Since moving to Texas, we’ve enjoyed getting to know Micah & Anna Martin, a newly wed couple (as of May) from our church. Micah and Anna are both taking classes at UTA and spend all Tuesday and Thursday on campus. We’ve been able to have them over twice for Thursday evening meals after Anna’s class and are looking forward to many more meals with them (that is, as long as they don’t grow tired of my cooking).

In their spare time, Micah and Anna are working on revamping/remodeling/re-everything the house they bought. They are very much looking forward to having their own home…so who knows, if they get desperate, maybe someday we’ll have pictures up on the blog of our working on their house. It’s been neat getting to know some “real Texans” (Micah even goes boar hunting!), and we are blessed with their friendship.

Josh here. I’m not sure whether I’ve shared with everyone what I’m doing this semester. The Lord has very graciously given me about 30 hours of work a week:

• 10 hours as a Graduate Research Assistant (working in the linguistics computer lab and maintaining the linguistics website)
• 10 hours as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (attending Formal Syntax class, making photocopies, facilitating class on the two days that the professor is gone, perhaps doing some grading)
• 10 hours for Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency

The linguistics website work is a continuation of what I did this summer: redesign our department’s website. The site is still under development, with a couple more major sections to be added or revised this semester. As part of my 10 hours a week, I also clean keyboards, run software updates, and keep the printer paper stocked.

As far as the teaching assistantship, I was supposed to teach an ESL research paper class for graduate students. But only one student registered, so the department moved me to the syntax class. Overall, this has been very good for my schedule (less prep, less grading), and I was grateful that I was able to keep the stipend I was planning on having.

For Carolina Hope, I work on the website, adoption forms, and blog. (You might want to read a post I put up yesterday — a sweet story about a little boy with his adoptive mom.) I also recently helped my boss develop an online education course about adoption homestudies.

Of course, the most important thing this semester is spending time with my wife. But you know about that already!