Sunscreen, Missionaries and Good Coffee.

There has been so much happening around here lately that I haven't had time to blog, which is probably a good thing, since it is an indication that "life" is becoming normal. Last week was an amazing week with a lot of activity.

First and foremost I learned how to make a cup of normal coffee. We only have a stovetop espresso maker (a Greca), like most Dominican families, and I have been craving a regular strong cup of coffee. Dominicans drink a lot of coffee, which I love, but they drink cafe con leche (espresso with warm milk) in the mornings and straight shots of espresso with lots of sugar in the afternoons after lunch. I have been enjoying cafe con leche in the mornings, but haven't been able to shake the craving for that cup of coffee. So, putting my vast amount of knowledge learned from frequenting Starbucks all these years I remembered you can mix a shot of espresson with hot water to make an excellent cup of coffee. Ahhh...problem solved.

Next fun thing is that I have made friends! I sound like a third grader who comes home from their first day of school declaring that she has made friends to her mom, and last week that is precisely how I felt, too! I met a woman named Ina who is here in the DR doing mission work with a small village outside the city. Once I visit the village I am planning to devote an entire post to the work she is doing. She invited me to a Bible study she attends with other American women living here to serve the country. Thru Ina I met Kirsten who lives very close to us and has three young children. We rode to and from the Bible study together and immediately hit it off. We are planning a playdate at the pool with her youngest and Eric soon. If only it would stop raining! The women at the Bible study were all so friendly and accomodating. It's just great to be in a place where everyone else has been in your shoes adjusting to the new culture. I'm here under different circumstances than the women I met, but many of our experiences learning to adapt and letting go of certain cultural expectations are shared and I found it encouraging to see that they have adapted so well.

We also FINALLY made it to the beach, so you won't have to hear me complain about it anymore and neither will Eric. We went last Sunday afternoon for a couple of hours, and although it was a cloudy day and the water wasn't very clear we all had a good time. Little Eric especially loved swimming and playing in the sand. Thank God he is past the age of putting sand in his mouth every 10 seconds!

We went back to a church we had been visiting and had a really relaxing, peaceful experience. I say this because going to church has been a very stressful experience for me pretty much since Eric was born. It's hard to manage a baby in church no matter the age (unless you have an angel child who will just quietly sit in your lap the whole time). I mean if it's not figuring out how where to feed him when he was an infant, it's trying to keep him quiet as a toddler. The thing is, he hasn't taken well to the nursery. Believe me, from about 9 months I have wanted him to be in the nursery, but he just hasn't liked it. That and he is pretty attached to me and doesn't want me to leave. So, as you can imagine visiting different churches hasn't been too fun. The churches here really want you to take your children to the nursery or Sunday School. They go out of their way to politely inform you where the nursery is located. I haven't wanted to force Eric to go if we are only visiting a church, but at some point Eric (papa) says he is disrupting us and we end up taking him to the nursery leaving the service and spending the rest of the service worried about him. A couple of times we have heard him crying in the service and a couple of times they have come out to get us. I know this is a phase and he is probably not going to have to go to therapy one day for this, but it's not easy sitting in the service knowing he is crying and having an even harder time understanding the sermon in Spanish because I am so distracted. I know I am rambling on about this, but I want to express how much more happy I was on Sunday when he did GREAT in the nursery and they said he had fun. AND, we both really enjoyed the service. We think we are going to go to this particular church regularly, and we already have a few friends who go there, as well.

Ok, the last thing noteworthy thing that happened last week was a proposal I got from Eric's aunt to teach an English course to professionals at the staffing company she owns. AND, she is going to pay me! So, we are working out the details. I am so excited about this and think the extra money will really help us out by at least paying for the preschool we have signed Eric up for, which begins next week. I will post more about that later, because this is a really long post and I want to share some pictures. See, I need to keep up better with the blog so the posts aren't so long!

Pictures from the beach:

Pictures of Paula Marie's 1st birthday:

Eric's sister Zoila with Paula Marie, the birthday girl.

I made ladybug cookies.

Trying to take a picture of all the kids at the party with all of the moms.

Here is a picture of Eric playing with another kid at the party. Notice the empanada he is shoving into his mouth. He must have snuck a dozen of them off of the table!

Dancing with Abuela. He was LOVING it. He definately got that gene from his Abuela.