He got a basket!

 

Yesterday the kids had their third basketball games of the season. Ian is the only one of our kids who has scored thus far. The first week he got one free throw after he was fouled, and yesterday he made one basket. Nadia's team was beat badly yesterday (lost by more  than 10 points), and Ian's team won by 20 points (38-18). Ian's team is undefeated thus far. The team Ian's team played was coached by one of our neighbors (his 2nd grader, Camden, is on the team), and the other coach was a man from our church. His daughter (who is in 2nd grade) was the one Ian was guarding for a couple of periods of the game. The games were at 10, 12, and 1 yesterday. Nadia, Oliver, and Paul stayed at the church from 9:30-2:00. Ian and I ran some errands from 11-12.

My first week back to work went well. On Tuesday I met my student teachers on campus, had a meeting with other supervisors, had my office hours, and then taught my three classes from 2-8pm. I have 35 students in my 2:00 class, 21 in my 3:30 class, and 30 students

in my 5:00 class. On Thursday I visited my six student teachers in their classrooms before heading to campus for my office hours and two classes. Unfortunately it was a very rainy day, and I forgot to bring an umbrella. Oops! Two of my student teachers are in Montgomery, which is a small school district about 10 minutes from our house. One of my student teachers is in a HS Biology classroom, and the other is in 1st grade. Thankfully the K-12 students are all in the same building in that district. Next I visited two elementary students in our school district. Lastly I spent some time in the MS/HS, which is in one building about a five minute drive from the Elementary school. The MS principal gave me a big hug, which was nice. Most administrators shake my hand, but she was a former graduate student of mine. I also had her daughter as one of my undergrad students 10+ years ago. I am so thankful that my 6 student teachers are so close to my house, and that they're only in 2 different districts and only 3 different buildings. Last semester my 10 student teachers were in 10 different buildings and 5 different districts. One of my student teachers from spring 2018 is now a history teacher in Montgomery. I am looking forward to seeing him in his classroom sometime this semester.

On Friday my new Bible study for moms got started. We met during the gym class (10:00-11:30); a longer time slot would be preferred as each DVD is a little more than one hour long. We're studying 2 Timothy, but the first lesson was about Acts 14. We aren't planning to meet this Friday due to our field trip to Gettysburg. I was beginning to think that field trip would be cancelled due to the government shutdown, but I'm assuming the park will be reopening due to the 3 week time allowed for negotiations. We've been praying during this government shutdown that God would give our leaders wisdom. Our prayer list is rather varied -from smaller things like finding one of Ian's library books that has been missing for several days (we have searched high and low to no avail) to bigger things like the well being of the five kids we sponsor in Guatemala, Kenya, Haiti, Peru, and Bolivia. I've also been praying for a match through the time share for our vacation in June (hopefully!) and for wisdom for the Towfighis as to where they might live starting next fall (possibly elsewhere in Turkey or in Ecuador) and wisdom for Paul and I regarding my employment status next year. The prayer requests that are heaviest on my heart at the moment are for those battling cancer. I recently found out that a friend of mine from Annapolis has terminal cancer, and today our senior pastor told us that he has cancer. He's having a scan this week to determine if the cancer has spread, and he's going to have surgery on February 5 to have the tumor removed from his thigh. He'll be immobile for at least four weeks. He's in his late 60's. There is great comfort in knowing their eternal destiny is secure, but after watching what my mom went through it's hard to think about others walking a similar path that involves a lot of pain and suffering.