Update from the Potty Seat

Here's my big girl! Day 3 of potty training is complete, and I am amazed and thankful at how well Christin is doing! It's almost miraculous! I knew we were off to a good start when the very first morning, after practicing pulling down and up her pants several times, Christin sat right down on the potty and peed, without any accidents first! She seemed to know just what to do. By the afternoon of the first day she was already initiating going to the potty herself when she felt the need and had even stopped asking for rewards as well.

She's stayed dry through all her naptimes and one of the two nighttimes, and today, when I tried to put a pull-up on her for her morning nap, she said, "Too tight Mama! All done diapers!" So, I let her stay in the training pants and put down a protective sheet on the bed, but it wasn't needed, sure enough, she stayed dry again. Wowza! Tonight she is also sleeping in her cotton training pants for the first time overnight, we'll see how it goes.

So today she was completely accident free. She even pooped in the potty this morning! She kept her panties dry all day, through both naps, and took herself to the potty without any reminders from me numerous times. (At other specific times I reminded her, just like I do with my other girls.) This is such a totally different experience than with my other two; I'm so thankful! Clara Anne was easy, but not THIS easy, and Chloe was anything but easy. I have a feeling that it's a bit easier for Christin because she's older (27 months as opposed to Clara Anne's 23 mos and Chloe's 22 mos) and because she's seen her sisters take themselves to the potty so many times. And of course it helps when your sister reads "Brown Bear, What do You See?" while you're sitting on the potty! :) Tonight Christin even prayed that God would help her "sit the potty seat." And He will!

But whatever the reason, I'm really thankful and relieved. I thought it might be a huge chore but it appears that we are almost . . . Done. (Dare I say it???!) We'll see how things go as we get more into normal life, take her out and about some, and put her in various situations where it's not as easy to go potty. Hopefully those transitions will come easily as well.

All I can say is, PTL! We have a busy weekend coming up and next week several extra events as well, so I am very grateful to have Christin doing so well. We'll hope that it lasts! I don't know why it wouldn't since we are now "All Done with diapers!"

Christin's Big Day

Sweet Christin with Mommy on the Fourth of July. (Her mouth full of candy, I think!)

Well, the time has come.

For several months now, I've known that the time was coming to potty train Christin. "It's all right," I told myself. "We have to get settled again after coming back from the States." And that is certainly true. Potty training is not something you want to do when the child has had a lot of other types of transition to process.

Life has been stable now for a few weeks (BUSY--but stable), so that's no longer an issue. I was also thinking, "Well, when our friends from Clifton leave, then I'll be ready." And, time has slipped by so quickly, and our friends are leaving tomorrow morning! Couple this with the fact that there are only a few diapers left in my cupboard, and it's evident to me that the time has come to tackle this significant task.

So, tomorrow morning my dear friend Amy is keeping my other girls while I take Christin through the basics of potty training. We'll start like the other girls did--practicing pulling down and up the training pants. (May I remind you that these are the same training pants that Amy had shipped to me from the States in 2006?? Isn't that funny! The package she originally sent got marked--for some VERY strange reason--as a terrorist threat and returned to her, so she sent them twice! I still get a chuckle out of that one, pink cotton training pants a threat to national security! HA!) We'll have treats and stickers, lots of great beverages and salty snacks, and a whole day together without her sisters to undertake this important training.

Christin is quite verbal and seems to understand the whole concept pretty well; tonight she was chanting a little ditty about "I sit on the potty seat! I sit on the potty seat!" and so we shall see if her physical body can cooperate with the knowledge she has on this topic already. I showed her the training panties and she's so excited to be a big girl and wear them tomorrow morning!

This week has plenty of events scheduled, but I don't have to leave the house until Wednesday afternoon, so we'll have two solid days to get things going. Let's all hope and pray that she'll do well with the training! I do have some pull-ups on hand for sleeping times, but we'll be aiming for daytime dryness in these next few days/weeks. I'm ready for anything--Clara Anne trained so easily and relatively quickly; but Chloe's process was drawn out over an entire year (I'm not even kidding) before she was fully trained, day and night, accident free. So I have no expectations for Christin, we'll just wait and see how it goes.

On another note, it was SUCH a blessing to have our friends from Clifton here this week. I didn't get to spend such a lot of time with them, but we did have them here for a few meals and we so enjoyed our time together. We feel so encouraged! Thanks to all of you who sent gifts, cards and pictures along with them, we'll be enjoying those things for months to come! The girls went wild over the things that were just for them and are having such fun with the crafts and Polly Pockets already. We had a great final time together today; ate Santa Fe chicken salad with homemade chips and homemade salsa, and the Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake for dessert with some great coffee to go with it. I love hosting people, can you tell? Doesn't that make a few of you out there want to come and visit?! :) You're welcome anytime!

Well, tomorrow is a big day. I'd better get some rest! Good night!

A Wednesday List

1. It's hot today. Like, 98 and sunny hot. I rode my bike to take Clara Anne to ballet lessons and sweated for a good two and a half hours--25 minutes there, an hour and a half of class, and 25 minutes home. Yikes.

2. The hot weather is greatly alleviated by the lemon granita in my freezer. Thank you, Pioneer Woman!

3. We're almost done with the Secret Garden in our morning read-aloud time. The girls are waiting for the exciting ending!

4. We have had friends from our home club in America here this week. They were all here for supper on Monday; we had so much fun! I feel so encouraged and blessed.

5. The girls have been occupied for several hours this afternoon coloring princess pictures from a new, HUGE Melissa and Doug pad. (gifts from our friends) Fun times!

6. Christin was sick over the weekend and still has a bad cough. She's speaking in a funny, raspy voice because she doesn't like to cough the gunk out!

7. My dear friend Rachel called me this morning. Let's all give three cheers for modern technology!

8. I am finding that home schooling is more dependant on me and my determination to do it than by Clara Anne's ability to understand. We've had lots of interruptions lately, I actually feel like I haven't had a "normal" week so far. But that's the flexibility of home schooling, we're trying to just enjoy the process!

9. There is a foot massage scheduled for tomorrow night with my women friends, including our American guests. Three cheers for foot massages!

10. And finally, the frig is stocked with leftovers, no cooking for me tonight! I love leftovers!

News of Note

It's been a busy two weeks or so since I posted some current news, and our lives have been full of happenings, big and small. So it's catch-up time! I'll share a few highlights of late.

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, following right behind my own birthday. It couldn't have been much fun for her to have her birthday in the hospital after giving birth to me, since our special days are just 3 days apart. But, she's never complained and maybe she was just glad to have 11 pound, 1 ounce me on the outside! We chatted a bit through webcam this morning and I was glad to sing happy birthday to her "in person." I am so thankful for technology that makes the thousands of miles seem minimal. I am thankful for my mom's years of life and pray that the Lord would sustain her for many more! She has struggled with diabetes and other physical difficulties for many years now, but she continues to trust the Lord and take things a day at a time. We are so grateful that the Lord has spared her life on many occasions! My mom's musical and creative gifts are a treasure and in recent years, her hobby of scrapbooking has become a ministry to our whole family. What a blessing! We love you, Mom! Happy Birthday!

Clara Anne had her first ballet class yesterday. This is something she's been interested in for a while and we found a place which looked like they teach real ballet. We observed a class last week and then this was her first time to participate. I was so incredibly proud of her. She did her very best, trying to copy exactly what the teacher was doing, and though the other students were much more flexible and able to perform the movements more easily, Clara Anne stuck with it and responded quickly to the teacher's instructions. PTL, the language barrier didn't seem to be much of a problem! We are going to be going twice a week for awhile, since I think she'll make faster progress that way, then at the end of six weeks we'll look at the situation again and see how she's doing, and whether we want to sign her up for another round. She's so excited about it! I was really so thankful that her first class went so smoothly, especially since the teachers promised me it would be all beginners in the class and it clearly wasn't--several girls had a year or two of experience. But there were only 5 girls and two teachers, so that was a great ratio! The teachers spent a lot of time with Clara specifically, showing her how to move and stretch her body.

In other news, we are reading "Heidi" as a family and thoroughly enjoying it! There was an evening last week where we were all on the edge of our seats with suspense, and then I happened to bump something which startled everyone because we were so into the story! Last night as John read, we were moved to tears as the story took a very significant turn. All four of us were really touched! (Christin didn't seem to understand what was going on, not surprisingly.) The girls each get to draw on a special artist pad as they listen to the story--they are "illustrating" the story as they hear it, and each night as the chapter finishes they get to show us what they drew from that chapter. It's a fun method--keeps them engaged and yet they have something to do with their hands as they listen. Even Christin today asked me multiple times, "Mama, read Heidi? Read Heidi?" She loves it too!

So, it wouldn't be a week in this country without something breaking down and needing fixing. Last week we had a repairman here twice to fix our bedroom A/C, and also we pulled out the cheap bathtub in the master bath which had developed a crack and was leaking badly. We had a guy come and build a little tile wall instead to keep the water in, and now there's no more water all over the floor, whew! This week it's the child's seat on my bike--it's metal, and one side where the seat of the child's seat attaches to the base of it, which is attached to my bike, has rusted through and is completely loose. I need to get it fixed very soon!

I've had opportunities galore to have guests over in the past two weeks. It's been fun but also tiring, since I'm trying to fit home schooling into our daily schedule as well! We've been getting creative and working things in where they fit. . . and sometimes things don't happen because I completely lack the motivation (like when my guests finally left last week after about two days together and I just wanted to crash, not do school!). Thankfully this is still only kindergarten and I don't feel pressed to accomplish a certain amount in a certain amount of time. I also feel a bit like my Asian friends don't understand the idea of me teaching Clara Anne--like it doesn't really count as school or something. They see that I am home all day and assume that I'm not busy! But that's life in this situation. At some point I will probably just need to not answer my phone or tell people directly that I'm doing school and can't get together and play right at that moment!

I had a lovely birthday over the weekend. John asked me what I wanted, and I requested things like: eating out, no birthday cake, a foot massage, a bubble bath, and a nap! Wow, my priorities surely have changed from when I was younger! John made possible all those things by taking care of the girls, and even bought me 34 roses for my 34 years as well as took me out to dinner at our favorite Korean restaurant. Yum! I haven't had a lazy afternoon like that in . . . I don't know how long! . . .and eating out for supper was wonderful. No dishes!

We are getting ready to welcome a group of friends from the States who will be here for the next 10 days or so. So excited for their visit, and hopeful for success in what they will be doing. Most of them have been to this country before so it shouldn't be too shocking for them. We're looking forward to having them here!

And that about wraps it up! I do plan to finish my "Diary of a Friendship" series as well as finish up posting photos from our time in the States. But that shall have to wait for another evening. Good Night!

Diary of a Friendship, part 2

Let's continue our walk down memory lane! OK!

Saying goodbye to Rachel as we both prepared to leave Thailand in February of 2005 was difficult. Suddenly it hit me that I was going back into a country where I could speak only rudimentary language, with a new baby, into a still-very-unfamiliar culture. I had acquaintances, and a few friends, but not many that I could converse freely with. (Drat that language barrier!) I had no idea how life with a new baby was going to look. To make matters more complicated, John and I were scheduled to only be in the big country for a month, and then needed to make a trip to Singapore for further training--and spend a whole month there! So I was anticipating not just the upcoming change of going back with a new baby, even further away from family and friends, but that our life was going to be full of transitions for the forseeable future.

As John and I spent that final evening with Josh and Rachel, I started to cry. Not just a few tears but those horrible, uncontrolled, "I-can't-get-my breath" sobs. Rachel and I took a quick walk around the large pool on the hotel property and she was a huge comfort to me. I remember that she just acknowledged the reality of all the changes coming up and reassured me that my emotions would subside and that she understood. What an encouragement that was to me in that moment! And she was about to have her own baby! The prego comforting the post-partum, now that's friendship.

Josh and Rachel went from our meeting in southern Thailand to Bangkok, where after only a week of waiting (oh how I envied that! That month in HK waiting for Clara Anne was l-o-n-g!), Rachel was in hard labor on the streets of Bangkok. Yes, it's true, it's a pretty fantastic story actually--I don't want to recount it all for fear of misrepresenting the details, but as far as I know, there was the watching of a movie and then the going to the store for snacks and then on the way back Rachel was laboring hard. Arriving at the hospital they asked her pain level and she said "9--I can't do much more of this!" and though they looked at her like she was crazy, sure enough, she was just about ready to push. Sweet Emma was born very shortly afterwards. Way to go Rach! That's a birth story for the record books!

And here's the lovely result: Though I rejoiced with Rach over Emma's birth, I didn't get to see her until our next meeting in Thailand, in August of 2005. By then Emma was about 5 months old and Clara Anne was 7 months old. That particular week was formative to our friendship for two reasons. The first is that during the previous months, John and I had been struggling in our work and role. Particularly John was thinking through some issues that, to his mind, were not resolving well. We were about a year and a half into life in this country and had hit a cultural wall. Language was difficult, our life here seemed unproductive, we were just not sure what to do or what the Lord wanted us to do. Finally we thought, well, let's just make it to that meeting and see what happens.

I distinctly remember sitting in a Starbucks in the night market of Chiang Mai, Rachel and I were on high stools by the window while Josh and John sat at a table. (I think we had childcare for the afternoon so the babies weren't with us!). I confessed to Rachel all of our mixed up thoughts and emotions, our fears of failure, and our difficulties. This one single conversation turned things around, not in the circumstance, but in our hearts. John found complete understanding and solidarity from Josh even as Rachel and I cried and she prayed for me, and I for her. Thank you Lord!

The picture of Josh, Rachel and Emma was taken during that week in August, 2005. The other event that stands out in my mind is that during that week, Rachel called me and invited me to come over and talk one night. When I arrived, she gently brought up the issue of comparison between Emma and Clara Anne. That week as we had spent time together, we naturally talked about the girls, their schedule, their likes and dislikes, etc etc, but she wanted to make sure that I felt no need to compare Clara Anne to Emma. Here were here exact words, (burned on my brain!): "I just have this feeling that Clara Anne and Emma are going to be really great friends one day, and so let's not compare them." I remember my first reaction was to think, "Sure, really great friends that see each other twice a year!" but I also wholeheartedly agreed with her sentiment and resolved to not let a comparing spirit ruin the contentment that we each felt with our own child. Rachel then put her hand on mine and prayed for us . . . for our friendship, for our daughters, for our husbands, for our family life as a whole. I can honestly say that since that night, though we have both gone on to have three daughters of very similar age, the temptation to compare them in my mind has been little to none, all because a friend took the time to point out an area that needed correcting and initiate praying together about it. Again, Thank you, Lord!

Little did I know how the Lord would work. Josh and Rachel finished their first two-year stint around December of 2005, and they returned to the States to make preparations to come back to Asia. As they were making these preparations, they began to feel led to NOT return to the area they had been living, but to look to join in some work in another area. This begged the question, why not our area? Well, at least it did in my mind. I had been praying for the Lord to send me a friend--whether a national who could speak English, another American, or to deepen a relationship via email with someone in the States, I didn't know what it would look like--since that difficult time in the summer of 2005. And amazingly, not through my designs but by HIS plans, things fell into place that Josh and Rachel felt led to join us in our city. However, they had to wait just a bit longer in the States since Rachel was expecting baby number two! Even more miraculous, so was I! And our due dates were almost exactly the same day!

Oh my, how excited we all were! John and I went to Thailand (back to Chiang Mai again!) to await Chloe's birth, and Josh and Rachel were on the other side of the ocean, waiting for Samantha to be born. I'll never forget answering the phone in our apartment at Nakornping and hearing Josh's voice. I immediately said, "Do you have a new little baby at your house?" And he said, "We DO have a new little baby at our house!" Rachel, superwoman that she is, had given birth and gone home the same day, they were already settled back at home again with sweet little Samantha in their arms.

So, then the flurry of passport and visa paperwork began for them. . . and nine days later, when Chloe was born, for us. We arrived back in our city around the middle of July, 2006, and Josh and Rachel arrived--happy day!--in early August. Let's take a look at some pictures from those early days!

This is a classic. Our family went to meet their family at the airport. I remember John jumping to see over the frosted glass that separated the international arrivals from the waiting area. When they finally came, many pieces of luggage in tow, Rachel was so hip and nonchalant about traveling for a day and a half with a six week old baby and didn't seemed fazed at all! She was laughing about the dirty state of their clothing, saying that they could tell the story of their trip by the pizza stain here, the coke spilled there. As we made our way out to the parking lot and loaded up the vehicles, none of us were paying any attention and suddenly realized that Clara Anne and Emma were holding hands. "They love each other already!" said Rachel. I managed to snap this picture; what a treasured moment!

I think I hosted Rachel for a few meals that week while Josh and John ran around town trying to find and set up an apartment for their family. That was fine by us! We had lots of time to talk and the girls played together so well. Snuggly Samantha looks pretty content here!

It didn't take us long to make sure we had an established time every week to get together. The girls need to play, right? Actually they loved playing and we loved talking. I have been so encouraged during our play times, right up to the one we had the week before Rachel left. We always manage to cover the gamut of conversation, from household and domestic to family and children to language and culture to ministry and spiritual life. I'm already starting to feel the lack on my Wednesday mornings now!

So, in one year, from summer 2005 to summer 2006, I went from feeling somewhat friendless to the wonderful, amazing, incredible reality that suddenly, every member of my family had a friend. A close in heart, knows you and still loves you, prays for you, encourages you, is honest with you, and understands you sort of friend. To that I can only say again, Thank you, Lord!

Stay tuned for part 3. . .

Diary of a Friendship, part 1

In the past week, I've had some fun looking through old photos of my friend Rachel and me. Indulge me on this walk down memory lane! I wanted to share a bit of how we became friends and some of the great memories we share together.

Rachel and I met on "the farm" in Virginia in November of 2003, the place where we received some training for our line of work. John and I had flown from Iowa through Chicago in a snowstorm that day, and our luggage was left behind. We arrived in Virginia with the clothes on our backs and maybe a book bag? I have no idea! I didn't know how to pack in those days, I'm sure!

We walked into our quad (living situation with four families sharing a living room, each with individual bathrooms, bedrooms and small kitchenette) and as we were looking around and settling our few things, I walked to the back of the quad where John was standing and talking with a guy named Josh. "This is my wife, Rachel," said John. "And this is MY wife, Rachel," said Josh. From that moment on, we hit it off. Rachel offered to loan me some clothes to get me by until our luggage arrived (I believe it was a choice between a Hard Rock t-shirt and a David Letterman t-shirt--funny choices for being where we were!), and I took her up on it.

The next two months were filled with wonderful worship times (including one time where we all played an "instrument" of choice--Josh's was a lamp base drummed on with a pen, if I remember correctly!), lots of meetings, shared meals, lots of evenings with our door propped open to the common living area, and the like. That was in the days where we were childless and fancy free-there was usually someone still up late into the evening, you know, snacking and chatting, I think there was even a Lord of the Rings watch-a-thon one weekend! It was a wonderful, bonding, strengthening time.

It was also a time filled with huge transitions, major decisions and adjustments; experiencing those things together makes for some incredible bonds. It is a completely unique situation to be actually living with people who are making the radical choices that you are making and about to embark on the huge adventure that you are also undertaking. I'm so thankful for those 8 weeks together, with Josh and Rachel and our entire quad and Asia-bound friends. Rachel and I were only sorry we were headed to different parts of a large country in Asia.

Here's the only picture I have from that time with Rach in it: she's the skinny blonde with straight hair! Sadly I don't have any pictures of us together! So, Rachel went her way down south and I went my way up north. We kept in touch through some of those first few months of crazy culture adjustments, and then later were amazed to find that we were both expecting babies around the same time! I was due in December and Rachel in February. There was a notable phone call where she told me the news, and what a comfort it was to me to know that someone else was also experiencing what I was experiencing--aversion to Asian food with its ginger and garlic, wanting my husband to go out and eat street noodles so I didn't have to cook or even be around food, figuring out how to deal with pregnancy and prepare for a birth while living in a VERY foreign country. . . the list goes on. The next time I saw Rachel was in August of 2004, at a meeting in northern Thailand where you get to do things like this:

And this:

This is a very memorable moment because we were rafting down a Thai river on this lovely bamboo craft, when the pole-master offered to let John do some poling/steering. "Careful," I cautioned him. "Maybe you want to give me the camera." "No, no, it's very secure around my neck, see how I'm wearing it?" said John. But in the next moment he poled a little too close to the shore, put the pole in front of the raft which went against the current, bent the pole and whoops! John was overboard! With the camera very securely attached to his neck, of course! We rescued the pictures on the memory card but the camera was a goner.

Both Rachel and I are expecting in the picture above but she wasn't showing at ALL and I was already pleasantly plump (that's one way to say it, anyway!) That meeting was in a nice Thai hotel and all of our meals were served in some banquet rooms on the second floor. The first morning when I walked in to breakfast and saw Rachel there, we eagerly sat together and chatted, and I remember leaving that room, arm in arm, as Rachel said to me, "Let's just be joined at the hip for these next days!" We had so much to catch up on and lots of pregnancy stuff to talk about, not to mention language and culture and all of the other things that make our life so unique here. . . I think we did stick pretty close together and talked and talked. That has been a hallmark of our friendship--we never run out of things to say to each other! I feel like there's always more to talk about--STILL--to this day!

And then, the next time we were together was for this momentous occasion. . . Clara Anne was born! This was within the first two weeks of her life, January 2005. Josh and Rachel happened to be in Hong Kong for some reason and came to see us and our new arrival; they were Clara Anne's first visitors! Oh my, those were the lonely days: Clara Anne was two weeks old before she had her first visitors! But we were alone in a foreign place and my parents were coming the next week--that just made our time with Josh and Rachel and my parents all the more special. How wonderful it was to catch up again and they had lots of questions about how the labor and delivery went since they were about to go through it themselves! We talked and laughed and heard stories about their life and talked about doctors and birth plans and things like that. I seem to remember Josh telling some funny squattie potty stories on that occasion! You know you're good friends when you can laugh about THAT together! Precious memories.

We left Hong Kong and traveled directly to Thailand. Josh and Rachel and our good friends Karl and Chris would also be there to attend the meeting with us. Of course we had to meet up for supper and where else but the Hard Rock Cafe? The atmosphere isn't my personal favorite but Hard Rock's redeeming quality is that it can be counted upon for authentic western food (not imitation western as is served across much of Asia--give me authentic Asian over bad western anytime!). We had a fun meal though if I remember correctly Clara Anne was a little fussy. That was in the early days of parenting when a fussy baby at dinner was more of a disturbance. Now I've come to expect to be interrupted approximately 32 times during dinner and so it doesn't bother me a bit! We had a great meal and fun time together though!

And here's the last photo from this era--this was actually taken in Hong Kong before we all left for Thailand. I remember this day distinctly--this was one of our first big outings with the new baby. I wasn't sure what to expect. We traveled to Central and walked up to the Mid-Levels, and ate lunch at this Mexican place. I remember the food was pretty good, and we had a great time (Rachel and I have probably spent as many hours eating together as talking together!), and then it was time to feed the baby. I retreated into a nearby Starbucks and with John's help and a receiving blanket, managed my first out-and-about feeding for Clara Anne! I remember being so thankful that we were putting Clara Anne on a schedule, and now I had another 2.5 hours before I had to nurse her again--plenty of time to relax, chat, and make our way back to Kowloon before that next nursing session came around. I'm so glad we got the above picture, doesn't Rachel look sweet with her hand protectively over her belly and little Emma inside?

I'll be continuing this series for at least a few more installments; sorry this isn't current news but it's fun anyway! And it's doing my heart good to write down some of these things in order to remember them better. Until next time. . .

July 3, 2010

Clara Anne's special day, July 3, 2010, was a day we've been praying for and preparing for her whole life! That day she professed publicly her faith in Jesus by being baptized. We are so thankful for the faith that we see in Clara Anne! It is truly God's miraculous gift; softening her heart, helping her to see her need for Jesus clearly, causing her to embrace His sacrifice on her behalf, and giving her the desire to trust Jesus and love Him always with her whole life.

In specific preparation for this event, John had been working with Clara Anne for several weeks to talk through the gospel, make sure she understood, and that her desire to be baptized was a true and sincere one. Actually it has been quite some time since we felt like we saw a specific change in her, but it was good to wait until now. But the time had come and we're so glad we could celebrate this event with our faith community (other Americans who live in our city) around us.

There were two other families who had children that were ready for this special event, so it was a triple joy to see all three of them (including Clara Anne's dear friend Emma) celebrate this together. You can see why my heart was full to bursting!



Family picture, July 3, 2010.

Clara Anne and Emma, dear friends! SO meaningful for them to do this together! I am so grateful that it worked out this way!

John asked Clara Anne a series of questions to help her share her testimony. She answered seriously and sincerely, and oh! What a touching thing for a mother's heart to hear the Words of Life come out of her mouth! All by His grace. . . thank you, Jesus!

Daddy had a few more questions to ask her while she was in the water, she had screwed her eyes tightly shut in preparation for being under the water!

Amen! Praise the Lord!

There may have been a few tears (not by her, however) at this point, but can you blame me? Oh how our hearts are rejoicing!

I made a special cake for the occasion (after my recent success with Chloe's birthday cake, I wasn't so intimidated, and thought it would be fun!) and each of the three were so excited to get their names on a piece of cake. We ordered pizza for supper, and my helper had made a HUGE fruit salad, and then all 25 of us enjoyed a meal together! What a celebration! After the meal we had a very special send-off prayer for our friends who are headed back to America, this was the last time to see some of them. Such a mix of emotions were swirling, I was glad that we were committing them into the Lord's hands and HIS good plans! The sovereignty of God and His will is a very comforting doctrine in times like this.

Thank you, Lord, for the miracle you've done in Clara Anne. Work in her heart all the days of her life. Keep her close to you. Thank you that her salvation is all of grace, for that means it is secure and safe. You promise that none will snatch your sheep out of your hand; would you keep Clara Anne's heart in that precious place of sweet communion with you. Grow her into a mature and godly woman who desires to know and serve you more than anything else. Sustain her with your love and give her a deep and abiding faith. As she grows up and becomes more independent from us, her parents, may she learn deeper and deeper dependence on you. Protect her from harm, I pray, take away the allure of sin in her heart, guard, guide and protect her forever. May she glorify her name with all that is in her! In Jesus name, Amen.

A heart full to bursting

My heart is full tonight.

Full of thankfulness, as the Lord has shown His faithfulness so clearly to our family, especially as we celebrated Clara Anne's baptism last Saturday evening.

Full of nostalgic reminiscing over the memories that were made with my friend Rachel and her family, living here in our city for four years--each of us calling this place home--and now she is on a yearlong sojourn to the States. They left on Monday morning, and took part of my heart with them.

And full of praise, for only the Lord could have orchestrated both of the above circumstances. Saturday night was a time that John and I have been praying for literally since before Clara Anne was born. As parents, seeing your child fully embrace the gospel and cling to Jesus is a miracle that only He can accomplish. How wonderful to see Him accomplish this miracle in Clara Anne! We have such hopes for her life, and every confidence that the Lord will complete the work he has started in her. As well, five years ago I had begun to pray for a friend, a close friend, someone to share life with in a spiritually intimate way, and through some amazing and unexpected circumstances, the Lord brought Josh and Rachel to live in our city. It almost seemed too perfect. How thankful I am for His leading, and for her friendship! We have shared much over these four years--everything from pregnancy and motherhood, life in this crazy country, recipes, education options for our children, homemaking skills, celebrating American holidays, praying for each other, phone conversations that end abruptly because children suddenly need mommy's attention. . . you name it, it seems like we've been through it together!

So though I am planning some posts to share more about each of these momentous events, tonight I just wanted to share a tiny bit of what my heart has been pondering. I feel like I'm still recovering a bit from the amazing events of the weekend and their implications. To add to the drama, we've had some tummy troubles in our house this week so the washing machine has been working full-time! And I've been trying to continue home schooling as usual. But sometime soon I hope to get lots of pictures uploaded and ready to share.

Because a heart full to bursting has to be shared!

Celebrating Chloe

Chloe turned four on Saturday. Yes, my "World Cup Baby" is already four--as highlighted by the fact that everybody's excited again about the World Cup happening now. John and I watched many a game during those weeks in Thailand waiting for the baby; usually they were on late at night and we would sit and time contractions while John rubbed my feet. (I had lots of pre-labor.) Then when I was actually in real labor, at one point John had to run to the nurses' station to have them come and check on me again since things were progressing, and of course, what did he find but all of them gathered around a small tv, watching the World Cup! So hearing about the games this year has brought back lots of memories!

But back to Chloe! She had a wonderful birthday this year, and it's not over yet as we will be celebrating with some other June birthday kids tomorrow! Her day on Saturday was a fun one, though. It started out with a card that arrived in the mail from Auntie Sarah! How fun! Chloe was so excited to get mail and this card was extra-special--had five small doors for her to open up. She wanted to have her picture taken with the card, then wanted to take the card with her for her naptime. Love it! We hung a banner. . . (you can see the card is still the object of much attention!)

And decorated a cake! Wait til you see the inside of this six layer cake!

Christin was pretty excited about the birthday festivities . . .

And Chloe was thrilled to use the special plate and mug that are only for birthdays. The mug is huge; practically as big as her face!

Supper was homemade macaroni and cheese with a veggie tray and of course, cake. Fizzy juice (a family favorite) made things extra-special! (Simply 7-up or Sprite with your choice of juice.) Clara Anne was happy about the birthday fun, too, she even got to wear the dress that our helper, Lou, gave to Chloe.

Now it's time for cake! Ooh, pretty! And lest you think I can't count to four, the fourth candle small candle is hiding behind the big four. :)

Blow, Chloe, you can do it! I love her puffed cheeks in this photo!

The special birthday girl with her big smile and big cake! Here she is, enjoying a slice of rainbow cake. It was a six-layer cake with each layer tinted a different color; didn't it turn out pretty? This is the most professional any of my cakes have ever looked! (That's not saying much, I know, but still, I was pleased with it!)

Mmmm.

I found a recipe online and adapted it to use only one white cake mix and a smaller, oval pan, rather than the full two mixes, round pan, and *gasp* FOUR packages of cream cheese that it would have used in the icing! Yikes! We didn't need 16 servings so I halved everything and baked it in the smaller pan; it worked great! Thanks to my friend Amy for loaning me her decorating equipment!

Clara Anne loved the blue layer, of course, and insisted that I take this picture. Since I had it, I figured I might as well post it. Just keeping things real!

No complaining from Christin about the cake, either!

Next Chloe/Clara and Chloe opened some gifts. They were really excited about this puzzle book from dear friends Emma and Samantha!

And we finished off the evening with a special prayer time for our sweet Chloe. At four years old, she is a delight to our family. She loves to sing in a super-high voice, an octave above everybody else. She dances beautifully in her own style without caring what the other girls are doing. She is quite athletic and despite some lingering pigeon-toed-ness, she runs fast and stays very physically active. She loves to ride her bike really fast! She is excellent at puzzles and loves to play with her sisters and the "Arielle dolls." I think she sometimes feels overshadowed by Clara Anne, but we try to affirm her unique qualities and are careful not to compare the two. Chloe is a great snuggler and is very physically affectionate--she's known for her long, loud kisses! She has grown so much in her verbal ability in the last year or so, too. She loves to help me in the kitchen! Chloe can be quite the charmer and yet also struggles with moodiness sometimes. We have seen growth in this area though in the past year. I am so thankful for our Chloe Rachelle! She makes us laugh and plays so well with Clara Anne (usually!). She is a precious gift to our family and is beginning to grasp more of the gospel. How we pray that the Lord will redeem her and she will become His true child!

Happy Birthday Chloe! We love you so much! You bring us so much joy. May the Lord bless you for His name's sake all the days of your life! And may you walk with Him forever.

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Working Hard

Intense concentration this morning. . . completely initiated by Clara Anne--so I didn't interrupt to "do school" but let them keep on working. They completed this 86 piece puzzle in about 20 minutes! Way to go! That's some hard work!

And we did get to our math and reading lessons this afternoon! We are also in the midst of a read-aloud fest; after John read the whole of the Chronicles of Narnia, the first two Little House books, and Dangerous Journey (Pilgrim's Progress for kids) in the last year or so, we started a new book last night: Heidi. I barely remember this story from my childhood so it'll be fun for me too! (Especially since John reads so I can sit back and relax!) In home school time we're currently reading The Apple and the Arrow by Mary and Conrad Buff. Great story; Clara's been on the edge of her seat!

Christin is Two!

Well, two months later and I'm finally posting pictures of Christin's birthday! It just so happens that yesterday was sweet Chloe's fourth birthday; so maybe I have birthdays on the brain! Or maybe I just need to catch up on posting pics! At any rate, here's a glimpse of Christin's birthday.



We were so excited to celebrate the day with the Carini family in Rochester, New York. Beth Carini is John's sister; she moved from Minnesota to New York to go to college in the 80s, then met and married an Italian New Yorker, and they've lived there ever since. And Rochester is only about a 12 hour drive from Louisville, so it worked out great to go and visit them!



On to the pictures of Christin's birthday. . . here cousin Amanda and Clara Anne are getting in the birthday spirit! All the girls put on their special party dresses and birthday hats! Christin wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but thought it was fun anyway!

I had to post this next funny picture of John and Uncle Steve, they weren't too manly to be afraid of wearing these hats!

Here's that sweet, blue-eyed, wispy blond haired, two year old!

She thought the princess plates and hats were lots of fun!

Aunt Beth made her a special lamb cake which made things so special. Blow out those two candles, Christin!

What a fun gift from Uncle Steve and Aunt Beth--a set of three princess outfits! The girls were so excited, they could hardly wait to get the clothes on!

Unfortunately the lamb met an untimely demise. I think John looks a little too gleeful with that knife, don't you?!

Christin had a great birthday, surrounded by family, with some special times to honor her, and much love given her on her second birthday! It's hard to believe she's two! Was it just two years ago I was wondering if I would be the world's first permanently pregnant woman? Hah!

What is Christin like at two years old?

*she loves to be a helper. She's my best table clearer, and usually gets things back into the kitchen without dropping them!

*she still loves to suck her left thumb while fingering the ear of her bunny head blanket lovey that she's had since birth, called "wa-wa" because that's the name for doll in the local language. Oh, that thumb is precious to her, especially at the times when she wants to fall asleep.

*Christin loves to be doing whatever Clara Anne and Chloe are doing. That's probably typical of younger siblings, but it is so true in her case as well. Whether it's freestyle ballet in the living room, singing in her high voice, playing with the "Arielle Dolls" (polly pocket-style princess dolls), doing a puzzle, playing with play dough, picking flowers, you name it; if the other girls are doing it, she wants to be doing it too!

*she loves to eat, especially summer fruits like blueberries, cherries, and watermelon. Drinkable yogurt is also a must every day!

*Christin has the funniest sidelong glance that she loves to do. She can be a bit sly and keep her thoughts to herself, then suddenly she'll give you this look out of the corner of her eye and a mischievous little half-smile--it's totally Christin!

*She is getting more and more independant. More and more, she wants to do things for herself--and actually can!

*She will still cuddle with me at times of her choosing.

*she's really talking a lot! Some favorite phrases include "Oh my!" and "Yeah!" Around the time of her birthday, she was using the phrase "Ice Gum" to denote anything sweet. "Mama, ice gum, ice gum," meant "Mama, could I have a treat?" It sounds like "ice cream" of course, but she also meant any kind of cookie, candy, or even chewing gum. Yes, my two year old has had chewing gum. I guess this is what happens when you have your third, you relax the rules a little! Oh well, I figure if she swallows a piece of gum every few weeks or so it's not going to hurt her!
*Actually at this point Christin can really communicate just about all of her basic needs and wants using words that sound pretty close to the real thing. She's doing great!

*It has melted my heart lately to hear her pray. She is just imitating what she's heard the other girls and Mommy and Daddy do, but still. . . hope there's something real going on in her heart and mind!

So, Happy Birthday Christin Arielle! We love you so much, sweetheart, and are so thankful for the Lord giving you to us. We pray that He will watch over you, bless you, and work in your heart so that you will soon come to know Him and His amazing love for you. May you be a bright light shining for Him in this world! May He use your life to bring Him much glory. We pray that your heart will soon be softened to the truth of His word, and that you would respond to Him in faith and long to serve Him all the days of your life. We love you, Christin!

The Home School Game Plan

Yesterday, June 21, was Clara Anne's first official day of kindergarten. Actually, I didn't make such a big deal of "the first day of school" since I feel like she's been engaging in learning activities for quite some time now (the Charlotte Mason people would say "since birth"!). And other than letting the girls use their celebration plates for breakfast, I didn't talk up the start of school too much. I think my approach is more going to be along the lines of working in some home school here and there between other fun activities; keeping the girls busy with play as well as reading aloud to them every spare moment.

Well, let me back up a little. I've been anticipating home schooling practically since Clara Anne was born, since that is really our only option for her education in our location. So I've been looking forward to it and gaining some ideas from various sources for a long time now. I have friends who are in the midst of this process (and doing very well at it!) but until fairly recently, I still was struggling to get my mind around exactly what I would do with Clara Anne when the time came. There seemed to be so many choices and options out there for homeschooling--different approaches, different methods, TONS of different materials, it all seemed great! How to choose?

Thankfully, John and I had the opportunity to attend a home schooling conference in Illinois just a few days before we came back to Asia. We left the girls in the excellent care of my parents, Grandma Ann and Auntie Sarah, and John and I went to the conference and soaked it all in. Finally I got a better understanding of the various methods and philosophies of home schooling, and sorted out a bit where I thought my ideas, and John's too, about home schooling fit in the big picture. We browsed through the enormous vendor hall and looked at various curriculums, products and tons of books. We had plenty of time to talk and discuss home school philosophy as well as curriculum choices. It was wonderful! I'm so thankful for that time which allowed us to make some major decisions about the future direction of our girls' training and development.

So, just for fun, I thought I'd post our home schooling game plan. Generally in the next year or so I am going to try to spend about two hours a day with Clara Anne doing "school work." How will we use that time? Here's a brief breakdown:

Daily:
Bible--reading a devotion together, reviewing memory verses, singing the song of the week, and prayer. We will soon begin working through a more clearly laid out catechism in our evening family worship, but in the mornings I will just do the above activities with the girls.

Reading Aloud--This is where I read some great stories and even classic literature aloud for the girls. I'll probably allow Clara Anne to color quietly or do something else with her hands as long as she can show she's listening. I'll use some simple methods to ask her to retell the story and test for comprehension. I have some excellent books on my list; some purchased from Vision Forum that are meant to teach character (we just started The Little Medicine Carrier and it's excellent!) and some that come from the Sonlight Kindergarten read aloud list.

Math--we decided on the Right Start Math Curriculum. At this point I can't even tell you exactly what makes Right Start different from other math methods, but all I know is it looks FUN. It teaches math concepts in a concrete way and uses lots of games, activities and manipulatives to accomplish this. We've done the first two lessons already and Clara Anne just thought we were playing a game, not that she was doing a lesson! (I'm sure it won't be all fun and games forever, but for now we're off to a great start!)

Reading/Phonics/Language Arts--We are going to be using the Scaredy Cat Reading System by Joyce Herzog. It is a very hands-on approach to learning reading, where the phonics rules are woven into a story that uses songs, games, activities, and a "fun pack" of cards to teach reading. There are four basic steps to teaching reading in this program: 1. tell the story (teaching the phonics rules). 2. Sing the songs (reinforce the learning). 3. Do some games and activities (learn through doing). 4. Test for comprehension (a one minute test to see how much the student has learned). This method makes so much sense to me! I like the story/song aspect of it, but more importantly, the goal is teaching comprehension and building the skill of reading. I simply continue to teach on the same topic through games and activities until I feel Clara Anne has mastered it (using the one minute test to see for sure) and then we move on. There is no set number of lessons to check off without knowing if she is "getting it" or not, and so I can feel free to use the curriculum to encourage learning until I see mastery of the topic. Spelling, word usage, and sentence structure are woven in as well. I'm excited about using this method! Joyce Herzog, the curriculum's author, was at the home school conference and I went to several of her seminars. So, when Sing-Spell-Read-Write wasn't available at the conference (what I had previously decided on), we decided to change to this and I'm so glad we did! Clara Anne is enjoying it too!

Those four subjects are going to comprise the main part of our homeschool day. But then, I have some other subjects that we'll cover once a week:

History--We were so impressed with The Mystery of History. It teaches history chronologically from a biblical perspective, combining ancient biblical history with history in other parts of the world. Studying history this year will mostly just be me reading aloud, but I'm sure we'll look at some maps and throw in a few activities occasionally, too. There are coloring pages, etc. that came along with the book.

Music--this happens in our house every day no matter what! We're always listening to music and talking about it, but we will be continuing to study it a bit more formally for a half an hour once a week using The Story of the Orchestra by Robert Levine. It's a (very) basic history of western music's famous composers with a CD that includes selections from their compositions. I also am going to be requiring Clara Anne to practice the piano for 5-10 minutes a day; we'll try to make some progress in piano skills as the year goes on.

Ballet--the girls have shown SUCH an interest in ballet over the last few months! We bought some books on ballet, we have some ballets on DVD, and we even have a "Baby Ballet" DVD that the girls can do some ballet exercises along with the dvd. We also hope to enroll Clara Anne in a class, just for fun, if we can find one that's appropriate.

Science--this year science is going to be very low-key; doing an experiment, helping Mommy cook in the kitchen, looking at some nature books, that's going to be about it. I did buy some Usborne books of science experiments to do at home, we'll pull those out every few weeks or so.

Art--Drawing with Children is a book that came highly recommended. I think the main idea is to teach an "alphabet of line" so to speak--to break down the things we see into various types of lines so as to draw them more accurately. I have to do a bit more reading and prep in this book before I'm ready to have the girls start it, but this is really just for fun. They're constantly doing art projects anyway--painting, coloring, using markers, chalk, etc, so this will just give them some new ideas.

Wowza! So there you have it! I also should mention that I do plan to start Latin with Clara Anne once she is reading fluently. We will be beginning a very gentle approach to Latin with Prima Latina when I feel Clara Anne is ready for a new challenge. We'll see when we get to it!

So there's the home school game plan! Can you tell I'm excited about it?! It feel so wonderful to have finally actually decided what to do, now I'm just eager to spend this special time with Clara Anne and flex my teaching muscles a bit. (It's been awhile since I was teaching voice lessons in the States!) I am also determined not to get too distressed if plans get disrupted, time schedules get "off", or we don't accomplish a certain amount in a certain length of time. I'm really trying to look at each day as a learning opportunity; whether that be "book learning" or simply life learning, I want to make each day count. Yesterday things went wonderfully; we did a lot and it all went quite smoothly! This morning was different--Clara Anne slept late, there was a discipline issue with Chloe and Christin that ended up taking some time to resolve, and I had an unexpected guest stop by for an hour. But, we still did most of the things I was hoping to do today! And, we baked cut-out cookies with a new bunny cookie cutter this afternoon which truly made Clara Anne's heart happy, she got to "paint" hers blue and thought that was so special.

My friend Gretchen Wright, a wise and experienced homeschooling mom, told me, "You need three things for successful homeschooling. First, a supportive husband. Second, a disciplined child. (i.e. a child who is trained in habits of obedience and will obey your commands.) And third, and perhaps most importantly, a disciplined mom. (Especially in terms of her use of time!) Wise words, don't you think? It's perhaps the last one that hits home with me the most!

So, off we go on this brand new adventure! Though I certainly sense the weight of being responsible for my daughters' education, I am so very thankful for the opportunity to influence them; to raise them up to be women and homemakers who know and serve the Lord, and I am so eager to spend this precious time of their youth together. May the Lord grant wisdom, strength, and a humble dependence on Him as I seek to teach my daughters!

"Where do I keep my glasses, again?" and other musings on returning to cross-cultural life

We've been back in Asia for more than a week now, and are unpacked and settled in, adjusted to the time difference, and generally going full-speed now in life here. But it was an interesting transition this time; some things were different than I expected them to be, so I thought I'd share a few thoughts about it here.

Returning "home" to a culture that is not your own is a unique experience. So many things are so familiar, and yet, it is a kind of familiarity that has taken time to acquire. Traffic, food, weather, even the air and water are different. But in many ways, this was our smoothest-ever reentry. I can still remember vividly the time that we returned to our apartment after being gone for almost three months having Clara Anne, seeing my parents, and attending a meeting. By that point Clara Anne was six weeks old, and we had been in pretty constant transition. The week before we had said goodbye to my parents, and the day before we had said goodbye to dear friends. Now we were on our own with the new baby, headed back into the country with no one ready to greet us.

We arrived late in the day and toted our many pieces of luggage up the five flights of stairs. (Well, ok, John toted--I mostly carried the small stuff and the baby!) As we opened the door to go into our apartment, our eyes fell on . . . dust. Dust and dirt. Everything I looked at--the floor, the furniture, even the pictures on the wall--was covered in a thick layer of black dust. "Don't touch anything," I said to John. We carefully stacked the luggage while I went to the sink and immediately got a rag and soapy water to start washing things off. Bit by bit, we cleaned the table and other surfaces so that we could set things down, I quickly wiped down the crib and found a clean sheet so that at least Clara Anne could be laid down in a safe place, and we just kept cleaning. Finally we cleaned the bathroom and the nightstands so that we could brush our teeth and go to bed.

The next day I woke up with my first-ever case of mastitis and thought I was dying. My fever had spiked and I felt absolutely terrible. I laid in bed while John kept cleaning, and he just brought me the baby every two hours so I could nurse her (trying to nurse more, not less, to help the mastitis clear up). I sat in bed and read and re-read "The Nursing Mother's Companion" since I was convinced I was dying but had no idea how to go to a doctor here. Of course there was no food or water in the house so John had to go out and take care of that, and bless him, he did it all while I laid in bed and felt miserable. Thankfully Clara Anne was a good eater and sleeper and none of this seemed to bother her very much. We just kept on; about four or five days later I was feeling better, John had gotten everything cleaned, and our house was livable again.

That was not a happy experience, nor nearly what I had imagined for my first homecoming with my first baby, but it sure makes for a great story now! Contrast that with our homecoming on June 9 after our 2.5 months in the States:

We were greeted at the airport by friends holding a bouquet of roses and with three vehicles to transport us and all our stuff home. As we drove into our apartment complex and stopped at the entrance to our building, my house helper was waiting to take the girls out of my arms and excitedly told me how she had hardly slept last night for excitement that we were coming back! The girls hopped right out of the car and headed to the elevator, knowing exactly where to go to get home. As I got myself out, I realized that some local friends just happened to be passing by right at that moment! And, before I could even enter our building, my friend Becky ran up, shouting and ready for a big hug!

I finally made it upstairs and was greeted by a spotlessly clean house. There was food in the frig, the house was cool and comfortable, everything was as clean as a whistle! The rugs had been washed, the floor had been waxed, the sheets had been washed; it almost brought tears to my eyes! My helper had thought of everything and as I came in it was like seeing our home for the first time again. I had almost forgotten what it looked like! How wonderful to be back among the familiar--our books, our toys, our decorations on the wall; ahhh, so good to be home.

In fact, in those first few moments Becky and I were standing around chatting and I was thirsty, but had forgotten where I keep the glasses in my kitchen to get a drink of water! After looking in two cupboards I asked her! Now that is a strange feeling that has repeated itself this week a few times...I couldn't find the scissors in the craft cupboard the other day, again, just couldn't remember where I keep them. But eventually I've gotten back into the swing of things around home and in the city too.

We've passed some of the first milestones--first bike ride, first trip to the store, first meeting with lots of friends, and many of my local friends have blessed me by seeking me out this week. I really have been struck by what a true blessing it is; I am the foreigner here, I am the one who is odd and different and unlike them, but so many of my friends made an effort to seek me out and bring me gifts (usually fruit!) this past week. That really means a lot and affirms the feeling again that we are home. I've had some moments of real "I love this life we have" this week, but I've also had a few "argh" moments, like today when we drove all over town looking for a bike for Clara Anne. The first place had one that was suitable, but only had a floor model and it was dirty and dented, they didn't actually have the bike. (Why, why, why does this always happen? I can't even tell you the number of times I've been shopping, wanted to buy something and then suddenly, "Sorry, we don't have that." If you don't have it why are you displaying it?!!) We rode our bikes in the hot summer weather another 20 minutes and that store didn't have anything either. We are not talking small, podunk stores, we're talking large superstores that supposedly are well stocked! Not in girls' bikes I guess!

It's been such a blessing to be back in our home again. I also have to say that I think we're really tired. I've been catching up on sleep this week (had a couple of 9 hour nights!) and the girls have been napping well. It's been lots of activity and adreneline recently, (getting ready to go to the States, our whirlwind trip, and just the long haul of traveling across the ocean!) so it will be good to catch up and then get settled into a good schedule again. I do plan to start some home school activities with Clara Anne tomorrow; I've done some preparation so we'll see how that goes!

I praise the Lord for such a smooth re-entry into this Asian culture which is so different from our own. The girls have still been a bit shy about speaking the local language, but thankfully mine came back pretty quickly despite two months of not using it at all! I feel the Lord's grace on us as we have gotten settled back in. We are glad to be back, smog and all!