ZumwaltOhana.com

ZumwaltOhana - The Suburban Years

So it turns out we had to move!  When the Navy moved us into our Multnomah University campus house in the Summer of 2008, we hoped that the Navy would move us out a couple years later after I (Zak) finished my degree and went back into active duty.  It was a long shot, but a possibility, that we wouldn't have to pay or go through the hassle of moving ourselves during the time that I was out of the military.  Unfortunately that's not going to happen since we received notice at the end of May that we had to be moved out of our house by July 1st!

When we had our meeting with the university's housing office, they informed us that they would be demolishing our house, as well as 5 other houses on our street, so they could begin construction on new campus townhouses due to be open next year.  As compensation for being inconvenienced on such short notice (5 weeks), they offered us a 3 bedroom unit in their existing campus townhouses.  However, it is smaller than our 4 bedroom house, does not have a yard or garage, does not have washer/dryer hook-ups (there's a community laundry room), and most importantly, is part of a claustrophobic Christian commune with no non-Christian interaction.  And the rent is higher!  So we said "no thanks" and began looking for a place to live off-campus.

Leaving has proven to be difficult for us.  Kathy had just planted her garden a couple weeks before we found out we had to leave.  We had become really good friends with some of our neighbors on the other side of the street.  Our house has been a food co-op drop for the past 2 years.  We've thrown 2 block parties on our street and for a while even discussed starting a community garden!  We had already toured the local school, talked with the principle and Koa's kindergarten teachers, and registered him for the Fall.  We're close to our doctor/mid-wife, Wes & Jessi, and other long-time friends.  So it's not easy to be leaving even though we've only been here for 3 years.  More than the house, we'll miss the relationships we've intentionally been developing in that part of Portland.

What we discovered as soon as we began looking for a new place to live was that our rent would be doubling, regardless of whether we stayed somewhere in Portland or moved down to Sherwood to be a part of our church's community.  If we stayed in Portland our new house would have to be within a 10 minute bike-ride of the campus so we wouldn't have to drive to both school and Sherwood throughout the week.  If we moved to Sherwood we wanted to be within walking distance of a park/playground since there's no way we could afford a single-family home with a yard down there.  So the search was on for a new place!

I think we looked at a total of 10-12 houses, evenly divided between Portland and Sherwood.  Generally the places in Portland were single-family homes with yards, but were just as old/inefficient as our campus house (80 years) and in less than desirable neighborhoods with less than desirable schools.  The places down in Sherwood were mostly townhouses, but newer/efficient and in well-groomed suburbia with spectacular schools.  We had our likes and dislikes in both cities, but weren't going to submit an application anywhere until God told us where to go.  So we filled out multiple applications and then waited to see which one to submit.

Our closest friends know the amount of anguish that Kathy and I experienced trying to decide where to move.  We spent 3 weeks not waiting for a house per se, but waiting for God to tell us whether to stay in Portland or move to Sherwood.  The house would come later; of greatest importance was where God was sending us.  Why might we be getting removed from our house at this particular time?  What opportunities does God have laid out for us that we shouldn't miss?  Where can we take the greatest step of faith?  Are we willing to make the hard decision of living where we don't really want to live?  How can we be of greatest impact for God?  So we prayed and waited.  Waited and prayed.  Prayed and waited.  Until we only had 2 weeks to move and the newer listings began to not be available until after July 1st.  Our deadline had arrived.  And no booming voice from above.

It was frustrating not being directly told where to live by God.  Abraham was told where to go.  Paul was told where to go.  Where was our direction?  We've no doubt God spoke to us through our friends' counsel, but we would have preferred a neon arrow floating in the sky!   So our conclusion was that God didn't really care which city we ended up living in - both were equally in need of His presence.  He was giving us the freedom to do His work in whatever city we preferred to live.

We picked Sherwood.  Honestly, we would have preferred to stay in Portland (who would pass up an opportunity to live in Portland!?), but ultimately felt that it is too important to be a member of the community that you're trying to reach.  Scripture is full of men and women, who in an effort to be a light to a people, actually become one of them, culminating obviously in God Himself coming down and becoming one of us so that He could perfectly relate to us.   It was unauthentic for Kathy and I to intentionally meet and develop personal relationships with people down in Sherwood, but then each evening drive back up to Portland!  The closer we got to people, the harder it became to develop those relationships long distance.  So we submitted one of the applications we had already filled out for a townhouse in Sherwood, and began concluding the urban chapter of our lives.  Now we're suburban-ites!

We officially had the house on Saturday, June 26th, but we didn't move in until Monday the 28th.  That way we had a couple days overlap to carry down some of our fragile stuff in our car instead of loading them on the huge truck.  We were also able to take some measurements (OK, all measurements!) of the new house and make a plan for where everything was going to go on moving day.  The nice thing about Multnomah tearing down our campus house was that we didn't have to clean up after ourselves, so moving out and doing the final walk-through was (relatively) easy, and our security deposit is guaranteed.  I rented the biggest truck U-Haul had - a 26 footer I think - at 7:00am on Monday and it had to be back by 7:00pm that evening, so we had to hustle.  Thankfully we have wonderful friends who, like everyone else in Portland, don't actually work, thus were free to help us move out on Monday!  Later in the evening when our friends in Sherwood (who actually do work) got home, they also came over and helped us unpack the truck.  About halfway through unloading in Sherwood it became apparent that we were not going to get the truck back in time, so we frantically unloaded the rest into the garage and Wes and I raced off to get the truck back in time.  We had to get through rush-hour traffic, and refill the truck with gas, but we made it with a whole 15 minutes to spare!  

Our new (as-yet-to-be-named) place is a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom, 1500 square feet, 1 car garage townhouse in the middle of Sherwood.  It's biggest selling point for us was that it's squeezed into a small townhouse neighborhood, so it'll be easy to get to know our neighbors.  We also love how open the kitchen/living room is - it'll be great for having guests over.  The place is within walking distance of a park (Stella Olsen Memorial Park), and if we're serious, walking distance to Koa's elementary school (Hopkins Elementary School).  On Mondays and Tuesdays when I have classes at Multnomah, I can take an express bus that runs between Pioneer Square in Portland and a Park-n-Ride here in Sherwood, then take the MAX from downtown out to 82nd where the school is located.  It looks like my commute will take a little over an hour each way, but that'll give me time to do some school work and get to know my fellow Sherwood commuters.  Not only is taking public transportation cheaper, but this way Kathy and the kiddos won't be without the car all day.

So we've now been living here for a week.  Until 2 days ago there were still piles of boxes all over the house.  Now there's just piles and piles and stuff out of boxes everywhere!  We're hoping to be settled in by the end of this week, but i'm sure that's wishful thinking!  You can see pictures of our new house, and how our unpacking is coming along, in the Sherwood Townhouse photo album, or go on a video tour of the place before we moved in.  We're also taking suggestions for the name for our new house!

What You Look Like To A Visitor

I (Zak) looked at a bunch of surveys online and discovered that Islam is the second fastest growing religion in America (behind “unaffiliated” or those who practice no religion).  I figured if this was the case, there stood an increasing chance that sooner or later I would begin to encounter Muslims on a regular basis and it would be nice to already have a little bit of an understanding about their religious beliefs and practices.  So, in an effort to view myself and my Christian worship practices from a visitor’s perspective, I set out to make myself a visitor at a mosque.  Needless to say, I definitely view my own church’s practices (and handling of visitors!) differently now!

After I had decided to attend a Muslim service, I googled "Mosques in Portland, OR" and got 107,000 hits (in 0.22 seconds!).  From there I found a list of 56 Islamic Mosques in Portland and Vancouver, and at the top of this list was the "Islamic Center of Portland" or "Masjed As-Saber".  But here is where I encountered my first problem as a visitor wanting to attend their worship service – I couldn’t understand anything on their website!  Nothing was in English!  All the tabs were in Arabic, their November schedule used Islamic terms to identify days, dates, and times, and all the events on their calendar had Islamic names!  For the life of me I couldn't find when to worship at the mosque!  No meeting times that I could find.  No days of the week for worship times that I could find.  No way to let new-comers who only speak English know what/where/when to show up at their mosque.  So after a couple of frustrating hours I quit and went to work on something else!

The next day I went back to their website and after poking around for a while on their event calendar discovered that if I clicked on an event (with an Islamic name), a description of that event would appear in English.  It was in this way that I discovered their weekly Friday prayers (“Jum'a Prayer”) that they held at their mosque every Friday from 1:30pm to 2:30pm.  I didn't know what to wear to Jum’a Prayer on Friday, so I looked for pictures of people on their website.  I noticed that while they wore whatever they liked, they were all wearing a little hat.  Did I need one of those?  I also noticed that all the men had beards, so I was thankful that I already had met that quota!

When Friday came I drove out to the mosque, but I actually found the crowds long before I found the building!  The streets leading up to its location where packed, as was the parking lot of Masjed As-Saber.  Dark skinned men with beards speaking Arabic were pouring out of the mosque and milling around in the parking lot and adjacent streets while cars tried to get by.  All I saw were men – women were not required to be there for Jum’a Prayer, but if they were, they were in another part of the building.

Seeing the crowds, I was suddenly struck by what I was about to do.  Up until that point I thought this would be novel and a great adventure.  Now I realized just how awkward and alone I was about to feel.  I looked and sounded and acted and believed nothing like they did.  It finally sunk in how uncomfortable this experience might be, and my nervousness caused me to say a little prayer before I stepped out of my car into the cold, gray, wet day and hundreds of Muslims.  As I crossed the parking lot and began wading through all the foreign-speaking people on my way to the front door, a young white guy with a long beard (Jason was his name) noticed me almost at the same time that I noticed him and he came straight over to me and said hello.  He probably noticed me because I was the only other white guy there!  Jason was very welcoming, he shook my hand, and introduced himself.  Jason was also able to guess that I had never been to the mosque before and that I was there specifically for Jum'a Prayer.

Most likely he was able to figure these things out about me because I was the only one walking towards the mosque while everyone else was walking away from it.  Apparently I had just missed the service, and the crowd was everyone leaving!  He explained to me that Islam is very closely tied to the movement of the sun across the sky, and so because of Daylight Savings Time, their Jum’a Prayer actually started at 12:30 instead of 1:30!  Why didn’t the website tell me this?  Why didn’t their online calendar of events adjust for DST as their services did?  This was certainly not very conducive to first-time visitors like myself!  So, I asked him if it was still OK for me to go inside the mosque and wander around and he said ‘yes.’  Then I asked him if he wanted to show me around, but he couldn't because he was leaving, so he introduced me to Benjamin, a friendly older fat man with a short white beard, a hat, and a thick middle-eastern accent.

Benjamin agreed to show me around, so he led me through the crowd, introducing me to people along the way.  I shook the hands of quite a few people whose names I couldn't understand or even pronounce!  When we finally made it to the front door I was directed to the cubbies where people place their shoes, so we took our shoes off and went into the mosque.  First Benjamin showed me the prayer room where the Jum'a Prayer on Fridays and the 5 daily prayers every day of the week take place.  The room itself was big – about as big as an auditorium in a church building would be.  There was a very large green marble arch up front with bookshelves full of books surrounding it on either side.  Under the arch was a large throne-like chair facing out into the room where I was told the Imam sits during Jum'a Prayer and speaks for about 40 minutes.  The Imam is the senior Muslim at the mosque, much like a priest or senior pastor would be at a church building.  The entire mosque (including the prayer room) is oriented towards Mecca (17.5°NE), so everyone praying towards the front of the room also prays towards Mecca.  The room had green carpet with hundreds of 2x3 foot squares in which people would stand, bow, sit, and kneel.  As I watched, men praying would do so side by side with no open squares between them – each square had to be filled before the next row of squares behind them could start to fill.  In this way, every man’s feet and shoulders were touching the feet and shoulders of the men next to him.

Benjamin then introduced me to a younger guy (probably mid-30s) named Khalid.  Khalid had much better English than Benjamin and was invited to come with us as Benjamin showed me into a side room that served as the mosque's library.  There were bookshelves and elaborately decorated books on all four walls of this room.  They pulled 3 chairs over into the center of the room and Khalid, Benjamin, and I talked for about 40 minutes.  They asked if I was married, if I had kids, where I went go to school, how much I knew about Islam, where I grew up, what brought me to Masjed As-Saber that day, if I was from around there, and how much experience I had with Muslims.  I have to admit that I felt a little intimidated; sitting in a room by myself with the door closed with these two strangers as they asked me about my life.  Obviously it was harmless chit-chat, really no different than what I do when I go up and start talking with a visitor in my congregation, but intimidating nevertheless.  I’ll have to remember this feeling when I start asking my visitors all sorts of personal questions!

But, Benjamin and Khalid also told me that no question I asked was too silly, so I could ask whatever I wanted about the Islamic faith or their particular mosque.  Khalid did most of the talking with Benjamin telling him things in Islamic every now and then.  So, we talked about Muhammad, Jesus, the prophets, the Qur'an, why they say "Peace be upon him" every time they mention Allah and any of the prophets.  We talked about Mecca, Masjed As-Saber, head coverings, women, washings, taking shoes off, service projects, and their community outreach programs.  We talked about becoming Muslim, Imams, educational expectations for Muslims, and reading and writing Arabic.  Then they gave me a copy of the Qur'an and some fliers about Islam.

Benjamin and Khalid were very friendly and willing to answer all of my questions, but it was obvious that they were trying to sell Islam to me and get me to come back in the future (sounds very much like what I do with my visitors!).  They focused on similarities between Christianity and Islam, Christ and Muhammad, and the Bible and the Qur'an.  They each put my first and last name and my phone number in their phones, and then they also forwarded that information to Jason (the white guy I met first).  When they first asked me for my personal information it felt really intrusive, and then it dawned on me that that’s really the same thing we do with our visitors when we ask them to fill in cards with their names and phone numbers!  Finally, during our conversation the mosque's Imam walked in, so Benjamin and Khalid introduced me to him and we shook hands, then the three of them talked together in Arabic right in front of me while I waited.  It made me feel like they were talking about me!

Our conversation was finally interrupted by the call to prayer (“Adhan”) 15 minutes before 2:30 over the mosque’s loudspeakers.  Khalid explained to me that Muslims have 5 daily prayers, and that this was the afternoon (“'Asr”) prayer – the 3rd of the day.  The Adhan was being sung or chanted in Arabic, so I asked Khalid to interpret it for me.  When it was finished, I asked if I could go and observe the prayer and they said ‘sure.’  On our way from the library to the prayer room Benjamin showed me the shower room where everyone washes before prayers.  Muslims wash their hands, elbows, hair, face, and feet since those are the parts of the body that touch the floor in the prayer room.  If the men can stay "clean" during the day, they don’t have to wash before each of the 5 prayers.

Back at the prayer room, men slowly filed in and stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the squares in the carpet.  Benjamin and Khalid went and participated in the prayer while I sat in the back and watched.  As men walked in and went to a square they would individually do an opening prayer including some bowing and chanting.  Then they waited for the Imam to come into the room to lead 'Asr prayer.  Eventually the Imam came in and stood in the front also facing towards Mecca.  He didn't face the crowd or sit in the chair, but faced forward in the front of the room.  Then he would call out an Islamic word and the whole crowd would assume a position (stand, bend-over, sit, kneel, etc.).  Every time he called out a different word, everyone would change positions.  There was complete silence except for his single word called out once a minute or so.  The 'Asr prayer lasted about 15 minutes and then some of the men left, some milled around, some grabbed a book off of a shelf and began to read.  When Benjamin and Khalid returned to me, I thanked them for their time (I had been there for about an hour and 15 minutes!), we said our goodbyes, and I left.  By the time I had gotten to my car where I left my phone, Khalid has already sent me a text thanking me for coming and to give me his phone number.

My experience at Masjed As-Saber was certainly different and uncomfortable, but I’m very glad that I did it.  Not only did I learn more about Muslim beliefs and practices, but I also learned what it feels like to be a clueless outsider walking into a brand-new worship situation.  I remember milling things over in my mind on the way home that afternoon.  I’m not close to any Muslims who could influence me or invite me to his/her mosque, so I really had to show up to their services completely on my own.  Is that true of my faith?  My church?  Furthermore, I had to intentionally keep trying to figure out how/when/where to attend their mosque, and even when I did finally figure it out and actually went, I was still wrong (1 hour late because of DST)!  If I were searching for a place to worship, I would have given up on Masjed As-Saber a long time ago – they did not make it easy for me!  Is this true of my church’s website?  Is it clear, up to date, and easy to understand?  When I got to the mosque, I didn't understand a single word the Imam was saying or the positions the members were assuming during their prayer times, which made their service extremely exclusive and unwelcoming to visitors.  I was one of only two white guys there; everyone else was of middle-eastern descent and fluently spoke Arabic, so I immediately stood out.  Is that how my church’s worship is?  Do we use words outsiders don’t understand?  Do we all look and act exactly the same way as other Christians, yet completely differently from everyone else in our communities?

There are some great lessons that we can apply from this experience to our Christian churches.  First of all, it is vitally important to make it easy for people to find us, come to us, and understand us.  There are already 100s of reasons why non-believers don’t want to attend our worship services, so the last thing we want to do is add our own reasons to that list.  This means clear websites with days, times, dress-codes, locations, a description of what to expect at worship, and points of contact to ask questions are all important.  We should strive to answer people’s questions on the website before they even have to ask them.

Secondly, during the worship service it is important to make visitors feel welcome by talking with them, showing them around the building, and introducing them to similar people (if it’s a young, single female attending college, introduce her to other young, single females attending college in the congregation).  It’s also a good idea to give them permission to ask any question, give them a Bible and other handouts, and sit with them during services (if they’d like) to explain things to them.  Assume nothing and explain every aspect of the worship service.  It seems normal to us to use religious terminology, to bow our heads and pray to an invisible God, to wear a ties and dresses, to sit down for some songs and stand up for others, to pass around a tray and eat some crackers and drink some juice (that we call someone’s body and blood, no less!), and be able to instantly flip through our Bibles to the exact book, chapter, and verse that the speaker is talking about.  But it also seemed normal for the Muslims I observed to take their shoes off at the front door, go to the shower room and wash themselves before prayers, and then bow, sit, and kneel at specific times during a silent prayer service with a leader announcing single words in a foreign language.  I had no idea what they were saying and doing, so others probably feel the same way about our Christian services.

I would recommend to anyone who is concerned about making their visitors feel welcome, comfortable, knowledgeable, and involved in their worship service to visit another religion’s worship service.  The first-hand experience of seeing a service through the eyes of a new-comer is far greater than simply being told about it.  Additionally, it shows our genuine love for non-believers when we willingly experience their unease so we can make things better for them.  I consider this to be a wonderful example of real service in worship.

Sheesh! Where Have We Been??? (updated with links)

Yes, I know I have been negligent in updating The People on the Zumwalt Ohana happenings for far too long.  So, I will try to make a short post summarizing our last month or so and catch everyone up to date (and ease my conscience).

We have retreated to the coast a couple of times in the recent past.  Zak and I were able to attend a free weekend marriage workshop in Cannon Beach with the Northwest Marriage Institute.  The workshop wasn't anything amazing and unfortunately Zak was the sickest I have ever seen him (Swing Flu!?), but we got to spend a little time at the coast and Koa got to have a sleepover with his friend, Caleb.  The Cousers went out and did the workshop with us, so that made for a fun couple days.

Just a few weeks after that we spent about four days at Twin Rocks Friends Camp for a retreat with Zak's grad class.  It was nice to get away and relax following the stress of finals.  We all stayed in barracks, so the "family room" we were in had three bunk beds in it.  When Koa tells stories about that weekend he says, "Remember at that bed place..."  Each room didn't have a bathroom, so we all had to share a public bathroom on our floor.

Speaking of the finals, Zak ended the semester with three A's and one B.  He's currently taking an intensive Hermeneutics class (the classroom work is finished, but he still has to give a sermon at Agape to finish the class), and then will be taking a Biblical Leadership class starting next month.  Although I didn't get an official grade for the Greek class I took with Zak, I think I squeaked by with an A when all was said and done.  I will take Greek II with Zak in the fall, Lord willing.  I was planning to take a class at Western Seminary this summer called Intervention Strategies for Victims of Sex Trafficking, but in the last week before class started I discovered that the professor had changed, the class syllabus had changed significantly, and even the focus of the class had changed.  So I decided it was not in our best interest for me to take the class at that time.  As disappointed as I was to not be taking it, I was also a little relieved to have one thing taken off the "to do" list for the summer.

As most people know, Portland is known for the amount of rain received on a continuous basis each year.  However, Portland's best kept secret is just how beautiful the summers are!  This may be the biggest reason this poor blog has been so neglected!  We have had some beautiful days lately!  Those days have been filled with lots of gardening and playing outside.  We just finished planting our corn and beans and we filled in some extra space we had left with some starts of red cabbage and bell peppers that we got from the nursery.  We tried to plan our garden harvest around our trip this summer (more to come on that soon) so everything will not be ready to harvest while we are gone.  Hopefully that plan will work, but if not we have faithful garden-sitters standing by - the Cousers.  They will be maintaining the slug saloons, as well.

Summer not only brought beautiful weather, but also wonderful house guests.  Well, one of them was actually a hotel guest, but he stopped by the house on occasion.  Zak's dad was in town on business and he made time to hang out with us while he was here.  What a treat that was for us, but don't worry, Regina, he didn't really enjoy it at all! :)  We sent him on his way with his own little family of kefir grains and anxiously await the news of propagation.

Just recently we have had the Cousers move in with us while they are in between houses.  It's been like an endless Summer slumber party at our house!  We are getting very tired because we all like to stay up too late and talk.  Zak recently built us a great little fire pit in our back yard and we have been thoroughly enjoying cooking dinner over it and visiting until late into the night by the fire.  We have also consumed way too many s'mores and ports in recent days!  If anyone has a good marshmallow recipe that also toasts well, please send it my way.  Mine just melt into a big sugary mess instead of toasting nicely.

With beautiful weather comes and opportunity to get out and play some Frisbee!  So, Zak and I have been hosting an Ultimate Frisbee Home Community on Multnomah's campus once a week for the past month or so.  It is so nice to get out and run around again, but it has made it painfully obvious how inactive we were in the colder months.  We will have to be more purposeful this year about being more active even when it's cold outside! 

The boys have been growing and changing with each passing day this Summer.  Koa can be found with his ball and glove out in the yard most days and will pitch (quite well, I might add) to anyone with a stick in hand.  He is taking free swimming lessons right now at the community pool near our house.  He keeps insisting that he already knows how to swim and is frustrated that the instructor won't just let him go into the pool by himself.  We haven't gone over during "open swim" time for him to try it out, but I suppose we should.  Who knows, maybe he does know how to swim and we just don't know it.  Caspian has been faithfully working on crawling.  He has made a lot of progress just in the last day or so and now does the inch worm crawl and can go from laying to sitting all by himself.  I'm sure there will be pictures and videos posted soon since Zak recently got his new computer (after the two month saga) and will be able to edit all the videos we've had waiting to be posted.

Hopefully The People feel sufficiently up-to-date because this sleepy girl needs to head to bed!  Good Night.

One More Anniversary

I'm (Zak) embarassed I missed an anniversary a couple days ago.  I have been planning on marking Monday, May 4th for quite a while, and then the day came and went and I totally forgot about it until now.  Two days ago was supposed to be my last day in the Navy!  Back in 1999 I enlisted for 6 years, and then in year 5 of that original enlistment I reenlisted for 4 more years.  May 4th was intended to be my last day.  That's the date on all my paperwork, our base stickers, and the expiration date on our military IDs.  From July of last to year until Monday I should have still been wearing my uniform, saluting, shaving, and dealing with sailors.

I wanted to mark May 4th so I could look back at everything that's happened from the time I really did get out of the Navy to the time I should have gotten out.  It's been an amazing 10 months!  During all this time that I should have still be in, we have moved to Portland (as non-military a place as you can find!), became ministers at a church, had another kid, finished almost an entire year of grad school (just 3 days shy), and even got commissioned as an officer back into the Navy!  What a huge difference this time has been.

I can't help but wonder how many things would be different if I hadn't been released early and I did just get out of the Navy on Monday.  Would everthing happen exactly the same way as it has, just 10 months later?  Or would things be totally different?  Obviously it's impossible to know, but we do know that God has been doing some amazing things in our lives these past 10 months.  What an interesting journey.

So, so long (again) Navy!  See you in a couple years.

I Am A Huge Dork!

Yesterday we had our quiz on chapter 4 in Greek class.  First of all, let me just say that if you are tempted to study just a wee bit more during the prayer at the beginning of class, you haven't studied sufficiently.  Yes, that was me.  No, I didn't give in to the temptation, but it was there!

Secondly I need to reiterate (to myself) that I am not taking the class for credit! 

As soon as I was handed the quiz (Yes, a quiz, not even a test!) I started to get all nervous and shaky.  My heart was racing.  My palms started to sweat.  Between my shaky hands and the bumpy table surface you could barely read my handwriting!  I was a complete mess! 

Then the professor started saying, "OK, just a couple more minutes."  So, I was really panicked!  I just knew I was not going to be able to finish the test and I was going to have to leave something blank!  So, I rushed (just typing this makes me all nervous again!) and filled in blanks, and translated into English words that we haven't even learned yet! 

I finished.  And turned it in.  And then realized all of the things I had done incorrectly! 

Isn't this ridiculous?  I guess it's a good thing I'm not taking the class for credit.  I might have actually passed out right there in the middle of the test!

Fortunately, our other quizzes have not been so traumatic.  On most occasions I have felt much more prepared for class when the time came.  Holy moly, it's getting intense, though.  It is A LOT of information.  I think Zak is beating me by like 1/12 of a point so far.  I'm thinking when we get this next quiz back, though, his lead will be much more significant.  After all, he wasn't sweating during the test!  Maybe he studied during the prayer....

Facing Forward

With the new year ahead of us we have many good things we are anticipating!  Zak begins his semester tomorrow (technically today, but he doesn't have classes on Mondays) and I get to begin with him!  We will be taking a New Testament Greek class together.  Multnomah is very family oriented and really encourages the spouses to be involved in the student's education and spiritual development.  The Spouse Enrichment Program encourages us to do at least one thing per semester to this end.  Last semester I joined the book club, but wasn't a very good participant.  It fell on the same evening as our Recovery group training twice, so between that and having a new baby around I was not a very good book club member! 

This semester I vow to be be better, though!  I got my textbook in the mail today, and I even ordered an extra little cheat sheet to help give me a little advantage.  It has, after all, been 10 years since I graduated college!  We only have class one day a week, so it is a three hour class.  Uncle Wes has agreed to watch the wee ones during that time.  Since it is nap time, it shouldn't be too overwhelming for him.  Maybe he will even get some studying done during that time.

Zak will also be taking Isaiah through Malachi, The Gospels & Hebrews through Revelation, and Development of Spiritual Character.  He is taking one less class this semester (12 credits instead of 16) and will round it out with a class during the summer break.  That way he should have more time for working with the recovery ministry and being with his family.

We have completed our leadership training for recovery groups and will officially start our first groups in February.  I am so excited to see how that is going to go!  God has really been moving in the hearts of some people who are interested in leading and in encouraging people to attend.  In fact, our regular home community may be dissolving into the different groups (recovery, young married, etc.) in order for people to benefit from a different type of support.  We are sad to see that go, but excited that people are plugging in where they need to be. 

This past Saturday we began a ladies Bible study that will continue through May as we will meet every other week.  It is a Beth Moore study on Esther.  Somehow this past Saturday I made a mistake on the time we were meeting and walked in with just a few minutes left of the first video.  So, I have some catching up to do.  Hopefully this is not an indication of what kind of student I will be for the rest of the semester. 

I can tell that I am getting back to my normal self because this list of things seems exciting to me and I'm not thinking, "Oh my, something else to do..."  I'm still forgetful, and I'm still a little sleep deprived, but as long as that is all, I think I can cope!

M'Boys

What an interesting holiday season we had!  We had lots of fun hanging out together as a family and there are many things to update. 

Zak finished up his semester December 12 with three A's and two B's.  That seems like a very successful semester considering how incredibly busy he was.  He finished a big project (an Expositional Commentary on Ephesians 3:1-13) for his most difficult class (Principles of Inductive Bible Study) which was worth 50% of his grade with a 95%.  Not only did he finish with great evaluation of the work he did, I think he also grew significantly in his knowledge of the Bible and his relationship with God.  I certainly can't speak for him in this regard, but I have seen evidence of this as he grows in his compassion for people and becomes increasingly more generous with his blessings.  

It's been different being completely separated from the college for almost a whole month.  We've only seen his classmates on two occasions.  We had dinner at the home of one of his classmates and his family before Christmas which was a wonderful treat.  Then we had several Multnomah students to our house for a worship service one Sunday when most churches had canceled services due to weather.  We had 11 Multnomah students who walked here and 10 people from Agape who actually braved the weather enough to drive here!  We served chili and rice and bread for lunch and it was a wonderful time of fellowship!  We were very grateful for the meat my parents brought when they came!  There is no way I would have been able to make enough chili to feed that many people otherwise!

Zak's latest challenge has been in regards to weight loss.  He has put on a few pounds over the past few years (and past couple civilian months!) so he needs to get back within the Navy's weight requirements.  To this end, he has been working out every day with a work out I got to design for him.  And, of course, I get to feed him the nourishing food to help him meet this goal.  So far he is doing very well and has moved from 220 to 211 in only 4 weeks.  His goal is to be at 210 by January 12th and at 200 by May 15.  I'm sure we will keep The People updated on his progress with this goal. 

Since we have had lots of time to spend at home due to inclement weather and holiday free time, we took the time to finish some of the decorating of our house that was still incomplete.  This has been a bigger deal to Zak than it has to me as I am admittedly more interested in function than form.  However I have to admit that our house is more "homey" now that we have finished up some of the decorating.  You can find pictures of this in the Mult-Home-Ah photo album.  The cheesy palm tree was my idea.  I grew fond of it during our Christmas season and wasn't willing to put it away!

One of the updates we made to the house and its decorations was a new big boy bed for Koa.  I have been looking for the perfect bed for long term use that will work in his room.  I wanted to do a bunk-bed-type so we could consolidate the beds when Caspian got big enough to need a big boy bed, but their ceiling is too low.  So, I needed a "junior loft" bed in order to fit the bill.  Of course, I also didn't want to buy it new since that just seems wasteful.  We finally found what we had been looking for on Craig's list and made a short trip up to Vancouver, WA to pick it up.  The crazy weather made it a bit of an adventure, but everything worked out really well.  This was Stimple and Tutu's Christmas gift to Koa and we got to pick it up just a couple of days after Christmas.  Now he and Caspian are roommates.  It's nice to have them in there together and they make good roommates.  They don't even seem to wake each other up very often.  Their room is my favorite room in the house now.  I think it is partially because that room stays clean most of the time and is easy to clean when it does get messy. 

Koa is definitely two years old, and sometimes I hope that will be over soon.  He protests anything that he thinks is not his idea--even if it was his idea!  We spend a lot of time working on having a good attitude.  That means that some days he spends a lot of time in the corner.  This has been a great tool of discipline until recently.  All of the sudden one day he decided that he LIKES the corner, in fact he LOVES the corner.  So, when I would give him permission to come out because his attitude was better, he would say he would rather stay there.  Back to the drawing board.

He really is a lot of fun to be around when he's not trying to be difficult.  He loves to play pretend (maybe that's why the corner is fun) and will play with anything!  He likes to make families out of any random objects he can find.  In fact, his first family was a toothbrush, toothpaste and a bottle of grape seed oil.  Then there were the dish brushes, pencil eraser, cups, silverware.  His most favorite little guy is a gold-colored furniture bolt.  He calls it his "treasure guy" and that is the first "toy" he looks for in the morning.  I also have to be on guard or every cup/bowl shaped container will make it into his toy cabinet (or the living room floor) as a hat for somebody!  Fortunately he is getting better and better about picking up toys and books and adhering to the "one toy at a time" rule most of the time.  His mom is just a little bit crazy and likes the toys to be put away in an organized fashion (ie. balls and stuffed animals in the top drawer; cars in the middle drawer etc.) and he is pretty good at getting things put away in their proper place, as well. 

He likes to play "introduction" with his toys.  He'll say, "Hi, I'm Koa, what's your name?  I come from Waikiki with Wes and Jessi."  Then he proceeds to tell about the zoo in Waikiki because Wes and Jessi and Tracie took him to the zoo once.  It is amazing to see the details he recalls from that long-ago trip to the zoo.  He also likes to try to introduce himself to people he doesn't know (as long as I don't ask him to...) and he will tell them his name means "warrior" and he gets his curly hair from his dad.

He's also getting better at memorizing books so he can "read" them to Caspian.  We still haven't gotten a good video of that, but I hope we can soon.  He also has a knack for categorizing books.  He recognizes when the artwork or story is the same or similar.  For instance, he will know that it is a P.D. Eastman or Laura Numeroffe book even if it is the first time to read it.  He also has pointed out other artwork when it looks similar.  We saw a calendar one day with cartoon drawings on it and he said, "It's a Sandra Boynton book." and it did look very similar to her illustrations.

I don't think we have ever mentioned Koa's total fascination with Veggie Tales!  He adores Bob and Larry, but Larry is definitely his favorite.  He loves to look at the picture of Zak when he was Larry Boy for Halloween.  He knows most of the songs on any Veggie Tale video he has seen and he asks daily to watch them!  We've gotten pretty bad about agreeing to it and now he watches a lot more TV than we wish he did.  We never got cable when we moved into this house, and it has been great.  We don't miss regular TV.  So, I suppose it's not the worst thing in the world if the only thing we ever watch is Veggie Tales and Signing Time.  At least both of them are teaching him something.  However, I don't want him to get in the habit of just vegging out (pun intended) in front of the TV all the time.

And then there's Capian...  He is such a sweet baby, and very calm and content when his tummy is feeling well....which is hardly ever!  Fortunately he is really good at soothing himself.  He's a thumb sucker and he's good at it!  He can find that thing almost instantly, and he will sooth himself right to sleep.  He also usually just wants to lay on his tummy and sleep when he is feeling bad.  So, that is a good thing, too, unless we are out somewhere that he can't really just lay around.  Then it is really bad. 

You'd never know by lookin' at him, but occasionally he will go 8-12 hours without eating for some odd reason.  We thought there was some consistency to it, but now I am beginning to believe it is totally random.  Like maybe he just eats like normal every three hours until he gets full and then he just hibernates for a while.  He sleeps pretty consistently 7 hours at night but one night he went 12!  I tried waking him up to feed him, but he would just get angry and go back to sleep.  (Needless to say, I was up at three in the morning pumping!)  Sometimes his strikes are in the middle of the day.  He will wake up at regular intervals, but will just REFUSE to eat.  Then he will be ready to go back to sleep in just a little while.  Doctor Jen is baffled by it.  He rarely ever acts like his tummy is upset when he does this.  He will just be very content unless I try to feed him.

He has started becoming a little more regular with pooping which has helped with the upset tummy issue.  For a while he was having solid poops most of the time, but I think that has resolved itself.  Poor Caspian, all we talk about is his digestive issues when we give updates about him.  He really is very sweet and mellow.  He still has very tiny smiles and sometimes he will give us a little laugh which makes them especially cute!

We have used a Babywise-esque routine with both boys and they both have responded very well to that.  Caspian doesn't need quite as much structure as Koa did.  With Koa if we strayed from his normal routine very much we would have to detox for several days and get him back into his comfort zone or he would be a pretty fussy baby.  Caspian will roll with the punches for the most part, but if we expect him to do that for too many days we get a fussy baby.  That is what happened this past week when we went to Astoria.  For the days leading up to it we were coming and going a little too often for him to get a regular nap and we paid for it part of the time in Astoria.  So, we have been staying home and "detoxing" since then.

Right now, both boys are sick with a cold!  So, we stayed home from church today.  As you can see, that has given me time to catch up on posts that are way over-due!  Hopefully my little boys will be back to health soon and we can continue with life as usual--as usual as it gets around here! :) 

Snow Day!

Zak finished up his first semester of seminary (Woo Hoo!) just in time for our first snow in Portland!  He had his last test on Friday and Saturday night/Sunday morning it started to snow!  "The powers that be" canceled services at Agape, so we ended up staying home all day.  Zak finished this semester with 3 A's and 2 B's (a 3.3 GPA).

Zak and Koa ventured out to play in the snow while Caspian and I stayed inside and kept warm!  However, you can see Caspian (and all of his chins) in his snow gear in his photo album to the left.  He was all dressed to go to church before we found out it had been canceled.    While Zak and Koa were outside Caspian and I made homemade hot chocolate with peppermint whipped cream for the boys to have when they came in from the cold.  It was a nice treat.  Now Koa keeps asking for chocolate milk with sour cream.

Last night Zak had a chance to edit another video for us.  The People can observe Caspian's first real bath if they so desire in Update Eighty Four.  You can find more snow pictures in our Portland Christmas 2008 photo album, as well.

Today it is beautiful and sunny and the snow is already melting away...

People Are Starting to Gawk

Apparently I am getting to that wow-she's-gigantic stage of pregnancy.  A few nights ago while we were out, at least three families stopped to stare as I walked by.  A couple of people actually leaned out of the booth where they were sitting to stare!  At first I thought I was just being self conscious, but after the third time I decided maybe there was some legitimacy to my insecurity. 

The sad part of that is that I don't think I am nearly as big as I was with Koa.  I'm not nearly as swollen anyway.  Praise God!  I can actually still wear my wedding rings which is a small miracle considering I had to take them off when I was just 3-4 months pregnant last time! 

Because of the fact that I am not as swollen this has been a more comfortable pregnancy for the most part.  However, as I near the end I am getting less comfortable.  I think it must be due to the position of the baby, but for some reason my sciatic nerve is killing me!  It hurts pretty much all of the time and when the baby moves just right I get this incredibly sharp pain in my hip.  If the baby moves just right and then I have a contraction I become completely disabled for a while.  It would be humorous if it didn't hurt so bad!  So far nothing seems to help--ice, heat, stretches, exercises, chiropractic adjustment.  I think I am just going to have to wait for this baby to move on in order to find relief.  So, you can be praying for that!  My due date has come and gone and still we wait.  Since Koa was ten days late I don't think any of us are surprised by this fact--a little impatient, but not surprised.  I have been having a lot of contractions for a while now, just nothing consistent enough to get the job done.

Zak finished his second 20 page paper and turned it in last Tuesday so mid-terms are over for him.  He still has to turn in the other big paper, but at least it is already pau.  That has led to a nice change in the action.  He has had several evenings where he could relax a little and we have gotten to take some time to play around and visit some sights we hadn't seen, yet.    He has also had a little more time to do things like edit videos for us.  He has added three new ones to the left if you are so inclined to see what BZ1 is up to.  Some of them are a little dated, but you may find them entertaining.  Updates seventy-eight, seventy-nine and eighty are there for your viewing pleasure.

We found out this evening that our truck, back in Hawai'i, finally sold!  That is a nice relief!  Just this afternoon I was going over the spreadsheet with our bills and budget and wondering just how the two were going to reconcile!  It's been amazing how God has just continued to take care of us and provide for our needs a little bit at a time.  Zak keeps comparing it to the manna in the desert.  We just have to trust that there will be more there the next day...and there always is.  We just get the excitement of seeing how it will happen!

This next Friday we have plans for our home community and some of the Multnomah students to go downtown and participate in something called Nightstrike.  It is a really cool ministry hosted by a church downtown that ministers to the homeless in Portland.  Follow the link and see what kinds of cool things we will be doing!  I'm sure there will be more to come about that after it happens.

 

 

The Rest of the Family

Zak is right in the middle of midterms right now and has been working feverishly trying to make sure he is caught up and a little bit ahead so that if the baby makes an appearance soon he will not be scrambling.  A few days ago he worked for two days solid (yes, that includes through the night!) on a big paper that is due in a week.  He had two 20 page papers due the same day, so he wanted to have one of them finished in advance.  I admire his motivation to do that!  I got to proof read it and I think it is a very good paper.  It's on the book of Judges.  I think it was a little discouraging when he showed up to class the day after he finished it and the professor pushed the due date back by a week!  Unfortunately, the other 20 page paper (on Romans) is still due on the earlier date. 

He's been one busy guy these past few days especially, but they say this is the worst of it and if he can make it through October the rest of the semester won't seem so bad.  I hope for his sake the baby decides to wait to come just a little late.

Now, if we were talking about my sake...I'd be ready to meet BZ2.   I think I am getting a little anxious!  Of course as soon as I start feeling like I'm really ready then I think of all the reasons I'm not really ready to be a mom of two, yet.  One of those reasons is that Koa has suddenly stopped sleeping through the night!  For a while now he has been waking up once or twice a night by kicking his covers off and would call me to come cover him up again.  I would do it and then make one of my nightly trips to the bathroom, so it didn't really bother me enough to empower him to figure out how to get the covers himself.  However last week he started waking up like 8-9 times a night!!  Sometimes he would just lay in there awake and then call me like every 15 minutes at the top of his lungs!  He had every excuse in the book for why he needed me...covers, drink, too hot, too cold, "I need something", "Can I get down?"...it was infuriating!  So, I pose this question to all you moms out there...Is there some explanation for this that I haven't thought of?

I have started being a little more rigid with when he goes to sleep and when he wakes up since that has always seemed to make a difference for him.  We also have started being more purposeful about spending family time.  We try to make sure he sees Zak and I spending time together and also making sure he has daddy time for a while each day in case it is an insecurity thing.  The combination seems to be helping.  He hasn't been lying awake at night, but he is still talking a lot in his sleep and having very active dreams.  Usually when he calls me I go in there and he is still asleep.  So, at least one of us is getting sleep now!  It just makes me a little nervous about how it is going to go with him and the baby sharing a room...

Due to the lack of sleep there for a few days we all came down with a cold last week.  Fortunately we got over it pretty quickly and the symptoms never got too bad for any of us!  That was a real blessing!

Another great blessing we received last week was a beautiful new Moses Basket from someone we met on craigslist!  I had responded to an ad of someone selling a Moses Basket and let her know we were interested.  She apparently followed the link to our website that I have in the signature on my email and saw that we are new to the area and Zak is a seminary student and offered to give us the basket as a "welcome to Oregon" gift!   She recently graduated from Warner Pacific College, a Christian liberal arts school in the area and could relate to our situation.  How cool is that!?  It is a beautiful Moses Basket and now BZ2 has a place to sleep!

Speaking of BZ2, I don't have a lot to report.  I go see our midwife each week now and they do all the normal checks to make sure everything is working well and we are both healthy.  She is willing to check my cervix to see if there is any progress, but I opt not to since I know that doesn't really tell you much of anything in regards to when you will deliver and I'm concerned that if there is progress I will get all anxious and antsy and he or she will be just like Koa and not come until I am well beyond my due date.  So, I will just try to be content in knowing that God knows the time and I don't have to...

We have made some updates to BZ2's Most Wanted list for those who are interested.  We don't have a lot of things we need this time since the essentials are left over from Koa, but we came up with a few items for those who really want to spoil the new little one.

Lastly, I don't think I ever gave the final update on our insurance saga.  Anyway, I hope it is the final...  They have agreed to pay 70% of the birthroom and 90% of the midwife after our deductible.  So, the $900 (plus the insurance premium which ironically comes out to almost exactly the cost of the entire prenatal care and birth!) we already paid is the remainder of that.  Ideally, the rest of the bill should be covered by the insurance.  That's good to know since we are less than two weeks from the due date and I'm exhausted from all the haggling!! :)  Thanks for all your prayers in the midst of this.