Happy 4th of July!

We did most of our celebrating the 4th yesterday. We were invited to a neighbor's house to a dessert party before the local fireworks show. We invited one of Jon's fellow Hebrew classmates to come to our house before the party so we could walk over together. Jon's new friend, Elias, is from Tanzania and is here for 1 year. He has 6 children and a wife back at home! It is not uncommon for African internationals to come to Trinity for 1 or 2 years while their families are back at home. What a great sacrifice for them to make! I don't know that I could do it. Elias brought one of his roommates, Ferdinand, who is from Kenya. We made them eat with us (haha--I think they had just eaten but we gave them a place at the table and they ate some). It was wonderful to have some guests at our dinner table. We didn't get to do that as much when we were living in Anna as we did in San Antonio and I really missed it. I think we will get to host more here since we are living so close to the community we are a part of.

I made a rhubarb pie from a Williams-Sonoma recipe that was tasty and brought that to the party. At one point there were probably about 20 kids running around the backyard and playing together. When all the fireflys came out the kids ran around chasing them and putting them in jars. There was a huge table loaded with all kinds of different desserts--you can bet I was glad I passed my glucose tolerance test! I chowed down on some awesome chocolate chip cookies and some homemade angelfood cake. The boys got dirty from running around--there is more exposed dirt around here so by the end of the day of playing outside their feet are black with dirt along with their hands.

We waited until about 9:30 and headed out to find a place to watch the fireworks being shot off from the high school. All we had to do was go to the end of our block and turn the corner! I love being so close to the action. We happened to be standing next to our next door neighbors whom we hadn't met yet. I had a nice talk with the lady and met her kids. They are older but it was nice to finally meet our other next door neighbors. The fireworks started a 10pm and it was a good show. It was the first time we let the boys stay up that late for fireworks. They enjoyed it but they were getting pretty tired. By the time we got home and wiped them down, got jammies on and put them in bed it was 11pm. Of course they got up at the same time they always do-- 7am! They took super long naps this afternoon to make up for their lack of sleep.


Today Jon worked and when the kids got up at 4 we headed out to Frick Park. I found it yesterday on the way home from a food co-op store. The park has 2 playgrounds and hiking trails. I am proud to say that at 32 weeks pregnant I accomplished a good hike where the last part was completly up a very large and somewhat steep hill. It was a bit of a challenge but I didn't have to stop and rest. Then we went and ate at Qdobo and came home for bedtimes. The boys still got to bed a little later than their usual bedtime but it was worth it to have some good family time.

On a personal note:
I woke up this morning feeling sad. I miss my friends and long for a deeper connection with other women. I think my sadness was triggered from the party last night. It was fun to talk to other seminarians although I have to admit that I was a little sad I didn't get a chance to talk (very much) to other women who were there. Many of the women already knew each other and had relationships with each other. There was only one other new seminarian at the party (most people don't move here until August right before classes start). I felt my shyness come out and felt awkward at butting in on conversations already going on which made it easy to just play (okay, hide) with the kids and help them. I guess I just have to get over my shyness and insecurity and go up to introduce myself to people even if they don't seem all that interested. It is easy to revert back to the wallflower in me when I am in a new social situation.

Now that most of the unpacking is done and things are starting to settle into a routine I think my emotional constipation is getting unclogged (there's an image for ya). Things don't feel quite as busy so lonliness is able to creep up. I have been thinking more about the birth of the baby and am realizing what fears and anxieties I have that I need to pray about. There are a lot of things tempting me to live in fear right now (the biggest one is that we are currently uninsured--we are working on it though!).

I think the prescription for my sadness and fear is to spend some extra time being quiet before the Lord on our porch swing. When my mind is swirling with so many thoughts and emotions that seem to blitz me out of nowhere I think some silence will help. Now, if I could just have some discipline to actually follow through with it......