Steve is gone tonight at an ICS Student Lock In and Caleb fell asleep surprisingly fast so I thought I'd take a few minutes before heading to bed early myself and do a little blog catching up. Now the question is, can I remember what exactly we have been up to.....?
Steve is winding up his first full year of ministry. He has really enjoyed it and grown a lot this year. He had an end of year/goal setting for next year with his boss and he had some positive things to say to him about how he did this year, which felt nice to hear. The youth group has really grown in size and consistency this past year, we have a wonderful group of young adults who are around A LOT, which is great to see. Steve has had some great opportunities to mentor some young men one-on-one this year and spend time investing in their lives (which he loves doing). For me, it has been really neat to see how much Steve has grown and matured himself this past year. I tease him sometimes that "Fun Steve" is gone but there really isn't much of his goof-ball college self left. He is still fun (don't get me wrong) but he has a weight to him and a passionate burden he carries for the students, for us (his family), for our small group, our friends, our family back home and our church. He has a purpose in front of him and he's bound and determined towards the goal ahead of him. It has been a cool transformation and growth to be a part of. Since you mostly get to hear updates from me, I feel like maybe you don't get the up close view of change that I do but he has grown a lot this year and learned a lot, it's been fun to be a part of.
Caleb of course is still changing on a daily basis. I can't believe that kid, he cracks me up. It seems every day, multiple times a day, he says or does something totally witty. I feel like he has mastered most of his motor skills.....once they learn to jump and run, use a fork and spoon, what else is there? I suppose he hasn't skipped yet. He does gallop. But on the vocabulary front, the landscape is ever changing. We struggle with trying not to laugh when he says something out of the blue that really is naughty (but the first time is kind of funny). Here are some recent conversations:
- C walks up to me randomly and says "How do you do Kang-a-roo?" Me: "Fine, thank you?" What do you say to that and where does he come up with it?
- Very matter of fact: "Mom. Please stop talking right now. Just stop."
- In a slightly annoyed voice "Mom, are you ready to listen to me now?"
- He kept talking about "Sacrifice" so Steve asked him today, "Caleb, do you know what a sacrifice is?" Caleb replied, "Jesus!"
- Caleb loves to pray (he also loves to boss and say, "stop! close your eyes and pray"), he says things like "Fadder GOD, please bless ________(whoever is on his mind that day), be with them, know them. Amen? AMEN." Or he says things like "Fadder GOD, you know Thomas the Train? Bless him, Fadder. Amen? AMEN!"
- He loves to sing and recently learned "Away in the Manger" He sings Away in the Manger like this, "Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus lays down his SLEEPY head....the stars in the sky look down where he lay, the little Lord Jesus AWAKE on the hay!"
- I was sitting on the couch on Steve's lap the other day and Caleb wanted to sit on his lap and read a book. He kept trying to squeeze in and scoot me off Steve's lap but it didn't work so finally he looked up at me and said quite seriously, "Mom! Get down from there! It is DANGEROUS way up high like that!" Nice try, Bud.
- He has recently started calling Steve "Apa" which is Korean for "Daddy." It's like his little term of endearment and it is quite heart-melting.
As for me, I finished up my online Child Birth Doula certification and am now fully certified through Childbirth International. You can check out my website at www.morningcalmdoulas.com I convinced my friend Gail to do it with me and she is currently working through her certification as well. Really excited about it. We just finished up our first Childbirth Education/Natural Birth skills class and that was a lot of fun. We are doing a larger scale one hopefully in January/February. We ran into a little bit of a road block because we can't easily get the correct Visa to be running our own business in Korea so we'll have to do it for free, as a volunteer service to women in the area. It is a little disappointing since the other two main doulas in Korea are able to make a nice income off of it and we could certainly use the income but we are still excited about it, even if it is just a volunteer basis. There is certainly a big need for it here in Korea and it will be a good ministry to moms in our area. I hope to do between 1-2 births a month (ideally) and then Childbirth Ed every few months. It's been a fun outlet for me and something I really enjoy. Next up, I am hoping to work towards a lactation consultant but that might be down the road a bit, since it is quite expensive.
Well, that's a bit of an update on the Houser Household front and some of what we've been up to besides small group, working with the nursery, helping with women's ministry, teaching English, exploring Korea and hanging out with other moms and kiddos! And I worried about being bored in Korea - ha!
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