update, with photos!

Here’s a little try at updating what has been going on in our lives the last several weeks with some photos to show for it

Eric finished Summer Greek, (Praise God!) and is in his fourth week of regular classes.  He is really enjoying his studies, his professors, and fellow students.  He has to work HARD to keep up with school and his MTW work, and I am constantly encouraged and motivated by his discipline and love for what he is doing.  In the midst of it all, he is such a great father to our girls and husband to me, especially as I battle fatigue and discomfort at the end of my pregnancy.  I know that it must be the Lord empowering him to fulfill his many roles, and I just praise the Lord that He is all-sufficient.

Speaking of my amazing husband, He spent his Labor Day weekend home with our girls so that I could go up to VA Beach for a reunion with 11 girls that I lived with in college.  I couldn’t believe that I got to go and am just to thankful for his sacrifices to make it happen.  It was a wonderful weekend for me, very restful, and SO MUCH FUN to get to be with these ladies who are some of my dearest friends.  This was our first official “Shiloh” (our house’s name) reunion, not including 10 weddings where some or most of us were able to attend, but it felt like it was just yesterday that we were all living together as students.  What a JOY it was to see God’s faithfulness in each of these precious women’s lives and to be encouraged and blessed by their love and care for me.  Not to mention how good it was for my body and soul to eat all our yummy chick food and laugh more than I have in a long long time.  Margot blogged more about it here with more photos, but here is a photo that I love.  It’s from our “family photo shoot” on the beach.

(top L to R: Martha, Janna, Maghan, Kari, Carly, Ginger, Marie, Sara-Beth, Sarah, Margot, Emily, Kimberly)

While I was away, Eric and the girls one long “daddy/daughter date” which was super special for all three of them.  One of their favorite parts, that I keep hearing about” was a few excursions to local splash pads. These are water parks in public parks that have soft, rubbery ground and lots of fountains shooting or trickling water. They are great because there are no bodies of water in which the kids can fall or drown, they are fenced-in, some are free or only $1, and they are nice way to keep cool in this very hot place.  On one of these adventures, Uncle Jonathan and Annie joined the fun and Aunt Maggie blogged their photos here.

Speaking of Annie, many of our days are filled with fun times with this delightful girl.

A and J doing the "pretty face"

My girls are obsessed with their cousin, her sister, Lily, her parents, Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Maggie, and her baby doll, “Obama”.  In fact, even when we don’t get to play together, we talk A LOT about her and remember fondly the many memories we have already created together. 

Seriously, these three together are incredibly fun, and they get more fun the more they learn how to love each other by being kind and sharing and thinking about the others before themselves. Yesterday, Annie and Martha spent a good 30 minutes off playing together without needing any parental intervention or correction.  Just enjoyed being together.  I am so grateful for this special time in their lives when they can grow together and be bfs with their cousins.  It is so fun! (And that doesn’t even touch on how much Eric and I are enjoying our times with Jonathan and Maggie, or how much fun it is for Noa to get her real baby fix with little Lily around. I’ll get a cute photo of all of us adults together soon .

Annie has also “shared” some sweet new friends with us.

This fellow seminarian family (with 4 kids) lives just down the street from us and right next to a great park.  We have had some good fun with them so far, and are really looking forward to more time together.  Noa is in love with Bella, the oldest, and wants to be just like her. And I wouldn’t mind that one bit!

With Eric’s busy schedule we are stealing moments together as a family whenever we can.  Meals are pretty precious times, because during the week, that is mostly when we get to be with him.  But, a great thing about being in school is that Eric does have some flexibility in his schedule and we are milking that for all it’s worth.  We went as a family to a splash pad just the other day and had a great time.  Eric played a little and studied a little, while the girls just ate up the chance to be outside and not roasting.

playing on the adjoing playground after playing in the water

enjoying a picnic lunch while Daddy multitasks

A bit of a sad thing recently has been that Martha, our fearless one, has had a lot of big falls and bruises lately.  She is quick to climb and the nickname “monkey” gets more and more appropriate.  The other day she was running and not looking and nailed her forehead on corner of a wall.  I watched in horror as the egg grew to almost the size of a golfball and quickly got Eric to get our family doctor (Grandpa) and nurse (Grammy) on video chat so that she could be examined.  After some good reassurance from them, and  a lot of crying (her, more than me, but both of us for sure), this is what we rigged up to keep the ice on her head:

And this is how we kept her distracted so that she wouldn’t pull it off:

Noa benefitted from her sister's misfortune and enjoyed getting to watch some "TVD", as she calls it.

By the time we put her to bed, it had gone down quite a bit and she didn’t seem bothered anymore. I am so thankful it wasn’t worse!  She still has a nice gash and bruise, but it just makes her look good and tough

All in all, we are doing well and really enjoying this new stage of life that God has given us.  I still cry, sometime a lot, for missing Japan, missing things feeling so normal.  But I think that is normal in itself, and the more things settle down for us here, the more I have time to continue to process all the changes we’ve been through.

AND, the changes aren’t over yet.  Tomorrow marks 3 weeks until my due date! In my mind that means about 4-5 weeks to prepare for this little one’s arrival, which I haven’t even begun to think about.  But, I am very very excited to meet him or her finally, for the girls to meet their new brother or sister, for my mom to be here (she comes in 4 weeks!!), to not be pregnant anymore, and to begin this new adjustment of being a family of 5.

Wow! This is getting long.  If you’re still reading this, you’re a champion friend and I thank you for caring about our family and all that’s been going on with us.  More to come soon that, I promise, will not be as long.  And I am still set on back-blogging from our summer, even if it is just putting a lot of photos up… so stay tuned!