An Update...Finally!

Life has been happily busy, and has prevented much blogging. So here is our initial attempt to catch you up since our last update in March, with all that has been going on...

First and foremost, as this photo suggests, we have a little Mato junior on the way! Please keep mom, dad, and rapidly growing junior in your prayers. We expect the little one to arrive in September (will he or she - the gender is top secret, so place your bets - get dad's genes and aim to run the Boston marathon like a Kenyan, or more like mom and perhaps pick up the cello and play a little classical music? It is fun to speculate!) THEN, as if life wasn't exciting enough, Christina's sister Emily and her boyfriend got engaged, and then married a month later, on April 21 (the holiest Baha'i holy day of the year, by coincidence). It was so perfect and so beautiful. We will post more photos of the actual ceremony and events another time, but to start, here is one the day before the wedding with some of the bride's family getting pedicures (from left: Candy (Em and Christina's mom), Christina, Emily, cousin Alyssa, and aunt Lydia).
Here are the newlyweds, with their wonderful little puppy, Attie.

And THEN, as if we could all stand any more, we were able to attend an honoring ceremony for Emily who will be finishing her PhD this year - it is in Organizational Behavior from University of Michigan Business School (to learn more, click on her link on our blog). This is a photo of the 12 graduating honorees.
Last but not least, in early May, we went to Green Acre Bahai School for a weekend gathering. It was to train and support institute coordinators, simply, members of the Bahai communities who have been asked to give special attention to enouraging other members of their communities in certain activities.

Well, our good friends Perrin and Shane and their daughter Mia, pictured below, were kind enough to host us in their home for the weekend. They live across the river in New Hampshire, and it was wonderful to spend time with them AND to see what it's like to live with an infant!! Good practice...

Life is never boring. Jafred had a whirlwind end to his semester of college courses, finishing his final exams two days before flying off to Kenya to visit his family and friends after being away for two years. He is having a wonderful time, although I miss him terribly already, but then again I have time on the computer to do things like this!!

Love to all our friends and family, and thanks for your patience with our updates...keep in touch.