Almost 2 Weeks In...

Hello everyone. We're now finished with our second week here in Albertville, and it has been eventful--though not in the way we expected.

Luke

On our second day here, Luke developed a fever, which continued for almost 5 days, along with worsening cough and nasal congestion. He ate minimally for over a week, which, for anyone who knows him even moderately well, is distinctly abnormal. He has definitely not been himself--his gregarious, fun-loving, and loquacious spirit has been absent. It's been difficult for us to know to what extent this is his illness, or the transition to a new place and community, or his jet lag. We suspect all three. To make a longer story short, he seemed to be getting better--eating more, talking more, being more social--but today he developed another fever, and it appears that he has bilateral ear infections (I'm trying not to be his doctor, but we have another med-peds physician in the apartment above us). We plan on seeing a doctor tomorrow, which will hopefully lead to an amoxicillin prescription...which will hopefully get him on the path to recovery.

That said, we might be destined for recurrent viral illnesses given the season and the fact that Luke is spending our school days in nursery, which is located right below our apartment and probably has 15 kids ages 1 or so to 3. Anna and I have been dividing our parenting duties fairly strictly, with me tending to Luke and Anna tending to Miriam (which seems sensible given my inability to lactate...unless I develop a pituitary tumor...sorry for the medical joke). We have been trying hard to protect Miriam from Luke's infection. We've spoken to several families here who have had their kids hospitalized for bronchiolitis and pneumonia. We are hoping not to get to know the medical system that well, needless to say!

Beyond his illness, there have been some other developments with Luke, some good, some bad.

1. He had his first haircut. It was hard to part with those curls, but when his hair was wet, his hair when down to his upper back! He looks quite a bit older now with his handsome haircut compliments of Anna.

Before

After

2. Luke had his first temper tantrum yesterday....followed by another one...and by two or three today. We thought we might be one of those lucky families who didn't have to deal with tantrums, but apparently not. Perhaps their related to his ear infection, but this might be our new reality, at least for a while.

3. On a more positive note, Luke has entered a very sweet stage of saying I love you more, wanting to hugs us more (probably because he is sick), and asking frequently the question: "Did God make that, Daddy?" Today he asked that about his Pack-N-Play. He also said to me, "I'm going to sit next to you Daddy, because I love you...because God made you."

French Studies

We have now had two days of class, and have generally been very happy with our classes and our teachers. Immersion is more difficult here, as this is a school for missionaries, all of whom are English speaking. Now that classes have started, all students other than beginners are to speak French only at the school, but we have learned that we are going to need to be proactive about seeking out French speaking language partners.

I am in the "Faux beginners class" which is one step up from beginners. I've never studied French before formally, but having studied it on my own, picked up some in Haiti, and knowing Spanish, it's nice not to start at a slightly more advanced level. Europe has a very structured language educational system to facilitate objective assessments and comparisons. I'm at the A1 level  (essentially beginner French). Anna is in the B1 class, which is significantly more advanced. She's learning useful vocabulary like UFO, the name for people who in centuries past would decapitate people, etc. In all seriousness, her class is at quite a high level and the expectation is that she will be nearly fluent by the end of her time here. I'm hoping to be very proficient (with fluency hopefully in the next couple years).

Our Colleagues

As I mentioned, this is a language school for missionaries, and we are surrounded by some amazing people. There are several families going to Northern Chad to work with tribes along the border with Sudan. Our friends in our Samaritan's Purse program are going to central DR Congo and Togo. Others are headed for Cameroon, Central African Republic, Madagascar, etc. And several couples are staying here in France to plant churches. We are looking forward to getting to know our classmates better...though we also want to balance this with finding native French speakers.

More to come, but hope this finds everyone well.

Patrick