August 8, 2010

August 2010

Summer in the States

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February 23, 2010

February 2010

Decisions, Art, and Oliver

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October 16, 2009

Entries... please?!

Someone just asked me for our blog address. We are talking about RSS feeds and blogs we follow. Since Jana and I started using Facebook, I fear we have neglected our blog. I apologize and pledge to correct this behavior! Thanks, Russ!!

October 12, 2009

October 2009

Ministry Update

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August 24, 2009

August 2009

Ministry Update

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May 26, 2009

Update: Lithuania is setup!!

You may have just received our latest prayer letter, or you are checking back for other reasons. I have good news! One of the countries that was scheduled for a "remote install" of TntMPD.Dataserver was setup today! Jeff and I Skyped for 3 hours getting everything setup and working. So, we will update the image and repost in a couple of weeks.

May 21, 2009

Laugh Out Loud - Groceries

I’m at the grocery store bagging my own groceries (standard practice here), when the cashier asks for payment. Immediately I realize that I left my wallet at home and begin stuttering through random German words trying to explain. A long line of impatient people are standing behind me while she graciously tells me to pay the bill the next time. While this could be a “wow, that is amazing” story, what makes it an LOL moment was the next day while checking out with the same cashier, the same thing happened again.

May 2009

Ministry Update

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April 1, 2009

Preparing for our trip to Texas

We are almost finished packing! We have a bit of laundry left for Oliver, but other than that, we are ready to go.

Passports: check!
Tickets: check!
Bags: check! check! check! check! check! check!
Diapers: check x 10!
Oliver: check!

We leave our apartment at 4 AM tomorrow morning for a 6 AM flight. See you all soon.

February 19, 2009

February 2009

Ministry Update

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January 11, 2009

Tuning back in

So, the past 7 weeks have been rather busy! We should have started a laundry load count and could probably figure out the changing diapers count to help give you an idea of how we spend our time!

Oliver is doing well, sleeping well at night and trying to learn to nap during the day. He smiles at us often, particularly first thing in the morning and right before he goes to bed at night. This morning, he was rather frantic, not in a distressed sort of way, but rather in a happy, trying to smile as big as he could sort of way. It was rather cute. His favorite thing to stare at is our bookshelf...we like to think it's because he's going to be scholarly, but maybe it's just because there are lots of colors. He had a wonderful visit with all four of his grandparents over the Holidays, receiving much love, many hugs and kisses, lots of cuddle time, and mounds of presents.

Thad and I are not as sleep deprived as we could be, so we are rather thankful for that. Though we are both pretty tired. If you are on Facebook, then you have probably been a bit more informed from us...sorry to have not posted here as often. Facebook is sometimes 'too easy' to update.

We are in the midst of very wintery weather. Not necessarily tons of snow, though there is some on the ground. Upon waking this morning, Thad read the outside thermometer, and it was a whopping 16 degrees Fahrenheit. Brrrr....

Thad is working out some of his travel plans for the year, with a couple of trips including myself and Oliver...woohoo!! We already have tickets to Barcelona for leadership meetings in May.

We are planning to visit Fort Worth for about 3 weeks in April, with a short jaunt to San Antonio so that Oliver can see his Opa Andy again as well. My sister and her husband are planning to meet up with us during that time, so Oliver will get to meet both sets of Aunts and Uncles, and his two cousins who are very anxious to see him in person.

It is Sunday morning right now, and we are at home. Thad had it in him to fix a Dutch Baby for breakfast this morning, which was delicious. We hope to return regularly to our German church once Oliver is in a better routine. His daytime sleeping is rather sporadic.

We hope to get out for a walk today, as it is nice to enjoy the fresh albeit cold air. The sun is out, which means it is a clear, blistering cold day...but that's okay, sunshine can still make me smile. An interesting cultural tidbit, is that all babies in Germany have to take Vitamin D for their first 1 to 2 years of life...I'm not for sure of all the reasons, but I assume it is because of times like this, when you can't really be in sunlight very often.

Well, I had better take advantage of this moment of quiet and move away from the computer. We will try to not let 2 months go by again between updates. For now, I will leave you with a link to my favorite photo of Oliver, so far. =)

overthehorizon.tumblr.com

November 22, 2008

Pictures of Oliver

We setup a site where we will post pictures of Oliver. I know, another site... not everyone has Facebook, and we are out of space on Picasa and here! Sorry about that!

Tumblr is very nice for a photo blog, so we thought it worked best anyway!

http://overthehorizon.tumblr.com/

Enjoy!

November 21, 2008

Announcing Oliver Thad Hoskins!

as for the details...
he was born this morning at 5 AM (German time)
51 cm (20.7 inches)
2.97 kg (6 lbs 9 oz)

Jana did a great job... she basically went into labor Wednesday afternoon, and "finished" at 5 AM this morning (Friday).

Please continue to pray for Jana and Oliver! I will join them back at the hospital in a few minutes.

November 20, 2008

Progressing, albeit slowly

We arrived at the hospital this morning at 8AM. They hooked Jana up to the monitors, and she stayed that way for 4 hours. They are taking good care of her and are very encouraging! Obviously, Jana is very tired, since she did not sleep at all last night. While on the monitors, she was able to sleep for 30 minutes or so (granted, there were 3 contractions during that, but she fell asleep just after they ended). Not a lot, but it was nice to see her sleep.

She ate not too long ago and they told her to get out and walk. So, we walked to McDonalds to get me food and send out an update. We will go back in a few minutes.

Please pray for strength for Jana and progress on the delivery!

Thad

Pray for energy and endurance

6:20am here, and we head to the hospital in about an hour. Jana's had contractions every 10 minutes all night, so very little sleep was had. They've been pretty hard for her, so pray for strength, endurance, and ways for her to be comfortable. Pray for me to have energy and to be intuitive in knowing how to help her.

Pray also for good communication with the Doctors and Midwives.

Thank you for all of the notes, emails, and messages received. We know many of you are praying, which overwhelms us greatly.

November 19, 2008

and Home again

They said we should be where Jana is most comfortable to wait and see if the tablets work... which is home. We are scheduled to return at 8 AM tomorrow for an IV, if things don't progress this afternoon and evening.

At the Hospital (sort of)

We are in Lörrach, where our hospital is. They monitored and checked Jana this morning. She is having contractions, but is not dilated. They gave her some pills to take that are supposed to help induce labor. She will take those every half hour until 2 PM, then we go back to the hospital for more monitoring. We are not exactly sure what is after that. If things do not really get under way today, we return tomorrow morning when they will give her an IV to really induce labor.

I will post here and/or on Facebook when I can!

Thad

November 17, 2008

Needs time...

Just loved this email we received from our friend Thomas, and thought we would share this little bit of German culture/wisdom:

"Gut Ding braucht Weile" = For good results (development), it needs time!

November 16, 2008

Still Pregnant

Jana and I just got home. She is still pregant.

Our doctor had prepared us (hence the email and a few calls) that the hospital doctor would induce labor after a checkup this weekend. When the doctor finished all the checkups, she said Jana and the baby are doing very well and urged us to wait a few more days. So, we continue to wait.

Thank you for your prayers! We hope to have more news soon.

Added by Jana: just to clarify, the doctor I see for the pregnancy is a different doctor than the one who will do the delivery. It was the delivery doctor who thinks we should wait because inducing could potentially take a couple of days. And, since the monitoring showed me to be having some regular contractions (in addition to the baby and me doing fine), she thinks inducing now would be too soon. They will consider inducing 10 days after the due date, which is Wednesday.

Today, maybe...

We have an appointment at the hospital today at 3pm (GMT+1) with the delivery room. They will check on the little guy to make sure he is doing fine, talk with us about options, and potentially induce sometime today. If they induce, we won't have the opportunity (unless they send us home to wait) to update here, on Facebook, or via email until later. So please be praying for us.

If we are sent home, we will update on here and on Facebook, so check back in throughout the day.

Thad will use all methods of communicating (email, post here, Facebook) to let everyone know once the little guy arrives...with all the official stuff like name, size, time, etc. So again, just keep an eye out, and pray in the meantime.

Thank you to everyone who has been sending us well wishes, prayer, thoughts, and love. We appreciate them all! Love and blessings to you too...Jana

Added: Oh, and please pray for good communication. We have been told that the doctors and midwives speak English, but it's still an unknown. I feel comfortable communicating in German, but who knows how I will feel in the midst of it all. Pray for clarity and understanding throughout. Thanks again!