Fall Church Family Retreat and Other Things...

 We recently attended an annual Church Family Retreat with many of our brothers and sisters and it was, as always, an encouraging and refreshing time for us.  Here you can see most of the children who attended and what a great time they had together!  Jakub loved being with so many children and he enjoyed quit a bit of freedom to run around the complex and play with them- despite my nervousness to trust him at 2yo to be a safe and good boy all the time. :)  He managed quit well, and so did we.  We enjoyed some great, and long, conversations over mealtimes with our friends and Jakub enjoyed being off with his friends. :)  The four (including him) kids on the far right of the picture had a lot of fun together and he still talks about them.  He's even named some of his cars or trucks after them and talks to them while playing. :)

 Here's a picture of most of the group (a few had left earlier) and we had an amazing time together.  The couple who came to encourage us (Americans living and working in Croatia) and teach us did an amazing job and I felt renewed by God and by the message they came to share with us.  We heard Tom speak in a very passionate and faithful way about the importance of continuing to keep our eyes on Jesus and the life he lived, the way he lived it, and the messages he shared as a way to map out our own lives and know that we are faithfully following Him.

There's a small lake (or maybe large pond) behind the facility where we stayed and Jakub enjoyed going out on the row boat.  He immediately asked if Papa (Josh's Dad Wendell) could come with us and go fishing. :)  Papa, he's definitely ready to go fishing with you sometime when we are home in the U.S.

 Out on the water...

 Helping Daddy row...

 Watching airplanes go by...

Other things we've been doing lately - eating salty goat cheese together because it's one of the snacks I can stand while pregnant. :)  He likes to suck it up like a noodle. 

 Playing games together and learning at the same time- he loves to play sequence with our new rules- that he must say the number or letter he's playing his marker on, as well as the color of marker he's using (we have multicolored dice). I'm glad he finds this fun. :)

 He continues to love painting and is learning to mix colors as well. 

 He also loves to help me cook.  Here we were making some homemade lemon muffins with cream cheese icing.  Yum!

 He's very proud of his finished product. :)

And he loves having hot-chocolate with Daddy! :) 

September has been a good and blessed month for us here in Olomouc- for many reasons.  God is ever-present in our lives.  We feel his guidance and love and I'm so thankful for Him.  Through the ups and downs he is faithfully walking before us. 

18-19 Weeks!

We're almost half-way there!  Already!  I can't believe it.  I mean, honestly, the first few weeks of incredible sickness felt like an eternity, but after that the time with this pregnancy has truly flown.   It doesn't hurt that Jakub and our work here are keeping me extremely occupied.  Those are huge blessings, though, so I don't mind at all.  I know it won't be long before I blink and the baby will be here with us.  In the meantime I'm trying to enjoy the pregnancy as much as I can.  It will help to know soon what gender the baby will be and then we'll start talking about names.  That's something I look forward to very much!

Update on the pregnancy:  I'm feeling the baby move more and more.  Usually I feel it at night, but today I felt it also right after breakfast and right after lunch.  I bet that means the baby enjoyed my food choices. :)  I'm feeling less and less ill, but still unable to tolerate much, or any, onion or garlic in anything.  I don't really crave very many specific things, but I definitely still know when I don't want a certain something.  I still don't enjoy pork meat, but I can tolerate it now.  I still love all things dairy, especially if they are cold and salty.  Lemons are also my best friend right now.  I put freshly squeezed lemon juice, and slices of lemon, in my water every day.  It really helps with the nausea.  The last time I was truly ill was last Sunday morning.  Being sick only 1 time a week is great progress and hopefully soon it will be completely behind me.  I'm doing well with weight gain this pregnancy, but it definitely is all in my belly and I look a bit larger than 19 weeks (at least how it looks on most people at this point).  I'm about to move into maternity pants and already wear maternity tops and sometimes have to wear a belly-band over my jeans.  That's all I can think of for now.  We go back for our next appointment and ultrasound on October 1st.  Prayerfully everything will be fine and hopefully we'll also find out the gender. :)

Update on Jakub:  He's growing by leaps and bounds right now.  In every way.  He's so tall at 3 feet 2 inches and 36-37 lbs.  He's thinning out as he grows taller, but definitely feels solid and strong when I hold him or we play together.  He's fearless with that strength as well and can run, climb, ride a bike, and play sports very well now.  He usually prefers to play with older children because of these things.  It's really fun to be outside with him, though my days of keeping up and running alongside him are quickly coming to an end.  He talks ALL the time, which I mostly love, except for bedtime.  He asks a lot of questions and wants to be included in all of our conversations.  He's very curious about everything and always wants to know what I'm doing and how I'm doing it (cooking a meal, doing laundry, cleaning something, making a craft for our Moms' and Children's program, etc.).  He loves to learn new tasks and is usually very patient, as long as he's not tired.  We've lately been trying some various Montessori-type learning activities (which feel more like play to a child, but are very educational/challenging as well) and he's enjoying it very much.  I can see that the problem with him will be challenging him.  Once he's figured out a puzzle, game, or task, even if it's taken him a while, he no longer wants to do it again.  If he does, he does it quickly the next time around and gets bored when it's over.  I'll have to be creative with challenging him.  Even-more-so now, I believe he'll love school starting this November after he turns 3. He seems ready for it.  He's beginning to try and skip nap times by defiantly getting out of bed over and over, and telling me he "will never take a nap."  He's so strong-willed the only thing that is working in the end, after an hour or more of sending him back to his bed, is to lay down with him until he drifts off.  Today he talked to me a lot while we were laying there and I fell asleep to his talking and then woke about 20 min. later to him sleeping beside me.  :)  He still eats really well, but wont just eat anything these days.  He has to inspect it first and know what all is inside (if it's not obvious).  Usually he'll take at least one bite, but if he doesn't like it he's honest about it.  He no longer likes cooked carrots, cooked celery, mushrooms, raw onion, or oranges.  Most everything else he eats.  He's Daddy's biggest fan and wants Josh to do everything with him.  If I get on to him he usually gets mad at me.  If Josh gets on to him it hurts his feelings and embarrasses him.  That's not always been so easy to deal with lately as I'm with Jakub a lot more than Josh.  And that's probably why he's such a Daddy fan. :)  I think that's it for now...

Update on life:  This part, and the pictures to go with it, will have to wait until next time.  I'm hungry and have to go eat before it gets worse. :)

Here are a few pictures from today.  Also, thanks to all of you who wrote me to encourage me and who prayed for me.  I'm feeling calmer about the pregnancy now and much more peace.  Thank you!

 I didn't have to ask for this kiss this time.  Jakub has come around to loving on the baby and talking to it.  Unfortunately, he now definitely wants a boy and yells "no girls" if someone asks him about having a baby sister.  I wonder if he'll actually be upset if it's a girl...  One really sweet thing he says when he's tired and he's hugging me good night is "This is my Mommy and this is my baby." and he hugs me tight.  I love him!

15-16 Weeks...

Here are a few pictures to try and end the day on a brighter note (see post below).  By the way, if you have never tried a recipe from The Pioneer Woman you should.  I've tried several and I am never disappointed- if you like to cook very southern, comfort-type, foods.  Today Jakub and I made her coffee cake and it's DELICIOUS!  It truly is one of the best I've ever had.  Plus, she has beautiful, step-by-step, photos to go with her recipes. 

 

 We watched the Lion King on the floor together. :)

 15-16 weeks

We're definitely in that phase of awkward, posed smiles from him. :)  It's either this, or a roaring lion. :)

Too much worry...

**Spoiler alert:  This is not going to be the most upbeat blog post. And there are no pictures.

I contemplated not even writing this down at all, but then the desire to have people pray for me, and my strong belief in the power of God through prayer, won me over.  I've been a little too worried lately about the safety and health of my pregnancy.  I don't want to worry this much and would appreciate your prayers for peace, for better faith, and for good health for me and the baby.  I recognize it's normal, when you're pregnant, to notice even more than normal all of the pregnancy and birth stories happening around you.  It seems in the past two weeks I've come across several heart-breaking stories and struggles amongst some of my friends, or their family, and I've let it really weigh me down.  A couple of the worst to me, because they hit so close to home at this stage in my pregnancy, were the two young women who had perfectly normal and healthy pregnancies and then went in for their 20 or 22 week check-ups and ultrasounds to discover their babies hearts had stopped at some point after their 16-18 week exams.  There were no other signs that something was wrong and nothing had been wrong with their pregnancies prior to these events.  Now, I know this happens in life, but to have it happen to two people I have connections to in the last two weeks has been a little hard to take.  On top of that I recently heard of a mother who passed away during child birth, and another whose baby came at 30 weeks and needed a lot of help.  I don't know why I've let it all worry me so much recently, but I have.  I've been praying about it, but I would appreciate your prayers as well.  I don't want to continue with this worry and I don't want to keep thinking through these scenarios trying to prepare myself for how I would handle it if it happened to me.  I want to live with the peace that God is in control and that, no matter what happens, He is still in control and will guide me and comfort me through whatever comes in my life.  Thanks for your prayers!!

It's been too long...

Wow.  I never thought 2 1/2 months would go by without blogging one little bit.  Now, I don't even know where to begin and for the sake of actually getting back to it I'm going to have to leave so much out.  However, I'll do my best to hit some of the highlights. First, I'm 14 weeks pregnant. :)  No, we don't know what we are having, yet, but we do know that the baby is big and healthy.  We had a genetic-screening ultrasound and check-up this week and the baby is developing without any problems.  Praise God!  We and Jakub are growing more and more excited all the time to have another child.  Jakub is beginning to talk about the baby and asks to see my belly often.  He loves to look at the ultrasound photos, which is really sweet. 

Kisses for the baby!

The baby measuring around 15 weeks.

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Other fun things we've been doing this summer- eating ice cream! :)

Visiting Svaty Kopecek 

Having a snack and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Group photo from one of our summer camps.  They were truly the best ones yet and we thank God for that gift!

Superman!!!  He loved playing with our skit props. :)

Me and Josh at camp. 

Our Olomouc Team with our summer interns at their farewell party and grill-out after church.  They helped us so much this summer!

Christie and us as Graham and Terka's wedding.  There aren't many photos from it available yet, but it was a gorgeous wedding and lovely night with perfect weather.  We had a great time and were honored to be a part of their very special day.  We're going to miss them as they move to Scotland for school and work in the next week.  Please keep our team in your prayers as we get smaller, once again.  We hope and pray that God will help us add 4 teammates next year- those 4 are currently finishing school and preparing themselves and fundraising in order to come.  Please pray God provides them with all they need to move here and work with us for 2 years each.  So, those are a few of the bigger things that have been going on here the last 2 months.  Those events, along with continuing to be really sick with the pregnancy, are reasons I have not been blogging. I hope to be better about it now that we're getting back in to a normal routine and I hope the sickness will end any day now.  Thanks for your prayers regarding the pregnancy as well.  We hope everything will continue to go as well as it has so far!  We're excited! :)

Rainforest, Cave, Waterfall!

Jakub occasionally watches an episode of Dora the Explorer, which we have on a Nick Jr. DVD.  He loves Dora and he loves the big adventure she goes on in this episode, with boots and Diego, through a rainforest, past a cave, and to a large waterfall to save a baby jaguar.  He loves helping her decide on the map where to go and acting out the parts along with the characters.  Well, this weekend we took him on a big adventure of our own, with some of our friends and our interns, which was similar to the episode in his mind.  I hadn't thought of this before Jake mentioned it to me, but on Saturday morning I told him we would be doing some new things together during the day and that we were going on a big adventure.  I told him we would first go to a castle, and then a cave.  He immediately repeated the words castle and cave and then said "and waterfall!"  I immediately knew what he was thinking of thought it very clever of him.  I told him I was sorry, though, that there wouldn't be any waterfall.  Well, at the area around the cave entrance was an outdoor park of sorts with a nice fountain area.  Jake immediately screamed waterfall while running towards it.  I guess he did get everything he wanted in the end. :)  It was an awesome day together and very special to explore these things with him for the first time.  He did so well walking and hiking alongside us all day- we were gone from 9am-4pm.  He didn't slow down until the very end of the walk back to the car.  Of course he took a short nap on the 30 min drive home.  What a trooper!  I can't wait to do something like this with him again soon. 


I don't have any of my own pictures from this day, but I've got some from their websites and soon I'll have some from a friend who went with us.  For now, here are the few I could find of these locations we visited.  They are blurry from copying and enlarging, but at least you get a general idea for now.  Enjoy!


Jakub climbed to the top of this tower with us and loved the lookout over the cities below.

















View of the entire castle area we explored.



 
 Inside the cave area.  They had well-made and well-lit paths for walking through.  It was beautiful inside and quite large in some areas.  When they turned all of the lights out we were able to experience true darkness- I wish I could sleep there at night. :)


  First discovered in 1580, but not thoroughly explored until the early 1900's. 

 

Cars!

Thank you to Grandma, Papa, Nana, Pop, Aunt Hopey, and Neil for the gifts and cards you have recently sent us.  We appreciate the kind thoughts, encouragement, and special gifts.  Jakub especially loves the theme of "Cars" that have come with his gifts.  He LOVES Lightening McQueen and Mater even though he had never really seen the movie about them, yet.  A couple of weeks ago Hope and Neil sent him some gifts, which included new, big-boy underwear with Lightening McQueen on them.  Then, my parents sent him a new book via our summer interns who just arrived last week.  It's a story about the characters from Cars and it's read aloud by my Dad (Pop).  Today we opened a gift box from Josh's parents, Grandma and Papa, and amongst the gifts were some more underwear with Lightening McQueen on some and the movie Cars.  Jakub immediately wanted to watch it and was so excited.  I wish we had had room on our video camera to capture the singing and dancing by Jakub every time he saw L. McQ. race across the screen (He says "lie-teen ma-teen). :)   He was very happy to finally see this movie!  Papa, he loves it when Mater tips the "cows."  You would be proud!   Thank you to all of you for your gifts and for providing some special moments for us with our precious little boy.  Dad, it's good to hear your voice at bedtime. :)  Here are some pictures from today... unfortunately, I had not remembered to get my camera out lately to capture more of these moments.

  

 Waiving hello and saying thank you to Grandma and Papa!!

 

Dancing around to the music on the movie... in his Lightening McQueen underwear. :)

 

Look!!  Lie-teen Ma-teen!  Lie-teen Ma-teen!  Lie-teen Ma-teen!

 

 

 

Thanks for the new p.j.s!  

 

I love you my family!