Summer Update and Family Photos

Hi Friends and Family,

We hear that the weather is unpredictable at home, some days warm and others it snows. Hoping you see some extended warm days here soon and spring really makes her way into the midwest. It’s getting hotter by the day as we’re in the middle of summertime here. We have about 2 months left of the dry summer season before rainy season hits in June, lasting until end of October/early November.

We’re incredibly excited to have had our first visitor lock-in their travels to see us as of last month! Momma Sherry will visit us in August for two weeks after baby brother is born. We’re excited to share that special time with some family nearby, as we didn’t get that experience with Merrick’s birth due to COVID.

As of late, we’ve been trying to spend as much time as possible with a couple friends who we’ve become close with but who are departing for their next adventure in Hong Kong in a couple months. One of the pros of expat life is friendships become close quickly because of the shared experiences and because we serve as each other’s support systems while away from our home countries. Unfortunately, expat life also means people are here temporarily and your friends may depart while you’re still on assignment. So we’re soaking up our time with them before they leave Philippines and looking forward to visiting them in HK in the next year.

Two weekends ago our friends, Carolyn and John, took our maternity/family photos for us here in the village. Samantha scoped out the spots, the Floritys did a great job taking the pictures, and Samantha edited them. We’re really happy with how they turned out and we’re so thankful to the Floritys for helping us capture this time in our lives. After photos, we all had coffee together and Merrick received his reward for trying his best during the photos… some banana bread and a donut. He was thrilled!

Last weekend, we traveled south to Tagaytay for our annual “think weekend”, a weekend we dedicate to discussing and developing our personal, couple, and family goals for the year. It’s a time for us to check-in and come to an agreement on what we envision for our lives for the year. It was originally scheduled for early January but after getting COVID, followed by a US home trip, and then some unrest at Taal Volcano, it was rescheduled twice and took place in early April instead. We stayed in a little AirBnB for our discussions/brainstorming, soaked-up the beautiful view of Taal Volcano, and had some incredible bulalo, a comfort food that Tagaytay is known for. It is essentially Filipino booyah and reminds us of that home tradition of cooking the soup in a large batch for hours and enjoying it with friends and family. After the weekend away, we are feeling aligned and ready to tackle the remainder of 2022 together.

Work has been difficult for Travis as of late because of the continued worldly supply chain issues. The days are long, starting very early and ending with late calls into the night. We hope to have some reprieve from it by end of year but until then, we’re managing it together. Samantha enters the 25th week of pregnancy today and while she’s feeling pretty good overall, she can feel the impacts of her growing belly more quickly each day, as she’s on the precipice of the third trimester.

Merrick is thriving in the new “normal” here, now that he can more freely go out. He and his friend Zadie have been advancing their swim skills, with home lessons twice a week and they LOVE it. He sporadically goes to futbol (soccer) with Coach Fransisco and a bunch of other kiddos his age at the local park. More recently, he has started “home school” with a local teacher and two of his friends. It primarily focuses on having fun together and socialization, which were difficult to do when COVID was rampant. With schools slowly starting to open in person here, we’re hopeful he’ll start going to proper school starting around rainy season. He’s such a little chatterbox, learning new words on the daily, and he’s been doing a great job learning to sleep in his “big boy” floor bed. This age is challenging and super fun.

At the end of March we purchased a used golf cart from a family here in the village. She’s a beauty and Merrick calls her “Mommy’s car”, which is fitting since she serves as Mommy’s “grocery getter” when the van is with Daddy at work. It’s been fun and Merrick is obsessed with taking rides in it. We recently installed new tires and a carseat for Merrick to make it safer for him to ride in. We’re still working on a name for her but we’re planning to replace the Clemson decal from the previous owners with a new name decal, similar to what you would see on a boat. We really feel like we’re living the island life now.

The next couple months will bring us some local travel: Coron, Palawan just after Easter and Cebu for Merrick’s birthday weekend with friends. Then we’ll hunker down and finish our preparations for baby brother’s arrival. Feel free to video chat us! We’d love to hear from you.

Sending you all some love.

xo Team Jansen

Maternity/Family Photos

General Life Photos From March and April