Highlights

This morning was definitely a highlight. We got to see our precious babies again, our last ultrasound here in Asia!

We dropped Annaka off at school and headed up two floors to the Radiology Clinic. As we watched my heart fluttered, as it usually does. For some reason I always hop up on the table part in excitement to see our precious ones, but another part of me is fearful that she is going to find some bad news or something. I am thankful that all is good and our little ones are growing growing growing.

As the Dr. was trying to get a leg measurement Baby Two was kicking, more like a bucking horse would kick both hind legs. The Dr had to stop, giggle and try again.

Baby One is on my right side and is set higher up. Baby Two is lower and on my left side and tends to kick Baby One. Wow, do these babies like to move and shake! This is probably why I can feel Baby One move more and why it is much more comfy to sleep on my right side!?!

I am feeling a tad bit better these days. Still stay in the house and mostly in the bedrooms as there is air conditioning! The Lord really gave me a little blessing about two weeks ago. We had some friends visiting and for the first time in months I woke up and did not feel like a train wreck. Whereas I had been needing Clint go get me some oatmeal the second my eyes opened, before moving so that I could avoid throwing up, for the first time I was able to sit up, take my nausea meds and eat a cereal bar with no assistance! Then I was able to sit up and interact with people (in my air conditioned room) all day for two days! It truly was a blessing. The Lord knew exactly when I needed that wave of relief. Now I venture into the non-ac living room for at least an hour or two each day.

I now feel I have passed the "throw up for no reason" stage. Now if I throw up or have to sit over my little pink bucket it is for a specific reason that I can pinpoint.

1. I am within a half an our or so of taking my next dose of nausea meds
2. I tried a new food outside of my five that don't typically make me sick
3. I am laying down
4. something is touching my neck/shoulders/upper back (hair, sleeved shirts, the pillow when trying to lay down, the back of the chair, etc)
5. I am hungry.

I can tend to control or remedy most all of these.  I feel we are taking a step in the right direction, but need to take another giant step before I fly for 30 hours in a few weeks.

We are all getting more and more excited for the babies arrival! Annaka loves her 'ducklings' as she calls them and talks to them daily. She gives my growing beachball...I mean belly a hug and sits on my knee and tells me she wants to rock the babies so we rock side to side for a few minutes. She is going to be a wonderful big sister:)

As I sit here I just realized there is an overload of sounds hitting all at the same time.

-Tambourines from a ceremony next door

-Kids playing (Annaka included) across the hall...ie read as high pitch screaming and running while playing

-Tweets and random noises from birds that have unfortunately built a nest outside our window

-Vehicle horns on the road

-Motorcycle engine roaring by

-A cow is mooing on the road

-People in the flat upstairs are moving their chairs/furnature

-A TV in the other room

-Men on the street yelling

-Parking guard on the street blowing his whistle


No, this is not over an afternoon time span, it is a 30 second time span while typing. I think I have learned to block out most of it and/or have music on during the day. (which I am not sure if it adds to the confusion of sounds or drowns the others out)

Listening

I love my conversations with our sweet four year old as she goes to bed. Either Clint or I will read her her Bible story then it is like a little flood gate opens and we get to listen.

I know she chooses to talk at this time so she does not have to immediately go to sleep, but then again, its the only time she stays still enough to think and talk seriously for a longer period of time.

I am looking forward to getting her a little more 'grown up' of a B ible when we are in the states next as she is asking questions far beyond what this little one is addressing. We basically read the story, then I sit with her and pretty much talk about the story re-telling it with more detail. Not because I am trying hard to 'teach her something' but because she asks. She asks if people were jealous of each other, or why they went somewhere, or what things mean.

Minus a lot of details and parts of the conversation here is some of what came about tonight....

I wish I would have wrote things down right away because now I do not remember how the whole conversation tonight got started. Somehow she made the comment that "J esus is kind of like a teacher, isn't he Mama?"

Why yes! I pointed out that we read the story tonight of the Lord's prayer, which is Him teaching us how to pray.

Then somehow she said something about going to heaven and I used the word "forever" which I guess she had never thought of the concept of eternity. Tears flowed as she struggled to get out "I like this country, I don't want to leave and never come back."

Next to explain how we wont even want to come back once we are there. I began describing heaven further than her 'kids' bibles have. Among other things, we mentioned streets of gold, mansions (which brought the question "What is a mansion" and "We get to live in them?") but the best part is that we get to be with J esus.  I told her we would sing and dance in the presence of the Lord. To which she questioned

"How will we dance if we are stuck in a box?"

Stuck in a box....ok....we have been to a western funeral in the past year and she has not gotten over the concept that bodies are put into boxes, then into the ground.

Whew, she does not miss anything....nor does she forget anything!

Next came a whole conversation about one of her favorite nuts. Comparing our bodies to the shell of a pistachio and our spirit to the nut. That once we take the nut out, we can hold the shell in our fingers to look like it still has the nut inside. So, we bury the shell (our skin and bones) because we don't need it anymore.

Last came a point out of her mouth so strong it brought me to tears.  "when we love J esus with our whole hearts and he dies on the cross so we don't have to, he lives in our hearts......so when people worship idols do they have idols in their hearts?"


This was the skeleton of our bedtime conversation. My heart felt every emotion tonight. I love listening to her process and being a part of her deep conversations.

Mangos...how we miss you

Mango season is over. Which is sad on one hand and a relief on the other. You see, mangos are only in the market during HOT season. They are God's relief from the 110, 120, 130 degree weather. Which explains the bittersweet day they are no longer in the market. We know not only by feeling that the temperature is falling and the rains will begin.

Annaka has taken after her father with her love for Mangos. They could put down a whole box of them in one sitting. I like them, but they SERIOUSLY love them.

Clint was out one day and Annaka was begging for Mangos. I was not feeling well and told her that she should wait for Papa because he can cut them up better and will eat them with you.

Well, that was not good enough for her. She said "Come on Mama, I will teach you." There I go, my plan backfired. I HAD to get up now and cut a mango. She was talking as an expert so I figured I would see what she new. I told her to tell me what to do and was surprised. She knew exactly what to do!

1. Cut the mango around the pit and score it. Then flip it.

2. ....Then enjoy each bite!

 3. And we mean every bite!

4. Then grab the pit. There is still lots of good mango around it! 

Until next year beloved mangos.....

Just when you think they are not listening...

I admit it. I have a good 27 years on my 4 year old but sometimes she just flat out outsmarts me. It does tend to strike me as funny.....at first. Then I realize more of what just happened and a lot of the time that  she is infact correct in a literal sort of way and I just don't know what to say. (By literal sometimes its an Amelia Bedelia sort of way rather than an actual correct sort of way)

I could list one after another examples here but here is just one that has really gotten me thinking.

Yesterday Annaka was playing and she decided to 'put on a show for me'. Since I have been sick and in the bed mostly the past month and a half I was happy she was using her imagination rather than just sitting beside me playing uno or coloring. She stood up in her clappy shoes and showed me her skills of how to throw a little pink basketball aiming for the pink section of her dresser all while singing a tune she made up. Then she hid behind the dresser and said it was one of her husbands turn to do an act.

Hmm. "How many husbands do you have?"

"Two"

Hmmmmmm. "Do you know what God thinks about husbands and wives?" We go on to talk about how God wants us to marry one person and stay married to them for our whole lives!

She listened politely and as soon as I finished a few sentences she immediately, as if pulling something from the little file cabinet of her brain, blurted out...

"Well Jacob married two girls...they were sisters"


Ummm, wow. She does know the Bible story. It is not one that we have read recently so she had to pull pretty deep in that little file cabinet to get that fact.

It amazes me because some nights while reading her Bible story it seems as if she is not listening. She cant sit still, wont look at the page, etc. She can always answer the questions at the end which is why I don't mind if she is squirming a little bit.

It is actually a bit scary as well. Giving me a reality check. She soaks in everything. EVERYTHING. No matter if it is something we say, do, the way we look at each other, everything. She not only takes it in and repeats it like a parrot, she now processes it and applies it. I need to do a better job at making sure she understands HOW to apply it to her little life.

I enjoy our little conversations. I love that they are very two way and even better than that, I never know what is coming on the other end. As I am trying to explain what a word means she ends up telling me instead showing that she knows it already. Sometimes she just gets us to giggle as she shouts something unexpected. As she was using Clint's back as a slide the other day she laughs and says "I am totally keeping you Papa"

Just when we think they are not listening, they show us they heard every word...spoken or not.