Thursday, February 8, 2007

This is our current favorite Jason saying:
When I’m a ba-dult (adult), I’m going to use a tipshoe (tissue) to blow the sick out.

There are a lot of things that Jason is waiting until he is a ba-dult to do: share, eat pepperoni, give high fives up high, take his medicine without spitting it all over me and the list goes on and on. Right now he insists he is just a “wittle kid.” We get to hear about not taking medicine every morning and evening for a week since he is on antibiotics for an ear infection. Now there are three of us who have been on antibiotics in the last few weeks. Peter got over his strep throat, went to Prague, endured jet lag, and is now sick again. What’s up with that?????

On the way home from his art class, Brendan held forth for almost 8 minutes on how a cow really could jump over the moon. I’m glad he is practicing his logic skills. Then we played a game that he made up. In this game, he gives me a choice of three words and I have to guess which one he is thinking of. Obviously he is thinking of all of them. I was not too keen on playing the game but it took less energy to play then to insist that I didn’t want to play. So this gives you an idea of how exciting it was:

Van, car, truck. Van? No. Truck? No. Car? YES!
Rockslide, avalanche, mudslide. Avalanche? YES!
Grandma, Mommy, Daddy. Daddy. YES!

That last one was a no-brainer. I was told earlier in the week by Brendan that he respects Daddy a whole lot more than me. I had thrown out the possibility that it may be due to the fact that I spend EVERY WAKING MOMENT with him and he doesn’t get as much time with Daddy. Brendan suggested that I go back to work and let Daddy stay home with him, because while he likes me a lot, he really loves Daddy.

Maybe he just needed to get that off his chest because now he is much kinder to me. He is also much more affectionate, so much so that I have to tell him to get out of my bubble a couple times a day.

The other night at dinner, Brendan asked if we had a Plan B for next year. He thought it would be a good idea to have a back-up plan in case it doesn’t work to go to Zambia with MCC. He wasn’t saying that he didn’t want to go to Africa, because he is very open to the idea, but he thought we should be prepared with a Plan B. Things are moving forward with MCC which fills us with excitement and dread. We had our eligibility interview and the same day that report was sent in, we received an e-mail that we were now eligible to work for MCC. The next step is to get a placement. Some people apply to work for MCC and give their top three choices or are open to wherever MCC wants to put them. We were very specific that we wanted to be placed in Zambia at the Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation, because it best fit our interests and skills. So now our application has been forwarded to the country reps in Zambia and the leaders at Mindolo and we are waiting to see if they will place us there. We have e-mailed back and forth on different issues already and we have asked them to look into schooling for the boys because that is a major component in our decision to go or not. We are happy to begin these conversations to see if this is truly where God wants us next year. So we continue to wait but are encouraged that the process is moving forward. I’ve been reading the book entitled The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency which is set in Botswana and gives me a different view of African culture. It is both interesting and enjoyable. A fun way to do research!