Remembering the past seven Marchs

Blast from the past:

A college guy took these pictures almost exactly 6 years ago now. At the time, I only knew his name, but it was on the fateful night pictured above that he asked me to go for a walk with him and so Our Story began. Surprised at his invitation, I rounded up a couple of other talkative friends to go with us and thus thwarted his attempt to talk with me- the others talked instead while we all strolled the windy beach together in the moonlight...

Pensacola, Florida - March, 2003

He took these neat pictures during those few days in Florida back in March 2003 and as that year progressed, we watched God show us that He had brought us together so that by March 2004, we were planning our wedding and my future mother-in-law came to Europe to travel around with us.

March 2004 in my apartment in St. Etienne, France.

Guess who's become part of a garden statue at Versailles?

Ahhh, yes, and here is the Register in Lyon, France.

Such fun- here we were in Orleans, France.

The following March - 2005, we had just found out I was pregnant with Will and we had weekend visitors come and see us in our apartment in Minneapolis.
Remember this?
In March 2006 we had mostly adjusted to being new parents and our little munchkin brought us so much joy! It was in March 2006 that we signed our contracts to go to India and work at Woodstock School.
Minneapolis, MN - March 2006

Looking back at March 2007, having nearly completed a year at Woodstock, we were hosting students in our home- and they really enjoyed our little boy. By this time that year, we were pretty sure that the year would end with the arrival of another baby.

Annie joined us in November 2007, and by March 2008, our home looked like this:

Now it is the end of March 2009, and the kids have grown and indeed, in our home, every day is Valentine's Day.
Will and Annie helping to make scones last night.Six years have passed since I started getting to know my man. We have grown and changed and we have learned so much about trusting God. When I look back, I remember that He knows the path and He loves to lead us beside quiet waters to restore our souls (Psalm 23: 2,3). He asks us to Be Still and know that HE is GOD (Psalm 46:10). Six years ago, I had no idea about the struggles we would face and the joys God would give us, and if I try to stare ahead, I am blind to what lies there- however, it is peaceful to walk with Him. Today I was reminded about how much He cares for us as I read Isaiah 63:9 -

"In all their distress [God] too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old."

Recently we've had some rough days and life has felt hard... but "even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me..." (Psalm 23:4)

It's been amazing to walk this journey with God leading us, and Nate is such a blessing to me. Isn't God good?!

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."

2 Corinthians 1:3,4

Bye bye crib

Before.
"hmmm. now what? no bed...""Ahhh, my new bed!"
At 16 months, Annie is a big girl- sleeping in a full-sized bed as of today, because over the weekend she was caught turning on the Christmas lights in her room. The switch was well out of her reach, I had thought, but sure enough, I saw her hoist herself up on the rail bars, and if she found one more footing (and there was one, but she didn't know about yet), she would have been over the edge. So... we graduated her to a mattress on the floor for a few days. Last night it poured rain. First real rain that we have had in months- and this morning, I happened upon a little scorpion on the floor under Will's bed. GRRRR! I thought we had a few months left before they came back to haunt us, but no. So we promptly got Annie up off the floor and into a real bed. She is thrilled!

Completely unrelated, but here are pictures of my 24-hour project :) It is a cushion (pillow)cover for a throw-pillow, and it was a lot of fun to make. I especially enjoyed doing the embroidery as I hadn't done this type of thing before. I got the pattern from my mother-in-law in a craft/quilting magazine.

Here I am with my little girl. I sure enjoy her.

quiet and full

The past week has been pretty full, but not really busy, just quiet and full. I like it like that. Nate and I have made a lot of headway on the book he’s reading to me: The Old Curiosity Shop – and we have made a fair number of rude comments to our dear Chucky, as we familiarly call the author now that we’ve plodded through a number of his books together. All the same, we’re somewhat hooked- his character developments and descriptions are terrific, we just sometimes wish he wasn’t such a windbag and that his plots were a bit more cheery. Someone told us that he was paid by the word… wouldn’t be surprised, the way he rambles on…
So, while Nate has been reading to me, my “Quilp” has been coming along. I finished quilting half of it and have a bit more work to do on the edges of the other half before I can bind it and call it done. I got distracted this weekend with a new project: a cushion cover that I wanted to make and give to a friend. I started it one night and finished it the next- which was a record for me (a two-day project?! Unheard of!!), and it was a lot of fun. I’ll post pictures of it when time and technology allow.
My quick project involved the sewing machine, and once I got that out, I was inspired to finish up a long project of re-curtaining our entry-way, on which I did a poor job, resulting in a curtain that is uneven on the bottom. Oh well for now – at least it matches the others and it covers the window. I guess someday I might get up the energy to re-make it so it looks decent instead of pitiful.

On another note, the kids’ room has been re-arranged on account of Annie nearly climbing out of her crib this weekend. She is now a proper big girl with a mattress on the floor, and she just beams when you ask her about her new bed. She and Will are enjoying getting up together in the mornings to come and bother their poor, tired parents. Annie is learning about staying in her bed when she’s put there, as you can imagine.

Other than that, a highlight of my week was our women’s Bible study which was an answer to prayer, because the numbers had dwindled so much that I was discouraged with it, and then last week, seven of us met, and it was really encouraging. I also managed to drag my kids up the mountain to visit my dear friend L and her kids – a 45-minute hike for my son, and it was nice to get out and do that. We also spent a morning going down to the school to play on the playground, weigh the kids again (Annie IS growing!), and visit the library. We checked out some books and my kids really enjoyed the outing.
I’ve also been ‘pottering’ in the garden (as our British friends say), although it’s fairly hopeless, since if I pull all the weeds, then there will be nothing but rocks in the garden… So which is better: weeds, or bare rocks? I’m thinking that I might try to buy some plants that the monkeys don’t eat and try to plant those, but more than likely it won’t happen, and my ‘garden’ will remain in its hideous state. I’m not much of a gardener. As a matter of fact, I’m not much of a rugby player either (those two thoughts seemed to go together somehow). Ahhh, yes, it’s because yesterday I DID play rugby, and I learned how to tackle! And I did tackle people, so now I am a bit sore, as you can imagine since I’m terribly out of shape and never do sports these days. I felt old and fatty, but it was fun to get out and play again anyway! I’ll probably even do it again sometime.
We also had a nice leisurely walk up to our Church on Sunday, got to talk with our Texan relative Jo :), baked pumpkin pies with Baking club (and promptly devoured them), ate lots of pumpkin bread (since my husband brought me a pumpkin last week-yay!), had a friend over to bake brownies on Saturday morning, and did many other things which I forget at this moment. So you can see, that we’ve been occupied, but not really busy. It’s been a full, good week.

100th post.

With a camera and a couple of kids, I figured I could keep a blog so that our far-away family and any curious (bored?!) friends could 'watch' the kids grow and hear about our life here. Now, I have evidently managed 100 posts.


Seems like a good opportunity to give some updates that I keep forgetting to mention on here. Namely, Will has not had a seizure in nearly three months! We praise God that the medicine he is on is working well and he's pretty good about taking it. He seems to be doing really well overall. He has also had 2 days and nights in a row of not wetting his bed - YAY! And, he can almost be trusted to walk on his own without holding someone's hand if it's a flat path. He loves to go to bed at night and for naps, although sometimes he tries to talk with his little sister and postpone sleeping, but he's at least very easy to send to bed. He is such a fun kid.


Annie is quite a happy little lady. She got the hang of sleeping through the night in just a couple of days once I wouldn't help her. Now she loves to go to bed and just lays there, babbling until she falls asleep. She sleeps a good 10-12 hours every night, and it is just scrumptious to have all that quiet. She still only has 6 teeth. When she's fussy (like every day!), I am still convinced that she's teething and that the next tooth will come any day. And it still never comes. :) I only nurse her twice a day and it is so nice to still be nursing her, yet to be rather detached from her and able to go places and do things without her sometimes. She likes stuffed animals and she likes to carry around her baby dolls. She also likes to 'read' books and suck on pens (especially when the cap is off) and play with anything her big brother is currently playing with. Recently she's been climbing on his bike, but her legs are so short that she can barely get on and can't usually get off. She also enjoys being outside and if I forget to lock the door (or if Will unlocks it for her), she scurries out as fast as she can and grins at me as she tries to escape. She learned how to unlatch the gate that kept her out of the bathroom as well. Yes, we've got trouble... And if that were not enough, she's also been learning about talking on the phone and wanders around the house with a play cell-phone to her ear making all sorts of incomprehensible sounds.

Will now answers the phone when I permit it - usually when I'm just too tired to race to it first. He also LOVES talking on the computer. We have enjoyed some fun chats with our relatives recently. I thought I'd take a picture of the scene last time so that those we talk with could see how it is on our end. Enjoy :)

Below are a couple more pictures of Annie- she is holding Will's beloved walking stick, which he received as a birthday present. Nate snapped these pictures one day when he noticed that she was holding the stick and playing it like a guitar. So cute.

weight...

Well, I weighed the kids today:
Will weighs 38 lbs and is right around the 50th percentile for his age. He's also 3ft, 3inches tall, which is also pretty average for his age.
Annie, however, only weighs 16 lbs (and that was with her boots and clothes on), which is what a 6-month old baby girl should weigh. A 15-month old should weigh around 22lbs.

Ummm, well, we don't really worry about it too much. We figure that maybe she IS just 6-months old and we are mistaken on her birthdate. Or maybe we got her birthdate right but in the wrong year, and maybe she's just a very large 3-month old, and very advanced for her age too, I might add.

Anyway, it would be nice if the little one would grow a bit so we wouldn't be so confused. :) Both her younger cousins have surpassed her size by now, I'm pretty sure. Maybe it's a blessing that we aren't around any other babies her age-otherwise I just might worry about her in contrast. Grow, Annie, Grow!

such fun

On Saturday we went on a walk with another family to a small, flat, shaded spot called "Fairy Glen". It was so nice to get out and have a picnic together. Enjoy the pictures.

Baseball!

Ahhh, such a fun picture of Sophia jump-roping! :)

And a family picture because we haven't gotten one in awhile.

Such good friends... Will is going to miss you two!

Back at home, here is how the kids occupy themselves regularly.

Then comes bath time and Annie is all grins.

And finally, it's time for bed. The fun necklaces are from their cousin, and they're really enjoying them- thanks Sierra!

always learning:

During TWO AND A HALF YEARS in India, I have learned:
1) how to make delicious brownies, baked beans, pizza, italian dressing, breads of all sorts and, yeah, pretty much EVERYTHING from SCRATCH!
2) that 'fresh cream' is really yummy plain (or as a topping) (and can be made into whipped cream or sour cream as you like)
3) how to make molasses crinkles without any molasses
4) to nap almost daily without feeling guilty
5) that I might like to go into medicine or nursing or be a midwife someday...
6) that I love to hang out laundry and bring it in clean and dry off the lines
7) to pour boiling water into cranberry juice for a decent herbal-tea substitute :)
8) that I need to improve the way I invite people to things… my communication can be confusing :(

9) that God is so incredibly good... I keep learning this.

10) about “coir” – made of coconut, used in our bed mattresses and woven into thick ‘carpets’ for our floors
11) that I tend to use up all the time I’m given to accomplish something… in stark contrast to my dear husband, who, I continue to learn, is absolutely amazing!!

I'm sure I can add to this list as more things keep coming to mind, but for now, 11 will suffice.

First haircut

Saturday was a hair-cutting day. First Pappa, then Will, then Annie. This picture was taken after all hair was cut. It was Annie's first haircut- just a little tiny trim, and she enjoyed it. Good job cutting, Pappa!

And just a few more pictures of our kids from the weekend:

around our house

Will and Annie have been enjoying the beautiful weather. They beg me to take them outside to play in the dirt and flower beds around our house. As long as the monkeys stay away it's grand!
Ahhh, the promised post about our new couch cushions. Indian fabric usually has patterns and colors that don't conform to western ideas of beauty... if you catch my drift... So, when I asked for my couch cushions to be re-done (due to incredible discomfort when sitting on the couch), I was a bit worried about how they might end up. It only took about 2 months for a man to finally show up at my house to take measurements, and he told me I could choose the color, but not the material. I timidly requested blue, and he asked me if I prefered patterned or plain. I requested plain as a measure of safety - lest I end up with some large flower print with hot pink and orange flowers on a bright sky-blue background or something equally distasteful. After gently nagging the woman in charge of the cushion project several times, the man returned to my house to fix my cushions. It had now been over half a year since my original request, and I cautiously peeked at the fabric he had brought for my cushions... WOW, it was a very dark blue (as I had longed for), and not only that, but instead of plain, it had a pretty pattern with red and orange-brown roses. The most incredible thing about this is that those roses actually match my curtains which are a shiny red/orange. (Nate said that this is probably the only time in our lives that our curtains will match our couch cushions.) What a gift from God! Again, I am reminded that all things are God's and He loves to give us the desires of our hearts, and He cares about every detail of our lives. So our cushions are not only much more comfortable, but also prettier than they were and my living room feels livable and cozy. I am so thankful and God is so good!

Check out the curtains that match our finished couch cushions.

(And that's my handsome man reclining on the comfy cushions with a cup of tea and a book.)

Where's Annie?

And finally, outside again, the kids just play so nicely together. (I think they are dropping leaves in this picture.) Annie likes to sit down on this tiny ledge and pat the space next to her while looking at us as if to say, "come join me, please." Sometimes I think we live a pretty charmed life around here.

:)