Almost 3 Years Exactly

Please pray for the people who are anticipating the landfall of Hurricane Gustav.  Before Hurricane Katrina, Thomas' parents lived in Slidell, LA, which suffered terribly from Katrina.  Now, they live in Baton Rouge, LA, which could still receive some damage from Gustav, but relatively speaking, they are safe from major flooding damage.  However, 1,000s and 1,000s of people are looking at losing what they are still in the process of rebuilding.  Please pray for safety.  And already let's pray for the church to be ready to respond for the glory of God!

The Nielson Family

Through the blog world, I've recently been "introduced" to another blogging mom.  My friend E brought this creative lady to my attention through her efforts to help Nie and her family.  The short story is this:

Mr. and Mrs. Nielson are a young couple with 4 kids.  Mr. and Mrs. N were flying with Mr. N's flight instructor.  They crashed.  Mr. N's flight instructor died after reaching the hospital.  Mr. and Mrs. N are in critical care due to severe burns.  Please forgive the simplicity of the story, but not knowing them personally, I don't want to embellish in any way.  For more details, you can read Mrs. N's sister's blog here, or you can check this site created by some friends of Mrs. N.  And if you would like to follow their story, you can come back and click on the icon at the top of my sidebar.

So back to my friend E....E is one of my Creative Friends who designs different features for blogs.  In an effort to help the Nielson family, E has joined several other incredibly creative people in doing online auctions.  E is offering a "blog makeover" to the highest bidder, which will include 4 blog designs.  Please go check out her auction, and if you would like a really creative blog design and a way to help a family in need, BID!  There are also links on E's blog to further information about other auctions and ways to help the Nielsons.

Rewarded Anticipation

We looked forward to lots of things this summer for our time in the States.  I especially looked forward to playtime for Isaiah with other children.  He was so happy to be around kids so much this summer--first his cousins in Baton Rouge, then kids at the different churches we visited, not to mention all the wonderful playmates in CA that he met!  So here's Isaiah enjoying some of his special friends, some new, some not new but maybe not remembered, but all really fun!

Isaiah with some of his Slawson cousins, Nevil and Jake (although Jake is a Reaves by surname)

My friend Anna and her 3 year old little girl Emily came and had dinner with us one night at the Nott's.  Anna is a very special friend and Emily is a really great little girl.  

She and Isaiah have a lot in common, including a love for music that they shared with us that evening.

I think they both really love "outside", too.

Emily got a short guitar lesson from Thomas.

And here Anna and I are with our wonderful children!  Thanks for taking the extra effort to come out to "the middle of nowhere" just so we could have some special time together, Anna!  I can't tell you how much it meant to me to be able to talk with you face to face!

Another special treat was having a meal with the Hendersons, where Lala gave Isaiah some of his first, now favorite foods.

Eating his first catfish

And if you look very closely, you can see the remnants of his first oreo on the corner of his mouth.

Playing with Bo, who introduced Isaiah to Thomas the Train and all his friends

With Bo and his little sister Mary Claire, both lots of fun!

When we went to NC, I was very much looking forward to meeting my friend, Ginger's little girl Bella.  Bella will be a year old in September (ooh, I hope that's right--it's hard to remember dates when you weren't there for the beginning!).  She's an amazing little girl, and lots of fun!  Being able to see Ginger enjoying her daughter so much was just as much fun for me, too.

Pausing from play to get a few shots

I even got to hold Bella for a moment!

They had a great game of chase

And we tried a "baby swap" for a picture, but Bella wasn't too sure about her mama holding anybody else!

And then we went to CA, where we met tons of new friends.  As you might have already seen we got to spend an entire day outdoors (besides travel time, of course), enjoying the sequoia trees and then a beautiful lake.

Isaiah sporting his swimwear with one of the girls we met.

Then he was showing her sister how to open and close doors when we got back to their house.

He wanted to be in on all the action!

And when we got to church on Sunday, he was very pleased that everyone was there all at once.  Unfortunately I don't have many pictures from Sunday, which is really sad because I just don't have the words to express to you how much fun Isaiah had.

And when we met my friends David and Cathy, Isaiah got to play catch with Silas and some other little boys at the park.  He was having so much fun that he didn't even want to come to his mama!  (that is really rare!)

Last year I really wanted to find Isaiah some friends to play with fairly regularly.  Now having seen him enjoy the other children so much, I really want to find him some playmates.  Please pray that God will increase my language and open the hearts of some Russian mothers to give us opportunity to build relationships, and of course, not just for Isaiah's sake, but for the spread of the kingdom as well.  God has given Isaiah this amazing personality, and I know that He can use Isaiah's happiness to give us opportunities to be a witness of His grace!

Goodbyes

When we put Isaiah to bed the last night in Baton Rouge, he said goodbye to most of his aunts and uncles and cousins all at once, which turned out to be rather difficult for him apparently.

Hugs for Aunt Emily

Starting to get distressed when saying goodbye to Aunt Sandra and Uncle Carlos.

But the real kicker was thinking he was saying goodbye to Grandma!

Isaiah had already said many goodbyes, but I think that he had just reached his limit!  Or maybe he realized that this was it, and he wouldn't see anyone for a while.  Or maybe he was just exhausted and had no idea what was going on, but just think how happy he'll be to see them next time no matter what the tears were for this time.  He really loved seeing his family!

Generations

Isaiah is blessed to have met 4 of his great grandparents, at least he will always have pictures of being with them.  On our trip home, we weren't able to make it up to MO to see Thomas' grandmother, but thankfully he got to spend time with my grandparents and make some memories.

Four Generations with my dad and his mom.

Kisses for Great Grandma

Telling Great Grandpa a joke, or something funny, anyway

Four Generations with my mom and her dad

And then all of us with my parents and grandpa

Saying goodbye to Great Grandpa at church (he got kisses, too, the photographer just wasn't fast enough, I guess)

Grandparents

Isaiah's got some good ones!

Last few days

Our last full day in Baton Rouge was, well, full.  I unfortunately came down with a migraine while trying to pack, so I don't have tons of pictures of everyone on the last day.  I think there was stuff going on, though. :)  I did have the pleasure of lunch with one of my sisters-in-law, Emily.  We went to Cheeburger Cheeburger, and I think I had what could have been the very best burger I have ever eaten!  (I remember my dad talking about one in AL, I think, but I had never had the chance to enjoy it for myself.)

Isaiah and his youngest cousin, Luke got to play together some more.  I could not get over how much Luke had grown in the three weeks that we were gone!

Here's Isaiah moving in for a smooch.  He's such a loving little man!

I'm sure that they were telling each other something here.

Isaiah showing off some more strength in his legs!

Thomas looks good with 2, I think. :)  NO that is NOT an announcement of any kind!

One last good play time in the sandbox followed by a dip in the pool.

Siblings with their children.  (please excuse Isaiah's incredibly mismatched clothing, he wore the pants for his nap, and like I said, I had a migraine, so I probably didn't even notice it at the time)

Luke is so sweet!  It was so hard to say goodbye, knowing how much he would change before we get to see him in person again.  If our other little nephew had been there, too, I probably would have been a basket case!

Mississippi

On our way back to LA to fly out of New Orleans, we stopped for one night in MS.  Isaiah's new braces had finally come in, and we were very happy to be able to pick them up!  We also had the treat of seeing some dear friends again, albeit briefly.

Here's Isaiah with Miss Becca the most wonderful physical therapist in the world!  He took to her right away when we finally found her in her office.  We got to spend a couple hours with her, catching up on Isaiah's development and just life in general.  We love you Becca!!!!!

We also got to have a quick meal with Notts before we hit the road that evening to head to Baton Rouge.  Isaiah loves playing with his MS "cousins".

Apparently Isaiah was ready to get in the car-any car-and go!

He did grant Stacy a little bit more time, though.

And he took the precious time to get in on a family photo.

Thankfully on that last leg of the road trips, Isaiah continued to do very well.  We arrived late that night in Baton Rouge after Thomas bravely drove through a terrible rain storm!  The next couple of days were filled with packing and preparing to go, and of, course, some more goodbyes.

Tomorrow Begins...

Taking a break from catching up on the traveling, just wanted to let you know that my first lesson will be Thursday morning at 11am St. P time.  I'm a little nervous because I didn't do a scrap of homework that was assigned to me while I was gone.  My teacher is probably used to such, but I hate disappointing anyone, especially someone as wonderful as Ludmilla.

Please pray that I'll be calm and have understanding and remember what I'm supposed to know!  I'll have my lesson tomorrow and then have a break as Ludmilla will be out of town for a while.  Maybe that will give me time to do some of that old homework.

Unique Friends

When I went to college I began to realize how unusual it is for someone to grow up in one church.  Well, let's just add that to the list of what's unusual about me. 

Going home isn't complete unless I get to visit my family at Beacon Baptist Church where I grew up.  Plenty of new people have come since I've been away, but there are plenty of special people there, too!

Meet Pat.  Pat helped me develop an ear for the great music--Miller, Goodman, Bassie, all the big band legends.  I had the privilege of playing some of those tunes at the 50th anniversary celebration for Pat and Ruth.  At my wedding, I decided to give my bouquet to the couple who had been married the longest.  I don't remember how many years they had at that time, but I know it was over 60, and now you can add almost 5 more to that.

And here's Otis, my bubble gum supplier.  His wife taught me kindergarten.

Isaiah got some good lovin' from Aunt Mae.  When I was growing up we all called her Aunt Mae.  She and her husband sit ride behind my parents, I don't know what would happen if I went to Beacon and someone else was in the 4th pew from the front on the left!

Isaiah learned how to knock on doors while we were in the States.  He managed to travel all around the church one Sunday night under the supervision of Melissa and Matthew.

Greg and SueAnn are a great couple!  I stayed with them quite a bit when I graduated college.  They live in SC, but they travel every weekend to NC for Greg to direct the music at Beacon.  They've been driving that route for as long as I can remember!

Thomas and I got a quick picture with Pastor Karns.

And here are most of Greg and SueAnn's kids.  Maria's represented by the photo in my hand.  She couldn't be in NC that weekend because she and her new fiance were in Ohio with his family.  Oh well, priorities, priorities. :)  Who knows, maybe I'll be able to make it for the wedding!

Go Bulls!

What could possible be holding Isaiah's attention so well?  Durham Bulls baseball, of course!  While we were in NC, we had the pleasure of attending 2 games, and I think Isaiah's hooked!  I know I am.

Or is it the food?

Thankfully, Isaiah's not afraid of the mascot.  He actually seemed pretty excited to see him the next time that we went.

Another plus of our first game was getting to see our friend Bob Page.  He had not yet met Isaiah, but it didn't take the 2 of them long to become friends!

At the second game we got to meet Sylvester!  I think I thought this was more interesting than Isaiah did, since he really has no idea who Sylvester is.

The really great thing about the second game was that my aunt Paula was able to come down from  VA and spend some time with us.  Isaiah shared some grapes with her before the game.

Grandpa was giving Isaiah some pointers about baseball.

And here we are all decked out as Durham Bulls fans!