Back on the blog scene

We now have something to blog about again...our beautiful baby girl! So enjoy it while it lasts. Here are some photos we took during the last week of her making funny faces, enjoying her first snow storm, and spending some time with her mommy and daddy.

More Pictures of Baby Elin

Here are a few more pictures that our friend Erika took of our sweet girl...isn't she adorable?!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

On November 30th, 2008 at 3:17am our beautiful baby girl, Elin Rae Duncan, entered this world. She weighs 7 lbs 8 oz and is 20 inches long. We are so grateful that God has given us this precious gift! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! Enjoy some pictures while we try and get caught up on some sleep.

Elin Rae Duncan
















Leaving for the hospital
















Getting ready for the 20 hour labor
















Some card playing to pass the time
















Stacy came to help and was such a blessing
















The "new" Duncan Family
















Both Families













Gramps and Nana with their granddaughter













Stacy & Elin













Jenni celebrating the end of her pregancy
and gestational diabetes with a bowl of
Lucky Charms and a donut













Our wonderful friends the Krafts from
Wyoming came to see the birth of our baby













Some more pics













































































































































































Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support! We can't wait for all you to meet her!

Getting settled...kind of

Once again…sorry for the delay in posting. We are still trying to get settled into America! We are both working full time at our jobs that we had before we left the US. Corey is working as a legal assistant at a law firm, and Jenni is a RN working at the Children’s Hospital. It is definitely weird not to be together all of the time. Our quality time is car-pooling! We have one car which has presented a challenge as we have different working hours/schedules. We are making it work though! We still haven’t found a place of our own to live yet. We are living with our friends in their basement apartment which has been a great blessing. We do have a 40 minute commute each day, but we just see that now as “time together!” So as you can see, we are still transitioning, even though we’ve been back for 3 months now!

Since our last post, a HUGE milestone occurred! COREY turned 30!!! He’s an old man! He celebrated his birthday by having a basketball party! He missed playing basketball in Mozambique, so he had a blast at his party! Later that evening some of our friends gathered together for a BBQ to eat Corey's favorite food Rib eye steaks. It was delicious! A week later, Jenni turned 27! We went kayaking at Jordanelle and had a picnic! It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun being in the gorgeous scenary of UTAH! It was a little challenging to kayak being pregnant, but I managed! Kayaking is one of my most favorite things to do outdoors, so it was an extra special treat for my birthday! We love celebrating birthdays!

Shortly after our celebrations, God blessed us with a great opportunity of seeing some of our friends from Mozambique! About a year ago, we posted a blog about a missionary child (Caleb) that had to be medically evacuated. Caleb was in critical condition and he almost died in Nampula. He and his family came back to America, and over the last year have witnessed miracles daily! Caleb’s recovery has been slow, but he’s doing incredibly well. We met with Caleb and his family a couple of weeks ago and we saw in front of us a living miracle and testament of how God protects us and heals us! I am so glad God gave me the opportunity to be a nurse to him and his family in Mozambique and then gave me another opportunity to see God restore his life to him!

Well here’s some very much anticipated news….we found out that we are having….A BABY GIRL!!! We are so excited! We really wanted a girl! We were supposed to find out several weeks ago, but she wouldn’t cooperate. Everyone says that she’s modest like her mom!:) We had to get another ultrasound, and then she showed herself! We have this cute picture of her waving at us! She comes in November and we are soooo excited to see her. I have been feeling so much better. I thought everyone was lying to me saying that one day you just feel normal again. This didn’t happen for me until I was 17 weeks. Now life is wonderful….no more nausea!!! Whoohoo!!

Reverse Culture Shockin'

We have now been back for over a month already and have been able to see a lot of our friends and family…along with some much anticipated snow that we had been missing. It has been a wonderful time reuniting with all of them! We have also been experiencing a bit of reverse culture shock. Before returning to the States we heard a lot about reverse culture shock and how it can be worse than normal culture shock. Up til now we still have to say that our original culture shock going into Mozambique was a lot worse. Maybe once we get more settled and into our daily routine that will change.

So how exactly have we experienced reverse culture shock? Well, besides me (Corey) digging a hole in the back yard for excrement purposes and then using his left hand instead of Charmin, we have experienced a few things. Since coming back we have seen how much we really have as Americans and how pampered we are. Now we’re not saying that life over here is easy because it is anything but that. Sin and Satan affect us no matter where we are and life will always have struggles. But when we look around our world we can see that we have been given a lot. Going back to Wal-Mart after being in Africa is an experience in itself. We had heard of some people getting very emotional after being in a Wal-Mart for the first time upon returning to the States. For us it wasn’t too emotional but it was a bit overwhelming. Those Super Wal-Marts are huge! You can find anything there...it’s incredible! Whatever you want you can find it in about 10 different types to choose from. In Mozambique, you celebrate if they just have something you like. You don’t get to be picky there. Don’t get us wrong…we LOVE Super Wal-Mart and we LOVE America, but there’s so much we don’t need, so much we take for granted, and there’s so much more we can give our lives to besides the materialism that has gripped our country.

Another thing that has been hard to get used to is how busy we are as Americans. We had gotten so used to the laid back attitude and culture of Mozambique that we forgot how busy life can be here. There’s almost always something going on every night and there’s not a whole lot of down time. This is completely the opposite of Mozambique. There’s hardly anything going on there. In fact, there’s probably too much down time there. I guess the struggle is finding that balance but I’m sure most of us don’t ever rest too much as opposed to working too much.

Besides all of that reverse culture shock stuff we have been moving from house to house staying with family and friends which has been fun. We’ve been introduced to Wii at about every house we’ve stayed at and have enjoyed the exercise you can get with this, especially the boxing game. That game is tiring! It’s amazing now kids (and adults) can get some exercise in while playing video games. Thank you Keys, Lees, Krafts, Wolffs, Yorks, and Lathrops for your incredible hospitality! We are so grateful for you! Also, thanks so much to everyone else who has offered their home for us! It has been such a blessing to experience love from the body of Christ.

As for our baby in Jenni’s belly, it seems to be doing well! We had our first doctors appointment last month and so far so good. While we there they did an ultrasound on Jenni and we were able to see the baby’s heart beat. What an experience that was for us! We both were a little emotional when we could see the baby’s heart beat. God is so amazing and unfathomable! When we look at everything that takes place during a pregnancy, we simply stand in complete awe of our God.

With the awe, excitement, and anticipation of having a baby, also comes lots of nausea, hunger, fatigue, and bizarre cravings…at least for Jenni. Corey on the other hand, has it made. His work is done:) Either way, we are both very excited for our baby to enter this world. Approximate time of arrival: Thanksgiving Day! We’ll have one more thing to be thankful for this year…the gift of a baby!

Hope you all are well and hopefully we will see you soon if we haven’t seen you already!

Please pray for 1) God’s providence in our employment and housing situation and that He would give us patience to wait upon Him. 2) Please pray for the health of Jenni and for the baby that is growing inside of her. 3) Please pray for ministry direction here in Utah.