Another Prayer Request

I have been remiss in not asking you to prayer for one other little friend of ours.  Lilly is the daughter of our friends John Michael and Sarah Beth in Yazoo City, MS.  I do not know exactly when she became ill, but she is currently in the ICU of the children's hospital in Jackson, MS.  She has been diagnosed with viral meningitis and encephalitis.  Unfortunately, I don't have many details to give you in order to pray, but I do know that she has been progressing and regressing in several areas and that she has suffered seizures.  I believe that Lilly is 4 years old.  She has an older sister, Ann Elise who is probably 6 or 7 now.  Both these little girls are very kind, and Lilly is incredibly spunky!  There were several times that I watched Sarah Beth in particular with her girls and observed things that I tucked away in hopes of doing with Isaiah.  This family is very special.

When we get back to the States, it should be easier for me to get information to pass on to those of you who will pray for them.  I'm sorry I cannot tell you more now, but I don't think that there is a central place of information like a blog or anything like that.  As soon as I can, I will pass on what we learn.

THANK YOU!!!!

I am happy to report that we are quite on the mend!  Thomas' cold is much better, and my congestion has greatly decreased.  Isaiah still seems safe from any sickness.  Thank you so much for your prayers!

I was feeling so much better on Friday in fact, that Isaiah and I went to the park.  Since I've been sick, poor Little Man has suffered the fate of not being able to play outside.  We both greatly enjoyed ourselves in the sunshine!

Getting a feel for grass again

And at last we found a sandbox nearby!

I probably won't be posting again for a little while, but please continue to keep us in your prayers as we travel on Monday, leaving our apartment at 3AM!  We are scheduled to arrive in New Orleans around 4:30pm CST.

Please also continue to pray for Baby Joe.  You can still click on the link at the upper left to read any updates posted by his parents.

Please Pray for Baby Joe

Some yet unseen friends whom we have come to know a little through support and blogs and such are in need of prayers right now.  Seven weeks ago they had a precious little boy (their 8th child), and they named him Joe.

Right now Joe is in the PICU.  He will probably be there for a little while.  His parents Fletch and Kendra are able to be with him.  Joe also has one on one care with a nurse.  Fletch and Kendra are posting updates on Kendra's blog.  Please visit there for more details.  I'm also adding a link at the top of the column to the left of the posts.  Please click that link in the days to come so that you can continue to pray for this family and see what the Lord is doing in and for them.  

Thank you.

Welcome!

We are so thankful for the new home that God has provided for us!  After some clean-up, we are feeling quite settled and enjoying our new place a great deal.  Of course we would love for you to come personally for a visit, but realizing the likelihood of that happening is incredibly slight, I thought I'd give you a look at our Americanized Russian flat.  The floor in the corridor is compliments of my wonderful husband.  He hopes to also improve the floor in the kitchen when we return.

We Need Your Help!

Anyone out there ever flown with a cold?  Well, we are really hoping to avoid that painful experience!  Thomas and I both have colds (Thomas' cold is in his chest, and mine is in my head which means my ears are already stopping up), and Isaiah has been sneezing a lot today and started running a very low grade fever.  We are scheduled to fly to the States a week from today (departing around 6:30am St. P time).  We DO NOT want to fly with colds, especially for Isaiah's sake.  

PLEASE, PLEASE PRAY FOR US TO GET BETTER DURING THIS NEXT WEEK!

I'll keep you posted on what the Lord has planned for us this week.

Better Late than Never

In our little family Father's Day has come to be something of a comedy of errors.  Let me explain...

On the eve of Thomas' first Father's Day as a father, he was rushing me to the ER in Jackson because I had a kidney stone.  On Father's Day I was pretty much drugged up and out of it on pain meds.  I don't even remember if I had anything planned for him.  He was very gracious and caring about it all though, of course.

Last year the day before Father's Day I got an incredibly bad stomach virus, I won't go into detail, but it was memorable.  At least this time I was strong enough on Father's Day to cook with my mom for the dads who were present.

This year on Father's Day Thomas came down with an uncomfortable malady, and he just wanted to sleep all day.  He did have strength to open his presents, though, which he actually received this year!

I don't know what the deal is with our family and Father's Day, but I hope that despite our past inability to celebrate the day very well, that Thomas knows what Isaiah and I already know quite well:  He's a wonderful Daddy, and we love him very much!

I was able to write about my wonderful husband and my terrific dad for one of my new favorite websites for their Father's Day tributes.  I would love for you to read there what I wrote!  There are other great dads described on this page, which I'm sure you would enjoying reading about as well.  Thomas and my dad are a little bit further down the page, so keep on scrolling...

Still My Baby

Apparently when I was a little girl, I didn't like it too much when people referred to me as "oh, what a cute little girl".  I've been told that I would quickly reply, "I'm a BIG GIRL!", sometimes not so nicely and to my mama's dismay.

Mama liked to refer to me as her baby, and well, you can guess how that went over.  Finally she and I came to an arrangement with the help of Daddy.  I would be Daddy's "Big Girl" and Mama's "Baby".  For some reason, I think that I remember not being completely pleased with the deal back then, but I'm starting to understand now what was really going on....

This move has been an adjustment for all of us, mostly in very good ways; but one thing was harder on me than I expected.

For almost a whole year now, Isaiah has slept in the same room with us.  Usually this was no big deal, though occasionally we wished that the arrangement was a little different, like when he would wake up in the middle of the night or at 5:30am.  It's really hard to let a child "cry it out" when he's 5 feet away, so we got to have a lot of extra snuggle time in the past year.

Well, in our new place, Isaiah can have his own room.  As I packed up our old room, I thought how wonderful it would be for him to have his own space, and for us to have ours.  I talked to him about how much fun he could have in his own room, trying to help with the transition as much as possible.  The first night in our new place was pretty chaotic, so Isaiah got to sleep with us one last time.  The second night however began the tragedy.

We tried to make his bedtime routine as much the same as always, with the major difference of ending up in a different room.   Thomas played with him and sang to him; I sang to him and rocked him as always; but as soon as I said the normal "bedtime words" Isaiah had a complete meltdown.  He kept looking at me and looking at the door and clutching me tighter and tighter and crying, all the while having this utterly confused and bewildered look in his eyes.  It was all I could do not to cry right then.  Isaiah NEVER does this at bedtime anymore.  He was breaking my heart!  I finally had to put him down and rush out of the room.  I even had to leave the house.  I felt terrible, as though I had somehow betrayed my baby.  (yes, Thomas was there to take care of things)  He's sleeping much better now.  It took about 4 days to slowly get better.  He doesn't even whimper now when I lay him down.  Praise God!

So now I think that I realize a little bit of why my mama didn't want me to be her "Big Girl".  Isaiah might be our Little Man, but he will always be my baby.

Getting There

Well, I promised some pictures to you, my wonderful readers, but I'm having trouble getting that done because in my pride, I don't want you to see the place until it is perfect!  But of course, that could never happen, so here are a few of the pictures that I've taken so far, mostly of Isaiah, of course.

Here we are around 10:45pm walking around while we wait to get into the apartment our first night.  I was wearing sunglasses, just so you know; and Isaiah was thrilled to be up so late!

I wanted to get Isaiah's room set up as quickly as possible, to help with the adjustment of being in his own room (that deserves a post in itself!).  Here's some of the fun I had making his room look like a little boy's room.  I'll have to show a close up of the bookshelf later, so you can see the lego bookends. (yes, I'm pretty proud of my creativity with the surplus of legos that we have)  Isaiah has been able to play freely in his new room, and he seems quite happy!

He doesn't seem to mind the gate at all.  In fact, he rather enjoys sending us little gifts through the holes.  Here he was "supervising" his daddy's work.

And here's what Daddy was doing...Our hallway floor was really nasty linoleum (look at the bottom of this picture for a sample, it's still in the kitchen).  The floor was actually not glued down and quite disgusting.  My smart husband took care of the hallway for now, and hopes to get the kitchen in the fall!

And of course, Isaiah and I had to take a break and check out all the parks nearby.  This one is really beautiful, with a small lake and everything, but we're still looking for a sandbox!

Still here...

Well, now I remember what life was like before internet became so easily accessible.  We finally got the internet working today, which is grand.  Having the break was nice, but I was starting to feel cut off and isolated, not that I would have had much time to do anything on the internet anyway because we moved last week and have been incredibly busy cleaning up the new place, unpacking and even decorating a little bit!

So, I have some posts in my head, and in the next few days, hopefully I'll get them written.

This is Wonderful!

Today my parents celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary!  I am very thankful that my parents provided a Christian home for me.  Now after all their years of "putting up with" me they can really have some fun!  

But seriously, I am thankful to the Lord for providing for me such wonderful parents who love each other for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health. 

And they love me, too!

Congratulations, Mama and Daddy!  I love you both very much.

A Fun Give Away

I found this contest on my cousin's blog--she's always a wealth of information!  Of course, she didn't encourage me to participate, wanting the goodies all for herself, and who can blame her!  However, I thought that I'd ignore her pleas for monopoly on the contest and participate as well. (you know I still love you, cuz!)

This is one of the "mommy blogs" that I've recently had the pleasure of discovering and reading along with Mommy Who?. So hop on over and check out these great resources for moms. And if you're not a mom, there are some really funny stories and such that you would still find quite enjoyable, I think.

Pushkin--More than an author

Taking a break from packing...

Isaiah and I had the great delight of spending last Thursday with our friend, Katya and her 4 year old niece Marina.  We went a little bit out of the city to the "suburb" (for lack of a better word) Pushkin.  The area surrounds the palace that Peter the Great built for his wife Catherine I, which then became the home of Catherine the Great (this history was explained to me in Russian, so I think I'm passing on the right information to you).  We didn't actually go into the palace, though.  The grounds are beautiful enough to warrant a visit all their own.

Here are some pictures from our day:

I have a hard time judging how long it will take me to get places in St. P for some reason.  Isaiah and I got to the meeting spot a little early.  Naturally I took a few shots of my favorite subject.  I really like the funny expression he has in this one.

When Isaiah saw the giant statue of Lenin, he laughed uncontrollably.  The closer we got to him, the more he laughed.  I have no idea...

After a short bus ride we made it to the palace.  Sorry it's crooked, I didn't notice it at the time, but I think you still get the idea.

Marina really enjoyed feeding the ducks, and Isaiah really enjoyed watching her.  Every time she threw a handful of bread out to the ducks he giggled with delight.

Marina taught him about dandelions.

Then Marina quickly realized that if she ran around all over the place, Isaiah could not contain himself.  He laughed so hard at her, and she so graciously obliged him.

Besides entertaining Isaiah, I think the highlight of the trip for Marina was having the squirrels eat from her hand.  Isaiah didn't understand this concept at all.  I tried to help him feed the squirrels, but he just wanted to take the food out of my hand and try to put it in my mouth.

Isaiah post laughter session when Marina had been running around.

Isaiah with our friend Katya

Yes, I really was there, too. :)

Family Day

I must confess that I haven't wanted to put up a new post because I wanted to be sure that everyone who might possibly read this blog saw the video of Isaiah trying to stand.  Today though was a day worth blogging about, so here's a new post after all.  Please feel free to scroll on down though, and watch the video as much as you like, I sure do.

Since our language lessons have ended, we've had some free time on our hands.  We've been wanting to enjoy the city again, which was difficult to do with the hustle and deadlines of lessons and homework and such.  Today we were finally able to enjoy a nice long excursion from our apartment across the Neva River to a beautiful park.  We enjoyed a picnic before walking closer to Nevsky Prospekt (the "main drag") and doing a little shopping.  We were very pleased to get the sales people to come down in their prices since we spoke Russian!

We ended our day back in the park just relaxing and enjoying the sunshine before heading back to our place.  I think Isaiah especially enjoyed the day because it held two of his favorite things (besides being with Mama and Daddy, of course):  being outside as much as possible and not napping.

During our picnic lunch in the shade, we actually got a chilly!

Close-up of cuteness

Isaiah likes having a cap like Daddy.  Every time I put it on his head, he says, "Dadda!" and holds onto it really tight.

Their "gangsta look"

FYI:  The Lord has recently provided a wonderful ministry contact for us here.  For more about that, check out our family blog.