Update

Well, the last week has been very interesting. And yet it's been absolutely boring. I've been having some complications and ended up spending Saturday night in the hospital and then returning on Tuesday. We got home this afternoon. I'll be on bedrest for at least the next two weeks.

I'll spare the general public the details (but I'll be happy to email you if you really want to know). But be reassured that the baby and I are fine. My hospital stay was just for observation.

So it's been a rough week but I have come through it feeling so grateful to God for his goodness, kindness and mercy, and almost as grateful to Russ, who truly showed his love and partnership!

Must Read Post of the Year!

In my head, I've started writing this post many times. But now that it's time to write it, I've lost all cleverness. So I'll just come out and say it: I'm pregnant. (I'm pausing while you squeal!) I'm 14 weeks along, so that puts me into my second trimester (time flies!) I'm due on Feb. 22.

So there's a big part of the reason this blog has been so quiet lately. The biggest thing going on in my life was something that I wasn't quite ready to share. But now you know! And you can be excited along with us!

Introducing...

 
...Aubry Nicole Mabery, or Bree as she will be known. She was born in the very last minutes of Sunday night (which was kind of cool because it was Father's Day here!)


 
Here's the happy family (minus Nalah the dog but they don't allow her in the hospital!)

EDIT: For those of you in the Mabery-Sirmon fan club, there are more pictures of Aubry if you click HERE. Or include your email address in your comments and I can send you some more pictures (we took quite a few today!).

Still Nope

We still don't have electricity at the building so we had another dark Sunday. It was our farwell Sunday for the interns, which we celebrated with a special children's program and ice cream. (Very nice after sitting in the heat!) The week was spent (not by me, fortunately) in rather strong talks between the electric company and our building owners about who will be paying for the repairs. Thankfully the couple that owns our building are an electrical engineer and a lawyer so they were able to take on the battle. Everything seems to be resolved now and work should start tomorrow.

And the Mabery baby (affectionately known as "Babery") still hasn't arrived. We're all on pins and needles and think it will be really soon. Any time the phone rings at an odd time we get all excited. One of these times it will be "the call" and we'll have a new teammate!

I must just be out of the habit of blogging. My lack of posting certainly hasn't been because there hasn't been anything going on because there's always something going on. But until I get back in the swing of things, I'll try to just give you little posts more frequently.

Yesterday was an interesting day. As Russ explained, we are currently having "technical difficulties" at church. So yesterday's worship was low-tech. We printed up song sheets and set up the chairs in the corner of our main room right beside the doors. (We thought about meeting in the lobby but it was just too hot!) We had a flashlight available for taking to the bathroom. Alicia and I kept the kids in the center of the room the whole time. I think it was too hot for them to sit and focus. So instead we colored and made fans. I asked one of the little boys to give the fan that he had made to "someone older", thinking he would take it to at least one of our middle aged people, if not someone elderly, to help with the heat. But Jean had his own idea and he gave it to Heather, the intern! (Sorry, Heather, I forgot to tell you that yesterday!)

We hope that we will have power by next Sunday but we're really not sure. I feel a little bad for Heather and Laura since this is their last week with us. I guess, though, that this is a pretty realistic way to end an internship. Sometimes life is like this and you have to make do in less than ideal circumstances!

An Exceptional Week

Many things have happend to us as the winter season ended, and August began. We have taught dozens of English students, and my private classes are going well. I was teaching early Thursday morning, when the electricity was restored with a bang. I ran outside to see a shower of white sparks coming from our meter on the front of the building. As the employees from the neighboring store ran outside, I unloaded the fire extinguisher into the wall. The flames caused the meter to explode and then melt onto the ground. Nothing entered the building, and I was glad to see a city employee disconnect the main line from the transformer a minute later. He had been working less than 50 feet away on a side street.

Our problems continued that afternoon when the city company came and tried to connect the power directly to the circuit board. This caused the power strip for our sound board to catch on fire, and every light in the kitchen blew out at once. Now we have cancelled a membership class, youth gathering, and potluck this Sunday because of the power problem. We hope the situation will improve on Monday. We ask for your prayers; it is possible that our insurance policy might help (also the persistence of the building owners- a tough lawyer and her husband, an electrical engineer). We could not make one step forward without God's care. Have a great weekend; we won't give up! The high to balance out the low was Tuesday afternoon, when I took my new car and carried 15 kids to a VBS taught by Heather and Laura. It was an awesome day. Peace, and we love you bunches.

See?

Stormy, originally uploaded by russandval.

I just wanted to take a minute to show everyone that the weather isn't always perfect here. Okay, sure, this is one of a handful of days that was like this but still--we'd had plans to spend the day outside! The weather didn't stop us, though, and we had a great day up at Praia do Forte with the intern crew, the Sasses, the Maberys and Mary's parents.

(That's right, folks--Mary's mom and dad have arrived. Baby Watch 2007 has begun. My guess at the due date was several days ago but Russell's is the latest so maybe he'll win!)