The Little Things...

Two OVENS! But sometimes the little things make a BIG difference!!! Check out how comparatively spacious my new one is - I think it's about 1 inch larger than the old one. Nate got me a second oven because I'm running a High School Baking Club this year with 6 junior and senior girls. It's been fun, but one tiny oven that doesn't even fit a 9X13" pan makes even one batch of cookies very time consuming. In the new oven, my bread pans will have a little extra personal space instead of fitting snugly against eachother and the sides of the oven. Here's my hand on the side of the old oven- it's really about as big as it looks. I'm so thankful for the new oven and the tiny bit of extra space, that I spent about an hour pulling out all my pans and seeing how they all fit in the new oven. What fun!
Ferns turning brown are one of the signs telling that the end of Monsoon is about two weeks away. Nate took this picture today. Other small signs are the rumbling thunder that yields no rain, and a plant that I cannot describe very well turning bright red. These are very welcome after all the wet days. Soon we will long for an occasional rain and the days will be dry and all the green will fade away.

Another little thing happened on our way home from Church today- Will tripped and banged his face up. Nate carried home home and iced his fat lip for the better part of an hour. What a great dad. Will was back to his usual perky self by this afternoon. And her is our littlest Thing all dressed up in her cute little dress from Moster Ev.

9 Months Old!

Happy 9 Months Old, Annie!

Annie turned 9 months old on the 24th. She's sobbing herself to sleep as I write this. Poor little lady. Everyone says, 'just let her cry', so we are, and it's painful. We still dream that maybe one day she'll go to sleep on her own, and sleep all through the night. She's very jolly besides bedtime as you can see, and we quite like her.

Still only 2 teeth, but she has the cutest grin.

And here's my handsome prince charming...And our happy little boy.

9 months later we can't even remember what it was like without our Annie girl.

A Grand Scheme

A couple of days ago I was looking up a verse in Isaiah 54, and as I continued to read, the verses made sense to me and I felt caught in a story I couldn't put down. I know it's long and you probably 'know what it says', but I thought I'd put it here anyway, because it seemed a good explanation 0f the great plan. Here it is, Isaiah 54-55.

Isa 54:1 "Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD. "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. "Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband--the LORD Almighty is his name--the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit--a wife who married young, only to be rejected," says your God. "For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer. "To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you. "O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will build you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with sapphires. I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace. In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you. If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing; whoever attacks you will surrender to you. "See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to work havoc; no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me," declares the LORD.
Isa 55:1 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor." Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD'S renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed."

Annie's Bathtime

She loves the water, just like her big brother. Yay for bathtime!

Glimpses from this week

Independence Day
Will and his monkey riding his 'horse'. He actually called me from the other room to come and 'yook', and asked me to go get the camera! He's a character.
We got to see a double rainbow from the neighbor's terrace as the monsoon clouds draped the mountain tops and made the rainbow vary in intensity. It was the first time we've seen a rainbow from there.
Nate caught the clock tower and main 'bazaar' area of town beneath the pastel clouds of sunset.
Here's my main 'househelp'. Annie is folding freshly cleaned diapers, and Will must be picking up his toys and putting them in the box... right?

Indian Independence Day

August 15th is Independence Day here. We had a flag raising ceremony, a guest speaker, and lots of kinds of Indian food. However, the crowds of people made for long lines and I didn't manage to get much to eat. We enjoyed a day off of school and had a nice time hanging out with people we don't see enough. It was nice to have a long weekend.

Yeah, they're wonderful!

These kids are so fun to be with! What a gift from God.

new additions

Posh living:

Check out that massive 'new' white fridge! I can even put magnets out of my kids' reach. Below is a picture of the old blue one (gone now) which had a freezer compartment smaller than the microwave (which is also a recent addition - pictured above the cabinet in the photo above!). We've felt so blessed to have a big fridge, freezer, and microwave in our kitchen. Here's a picture of poisoning the vegetables so they're suitable to eat. The newest addition to our diet is the nice papaya because it's easy baby food and we recently remembered that we really DO like it!

Next are some pictures of our living room. If you came to visit us, here's what you'd see and if I put them all together, it'd be a panoramic shot... but alas, I don't know how to do that yet on the computer. Anyway, it's only temporary, since we'll be painting, and installing our wood stove and heavy floor mat when the monsoon ends. For now, it's nice to have new pictures on my walls and chairs in different places.

There's Redwood Cottage for you and a glimpse into our lives.

a quiet weekend

I LOVE wearing sarees when I can get them on right!

"Yook Mamma! Yook!" Here's my little boy playing airplane with his Pappa.

growing growing growing

There's our Annie - for all of you who don't get to enjoy her these busy days.
I've always been amused by the road signs along our mountain road. This trip up from Delhi, Nate took some good pictures - this road sign makes us smile. It says: "Darling, do not nag me, as I am driving Instead turn your head, And enjoy the nature charming"!!!The view was amazing from about 4000 feet up, but by the time we were home, we were in the thick clouds of monsoon. These days are all rainy and damp and laundry takes about three days to dry if I hang it outside on three consecutive 'dry' days. The sky is continually overcast with spots of sunshine, and lots of drizzling interspersed with downpours. But I like this glum weather as it cheers the hillside with life. Everything is growing uncontainably and I find it refreshing.
There are certainly plenty of depressing things about the season besides the weather, though. Moss grows on every surface as does mold, and the abundance of flourishing plants does not even begin to rival all the bugs that seem to suddenly spring to life. Last night I found a scorpion crawling on our bedroom floor in the middle of the night, and we had leeches in a few of the dampest parts of our house when we returned from vacation. Nate had also forgotten a leather belt that was growing half an inch of mold all over it. And this week we've been spending the days scrubbing down walls, ceilings and floors to get rid of the dust and mold for awhile. Thankfully we'll be getting the rooms painted when monsoon fades away, but for now, we just keep tackling all the growth day after day after day.
My wee Annie has been growing like a weed too. She's still a tiny little lady - about the same size as our neighbor's 3-month old boy, but she's moving to the next level. Last night I found her standing up in her crib and she's spent most of today on her feet as well. Auntie guesses she'll walk in 2 weeks, at which time Annie will still be 8 months old -yikes! Her balance is still holding her back, however, but now she has crawling, sitting and kneeling down and she's just perfecting her standing. Yes, she's Trouble! Will seems normal and if his medicine works well, he should not have more seizures. However, life has changed for us as we no longer want to leave him on his own in case he does have another seizure. No more sending him outside to play by himself, to sit in the bathtub on his own, to use the toilet on his own, and if he's too quiet in a nearby room, we run to check on him - not because we're worried he's doing something naughty, but because we fear for his safety, we fear for his life. It's not actually very realistic to fear for his life, but we've found our minds wandering there because it is so unsettling to see our son in a seizure. We are learning to lean on God through all of this. Will is well, and we praise God for His timing, for His provision, for His goodness through all of this.

Epilepsy

To follow up on my previous post, we have now returned from Delhi where we saw two doctors at a very modern hospital, and Will has been diagnosed with 'Primary Generalized Epilepsy'. The whole experience has been rather draining on us and so I'm just going to copy something Nate wrote here for your peace:
"The doctors were very helpful and through several conversations with the neurologist we became very assured about the diagnosis. Will is on some medicine now, a syrup (that he rather enjoys) twice a day. We learned that if he is not treated, the seizures will sort of build on one another and become more frequent and more intense and they could become very dangerous. On the other hand, if we treat it and supress the seizures for long enough, it will very likely calm down his brain so that after a certain point, seizures are altogether unlikely. If Will can go for a long time without a seizure, he can be slowly taken off the medication and he will be unlikely to have another." I will add also that the occurance of the seizures seem to be related to his growth, and it is likely that he will simply grow out of having them if we keep them under control.

We continue to feel deep peace in the midst of being overwhelmed - I've never been able to take even vitamins consistently - how will I ever manage to remember to give Will his medicine day after day?! However, we are very thankful that this began at a time and place where we could easily get help for it. We are surrounded by a community that is caring for us here and we are so thankful to God for these blessings. Yes, God remains so Good to us!