Sadly, it has been many months since I've gotten myself around to write about our goings-on, but I guess better late than never. As I sit here, I have two finals left to go for the spring semester. Both finals are oral group exams that I will take with two classmates from each class. We'll have roughly 30 minutes to answer three questions as a group. We are given 13-17 questions for each class ahead of time knowing that 3 of those will be selected for us to answer. Everyone in the group receives the same grade ... just like most things in life, this is your typical work by committee. The good news is that by 2:00 PM on Tuesday, the spring semester will be in the books and I'll start gearing up for a summer of Hebrew studies.
Some major news to note is that we have found a much larger and cheaper place to live. Our church has offered to let us move into the manse right next to the church for much less money than we are paying in rent in our current apartment. The house has 4 bedrooms along with 2 full baths plus a half bath. This will give us some much needed space to spread out a bit. It's tough having five people living in a four room apartment. This will also allow the kids to move about more freely without having to worry about disturbing the neighbors below us. The move will occur the first part of July when I have a week off between Hebrew I and II. We have been praying for an improvement in our employment circumstances, but the Lord has provided a way for us to reduce our monthly expenses!
We are also planning a trip back to PA in August to have our newest family member baptized and have a chance to catch up with family and friends back east. We are really looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up what has been more than a year away.
Our move will involve a change in school for the older two kids. I talked to my son as it would affect him more and explained to him the positive and negative aspects of moving to a new school and he indicated that he wanted to move. In fact the school that they will be attending is two building away from the house ... on the existing bus route, the kids would have to walk past the school to get to the bus stop! What also helped was that when my son told his current teacher that he would be moving to a new school, he found out that her mother used to teach at that school and that one of her best friends currently teaches fourth grade there, and that made him happy.
My oldest daughter has been continuing with ballet lessons. She and her class recently had their spring recital and she did an amazing job. She loves to dance and will often begin each morning by turning on the CD player in the living room and dance to whatever music happens to be in there. I never pictured myself as being the father of a dancer, but I have to admit that she really appears to have some talent for dancing ... combine that will the joy she has and I can see her continuing in this for a long time.
My baby now has two teeth showing. She is eating as much as we'll feed her and growing really fast. She crawls and sits up on her own and she has a knack for finding the few places in the living room that we don't want her to go. She remains an extremely happy baby (like her siblings before her) and is a real joy to interact with.
My bride continues working afternoon and evenings part-time. She is applying for other positions, but so far nothing has given us much hope for a change, but we continue to explore several options. Even though the move will lower our monthly expenses, we're still running a sizable monthly shortfall between what we have coming in and what we have to spend each month, and that doesn't account for my tuition and book expenses. The amazing thing is that although the math doesn't compute, somehow the Lord is keeping us afloat for now, but we know that the funds will not last forever at this rate unless our monthly income increases. Yet we also know that the Lord will provide for us in His timing and we rest easy knowing this.
