Little Susanna

Well, little Miss Susanna is now 8 months old, and as precious as ever. She’s been loving the world of solid foods—this was her first taste a couple of months ago. Caleb got a big kick out of it—he thought the faces she made were hilarious!

She’s very expressive and loves people, grinning and babbling and charming her way into the heart of everyone. Somehow she's managed to wrap us all around her little finger--especially her daddy. It’s hard to imagine life without our Suzaney.
During the last several weeks, she had some intermittent periods of fussiness, lethargy, and lack of appetite, and at first we chalked it up to theething, growing, just normal baby stuff. But recently we began suspecting something different, especially in light of her size. She was over 12 pounds when we moved, but now she is very thin for her age—still just 12.5 pounds. So we took her to a clinic and had some blood tests run to see how she's doing. The tests showed that pretty much everything was normal, for which we were so thankful; the only thing of concern was that the enzyme levels in her liver were a bit elevated. The doctor said she may have had a bout with Hepatitis A, which would explain the recent symptoms and weight loss, and he ordered more frequent checkups to keep an eye on her. Meanwhile, we are to keep her on a strict “fatten ‘er up” diet. I’m sure she’ll enjoy that as her palatal horizons expand to include ice cream, pizza, and fried chicken. Just kidding! =)
We’ve definitely been holding her a little tighter these days as we’ve been reminded how fragile life is and how vulnerable we are. Thanks for thinking of her as she continues to grow and hopefully become a much plumper version of her sweet little self!

A trip to the countryside

A couple of weeks ago, I (Gracy) went with some other ladies to a hot springs resort for a weekend getaway.





The place was very nice—had a large indoor pool heated by the hot springs, a large outdoor pool, tennis courts, etc.



The best part for me, though, was the location. The resort is in the middle of a rural farming community and is run by the minority people who live there.

As we wound our way toward the resort, down a dirt road and across the terraced mountain side, I felt as if I’d stepped into the pages of so many books I’ve read.

There were farmers hoeing row after row, young boys carrying large buckets of water on shoulder poles,







donkeys carting loads from the fields to the town,

buildings adorned with corn and red peppers hung to dry.




What a time for my camera batteries to die! But I was able to get a few pictures, and the rest I got from a friend so you could see what I saw…










Of all that there was to see, I think you would remember most the faces of the people—men and women putting in another hard day’s work,

children teasing and laughing on their long walk home from school,

grandmothers and grandfathers sitting in the afternoon sun—watching village happenings from seats of well-earned respect, through eyes that have seen more than I could ever read about.

One afternoon I was able to visit with a lady who helped keep the grounds at the resort. She was deaf, but she certainly had her way of communicating. Through simple gestures she shared that she had two grown children and two grandchildren, ages 4 and 8. The 8 year old, she very proudly told me, is in school learning to read and write. Her husband spends his days up on the terraces hoeing their crops. He also picks fruit from their fruit trees to sell in the market. There was so much that passed between us throughout the course of our silent conversation, and I strongly wished that I wasn’t just staying for the weekend. Sitting with her gave me a poignant glimpse of what we hope will be part of our future, and rekindled the burning desire to know, live among and share life with precious people like her.

A night out on our new ride...

So here’s our new ride… =) Our electric bike is a nice addition to the family transpor-tation network—much faster and convenient for David to ride to school on than his pedal bike, which kept giving him problems. The e-bike's a bit more dangerous, though—I don’t know if I’ll ever get the courage to drive it in this traffic! But I have to admit that it was fun taking a ride with Dave last week. Some friends watched the kids so we could have a date, so we rode to a lake on the outskirts of the city and watched the sun set behind the mountains. As you can see, it was absolutely gorgeous, and so peaceful. It was so nice to spend some time together reflecting on our lives.