Something New for the New Year

Happy 2008 to my family and friends who have found my new home! I hope that this does not cause too much confusion for my dear "faithful readers". I have greatly enjoyed blogging for the past few months of 2007; however, I have been a little frustrated with a few of the features of my previous blog home. One of my favorite things to do with my blog is show off pictures of the Little Man, and unfortunately that was not always easy to do on the other site. So, here we are bringing in the New Year with a new blog home.

And not only do you have this post to enjoy as a welcome, but below you'll find my overdue post about our 4th anniversary, complete with an easily uploaded picture!

I hope that you look forward to reading about our adventures in 2008!

Happy New Year to you all!

Four Years of Loving and Learning

With all the excitement of planning Christmas and getting gifts for Isaiah and each other, Thomas and I somehow managed to not remember that our 4th wedding anniversary was the 27th of December. I say "not remember" because we didn't really forget, but we didn't exactly remember to plan anything specific for the very day. We have already reserved some babysitters for an evening while we are in Germany...but those details are for another very exciting post to come. :)

So anyway, one morning we were sitting in the kitchen, when I very anxiously asked Thomas if he had any plans for Thursday (our anniversary). I was secretly hoping that he hadn't thought about it because only the day before had I realized that I hadn't thought about it! Thankfully I was answered with a fearful sounding, "um....no". I could tell that Thomas was afraid that I would be offended (being married at least 4 years helps with that, though we still have so much to learn!). I quickly tried to reassure him that I had nothing planned and no expectations of him. I had to repeat this a couple of times, but finally he did believe me and we both began laughing, which started Isaiah laughing, which made us laugh more, which made Isaiah laugh more, well you get the picture.

I think most couples enjoy spending time together on their wedding anniversaries, and Thomas and I are no different, but we also really enjoy spending time with our Little Man, so we decided to make our anniversary celebration a family affair. For details on how the day was spent, feel free to check out Thomas' post on our family blog.It's amazing how much you can learn about yourself in four years, and how much more you can learn when you're living with someone every day! I always knew that I was a sinner in need of sanctifying grace, but WOW!, has marriage ever shown me just how selfish and sinful I am! Jesus' command in John 13 for His disciples to love one another so that the world would know that they are His disciples makes more and more sense as I continue to interact with other people. The vast majority of people are not difficult to love most of the time, and Thomas is certainly not difficult to love, but I get in the way so often. By learning how to love as Christ loves His people and having His mind, I must lay aside myself, which I don't always want to do! As someone who likes to please other people, it might look like I am laying aside myself, but all to often my motives are still quite selfish!

I am thankful that God has given me such a loving and gracious spouse who for these past four years has helped me to learn more about God and about myself and about how I can better live for God! Being able to learn in such a grand relationship certainly helps make the process of sanctification a lot more fun at times!

In Case You're New and Wondering....

Welcome to Random Thoughts! I've recently been connecting in some new online communities, and just in case someone from one of them visits here and then wonders more about us, here is our condensed story:

Thomas and I met in graduate school. Thomas had recently returned from a mission's trip to Siberia (yes, the really cold part of Russia; though it's actually quite warm in the summer time). He thought surely the greatest pick up line in the world was: "Hey, come with me to Siberia!" (just imagine this being said quite sarcastically)

We married December 27, 2003. Yes, my parents were thrilled with our marriage, even though it meant I, their only child, would eventually be living in Siberia. I do however, think that my mother would have preferred a different date, but the wedding was beautiful!

One year later

We visited Siberia together in February 2005, and we still believed God to be calling us to minister in Russia after our 3-week adventure.

At this point we both really wanted to have a baby, and in the summer of 2005 I found out I was indeed pregnant--great rejoicing! Other than being incredibly sick for a really long time, the pregnancy was fairly normal, I guess, until we discovered that Isaiah would be named Isaiah and not some girly name. On that day, which I recall being warm and sunny and maybe sometime in October, we also learned that Isaiah has spina bifida. There are many degrees of this birth defect, so for those of you medical buffs, his defect is between L2 and L3. His type is spina bifida manifesto, myelomeningocele in conjunction with hydrocephalus. And if you want more details, you can read here.

As you can imagine, our lives were a little uncertain at that point...NOT uncertain as to whether or not Isaiah should be born, that WAS NEVER a question! We believed then and still do now that Isaiah is our gift from God, and that God created him exactly the way that he should be. The way that our lives changed involved our calling to missions.

We weren't sure if we would be able to move to Siberia, since our child might have a disability.

Isaiah decided that he didn't want to wait for the day he was "supposed" to be born. He made his quite dramatic entrance on February 6, 2006. I won't go into all the details, but the day was difficult in many ways. After several hours I was finally able to see my precious boy, and loved him even more than I thought possible! After only 21 days in the hospital and 3 surgeries, we got to take him home.

Our first family photo

God did make it possible for us to move to Russia, though not Siberia. Isaiah has a shunt in his head to drain fluid that builds up. Should this shunt malfunction for any reason, he would need almost immediate attention to prevent any long-term damage. Unfortunately, such care is not available in Siberia, at least not that we have discovered at this point. So for now we are living in St. Petersburg as we learn this difficult language. For more about our ministry, please visit our website.

In the spring of 2009 God brought more opportunities of growth for our family. I had a miscarriage in March and again in May. We were of course devastated, but still believed that God would have us add to our family. I was able to have tests run to determine the possible causes of the miscarriages and now take medicine to help prevent any further harm to future children.

And, I suppose that I want to explain some of the pictures that you might see on this blog. Isaiah is a happy, wonderful, loving little man; but he does have some medical needs that most kids his age don't have. Isaiah cannot walk. He does an amazing "army crawl" all around the house (and in the sandbox when it's warm), that I could never manage. His defect effects his bladder and bowel; we are not sure how much feeling he has in these areas. We help him "potty" 4 times a day with a catheter and give him water enemas every other day. He's sitting on his own much better these days, even working with his hands some. During the summer/fall of 2009 we were in the States for 5 months. During that time Isaiah was able to have intensive physical, occupational and speech therapy. He was able to be fitted for full-leg braces and begin learning to walk with a walker! We praise God for this progress!

Also while we were in the States, God blessed us with our 4th child, who Lord willing, will be joining us in June 2010. We excitedly await the birth of Nadezhda "Nadia" Grace Slawson!

So those are the bare facts. If you would like to know more, please feel free to ask, anything. I'm used to explaining this all in Russian, now, so talking about it in English is a breeze!

Thanks for stopping by. I'd love to know who you are and visit your blog, too, if you have one. Please leave me a comment!