday, and we've been traveling around the NW enjoying each other's company. Tomorrow, we are set to fly back to AK. It is almost 4:00am right now and we're supposed to leave in 2 hours. We're at my parents' house in Sequim and it has snowed so much tonight that I'm listening to it fall off of the roof as I write. Hmmm. I guess we're getting eased back into life in Savoonga, but one of the things that I like about life there is that there aren't any cars to bother with driving in the snow! I'm not very excited about the trip down the hill and onto the hwy in the morning!:)
So, unfortunately, I literally waited until our final hours to write and now I'm realizing I'm way too exhausted to write anything that's really worth reading. Hopefully our Christmas letter updated most of you who read this and hopefully we'll have Internet at the house soon so that I can write more regularly and easily. Until then...blessings.

Back Again!

We've been in Savoonga over 2 months now and I think this is only my second blog post! Not too good...so sorry! We are all doing well. Temperatures have dropped to around 0 degrees F and the Bering Sea is beginning to freeze over. The village killed 2 whales on Thanksgiving so there has been much excitement around here lately. Since I last wrote, I have prepared/eaten whale and cut up a chunk of reindeer for the freezer. I tried a bit on Thanksgiving and wasn't a huge fan of the gamey aftertaste, but I tried it! So we're learning to live in Savoonga. We still have a steady 20 or so for church on Sunday. We're told that at 11am most people are still in bed. We've started an evening service...there were 6 adults and 6 or more kids the first night. Hopefully word will spread and more will come next week. We started youth group...one child came for the beginning and two more came after it was over! Tuesday night children's church is happening...3 kids the first night, then zero, then 19, then 8...We'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm having fun preparing for it and leading it when kids actually show! Wednesday adult Bible Study brings a steady group of 8...going well. We recently decided that if you're shooting for numbers in Savoonga, you'll generally always end up depressed! I spoke with one of the teachers and she said it is the same at school. You never know how many kids will show. She said you could probably teach the same thing everyday because you always have different kids and even the kids who happen to be there two days in a row probably wouldn't remember what was taught the previous day anyway! God bless the teachers in Savoonga!
Jacob and I are using this as an opportunity to learn to play the guitar (Jacob) and remember how to play the piano(Kami). Last week, the only woman who plays piano in the village was in a honda accident outside the church and fractured her ankle and cut her head so she's out for 6 weeks...so my big piano debut was yesterday in church. The boys sat in their car seats next to the piano and ate Cheerios while I attempted to play. It went alright until the last hymn when they were in the back of the church seemingly happily playing with toys when on the second verse of The Old Rugged Cross I hear and see a screaming and crying Logan walking down the church aisle followed by Jacob holding a crying Owen. They finished the song a cappella while I retreated with boys to feed them lunch. Good fun. I better go as the boys are getting bored with cutting paper. We enjoyed company from Jacob's mom for a week. Sooo good to see Grandma and have someone we know well experience Savoonga with us. She joined us for Jacob's installation service...He's officially a pastor now. Amen! We also enjoyed a group of 5 pastors and elders, mostly from Anchorage, who joined us for the service and brought us fresh produce...amen, amen! After they left, our house was filled again with 5 adults and a 17 month old from Youth with a Mission. They will return for a month in April to minister to the people in Savoonga. It was great to interact with so many people for a time and we look forward to their return. Okay, I really must go. Blessings.

Savoonga--The First Month

We have been in Savoonga a bit over a month now and this is my first time to access the Internet...what a liberating feel! We've found that options for us to get Internet from home are not good, so a teacher who attends our church has offered to let us use her computer at school. In the future, we hope to purchase a laptop and make posts more regularly, but knowing us that will be at least a month from now...bear with us:) For now, know that we are doing well. All of our belongings have arrived and some of them were in one piece! I thank God that the items we really desired to arrive safely, did arrive safely. We feel pretty well settled in our home. Logan and Owen are enjoying their climbing gym in our family room, our many hours of crafts and cooking in the kitchen, and playing in the snow when the weather allows. We've met many, many children as they visit us daily. Church attendence is still rather low...anywhere from 15-20 on a Sunday, but we've been told that before we arrived there were usually about 5 people! Jacob met with the elders last Sunday and discussed starting some different programs and visiting people. People in the village seem excited about God and church and that we are here, but few people actually show up for events...the question is why and how can things change? It has been 10 years since the last pastor, so I think people are largely out of the habit of going to church and they've replaced that time with other activities (like Bingo). The weather is an added challenge as even some of the most devoted members have told us that as winter gets worse, they won't be leaving their homes. There are definate challenges to ministry in Savoonga, but there are also joys enough to keep us going!:) We certainly get to spend a lot of time together as a family since Jacob's "office" is in our kitchen. I've been enjoying learning to bake everything from scratch...something I've always wanted to do but never found time for...now if we want to eat bread, I have to make it, etc. And the boys are a joy here as much as anywhere! Well, I can see that the boys' patience is wearing thin, entertaining themselves in this 1st Grade classroom, so I better get going before they start destroying!! I hope to write sooner than later and I hope you are all doing well.

Last Minute Details

Our family flies out to Anchorage next Wednesday. We will spend 5 days there, interacting with Savoonga's sister church (a church who hopes to do vacation bible schools and more with us in Savoonga). The following Monday, we will fly on to Savoonga and settle into our new home and community. Our belongings have been shipped via barge and USPS. We just saw our ND and she loaded us up with vitamins and supplements. Jacob picked up our shipment of dried foods to be shipped to Savoonga soon. So, tomorrow we're going to the fair! I think we are pretty well set to go. We don't know when our computer will arrive in Savoonga, nor do we know when we can get Internet so I may not post to this blog for an even longer time than usual!...But, I will send out a mass e-mail when we have Internet and all and I can actually post regularly. Until then...we hope you all stay well and may God bless you.