Mixed Feelings on the Homefront

Hi Family and Friends!

We have had a few interesting weeks here in the Suel household, which would account for our lack of updating lately. First and foremost, there has been a tragic death in the Suel family and we have just returned from the emergency trip to the US. Jason’s cousin Rachel, only 19 years old, passed away on July 26, 2008. She had juvenile diabetes, and through complications of the diabetes and then upon coming down with pneumonia, she died in the hospital in Little Rock. It was very sudden, as the doctors told the family she would be okay at 8pm on Saturday night, but by 11pm, she was gone. We are all, of course, shocked and still a little numb from it all. The funeral was beautifully done, and the family have had lots of support from friends, but we will always mourn Rachel’s too early death. For those of you who have sent us condolences, we appreciate your kindness. Please continue to pray for us as we grieve, and especially for Uncle Mark, Aunt Sheila, and Wesley (Rachel’s little brother).

The silver lining of our unplanned trip home to the States was that all our families and some friends got to meet little Pippi for the first time. She was able to sit in the laps of all her grandparents, great-grandparents, great-aunts, great-uncles, cousins, etc. It was a wonderful time for us. Pippi was a star traveler on both of the 26-hour and 3-flight trips home. She adjusted pretty well to all the strangers wanting to hold her, too, once we arrived! She needed to know that mom and dad were close by, but all in all she was okay with all the new changes in her little world. She learned to sit up in the 2 weeks spent in Arkansas, which was exciting for us all to watch! It was nice for our families to be a part of one of her major milestones, as they are missing so many of the others.


One really great thing going on with Pippi is that we may have finally cracked the case on her eczema!! Praise the Lord! We have seen a dermatologist, as well as her regular doctors, and the current medications (2 moisturizers, 1 anti-itch cream, and 2 special medications for the bath water) seem to be working! She is still scratching (she’s got some scabs on her ears right now!!), but not nearly as much. And guess what??? She has slept TWO nights ALL THE WAY THROUGH in the past 3 weeks!! PRAISE THE LORD!! We are really feeling good about it. She is altogether sleeping better now, too; we only get up a few times now as opposed to 15-20 times per night. And this is down to her not being so itchy. We were pleased to hear the dermatologist say that since she is responding to this medication, it’s a good sign that she may grow out of the eczema. Yay! It’s so nice, too, because she is soooo much happier now! We never knew the real personality of little Pippi, because she has always been sort of frustrated due to how bad she was feeling, but now that she feels well, her true colors shine through!! Thanks for all your prayers, and please keep them up as we watch day by day how God is healing her.

Once back from the States, we dove right back into work and day-to-day life. Jason is at this moment camping at a Christian festival about 45 minutes from Hereford. It’s in a place called Gorsley, and our church and theirs work together a lot. It’s a 5-day festival and Jason is helping to lead worship and make videos for the Youth tent. It’s been going well. I’ve been down with Pippi a couple of times, and I’ll be back tomorrow. It’s a “bank holiday” in the UK tomorrow, on Monday, so everyone has a day off. Our last public holiday till Christmas.

The weather here is dreadful. After 100+ degrees in Arkansas, we were pretty sad to come home to rain and cold. Yesterday at the festival I was wearing jeans, 2 shirts, and a jacket and I was still shivering as it rained on me. And it’s August!!

Pippi has settled in at Heather’s house, her childminder. She seems to really like it there, especially with the other 2 kids that go. It’s nice to see how good she responds to Heather now that she is used to her. Pippi loves playing sitting up now. She still wobbles over every now and then, but she’s getting better. She still loves her “Johnny Jumper” doorway swing…she will bounce for over an hour happily! She is still not sure about eating solids, but we try with her fruits and veggies every day. I’m still breastfeeding, and she’s still growing, so we’re not that worried. She’ll eat when she’s ready. Her hair is growing (a little!), but still no teeth. She makes lots and lots of sounds, and it’s precious!

We Suels are the process of taking some family photos by photographer extraordinaire Jez Hailwood. Be on the lookout on this blog for these in the next few days! Also, there are new photos on the "pic archive", especially of our trips to Vienna (see photo here!) and home to the States.
Keep us updated on yourselves, and send us photos when you can. Thanks for all your prayers and kindnesses.

We love you,
Jason, Sarah, and Pippi

Trips, Pips, and Mickey Mouse

July 6, 2008

Hello friends and family!

Well, it’s been awhile since we’ve sent an update, and a lot has happened! I guess I’ll start with our first trip abroad with Pippi: we went to Vienna, Austria at the end of May. Pippi was just great during the flight! I was pretty nervous...people had said that babies have a really hard time with their ears popping, and I just knew that Pip was going to scream through the flight in pain from her poor ears...but it didn’t even seem to affect her! She mostly got bored having to sit on my lap the whole time, but other than that, she was great! Once in Vienna, we found our hotel...the most luxurious one we’ve stayed in on our trips! It was just gorgeous! Pretty much the whole city was like this, too, we discovered. We felt somewhat out of place in our jeans and backpacks in Vienna. It was sort of a “high class” city, with an older and wealthier crowd. Not that we let that stop us! We just took our jeans and backpacks right on in with the crowd! We had gorgeous weather, and toured the city on foot each day with our guidebook. Pippi just went with the flow, but mostly she hung out (literally!) in her sling on either Jason or I. She refused to go into her stroller! This trip confirmed that the sling has been our best baby purchase yet! My high-light of the trip was seeing the Spanish Winter Riding School practices (horses). I’d read a book about these horses, and to see them in person was fantastic! (Much teasing from Ja-son came from this, but I don’t care!!)

So after that successful trip with Pippi traveling (we’ve got the Suel travel bug in her al-ready, we decided!) we headed off to Disneyland Paris in June. This time we took the Eu-rostar Train, which was easier and more comfortable with a baby. And Disneyland was GREAT! Much more relaxed than Vienna...it was so kid-friendly (obviously) that we were never nervous about Pippi crying or finding a place to breastfeed, etc. It was basically set up to make parents feel at ease, which was a blessing. Pippi was able to ride in our laps for many of the rides, and she seemed to enjoy the music and colors and lights. Jason rode the roller coasters while I breastfed, and it was just a really fun trip. I’d never been to Disneyland in the States (Jason had), and was surprised to have soooo much fun! We took about a billion pictures (see blog for a great one of all 3 of us and Mickey! It’s like somehow Pippi knew that of all the photos to smile in, this was the one to do it!), and have promised each other we’ll take our kids when they are a little bigger to appreciate it even more. We found ourselves at times watching other people’s kids just to see their reactions to Mickey and the Princesses! Soooo adorable! So we decided we’ll for sure go again one day.

An update on Pippi, then: She is growing sooo fast, of course! Up to just over 14 pounds now, and right on track for her growth scales. I’m still breastfeeding her, but just last week we started her on solids. We’re making our own babyfood, and so far she has proven to enjoy baby rice, mango, and potato the most. We have just obtained a bouncy swing for the doorway, and this is her biggest thrill right now! She laughs and screams and bounces away, and we cannot help but stare and giggle right along with her. One of our biggest challenges right now is Pippi’s eczema. This is a skin condition she’s had since birth, but has just gotten very bad in the past 2 months. Basically it’s just really dry skin, but along with this, we have discovered she has many allergies. We found this out after some major rashes occurring from some of the medications and ointments and creams given to help with the eczema. We visit the doctor weekly, who has been wonderful. Her skin at the moment is doing really well (the current mix of treatment being Hydrocortisone cream 2x/day, a medicine for her scalp, an antihistamine at night, an emollient for her bath, and a cream for all the time that we use whenever she is scratching). It’s difficult, because she scratches her body all the time, sometimes until she bleeds. We keep mitts or socks on her hands at all times now. The worst, however, is that she is no longer able to sleep well. She falls asleep quickly, but with each stir she becomes itchy and wakes up crying. We are waking with her to soothe her just about every hour (if not more) at night. This has been going on for 6 weeks now, so as you can imagine, we are exhausted. If we only get woken up 3-4 times in a night, we are praising God! We are praying nonstop for this to get under control, as it is making all three of us weary. Many children grow out of eczema, so we are mostly praying for healing to come quickly.

Other than this skin issue, Pippi is a bright, energetic, smiley, beautiful girl. We adore her so much, and even lack of sleep (to the extreme!) had not made us forget how much we love her!

I am back to work July 14, and will be going back 4 days a week. Pippi will be going to a child-minder named Heather, than we know very well from church. She will go to Heather’s house with several other kids, but Heather will take them out and about daily to play groups, etc. Heather is wonderful, and we are glad to know her so well to be able to trust Pippi with her. Of course I am sad to be going to back to work after so long with Pippi all to myself, but I have to remind myself that I love my job! I know it will be a hard couple of days at first, but it will soon be back to normal life. My 6 months of maternity leave seemed so long at first, and I can’t believe it’s now come to an end! I will miss my little girl!

The biggest thing in store for the Suelfam is a visit from Shannon (now Yates!) this week. We are so looking forward to that. We continue to be involved in our church, especially the 18-30s group. Jason continues to love his job, and overall we are just enjoying life, each other, and Pippi. God has truly blessed us with happiness, and we are grateful. He has also blessed us with friends like you, and we look forward to hearing from you each soon with an update.

Much love from Jason, Sarah, and Pippi

Suel Spring and Start of Summer

Hello Friends!

Well, we hope the summer is going great so far for all of you! It’s gorgeous weather here in England this week (for once!). We’ve been out in the sun every day this week. Pippi doesn’t know what to think being barefoot and sleeveless! She’s been covered up since her birth in January!

She is growing so much, it’s hard to keep up! She has found her hands, and is just starting to reach for things now. She is also a little obsessed with putting things in her mouth or tasting things or sticking out her tongue. This mostly includes chewing on her hands, but can also include “eating” anything that comes remotely close to her mouth. If we are holding her she automatically starts to lick our shoulders or arms. We all end up with soaked shirts (our shoulders or her own wrists). It’s pretty funny.

She had her first real laugh just this week. She was giggling so much as I was wiping up her mouth with a cloth. Jason was in the other room, and he came running in when he heard her giggling! It was so cute, we couldn’t stop laughing. She is generally a happy baby, and as most people still comment, she is very “alert”. Her big blue eyes are always searching for interesting things. She is always moving (almost scooted out of her stroller just yesterday! Jason caught her just in time!) and wriggling. She is a busy baby if there ever was one.
We have a lot of fun together every day, going to the park or for walks or to play groups or the grocery store. I am becoming proficient with my slings that I use to carry her around. They are easier than the stroller and Pippi likes to see everything from way up high on my front, hip, or back. Jason and I have started taking her swimming each week. She is not sure what to make of it, and basically just looks bewildered the whole time!

In other news, Jason ran the London Marathon in April. His goal was to run it in under 4 hours, and he ran it in 3:58! He was so proud! It was a great day, even if it did rain buckets! It was apparently great weather for the runners, but us spectators got soaked just standing around clapping. The saddest part of the day, though, was that when Jason crossed the finish line of his best marathon ever, no one was there cheering for him!! We were stuck on the tube about a mile away…London was soooo packed with people, the tube stations were overflowing and we couldn’t get to Jason in time! He called us from the meeting point we had planned to see him at at the end, and he was just shivering in the cold rain alone, wondering where we were! So sad, but we cheered later when we finally met up with him in the hotel about an hour and half later! (PS, in the photo, he's wearing a red hat!)

We spent the whole weekend in London with Claire and Jez. We explored Greenwich village, and visited the Royal Observatory where the Prime Meridian is…very cool!

Another thing we have just done is have a church fete, or festival. It was an outreach day in a neighborhood near our church where we provided a BBQ, bouncy castle, live music, face painting, etc…There was a big turnout, and we had a great time. Now, the funny thing is that Jason dressed up like a pirate for the day! He went around passing out balloons and candy to kids, and telling his favorite pirate joke: “Why are pirates so mean? Because they ‘Aargh!’” I was on facepainting duty with Pippi. She had such a nice time on her blanket in the shade just playing and looking around. (That is the first picture shown above.)


Jason and I are about to complete a Parenting Course at our church, too. It’s been very good, taught by a Rob Parsons DVD. We are some of the youngest parents there, of course, so we are basically there to stockpile info into our minds for later years. It’s been nice talking to other parents, though, and seeing how they have coped over the years in bringing up Christian children.

We’re excited about our upcoming trip to Vienna, Austria next week! Pippi’s first airplane ride (I’m a little nervous!!). We’ll be spending 4 days there. We’ve also booked another trip for June…Disneyland Paris!! We’ll be taking the Eurostar Train from London to Paris and spending 4 days with Mickey and Minnie. Of course, we say Pippi will love it, but really, how much is she going to take in?? It’s for us really!!

Well, as usual, please update us when you can. We love to hear about your lives, details and all. We will be going through our email list soon, too, and deleting anyone off the list we haven’t heard from in a long time. So if you’re one of those people who read our emails but do not reply, could you send us a line to tell us not to delete you? If you’ve written us lately, don’t worry about it, we’ll keep you on!

Much love and prayers to you all,

In Christ,
Jason, Sarah, and Pippi Suel

Hotel Suel Opens...

Hi Everyone!!

Well, we have had an exciting and super busy past few weeks! We have basically been running Hotel Suel over here in England, while our American friends/family have visited over their various spring breaks. Here’s a little catch-up for you all of the happenings that have been going on.

First visitors (and first to see Pippi!) were my (Sarah’s) brother and his girlfriend, Brett and Paula. We met them at Heathrow and they fought over who was going to hold and kiss Pippi first! They pretty much didn’t put her down the whole week, either, which was great! She was showered with so much love, and was held so much, she was in heaven. We spent that first day in London, seeing the sights and catching up. Then back to Hereford that night. The next day we went to church together and Brett and Paula got to meet all our friends and then experience their first “pub quiz”. Jason and I and all our friends go to our local pub every Sunday night where the landlord holds a general knowledge quiz for all the people in the pub. We all have answer sheets and work in teams. We then switch papers with another table to “grade” them, and the winner gets a free pitcher of beer. Needless to say, we’ve NEVER won the beer, but each week is always super fun. The landlord, Ian, knows that Jason and I are American, too, which makes it fun when he asks an American question and points to us and says: “This one’s for you, Americans!” over the microphone. Anyways, Brett and Paula got a photo with Ian, and even answered the American question correctly (How many points is a field goal in American football? Easy one! Sometimes Jason and I don’t know the answers to obscure American questions, which is always a little embarrassing!!).

We spent the next day climbing Hay Bluff, a small “mountain” near us with amazing views. Brett climbed the whole thing with Pippi in her little “baby backpack” on his front!

And then the really fun day began…on Tuesday Pippi and I took Brett and Paula to Goodrich Castle, a great castle near us that is usually tourist-free and surrounded by gorgeous views of Herefordshire. I had Pippi in her stroller, and could therefore not take her up to the castle Keep (tower), which was part of Brett and I’s sneaky plan! At the top, Brett proposed to Paula!! Of course she said yes, and now I’m going to have a new sister!! Needless to say, we are all VERY excited! Paula had no idea this was coming, which made it even more fun on the day. We celebrated with a lovely dinner that night, after phone calls home to moms and dads were made!

Nothing could really top the proposal for excitement during the visit, but we continued to have a great time together until they left too soon on Thursday. They took over 100 photos of Pippi to take home to my parents, who then proceeded straight to Walgreens to get them printed!! Boy, were they happy about that. Jason and I never send them enough!

Our next visitor was Liz Dally, a great friend from Ohio. She is like a sister to us both. She of course also adored Pippi and showered her with love as well! What was so great about Liz’s trip to see us was that it coincided with Easter Sunday. We celebrated the resurrection of our great Lord together at church, and also had Pippi dedicated during the service. Liz was there as one of Pippi’s godparents. Claire and Jez are also her godparents. They all came up to the front with us and prayed over Pippi and Jason and I. It was a beautiful service, and we are thankful for such amazing friends in our lives who will promise to support us in so many ways. After church we had lunch together, and of course that night we introduced Liz to the pub quiz as well! (Ian’s comment was: “Another one?? They multiply like gremlins, your American friends!!”)

Liz then spent the week seeing Hereford with us, as well as several surrounding cities. We visited Bath (she’s a big Jane Austen fan, and Bath is known for “Jane experiences”), and even the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales so that Liz could stand on a cliff overlooking the sea with the wind blowing thru her hair just like Elizabeth Bennett in “Pride and Prejudice”!! It was great!

We also spent a night in London (Pippi’s first overnight stay away from home), which was interesting to say the least! The plan was for Jason and I to take Pippi to the US Embassy to apply for her American citizenship and get her passport. That went according to plan, but when we went to call Liz (who had my cell phone seeing the sights of London) after the Embassy visit, the phone wouldn’t work!! We spent hours running thru London on the route we showed Liz to take, hoping for a glimpse of her, but NEVER FOUND HER! Luckily we had agreed to meet back at the car at 5pm if all else failed (which it did!!). Jason and I showed up just after 5, praying that Liz was there. SHE WASN’T! We continued to pray and come up with alternative plans if she didn’t show. We finally got a hasty phone call fom Liz, though, who called us from a pay phone. She had forgotten where the car was parked! We quickly told her the street names before we got cut off, and within minutes she was there. We were almost in tears (Liz and I, not Jason) we were so happy to find each other! We felt so bad, but Liz just laughed and said she had a great time in London by herself! We took her out for dinner, then drove home, happy to be together at last.

After Liz’s visit, we had yet another group of visitors just for one night. My friend from OT school, Ashley Hagler, spent one night with us in Hereford with 2 of her friends, Shannon and Justin. They had rented a car from the airport, and were starting out on their roadtrip thru Hereford, Wales, and Ireland. Our house was their first stop. We went out to dinner to a pub with Claire and Jez, too. Then we had an early birthday party for Ashley back at the house with a chocolate cake (she was going to be on the road on her actual b-day). The next day we showed them Hereford city, then drove the scenic route to Hay Bluff and Hay-on-Wye. It was a short visit, but was great to see them.

So now Hotel Suel is closed for awhile, till hopefully some parents come to visit in June. Jason is gearing up for the London Marathon in 2 weeks, and is in great shape. If anyone wants to sponsor him running, it’s not too late. See his last blog for more info on how to do it.

Enjoy the new pics of Pippi. She is SOOO beautiful! She is laughing and smiling so much now, it’s hard to take our eyes off her. Don’t forget to look at the pic archive link for more photos of her in her album.

We love you all, and hope to hear from you soon. Please send us an update when you can.
Love,
Jason, Sarah, and Pippi Suel

London Marathon Fundraising!

Hello All,

As most of you are aware, amidst the changing of diapers and squealing baby, I have been training for the London Marathon! The Marathon is set for Sunday, April 13th.

As part of the build up to the Marathon, I thought I should let you all know that I am running for a charity. The charity I have chosen to support happens to be the one that I work for. We are a local organization for supporting disadvantaged young people in Hereford. If you want to see more, check out www.2xlyouthprojects.co.uk

So, the main purpose of this email is to ask you if you are willing to support me as I endeavor to complete the marathon! Donating to the cause is as easy as 1,2,3!

1: Go to http://jasonsuel.com (notice there is no www.)

2: Click on the PayPal donate icon. It is the bottom most thing on the page.

3: The link will take you to a page that will ask you to donate. Now, because I will receive the money in pounds, I believe that you will donate in pounds (not Dollars)...so if you want to give me 10 Dollars, you should enter 5 pounds...because the pound is worth more than the dollar by about 2:1...does that make sense?...email me if you have questions...

If you already have a PayPal account, you can enter your details...But, if you DON'T have one...the great thing is that, YOU DON'T HAVE TO! You can follow the links on the bottom left of that page to donate by credit or debit card.

Thanks everyone for your continued support!

Jason

http://jasonsuel.com

Parenting with Pippi

Hello all!

Well, it’s been 5 ½ weeks since little Pippi was born, and our lives have been blessed beyond all measure! She is doing great, growing every day it seems. We are both loving being parents, with the fun and challenges that go with it. Here are our top 10 things we love about it all so far:

1. The way total strangers will jump out and talk to you if you are with a tiny baby…people love babies!
2. The way Pippi’s soft fuzzy hair feels against your face when you are holding her
3. The way you get to dress her up like a little doll in precious baby clothes, especially vintage ones from thrift stores (thanks Ashlea!). See pic below!!
4. The way she can’t fit into hats yet, and they fall down over her eyes and nose because she wriggles so much (see pic below!)
5. The way Pippi’s bottom lip sticks out in a super-pout when she cries (I can’t actually bring myself to snap a pic of this…I have to pick her up instead!)
6. The way our little Pip-squeak actually squeaks! (all the time—it’s the main noise she makes, along with grunts!)
7. The way she falls asleep with her arms up over her head in contentment (see pic below!)
8. The way she freaks out when her pacifier falls out of her mouth and she wants it back soooo badly but can’t figure out how to obtain it.
9. Her BIG blue eyes, so alert and beautiful.
10. The way she will fall asleep on your chest, tucked up so tight and peaceful, knowing you’re taking care of her.

Now, of course our list could go on for days!

Jason’s back at work full-time now, which leaves me and Pip on our own for most of each day. We do go out every day now, which is fun. Some of the things we’ve been doing include going for a neighborhood walk everyday, going to Tot Stop at our church on Wednesday mornings to play with other moms and babies, hanging out with Chloe and Zac (Chloe is a church friend who had Isaac 4 days after Pippi was born), and doing loads and loads and loads of laundry!!

In exciting news for us, we have booked our first trip with Pippi in tow! We’re off to Vienna, Austria at the end of May! I guess really our first overnight trip will be in London while Jason runs the London Marathon in April, so that will be our “tester” weekend with Pippi. We are looking forward to putting her in her little baby-backpack and touring around!

Before our travels, though, we are looking forward to having several visitors in a row…first off Brett (my brother) and Paula (Brett’s girlfriend) in March. The day after they leave, Liz Dally (friend from Ohio) arrives. The day after she leaves, Ashley (friend from OT school) and 2 friends arrive! We’ll have 3 weeks of visitors, and are really excited about seeing everyone…and of course showing off Pippi! Let’s hope they can all cope with night-time crying! ☺

Well, that’s about it on our front. As always, send us news about yourselves when you can.

With love from all 3 of us,
Sarah, Jason, and Pippi

Pippi Pics

Just a quick update to say that if you are interested, you can check out more pics of Pippi by clicking on the "Pic Archive" link on the right hand side of this page and going to the album entitled "Pippi!"

We don't want to be one of those families that shoves pictures of our newborn down people's throats, so go there only if you want................to see the cutest baby in the world :)

From Suelfam (all three)

Our Beautiful Daughter

Hello Everyone,

The time has finally come for us to announce to you that our beautiful daughter, Pippi Lois, has come into the world! She was born on Monday morning at 10:33am, weighing 6lbs. 6oz's, and 19.48 inches long! She is a happy, healthy, beautiful little girl!

Sarah is fine, but had a more rough time of it. Forceps had to be used and she had a 3rd degree tear. For those who don't know what that is...it isn't pretty and she had to have many stitches after the birth. But, apart for walking a little like John Wayne...she is absolutely fine. They are both still in the hospital because they want to make sure Sarah's hemoglobin levels have stabilized. All signs point to a quick recovery and she should be home by Friday at the latest, but we are hopeful that she will be home tomorrow.

I know you want to see pics, so I have posted some on our blog. www.suelfam.blogspot.com

She is beautiful...well, they both are!

Love,

From a very happy Suelfam!

Christmas, New Year, and a Visitor!

Hi there folks,

Just wanted to update you on happenings since our last email…here’s the scoop:

In the run up to Christmas we were busy, as was everyone, but we did have a little time for ourselves. Because the time is drawing very near where quick weekend get-away’s will be a thing of the past, Sarah and I decided to make a run for it. So, we rented a bed and breakfast in a little place you may have heard of called…”Sherwood Forest!” That’s right…the weekend before Christmas Sarah and I gallivanted off to the home of everyone’s favorite outlaw: Robin Hood! It was a great time…we went into Nottingham as well.

My favorite part of the whole story was when we called to make our reservation at the B&B. When the person answered on the other line they said something like… “Brown’s Old Orchard B&B, in the heart of Sherwood…Robin speaking.” I was like…stop, hold the phone…your name is Robin! Are you Robin Hood?!?! This is crazy!...but I didn’t say that, of course…

Soon after our return from that trip was Christmas…and what a great Christmas it was. Now, this was our first Christmas in England. If you remember, the first year we lived here we went to Paris on Christmas Eve. Last year we flew home. So that makes this Christmas our first official Christmas to be spent entirely in England. We had Christmas with our friends Claire and Jez…Claire’s brother Keith and Jez’s parents Dick and Jan were also there. Great times! One of the best parts of the day was exchanging gifts with each other and opening the presents one at a time. One at a time! Tedious, but enjoyable. I’ve never encountered so much reserve in a Christmas…it’s usually rip it open as fast as you can at my house.

The next thing we had to look forward to was our friend Heather coming to visit! She came just in time to usher in the New Year and this year we did it in style…we went to London to see the fireworks! It was a lot of fun and for all of you stateside…follow this link to find out about what New Year’s Eve looks like in London…the fireworks cost 100,000 pounds a minute (I’m not kidding), and with the celebration timing in at just over 10 minutes…we’re talking 1 million pounds…what a waste…but it looked great! So, here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4tqsQktE2w

Oh yeah…I almost fogot…the next morning we got up and went to the London New Years Day Parade…what a hoot!

During Heather’s visit we also went to a local village for the day, did some shopping, and went on a country walk…which was a lot of fun…AND we went to the local Pantomime (a Christmas tradition here). Our Panto this year was “Snow White.” Lots of laughs!

Now we are just waiting for the arrival of our first child. The due date is January 28th, but Sarah wishes the baby would come sooner. She’s doing great, even though she’s not sleeping all that well anymore…too uncomfortable! She’s got one more week of work left to endure, and will thankful for a rest after that! We are so very excited and nervous at the same time. For all of you who have offered us advice, thanks so much…we really appreciate it. Now, it’s just down to waiting. We look forward to sharing the good news about our son or daughter with you on our next email!

We hope you have all had a great Holiday Season and maybe we’ll be seeing you in the new year!

Jason & Sarah

Pics: 1. Jason and Sarah at a Christmas Party. 2. Us in front of the Merry Oak in Sherwood Forest. 3. Jason in front of Robin Hood statue. 4. New Years Eve! 5. Sarah and Heather during the New Years Day Parade.

Pregnancy Pics

Here are some of Sarah's Pregnancy Photos. These pictures trace her growth from 3 to 8 months!

We are so excited for Baby Suel to arrive!

Long Overdue, from Suels

Hello family and friends!

We are sorry this is so long in coming to you...things
have been busy as usual. So here's what's been going
on with us:

As of today, I (Sarah!) only have 2 months left of
being pregnant! I'm getting bigger by the week, and
staying healthy. No sickness, just some tiredness
setting in. But as I'm still working full-time,
that's to be expected, really. We have organized our
"nursery" as of last weekend, so most of the major
items are in place. It's super fun getting ready for
the baby to come. Very exciting stuff!

My job is still great, loving it. I was recently
asked by my manager to attend a planning meeting for
the whole of the West Midlands (that's several
counties in England) about how best to care for people
with dementia in our area. I was one of 13
representatives who specialize in working with people
with dementia. I go back next week for a second
meeting. It was exciting to be asked to go and it's
actually a pretty important thing to be doing, so
that's cool. Jason's not-so-new-anymore job is still
going great, too. The people he works for are
fantastic, he is wholly supported, and working with
the kids in schools is exhausting but fulfilling.

Church stuff is great, Jason's still leading worship
regularly. He just got back from an entire Worship
Conference weekend, learning about leading worship for
the Lord. He learned a lot, and heard some fantastic
musicians. One of the main guests was Matt Redman.
Good stuff. We are still leading the 18-30's
ministry, and it is growing! Our last few meetings
have had between 20-25 people, which is awesome,
seeing how we started out with about 8-10. We were
involved in a hilarious Dodgeball Tournament recently,
complete with costumes and a theme song! We totally
lost. We are also doing a drama skit together for the
Christmas Candlelight service next month. There's
another girl in our group who's pregnant, too, due a
week before me. We have to be the narrators as we
can't play a pregnant soldier, wise man, angel, or
even Mary (as she's holding baby Jesus!)!

Jason just got an acceptance letter to qualify to run
the London Marathon! He is sooo super excited, and
we're already planning a weekend in London in April
for the event with friends. He didn't get in last
year, so he's really happy to do it this year.

Jason was also in a play recently called "Personals".
He was a lead role, it was a musical comedy. It was
about people who are looking for love by placing
personal ads in the paper. It was written by the same
people who wrote "Friends", so it was pretty funny.
He did a great job, and made some new friends, too.

We are going away for the weekend tomorrow (one of our
last as a "couple"!). We'll be staying in a B&B in
Birmingham all weekend, all centered around us and
Claire and Jez going to see "Maroon 5" and "Dashboard
Confessional" on Saturday night. We've had our
tickets forever, so we're anxious to see it.

We had an amazing time at home with moms and dads in
October. We went home for 2 weeks (before I couldn't
fly anymore), spending a week at each of our parent's
houses. Claire and Jez came with us to experience
their first taste of America. We had so much fun
showing them everything (mostly centered around
eating, if we're honest!) It was difficult finding
vegetarian options for Claire at BBQ places in
Arkansas! It was a fun experience, though, and the
Hogs game was a highlight, even though we lost. That
team spirit-filled environment is not something
British people have much of, so it was fun to show it
off. And of course it was great to see moms and dads.
Difficult to come back, knowing they won't get to see
Baby Suel for awhile until after it's born, so there
were some tears upon departure!

Well, I'm sure there's more to tell you than all that,
but you get the picture. Check out the blog for new
pics of us. Pretty soon you'll be getting emails of
the 3 of us, so get into it!

We love you all so much, please update us on your
lives, and may God bless you this Christmas season and
always!

In Him, Jason and Sarah Suel

Pics: 1. Suels showing the Hailwoods how to call those hogs! 2. Jason and the cast of "Personals" 3. Dodgeball Tournament Team :) 4. Jez, Jason, and Sarah (looking pregnant) at a friends birthday party!

Before Our American Adventure

Hello everyone,

It’s us again. Just emailing with a quick update before we head off on our Stateside Adventure with the Hailwoods (Claire and Jez, our best friends here!). It’s been about a month since our last email so we need to catch up!

You may or may not remember that we were planning an All-American Birthday party for Jason’s big day…well it happened in a big way! Everyone went all-out and wore red, white, and blue…even some cowboy boots showed up! We had some great American food, then a “Who knows the most about America?” Quiz…it wasn’t good! Most people couldn’t even pick out California on a map of the US…but then again we couldn’t have done that well with England cities before we came here, so you know. There were 17 of us in our new house, and we weren’t all that crowded. What a blessing, and a what a change from our old flat where 4 people was a crowd.

My (Jason’s) new job is going great! I am still going into schools and doing drama with students. And the organization that I work for now is a world away from the place I was at before. Praise God that He always has a plan!

We had our 20-week scan a few weeks back and we are proud to announce that the baby is healthy and growing! The baby is kicking now and even I can feel it! We have been busy getting the baby’s room ready…slowly but surely. We have been given a baby bed and all the bedding to go on it as well as curtains to match.

In a few days we are off on our American Adventure with our great friends Jez and Claire. It will be lots of fun! Hope to see lots of you when we are there!

With love,

Jason (and Sarah)

Pics of: Sarah at 5 months!!! AND Jason's All-American Birthday Party at our new house!