Settling In

Hi-de-ho Neighbors,

It’s time for another update from the Amazing Suelfam! I know you are excited, so sit back and relax…you’re in good hands. I can’t remember the last email we sent out, but I will try to update you as best as I am able.

We have finally fallen back into a routine here in Northwest Arkansas…I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but it certainly is more comfortable. We are still living out of suitcases and at our friend Ashley’s house, but both our jobs have kicked in now and with Pippi settling into her daycare…it seems like we have jumped right back into the rat race.

My work is good. As I have stated before (and probably will have to say again) I am working as an Actor/Teacher for Trike Theatre this summer. My work consists of Teaching drama classes around NWA and acting in a production of “The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe.” There is a small, but very professional and committed team of us at Trike and we are really excited to see what the future holds.

Sarah’s job at the inpatient rehab ward in Springdale is going well now, too. She had a rough start, being thrown in to treat patients with very little training, but she has figured most of it out now. It is very fast-paced, something she is not used to. Everyone at her work is very nice and helpful, so even though it’s not her choice of work setting, the friendliness makes it bearable.

Pippi is growing like a weed! She enjoys her daycare now (after about 2 weeks of crying!) and her teacher Ms. Gala is great. She is in a class of only three 1-year-olds, so gets lots of attention. She brings home art projects and they have tons of activites: last week she went on a “bug safari” in the backyard and this Friday is “hat day”. Things like that are so cute, and we’re glad she is learning as well as playing. She now has 5 teeth (finally!), still LOVES the bath and water, and is completely obsessed with dogs. We took her to the St. Louis zoo a couple of weeks ago and she waved at all the animals saying “Hi Doggy!” even if it was a bear or tiger or zebra. It was a great day.

It looks like we will be moving into our new house in Johnson (Springdale) around the July 4th weekend! We are super excited to have our own place, and especially this house. Our friends Kevin and Christa will be our new neighbors, which is a Godsend. And the new house is about a 2 minute drive from the daycare, and less than 10 minutes from Sarah’s job. The location is perfect. We really just CAN’T WAIT! So if you have a truck, can paint a bedroom, or just want to help unload boxes with us that weekend, get in touch! ☺

We spent Memorial Day in Tulsa, OK. It was a lot of fun. We went to the Aquarium and Pippi loved it. We also went on a few walks and to a local park.

Hopefully, the next time you hear from us we will be one step closer to moving in to our house. We would love to hear from you if you have time to send us an email.

Love to you all,
Jason, Sarah, and Pippi

Happy Easter, etc.

Happy Belated Easter from the Suels!

As you can tell, Pippi had big fun in her pretty Easter dress "hunting" eggs (actually just picking them up). She will now hunt them all over the house, after we put them inside shoes, under the couch, or in the corner. We will point to them, she will then "find" them, be sooo proud of herself, clap for herself, then refuse to let them go or put them in her basket. It's so cute. And hours of entertainment!

Well, after spending several weeks with our families, we have now made it up to Fayetteville. We have all moved into Ashley's house, a great friend who hasn't batted an eye that we have basically overtaken her house! We are really enjoying exploring our new hometown and surroundings. Everyone in our new jobs have been so welcoming. I haven't started yet, but went up to the hospital to say hello and meet everyone. They were upset that it was still going to be a few weeks before I started! Jason, however, has already started part-time. Kassie, his boss, is really nice. She even invited us all to her house for a playdate with her 2 small children. She is excited to have Jason here, and has thrown him in quickly! He taught his first classes alone on Saturday already.

Like I said before, we spent several weeks with our families. Here are a couple of pictures of Pippi enjoying herself there! I found her with the toilet paper like this one day, and it was after she had dropped her toy in the toilet! And the other picture is her and her cousin, Annzley (Melissa's youngest), at Playtime Pizza driving their little car together! Pippi even had her hands in the right places--we were cracking up!

We will keep you all updated as we house-hunt and begin our new lives here. Please keep us and our families in your prayers as we are still transitioning. It will be a couple more months before we can close on a house, which means living out of our suitcases in someone else's house till then! Plus, all the stresses of making grown-up decisions about our lives!! Please continue to pray for Jason's family, too, as their lives move on after Melissa's death.

Please keep in touch all of you, and keep us updated!
Sending all our love in Christ,
Jason, Sarah, and PIppi

The BIG move and other stuff.

Wow, friends…so much to update you on!

I don’t really know where to begin. Maybe in order of BIGGEST news to smallest…although, none of this news is small news.

First off, after spending 3 and ½ years in England, seeing 18 countries in our time there, and having our first child, we have officially moved back to the USA. We had planned to move back in April, but after my sister died (see last email), we decided to move back a month early to help/spend time with family. We are in the middle of doing that now.

We first had to fly to Bowling Green, Ohio in order to get all of our stuff. That’s right, some great friends of ours…the Dally’s…let us keep our stuff in their barn for over 3 years. We spent just less than a week in Ohio, got to see some old friends and make some new ones, and then we loaded up our moving truck and headed to Arkansas. I should mention that we had tremendous help with the move. Our friend David Manning actually drove up form Arkansas on Wednesday and then turned right back around and drove Sarah and Pippi in his car the next day. And, don’t worry about me being in a big old moving truck by myself, cause I had company, too. Mr. Patrick Peringer and I split time at the wheel of that truck…it was a blast!

Along the way, we stopped and spent the night in St. Louis, MO with another great friend of ours, Brian Rhame. Rhame had arranged for us to spend the night in a mansion…that’s right, a mansion. He told me not to ask any questions ;) The 2.2 million dollar home was built in 1904 for the World’s Fair. One night there was just amazing, and fun. Thanks, Brian!

The next day we drove to Arkansas, and after spending some time with Sarah’s family we are now here with my (Jason’s) family. We are both excited to announce, I guess, to some of you that we will be moving to the North West Arkansas area around the beginning of April. Sarah starts work at Northwest Medical Center in Springdale at the end of April. I have 2 jobs lined up. The one that will take up the most of my time will be at Tricycle Youth Theatre. I will be working there as an instructor/teacher. I also have the prospect of doing creative arts at a church there called Keypoint Church. My job(s) should start in May.

Right now, we are considering jumping on the property ladder, so that has had it’s challenges and we are still unsure of where to live up there. For the first few weeks-ish, we will be living with a friend, Ashley Hagler, who has been a great friend to us during this move!

So, that is the mega-huge news!

Now some other news, that we haven’t had the opportunity to share with you yet. At the end of January we celebrated Pippi’s first birthday! We had a joint birthday party with our friends Ben and Chloe who had Isaac just a few day’s after Pippi. The theme was a ‘Jungle Party.’ It was great fun. I have included some photos (on our blog) for you to look at. Because of Pippi’s allergies she had a milkless, eggless, butterless, chocolate cake…she enjoyed it all the same, though.

And, in February, the aforementioned Ashley Hagler and her friend Shannon Ott came to England for a few days. We met them in London. Ashley has been to see us 3 times now, more than most, and each time we love spending time with her. This time was particularly memorable because London had the most snow they’ve had for the last 20 years. So, we made a day of walking around the big city of London and playing in the snow. It was a lot of fun to see those big buildings surrounded by mounds of white fluff.

Finally, just a thank you for all who prayed and kept us in your thoughts during this difficult time. I am mentioning, of course, about the death of my sister Melissa. No one ever wants to let go. But sometimes, we have to. However, the stories we have shared of her life somehow make her seem like she is still here with us. Thank you all for your concern, emails, cards, and love…I don’t think we could have made it though such a difficult time without you.

Now, don’t cut us out of your life just because our travels in Europe have ended for the moment. We have a great country here in the US to explore. And, might I add, Pippi is the best traveler ever, so I don’t think we will be stopping any time soon!

England friends, thanks for sharing your lives with us. We hope to hear from you often. And, Hotel-Suel in the USA is always open to you!

American friends, thanks for welcoming us back with open arms. We hope to see you all in due time.

Jason, Sarah, and Pippi

Pics: standing outside the St. Louis mansion. 2 pictures of our welcome back party at the dallys. snowy London.

My sweet sister.

Hello Family and Friends,

It is with heavy hearts that we write to you to let you all know that my sister, Melissa Lauren (Suel) Pennington has passed away. Many of you will be aware of the situation, but for those who don’t know, here is the update.

Melissa went to the doctor last week complaining of stomach problems. The doctor said that she needed to have her gallbladder removed. When they went to do the surgery her heart stopped. She had an enlarged heart and it was weak. The doctor had no prior knowledge of a heart condition. They were able to revive her, but because she was without oxygen to the brain for 7-8 minutes, she was in a coma.

He comatose state got progressively worse until on Saturday, 21 February, she was brain dead. Her organs were donated and then she physically died sometime after that.

What does this mean for us? Well most of you know that we had already made plans to move to NW Arkansas in April. Sarah has work starting in April and I have work starting in May. But, we have now decided to move our departure date up and move back to Arkansas in March to help pick up the pieces after Melissa’s death.

So presently, I (Jason) am flying home to be with the family during the funeral. I will then fly back to England for a week and all of us will fly back to the States shortly after that. We are planning to fly to Ohio first, collect all of our stuff that is still up there, and then drive it across the country to our new home in Arkansas.

Obviously, this plan presents many challenges. Not the least of which is the fact that I will be traveling alone to the funeral while Sarah and Pippi try to do what needs to be done to close out our lives here in England.

Please pray for us. We are struggling through this difficult time. I promise to write with better news as soon as we have some. We haven’t even told you all about Pippi’s 1st birthday party yet.

Thanks all,

Jason, Sarah, and Pippi Suel

PS: If any of you want to support my family and me by coming to any of Melissa’s services, please do. The services aren’t finalized yet, but it looks like visitation will be at Proctor Funeral Home in Camden, AR on Tuesday (possibly), with a service at Fairview United Methodist Church in Camden to follow on Wednesday. She is being buried next to my 19 year old cousin, Rachel, in Jacksonville, AR possibly on Thursday. This is all speculation, because it is yet to be determined. I’m sure that if you are interested you could contact Proctor or Fairview United Methodist Church to confirm.

Christmas and More!

Hello Everyone,

This is a seriously delayed email. We have been meaning to write to you all and tell you how Pippi’s first Christmas went, but cool things kept happening, so we delayed writing it. But, we can’t wait any longer, so here we go:

Christmas was amazingly fantastic. Pippi seemed to hit another gear. She was cute and adorable before, but she located another degree of cuteness over the holiday season. We spent Christmas with Jez and Claire and her family. It was so great to see Pippi being the center of attention and not letting anyone down. You will just have to check out our blog for some awesome pics. She enjoyed helping to unwrap the gifts. Although, the toy that Santa left her (a cute penguin that walks around) made her cry. She is used to it now, but at first, she wasn’t so into it. Thank you to everyone who helped to make her first Christmas special. We were overwhelmed with gifts and cards. Thanks so much!

New Year was another good time spent with a fun group of people at Claire and Jez’s new home. We had fondue and stayed up to watch the fireworks and shoot some off ourselves.

In January our very special friend John Sebestyen was here! It was a totally spur of the moment kind of thing. The University he works for asked him to go as a chaperone with a group of students. They spent some time in London and some time in Paris. We were able to hang out with him for a whole day, which was really good. He has now been here to see us twice!

Pippi’s first birthday is this week, January 21st, and we are planning all kinds of fun. Her first birthday party will be Saturday. Pippi and Isaac (another baby from church born a few days after Pip), will be celebrating with a Jungle Party! Sarah has been busily preparing decorations and games, etc. for the festive celebration. It should be a lot of fun and we will include pics from that in our next email!

Pippi is growing up so fast, and we are loving every minute! She is sleeping and eating very well now, 2 things that took her awhile to figure out. Her eczema is completely cleared up, now that we use a pretty intense regime of lotions and creams and oils daily. Her food allergies don’t bother her that much, as long as we are careful. Her first birthday cake recipe is called “Milkless, eggless, butterless chocolate cake”! I hope the word “tasteless” doesn’t fit in there, but as she’s never had chocolate before, she’ll probably love it! ☺ She still doesn’t have any teeth coming, and she’s not quite walking yet. She walks along the furniture and crawls up our legs every chance she gets. We were going to get her a new forward-facing carseat for Christmas, as we figured she’d be 20 pounds by her 11 months. The last time we’d weighed her she wasn’t even 9 months old and she was 17 pounds 4 oz. So we assumed that in over 2 months, she’d be 20 pounds for sure. However, when we had her weighed, she was 17 pounds 8 oz!! So we’ve still got awhile till she gets that new carseat, the little squirt!

Things are moving forward with us moving home! At long last, we have made some contacts. Please pray for us in the coming months! We’ll fill you all in as we know more!

Lots of love,
Jason, Sarah, and Pippi

Seasons Greetings!

Dear Friends,

As we sit down to look at what we have been up to and condense it into a letter that we can send out to all of our family and friends, we are amazed at how wonderfully blessed we have been. We’ll do our best to give you some of the highlights…

We welcomed the New Year with our friend Heather Johnson in London. Heather came over from the States to be with us for fireworks on Westminster Bridge. But, not more than a month later we would welcome someone else…

That right! We were so pleased that Pippi Lois Suel made her stage debut on January 21st, 2008. All of a sudden, the bundle of joy that we had been anticipating was here. A week early, too! We think we were so excited to meet each other, we just couldn’t wait for that due date!

Not long after that (early March) Pippi’s Uncle Brett and Aunt Paula came to visit! Well, actually, Brett proposed at the top of an old English castle while they were here, officially making her “Aunt” Paula (we are thrilled!) and they have since been married. It was wonderful to get to spend some time with them and show them around England. Then, also in March, our great friend Liz Dally came to stay with us! We had Pippi dedicated to Christ on Easter Sunday with Liz, Claire, and Jez being godparents.

In April, Jason completed what had been an obsession of his for awhile: he ran the London Marathon! His goal was to run it in under 4 hrs and he came in at 3:58…just in time! What a great (but rainy, cold, and typically English) day! In May, the entire Suelfam (Jason, Sarah, and Pippi) continued our exploration of Europe with a trip to Vienna, Austria. We had a lot of fun and learned how to travel as a family. In June, we took a trip to Disneyland Paris…AND, we got Pippi’s picture taken with Mickey Mouse. We loved every minute.

In July, our friend Shannon Yates came to visit. Of course, we had a grand time showing her our little corner of England, but we didn’t know that we would be seeing her in the States later that same month. In late July, we had to travel home because Jason’s cousin, Rachel McManus, passed away due to complications with her Juvenile Diabetes. She was 19. The family was (and is) devastated by this tragedy, but the silver lining was that the family got to meet our precious daughter. And we got some much needed time with our families during this difficult time.

Since then we have just been hanging in and around Hereford mostly. We are both still enjoying our jobs: Jason as a Theatre Education Manager with 2XL Youth Projects and Sarah as an OT with the Dept. of Mental Health for Older People. We still spend LOADS of time with our dear friends Claire and Jez, whom we are happy to announce will be adopting in the new year…we can’t wait!! Jason did complete the Cardiff Half Marathon in October in 1:43, his best time yet. Pippi continues to astound us with her growth, and we love every second of her…she is more of a blessing to us than we could ever have imagined possible.

Pippi’s birth this year reminds us of how special Christmas is, and the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He was born into this world to save us and bring eternal joy and life, and we are thankful! By reading this letter, we pray that you are touched this Christmas by the love of your friendship in us, but mostly that you remember the true meaning of the Christmas spirit and take note of it in your own lives. Thank you for your friendship, support, and love this past year, and as we make plans to move back to the US in the months to come, we look forward to spending more time with each of you then.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Jason, Sarah, and Pippi Suel

Pippi Crawls and Peek-a-boos!

Here is a video of Pippi crawling. She has been crawling for about 3 weeks now, but the video is still amazing! It's so great to see her learn and develop. Watch her go!




And I thought you might enjoy some Peek-a-boo pictures. She just learned how and instead of covering her eyes, she prefers to cover her ears. Cute!

Rock-tober!

Hello Friends and Family!

It’s been soooo long since we’ve written and put pictures on this blog, and for that we are sorry! Of course we are busy, but what’s new? Winter has already set in here, with scraping the “windscreen” every morning and freezing all the way to work. We’re all three well into our coats, scarves, hats and mittens!

While we are busy with day-to-day life, nothing major has happened for awhile in the Suel’s lives…no trips recently for once! We’re saving up now (with the credit crunch, it’s hard!) for the big trip home…but more about that later.

Firstly, I’ll start with an update on Jason. Work at 2XL is going really well for him. The company is expanding, and he’s gotten a promotion this month! His new title is Theatre and Education Manager. Fancy, eh? He works hard, though, and has earned it. He is still going into local schools doing drama with the kids, and educating them at the same time (on issues like sex ed, alcohol and drug abuse, and bullying). It’s a perfect fit for him. We see kids all over town when we’re out, yelling, “Jason!”. They are always so excited to see him and point him out to their moms and dads. It’s cool. Also, he just completed the Cardiff Half Marathon last weekend, with his best time yet: 1:43. He was so pleased. (He was aiming for 1:50!) Jason is still leading worship on Sunday mornings, and also doing various puppet and drama skits (we’ve just had some teenagers around with their furry monster puppets practicing, with Pippi loving it!). Jason and I are both doing a Bible study right now, looking at the book of Romans. We take turns each week: Girls one week, and boys the next. It works for all of us couples who have kids. But since we are all doing the same study, us couples can talk about it in between.

As for me, my work is super busy. I only work 4 days a week now since Pippi’s come along, but I actually just do 5 days of work in 4 now. It’s a little crazy. One of the groups I created 2 years ago, a Carer’s Education Group for carers of people with dementia, has started up again last week. It’s our 5th time to run the group, and this is our biggest yet with 19 carers attending. It’s a big success, and I do love having a group to facilitate each week. As for the rest of my work week, I am constantly dealing with crises in my patient’s lives; for example, 2 weeks ago, on the Monday one of my patients with dementia flooded her house, and on the Friday, another lady with dementia caught her stove on fire…it really never ends! I do love my job, though, even with the craziness and busyness of it. Most of my patients are really just very sweet old people who need to “have a chat” with me over a cup of tea about their mental health and well-being. I did just have a big night last week, when I gave a talk about “Coping with Stress” to 71 people at an Alzheimer’s Society Event. It was really nice. The other thing I’m working on is making Pippi’s babyfood myself. It’s so much cheaper and better for her due to her food allergies. Since we’re also using cloth diapers, we feel so domestic and “green”!

As for little Pippi, she turned 9 months old last week! She is aaaaalmost crawling, but not quite! She has finally gotten the hang of solids, and is eating more regularly now (we have been struggling with this for months!). She still hasn’t got any teeth, and no signs of them either! Her skin is still doing really well, so she is sleeping a lot of nights through (praise the Lord!). She is generally a really happy baby, and just smiles and laughs all the time. Her favorite things to do now are: being outside in the sling or baby-carrier, swinging, clapping, being tickled in her tummy, shaking her bell toy at Miss Heather’s, singing, saying “ogle-dy, ogle-dy, ogle-dy”, looking at herself in the mirror (this is the ultimate!), having a bath, eating finger foods (rather than being spoon-fed), and playing with mommy and daddy on their bed. We’ve got an appointment with a dietician in 2 weeks who is going to help me get Pippi on a balanced diet with no dairy (due to her allergies).

As for the big question most of you are wondering about, yes, we are still looking to move “home” in the near future. Our original plan was New-year-ish, but that looks to be moved back a little. That is because Jason has his resume and CV out to a couple of places, but not much has happened on the job front. As most of you know, we are going back once Jason has found an appropriate job (full-time, good pay, theatre-focussed, what he wants). We are not happy to just take anything just to get back to the US. We’ll wait until something comes up that is worth moving for. That’s because we have no dates to be out of here by, and because we both adore our jobs here. It’s hard to leave a perfect job for a crappy one just because it’s in the right area. Thank you to all of you who gave Jason information earlier. He has or is looking into all of it. That is not to say we are done accepting ideas!! Anything you’ve got, we’ll take! Ideally we would like to live closer to our families, but realistically, we’ll take the best job! So we’re still on the hunt, and we still need your prayers and support and help in this.

We will be traveling to the Lake District at the beginning of December for a much needed break. This is one of the places we have always wanted to go to in the UK and we are so excited to have the opportunity. Our great friends Claire and Jez will be going with us! So, we will be sure to let you know how that goes.

I suppose that is all that’s happening here. Pippi was a chicken for Halloween and she was very cute, as you can see here!
Love to you all,

Jason, Sarah, and Pippi

First Suel Family Photos!

Hi All!

Check out the pic archive for our first family photos, courtesy of photographer extraordinaire Jez Hailwood. All's well on the homefront, Pippi will turn 8 months this week...unbelievable!

Take care, everyone, and God bless!

Jason, Sarah, and Pippi

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