a (hopefully) longer than normal first entry

So it's been about four months since we last updated our webpage. I like to think that this is mainly because I can't update it and John's been so busy. We think switching to blogging will alleviate this particular problem, though perhaps not others- for example, I don't have any of our pictures on my computer so this blog could get pretty boring if John doesn't get involved. We'll just have to see.

Okay month by month update:
May- I turned 26 and we celebrated by going SCUBA diving in Sabang one last time (since we were planning to get pregnant and you can't SCUBA if you're pregnant). I did a lot of travelling in May planning a project in Nias and doing assessments with our team here. (We're still in Banda Aceh with Northwest Medical Teams-since last Sept). We also set off on a trip to the states that rocked! In May we went to Jason and Liz's wedding (which was sweet and wonderful and beautiful) in St. Louis and hung out with family near Chicago. While we were away, Jogya had the big earthquake so our office turned into a relief office for awhile.

June- still in the states but mostly the east coast. We saw my parents and sister and tons of Philly related friends. Good food too. When we got back to Indo, John went to Jogya to try to sort out a few of the details like if we needed to keep doing work there and which projects we should fund (since NWMT isn't starting development projects there).

July- We found out I am pregnant- and told everyone right away. It's really the Indonesian style and since we were going to tell our coworkers and friends here it just seemed like a waste not to tell all our friends in the US too. We wrote this email to let people know:
subject line “Do you know what two lines means?!?”

I woke up yesterday morning knowing very little about the applied science of home pregnancy exams.

Six tests later (5 positive for Caitlin and 1 negative for me--just to be sure), it's dawning on me that these two little red lines have some very real implications for our future. In fact, there are a number of discarded instruction cards in our waste bin that indicate that two red lines means Caitlin and I will be having a baby in 8 months or so (March 3rd 2007 +-).

I don't know many other 99cent pieces of plastic change your life quite that dramatically. It's still surreal.

WOW! That's pretty much all there is to say about it. We're ecstatic! Of course, Caitlin has pretty much taken the first available flight for over the moon. And I'm stuck somewhere between dumbstruck and joyous here on earth. I guess I knew it was theoretically possible but... WOW.

Apparently there are many more exciting developments in the coming months. You can be assured that Caitlin and I will be keeping you all posted.

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As for me- I'm really enjoying this pregnancy thing so far- I'm glad to be done waiting (even a week is too long), and I feel great (at least for now).

John was totally hilarious through this whole pregnancy test thing (as you can see from his contribution). It's kind of indicative of us that it took me one test to be sure and took him 5! One of my favorite moments was him looking at three positive strip tests manufactured in Indonesia and one negative (his) all next to each other and still managing to leave room for doubt- there was a conspiracy theory about the quality of Indonesian tests, and some distress over the faintness of the lines.

Love you all,
John and Caitlin +1
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Also in July- we hired my new boss, Caroline- she and Theo (our newish country director) are both amazing. She's got a lot of experience in M&E and having her on board means that I'm getting to learn from someone who is experienced rather than from making mistakes- really a better situation all around. I love the idea of choosing jobs in your 20s and probably part of your 30s for what you can learn from them and this job here has been great for that for me.

August- John and I joined over 20 of my extended family for a cruise from Italy to Greece and Turkey. It was super to catch up with the ones I hadn't seen in awhile (which is really almost everyone since I had only seen my parents for three days in the past 14 months). John ate tons and tons (the food was great), but so far being pregnant has had a huge impact on my ability to enjoy food (smells, tastes, and nausea), so I wasn't as indulgent as John.

Sept- This month is nearly over and it's been a good one. We've done another strategic planning session and have been working towards opening two new community health projects and working on the proposal for an emergency department capacity building project. John's been visiting all our new field sites and our new country office (which will be in Medan) and negotiating rental agreements and getting contractors to upgrade electricity and install partitions and stuff. He's amazing!

Okay well that's it for catching up- I'm sure there are more details- but who wants to read them in this kind of summary sort of entry.