Simon Photos

Simon is growing quickly...just passed the 7-week mark yesterday and is somewhere around 13 lbs. these days. Here are a few photos from the past few weeks.

One More Year

We're almost at the 2.5 year point of our 3-year term of service with MCC. So we've had to make some decisions...end our term in Dec. of this year (2009) or extend until Dec. of next year (2010). Right before Simon was born we decided that we'd like a little more time here in Nicaragua. We've learned a lot over the past 2.5 years and we feel that God will be able to use our gifts for continuing service in an extra year. Also, we like our jobs, we love our neighborhood, and we think Nicaragua is a good fit for us at this stage of our lives.
We'll have a 60-day home leave in the US sometime in Dec./Jan./Feb. of this coming year. After that, we'll return to Managua for our fourth year of service. We appreciate your continued prayers and support! - Alan & Beth & Simon

What's in a nombre?

We wanted to share some of our inter-cultural experience of trying to get all of Simon’s paperwork. A few days after he was born, Alan went to the city offices of Managua to register him and get his birth certificate. In Nicaragua (as well as most of Latin America), naming children generally works in the following way: Maria del Carmen Martinez Hernandez and Jose Guillermo Medrano Lopez have a child and want to name him Jose David. Little Jose gets the dad’s first last name and the mom’s first last name (no one changes names when they get married . . . if they get married). Jose David Medrano Martinez. Easy!

We strange North Americans show up in the office with passports showing the following names: Elizabeth Jill Claassen Thrush and Alan Geoffrey Claassen Thrush. Alan explains that we would like him to have only one last name (Thrush), with Claassen as a middle name. They write “First name: Simon” “Middle name: Claassen.” Then they come to the last names. According to the law, he has to have the first last name of the father followed by the first last name of the mother. Simon Claassen Claassen Claassen. Alan shows both our birth certificates and our marriage license to explain what our family names are, what we did, and what we would like to do. Unfortunately, the law cannot budge.

Alan continues to try to push. What if the mother doesn’t know who the father is? In that case, the child can have the 2 last names of the mother. Good! We could do that. But, you're the father, they say, perplexed by this gringo who can't decide what he wants--first he takes his wife's name (strange!) and then he wants his name recognized. They insist that, for the baby to have the last name Thrush, he cannot appear as the father.

So, little Simon has a birth certificate identifying him as Simon Claassen Claassen Thrush. He is the child of a single mother, with a married boyfriend.

(We got it worked out OK on all his official paperwork for the US government :)).

Simon's first birthday party

On Sunday one of our neighbors turned 2. She threw a party (well, her parents did) for all the kids of the block, including Simon. Not only was it his first invitation received, but it was also his first round of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, his first party hat, and his first piñata. Going to the party was just too much, however, and he slept through all these events, waking up only at the end. Here are a few pictures, including the birthday girl hitting her Barney piñata and playing musical chairs.