This one goes out to the ones I love

I love the way Elle walks everywhere on her tip toes. I love the way she clears her throat before she gets ready to "read" or tell a story. I love how she baby talks to Grady in a sweet, high-pitched voice. I love that she is a great eater, loves fruits and vegetables and is not picky. I love how she reminds me to take joy in and get excited about the little things, like all the Valentine balloons at Wal-Mart. I love that she makes me laugh every day with the funny things she says. I love to see how much fun she has playing with Steven. I love it when she says "you're my best mommy".




I love it when Grady smiles when he hears my voice. I love it when he puts his mouth on my shoulder and makes a blowing sound. I love that he calms down when I hold him. I love it when he sleeps past 6:30 AM. I love how his face lights up when Elle talks to him. I love our late night and morning nursing sessions when it's just the two of us in his calm, quiet room. I love that I have been blessed to be a mommy to two amazingly beautiful children. And I thank my best Valentine for starting it all. I love you, Steven, Elle and Grady!

A Fun Night

We went to Matt and Carrie's for dinner last night. Our friend Chris Teague, who was on our team in Kazakhstan, was in town for the weekend. We haven't seen him in a little over a year. He and his family live and work in Puerto Rico now (ILDP). Whenever I think of Chris I think of a guy who genuinely loves the Lord and loves people. I am always encouraged after seeing him. They are an amazing family. But the amazing thing about them is that they are living life walking with the Lord. They are real, honest, and full of hope in the gospel. It was great to see him. We would have loved to see Emily and the kids though. Maybe we'll skip on down to Puerto Rico sometime and visit... Grady really did have fun too. We took this picture right before leaving and he was just a bit tired. That's why I'm smiling so big, because he was screaming so loud! Lucy and Elle played so well together. They stayed upstairs the whole time except to come down for dinner and then for Valentine sugar cookies. Thanks for inviting us Allens. It was a great night.

Gradini

I wish I had a picture but the camera batteries are dead. Hopefully, you can just visualize this. When I went in to get Grady this morning, this was what I found: Grady on his back, his sleep sack open with the top still snapped at his neck, one sock on and one sock off. The boy had kicked so hard he busted the zipper on his sleep sack?! We've already banned footed pajamas that snap, because he will totally kick out of those too. The only thing left to try are footed zipped pajamas. If he can bust out of those, I guess we might just have to turn the heat up and let him sleep in a diaper. Do they make straight jackets in a size 6-9 months?

Help in our time of need

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." -Hebrews 4:15-16

I met another mom at pre-school story time at the library back in May. She was about to have a little boy and she had a little girl a month older than Elle. We talked and exchanged numbers, but in another few weeks, she had her little boy. And then I had Grady and eight months have passed since I've seen her. I decided to go to the park with the kids this morning since it was so warm and she was there with her two children. I won't go in to much detail, but I have really been having a hard time lately with some things. I really believe the Lord sent me to the park this morning to see her and talk to her. He used her to let me know that I was not the only one who struggled with these things and that I wasn't alone in my thoughts and feelings. I left the park and just said, "Thank you Lord, that you do understand and you do sympathize with me and thank you that she was here and we were able to talk." We exchanged numbers again (because we both had no idea what we did with them the last time) and I do hope to get to know her a little more. Our kids are basically the same ages and she stays at home too. I just wanted you to know I was encouraged today and that the Lord really is good... not just good, but gracious and compassionate with His children.

Happy Anniversary Carrie & Matt

In honor of my friend Carrie's anniversary, because she's my friend and I love her, I will respond to her "tag" to list Six non-important things/habits/quirks about me. Hope you guys have a great day! We wish you many more happy and blessed years together!

1. Since Grady's birth, I have craved pretzel sticks and chocolate chips. I do realize they make actual chocolate covered pretzels, but who wants those. I fill up a nice Gerber baby bowl of pretzels and then just enough semi-sweet chocolate chips for the perfect night cap. Some have their nightly cocktails--I have pretzels and chocolate chips.

2. I delete most email forwards without even reading them. (Sorry all you who send them to me?!). If you REALLY want me to read it, then you should take the "Fwd:" off the subject line. I see that and my immediate reflex is the delete button.

3. I LOVE the show Lost. If you should need me for the next few months on a Thursday night between 8:00-9:00, I will be laying on my couch (probably with a bowl of pretzels and chocolate chips) watching LOST!

4. I really don't like eggs. I ate them a lot while in Kazakhstan (out of necessity), but also threw them up a lot while in Kazakhstan. I don't think I've eaten a scrambled egg since 2004.

5. I listen to The Backyardigans even when Elle's not in the car with me... and sing along.

6. I can still do a round off back handspring (on the ground) and a full twisting back flip on the trampoline.

For the love of Kazakhstan

I was going through all of our "back-up" discs trying to find our pictures from our time in Kazakhstan. We have no album of our time there and I do love to look at a good photo album every now and again, especially one as significant and special as Kazakhstan. I can't think of a better coffee table book, so I plan to make one soon now that I found all the pictures. I wanted to put up a few of them. There are far too many good ones to put here, but I did my best to pick some of the greatest. What an incredible 10 months that was. Some of the best memories for me are (in no particular order):

1)Learning to speak Russian... or at least enough to make it around the city
2)Taking a taxi ride by myself for the first time
3)Finding out I was pregnant with Elle (trying to buy a pregnancy test?!)
4)Being sick and throwing up for 3 months
5)Having my finger pricked with a razor blade for some "routine bloodwork"
6)Regulating my own IV as I received fluids on the bed in my doctor's house
7)Trip to Kulsai
8)The gorgeous mountains, particularly when they were covered in snow!
9)Fresh fruit and vegetable stands on every corner
10) Shashlik
11) The Horsley's house (anytime but especially Christmas)
12) New Year's Eve (nothing will ever compare)
13) Getting bitten by a dog
14) Potato logs at the Hyatt

I could list many more. I have never felt as "close" to God as I did when I was there. It might have been because I was in His Word daily, or that there weren't the many distractions of life here, or because I was with a group of people who encouraged my faith everyday, or any number of reasons. I treasure my time there as one of the greatest in my life. I hope that we will be able to go back one day, especially to take Elle. For those of you who've been there, I hope this will bring back some great memories for you too and will encourage you to continue to pray for the people of Kazakhstan!




The view from the back of our apartment



Snowboarding at Chimbalok



A walk in the park near our house (Mom & Madison)



A positive pregnancy test



A nomadic family sharing "chai" with us at Kulsai



A canyon on our trip to Kulsai



The Green Bazaar

No more appendix

My brother just came out of surgery. He had to have his appendix removed. AK says he's doing well and should go home tomorrow. Please pray for a quick recovery and say a big thanks that they caught it before it ruptured!