A grand completion! Here are the stats...

After 144 hours, or 6 full days, and 192 episodes we've finished watching all 8 seasons of "24."  Ok, I know, its just a TV show, but we were a little addicted, and it sounds a lot worse in writing than when we were in the midst of Jack Bauer's heroic escapades.  But really our bigger achievements are as follows: we have reached 80% of our recommended budget, baked over 600 Christmas cookies, surpassed 160,000 miles on our car, and received 26 shots between the four of us in a months time (resulting in crying boys, resulting in many-a-toothbrush from the health department, and multiple ice cream cone outings before 11am). 

All that (okay, minus the "24") constitutes our last preparations for heading overseas.  Right now we are enjoying beautiful sunny 80 degree weather outside of Orlando, where we'll attend a pre-field orientation this week. We will then travel up the east coast to meet with more individuals interested in partnering with us.  As we move closer to departing (hopefully we'll learn the date this week?!?), we are getting more and more excited, and more and more worried that we will forget to complete all we need to before leaving the US.

Thank You...

...to whomever left this generous gift on our porch! We are so blessed by how all we need is being provided through folks like you. Since I mentioned it, I may as well write that we are currently at 78% of the promised financial support we need before heading overseas. Whooohooo

How do you cook a turkey?

A woman asked her mother how to cook a turkey.  Her mother went through the preparation and cooking.  When the mother finished, her daughter asked her why she cut off the top of the turkey during preparation.  The mother thought about it, then said that was how her mother taught her.  So the women then went to her grandmother to ask why she cut off the top of the turkey.  Her grandmother told her that was what her own mother taught her.  Thankfully the woman's great grandmother was still alive.  She then asked her why she cut off the top of the turkey.  "Oh," she said, "my oven was too small for a whole turkey."
As the Christmas season is in full swing, I am strongly considering which of our ways of celebrating are simply traditions, done because that is how we've always done them, or do they truly have meaning.  Some of this maybe due to a 3 year old in the house that constantly asks "why."  But, even more so it may be due to a class called Form and Meaning.  As we hope to teach truth to a completely different culture, we need to consider what is truth and what is simply part of our culture that isn't important to transfer to others. 
As parents now too, John and I are trying to be very intentional with our children as to what we are celebrating this Christmas.  So as we put up decorations and consider activities, I am evaluating if the form (tradition, decoration, activity) really communicates the meaning I desire.  I've decided upon an advent calender, that counts down the days to Christmas.  Each day moves through history, explaining how the birth of the Son was a long awaited promise.  We have a couple nativity sets to decorate with and will bake a birthday cake for the 25th.  I've always looked forward to unloading my stocking Christmas morning, but I haven't found a good way of incorporating that form with the meaning we are teaching our boys.  Let me know if you have any ideas!?!

Happy Birthday Whitman

Erin did it again, decorating an amazing cake featuring Whitman's latest enunciation: "bvoon"s.

 

He loved playing in them as much as eating them.

 

 

A new favorite: Not a lick of frosting left on those crumbs!

 

 And a bedtime science lesson (nope, no helium here) for the newly minted one year old.

Just the beginning!?!

We stayed the night in New Orleans prior to visiting Pensacola.  While there I, Erin, wanted to experience some authentic Cajun food.  So for dinner that night we ate Gumbo, Cat Fish, Shrimp, Alligator, Meat Pies, and Frog Legs.  Yes, frog legs. 

They were pretty good, tasted like grilled chicken to me.  Caedmon actually favored the frog legs, and the shrimp!  It felt like a brief view into our future, trying new foods, in another culture, overseas.  These options were pretty safe though, where as overseas it may be very different. 

These pictures are from October 31st.  I'm use to bundling up on Halloween; this year we were able to actually play in the water. 

Caedmon took this one!

No Phone!

Yesterday we visited the beach where I spent 7 of my first 9 summers, near Pensacola, FL. In all the excitement of visiting the place for the first time in 20 years, I forgot I had our cell phone in my pocket and well... the rest is history. Enjoy some photos and know that email will be the best way to get a hold of us for the next few days (update: we got another phone, so you can reach us at the same #).

Where it all began!

We have returned to where it all began, at least our training and our life as parents; Caedmon's birth place.   Yes, that means John has finished his linguistic write up and completed his linguistic practicum with the Cherokee language.  This is an example of the word "sofa" written with the orthography (alphabet) John selected (a symbol representing each sound)
                                         gʊn³nuuun³hiiin²dan²³ gan⁴skiin⁴lown³piin²³     
and a sign in Oklahoma with the word "stop" using the actual orthography used by the Cherokees (a symbol representing each syllable). 

On our way into town we stopped at the hospital where Caedmon was born. It was really special to me, Erin, to reminisce about meeting Caedmon for the first time and now be able to show him.

We are staying on campus where John took linguistic classes and Caedmon went to childcare. We've already met with one couple, great friends from a small group, and have plans each night this week, a big praise! We are thoroughly enjoying our time here, the slow pace (no papers for John to write), seeing old friends, and the living accommodations. It seems like each new place improves our accommodations. In Oklahoma we had one room for the four of us with shared facilities. In Missouri we had an apartment with a kitchen but a common wash house, down the walkway, for bathing. Now we have a hotel like room with a shared kitchen, but our own full bathroom. 
We are glad to be moving along on our journey, but our time in Missouri was a blessing. We were able to connect with many friends and enjoy the lake.  We were even blessed with a buyer for John's motorcycle. Next time he rides one may be with all four of us on it!

One down, One to go!

Yesterday I (John) finished the first half of my write-up, describing the tone, sounds, stress and syllables of Cherokee. What a learning experience! For one, I now know what to do differently as I collect data next time, to make the analysis MUCH easier. I'm right on pace to finish the whole paper on time, and I'm thankful for that. I appreciate your continued thoughts as I crank up my grammar analysis today.

Also, we're extremely encouraged by the financial partners who continue to come on board. We have had no meetings since August 5, but since that week our promised support has gone from 39% to 65%. We are thankful for every person who is committed to partner with us in the big adventure ahead, and amazed at the Provider's provision. Praise Him with us!

Please be thinking of us

We have arrived safely in Missouri, where I (John) will begin my Cherokee write-up in the morning (a daunting task!). Upon our arrival here yesterday we got the following news from a leader of our organization, and would appreciate you remembering us as we make decisions in the days and weeks ahead:

...we will need to delay your arrival in Asia.  ...we decided that we need to delay plans to add new personnel until we are able to work through some issues to gain clarity about our purpose and role there in the ministry.  These are important to the foundation we are building on there, so we just want to make certain that as you and others join the work that there is a high level of clarity as to why we are there and what we are doing. 

In February we should be able to project a suitable arrival date for you at that time… and hopefully before that time.  But realistically, the earliest projection for your arrival, should all go well, would be March 2012. 

...If you feel you cannot wait and need to move on to another field opportunity (especially in light of the rather open ended arrival projection), please let us know your thoughts.

What a week!

This week has been extremely encouraging. Our promised support has grown from 50% of our recommended budget to 59% in the 8 days since I wrote our newsletter. Wow!

Beyond that, I (John) am picking up new tools for language analysis all the time, and also for organizing all the words, sentences and stories we're gathering (nearly a thousand entries by now). That's why we came to Oklahoma, so I'm encouraged by that as well. 

Please remember me I as try not to get overwhelmed by it all, and try to keep the big picture in mind whilst slogging through the weeds--it seems every question I get answered creates 2 new questions as I work through the ins and outs of Cherokee grammar. 

Eight more days of data collection remain, then 3 weeks of interpreting and synthesizing it all (resulting in a 100 page paper), so I appreciate your thoughts along the lines of making this hard work as profitable as possible.