Things I'm Thankful for Today

1. Tiny baby bodies
2. The nap I got to take this afternoon
3. The fact that this is the easiest of the three c-section recoveries so far. I stopped taking the prescription pain medication on day 6 and have just been taking ibuprofen as needed since. Don't get me wrong. It's still not easy, but it's been so much better than the first two.
4. My husband. He's been so helpful, which is a huge blessing to me!
5. Chet's mom came to help us for 10 days!
6. Gabe is almost completely potty-trained and will even go when we're out somewhere strange.
7. Both the boys LOVE, LOVE, LOVE their baby sister! They take such good care of her!
8. I've been able to lay on my side for the last couple of days when I sleep (as opposed to only being able to lay on my back). This means that when the boys come downstairs in the mornings, they can lay by me on the couch for a few minutes.
9. I've lost almost 23 of the 28 pounds I gained... without doing anything except take care of our family and avoid a bunch of junk food. I do not necessarily expect that the rest will come off at the same rate or that my abs will be flat right away, but we'll see. It's not like I can exercise at this point. I'm still limiting myself to no more than two trips up and down the stairs each day, and we all know that two trips up and down the stairs is not exactly a good cardio workout. Speaking of cardio workouts, I was just telling Chet yesterday that I am so pumped that I should soon be able to walk briskly or even jog for longer distances again! I can't wait!
10. Our friends here are awesome! Their help getting things done before the baby came has helped so much now that she's here!
11. When Claire does that involuntary smiley thing that tiny babies do when they're just waking up or dozing off. She's so cute! I think it's the Lord's way of giving us the joy of seeing a little glimpse of what it's going to be like when they're smiling on purpose and even laughing!
12. Our neighbors blessed us with a bag of really awesome stuff for Claire tonight! Our power went out in a storm this afternoon, so we were all out on the front porches hanging out when they gave it to us. Linda (the wife) cried when she got to hold Claire. She's a grandma and a neonatal nurse, so she said she can't help it.
13. While we were out on the porch, the boys were running and splashing in the puddles of rain that blew up on the porch. I love watching them have so much fun in puddles. Usually I run with them, so Gabe said, "Come on, Mom! Run!" I explained that I couldn't run because my tummy hurts still. He replied, "Can you walk?" So I started walking, and he stood on the other side of the porch leaning over, clapping his hands, and saying, "Come on, Mom! Come on, Mom!" in his best encouraging voice. It was so funny!
14. Our laundry is on the second floor where our bedrooms are. At first I wasn't too sure that this was superior to having it on the first level. However, I can just barely make it up and down the stairs carrying my pillow and a few other miscellaneous items... clearly making it impossible to carry baskets of clothing up and down. Needless to say, it's great to have it all right there.
15. I finally get to have hot pink, lime green, orange, yellow, turqouise, and all manner of bright colors decorating a room!!!! It's not my own room, but it's a room in our home that doesn't have muted colors, and I LOVE IT! Anyone who knows me well knows that I thoroughly enjoy color and would like it everywhere. However, Chet prefers more muted shades (which I like okay, but I wouldn't choose them over bright colors)... and until we can afford new furniture and paint for our walls, we have a ton of beige everywhere in our house... but not in Claire's room. It makes me happy every time I walk past her door. I can't wait until she can use her room more!
16. There were quite a few things we needed from the grocery store last night. However, after a trip to the splash park and Campus Town to get ice cream on Friday and then swimming lessons and a visit to Target on Saturday morning, I wasn't exactly up for walking through the grocery store. So we went to the store as a family, and Claire and I both took our first ride around on one of those motorized scooter carts while Chet pushed the regular cart with the boys in it. It was lots of fun to go to the store together, and we actually got everything we needed without me doubling over in pain by the end of it! I'm always blessed when Chet and I can do something together as a team, and he absolutely hates going to the grocery store, so this was particularly fun for me!
17. They gave me an elastic binder to go around my mid-section when I was in the hospital, and it's amazing. It holds my muscles all together, and it helps keep things away from my incision. As I'm losing my baby belly pretty rapidly, it's starting to get a little bit less comfortable simply because my incision is right there next to it all the time, but it's still a DRAMATIC improvement over having my clothes hitting it all day. If any of you ever has a c-section, and they don't give you one of these in the hospital, you have to go out and buy one yourself (well, have someone do it for you). They carry them at Motherhood Maternity and Babies R Us for sure.
18. Cameras. I have so much fun taking photos of our family! I can't wait to post some of the recent photos I've taken of life around here. They're not all fabulous photography worthy of an award of any kind... but they will definitely be the type of photo that brings good memories in the future.
19. Claire is eating lots better, and I can tell she's filling out at least a little bit. She's still a sleepy little thing, which is very different than both the boys.
20. I just heard Chet go into the boys' room after the power was restored for the second time tonight. I'm pretty sure he was showing Ladan how to use the flashlight if it goes out again. As he was leaving the room, I heard Ladan say, "Okay! I can do that! I'll obey right away, Dad."

Well, there are many other things I'm thankful for today, but I'll stop with these for now. I'll try to post more photos soon.

Transformation

Today has been an interesting day. We started off the day with no power, so the boys woke up very early due to the fact that their fans weren't blowing in their room and they were really warm. We've been potty training Gabe this week, and he's been getting better and better every day. He woke up with a dry diaper this morning, which was pretty exciting! He had just a couple of little accidents on his way to the potty, but it was just because he didn't make it in time. For the most part, everything has gone in the potty for the past two days. So that was really great!

I think, however, that the early rise left both of the boys feeling a bit cranky. Ladan in particular was talking back quite a bit and just kind of being rude in general. We had several discussions about it throughout the morning. However, by the time early afternoon rolled around, he was NOT responding well to anyone or anything. I asked him to go sit on my bed and wait for me to come talk to him. Chet was in our room working on church stuff (his office area is in our bedroom), so he would be the one to administer correction. But I had to tell him what happened. So I started recounting with Ladan the things I was noticing about the way he was handling situations. He was listening pretty intently.

He then said, "Mom, I want to say, 'Sorry.'" I let him know that he could definitely do that but that he would still have to have discipline. He responded, "But discipline is..." (he usually inserts the word "mean" in this spot). Before he could finish, I interjected that the Bible describes that we will discipline our children if we LOVE them and that it's not mean because we are responsible to God for training Ladan and teaching him. Here's how the rest of our dialogue went.

Ladan: "Because I need to be transformed."
Me: "What do you mean by that?"
Ladan: "I need to be transformed and change from a person who sins against God into a man who loves God and obeys God. So I have to have discipline."

And that's when Chet took over. He called Ladan to his lap, and Ladan went without an argument... almost as if he was somehow seeing the value of what we were saying even though he knew that what was coming wasn't going to be completely enjoyable. They talked for quite a few minutes before and after Ladan received his discipline. I don't know how their discussion went, but at the end of it all, Ladan promptly came down the stairs and gave me a big hug and said he was sorry for disobeying. He said, "I love you, Mom," and then walked over to play with some toys while I prepared our lunch. Back to life as usual.

Both boys are napping now with the hope that they'll wake up ready to interact with the world around them in a more reasonable fashion.

It's so great to hear the things that Ladan is saying these days! And I'm SO THANKFUL we don't have to send him to childcare all day, because it means that we're the ones who get to hear him say all these cool things. What a blessing this time is with our kids! It's hard some days for sure, and it definitely takes discipline on our parts to maintain any form of consistency. But the Lord is faithful to help us.

Just recently, one of our friends said that his dad talks about raising children and says, "We did the best we could. It's not like you guys came with an instruction manual." Our friend's response to that is to be thankful that his parents did their best... but he doesn't agree with the part about the instruction manual. He's right on! What a gift the Word of God is to us as parents!

Hairy Arms, Burping Bottoms and Other Fun Stories

Here are a few funny stories from recent days...

One day Ladan was trying to open something that was pretty hard to turn. He said, "Wow, Mom. This is really tough to open." He looked down again at it and said with determination, "Well, I do have hair on my arms, so I must be strong enough to open it." He gave it another try and got it opened... then yelled, "Aaaaahhhhhhh!!!!! I did it!!!" FYI--Ladan has a few clear pieces of hair on his arm that can't be more than 1/8 inch in length. Nevertheless, it is there, and apparently it makes him strong like Daddy.

-------------------------------------------------

Last weekend I was watching the MU football game with Ladan. They lost. I told Ladan what happened, and he said, "Well, I guess they'll praise Him." Have you seen Facing the Giants? There is a line in the movie where the coach tells the team that if they win, they'll praise Him [God], and if they lose, they'll praise Him. When Chet came home, Ladan told him that the Missouri Tigers lost and were praising God. Let's hope they were!

-------------------------------------------------

Just yesterday he woke up from his nap and was playing with Gabe. He accidentally tooted. He announced, "Whoops. I just tooted." I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom. He responded, "No. It's kind of strange. It's almost like my bottom just burped." Nice observation. I replied, "Yes, that's pretty much exactly what it's like. And yes, it is kind of strange."

-------------------------------------------------

Our neighbors are moving back to California and are leaving town tomorrow morning. We're so sad to see them go. I don't think I'll ever take for granted the days we've had with them right next door. Over the course of the last few days, their two little girls have been playing at our house a lot so Glen and Jessica can pack. Ladan and Hannah (who will be 3 in February) have been playing a lot of house. Ladan has a small tent set up in his room right now. It's a 3x3 foot tent with mesh walls so you can look in easily. They have the kid-sized lawn chairs set up inside the tent. Many times over the course of these days, Ladan and Hannah have gone into their house to sit together. It's really funny because they just sit there for up to 15 minutes at a time just talking and doing nothing else. It's like they're an old couple just chilling out on the screened-in porch chatting the day away.

They have taken their "kid" (a small snowman made out of a tube sock) to school. Hannah sits on the little riding toy holding the "kid", and Ladan pushes them to school. They drop the kid off, and then come back down the hallway to do something else for a while. Inevitably, they remember their kid and go back to get her from school.

At one point, Gabe tried to walk into the tent while Hannah and Ladan were sitting in their chairs. Hannah said, "No, Gabe. You can't come in the house right now, son." Awesome!

-------------------------------------------------

We put our Christmas tree up after we ate our Thanksgiving dinner. Ladan has been so excited about it and keeps shouting out, "It's Christmas in our house!" He tells me regularly that he just loves Christmas and is so glad that it's Christmas in our house.

Amber, my sister-in-law, made us a set of ornaments last year that have different names of Jesus on them. Each one has a name that Scripture uses to refer to Jesus as well as the Scripture reference where we can read about it. There are 25 of them, so we do one each day, reading the scripture and talking about what it means when we refer to Jesus as ___________. Ladan has been having fun trying to read the names of Jesus on the ornaments. He gets some of them right off, and some (like "The One Mediator") are a bit more challenging.

One of the ornaments reads "Man from Heaven". It was the first one we did. When Ladan woke up the next day and came to the tree to try to read it, he said, "Man... (insert long pause) who goes to college." I helped him figure it out and he now gets it every time, but I thought his original version was pretty great!

-------------------------------------------------

Gabe has been pretty funny lately too. He's starting to use all kind of fun phrases. Today I was wiping the oatmeal off his chin, and he said, "Oh my goodness. I'm messy."

When he does something wrong to Ladan, he says, "Foddy, Nanan" (Sorry, Ladan).

His favorite game is to wait for someone to get up from his/her seat, RUN over, climb into the vacated seat, and yell, "You get out of my seat!" This game NEVER gets old for Gabe and is a constant source of entertainment for him.

We got the following message from one of Gabe's Sunday School teachers a few weeks ago:

"... one of the parents asked us if we were teaching the kids to kneel or bow down when we pray...if you have noticed your kids wanting to do this when you pray at home it is not because we have taught them to do this. Although, at some point one of the kids just decided to lay face down when we started to pray and the power of influence on kids is I guess pretty big, because when we pray in Sunday school, most of the kids will now lay face down. So if you are wondering what your child is doing, that's the explanation!"

Can you even imagine a room full of two-year-olds laying face-down on the ground during prayer time? I so wish I could see it!

Well, that's all for now! Chet finished his classes for the semester, so I'll try to get better at posting more regularly again. Please be praying for us as we make all kinds of decisions in the next little while!

The New 20

Today I turned 30. My brother called me a couple of days ago and asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I can never think of anything when people ask me this question, but I remembered that I do have an Amazon wish list. I got on the computer while I was talking to him and sent the link to Amber, my sister-in-law. While she was pulling up the list, my brother was heckling me about how old I am. I heard Amber yelling out from the background, "30 is like the new 20!" He said, "Yeah, she said that 30 is like the new 50!" Nice. That's what little brothers are for I guess.

I was just excited to hear Amber say that she thought my Amazon wish list was so fun that it caused her to think that she needed to spice hers up a bit! I guess I'm not a total dud yet.

Last night my guys gave me my birthday present early. They got me Volume 1 of the Love Comes Softly movie series. We do like them because they're wholesome movies... but apparently part of the reason Chet bought them is that we laugh really hard at some of the acting, particularly the body movements and facial expressions of Dale Midkiff (Missie's father). Chet can do a mean Dale Midkiff impression that causes me to crack up. You'll have to ask him to oblige you sometime.

Earlier today I was getting ready to go to the grocery store, and Ladan walked me to the door. He gave me a hug before I left and spontaneously said, "I think you're really cool." That's a great birthday gift right there!

My mom had Chet go out and get me some balloons. He thought it was too much to get 30 balloons, so he got six latex balloons and wrote "5", "plus five", "+ five", "add cinco", "+ V", and "add another five" on them. Then he had them include a mylar balloon that says "thirty". He said that 6 x 5 = 30... and he was able to accomplish the goal with only seven balloons. Efficiency is definitely key. Now you see why we fit well together.

Before I went to the high school girls small group at church, I stopped at Starbucks and got my favorite treat, a mint javachip frappuccino. While I was waiting for it, the barista gave me a free multigrain roll and apple bran muffin. He didn't even know it was my birthday, so I consider that a gift straight from the Lord!

Then the small group gals had another little treat and a very sweet card for me. All of these things on top of the MANY Facebook, phone, and e-mail birthday greetings were a real blessing today. I definitely don't feel much different than I did when I turned 20. That said, I think Amber is probably right on. It's the new 20!

Our Baby is TWO!

Gabe turned two today! I can hardly believe it. He's such a little man! To celebrate his special day, we had pizza for dinner and invited our neighbors over for brownies. Jessica, Hannah, and Maddie are three of Gabe's very favorite people, so it was great fun for him!

Here are a few photos of our birthday fun... (You have to click on this first one and look at what he's doing.)

We (Chet, Ladan, and I) got him a doctor kit. The boys are pretty freaked out by the doctor, and since they have to go again in two days, we're hoping this type of toy will help ease their anxiety about things that happen at the doctor. I'm also going to make Gabe an ABC photo book, but there are still a few photos that I need to get before I can make the book. Basically, it's a 6x6 scrapbook, each page displaying a photo of Gabe doing something starting with each letter of the alphabet.

He also received two sets of trucks (thanks to Gigi and Grandma) and some money from several folks that will go into his account. It was a good day for our little guy!

Here are some fun things about Gabe:

• He's starting to learn his letters and probably knows about 5 or 6 of them.
• He LOVES to read books and is unbelievably cute when he sits on the floor with his little legs straight out with a book spread from his hips all the way to his feet.
• One of his favorite things to do is take out all of the kid movies one by one, looking at the front first, then the back, then lay them on the floor. (I'm thankful that he doesn't seem to enjoy this as much as he has for the last several weeks, because it's a pain to put them all back in their proper places.)
• He's using more and more sentences all the time, but you still have to know him pretty well to be able to pick out what he's saying.
• He's a magnet for pre-teen and teenage girls! Probably because he freely distributes lots of kisses to them and says their names with a super-cute voice.
• He can jump really high with both feet off the ground. They say this is a helpful sign that he has the muscle tone necessary for successful potty training. However, since he doesn't like to sit still for longer than 2.9 seconds, I haven't had a whole lot of success getting him to even pretend he's going potty. Good thing I'm not all worried about getting him potty trained and won't be for quite some time.
• He still seems to prefer his left hand while eating, throwing, drinking, or doing just about anything. We'll see if he turns out to be a lefty or if it's just a random thing for now.
• He is getting better and better at throwing, kicking, catching, and hitting any type of ball. He's had some recent success with his tennis racquet. It's a pretty funny sight since his racquet seems like it's almost as tall as he is!
• He sleeps with his ball blanket, his little bear blanket, his binky, his football, and sometimes a Mega Bloc Lightning McQueen and a London double-decker bus.
• He can never get enough milk.
• Every morning, I get his cup of milk for him, and then he promptly goes to the cabinet to get his little glass bowl out for his "pancakes"... which is really oatmeal. He loves both pancakes and oatmeal and would be happy with either. So, when he hands me the bowl, I ask him if he's ready for some oatmeal, and he shouts, "YEAH!" Then he happily announces that he's going to shut the cabinet and waits for me to confirm that I heard him before he actually closes it.
• He is still a great sleeper most of the time. He sleeps about 12 hours at night and 3 hours in the afternoon.
• I can still tell when he's got a dirty diaper... not because he smells, because many times he doesn't. It's because he's getting into trouble. Whenever Gabe is disobeying, when I hear screaming, or if there's some kind of scuffle between Ladan and Gabe, the first thing I generally check is Gabe's diaper... and it's almost always dirty. Crazy.
• He's starting to get a little bit more shy the older he gets.
• I've had to trim his curls a couple of times, but they seem to keep coming back. We'll see if that lasts forever, or if it's just a little boy stage like it was for my brother.
• He has such fun expressions, both facial and verbal!

We love this little boy and are so thankful to the Lord that He's given us two whole years with him. We are praying for many more. More importantly, we're praying that he is captivated by God's Word and that he develops an intense love for the Lord that brings him to his knees in repentance, obedience, and JOY!

This afternoon Ladan was asking Gabe if he wanted to pretend like he was Baby Jesus, and Ladan could be Joseph. Ladan told him they could pretend they were in Bethlehem, and it would be fun because he (Gabe... aka Baby Jesus) could rescue everyone! Wouldn't it be amazing if the Word came to life in Ladan's heart and he ended up teaching his brother in such fun and understandable ways that Gabe can't help but fall in love with the Lord?!?

The Hurricane That Hit Louisville

As many of you know, Hurricane Ike went through Galveston and Houston and came straight for Louisville. By the time it reached us on Sunday morning (the 14th), the rain was gone, but the wind was still 75-80 miles per hour. Trees and power lines all over town went down. We were driving out to the Murrays' for lunch after church that Sunday. We were almost there when suddenly a telephone pole snapped in half just about 40-50 yards ahead of us. When the transformer came crashing down, it exploded right in front of us. The top half of the pole was left tangled in the wires and dangling over the road. If we had gotten to that spot just a couple seconds earlier, that transformer could have exploded right on top of us. So we found another way to get to the Murrays', and we all enjoyed lunch without power.

On our way home, we saw ridiculously large trees laying all over homes and cars across town. When we entered our neighborhood, we saw that there were several large trees down. The main entrance had already been mostly cleared of a large tree that fell and spanned the entire roadway. The power was definitely out. We learned that about a half million people were out of power in our area and that it would be 10-14 days before everyone got power back (apparently, they had sent a bunch of our local folks down to the coast to help with Gustav clean-up, so they had to wait for them to return).

Thank goodness I had recently purchased new flashlights and maintained a stock of things like batteries and non-perishable food! Of course, I thought I was keeping them for something like a tornado... definitely not a hurricane. We had also purchased a new cooler right before Ladan's birthday party this summer. Our old one leaked and wouldn't hold ice.

Our food supply was actually my main concern. I had planned our meals really well and had acquired most of everything we'd needed to prepare them for the rest of the month. I was hoping to only spend about $25-$50 more for the rest of the month. Realizing that I couldn't complain if having to spend additional money out of our very tight budget was the worst of it, I still prayed that the Lord would help us keep our food from going to waste. We determined not to open the fridge and freezer so that as much of the cool air in them could stay put.

On Monday morning, we found out that all classes on campus would be cancelled for the entire week. So Chet was home for breakfast! I made pancakes and eggs on the grill. We have a side burner, so it wasn't difficult. The worst part is that a strong wind came toward the end and knocked the remaining uncooked eggs on the ground, making a pretty disgusting mess to clean up.

I decided it would be fun to follow up our breakfast with some coffee. So I marched out to the van and attempted to use our AC adapter to plug in the grinder and coffee pot. It worked GREAT for the grinder, and it warmed up the coffee pot, but I guess it takes more power to actually pump the water through. It didn't work, but at least now we know just in case this need/desire ever comes up in the future. You know, in case we're out camping for real sometime!

A few hours later, our neighbors (who happen to work at Outback Steakhouse) called and said that they had just picked up a box of 24 11-ounce steaks from the restaurant because it had no power and couldn't save the meat. Several of us pitched in veggies, and they invited a bunch of neighbors over to share in the fun. They even had one of the Outback grillers come over and perfect our steaks for us. We definitely weren't suffering!

Then we learned that the seminary was going to be serving dinner that night to the entire seminary community. They decided to serve three free meals a day to everyone for a couple of days (after which their power came back on, and people could purchase meals like normal if they wanted to). We were at dinner that Monday night and ran into Ryan Townsend, our church administrator. He told us that the power at the church had come back on that afternoon and that we could take our freezer stuff and put it in the church freezer! We went home to open our freezer for the first time. Since it was jammed full, everything was still totally frozen through! We transferred it to the church that night and didn't lose anything!

By Tuesday morning, our fridge wasn't very cool anymore, but since we had only opened it about twice, everything was still okay. We were able to find ice at a nearby gas station. It was not an easy thing to find for MANY people, but Chet happened to find it at the first place he stopped. AMAZING!!!!! I did decide to get rid of things like ranch dressing (which we don't often use anyway) and a few other containers that had just a tiny bit left. Otherwise, we didn't lose anything major from our refrigerator either.

Wednesday night our church provided dinner before church. I was at church late for a meeting, so the boys came home first. When they got here, OUR POWER WAS BACK ON!!!!!! Chet sent me a message right before I left the church letting me know it was back, so I was able to load up our freezer goods and bring them home.

I walked in the door, and Ladan shouted, "Mom! God gave us our light-tricity back!" He normally says electricity correctly, but he was so excited that it came out funny. Later that night I was putting him to bed. He walked down the hall to his room, turned, and looked up at his light switch. He slowly moved toward it and flipped the switch. It came on! He was once again SO EXCITED that he started jumping up and down with his hands in the air, screaming, "My light turned on!" He jumped up into my arms and gave me a massive hug and a kiss on my cheek! He prayed that night thanking God for everything that came back on and for taking care of us when our lights were off. Amen to that!

Some people were without power for quite a few days longer than we were. Most of the schools were out for at least a week. And many people are still cleaning up tree limbs and making repairs to their homes all over town.

Compared with many people, we really didn't have it bad at all.

• It was kind of like a camp experience, including the nightly visit to the "mess hall" for dinner... except we were staying in a really nice cabin with our own beds, running water (although cold), flushing toilets, and no bugs!
• We didn't lose any groceries other than a few items we don't use often anyway, and we really did make it through the rest of the month only spending $30 more!
• On top of that, we had meals provided for several days so that the groceries we had will end up going a lot farther than I thought they would.
• Our old antenna works now. Several weeks before the storm, we were having trouble getting even the most basic channels on our antenna, and it was very difficult to get anything to come through on the digital converter box. The problem with digital is that it's all or nothing, but the analog signals were terrible too. So we decided to try a new antenna from Radio Shack. We had 30 days to try it out. The power went out on day 26. By day 29, we decided to return it because the remote had never really worked, and it wasn't really great at getting a strong signal. When I took it back, they explained that these were extremely unusual problems for this model, but because of the power outage, they didn't have any others. I went home, and we figured we'd have to continue the hunt later. When the power came back on, we decided to just plug the old antenna in and see if we could pick up any news (we still hadn't heard anything about what kind of damage was done in Texas or anything). Well, something must have happened during the repairs, because our old antenna works FABULOUSLY now!!!!!!!! We don't have to spend that extra money at all, and if it weren't for that faulty Radio Shack antenna, we may have never known it! (Not that we would have "had" to spend the extra money, but I think you get my point.)
• We got to spend a lot of time with our friends and neighbors helping one another.
• We realized even more what the Body of Christ can do together when there is a need. We were so blessed by things as simple as our friends allowing us to shower in their homes, wash a couple loads of laundry, and store our frozen goods.
• Chet got to rest a little bit more since classes were cancelled for the entire week. Chet's schedule is especially challenging this semester (not the classes, but the times of them), so we were both getting really exhausted. The fact that he was able to catch up more on his sleep was a huge provision from the Lord.
• Our power returned literally hours before the heat returned to town. We didn't have a single sweaty day or night during the outage (although plenty of people across town did).

Hopefully you can see that none of these things are coincidences. And to think that there are probably a million other ways that the Lord meticulously cared for us that we don't have any clue about! That's enough to cause me to fall on my face before Him!

A Wild Day

Shortly after we woke up today the boys were playing in the living room while I did the dishes. Suddenly I heard a loud smack followed by the resulting bloody murder scream from Gabe. I ran in, and he had done a face plant right into the hardwood floor. I picked him up, and his mouth was bleeding. I couldn't get him calmed down for quite a few minutes, so it was difficult to see what exactly was bleeding. After about 15 minutes, I saw that it was coming from his upper gums. It bled for about 45 minutes, but finally I was able to determine that most likely his front teeth got jammed up into his gums a bit. He bled one other time later in the evening, but it stopped much more quickly that time.

So, how did he do it? I can't be sure, but I think I have a pretty good guess. The only other thing on the floor with him was a throw pillow from the couch. Gabe is a really good jumper for his age and enjoys jumping over and off of just about anything. I'm guessing that he put the pillow down on the ground and was trying to jump off it when it unsuspectingly slid right out from under him causing the face plant. I was hoping it would teach him a lesson without causing great fear. It didn't. Later in the evening, he was found jumping off a package of diapers and attempting to jump across the couch (at which point he also fell... but I was close enough to catch him and promptly scold him hopefully scaring the daylights out of him so he doesn't do that again).

We went on with the rest of our day. I made a really yummy chicken pot pie for dinner with a smiley face cut out of the crust on top. It was my first ever chicken pot pie, and it turned out really well. Chet deemed it a repeat-worthy recipe. Ladan kept saying, "Yummy," with every bite, but over the course of about 2.5 hours, he only took about 15 bites. That kid took FOREVER to eat his dinner!!!! He wasn't rebelliously refusing to eat... he was just kind of in a daze and only ended up taking a bite every 10 minutes or so. He basically woke up from his nap, went to the table for dinner, went to the bathroom, and went back to bed again. Crazy!

While Ladan was eating, Gabe painted two pictures, took a bath, played for a while, and had a haircut. I had to trim off a portion of his curls. In recent weeks, he's been mistaken for a girl twice, and we can't have that. We love his curls and were both kind of sad to see the majority of them go... but cute curls are not worth mistaken gender identification. I did leave a little bit of a flip in the back, so we'll see if they grow back. Don't worry. He's still cute!

While I was cutting Gabe's hair, I got a call from my brother. He and Amber are in St. Louis with the boys right now. I've been having the hardest time thinking about the fact that they're so close and not being able to afford the trip to go see them. I kept re-examining our expected income and expenses through January (when Chet graduates), and there was just no way that it could possibly be responsible to take another trip. Well, he called to say that I should pack our bags because they're going to pay our gas to get there!!!!!! They've already been more than generous toward us, so this is over the top... but we're taking them up on the offer! I get to leave in the morning with the boys to go see them and the rest of my family too! Amazing! Talk about answered prayer!

Gabe is SO EXCITED to see Baby Justus. He kept calling Justus his baby. We'd ask him if he was excited to see Baby Justus, and he'd exclaim, "Yes!" And Ladan was pretty much beside himself when he found out that he'd get to see Titus and Justus. He snapped out of his dinner-time stupor and bounced to his bed so he could take a nap before driving to Grandma's house. Despite the fact that Chet is bummed that he can't see everyone, our departure is probably perfect timing for him. He's preaching at Clifton on Sunday night, so this will give him even more time to prepare and to work ahead on his classwork for the semester.

In my meal planning for this week, I decided to make two larger recipes on Monday and Tuesday (enchiladas yesterday and the pot pie today) so that we could eat leftovers on Wednesday and Thursday, which tend to be busier days for us. I had no idea that the Lord designed it that way because we'd be leaving and so Chet would have prepared food already in the fridge. Pretty great! He'll be eating a lot of enchiladas and pot pie all by himself though. I venture to say he'll throw in a PB&J here and there to round it out!

--------------------------------

I'll end with a few random notes....

Gabe has learned his first letter! He can now accurately identify the letter "O". He was running errands with me last night, and he started pointing out all the "o"s he saw in street signs and license plates. I haven't worked on letters nearly as much with him as I had by the time Ladan was this age, but Ladan was naturally drawn to letters at an earlier age (and knew all of them along with their sounds by 22 months). It's clear that Gabe is now ready for more!

Ladan is starting to understand some basic reading concepts and is recognizing some basic words. It's one of my goals to do preschool-like lessons with him at least three days a week this semester. Then I may start the 100-day curriculum to teach him to read in the spring. We'll have to see if he's ready by then. In the meantime, we're just enjoying this stage. Ladan is so demonstrative when he reads! He uses great voice inflections and even throws his hands in the air when he gets really excited. If only we all read with such expression!

In the sports world, Ladan is quite good at hitting the baseball when we pitch it to him. He has really great form and even holds his back elbow up at a pretty perfect angle. He doesn't yet step into the pitch with much authority, but we haven't even talked about that yet. He's only four. Anyway, he received some extra birthday money the other day as a delayed suprise. Since all his other birthday money had gone into his account, I used this money to buy him some batting gloves, a real baseball bat, and some bases. I found a reasonably priced bat that only weighs 13 ounces. Chet took him out to play with the neighbor girls, and he did great! He's really funny though because he dives (with perfect form but in slow motion so as not to get injured) into just about every base, including first. He is convinced that the function of batting gloves is to keep his hands from getting dirty when sliding!

On the basketball court, he's getting lots better at dribbling, and he's a very consistent shooter as well. And he gets better and better with his tennis racquet every time we play.

Gabe, of course, has to do everything his big brother does, so he's been practicing his basketball, soccer, football, and baseball skills. He tries to play tennis, but his tiny little racquet is still a little bit bigger than he knows what to do with, so it will be a little while before he can effectively play. He can drop-kick a soccer ball, throw pretty much any ball with accuracy, and dribble once and then shoot a basketball with accuracy in one smooth motion. He's been able to throw an excellent spiral for months. And he's starting to be able to hit a ball when we pitch it to him, though he's not super-consistent yet. After all, the bat is at least as tall as he is, so he's lucky to swing it much less hit anything. He sleeps with his football.

I guess the fact that our living room is pretty much an open gym (with a few restrictions) is paying off for them! They practice their skills 3-4 hours a day on their own without anyone pushing them. Ladan is such a persistent kid and doesn't give up until he's perfected something, so Gabe has a really good example to follow in this way. It's fun because they can play catch successfully together now. We have loads of fun playing along with them too! They definitely keep us on our toes!

I'm not going to re-read this note for errors, because I'm going to go PACK OUR BAGS! YIPPEE!!!!!!!

Accidental Geography Lessons

Ladan and Gabe have had runny noses for about a week. Not that big a deal, but for some reason, Ladan has also had a couple accidents in his bed. I'm guessing it's related to the runny nose in some way (since he hasn't had an accident in almost a year until this point), but I have no way to prove how that could be the case. Anyway, when I went in to get Ladan after his nap yesterday, he was sitting up in his bed rubbing his blanket on his sheets. Here's what he said in his very matter-of-fact tone, "Oh, hi Mom. I peed in my bed. But don't worry. I'm wiping it up with my blanket."

I climbed up to the top bunk to see the damage. He showed me the spot and said, "Look, Mom! It's Australia! I PEED AUSTRALIA! Ah, ha, ha, ha ha!!!"

It did indeed look pretty much exactly like the shape of Australia. You gotta' love that kid! Speaking of his geographic identification skills, he really enjoys identifying countries on a map/globe. I'm hoping he sticks to printed maps and globes instead of creating his own images of countries in the future! So far he knows the following:

• United States (and the states of Texas, Missouri, and Kentucky)
• Australia
• China
• India
• Russia
• Vietnam
• Nigeria
• Sudan
• Cameroon
• Brazil
• Taiwan

We've had some other exciting things going on this week. Chet's sister, Megan, and her husband, Mike, had their first baby on the 13th. His name is Keene Owen, and he has amazingly squishy cheeks... at least so far as we can tell from what we saw in a few photos and in a video conversation on Skype. We can hardly believe that we have two nephews that we haven't been able to meet yet. It's awful! We're thankful for Skype and electronic photos, but it's definitely not the same as holding them. We can hardly wait to get our hands on these little boys!!!!!

Gabe was so cute when he was looking at Keene on the computer screen during our Skype conversation. He kept kissing the screen and saying, "Hi, baby!" He can be pretty rough with Ladan, but he's so gentle with babies. I'm so excited to see him with Justus and Keene!

Gabe's still a tiny little guy, and he's starting to get pickier about what he eats. He's always been a good eater, but things seem to be changing a bit. He basically only wants pizza, macaroni, pancakes, oatmeal, blueberries, plums, grapes, peaches, and sometimes carrots or zucchini. The hard part is that he's not bothered enough by hunger even if we withhold his favorites. He'll only eat about one or two bites of other things. He would rather just go to bed than eat things he doesn't prefer. And do you notice that there is hardly any protein included in any of those foods except for the pizza? Thankfully, he does drink plenty of milk, but it still doesn't provide enough. He's already such a little man, so we have to be careful that he gets enough food, especially fats and protein. I'm not sure at this point if we should be more forceful about it or just feed him more of what we know he'll eat. Maybe he'll get better again after his nose clears up completely.

Chet starts classes again tomorrow. It's really hard to believe that this is his last full semester of seminary. He'll have two classes left to take in January, and then he'll be done. Amazing! We set out thinking that it would take him at least four years, and he's finishing in three and a half. Not bad for a guy who's married with two kids, church ministry, and a job to keep up with. He's definitely a smarty pants! Just tonight Ladan prayed and thanked God that his daddy gets to learn from lots of teachers. We are certainly praising God for the opportunity we have to be here!

Good Friends, Good Times!

Chet and I went to Atlanta over the weekend for our friend Kyle's wedding. Chet mentored Kyle when Kyle was in college, and Gabe's middle name is Kyle after this same fellow. We absolutely LOVE Kyle... seriously... intensely... like he's our brother. He's one of those people who is so close to our hearts that we agreed a long time ago we'd travel just about any distance to see him get married. WE LOVE KYLE! So we drove to Atlanta for his wedding. Kyle actually lives in Houston, so the drive to Atlanta was practically a hop, skip, and jump down the highway!

It would not have worked well for the boys to go along, so the Bloom and Murray families were so gracious to split the weekend and care for them while we were gone. What a treat! Ladan got to play in three different basements! He loves basements (and even prayed last night thanking God that his next house will have a basement... we'll see if he's right when we even think about moving). Oh, they had so much fun, and we didn't have to worry for a second about whether or not they would be okay. We are so blessed to have so many families in our church that literally feel like our own family!

Anyway, we showed up for the rehearsal a little bit late because we hit rush hour traffic coming into town. We arrived and changed at the church. I'm so thankful that I did my make-up and curled my hair in the car on the way! Yes, indeed, I did say I curled my hair in the car while we were driving. I didn't burn myself or anything else even a single time. It was great! When we were all ready, we walked into the sanctuary and saw Kyle and Amanda. I seriously had to restrain myself from running to the front of the church and giving Kyle a massive hug... but I held back.

I'll spare you all the details, but throughout the course of the rehearsal dinner, I think we all cried at least once (Chet, Kyle, and I) because we were so happy to see one another. Later that night, I was fairly emotional (Chet won't argue that one bit). Once I got through talking to Chet about all kinds of things, I just couldn't help but bawl my eyes out like a baby because I was so THANKFUL to the Lord for providing the perfect woman for Kyle. Amanda is seriously amazing! They just go together.

I think I got all my tears out on Friday night, but then Chet had to let the waterworks loose on Saturday off and on. He probably cried at least 5 or 6 times that I saw. He was so proud of Kyle and just so overwhelmed with gratitude that the Lord saw fit to put Kyle and Amanda together! Do you know how sometimes you can physically feel your heart almost like it's going to explode right out of your chest? That's how we both felt. What mercy and grace we saw this weekend! And what a joy it was to actually see our dear, dear friend in real life again. It's one thing to hear his deep broadcast-ready voice on the phone, but it's another thing to see his amazing smile and bright eyes in person. And, as if that wasn't enough, he would be a really strong contender for the "Best Hug Giver In the World" contest... if there was such a thing.

Kyle has always amazed us with his keen ability to sense how the Lord is directing him, test it against the Word, repent of sin if necessary, and move forward in faith. He was sitting in our room just a couple of hours before his wedding, and I asked him how he was doing, how the week was, etc. He told us about one of the really important lessons he had learned just that week....

Basically, he felt kind of crumby all week (physically). That on top of all the busyness of preparations and a lack of sleep resulted in him kind of checking out and basically not being mentally present on Thursday. Amanda responded so well to this, but she definitely noticed and asked him about it. After they talked about it for a while, he said he realized that when he checked out, she became paralyzed in a sense. She just didn't know what to do or how to act around him. She didn't want to start telling him what to do and getting frustrated for sure. Even though she did really well, he realized that he has no right to quit leading or being involved just because he's experiencing stress. He was so thankful to the Lord for showing this to him before he got married, even if it was just two days before.

All weekend, we heard over and over from all kinds of people about what a prayer warrior Amanda is. We heard Kyle talk about how she's supported him and prayed that the Lord would direct him in every way with regard to their relationship. We heard her family talk about how they have all been praying since Amanda was tiny that God would send her a godly husband... and about how Kyle is indeed the answer to all their prayers. I don't know about you, but that's really great motivation to be even more diligent in the same way, praying for my boys and their future wives.

Chet read scripture during the wedding and did a really awesome job! He had no microphone, but he projected his voice and read in such a way that even the people in the back of the sanctuary said that they appreciated the power with which he delivered the Word. All kinds of people kept commenting on how he did so well at making the Word come to life. They were right!

We took an extra night to stay and hang out while we could. It was our first getaway in three years (and the last one was only one night). We went to a Braves game, which was fun. We realized that we end up going to a baseball game pretty much every time we go on vacation. I guess that's a fun tradition, and I don't mind keeping it up.

We also spent some time talking about our personal and family goals for the next year. That conversation had its ups and downs for sure, but in the end, I think we're on the same page. If we decided to summarize with a theme (something that my friend, Jessica, is really good at), I think we'd arrive at "teamwork". Because of Chet's school and work schedule, it's really easy for us to get into a groove but end up doing "my thing" or "your thing". The idea is that we will work hard to do the things that we need to do and then make sure that we're asking how everyone else is doing in the quest to accomplish his/her goals. This will allow us to be even better encouragers of one another and to help one another even more. It's an elementary concept, and I'm just going to assume that we're not the only family on the planet that has to be intentional in this way if it's going to actually happen. I think I'll designate a separate post to a list of our goals.

I was kind of on fire all weekend coming up with all sorts of witty things to say (at least I thought they were). One time, I was holding a bag of coffee beans. I smacked Chet on the back with it and told him that I "beaned" him! And as we were driving to Kyle's wedding, there was a neighborhood on the left side of the road with a sign that said, "The opportunity of a lifetime" or something like that. I told Chet that we should tell Kyle we passed by the opportunity of a lifetime to come to his wedding! I forgot about it, and it's probably just as well. Enough of my shenanigans!

I also went to the doctor today and had my follow-up appointment after the lab work I had done about 6 weeks ago. It was very helpful, but I'll write more on that later.

Finally, if you remember, please pray for my brother. He just got back from Sudan again on Saturday, and he's pretty sick. It seems to get worse every time, and they're not exactly sure what the problem is... except that his leg pain is related to his sensory neuropathy and that he is very nauseous for a very long time after he gets home almost every time. Thanks!

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Oh my goodness. I cannot stop crying! I watched a news report on our local news station a little over an hour ago about a family who lost their little girl just a few minutes after she was born. They knew she was not likely to live through birth, and if she did, she would most likely die very shortly after. So they asked a photographer from a volunteer organization called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep to come and take photos of their precious little girl while they still had her.

I went to their website, and wow! You just have to check it out. (There is a song that plays at the beginning, so you might want to turn on your speakers.) Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is a network of about 3200 professional and advanced amateur photographers who volunteer their services to families who are expecting a stillborn child or anticipating that their child may not live long after birth. It gives the parents and families a way to remember their little one. To see some of the images, go to the start page, click on "Our Work" and then on "Image Gallery". These photos are breathtaking! There is one that captures the tiny hands of a baby born at 5 months gestation... her hands are on her mom's finger. The baby's hands are smaller than the mother's fingernail, and yet they are so perfectly formed.

The organization was featured on the Today Show earlier this spring. If you'd like to see the story, click here. It will be totally worth the few minutes it takes to watch the clip.

I kept thinking the entire time I was watching the story and then looking through the organization's website that this is something I would LOVE to do. I'm not good enough yet, but it would be amazing to learn how to take photos like this and do something totally for free that would be such a blessing to parents and families for so long! I know my heart would break every single time I did something like this, but at the same time, it would probably be filled to overflowing with joy at the opportunity to share life with people in such a meaningful way. I would most certainly be indebted to them for allowing me to be a part of such an important part of their lives.

If you are a photographer, maybe this is something you'd like to consider. If so, you can learn more here.

As a parent, I feel like the Lord uses things like this to remind me to be thankful for every moment I have with my children! I mean, I'm thankful for my kids for sure, but it's so easy to just take for granted that they're going to wake up every morning and end each day sleeping peacefully in their beds. No matter whether or not they're healthy now, they're not mine. They are the Lord's, and He can do with them as He chooses. Each day with them is a gift to be treasured. Praise God for little ones, for the ones He takes away and for the ones He allows us to enjoy for a while!

Fireman to the Rescue, Chet's Trip #7, and The Wonder That Is Olbas Oil

Well, I've pretty much felt like poop for the last four days, so I did a terrible job of keeping you updated. I think I had an ear infection or something... but more on that later. As a result of the delay, this entry will be somewhat lengthy. Sorry about that. Here are the updates...

Fireman to the Rescue

We had an emergency here the other night. I just knew something like this would happen when Chet was gone! I was just innocently going about my business walking out to the storage unit to put a box of diapers in it. I opened the door to the storage unit, and it hit me right away... that all-too-familiar smell. Unfortunately it wasn't smoke. It was the dead mouse smell! Are you kidding me?!? I knew they had to be newly squished rodents, because all the traps were empty just two days before... and because the smell wasn't too bad yet. I stood as close to the open door as possible while bending at the waist to see which trap was full. There were two. Disgusting! I set the diapers down and slammed the door as quickly as possible.

Okay, now what was I going to do? I know the Lord sometimes gives us challenging tasks and that He equips us to handle them. However, I was really praying that this was not one of those times when I needed to be equipped myself. I called and left messages for Randy Murray and Joseph Bonura to see if they could come by and help me dispose of the dead rodents and set new traps.

Before Randy and Joseph had a chance to call me back, Michele Murray called me because she noticed my number on their caller id. When I told her about my dilemma, she suggested I call her brother, Michael... aka "Fireman Mike". (He's the same fireman that directed the fire house birthday party Ladan went to a year and a half ago. He also goes to our church.) Great idea! He lives right down the street, and we figured that if he can handle burned humans, he could probably handle a couple of dead mice in traps. I called, and he and his wife came down right away. Praise be to God! I am not saying that lightly either. The church family is good for so many reasons, and I think this is just one purpose the Lord had in mind when he decided it was good that we live as part of a community.

In the end, this gives me just one more thing to add to my list of reasons I'm looking forward to my farm boy's return. I'm sure Randy, Joseph and Michael will be glad when Chet can do his own chores again too!

Chet's Trip #7

I've talked to Chet a couple of times since I was able to write in detail. Last weekend, Chet and Tom went to some villages to the west of Calcutta. They went back to Calcutta Sunday, and they left again on Monday to go to some villages to the east of Calcutta. They returned again on Wednesday, and they've been here and there in town since then. That's the overview, and here are some details.

In the first set of villages:

• Chet and Tom went out with a few Bengali men. They walked about 20 miles one day to visit different villages. One village had about 70,000 people living in it. I don't call that a village. When they would reach the villages, Chet would get out his camera and start taking pictures of the kids and then show them their pictures on the digital screen. They thought it was really great. Then he showed their parents, and the parents were immediately drawn to Chet and Tom. This allowed them to start many conversations.
• The people were VERY hospitable. The guys drank a lot of tea in the homes of various people they met.
• Chet was able to preach to about 200 unbelievers. He also gave a short sermon during the worship service of one of the local fellowships (underground churches). There was apparently a drummer playing during the music. He played with each of his fingers and thumbs in addition to using the palms of his hands. Chet said it was amazing! Chet and Tom both said it was emotional to leave this group of believers because they felt such a deep connection with them.
• The people were all very open to hearing them.

In the villages east of Calcutta:

• Chet and Tom went out again with one of the Bengali men named Ani (sp?). Ani had been with them on their first round in the other villages, and he asked them if they'd come to some of the villages near his home.
• The villages were much smaller and more like actual villages.
• The people in general were a little bit more closed and skeptical than the people in the other villages. However, they were still very hospitable.
• Somewhere along the way, Ani gave Chet and Tom each a garment that Chet described as "a tube of fabric that goes around your waist down to your ankles". I said, "You mean a skirt?" He was apparently wearing it around the hotel while I was talking to him during that conversation and said it actually was significantly cooler than even shorts. He and Tom wore them in the village homes some, but once they were back in the city, they did not wear them in public. I guess he's getting the full experience!
• While they were in Ani's village, they met a 14-year-old girl and spent some time in her home with her family. At one point, the girl asked Chet if he wanted to go up on the rooftop. He thought she was going to show him some flowers or something. As it turns out, her sister-in-law was up there worshiping their Hindu idols. The girl invited Chet to worship an idol. He explained that he worships Jesus. She said she does too. Apparently it wasn't a good time to continue the conversation, so he left it for the moment. He went back to Ani's house and explained what happened. Then he took Ani back to the girl's house later that night to explain the difference between the way he worships ONLY Jesus and the way she worships Jesus along with other gods. She said that she would worship only Jesus too, but it was too difficult because her family was all Hindu. Chet was able to refer her to Ani and Ani's wife, who both grew up in Hindu families, saying that she could talk to either one of them if she wanted some suggestions for how to handle her family if she wanted to be commited to Jesus alone. Her sister-in-law was in the room listening to the whole conversation, so she was able to hear the Gospel too.
• Chet was able to talk to Ani's church. It was a smaller church (I think he said it was made up of about 40-50 people). At one point, Chet asked the people to raise their hands if Ani led them to the Lord, and 12 people raised their hands. Then he asked them to raise their hands if Ani had discipled them, and every single person raised his/her hand.
• At the end of a week with Ani, Chet and Tom both had a hard time leaving him and his family.

Since they returned to Calcutta:

• Chet has taken a couple of naps.
• He went to some neat shops.
• The guys all went to William Carey's place. It was a bit of a jaunt away, and he said their guide seemed to be in a hurry, so they didn't get to see as much of it as they could have. It was actually the first thing he said wasn't as cool as he expected it to be.
• They ate at a Pizza Hut with a local American missionary and his family. According to Chet, it was the nicest Pizza Hut he's ever been to. Everything was really clean, and the pizza was actually good (pretty shocking to both of us). As a bonus, the waiters would dance if asked. Hilarious!

In the next couple of days, they'll go to the market, do some hanging out as a group, go to church on Sunday morning, and pack up to and prepare to take off on Sunday night. Please pray:

• for continued health and safety for the guys
• that the Gospel will take root in the hearts of those who heard (or will hear) it
• that the believers they met with will be encouraged and will feel better equipped to go out and disciple the people in their churches
• for the 14-year-old girl in Ani's village (and for her family)

And the last update...

The Wonder That Is Olbas Oil

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I think I may have an ear infection or something. I basically had a fever for about a day, my ears were pretty sore and had lots of pressure on them, and my throat felt like people were making me swallow knives for most of this week. It was awful! I don't think I've ever had an ear infection before, so I can't be sure that's what it is. However, I've just treated it as if it was an ear infection, and it started to get lots better. I made sure to drink lots of warm water, took some Tylenol, consumed very few dairy products, and added a B and C vitamin complex and zinc to my regimin.

I sent the Olbas Oil with Chet in case he had trouble with congestion, so I had to go out and buy some more on Wednesday. In case you don't know what Olbas Oil is, it's a mix of essential oils like mint, eucalyptus, juniper, and a few others. This stuff is amazing! We use it for so many things in our house (pregnancy congestion, infant congestion, allergies, runny noses, sore muscles, etc.). I had a friend once who used it for an ear infection, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I put one drop in front of each ear and one drop behind each ear (under my earlobe). I laid down, and within 5 minutes, I felt all the fluid in my ears dripping away. This is exactly what my friend said happened to her! It felt fabulous!

I added a humidifier to the mix while I slept and continued to apply the Olbas Oil every few hours followed by a heating pad on the sides of my face, and today I felt SO MUCH better! My throat also feels better, probably since I don't have all that fluid draining down the back of it all day long. I'll probably keep up the Olbas Oil and the humidifier for one more night, and hopefully this thing will be kicked.

If you've never heard my running Olbas Oil commercial, here's your introduction. We're pretty convinced that every family should keep some in the cabinet. I'm sure there are many places to find it, but we get ours at Whole Foods. It's almost $16 for a bottle, but you only use a few drops at a time, so it lasts for a LONG time.

A Bunch of Random Miraculous Happenings and One Simply Random Happening

I went grocery shopping tonight, and I was finishing up at the last store. As I walked out the door, the greeter guy said to me, "You all have a good night." It was 11:00pm, and there was no one within 25 feet of me, so I'm certain he wasn't addressing me along with another customer. Basically, I've decided that either I appear to have three heads when I haven't showered in the last 24 hours, or his eyes were blurring a bit. Anyway, it struck me as pretty funny.

Ladan has been pretty hilarious lately. Within a few seconds tonight, the stack of pillows on my bed went from being a ship that was saving us from drowning to being a snowman that was about to melt. Any blanket, sheet, or box can instantly become a barn for horses or a tent to protect us from bears. His imagination is getting really wild, and it's lots of fun! He's learning more and more about how the world works, what death is, how God protects us from certain things and sometimes decides that He's not going to stop all the bad things and helps us through them instead.

We've been working on some preschool activities very informally, and now he knows his capital and lowercase letters. He can identify numbers and do some simple addition problems. He really seems to enjoy the time we spend doing these things and regularly says, "Mom, I want to learn some math." He's trying to read more and asks me to tell him what words say when he sees them. His favorite book is Are You My Mother? from the Dr. Suess set. He's practically got it memorized and "reads" it with such expression! Not bad since it's 60 pages long. Given that we don't do anything formal and I'm not legalistic about doing something every day, I think he's doing really well. It's been a bit encouraging as I consider the possibility that I may end up homeschooling him at least for a while.

He loves to help out with things and is super-encouraging. Whenever Chet or I leave without him, he likes to help us shut the door. And as we're heading out, he says, "You be careful and don't fall down/crash." When it rains and Chet leaves for work, Ladan instructs him to put his hood on his head so his hair doesn't get all wet.

Gabe woke up in a pile of his own very chunky puke the other morning and was covered literally from head to toe. It was so disgusting! I've never had either of them do anything like that. He also had the Hershey squirts (only it was yellow), so he's eaten LOTS of bananas to stop him up a bit. All this on top of the fact that he's got about 6 teeth coming in has provided a combination that makes it difficult for him to a be the happy, content child that he normally is. Hopefully, he'll be back to normal soon. He does have periods of time in each day that he seems to be himself. During these times, he loves to draw and attempt to copy all of Ladan's athletic feats... mostly all with his left hand. We'll see if he ends up as a lefty or not. He's very affectionate and is saying new words all the time. He's getting bigger, but I will probably see him as my "little man" until he's taller than me.

Finally, I did our taxes last week. We qualify for the Earned Income Credit. Basically, this is a tax credit designed to encourage people to earn income rather than drawing unemployment all year long. If you make less than a certain amount of money based on your family size, then you get a tax credit. For the last two years, the Lord has used this tax credit to provide for us in AMAZING ways! This year, we will be receiving more than half of what we brought home all year. It's like the Lord just said, "Here's an extra 6 months' pay." For all intents and purposes, we should be standing in a line saying that we can't pay our rent and that we need food, but we are doing neither. We are able to eat healthy foods, which tend to cost a bit more than cheap processed foods. We have clothing, LOTS of books, computers, a warm home, and so many other things that go way beyond what we need. And we pay all our bills on time every month and have no debt. Sometimes it's overwhelming to think about how good God has been to us, many times through the generosity of others, including our fellow-citizens. We definitely don't deserve it, but we are SO THANKFUL and will give Him the glory for it!