Merry Christmas

  From our family to yours... Merry Christmas!

#DabOnEm

   Jaiden's basketball team cruised into their area championship.  Winning their games with comfortable leads and very little drama.  The dab has made its way over to Indo (with a little help from some Carolina Panthers fans that live in the area), so the girls did their best attempt at the dab.
   Still got some work to do...

Carolina Girl

   Jaiden recently participated in a basketball tournament for her school.  She played great!  At the end of the tournament, she was selected to the East Denpasar All-Star team which will compete at the big, city tournament in April.
   It was great to watch her compete.  I was fulfilling my dad role of loud and partially obnoxious cheering (this is a tradition that was passed on to me by my father who would loudly cheer at my basketball games and occasionally 'encourage' the refs to make certain calls).
   Everything was going great until Kristi scooted away from me a little bit.  I asked her what was wrong.  It was a hot day, but I didn't feel like I smelled any worse than usual.  She told me that I was embarrassing and that people were staring at me.  I looked around the gym and realized that she was right... lots of people were staring at me and laughing in an amused, but approving, manner.
   It was then that I also realized that we were the only non-Indonesians in the whole gym.  Also, Jaiden was the only non-Indonesian on any of the teams.  I was cheering like an American.  Indonesian culture values the community over the individual.  Indonesians tend to cheer loudly and can get really wild at sporting events, but it seems to always be in the context of community.  They cheer together, in a group without wanting to draw too much attention to one or two individuals.
   So I enjoyed watching my kid play, applied some cultural understanding to a new context, and kept on cheering...

Why Do You Come Back?

   We often get asked, "Why do you go back to America every several years?".  I usually answer with a joke by saying something about missing NC BBQ or Hebrew National hotdogs.  But family is the main reason...  Kaelen had never seen my (Jon) parents until this visit to the States, and even though Kenan had been to America when he was 2, he doesn't really remember it.  So although they've interacted over Skype, these have been the first opportunities to have Chicken Little read to them in person.

  

   I hadn't had an opportunity to see my Grandma in over 10 years.  She's awesome.  Her current activities include showing cancer who's boss, finishing up her autobiography, and sharing stories with me (patiently) as I ask tons of questions about my grandpa, life in South Dakota in the 1930s, farming, friendshps with Native Americans, etc.

   These last few months have been full of great times spent with family and friends... and that's why we come back to America.

New Family Pic

   This doesn't happen very often...  everyone looking in relatively the same direction, mostly smiling, and no one blinking.

   Remember you can click on the photo to see the full size image.

For Grandma

I was recently reprimanded (again) for the lack of kid pictures here on the blog.  So, I'm going to try and remedy that in the next couple of posts...

It's hard to believe how big these kids are getting!  This picture of Kaelen and Kenan (and R2D2, if Jack and Ryane are reading this) is a rare moment where they are actually both sitting still and willing to snuggle.






This is the traditional Christmas eve picture of the kids with their new pajamas.


(Remember you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

The Fam...

This is us at one of our favorite places on the island.  It's a beautiful spot out on the eastern part of Bali.

Barber Shop

This is Kenan's first non-Mom haircut.  He came with me to the shop, waited patiently for his turn, and only cried a little bit.  It was really hot...

When people saw his blonde hair falling on top of the big pile of black hair from all the other customers, they started calling him rambut emas, which is golden hair.

Not to be confused with Goldilocks. 

The Complete Package

This is a tribute to just how awesome Kristi is...

At the airport, pushing a stroller, a luggage cart, holding a baby in a sling, and... still smiling! Yep folks, she can do it all.

Jungle Trail

We went to visit a friend a couple of weeks ago, and it is quite a hike down to his house. It takes about 25 minutes (with kids) and it's quite an incline.

It's not really a jungle. I think it is technically a rain forest.

Sisters

Jaiden has been such a big help with her new little sister. She holds her, pats her back, retrieves pacifiers, etc. The only thing we can't get her to help out with is dirty diapers.

Fun with Grandpa

Jaiden and Grandpa got into lots of trouble while he was here. One of them is quite mischievous. I'll let you guess which one...

007

We took some time away while Kristi's parents were here. We were up on the North side of Bali in a little beach town famous for its dolphins. There were a group of students that had asked Kristi's dad to get in a picture with them. I jokingly said he was the actor that used to play James Bond (Sean Connery) in the 007 movies. I thought the kids knew I was joking, but when more kids quickly joined the picture I realized that they may have taken me seriously... oh well.

Finally Here

We are happy to announce that Kaelen Reese Komang Truhe was born at 5:52 am on Sunday morning April 3rd.

Mom and baby are both doing well. We were in the hospital for less than 16 hours, and we had a really good experience. Having a better understanding of the language and culture made this go around much easier than our experience with Kenan.

We'll post more pictures later on. Thanks for your prayers.

Kaelen spent about an hour getting washed up, immunized, and weighed. She was quiet and calm the whole time (nothing like her brother Kenan).

Kenan doing his best Grandpa Truhe impersonation...

Why We're Home

We're ready to get back to Bali. We've actually been ready to get back for a while now. However, we are thoroughly enjoying the time we are able to spend with family and friends.

It's a special time for Kenan too, because he had never met Grandpa & Grandma Truhe in person prior to our trip to America. Grandpa & Grandma Baker also got to spend some time with us when they came to visit from Haiti.

So Jaiden and Kenan are soaking up the Grandma & Grandpa times as much as they can... They love it. And so do we :o)

Adapt

We love all the different places and traditions that we are privileged to move in and out of... from SE Asia, to the Southern states, cold Michigan, etc.

I learned a bit about hunting from Kristi's family in Michigan about 10 years ago. I've never been a much of a hunter, but I do enjoy following along whenever I get the chance - whether it be shooting BBs at bats in Bali or going after deer in Michigan. I eat what I shoot, so I'm glad the BB guns in Bali are not accurate.

My brother in law (who will remain unnamed due to the fact that he may be embarrassed about the $2 Walmart glasses he was wearing in this photo) took me out for grouse hunting last week. It was fun. We got a couple, and they made a good dinner.

8 years...

We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary at the end of August. I guess it wasn't much of a celebration since Jaiden started school the next day, and we wanted to be there to put her to bed, get her ready for American school, etc.

We still got it...

It's A Small World

We stayed with some very talented people last week, they also happen to be Kristi's cousins. One is the best guitar player I've heard (seriously... sorry Phil) and the other is an awesome actress/singer/storyteller that is currently at Sight and Sound Theatre in Lancaster, PA.

We had a great time with them, and we also got some tickets to see the Joseph show. It was a good time, even Kenan was pretty impressed.

We were walking around after the show, and I spotted a group of people that looked like they could be Indonesian. I often pass by people and think that they could possibly be Indonesian, and I usually just start talking a bit of Indonesian to see if there is any response. I tried my same strategy this time, and one of the guys looked at me like he understood. So then I asked him where he was from... in Indonesian. He just kind of stared at me with a confused looking smile on his face.

After he finally realized that he wasn't dreaming and this white guy in America was speaking his language, we had a good time getting to know him and his family and friends. They were from the capital city of Jakarta and were in the States for some conferences. They took lots of pictures...