All Tuckered Out.

We went for a walk today, and apparently the fresh air was too much for our little guy!

The Letter E

I have decided that we have an "e" problem.  All three of us.  And it doesn't look like it is going away anytime soon.

What's our problem? Well it's actually very simple. People often leave the "e" off of my name -- Anne -- and attach it to Nat's name -- making his name Nate. That pesky "e" then migrates over to Paul's name in the form of a nickname, making him... Paul-e.

This whole "e" situation is ironic because it doesn't bother Nat (or Paul for that matter) at all. But it drives me nuts!

For the most part, people generally tag the "e" on at the end of my name nowadays.  Ann Williams just doesn't look right to me, so I always do a double-take when I see it and then I figure out why yes that *is* meant for me.    There are also the few times where I'm called Annie, which is a name I greatly dislike for myself. I have no problem with the name if it's an actual name for another girl. :-) Only two people in this world can call me "Annie" and for some reason it doesn't bother me when they call me that. Two older gentlemen in my church got into the habit a long, long time ago and to this day they call me Annie and so that's that.

Now when it came to Paul, I honestly didn't think a nickname was going to be derived from Paul because it's so basic and straightforward. So I was a little surprised the first time I heard someone say to him, "Hi Paul-eee!  Paaaaaul-eeeeeee!"  All I heard was "Polly" and I was horrified that my son was being called a girl's name.  Then I realized that little 'ole "e" was tagged on the end of his name, and I felt slightly better. But I still don't like the "Paul-e." :-)

But I'm genuinely confused when it comes to Nat's name because he'll introduce himself as Nat, spell it out, hand out a prayer card with it spelled out on it, and he'll still be called "Nate."   I'm not sure where the confusion comes from. :-)

In fact we were in one church recently that took it one step further and had in their bulletin, "Welcome Mat and Ann Williams." That takes the cake. :-)

Now it's second nature for Nat to introduce himself and say, "Hi, my name is Nat. You know, like gnat" as he slaps the back of his neck as if he's getting a gnat.  What's funny to watch is the people with a look of confusion on their faces before it dawns on them a few minutes later.  "Ohhh! I get it!!"

Our never-ending battle with an "e."  It's the little things in life. :-)

Big Boy!

A reader from England sent me this shirt when Paul was born and he's finally big enough to fit into it!

It says, "I love Mummy." :-)

And he just spit up all over the shirt so I'm glad I got the picture beforehand. :-)

Thanks Joycelin-Anne!

Late Night Musings.

Hubby is sleeping, baby is sleeping and I'm wide awake, which is nothing short of amazing considering we drove 9 hours through the night pulling in at 6 AM and just catching a couple of hours of sleep.  

Ahh, home! It's so nice to be home.  Clean house, clean fridge... and wrinkled potatoes.  

That last one was an oops.  In the midst of the flurry of leaving a month ago -- at the groggy hour of 6 AM -- I failed to see I had potatoes sitting in the bowl waiting to be devoured.  Unfortunately, no devouring is going to take place now.  Big oops!

Oh, going back to the clean house part, I should clarify and say mostly clean. When I walked into my kitchen this morning, I saw three stink bugs in various places with their legs decidedly pointing up.  Ignoring the little creatures, I wandered into the bedroom to see two more stink bugs in the same position and I finally realized that the bitter cold of Pennsylvania was effective in killing the stink bugs off and leaving them in the "legs up" position.  That's a wonderful solution to killing stink bugs except I don't want to keep my apartment at a chilly 55 degrees and I would rather not smash the stink bugs to smithereens since they give off a rather unpleasant smell ~ hence the name.  

That whole paragraph was brought on by the fact that there is a rather live stink bug wandering up my kitchen wall right now and I'm a big wimp at killing them. No worries though: I become rather fearless when it comes to ridding my house of bugs in Thailand, so I should be good.   Besides, the stink bug will still be there in the morning, Nat can come to my rescue of getting rid of it and he'll maintain his position of being my knight in shining armor and rescuing me from... bugs. It's all good. :-)

Wow, that was quite the rabbit trail. Moving on...

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We just returned from another tour of deputation, although this past month didn't feel like deputation as much as it felt like an extended vacation because we saw so many friends and family members.  We even ran into some missionary friends of ours at the last church we were at.  That was fun!

I feel like we made some friendships on this last trip that will become life-long friends in the ministry.  For instance, we were in a missions conference in South Carolina for four days and by the time we left, we walked away with a supporting church and the feeling that we had known the dear folks there forever.  Another meeting the Lord put together at the last moment and we ended up staying with the pastor and his family for a couple of days and discovered we got along very easily.  With the last meeting we had, we camped out at the church for a few days (in a gorgeous prophet's chamber!) and our hearts were knit together with many in the church.  

So many blessings along the way, and yet most of them don't even make it into a blog post, prayer letter, or thank you note.  Not that we're ungrateful; we just can't record all that the Lord has blessed us with. But I will share one with you as a "for instance."

One afternoon a pastor's wife and I went to a second-hand shop because she had a couple of 50% off your whole order coupons that she wanted to use. Now this shop had the best prices on clothing I've ever seen in a second-hand shop and most of the clothing was name-brand quality stuff. I have been keeping my eye out for summer outfits since the weather in Thailand is summer-oriented, so as I was browsing through the shoe section, an older gentleman came up to me and gave me a 50% off coupon. I was so surprised, but very thankful.  Since Nat wasn't with us and the pastor's wife had a 50% off coupon for me, Nat and and I returned to the store the next day so he could look for some things.  He's been looking for several items for a while now, including a suit.  Wouldn't you know, there was a suit on the rack in his size that "just so happened" to be marked down 50% already and then he was able to use the 50% off coupon too, bringing the cost of the suit to $5.00! Isn't God good?

We're currently sitting at 71% of our deputation goal and we praise the Lord for that.  We're heading to the mid-west from March to May and then we'll be in Washington and Alaska during the month of June.  We do have several dates to fill in during those months, especially for the West Coast trip.  My husband has been praying about whether we drive or fly and felt as if the Lord was leading us to fly out to Washington.  He told me the other day that he feels like he "cut the branch off the tree" when he bought our airline tickets, but he is confident that the Lord will provide the right meetings. God has never once failed us and a couple of times now He's allowed a gap in our schedule that He's filled at the very last possible minute that have been turned into the greatest blessings of all. 

So we still have a lot of travel to do in the next few months, but the end is in sight!  We've had a terrific deputation run and we really can't think of any bad experiences along the way.  As I said before, God has been good!!!

A New Decade.

My husband and I are hitting " milestone" birthdays this year - 35 and 30. Now we don't look our age (or act it - ha!) but the calendar is reminding me I start a new decade today.

I remember when I turned 10 and I was so excited to be in the double digits ... finally! But as a kid I didn't think about responsibility or just how fast 10 years went. Turning 20 begin to edge me toward that weighty feeling of "whoa! I need to be productive."

I am definitively feeling it as I start this new decade. A lot has happened in the last 10 years to make me want to make every moment count for the Lord. Having a son this past year has really made me realize the only thing that matters is my relationship with God. I often pray for Paul that he would be saved at a young age and serve the Lord with his whole heart. So much of my life was wasted before I came to Christ.

As I look back over time, I see that a decade didn't just pass me by in one big swoop. No it was month by month, week by week, day by day. I have a feeling that the next decade will go by even faster and I need to make those months, weeks, and days count... for eternity! What better way to start than by spending some good quality time with the Lord?

Of course today will be celebrated with some chocolate - times three! - because the man we're staying with is also having a birthday. I think I'm going to like being 30. :-)

In The South.

I'm not sure if this is the Deep South or not, so I'm just going to call the Carolinas the South. :-)

We left PA a week ago Wednesday and it was nine degrees - as in cold! Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 78 in Charleston, South Carolina. I was actually borderline hot today as we walked a couple of blocks to get lunch. *Happy sigh* There's a reason we are not called to a cold climate!

We've really enjoyed our stay in Charleston so far, including staying at a bed & breakfast/inn that had this huge bed in it! I was also adventurous and tried grits once more (my verdict has not changed - no thank you!). Charleston is a terrible city to drive around since there are carriage tours everywhere, so we put in a lot of walking and enjoyed taking the boat to Fort Sumter, which is on an island.

Paul was a fantastic baby all day long and was a huge hit on the boat... not too hard when you're the only kid in the entire place!

More adventures await us in the morning!

Percentage.

We started deputation last March, with plenty of stops and starts along the way.  Numerous pre-natal visits made that a must!  We've done what we call "tours" of deputation, "lines of travel," and several blocks where we go out for weeks at a time, but no matter what it is called, it's been necessary.  We've met countless people, added some on facebook, laughed over the statement, "You know so and so too!" and have tremendously enjoyed our deputation.

It is what we make of it. We complain of the travel and guess what ~ the travel is going to be looong!  Paul's being cranky?  Mommy and Daddy will be too! We're going out to eat again?!?!?  Suddenly everything tastes like cardboard.  I've learned that my attitude really paves the way for my family.  Those days when my attitude stinks, I might as well just go back to bed and pull the covers over my head because it's going to be "one of those days." Thankfully, those stinky days have been few and far between.  Our hearts long to be in Thailand, but we know that deputation is where the Lord currently has us... and for a good reason too!  A seasoned missionary told us that we're not raising financial support; not really!  Our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and He abundantly provides.  The main reason we spent every week in a new church is to raise prayer support.  Without that, we don't want to go overseas.  Really, we don't.  It would be so foolish to even set foot on an airplane.  Might as well stay here and be cozy.

But with that said, we are raising financial support.  It seems like I'm contradicting myself, doesn't it? God does have all the resources in the world, but He has chosen to use people to distribute those resources.  Many times we've been in a church and on the way out the door, a precious sister in Christ comes along and squeezes money into my husband's hand.  We've been humbled time and time again at the generosity of God's people towards us, kind of like the widow and her mite.

My husband texted me this morning and said a church in Connecticut voted to take us on for support, bringing our total support up to 63%!  Now we were at this church a little less than three weeks after Paul was born.  To be honest, that was one of the "rougher" trips we made since I was still recovering from a c-section.  But the Lord gave a lot of grace and we greatly enjoyed being a part of their missions conference.

We have a meeting this Sunday evening in Maryland and then head down to the Carolinas for three weeks before returning home.  We debated about "filling our schedule up" at the end of February, but then realized if we did that, we would miss our own church's conference.  We didn't want to do that, so we're looking forward to being at LVBC for the conference before heading on another two month trip to the Midwest and Upper Midwest. :-)

God is so good!

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!  

The Windy City.

Nat and I started the trip home on Sunday night, driving from Oklahoma to Indiana. We opted to drive through the night to take advantage of Paul sleeping. That turned out to be a great decision and Paul did so well! The last hour was the worst of the whole trip, but we made it.:-)

My brother and his family have lived an hour outside of Chicago for the last six years and have always said they would take us to Chicago. Despite the fact we've been out several times, we've never gone to the city. Since they are moving to PA this weekend, we thought we would break up our trip by being with them for a few days and go into Chicago while we are here.

We went in on Wednesday and had a great time. I was a bit concerned about Paul - being warm enough and nursing - but both worked out. :-) He was such a good little boy and only got fussy towards the end when we were eating dinner. He loved all the lights and feeling the wind on his face. In fact, he kept trying to eat it. :-)

Most of the day we spent at Navy Pier where there was an indoor Winter Wonderland exhibit. It was absolutely stunning with all the Christmas lights and decorations and there were plenty of rides and ice skating for the kids to do. The best part was since it was 12-12-12 the price to do everything was $12 instead of $20! My nephews and niece had a great time and we enjoyed pushing all the coats around on the stroller. :-)

Chicago is a fairly clean city and white lights make anything look better! We ended the day at the Grand Lux Cafe with another great view and some amazing Asian nachos. I love visiting big cities!

Tonight we're going to a Christmas banquet and then we're heading home! Let's hope Paul travels well one more time. :-)

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!!