Family Alive

First, a few pictures scattered throughout the post. I tried to set up a “photo shoot” of Analise and Josiah, trying to find a good background (down comforter draped over her toddler bed and a blanket over J’s bouncy seat) and a way to get the two of them in a picture together. Didn’t work so well, but here are two of the ok pics. Analise only smiled for this one, and she only grudgingly kissed J once. She got tired of me arranging and rearranging the setup very quickly. I will never be a photographer, that’s for sure.

Scrapbook catchup
It was a quiet weekend, and because I ran out of baby

announcements to mail out (more came in the mail today,

so if you haven’t gotten one yet, keep on being patient

with me! hopefully yours will be in your mailbox

soon!). I made use of the down time to work on Josiah’s

baby book, which I’m making myself scrapbook-style. I’m

pretty excited about it, and I’m really enjoying it. I

sure love scrapbooking – we’ve got so many great

pictures to work with! Right now, I’m in the middle of

the pictures of his arrival (I don’t work in

chronological order), and I just don’t want to do

anything that NEEDS to be done because I’d rather finish

it. Unfortunately, the laundry is waiting (again!?!) to

be folded and the house needs some serious picking-up

before our company arrives tomorrow.

A visit from CA
Yeah! Steve and Corrie are arriving tomorrow, and we

can’t wait:) We’ve got a fun, relaxing week planned –

good food, a little adventuring, playing with the little

ones. Josiah will be dedicated at our church on Sunday,

and we’re glad they’ll be here to celebrate with us.

Oh! And Brian’s 30th birthday is Thursday, so it’ll be

fun to celebrate him, too!

A Calling…
Last night, we attended a commissioning service for a

friend from our church who’ll be going to Mali in West

Africa for 2 years. She’ll be serving with the

International Mission Board sharing the Gospel through

storytelling with people groups that have literacy rates

of higher than 80%, and very very few christians. It

was a great service of prayer and worship, focusing on

God’s heart for His people all over the world. It

brought tears to my eyes… it feels sometimes like I’m

so far from that season of my life. Just 3 1/2 years

ago, I was in Nicaragua, living my dream, speaking

spanish, teaching. I really miss it. I love my life,

and I wouldn’t trade it for a second, but I do miss

being on the mission field. I guess this is my season

to pray and encourage all my missionary friends, teach

Analise and Josiah about God’s love for His people, and

hope that maybe God has a season for us in the mission

field in the future.

Praises for Skype
Speaking of missionaries, thanks to the wonderful

technology of online phone services, I got a call from

my dear, dear friend, Meg in East Asia. It was so great

to hear her voice! She and her husband have been with

Campus Crusade over there for about 5 years, and she’s

raising two boys, 3 1/2 and 1 year over there. Again,

I miss living in a foreign culture, being in the thick

of sharing God’s work, but I’m so glad I have so many

friends who are obeying God’s call to “go into all the

world”. What a treat to hear her voice after a year!

She was surprised at my southern drawl:)

Such conversation!
“I wan some candy in a bowl, please.” This was

Analise’s request yesterday morning when she woke up!

Crazy girl. It was such a good sentence, though, I

almost indulged her. I can’t believe how good her

speech has gotten – using pronouns correctly more often

and putting together more complete sentences that just

amaze us. Saturday afternoon, she and I enjoyed playing

with her animals and blocks, building tables and putting

all the animals on block stools. They were “vewy

hungry, yummy samwiches.” Papa Noah was manning the

“hangaber” stand, and we had quite a time getting

everyone fed and seated at their table (there are

something like 36 animals, when everyone’s together).

She would move them over, saying, “Scoop over, lion.

Scoop up, zebra.” Quite entertaining. I wish everyone

could have a chance to play with Analise for a half hour

or so… you’d enjoy yourself! We’re also learning bible verses. She’s learned Psalm 23:1, “Da Lod is my sheper.” and last week’s verse is even better, “Shout to da Lod!” from Psalm 100:1. I’m proud of her! I’ll have to get her to do it on video so you can appreciate it. You can almost hear a sweet southern drawl in her, too!

All out of Ebay luck…
After my run of good Ebay luck, I’m not doing so well.

I sold another item, and the buyer emailed me to say her

PayPal account had been suspended so she wondered if she

could send me the money by mail. I much prefer PayPal,

but that was ok. It finally arrived today – 12 days

after the item sold. Another item sold for $20, which

made me really happy… except that they buyer hasn’t

paid yet, 6 days later. He has no feedback or history,

so I’m assuming it’s going to be an unpaid item, and

I’ll have to relist it. Arg. I’ll keep you posted on how my Ebay-on-the-side business goes.