Hope Community Church

After almost 3 years (we're 2 weeks shy), today was our last day at Hope. Trent has faithfully led the English-speaking Congregation in many ways. He has put together the service every Sunday, including writing and preaching the sermon and leading the worship service each week. He has also led a small group for our church at various homes on various topics. He's met with others one-on-one, answered questions, preached at shelters throughout downtown St. Louis, conducted a funeral service and some other things. I am truly amazed he was able to do this while being a full-time student. The Korean & English congregations of this church have treated us with love and shown us grace. We have many fond memories from this time. But now we are moving on from this church. We are not sure what the next year will look like or what we'll be doing after graduation in May. We have ideas, but they take us in different directions. For now, we are deciding where we'll go to church next week. We will simply be members of a congregation. Trent does have a new job that he starts soon, but I think I'll save that for another post.

A few times, we would attend the Korean service at our church after our English service was over. The head pastor of the Korean congregation asked us to come to the Korean service today so he could announce our leaving. After the sermon, he called us forward. Him asking us to come forward was the only English he spoke in the service. While the 3 of us were standing up front, the pastor spoke from the pulpit in Korean for a little bit, turned to us, bowed, then looked at Trent, smiled and pointed towards the pulpit. After Trent realized he was wanting him to say something, he walked up to the mic, paused and spoke poignantly. In other words, Trent had to speak after the head pastor, but had no clue what he had said. We then bowed a few more times and left Hope.

Here's some photos showing some of our time at Hope:

Trent putting up the English Ministry sign

Trent on the guitar and Paul on the piano practicing before a service

Grace & Hudson

Keith- he came most Sunday mornings & Wed nights for the first couple years

Susan & Hudson

one of our Sunday afternoon lunches

Noah & Juni posing with Hudson

Jim & Hudson

Jim, Joe & Joan hanging out at our house

Lots of Castos

We had a great time visiting with our family. We frequented the playground by our house and hung out around home. The boys seemed to have a good time together. Hudson can't wait until he's bigger and can play more with his cousins.



The exersaucer was a hit with all the kids!

Andrew liked playing with Hudson and the exersaucer

All 4 kids on the swings

Hudson's first swing ride!

baby Jack is getting so big


a sweet picture of brothers

Fun with Family

Trent with his older brother

cousins

Hudson with Aunt Jessie


Trent's brother Chad & his wife Jessie are here! They're moving from Texas to Virginia and have stopped by St. Louis. They're traveling with 3 kids and 2 cars! We were so excited to introduce them to baby Hudson and to see their kids. Their littlest son has grown so much since we last saw him. We just hung around our house today, playing outside and grilling hamburgers. It's always nice to visit with family.

Papias

Papias is alive! You'll remember that he stowed away on a neighbor's moving truck about 6 weeks ago and ended up in Nashville. Then, he ran away from the house in Nashville and we hadn't heard anything since. Well, we got a call recently and he followed a girl home from a neighborhood pool only about a mile or so from the house he ran away from. The family has 6 kids, but no pets. I guess all the kids fell in love with him and the parents have agreed to keep him. We're so thankful that Papias has found a loving family where he should get food, water and lots of petting.

Enjoying some tummy time

Hudson loves to put anything & everything within reach in him mouth

Happy Birthday Trent!!!

Yesterday was Trent's birthday, but since he was working on his sermon, we celebrated a little bit yesterday and a little today. Yesterday the little tyke (as we often call him) & I made Trent a peanut butter banana creme pie and we watched the Olympic men's marathon. Today, our friend Joan from our church brought some delicious cake and we all sang and enjoyed hanging out. This afternoon, we went on our first family run in a great nearby park (Forest Park). It was a little too hot to be out too long with Hudson, but we're looking forward to more Sunday afternoon family runs in the fall. Tonight we're going out for a steak treat at one of Trent's favorite restaurants, Texas Roadhouse.

a birthday celebration with members of our congregation

Hudson loves running :)

Let's hang-out!!

Want to make some extra money? We are in need of some babysitters. Trent has been watching Hudson while I work over the summer, but he goes back to school soon. Once school starts, we'll need some people who would be willing to watch Hudson a couple hours a week. We actually don't know the details yet because I'm probably moving to a different Bank of America branch in the next couple weeks and my schedule will change. Trent will continue to watch Hudson when he's free, but that won't cover all the time needed. If you're interested in learning more, please send me an e-mail at trentandemily@hotmail.com or leave a comment.

I'll e-mail those interested some more info & then you can think about if this would work out for you or not. Thanks for considering!

A more rested boy

The first night of our new plan went better than expected. The first time Hudson woke up to eat (at 3 hours from the last feeding), I made him wait 1hr 15min before eating. I was expecting all out screaming during that time, but that wasn't the case. He cried some, whimpered some and just laid there some. I was hoping he would fall back asleep during that time and he'd skip that feeding all together. Last night he woke every 4 hours on his own and fell back asleep with the half-swaddle without problems. He's still hitting himself in the face some, but it's much better than before. We're making progress slowly but surely.

Thanks for the comments, encouragement & tips! They're all helpful!!

Sleep Update

I write this as Hudson is screaming....

We tried stopping the swaddle cold turkey. I gave in at 2:45am on the first night and swaddled him. He did go back to sleep, but when he stirred, he unwrapped himself and covered his face with the blanket. So I knew that I needed to not do that anymore. A friend recommended "half-swaddling" him. This has been ok. We just wrap him from the waist down, so he has the snugness of the swaddle, but he can't cover his face. Instead, his arms are free and he continually hits himself in the face. More specifically, he makes fists with both hands and hits himself in the left eye over and over and over again (no joke!). Then, he starts to fall asleep, startles and hits himself in the eye again. I never would've guessed that parenting would be about trying to help your 4.5mo old son stop hitting himself in the eye over and over again instead of falling asleep.

So, tonight we're going to try and address his nighttime hunger. In other words, I'm going to attempt to not feed him every 3hrs like he is wanting. When he was 2 mo old, he had a few nights where he'd sleep for 6 hours straight. We have regressed. And last night I fed him every 2-3 hours. I need to put an end to his snacking. He's old enough and weighs enough to go more than 3 hours at night without eating. My plan is to just give him his pacifier when he wants to eat the first time (& give it to him again every 10 or so minutes while he screams until he falls back asleep). I'm writing this on the blog for accountability. At the time, it's so much easier to give him a snack and go back to sleep, but the problem is getting worse. I'll write tomorrow how well we stuck to our guns.

He's now sleeping (after almost an hour of crying, the first time we've let him cry that long without picking him up). Good night!

Me, need sleep?

Things are going pretty well here, just trying to get back into the swing of things after vacation. Hudson seems to be regressing on sleeping longer at night. He's getting up more and more often at night and I'm not quite sure what to do about it. I'm feeding him a few times, reswaddling him a couple times and giving him his pacifier a couple times each night. I think he's out growing the swaddle, but we're not sure how to put him to sleep without it. He knows when he's put in his crib, swaddled & given his pacifier that it's time for bed. Do I just put him in his crib without anything else? I imagine we're going to have a long few days as we lay him in his crib without a blanket. Any great sleep ideas for 4mo olds are welcomed! I also would move him to his own bedroom if we didn't live in a one bedroom house. I wake up to all the sweet coos, laughs, foot kicks and grunts through out the night. It's amazing to me how I can sleep through loud thunderstorms, music or other sounds, but I wake up to peeps from this handsome little tyke.

Vermont

We had an awesome time in Vermont! Here are some of the things we enjoyed...

picking blueberries






doing puzzles

hanging out with cousins

our well was struck by lightning & the pump had to be replaced, so we all sat around & watched it get replaced

Well, we all didn't get to sit around and watch it get fixed

the pump for the well was about 350' down

playing with the lobsters

Hudson wasn't crazy about the lobsters

but his cousin Aaron was

my Dad getting ready for a lobster dinner


we went for some walks in town

Hudson enjoyed being held a lot...this is him with my stepmom

we got to see elk (& some of us ate elk)


being silly

making bear faces


we played putt-putt in the rain

Hudson went on his first boat ride



the kids enjoyed riding around on the golf cart with Aunt Stephanie