February 14th

Today is a special day in several ways. Clara is now 5 months old. It is hard to believe how fast the time has gone, how much both she and we have changed, and how much we are still baffled by this new little person that is living with us full time. 5 months to us means: better naps, longer naps, falling asleep without help, better eye contact, fun sounds, louder sounds, sitting by herself kind of, and the terror of imagining trying to feed her real food. Today is also Valentine´s Day. Cassie, our old Newton House floor mate and now volunteer coordinator at the Parish is babysitting for us. We had a wonderful lunch just the two of us and decided that we really wanted to try and catch up on some email stuff since the computer has fried. A lot of our work here is with coordinating visitors, donations, and ideas from the States via internet, so its been kind of challenging with no computer in the house and also having Clara around to actually get to a computer together and work. Its nice to have a little while today. And finally today marks the beginning of the 3 month count-down. We are planning on returning to the USA on May 14th. We´re trying to not think too much about that right now, but we can´t help but be both excited, terrified, and nostalgic when we think about the major life change that is just around the corner. Life here has been so fulfilling, but there are so many people in the States we miss and can´t wait to see.