A Snapshot of Us

We've been back in Nicaragua for just over a month after a wonderful 7 weeks of hugs while staying with family. It is also wonderful to be back home, though it seems that we're still settling in.

August started school the last day of January. The first few days he was in a 'honeymoon' state and loved it. He now seems to be a bit bored with a three hour day in a different language and has become prone to occasional 'flopping and dropping' fits on the way to school. He loves to learn and so we pray that as he picks up more and more Spanish that he'll be more engaged.

Solomon is a sponge. He pops out new words and habits each day. He amazes us as he speaks in full sentences quite often: I want cookies. I want TV. Don't touch. What is that? He dearly misses Augusto while he is away in the morning and I believe he is now discovering things that he likes to do rather than following big brother around - #1 favorite so far is dirt.

The little one en utero is about 4 1/2 months old and starting to test out his environment by punching/kicking. August is reading 'New Baby' books and Solo has taken to a baby doll that I dug out of my childhood box in the States.

Lukas has been working with his guitar - while the boys are in the bath, he plays and practices. He's quite a natural, I believe, and is learning from another natural at work.

I have been getting through my first weeks of school, as well - I had to call quite a few people to assure them that I made it through August's first day - as more people were worried about me than him. It kills me not to know what he does for three hours of his morning, but our parent/teacher meeting report was excellent. He is learning, imitates well and is not frustrated in his new environment. Solo and I are adjusting to our new daily routines and we figure each new day out together.

In Jesus' love,

Stephanie and crew

Visiting Farmers Impressed with Family Gardens

We’re currently working on a project to help four families from our communities, and a young farmer from another rural community, learn how to garden organically. The people we’re teaching are farmers, and they know about growing things. But unfortunately the knowledge about how to reliably grow things without depending on chemicals to control pests, weeds and to fertilize plants has been lost over the last couple of generations (as is true among many farmers in the US). Because it is only financially viable to buy these products for cash crops, these families don’t grow as much of their own food as they could with the resources naturally occurring on their own farms. So organic family gardens aren’t just about the environment; they’re also about making use of what we have, and having more food on a more regular basis.

A group of farmers from the US which gave the money for the project came for a visit in January and were really impressed with a couple things. For one, the gardens were looking good, and the plants were healthy. Doing things organically is much more complicated than using chemical products, so a healthy garden grown by new students to organic gardening is a great accomplishment! And second, the visiting farmers were really happy to see how much young man from the other community had learned, and that he was already teaching three other people from his community! It’s great to know that these solutions are spreading, and potentially helping people we will never meet!