My Poor, Neglected Blog...

Umm, where did summer go? Seriously. It was just here!  I suppose with today being the official start to fall that I should get off my summer slump of not blogging and resume this little place I call home. :-) So let's see... a quick recap!

Nat, Paul, and I took some cousins to a nearby amusement park in early August. While I did manage to write about it here (yay!), I failed to add a picture.  Here ya go:

Paul and I on one of the (few!) rides he could ride.  Just wait 'til he is older... he'll be zooming all over the park then. :-)

We also celebrated Paul's birthday in early August with a grand birthday party... balloon animals and face painting included! Between Nat's immediate family and mine, we had 15 kiddos running around.  It sure got confusing because the kids on Nat's side are siblings while the kids on my side are nephews and nieces, so we were forever saying, "Go to Uncle Nat, I mean... Nat!" or ".... Anne, I mean Auntie Anne!" But we had lots of fun. :-) 

His party was a little early since my in-laws were up from Texas at the beginning of August.  Hey, we figured this was the only birthday party for Paul we'll actually have family at since most of his birthdays will probably be celebrated in Thailand.

Paul's gift was his first set of car keys! Too bad the car didn't come with it! ;-)

Then we celebrated Paul's birthday on his real day by taking him to a local burger place.  Too bad the kid doesn't have any teeth so he could enjoy a burger! ;-) For the record, the burgers at the Creamery are amazing... seriously, they are so yummy. Although the name of Nat's burger was "The Heart Attack" so that should also tell you how good for you they are!

We did take Paul to a local yogurt place for dessert and he devoured an entire bowl of yogurt and blueberries... mmm!  Happy birthday little guy!

So the next plan on our agenda is head to Texas to visit with my in-laws before starting the drive back through the South. I am very excited to be adding three new states to my list of states I've been too. Once this trip is over, I'll only have ten more States to visit... like Hawaii and California. :-) But we'll save that for the next round of deputation/furlough.

 There's my little update and since we're hitting the road soon, I'm sure you'll hear from me a little more often now.... I tend to be a better blogger when I'm traveling or living in a different country! ;-)

Picture Time!

There must be something so inspiring about cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-a, because we seem to time our family photos around that wonderful day. :-) And yes, we are going to dress up with our cute cow outfits and go enjoy some chicken for dinner tonight!

Last year we were waiting on our little Peanut and this year we have Paul joining us in the pictures... this time on the outside!

What a difference a year makes! Paul is now 10 months old and has brought a lot of joy and happiness to our little family. :-)  Now if we could just convince him to sleep... ;-)

Playing Catch Up.

We've been home for almost a week and I finally feel like I'm getting into the swing of things. Unpacking was easy and getting adjusted to the East Coast was easy... for two of us anyway!  Our little babe decided it was way more fun to stay on West Coast time. :-)  Thankfully the last two nights have gone better than the previous four nights!

I was somewhat nervous going into our month-long trip out West, mainly because it was the first time we were on deputation without our car.  Up until that point, we were used to being in new places on new adventures ~ always in our car. :-) So, yeah, our comfort zone was gone for a month and replaced with planes, borrowed cars, trains, buses, RVs, and hotels.  We just kept rolling along and trying to be flexible!

But as usual, the Lord worked out all the details and we met some wonderful people along the way. My husband and I marveled at the way the Lord (once again!) met all of our needs, right down to giving us a place to stay when just the day before we were wondering where we were going to pillow our heads for the next night!

The West Coast is absolutely beautiful, and we only saw parts of Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. :-) I used to think Pennsylvania had mountains... nope, guess again!

Mt. McKinley in Denali National Park, Alaska

We are grateful that our deputation travels have taken us to some amazing scenery across this great country! There's nothing like staring at a beautiful mountain and feeling pretty puny. :-) Add to that Paul is one of the most traveled babies I know of. This kid has already been to 22 states... and counting. :-)

Alaskan mosquitoes took to Paul and left their mark. Two weeks later, and he still has a couple of marks on his face! He was a pretty happy camper through it all and thankfully most of his bites took place just a few days before we left Alaska.  I told our friends who live there that I'm going to have a really hard time picturing Alaska being cold and snowy because it was so hot and full of mosquitoes while we were there. Oh, and it was light outside for 22 hours.  Sheesh. 

We had a wonderful time in Alaska spending time with our friends. We were in the Interior, which isn't your typical picture of Alaska. We did get to see grizzly bears, caribou, moose, Dall sheep, mountains, mountains, and more mountains! There aren't too many major roads in Alaska, and most of them are around Fairbanks, which made it convenient for us. :-)

Paul's latest adventure is cruising around, with a lot of help from Mommy and Daddy. :-) He has attempted to crawl, but doesn't quite make it... although it sure is fun to watch!  Now that we're home, we're hoping he doesn't get too bored with being in one place.  We plan to be in PA for most of the summer, with a quick trip out to Ohio to help friends with vacation Bible school. I'm grateful for the time home to spend with family, friends, and trying to pack our apartment up for our move to Thailand.

We have our tickets in hand and we plan on leaving November 5 - just a little over four months away. Downsizing our apartment into eight suitcases is going to be a wonderful challenge.  I was thinking again this morning of how I'm going to do this and was ready to burst into tears at the thought of leaving my home.  We've spent three happy years in this little apartment, but being sentimental is not going to get things organized! I think I'll have one good cry over it and then get to work. :-)

Mountains, Tickets, & Ice Cream!

When I saw my uncle at my dad's funeral, he told me there was one problem with the Pacific Northwest.  I was uncertain what that problem was until he told me that the problem was I was going to love it!  Since my uncle has lived in the Pacific Northwest for a really long time, I figured he knew what he was talking about... and, well, he did!

I am guilty to a fault of being very loyal to Pennsylvania. I love my state, my area, my home. But even I must admit there is one teeny tiny fault with my beloved state: the mountains just do not compare to what I've seen here in Washington. Last night we went for a quick drive to Lake Stevens and I was amazed to see the backdrop of snow-capped mountains to this beautiful lake.  I've almost started getting used to seeing these amazing mountains as we drive around northwest Washington.

But the one thing that these mountains have really done for me is show me what a magnificent creator my God is. The mountains are majestic, the lakes are stunning, even the trees seem like they are on steroids!  Creation turns my focus back to my amazing God and I have just soaked up His beauty.  I am so thankful we've had the opportunity to travel out West!

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We also picked up a new supporting church, bringing our support level to 87%.  In addition to that, Nat and I purchased our one-way tickets for Thailand.  You talk about an adrenaline rush! Nat spent the better portion of the afternoon looking up airline tickets and kicking himself for not purchasing them three days earlier. Prices shot up $200.00 and so we decided to grab them while we could!  As we talked back and forth about buying a ticket for Paul (compared to holding him on our laps), the cost for extra bags, and the flight options, we feel the Lord gave us the peace for buying Paul his own seat.  This allows us to bring his car seat, get two extra bags and a carry-on, check his stroller, and have a place for him to sit down and sleep.  The great thing about the flight we chose is that it's the closest thing to a non-stop flight! We only have one layover for two hours, making this one of the better international flights I've taken. Yay!

My niece is also coming along with us for an eight-week stay, so that gives us another person to help and hopefully some extra room to pack a few things in her bags. :-) We're not planning on shipping a container, especially since we've always planned on setting up shop for Thailand in Thailand. Now I'm really eager to start sorting our stuff: trash, sell, give away, keep in USA, pack to go to Thailand. With the Lord's help I think it will all work out just fine!

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Paul has really been enjoying the warmer weather. He absolutely loves water and his little feet start to kick when he sees a lake.  It's been fun seeing how Paul reacts to things.... like ice cream. At first lick, he wasn't certain about it, but soon the tongue started coming out faster and faster!  I think he's a fan of chocolate. :-)

On The Road Again...

Baby and hubby are sleeping but I'm wide, wide awake.  Hmm, I knew I shouldn't have eaten that cereal bar so late at night!  I suppose it's a good thing though, or else my good intentions of blogging for the past two weeks would've been pushed off for yet another week!

We are currently hanging out in Bellingham, Washington... as in the state of Washington. Give or take 43 hours away from home in current driving time, according to Google Maps. :-)  We left the craziness of Memorial Day weekend traffic on the PA Turnpike on Friday and exchanged it for the not-as-crazy driving of a city with a population of 100,000.  

We also experienced Paul's first airplane ride, in which he did extremely well! As we were waiting to get off the plane, the people in the rows around us commented on what a good boy we had. We of course assured them that God truly answered prayer for a smooth flight! I'm sure they were grateful people were praying that way. :-)

Bellingham is located about two hours north of the Seattle airport, a little detail that slipped past our radar. We really had no clue, and at that point Paul had (in his opinion) endured enough and so he very nicely started letting the pastor driving us know that he was done. Unfortunately for Paul, there was no way around the drive except through it.  What ensued was a very long ride home for the rest of the occupants in the car.  Oh, and it was the pastor's wife birthday. What a way to end her happy birthday.  Poor kid.  Poor pastor's wife!

Saturday was such a pretty day and we really enjoyed the sunshine... especially since we haven't seen it again! We enjoyed a beautiful walk down by the bay and checked out all the fishing boats and yachts by the pier.

The folks at this church have been more than hospitable to us and once again we have been spoiled by God's servants.  We've enjoyed jumping in and taking part in the activities here and even experienced our own personal tour guide showing us around Whatcom County and taking us on a drive close to Mt. Baker.  This man's family has lived in the Bellingham area for over 100 years, so I think he knows a thing or two about the area. :-)

We plan on being in this area for the next week or so before heading south to Portland, Oregon. From there we're flying to Alaska to visit friends and we also have a few meetings.  Alaska has been on my dream list of places to visit for some time now, and I'm thrilled the opportunity is before us!  Isn't God good to give us the desires of our hearts?

Hopefully the updates will be a little more faithful in the weeks to come... it was insanely busy in the days leading up to our West Coast trip!

An Update.

I'm feeling awfully productive this morning! My little guy woke up around 5:30 to eat and then quickly fell back to sleep.  I'm not sure if it was the Lord prompting/reminding me of my goal to wake up earlier or if I had "enough" sleep - it's amazing the amount of sleep I'm getting by on! - but I decided to get up early and have some quiet time with the Lord.  

Now that was refreshing!  Just being still and quiet before the Lord... no baby cooing in the background to distract me.  What a blessing to soak in the word of God and meditate on Ephesians 2:1-2.

I think I was running on ambition or something because I decided to make some bread.  From the smells currently wafting out of my oven, it's going to be delicious!  Add to that a shower and some computer time (I'm usually on my iPhone), and I'm feeling rather productive for 8:00 in the morning!  I'm sure I'll nap later, but it was worth it to wake up early today.  Plus my little dude is still sleeping, so I'm planning on enjoying a nice breakfast date with my honey... right in our own kitchen. :-)

Speaking of the little dude...

... he turned four months on Sunday and got all dressed up for a wedding on Saturday!  His first tux. :-)

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We've been home for a few weeks now and will be home for about two more before we head out for a month to continue deputation.  We had a meeting Sunday night and Monday night (a missions conference) and will have one next weekend in Maryland before we head south to the Carolinas. Nat and I just booked a stay at a bed-and-breakfast in Charleston, SC for the end of this month and we're very excited to spend some time in that city!  Plus we're finally using up a b&b gift card that was given to us for our wedding 2.5 years ago. :-)  Since we both share the same birthday, we don't do presents for each other but always enjoy doing something special together.  On our actual birthdays we'll be in the midst of a mission conference, so we decided to celebrate a few days earlier and I'm sure we'll have a good time. 

Now that we've turned the calendar, we are extremely excited that this is the year we plan on being on the field, Lord willing!  I'm sure the months will slip by and sometimes I get overwhelmed with the thought of packing up our apartment.  We've tried to be "minimalists" since we've gotten married, knowing we were heading to the other side of the world, but we've also had to live now so we've accumulated a few things. :-) In the months ahead, there will be plenty of times to be ruthless in sorting, saving, and throwing away!  

Three Months.

My little guy turned three months today! He has really started to change, especially in the last couple of weeks. He almost rolled over today (but then decided it wasn't worth it:D), he smiles a lot (unless he's hungry), and loves exploring his hands. We've also noticed how he's better at being content and is able to lay by himself and play without constantly needing someone in his face all the time.

Paul has had two haircuts and two "trims" and continues to be my peanut when it comes to his size. It was a sad yet happy day when he outgrew his first outfit that he wore home from the hospital.

He has brought us so much joy and loves to teach us patience (or the Lord uses him to teach us!). He has spent most of his life on the road and has done fairly well for being such a little guy. Of course he's the star attraction everywhere we go - or I should say his hair is!!

Baby News.

My little baby is resting contentedly in his swing right now and I'm finally sorting through and catching up on e-mails... and blogging.

~Three days before baby day~

~Five days after baby day~

Little Paul Nathaniel was born September 6th after a very long day. Several things took place differently than I had expected and anticipated, including an emergency c-section. As they were wheeling me into the operating room, a nurse leaned in close and said, "all that's going to matter is you're going to have a healthy baby at the end of all of this." Such comforting words!

I'm still recovering from the surgery, but I'm pretty amazed at how the Lord has given me my strength back! My doctor was even happy when I saw her yesterday. :-)

Every time I look at baby Paul, I marvel at what a little miracle he is. Thank you, Lord, for my precious son!

Eviction Time.

Sometimes our ways just aren't God's ways. And I'm really grateful for that!

Our little Peanut was due almost two weeks ago... but that just wasn't God's way or timing. Now that I'm coming to the end of that two week waiting period, I can look back and see how the Lord's timing once again worked out.

Our local fair was all last week and Nat and I were hoping to be a part of that since our church was having a booth at the fair. I got to go up twice and he got to go three times and we were able to talk to several people about what the Bible really has to say about missing the mark with God. Now that wouldn't have worked out so well if we were having a baby, right?

In addition to participating at the fair, Nat was able to spend three different occasions with a man who is dying of several types of cancer... and this man had questions about eternity. In one short week, this man's health quickly declined. I'm thankful for a husband who is sensitive to eternity's values. I doubt Nat would've been able to spend all that time with this dying man if we were in the hospital. Hmm.

My heart was also encouraged and refreshed from the Sunday morning at church. My small group discussion was very uplifting, the song service put my focus back on the Lord (after all, how do you think about yourself when you're singing, "Crown Him Lord of All"?), and the message reminded me to have my delight on the Lord. If Peanut had come last week, I would've missed the service Sunday morning.

So the Lord really knows. Whether I remember the fact that He knows or not is another thing! But His timing is perfect.

Tomorrow morning we're planning on going to the hospital and inducing this baby. I'm still praying that I go into labor on my own tonight, but that just might not be God's will. He's given me several reminders recently that His thoughts and plans are higher than my own and I take comfort in the fact that He is in control.

I also take comfort in the fact that no one has been pregnant for ever, so this baby is coming!

Latest Travels.

So according to my last post (two months ago), we were in Texas and in the midst of deputation travels.

Um, yeah, we actually returned to PA about 1.5 months ago. :-)

We did take a couple of more trips since then, including a deputation/anniversary/babymoon trip to what is fast becoming our favorite vacation state ~ Maine! In between two deputation meetings, Nat and I had a sweet getaway in and surrounding Brunswick, Maine.

Nat is his mother's child, so we took as many opportunities as possible to get close to the water. We didn't actually go swimming in the ocean (hello 50 degree water!), but it was wonderful to be near it!

We decided to go to the Maine Maritime Museum which also included a river boat tour. The museum was quite interesting and we spent just the right amount of time there.

I was studying some lobster cages in one of the buildings when Nat called my name and so I turned around. Although not intentional, it is rather amusing to see how my shirt matches the horizontal slats on the lobster cages. :-)

By the way, notice my hoodie hanging over my purse?? It was actually cool enough by the water to put the hoodie on to ward off the chill. *Sigh* I think 70 degree weather is just perfect!

We really enjoyed the river boat tour, which included a couple of lighthouse sightings. Hey, you can't go wrong with cruising out on the water!

Of course, when in Maine one must try a lobster - or "lobstah" as the locals say! Nat was the adventurous one while I sat contently by watching him crack it open as I ate my shrimp. :-)

The whole trip was so wonderful! One nice thing was we were staying in the same place for four consecutive days... something that is fast becoming a luxury rather than necessity!

We're taking the next two months off from deputation as we wait for Peanut to make his or her grand entrance. We even finally registered for some baby items, mainly because of the free gift card incentive that Babies 'R Us offers. Well, that and the fact that Nat just loves that scanner and wants to scan everything he sees. :-)

Five weeks until my official due date. We'll see how official Peanut is in arriving and just how much he or she takes after Mommy in being early for everything!

Oh, let's hope it's not another five weeks before I squeak out another blog post.

That last period of silence was embarrassing!

Mother's Day.

Nat and I have been visiting with his immediate family in central Texas while we finish up our last few meetings for this leg of deputation. It was pretty convenient that we managed to get into town 2 days before Mother's Day - why yes he is a good son! For the past couple of years, I've always been away for Mother's Day, so it was nice to actually be with one of our moms for the day!

Of course we have plans to take my mom out for lunch when we return to PA. We did that last year and found out the restaurant we wanted to go to had burned up... I'm hoping history does not repeat itself this year!

Nat's been mentioning for weeks we need to take a picture to track peanut's growth. I'm not a huge fan of the weekly picture some moms do, so I finally decided it would be nice to get a picture on Mother's Day. Nat's sister found a nice spot on the front yard and enjoyed taking pictures:).

I'm 25.5 weeks - I'm never sure what that translates into months - but I'm thinking it's somewhere around 6 months. :)

We plan to be out on the road for two more weeks before returning back to PA. After being in Oklahoma and Texas for the past couple of weeks and experiencing their heat in April/May, I'm very glad that I live in Pennsylvania where the heat isn't as bad as in the south. Of course a friend reminded me this morning on the phone that we are heading to Thailand, but I'm not going to think about the heat over there... just yet!

Makin' It Official:).

Confession time: my lack of blogging has (for once!) an excuse. For weeks now I've been wanting to blog but I've been waiting to share a little secret:).

Now I know a lot of LVBC and facebook friends read here so you already know, but I do want to make it "blogger" official too: we have a little peanut on the way!

We found out on Christmas Eve and were pretty excited - making it a pretty easy Christmas gift:). Then we got to hear the heartbeat on Valentine's Day and were pretty excited - making it a pretty easy Valentine's gift:).

It was kinda funny when the doctor first found the heartbeat because it made our baby so real (and not just some extended illness that has been making me feel nauseous all the time:D) and I said, "Oh my!" Well with me talking that made the doctor go searching after that little beat again:). What a precious sound it was to hear.... too bad we didn't think to record it until several hours later.

So, onto the answers for the frequently asked questions!

• My due date is August 24th.
• This is the 13th grandchild for my parents and the first for Nat's parents!
• We plan on finding out what we're having... when the baby arrives:).
• We do have names picked out!
• Plans for deputation have slightly changed! We'll be taking a 7-week trip (April-May) and have some meetings in churches. After that, we plan to stay "local" for the summer and get some meetings with churches that are within 3-4 hours driving distance.
• After the baby is born, we have a meeting scheduled for the last week of September and all of October. We plan on jumping into this whole newborn/travel thing with both feet even though we have no idea what we're doing! (Prayers are appreciated!!!)
• Cravings. Oh cravings. Actually it's been fairly straightforward and nothing weird like nacho cheese and ice cream (eww, that sounds gross!). My #1 craving is chicken salad from the bakery I used to work at. A close second would be Edy's fruit Popsicles. Mmmm!
• Morning sickness (which turned out to be afternoon/evening sickness for me) is really subsiding. Protein helps! My husband has been so sensitive to what might make me sick to the point that he would walk to the end of the kitchen to get the food item (and the smell!) away from me. The crazy thing is that whatever was bothering me smell-wise was something I had made and had for dinner the night before!

Hmm, can't think of anything else:). God's been good!