Nubble Light - Sound the Alarm

Well, Madelyn is still up. So that means that were still up. So what better to do then to post a quick blog entry?

I think Teressa had a long day today. There are several ways that I know that...

A) When I call her, I can hear the kids in the background even louder and more clear than I can hear her voice.

B) When the kids voices get even louder, she says "I gotta go." (ha ha)

C) And third, Teressa has fallen asleep while talking or doing other things several times tonight.

I'm praying that the kids will want to get lots and lots of sleep tonight. They are really very good sleepers, its just that they inherited a few things from me, and one of them is liking to party until dawn. Don't they know it's bed time?

We finished a newsletter today. That's always good news! We hope that our supporters and friends are encouraged by the Lord's faithfulness and by some of the things he has been doing in our lives, and in the lives of so many in Asia.

Prayer was a blessing at GFA tonight. One of our leaders shared about "remembering where you came from and who you are." What a good example our leaders are when it comes to remaining humble and dependent on the Lord. That message has had me thinking tonight. Where has the Lord brought me from? Who am I, apart from Christ? If he hadn't so passionately pursued me, loved me, forgiven me, taught me, and cleansed me, what would I look like? I would be a lazy bum, a mean-spirited punk, a selfish guy with no friends. Without Christ guiding me, I honestly can't think of many wise things that I have ever done, but I can think of hundreds of people that I have hurt and thousands of mistakes I have made. Jesus Christ living in me is truly my only hope, and anything good that has come out of my life has been graciously given and done through his mercy.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (The Message) "Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God."

I also thought I would include this photo I took last month of Nubble Light. It's a famous lighthouse in York, Maine that we stopped at while heading to the airport. Ava had so much fun watching the waves crash up on the rocks. I didn't have a tripod but was able to snap a few photos. I have always liked lighthouses for some reason. I think mostly because they illustrate our call as believers to sound the alarm. Each of us are called to turn on our sirens and lights and warn those near us about the impending doom awaiting them if they continue on their current course. There are large rocks ahead that will shatter them and many have perished before them. I pray that the boldness and love that comes from Christ will abound in our lives and will flow like rivers of living water out of us.

Good night.

Update on all the ladies

Well the entry below was actually from yesterday but I never got around to posting it. . .so here it is . . .


It's only noon and I can't decide what my favorite moment of the day has been. Here's the the contenders so far.

1) Ava bringing me every flower she could find in our backyard
2) Ava seeing a butterfly in the backyard and then dancing around in circles and waving her arms, pretending to be a butterfly.
3) Watching Ava lay all of her baby dolls into her bed on her pillow, tucking them in, giving them multiple kisses (actual and blown), telling them "I love you" and "Good night" and singing "Jesus Loves Me" to them.
4) Having Ava stand next to me while I was humming and rocking a fussy Madelyn, humming to and rocking her baby doll right along with me.

Madelyn had her two month check up last week. Every thing looks good. She's in the 97th percentile for height at 12 pounds 3 ounces and in the 75th percentile for weight at 24 1/2 inches. She has a little umbilical granuloma (basically a little leftover umbilical cord) that they treated and will hopefully go away on it's own. If not she might have to see a surgeon but I don't think that's going to be necessary.

Madelyn is growing fast, she can hold her head up on her own now and gives us the biggest most beautiful smiles and she's so close to starting to laugh. I can't wait for that!

Staying home all day with a baby and a toddler can be trying at times, but then some days it just makes my heart feel like it might burst with the joy of it.

It's such a blessing to have been given these two little girls to raise and care for. I'm constantly praying that the Lord would make me everything they need me to be for them and give me wisdom in how to teach and train and love them. I often get this sudden panicky feeling because I feel like I'm not able to give them everything I wish I could. I can't afford to feed them all the very best, all natural, organic food at every meal, buy them lots of toys or dress them in the most adorable new clothing. I start to feel guilty and stressing about how I can somehow manage to give them those things. And then, thankfully, I remember that there are children all over the world starving to death, that there are moms in India feeding their children mud to keep them from crying from terrible hunger (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8682558.stm) and that as an American my children are among the most privileged in the world. And I feel like an idiot and very ashamed of myself for being so ungrateful for all the Lord has given us and our kids. Especially because the Lord has been SO faithful to us and blessed us so many times with things for our family. God is so good and so gracious towards me.

Thank you Lord for all you've done for our family, please help me to stop being so "American" and raise my children with hearts of gratitude and a desire to live their lives for God's glory and to serve others.

Playing in the cool cardboard fort she helped Dada build.

Madelyn can smile!

Playing at the park

And there's fountains at the park!

For the Love of Shoes

That seemed an appropriate title, because that is what has been on my mind for the last 6 hours or so. Where does this "love" of shoes come from that girls posses, and how does it come so quickly?

We told Ava that she was going to get new shoes today and she was giddy most of the morning. I was tired of watching her trip over her flip flops now that she has learned how to run... well, we'll call it a limping, hopping, "A for Effort" type of running. And then on Friday night, she really took a bit of a face plant on the jungle gym with those sandals. I really wanted some cool Nike's or New Balance shoes... but Teressa's reasoning and the price tags swayed me to something more appropriate.

Man... this thing is dragging out... how does that happen? I write one sentence about something incredibly important and 4 paragraphs about nothing at all? Weird.

So we get to the shoe isle. And before I can even give Ava some "instruction," I look down and she already has 3 open shoe boxes strewn about and is lunging at the fourth. Ava thinks it is so much fun to try on shoes. I also ran up and down the isles with each pair of shoes so that I could see which ones was she more prone to trip in. She had a blast.

The laborers need rest too.

These were a couple of old trucks on the "family farm" in Maine.

Ava and her cousin, Eli, had a lot of fun playing in this barn!
When will Fisher Price develop the "Pile of Grain" toy?

Family Reunion Day

Seen Better Times

Madelyn is so alert now.
I love making her smile.

I asked her to make a "Serious Face."
Kids nowadays...

Joy

My beautiful wife and hidden daughter

Ava enjoyed picking "flowers."
I didn't have the heart to tell her they were just weeds.
But some lady who passed us a couple minutes later told her.
Ava looked at me perplexed.
Why had some lady pointed at her, said something, and laughed.
I told her that lady was jealous...

This is the "cheese face."
When Ava hears me ask for a smile, she says "Cheeeeese" and makes this face.
Love it.

Coming in for a landing

Teamwork

Teressa's Brother Tom and his son Daniel
How great is his hair?
Seriously.

Eli and his Papa Jim

Brother in law John

Sweet Times

Ava has started to "fake laugh" again
I can't get enough of it
She usually does it when:
1) Were laughing at a joke that is over her head.
2) Were talking about something serious and she thinks that is lame.

Ava's cousin Bonnie.
Such a sweet gal.

You my Hunny!

Tonight, I came home from work and Ava looked at me and said "You my Hunny!"

It was wonderfully hilarious. I guess that has been her word for today. Teressa heard her saying "Honey Honey" this morning because she had heard it on Winnie the Pooh in the past. Then Teressa told her "Your my honey and Dada is my honey!" That was it. For the rest of today, everyone has been her honey and it's so cute when she says it.

Last night, Ava learned something new. She sort of knew it before, but now, she knows for sure. The Ice Cream man returned. She had just finished dinner and was standing by my chair. She heard this pretty music going down the street and she just looked at the window. She then went over to the window sill and looked for the sound with a curious face, because she knew she had heard this melody before. As I looked at her pig-tailed sillouette staring out the window in awe, I knew that was it. I needed to take her outside and get her a treat. There was no overpriced ice cream bar that was going to stand in my way.

I think it's safe to say that she will know exactly what that is the next time she hears those tunes. But too bad she probably won't have cute pigtails in, and she'll have to settle for whatever is in the freezer...

While in Maine, we visited the house where Teressa's grandpa Frank grew up. It was so neat to see the yard that he played in, the trees that he climbed, the fields that he walked through and... my absolute favorite part... the view that he looked out on. The above photo was taken in Grandpa Frank's back yard. Beautiful eh?

The mountain back there is Mt. Katahdin. It is the highest point in Maine and is the beginning of the Appalachian Trail.

This is a large pile of wood in Grandpa Frank's back yard.

Fuel for the Winter.

Somehow my Direct Energy bill seems a lot less messy.

But it doesn't smell as good when it burns...