Getting Settled

Well, we made the big move last Friday. Before we left, I was able to have a couple of girls' night outings with some of my best friends, high school age and older. My friend Jessica and I got to pretend we were college students one night when we went to Denny's at 11pm and came home at about 2:30am. Of course, the fact that we were two pregnant ladies sitting in the corner booth probably gave away the fact that we're a little older than 22! :) Ladan and Gabe did get to play with some of their friends a couple of times for extended periods of time during their last week in Louisville. I was very thankful for that as well.

We had SO MANY friends help us pack, load up, and clean in Louisville, and we had plenty of help once we arrived in Champaign-Urbana. Talk about a relief! We rented from the sellers here for a week and closed today. So now we're officially homeowners... or at least the owners of a hefty loan that tells us the home will really be ours when we're finished paying the bank a ridiculous amount of money! As long as the government recognizes us as homeowners when it comes time for tax returns/credits, we'll take it! We're definitely thankful to have this part of the process all finished.

We've met several neighbors, some with kids and some without. There are LOADS of kids in our neighborhood, which will be a great way to find friends for the boys and a great way to meet the adults! The other folks who don't have kids all seem to have pretty great gardens and/or homemade composters, so as I attempt to plant a few things myself and compost yardwaste, I'll have a good reason to talk to them and get lots of tips. There are also people from many different countries and backgrounds living in our neighborhood. For example, Chet met the man who lives across the street. He's from Bangladesh. All of the houses are pretty close together, which makes for easy opportunities to meet people. There's also a small neighborhood park at the end of the block. Chet and the boys met a mom and her two children (9 and 3) the other day at the park. She's in the process of a divorce and is staying with her parents who live a couple blocks down our road. Our neighbor his a strong Christian who works for a mercy ministry in town as a financial advisor for people who are struggling to make ends meet. And the people behind us are a chemistry professor at the university and a lawyer. It's really great to be in a place where there are so many different people! We're excited to see who we run into once spring and summer really start in full force and people are outside even more than they are now!

I was able to get signed up for health insurance and scheduled my ultrasound and doctor appointment. Also this week, we hooked up the internet, started our trash and recycling services, met with some folks, unpacked a lot, took a couple trips to Menard's and other stores to purchase necessary household items, went to church at Twin City Bible Church to visit and see what's it's like (it's one of the churches in town with the largest student populations), talked to some neighbors, let the boys play outside some, and located various necessary businesses/stores around town. Chet applied for jobs at a few places and will hopefully hear more on Monday. We're really praying hard that it will work out for him to get a job at the Starbucks right by campus. We'll let you know more about that when we find out.

We moved Gabe into his big boy bed a couple of days ago. We started with naptime and had a pretty hilarious experience. The boys are sharing a bedroom now, and both have bed tents on top of their beds. We got Gabe all settled into his tent and closed the zippered parts. There is a flap door that is held on with just a couple of velcro strips, so he can get out if he wants to. And of course, he wanted to. He had to be corrected a couple of times for escaping. After about the second or third time, Chet decided to sit in the room with him to see if he was getting up. Since Gabe was in the tent, he had no idea Chet was still in the room. Chet said he popped out through the tent flap, looked up and saw Chet, and DOVE right back in through the tent opening. Of course, he had to be corrected again. At this point, he stayed in his bed, but he kept using his tiny little toes to lift the tent flap just high enough to look out and see if Chet was still there. Can you just imagine his tiny little face with his big eyes peeking out of that? Chet had a hard time not cracking up at him! He's a smart kid, that's for sure. After Chet warned him again not to try getting out again, he finally got it and went to sleep.

I had suspected that we'd deal with this sort of misbehavior from him repeatedly for days on end... but we've only had to correct him just a few times for getting out of his bed. It's been AWESOME! I'm so thankful! Whenever he gets out of his bed, his brother is right there to call for us through the monitor and tell on him. Not that I want to encourage tattling, but in this case, I don't complain when Ladan volunteers the information.

I thought the bed tent would help, but I wasn't sure it would be this great. It helps both the boys not to be distracted by one another while they're trying to go to sleep, and it gives Gabe a boundary, which is very helpful. I think these tents are probably the smartest Christmas gifts we've bought the boys so far! The boys love them, they're practical, and they preserve our parental sanity. Perfect!

At some point during the first or second day here, I overheard Ladan talking to Chet. It went something like this:

Ladan: "Dad, this is our house! We get to live here!"
Chet: "That's right, Buddy. This is our house."
Ladan: "We have soft floors here!" (Falls down on the floor on purpose, which he would never do on harder floors for fear of hurting himself) "Look, Dad, we have soft floors!" (Stands up clapping) "I'm clapping because I'm so happy!"

At various points he's wanted to move back to Louisville, and then sometimes he really enjoys our new home. When he talks about these things, we try to explain that he'll likely have these different feelings for a little while. He's very anxious for his friends to come to town. He keeps asking when Maddie, Asa, Harper and Addison are coming to our house. He doesn't really understand the timeline very well, and since there is no official timeline for the other families to arrive here, I can't explain it very well either. He's also regularly talking about his other friends from Louisville telling me about things he remembers and things he enjoyed with them. There are some boys his age just a few houses up the street who we met the other day, which will help but won't take the place of his friends.

Honestly, I am so thankful that Ladan misses his friends. A year and a half ago he wasn't super close to his friends and was really just as content to play by himself. I think it's a great sign that he's opening himself up a bit and is loving people around him enough to care when one or the other is not around anymore. It also gives me great confidence that he can meet good friends here.

Finally, our temporary housemate, Kayla, will move in tomorrow. We have her room all cleaned out for her. I have a few other things I'd like to get in order before she gets here, but we'll see how that shakes out. The biggest things are done. We're excited that she's going to be able to stay with us for a while as she transitions as well.

I'm sure I'm missing a million things, but that's always the case. I'll try to upload some photos as soon as I locate the card reader. We have much to be thankful for, particularly for those of you who have helped us in practical/physical ways and for those of you who are praying for us!

Transition Time

We're still waiting to hear from our lender if our closing date on the new house is March 13, but so far as the realtor knows, that's what we're still shooting for. So we've reserved the truck, and we'll just change it if we have to. I'll be thankful to know for sure what we're looking at as a closing date... and at the same time, part of me will want to have a heart attack because it's all coming up already! :)

Saturday night some of our good friends are having a going away party for us and the Prestons. It's a little bit strange to think about the fact that, in just a few weeks, we won't be seeing all these people every week or more. There are SO MANY people we will miss terribly! While it's very sad, on a different level, the fact that we literally have hundreds of friends with whom we've connected in less than four years is an AMAZING blessing from the Lord! I cannot even imagine what our lives would have been like without our church family here! There is also a certain level of comfort that comes from knowing that our time on earth is short compared to the eternity we get to spend in heaven with these brothers and sisters in Christ!

Quite honestly, I think I would be crying every day if I wasn't so sure that we are indeed following the Lord's call on our lives and if we didn't have such a great team to labor and share life with as we plant this church.

Ladan has started clinging to his friends even more over the last few weeks. He does well with transition in most cases, but he's definitely going to miss his friends and his teachers at church. It's sad for me to see him have to leave his friends. The great thing is that he will likely be the one telling me that everything is okay! I would like to try as hard as I can to get the boys together with at least a few of their friends for a fun play time before we go... a time when it's focused on THEM having fun (as opposed to them having to be "quiet and controlled" while the adults get to have fun). Now we just need to pray for a decent weather day so we can give them some room to run!

As I've been packing and sorting through things, I've gotten rid of some of the boys' things. Before I get rid of each item, I let Ladan know what I'm doing and why we're getting rid of that particular item. Today, I was throwing away this random project he made one day, and when I told him what I was doing, he asked what was wrong with it. He asked if it was dirty. I told him it wasn't dirty but that we just needed to get rid of it. He suggested that I get rid of part and save the other part. I explained that it wasn't really going to work that way, and he quickly and happily agreed, "Oh, well, that's fine. Just throw it in the trash." I mean, seriously, he's awesome! It's like he just appreciates knowing what's going on and why, and that's all he needs. I'm not taking it for granted, that's for sure! He is LOVING the process of packing and is a great help to me! He brings me boxes, hands me things that are out of my reach to put in the boxes, gets me the tape/marker, and gives me a high five or a huge hug every time we get another box packed and closed.

Gabe has been really great too. He is clearly addicted to the movie, Cars. I know my two-year-old should not be addicted to a movie, but if you were moving and could see the way his face lights up every single time he gets to see it, you might not argue about it too much either. He has memorized many parts of the movie and recites them before they're coming up. He also plays with his cars at other times of the day and acts out scenes from the movie. Speaking of reciting movie lines, one of his favorite things to do is recite the entire Ring of Fire scene from Finding Nemo with Chet. It's hilarious, and I MUST get it on video!

When he wakes up in the morning, he plays quietly in his bed for a few minutes. As soon as I open the door, he jumps up and down in his bed and screams, "Mom!" Then immediately says, "Change diaper." While we're working on that, he says, "I wanna eat oh-mee-oh an miwk" (oatmeal and milk). And while we're working on getting that ready, he says with great excitement, "I wanna watch a voovie" (movie). He's still learning what it means when I say that we can do that later. As soon as he hears me say "We can do that...", he starts cheering and jumping up and down. And then when he's sitting there eating and I'm still not turning on the movie, he's emotionally destroyed and starts crying. Thankfully he gets over it quickly. I'm trying to balance being patient--considering that he's still learning the meaning of somewhat abstract concepts--with training him not to argue and complain when he doesn't get what he wants.

He has started saying, "I wuw [love] you, Mom!" more often and has been giving the best hugs lately. He squeezes his arms around me and pats me on the back. He's a cutie, that's for sure! These kids are fantastic!

My belly is growing at a much faster rate than it did with the previous two, but I'm gaining weight a bit more slowly. I ordered a new pair of maternity yoga pants when they were on sale last week, and they came the other day. I'm fairly certain that I'll be living in these pants for the next few months. They're AWESOME!

Chet and I took a break the other night to watch Fireproof. It was really an excellent movie--very encouraging! The bonus features were definitely worth watching too.

How's that for another random assortment of thoughts and updates? I'm sure my posts will resemble this pattern for the next little bit.

Short Snip-its of Life

Okay, over the last few weeks, I have had about a million random thoughts, and quite a few things have happened. Here is an effort to bring you up to speed without taking an hour to get it all down. This list will be in no particular order of events or thoughts, because that's not how my brain is operating right now. So here's a glimpse into my head...

We are buying a house in Champaign-Urbana, IL so we can move hopefully within the next several weeks.

There's a lot to do in the next several weeks.

I have a hard time considering leaving some of my best friends in the whole world behind. But I'm thankful for the phone and internet and cars that get good gas mileage.

I'm going to miss taking long showers and not running out of hot water ever. I think that's the only thing I can think of right now that I'll miss about this apartment in particular.

I'm excited that the only footsteps I'll hear overhead are from people I have let into my own home.

I'm also excited that I won't have to hear the same song being played repeatedly (did I say REPEATEDLY?) on another person's piano at strange hours when it's not very convenient.

I'm looking forward to being in a place where the ground is flat enough that I can see the sunset on a more regular basis.

I'm going to miss going to the river and just sitting there to collect my thoughts. I'm sure there will be some other place I can find to do this kind of activity.

My belly is becoming larger by the day! I was hoping to hold off on getting the maternity clothes out of storage before we move, but I'm thinking it's not going to be possible. I am thankful I can still wear my regular jeans (not even my size larger regular jeans), but I'm thinking that's going to end very quickly.

It's going to be great to have Chet home at night and awake during the day. However, it's going to be a bit of a transition for me not to have my couple of hours every night when the boys are asleep and he's gone at work to get my own stuff done in peace and quiet.

Times like moving make me miss my dad more than normal. He helped me/us move several times. He was a workhorse and would get the job done well and efficiently. He never got mad at me for doing something that didn't make sense (like putting a box down right in the middle of the walking path), but he did make plenty of jokes about it! When I asked him to do something, he'd always say in his monotone voice, "Yes, dear," and tried to communicate to Chet that this was a helpful thing to say. I wish my dad could help us move into our first house and that he could see the boys get really excited about their new basement, back yard, and bedroom. I wish he had been able to meet the boys in the first place. He'd be really excited for us, I'm sure... that is, if "excited" is the right word to describe my dad at any point! The Lord knows best. I think Dad would for sure be proud to know that we used the money he left us to get through seminary and that we're starting a new adventure without any debt (aside from that massive home loan we're taking on, anyway).

I finished a book called Always Too Soon to Quit by Nancy Bramlett last week. It was good. It was also nice to finish a book.

I need some time to shape my eyebrows. I feel like they're taking over my forehead. I'm thankful I don't have a unibrow, or I'd be in trouble.

I love my family. I'm really proud of Chet. Ladan is getting huge (he's grown another 2 inches and gained 5 pounds in the last few months) and is so smart and thoughtful. Gabe is still tiny, and I'll be glad when his cuteness factor wears off a little bit more so I'm not constantly second-guessing myself when I'm giving him direction or training him.

I'm very THANKFUL that Amber (my sister-in-law) learned that kids like Titus (my nephew) and Gabe who are super-active often have skin issues because their bodies use up all of their vitamins when they're running around and they have nothing left for basic health. They apparently also need extra omega-3's. So we put Gabe on an immune booster and an omega-3 supplement on top of his Flintstones, and within 2 weeks, ALL of his eczema and weird wart things were TOTALLY gone!

Gabe then got a bacterial skin infection somehow. He had to be put on his first antibiotic (well, if we wanted him to be able to be around other kids instead of stuck at home for 2-3 weeks). It's been 3 weeks, and it's almost all completely faded. Within the next week, he should be back to that baby-soft skin kids are supposed to have... as opposed to alligator- or snake-like skin.

I get very irritated that the Sports Illustrated swim suit issue is displayed at the check-out counter without the paper "modesty" cover it used to have. For the next month at least, please beware. It's everywhere! And it's not at all helpful for any person to see it.

Thanks to Judy, I got my chocolate-covered strawberries last weekend!!!!! Excellent treat!

We had a great time serving dinner at the Ronald McDonald House with our small group a couple weeks ago. If you've never done it, you should give it a shot. If you have done it, you should do it again. Good times!

I don't really like that my dreams seem to get crazier and more vivid when I'm pregnant. I could really do without that. It kind of freaks me out.

I've had fun figuring and refiguring our finances during the last few months. Excel spreadsheets are my friend. (FYI--I know that last sentence isn't grammatically correct.)

I've had the incredible urge to ride in some sort of topless vehicle (convertible, jeep, whatever) with the radio turned up... singing loudly with my friends. Monster ballads would be fun!

For some strange reason, I kind of want to watch the Oscars this year... even though I honestly haven't even heard of at least 60% of the movies, and I think I've only seen two of them on the entire list of nominated films. And I probably would get annoyed with it anyway. I just always think it's fun to see someone be recognized for hard work, especially work that I am not cut out for at all.

I'm thankful for the group of people who is committed to our church plant in Illinois. So far we have 12 adults and 8 kids (soon to be 10 kids). It seems like we'll be a good team!

I'm 15 weeks pregnant and feel MUCH better now that I'm out of my first trimester. My gall bladder is even behaving. Sure makes moving and doing all of these other things more reasonable!

This is nowhere near a million thoughts, but you can get a picture of life around here for the last little bit. We'll keep you posted!

A Long Overdue Update

Well, a lot has happened in the last few weeks! We went to Missouri for 10 days to do our Christmas marathon of visiting family. The boys started the trip sick with colds and ended it sick with the flu. But we had a great time visiting with everyone and were able to see most of our family members and even some friends, which was great!

While we were gone, Megan (Chet's sister) helped me identify that the unusual symptoms I was having were likely related to gall bladder problems. So when I got home, I started researching in my Smart Medicine for Healthier Living book and found several natural remedies. Since I'm in the first trimester of pregnancy, the only one that my doctor wants me to try is the olive oil and lemon juice combo. The book recommended 3 tbsp. of olive oil mixed with the juice of one lemon, which is to be ingested right before bed and then again in the morning before breakfast. I did this for a couple of days...

and then I got the stomach bug that the boys had! Needless to say, I didn't attempt to drink olive oil and lemon juice at this point! In two days of having the flu I lost 4 or 5 pounds and was not in good shape. My gall bladder did feel better because I was eating absolutely no fat (or much of anything for that matter), but as soon as I ate a slice of cheese when I was better, the gall bladder problems came back.

I went to the doctor today for my first OB appointment, and we talked some about the gall bladder issues. She's ordered an ultrasound of my gall bladder, and we'll decide what to do from there. When I came home a friend had sent me directions for a different (more intense) version of the olive oil and lemon juice cleanse. So I'll run that by the doctor to see if I can try it before the ultrasound or if she'd rather I wait until after. I'm really hoping it works! I'm not exactly all that interested in having an unnecessary surgery, particularly if something like olive oil and lemon juice can take care of it.

On a more exciting note, there was a 5-day discrepancy between when the paper dating wheel they use in the doctor's office said I conceived and when my temperature changed (signifying ovulation if you don't know anything about the fertility awareness method of charting). The doctor likes to do c-sections one week early, and so the 5-day difference could be big one way or the other. In order to determine my exact due date, she had me have an early ultrasound during today's visit.

According to the ultrasound, I am exactly 10 weeks and 2 days pregnant, which means my due date is August 15, 2009. The baby was moving around like crazy. It has only one head with developing facial features and has two arms, two legs, tiny little fingers and tiny little toes. There is a very strong heartbeat racing along at 169 beats per minute. They say faster heartrates can indicate that it's a girl, but I'm not counting my chickens, because Ladan and Gabe both had fairly high heartrates as well.

As the ultrasound tech was trying to get around my uterus to see my ovaries, I was watching the baby jumping all around doing something like jumping jacks. I said, "Can you even believe that people throw these babies in the trash can like it's nothing?" She said, "I have never been an ultrasound tech who is pro-abortion. I just look at these tiny little bodies and how early their hearts beat and everything starts developing and have no idea how someone can discard them as nothing important." Seriously. This is why it is so great when crisis pregnancy centers can have ultrasound machines right in their offices.

I was bummed that Chet didn't get to see it (he's sitting in a philosophy class all week), but he'll for sure get to see the later one, which will be even more fun!

With regard to our move to Champaign, Chet's been working HARD to get things in order. Our good friends, Logan and Allison Preston, and their three children are making the move with us. There may be others who decide to go as well, which would be awesome! There are already 5 people in Champaign who are committed to the church, and there may be more before we even arrive... thanks to Jim Smith, our good friend there who is working from that end. Chet is applying for jobs, and we'll start talking with lenders to determine if we'll be able to buy a home at this point. We still have enough in savings, but since our future income sources seem a little bit all over the place, they may require that we get there and get established a bit before buying. We'll see how it shakes out. Anyway, once Chet gets a job and we find a place to live, we'll make the move. It's a bit of a whirlwind, that's for sure!

I'll end with a little story. The other night during small group, one of the high school girls was watching the kids. Apparently, Ladan had a very hard time obeying and was openly defiant several times. She explained the situation to me, so before I left to take her home, I told Chet that Ladan would have to have discipline when they got home. Chet took care of that, and I was putting Ladan to bed a while later. I talked to him for a few minutes about how it made me sad to hear that he had disobeyed Cali and had treated her and the other kids poorly. I reminded him that this is sin and that it is what separates us from God. I reminded him that this is why we need Jesus, to save us from our sins.

After that quick talk, we moved on to our story. We just happened to be on the story of Zaccheus in his Jesus Storybook Bible. The story talks about how Zaccheus didn't have any friends because he was stealing from people. This was disobeying God, and he was a sinner. Jesus came along and rescued Zaccheus from his sinning. He forgave Zaccheus and gave Zaccheus a new heart. Zaccheus wanted to obey God after that.

We prayed after the story. Ladan hasn't wanted to pray out loud for a little while for some reason. He likes to just close his eyes and listen to us pray. But this time, as I was thanking God for sending Jesus to save us, he interjected, "Thank you, God, for saving me from my sinning." We went on to pray that God would help Ladan understand what Jesus did for him when He died and rose again and that God would help Ladan believe and trust in Him and want to obey and love others well. I was so thankful that he was owning his sin and that he is able to verbalize that he needs to be rescued from it. The Lord is working in his little heart!

Oh, one more thing. You'll never believe it....

CHET HAS A FACEBOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!