If it makes anyone feel any better about my negligence to this blog, I apparently didn't know we had moved on into January because I have been telling people that Koa is 21 months old all month. It just dawned on me today that if his birthday is coming up in March he probably isn't really still 21 months old. Ooops!
We started out the new year at some friends' house with a fondue party, dipping anything we could find in cheese or chocolate! We have been in Hawaii for seven years now, and I still am in awe of just how over the top people go with fire works for the New Year celebration. Normal households will buy professional fireworks and set them off on their front lawn or driveway or wherever they deem necessary. When we drive down the neighborhood streets for about four hours prior to midnight (and a while after) it is like a war zone! Poor Koa thought he was at war. It scared him pretty bad. Once we got in the house and he realized that the rest of us were not concerned about all the noise he calmed down and enjoyed the party along with everyone else.
We have had a very busy January so far. Zak has been dedicated to filling out grad school applications like a mad man. You would think he hasn't finished school at all since he still spends most of his time in front of the computer. He has finished three of the applications. The first one, Harvard Divinity School, was due January 11, so he got busy pretty much as soon as we got back from the Big Island getting references and writing essays. Then he finished Yale Divinity School, Cincinnati Bible Seminary, Pepperdine University and just tonight, Oxford University. He still has Multnomah Biblical Seminary left to finish, so I think he is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
We also kicked off our Malama Groups right after the first of the year. So far the first two meetings have gone really well and we've seen God working through them. Most impressive so far has been the number of people attending groups who barely attend regular services. While we prayed for our Malama Groups to eventually grow our congregation's attendance, we didn't expect it to happen so soon! So, hopefully folks will continue to come, get to know one another better, and be an example to each other and our community of what being a Christian is all about. This next weekend the group that Zak and I are leading will be meeting in our house! Very exciting stuff!
We also had our Christmas gift exchange with friends this past weekend (we always do it after the holidays so we don't have to try to plan around traveling schedules and this year it got pushed back quite a bit). Since we don't get a lot of cold weather here (don't hate me for saying this) we turned the AC up and everyone wore cold weather clothes and we had cold weather food and drinks. I made my new favorite thing, spicy hot chocolate. This year instead of a cap on our gift price we decided to do an exact amount you had to spend. We drew the numbers out of a hat (or some sort of receptacle) and came up with $15.68. Only two people didn't hit the number they were given and one of them was just being rebellious. We were not allowed to give money or just purchase a gift certificate for the exact amount. It was quite entertaining to see what lengths people went to in order to stick to the rules.
One of the things I've been working on since the first of the year is more research concerning vaccinations. For those who don't remember the first time we wrestled with this the final decision was to wait until Koa was two and then reevaluate and decide if there were any vaccinations we would like to get at that time. For anyone who might be interested in this topic I highly recommend a well-written book by Aviva Jill Romm--Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parent's Guide. It's not an easy read as far as I am concerned because it presents so much information in a short time and it is very scientific. As much as I like to know the science behind it, the plain truth is I am not a scientist, so it requires a lot of re-reading for me to take in all of the information. I am enjoying it though. I just don't get much time to sit and read it.
Koa is getting more and more active all the time. Initially I did not think this was possible! He has always been an active, highly motivated child, so I thought he would just maintain that. However the last couple of days especially I have wondered if he is sneaking caffeine tablets or something. I have contemplated putting a stamp on his Hieny and shipping him off to the grandparents or something, but I'm afraid he would just come back with "RETURN TO SENDER" stamped on his face! Tonight Zak took him on a walk after dinner in hopes of using up some of the energy and I actually got a moment to myself in the house. It was really kind of nice. I was trying to think if that has happened at all in the past two years. I think this might have been a first!
Another thing I have just started and am really excited about is a ladies Bible study on Daniel that we are doing on Tuesday nights. The ladies have done several studies together over the past several years, but I haven't been able to attend as regularly as I would like because of logistics. Now that Zak is done with school for a while I am hoping I will get to become a regular. I have been "reading" Daniel over and over when I am driving with my new Bible on CD that Hunt and Myrna got us for Christmas. I really like it! I enjoy listening to scripture like that where it is just read as a complete story. I especially like having the Old Testament read because I get different things from the story when I am not having to pronounce the names in my head.
I'll stop there for now, not because I'm out of material, but because I'll spare everyone (myself included) from reading another marathon post. Stay tuned for further posts on Koa's happenings, Malama Groups, Zak's grad school applications, vaccinations research, and whatever else happens in the weeks ahead.
