Just what we needed

Some time away. Can't believe we waited this long to get out to the coast again. Cannon beach is less than an hour and a half away!

A hike up Neahkahnie Mountain on the most gorgeous day ever:


Wow.

We slept lots, read lots, sipped coffee in bed each morning and watched old movies, walked on the beach and talked and laughed. A pretty great couple of days!

Walk There: Hillsdale

Our walk through the Hillsdale neighborhood in SW Portland was gorgeous. It was a clear spring day and we had great views of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens every time we turned a corner. It still amazes me that we were within Portland city limits the whole time!

Walk There: River Walk

Along the Willamette downtown Portland. Just lovely.

Stuff and things

Late graduation gift from Ann and Brody. Don't worry, this picture was taken in January :)

Valentine from my Little. She is a sweetie.

Eric and his cute little 'puter:

The biggest huevos I've ever seen, courtesy of Phil from Yamhill:

After a lovely V-day dinner at Thailand Restaurant. The best Thai food we've had out here!

At the park with my Little and her friend. Alondra took this.

Leftover waffles in the afternoon.

Ministry updates

I've recently posted a few new entries on my ministry blog: wwchispanicministries.blogspot.com

Communication breakdown

Eric and I had driven separately to meet friends at the McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse for happy hour. Great deals on food and fun with great people! The place was packed and we had all parked in different parking areas. When we headed out with plans to hang out at home for a bit before meeting different friends for board games, I got into our car and the key would not turn in the ignition. After I lost our one original car key a year ago, we were left with one copy that had been slowly bending. When I couldn't turn it, I thought, "Well, this key has come to the end of its life." I called Eric to come back and get me, but...I went straight to voicemail. I tried again, then again, then finally resigned myself to waiting the 20 minutes until he arrived home when he would surely plug his dead phone in (right???). Thankfully, I had a magazine in my bag.

Twenty minutes later, I tried again. Five more minutes, tried again. Still right to voicemail. I called one neighbor--no answer. Another neighbor--not at home. A third neighbor, Lupe. She agreed to go to our house and ask him to plug his phone in and call me. Those neighbors are all Spanish-speakers, but she was my third choice because she speaks less English than the others, but I was sure that she'd be able to get the message across. A few minutes later, Lupe called back and told me that Eric was home but, after relaying the message to call me, Eric had said, "Mira will be home in 5 minutes." Are you kidding me??? I asked her to please go back, this time with her cell phone, and simply hand him the phone. I was feeling pretty tired and exasperated at this point (I hadn't been home since 7:00 a.m. that morning) and when Eric took the phone, I said tearfully, "The key is not working. Please come back and get me."

Another 20 minutes later (for a total of 1.25 hours in the parking lot), Eric pulled up. Silly me, the steer wheel had just been stuck and the problem wasn't with the key at all. I was pretty upset, blaming myself for not knowing what to do and not asking for suggestions before having Eric come back, and blaming him for not keeping his phone charged and not knowing enough Spanish (or trying hard enough, I said to myself at the time). We were going to be 45 minutes late to visit our friends, but we headed there anyway.

I was still feeling frustrated when we left in our separate cars (again), but then I heard OK Go's This Too Shall Pass on the radio and felt something shift. There's a part where it repeats, "Let it go, this too shall pass." I decided to just let it go and the whole situation suddenly started to seem really funny to me. It was just something that happened. A silly inconvenience. Even a good story. And we still made it to hang out and play games and laugh with 6 of our friends until late that evening. There was nothing wrong with the car and Eric has rededicated himself to studying Spanish--a pretty good outcome, I think. :)

funny kiddos

A few things that 1st graders have said to me this week:

"That's enough, Rustbucket!"
While playing a game: Kid-"It's my turn, Frankie!" Me-"Who's Frankie?" Kid-"Oh, Frankie's a dog."
"I know how to blow snot out of my nose really good--since I was two years old!"
"Ms. Conk, Ms. Conk!"

In the Kinder class where I was helping kids with a project, a student who had finished and was helping other kids went up to the teacher and whined (pointing to me), "I'm supposed to be the helper, but that lady's doing everything!"

From another kid in my kinder group, gesturing to his throat: "I can't talk very loud because my tentacles got ripped out."

After a fun but crazy celebration of Valentine's Day (read: tons of candy!!) with the kiddos, I am happy to have a three day weekend!

2 speeds

Life has become quite full since the start of the new year! I honestly believed that I was busy before, but now I find myself lovingly shaking my head at that former self, at that person who naively complained about too little structure. Now I seem to only have two speed settings: Sunday through Friday, I am set to hyper speed, racing from place to place, madly crossing items off the list at the last moment in my small chunks of unscheduled time; Saturdays I do absolutely nothing. Sundays I rev back up from zero to ridiculous. The good news is that I love doing nearly all of what I spend my time doing. The bad news is that I don't have enough time to do everything as well as I'd like and have me time and have time for playing with friends. As they say, something's gotta give. Most recently, that something is either any semblance of a social life or the stack of laundry. Or that one project for my church job that I keep not doing--yikes!

So...that's more than enough complaining for now! This current 3-job-arrangement has had some big positives. First, I get to spend every day with some of the cutest kiddos on the planet and they do endless fully things are are full of hilarious commentaries about life. I find myself saying things that I can't imagine saying in many other settings. Just in this past week..."How can you see where you're going if you're walking backwards?" "You were doing a great job until you made the loud shrieking noise into the gym." "No, this shape is not a caboosey, it's a rectangle." Some get a little out of control sometime, as children do, but there's usually enough cute kid-ness and amazement at their ability to learn so quickly to keep me from getting worked up.

Second, I've appreciated the 20-minute drive I have by myself twice a day. Sometimes I listen to OPB or Democracy Now, sometimes I put on the CD Bible in (I'm making my way through the Book of Acts) and sometimes I enjoy the silence. Because I generally leave within the same 5-minute window each morning, I notice the days slowly getting longer and have seen some amazing sunrises over Mt. Hood.

Third, I appreciate my time with Eric even more than I did before. He gets up early with me and makes us breakfast and we still get to enjoy coffee together, something I thought I'd have to give up when I took this new job. We still go to the gym together each afternoon or evening and we always spend Saturdays together. In the past month, we've done a nice walk in Portland, slept late, caught up on our TV from the week, gone out for coffee, helped plan a baby shower, and enjoyed a few outings with friends. We have always shared household responsibilities, but Eric has stepped up his cooking and cleaning--without complaining! Very sweet.

Fourth, I get to spend two evenings a week with a group of wonderful Spanish-speaking women who are committed to being great parents and to learning English! After class the other night, a student of mine who is pregnant told me that she had had an ultrasound that day and had communicated well-enough with her English-speaking doctor to learn that she is having a girl! I was so proud of her!

In my work with the church, I've been coordinating a family bilingual theater class, visiting day laborers and planning for a summer camp for Latino families! All things that I love!

One final positive to mention now: we're making a bit more money and working on getting out of debt completely. With good-sized students loans, there is still a long road ahead of us, but we're making progress. This is exciting!

I know I'll be on hyperspeed for the next 4 months, but I'll be able to shift into a lower gear when summer begins. This helps keep me going.

Hope your February is off to a great start!

New job!

My adoption work ended when the agency closed at the end of the year and this past Monday was the first day of my new third job! My work doing ministry in the Latino community continues, as does my position teaching ESL to adults in a family literacy program, and I am now also an assistant in the ESL program at an elementary school in Hillsboro (one of our next-door towns). I pick up groups of students, Kindergarteners through third graders, grade by grade, from their classrooms, and bring them to the ESL room where each grade sings songs and does all sorts of language activities for about half an hour each day. I also spend chunks of time working on reading with non-ESL students and I have one block where I work with a third-grade boy one-on-one. I am always moving from place to place and have had to learn a LOT of names in a short period of time (I'm not quite there, but I'm close).

So far, I love it!

These kiddos come from all over--many are Spanish-speakers, some come from African countries, some are European. A few trust so easily and already give me hugs and want to sit close to me and hold my hand. Some are so energetic that they are almost never not in motion. Some make me laugh just about every time they open their mouths. Almost all of the Kinder kids are missing one or both of their front teeth, which makes them painfully cute.

In addition to the sweet kids, my supervisor is wonderful and I've gotten to know some other great staff. I'm so thankful for these things that have kept me going during this long week of waking up before dawn and working with only short breaks until bedtime most days! And though I'll be working tons in the months to come, I count my lucky stars that part of my job this week was to lead a group of 1st graders in singing "The Ants Go Marching." Hurrah! Hurrah!

Wintry mix

We set early yesterday for Eric's parents' place in Chewelah (north of Spokane) through the slush that the rain had made of our lovely snow overnight.

Once we got to the freeway, things were pretty quick through Portland, but as we began to make our way east along the Columbia River Gorge, the precipitation turned to snow and traffic slowed. The roads were covered in some places and bare in others, but became snowy enough that we pulled over with all the semis to put our chains on. Soon after, we saw a semi that had jack-knifed being towed from the ditch. You think we would have turned around at that point, but we were hopeful that things would improve. With the car occasionally slipping momentarily within the lane, it was hard to relax, so I tried to focus on the beauty all around us.

Multnomah Falls:




The road cleared up for a while and we took our chains off, but this stretch was a bit deceptive. In the sun, we were on bare pavement, but when we went behind the shadows of rocks or even a small clump of trees, there would suddenly be a covering of ice.

We saw one driver, his SUV facing the wrong way at the mouth of an exit, trying to remove a mangled piece of his front bumper that had obviously just smashed into something. A few miles down the road, we were going about 30 in the right lane and shaking our heads as other vehicles sped past with false confidence, when a Durango just in front of us begin to spin. Eric slowed as the SUV did a full turn, smacked its front end into the concrete median, then kept floating and spinning. We both took a deep breath in as we drove past, willing the SUV to stay in its own lane. Thankfully, it did. We would have not have been able to avoid hitting that vehicle if it would have come into our lane. Another car stopped to check with the folks in the spinning car, so we kept on, but we exited at our next opportunity, needing to get off the road.

After some long deliberations and advice from some local firefighters who were helping stranded motorists, we decided to stay there in that tiny town--Rufus, OR--until the next day. It was disappointing to decide not to continue on to see Eric's family, but it felt like the safest decision. Seeing that car spin out (and almost hit us!) was really scary and a good reminder that we are not as in control as we like to think we are.



We watched the (amazing) Idaho football game and met some very interesting folks at Bob's Texas T-Bone and Frosty's Lounge, the only eating establishment in the town. Then we spent the rest of the evening watching old episodes of The Office in our hotel room. Quite relaxing.

After learning last night that there would be a winter storm warning in the area with a forecast of 6-12 inches of snow starting at 6:00 a.m., we decided to get a very early start and were on the road by 5:30! Thankfully, roads were clear and the only weather we encountered was rain in Portland.

Back in the city, we stopped for breakfast at Cameo Cafe, a place we'd visited once with Eric's folks, where I got the largest pancake I've ever seen! Can you believe that this is the "quarter acre"? Half acre and full acre also available!

When we finally arrived home, we were greeted by our snowman, Eric (see previous post for a happier picture).

It's been raining all day and we have no plans for New Years, but we are happy to be safe and sound in our cozy little home, ready to quietly usher in 2010.

First snowfall!

On Tuesday afternoon around 2:00, snow suddenly, unexpectedly, furiously began to fall. Huge, fluffy, sticky flakes! It hadn't even been in the forecast! I hurriedly jumped in the car to get some errands done before leaving the next day for Spokane, but after an hour and a half driving slowly around town, I decided to cut my rounds short because the snow was getting thick and the roads slippery. Thankfully, I was able to add one last-minute item to the errand list before heading home--buy chains! They are practically required here, where no one plows or salts and few have much experience driving in the snow!

I still had a few more stops to make, though, so after putting the car in the garage where it couldn't hurt anyone, I stepped into my snow-pants and boots and set out. It had only been a few hours, but the snow was getting deep and starting to look so pretty on everything!



After my final errand, I walked to Alondra's house. My little and I were going to see a movie that afternoon, but with the change in weather, we decided to play outside instead! We walked slowly from her house to mine (about a mile), stopping to admire lights and rooftops and make snow angels.


At our house, we made a pretty good-sized snowman, which Alondra named Eric. The pine-needle hair-tuft was also her idea. A nice touch, I think :) We laughed a lot while working on this guy.

Alondra and I definitely had much more fun together being silly and creative and enjoying nature than we would have had at the movies!

New ministry blog

I have recently begun to share experiences related to my work in Hispanic/Latino ministries through another blog and wanted to share the blog address here, in case you'd like to read more about what I'm doing. I hope that it will be an opportunity for me to reflect more intentionally on the impact of the programs I'm a part of and share the stories of those with whom I have the privilege of serving. I really love this work and am so thankful for the opportunity I have to walk with so many different kinds of folks on their journeys.

http://wwchispanicministries.blogspot.com/

Eric and I headed north to Spokane tomorrow to welcome 2010 with Ann and Brody and Tanya, Mike and Emerson. I hope this transition to a new calendar is a time of hope and new beginnings for you! Peace!

Family at Christmas

Christmas is a time for being together with family, but since we've lived in Oregon, we've rarely been together at the same time with all the members of either side of our immediate family, let alone seen everyone over the holidays. So we give thanks for those we get to see and those who join us on speakerphone, those who are enjoying being with other family, those are staying home and keeping things simple, and those are camping (like my brother).

It seemed important this year to extend our table to include some folks who can't be with those they love over the holidays because their families are in different countries. Ann and Brody were here for the weekend, and for Christmas dinner, we invited our friends Eliser, Eleuterio (who goes by Lute), and Arturo. Eliser has spent many of the past several Christmases with us so his presence has become a nice tradition. I even sewed him his own personalized stocking this year. He has one brother in the area, but his other siblings and mother are near Tijuana, Mexico and the family he currently lives with doesn't celebrate Christmas. Lute lives across the street with another family, but they weren't gathering at their home this year and Lute's wife and children are in Guatemala. I met Arturo this spring at the day labor site in town and I have spent lots of time hearing stories about his home and family in Veracruz, Mexico while he hangs out there or helps us in the church garden. Arturo brought some music to share and we turned off the Christmas tunes to listen to Trio Los Panchos and Mana (one of my favorites) over dinner.

Though we missed those family members who are in different parts of the country, it was a beautiful thing to sit around a table eating tofuloaf and sharing in two languages about what in the past year we were most thankful for with a family that crosses bloodlines and borders.

A few pics from our weekend. Eric making his special blueberry pancakes on Christmas morning:

Me, Lute, Eliser, Brody, Arturo and Ann around the dinner table:

Eliser sleeping next to the tree:

Tex-Mex food on Sunday evening!

We had such a great time just hanging out with Ann and Brody at home, playing the new board game I got from Scott and Hilary (Funglish!), participating in church events and sharing meals. Ann and I also went out for coffee together Sunday afternoon and it was really nice to just visit.

Merry Christmas!