First Motorka ride!

I got out Jakub's old motorka (Czech for little motorcycle - which all kids first learn to ride) today and let Sofia give it a try.  She loved it. :)  She can't put both feet flat on the ground at the same time, yet, but still she rocked back and forth while pushing herself forward and around the room.  Then she would get off alone and most of the time do it well.  She also liked to push it and carry it around the living room. :)  She was brave and not worried at all about being on it.  Just like Jakub used to be when he was her age, though he was 1/2 a year older when we first bought this and tried it with him.  I can't wait until she can ride it with confidence and we can go on some walks together outside with it.  This morning it was so pretty outside we did take a walk for about an hour.  She did well the whole time and I didn't have to carry her at all.  We wandered around our neighborhood and she enjoyed looking at and touching flowers and grass.  She also followed a lot of birds and dogs in hopes of catching up to them. :)  She can go pretty fast already and almost runs at times.  She's so sweet to watch.  Here are a few more things about her right now:

- She wears a size 4+ diaper and weighs about 12.5 - 13 kg.
- She has one pair of shoes, pink high-tops, and they are size 22cm.  I need to get her another pair as well as indoor house slippers, which is the appropriate thing for her to put on when we visit other homes, now that she walks so well everywhere.
- She still only has 2 bottom teeth, but clearly 6 others are on their way very soon and 2 have currently just come to the edge of the gums and have almost broken through.  We brush her 2 teeth at night with a little green tooth brush and she thinks it tickles so bad and laughs a lot.
- When she isn't having teething pain she sleeps through the night from about 730 or 8pm to 7-730am.  If she does wake up due to pain it's extremely hard to get her to stay in her own bed and not pick her up.  She's determined and will cry and cry, which we don't mind comforting her through, but at a certain point she starts to wake Jake and then it's hard to let him wake up on a school night, so then we end up rocking her back to sleep or taking her to our bed if she's really having a hard time. 
- She eats a lot of different things, but she definitely wants to smell first and slowly taste new things.  If she doesn't like it then she absolutely won't take another bite.  It's frustrating, but we're working through it.  Thankfully, she really does eat a lot of different things so it's not that bad.
- Her favorite foods right now are strawberries, blueberries, yogurt, chicken, rice, mashed potatoes, carrots, cheese, bread, apples, oranges, bananas, and as of last night - lemons.  raw.  wow.
- Her favorite thing to do is probably to play with brother as she adores him.  She also would rather be outside walking around than play inside.  I'm happy about that.
- When she hears music or singing she starts to do an adorable little wiggle dance and bob her head. 
- She LOVES Daddy and can definitely say his name and call for him.  She still won't call for me, but does occasionally and randomly say Mama.  She also uses "mama" to ask for food. :)
- She gives 1000 hugs and kisses to me, Josh, and Jake throughout the day.  She loves to give affection and gives it so freely.  She is super, super sweet natured and I love it so much.

Ok, that's all for now.  I could go on forever about these kids.  They're awesome. :) 

Happy, Glorious Easter!

Once again it's been a while since I last blogged.  Life has been full, and mostly full of good, and for that we are blessed and grateful.  There's a lot to catch up on and it's overwhelming to try it all at once so, for now, I'll just share some about our Easter time this year. 

The week before Easter weekend Jakub was home from school with a fever and cough.  It wasn't anything terrible, but I didn't want him to go to school and get worse before our big 4-day retreat weekend with our church family from the Czech Republic and Slovakia (and a few from Holland and Austria).  We were unable to attend this annual retreat last year due to Sofia being so young still, so this year we really looked forward to getting back together with our friends and enjoying a nice time away to reflect upon and celebrate Jesus.  This year we had a wonderful guest speaker from the U.S., some nice Bible class times, discussion groups, and children's lessons.  Jakub and Sofia both did pretty well attending their groups and playing with friends.  Sofia didn't mind a bit being with "strangers" and other babies for her class time and I was so happy for her to have some new people to play with and interact with.  Jake did great as well, but occasionally got bored with the craft times and since he felt he owned the place (as he usually does in familiar places) he would often run off from class when he felt like it and go play out front on the playground area.  In general it wasn't too bad, but Josh and I struggled some with wanting him to learn to listen better to his teachers, talk to them first before running off, and to be more aware of the group around him and what everyone was doing together.  We had to remind ourselves, once again, that he's 4 and still has a lot to learn.  Though he played with his closest friend very well, she was 6 and of course new how to behave better or follow rules better.  I know we'll get there.  :)

The retreat was good for us in many, many ways. It was encouraging to hear the Bible lessons, taught on the Lord's Prayer, and be in discussion with others about them.  It was uplifting to worship and sing so often with so many other believers who were full of joy.  It was refreshing to be around so many other Moms, Dads, and kids who were striving to teach their young ones about life, about God, about Jesus, and just about being.  We shared many "mom" moments full of laughter, and some tears.  All of it was so good for me.  The only down-side for me, really, was that Sofia was teething (and still is as we're going to get about 6 teeth total in the next month) and didn't always sleep well at night.  Josh and I were totally wiped out from the poor sleep at night, but still made the best of several great days there.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures yet to show from the retreat.  One of our friends there took many of the weekend and will send them out to all of us soon. :)

I do have some pictures from our Moms' and Kids' class in Olomouc on the Wednesday before we left.  Our theme this semester is "family."  Each two weeks we learn about different members of the family, various good values we have in our families, and about love for those around us.  The two weeks prior to Easter happened to be babies, brothers, and sisters.  So we talked about baby Jesus as well as adult Jesus in parts of our lessons and shared some of the values Jesus taught us in our celebration of Him leading up to Easter.  I think it worked in well to the overall theme and I'm glad we got to share some of our faith with the families/kids in the group before Easter time.  I do have just a few pictures from that class time.

We also hosted our own Easter worship in Olomouc, but we did it one week prior to Easter as we would then be out of town in Slovakia.  Josh led the worship program focused heavily on Jesus and Joy this year.  Sometimes in the past we've struggled to truly express our joy and hope we have in Jesus for all that He did for us and for the resurrection and the miracle that it is.  This year we wanted those who would come, who are closest to us anyway, to see the joy and love we have for God and Jesus and everything that Easter time should represent.  And I was able to do the children's class as this year we had another family come with 2 children and so it was wonderful to celebrate with them.  We had a small program of singing and story time from the Bible, as well as some craft time and plenty of games to play.  Here are a few pictures of the kids:

That's mostly how our 2 weeks of Easter celebrations and programs went.  Thankfully the kids were in a mostly healthy spell for it all.  Thanks to God the programs were blessed and successful.  Our biggest hope is that God and Jesus remain on peoples minds when the programs are over.  I believe for some this is true more and more!

And just so I don't forget my mommy-fail Easter moment... after the 4 days away for Easter weekend we returned home Sunday night happy and completely worn out.  We did the typical bed-time routine of dinner, baths, and bed.  We all slept well that night, including Sofia!  On Monday morning we got up for school as usual... and as Jake and I were walking there together I noticed hardly anyone was out.  Odd for a Monday morning.  Odd for 750am.  We continued on and as we got closer to school I could see that no one was parking around or going to-and-from school.  Still we marched on and as we walked up to the school door it became very clear that school was closed.  Because it's Easter Monday.  Because that's a holiday here and nothing's open.  Yeah, I felt silly.  So we marched ourselves back home for a long and fun day as a family together.   That was needed anyway. :)

Whispers in the Calm

I want to post something here not to brag or seek approval, but to save it as a reminder of this moment in my life.  And as a memory to share with my children.  I was recently asked to blog about what it's like to be a Mom on the mission field.  There are so many things I could share about this, but some general thoughts about it are recorded below.  They were featured on an online blog, which is run by some dear friends on mine in Vienna, Austria, as well as other friends from around the world.  I've never felt like a gifted writer, but when my friend asked me to share my thoughts in hopes of encouraging or helping other moms in ministry I couldn't deny the nudge I felt God was giving me to do my part and share myself and my experiences with others.  It's hard to deny God what you feel like He wants.  I also felt like it was my duty to help contribute to the community of women who are a part of this blog and dedicated to helping each other in life.  So, hopefully I was able to encourage someone out there.  After writing this I was asked if I would consider contributing something once a quarter and after much thought and prayer, and what seemed to be a clear encouragement from God to say yes, I have decided to give it a try.  If you have any interest in reading articles from other women as well feel free to visit the blog:  http://www.inthecalm.org/

Becoming A Mom While Living Abroad

By Sarah Beall February 3, 2014 Uncategorized 

 

Wow. What a topic: Having children in a foreign country. I don’t know where to begin or how to keep this brief. When I think about my children, about having them here in the Czech Republic, and about raising them in this foreign-to-me (not to them since it’s their home) land, I have so many scattered thoughts racing through my mind. It has not been easy, but then it’s not easy having and raising your children anywhere, is it? For me, motherhood integrated with this missionary life has been full of questions, doubts, worries and an ever-increasing faith in and reliance on our Great, Awesome God.
I was especially scared with my first as everything was so completely new to me. I would say that my first true, in-depth experiences with “culture shock” were when I became pregnant and had my first baby here. And I had already lived in Olomouc for three years. One reason was that the language here, which is already difficult, has its own “child language” within itself that I had to learn with the birth of Jakub. Words I never needed before were suddenly so necessary and so unknown. Words I already knew well did not hold the same meaning simply because he was a baby! And so many things got lost in translation, or simply didn’t hold true, like the huge shock at literally the very last minute at the hospital that my husband could not go with me for the C-section. No one is allowed to go with you unless they have special connections to the medical staff. Talk about SHOCK. Talk about stress!  I was so nervous and scared, but what could I do?  I just went on back to the operating room with the nurses and we had a baby. A very big, very breech, gorgeous, healthy boy.
It’s a good thing God doesn’t get tired of us talking to Him because I’m pretty sure I talked his ear off with all of my concerns, and questions, and prayers over that precious little boy that I was sure I was going to mess up in some major way. If my Mom were living nearby she would have calmed me during that roller coaster of a first year, and told me to take a chill pill! But, that’s another difficult thing about having our children here — we’ve left behind the comfort and care of our moms and dads, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and church family. God provides, though. If we’re looking for it, He provides. My husband and I learned to rely on each other a lot — and we learned even more about one another. And I found help, and friendship, and genuine care from some of the people around me. And now I’m stronger for it. And precious bonds were formed. And I have an even bigger “family” because of it, because I’ve had my babies in this foreign place.
You know what truth still rocks my world and I am continually learning how to accept, nurture, and grow with it? This foreign place is truly home for my children. In a way that it can never be mine. They were born here. They have only ever lived here. These people are their people and this language is becoming their language in a much more authentic way than it will ever be “my” language. My oldest is already attending a local pre-school here and his grasp of the language and culture is wonderful and ever-growing. He sometimes teaches me vocabulary words. How crazy is that! And I’m thankful that by nature, and nurture, I’m not prone to be jealous or competitive with him about that. I’m amazed by him. I’m amazed by the beautiful, smart, adventurous creature that he is. I am blessed to be his Mom and I thank God for all that He’s taught me about Himself through my son and my daughter. If it weren’t for having these precious kids in this foreign place I wouldn’t have learned some of the things I have, personally, about God and who He is, and how much I can and need to rely on Him. For everything.

I have the opportunity every day to learn something about myself, my kids, and my God. That’s true for any of us in any place we happen to live. If that happens to be a foreign place and if you ever happen to feel overwhelmed or scared while raising your kids there (or experience one of a million other emotions or thoughts — kids can really get our minds and hearts stirred up, can’t they?) I encourage you to know you are not alone. If you can allow yourself to be vulnerable and ask for help, then surely God will provide help in some form or another. I’ve found help from my husband, late-night Skype calls to parents, teammates, newfound friends met in random places, online articles, tons of reading on parenthood, Beth Moore studies and encouragement from friends all over the world. Motherhood, in my opinion, is one of the toughest life-experiences we can endure. It’s awesome, too. It really is a gift from above and one that I don’t take for granted.
We never know how long we’ll be on this Earth, or our children for that matter, so trying to enjoy each day with them is important. I’m thankful that for now I find myself in this foreign place with them because we’re learning so much about each other, about life and people, and about God. Praise be to Him for that.

How sweet it is to be loved by you!

 (She was giving kisses...) :)

I love these kids.  I love the way these kids love each other.  Lots of love going around.  And since Jake is staying home this week from school to try and finally and completely kick a long-term cough he's had (we've all had it...everyone we know has had it...) we've had a lot of fun playing together.  Sister is always happy to have him around to play with.  Now that she's walking they are also practicing that together.  Jakub loves for her to walk to him because it always ends in a slight run, a big squeal, and usually a hug (complete with back pats/slaps) and kisses.  I wish our video camera was working.  For now you'll have to imagine the sweetness through the pics.  Love, love, love them!

 

 

 

I couldn't help but take this picture of Jake while we were playing around.  I don't want to forget how thick, rough, and messy the back of his head/hair gets when he sleeps.  What a mess and impossible to comb out without water.   I could tell that he slept in one spot, with his head laid straight back, all night long. :)  Sofia's hair does this as well!

Jake made some nice faces for me and the camera.  Here's his happy face:

 

Sad face:

Surprised face:

Mad face:

Silly face:

 Here are some sweet faces from Sofia as well.

 

This last one I caught as she was running to me.  You can see Jakub clapping/cheering her on in the background.  Fun times with these two!!

My Jake

Oh Jake.  You are FULL of life.  It's awesome, and inspiring, and exhausting. :)  You are 4 going on 15 sometimes.  You love to know everything you can about everything, so you ask a lot of questions, which I actually really love because it reminds me to ask questions as well.  I love to learn alongside you.

You are doing really well at adjust to life with a sister around.  You have your moments of getting tired of her or of needing more attention, but that's very normal.  For the most part you love to play with her, you shower her with affection, and you call her "my pretty girl."  You tell her she's beautiful, you love it when she wears a dress or I put bows in her hair, and you are super proud of her learning to walk right now.  She also loves you very much and wants to give you many hugs and kisses.  When she hugs you she pats your back and you close your eyes and smile.  I never get tired of seeing you two like this and I hope it's an image stamped on my heart forever.  I believe it is.

You're doing great at school, though I get the feeling you learn quickly and get bored, therefore getting into trouble at times. I know this means you will need many challenges, but I also know it means you're intelligent and I hope you'll always love school and the pursuit of knowledge.  You're doing a great job at speaking Czech as well and you operate within it at school and out with friends with little problem.  You even have an accent when you speak English because of it.  Not a strong one, but enough to know you speak both languages and it's so cool. :)

You are definitely tall as you are taller than most your age and you look closer to 5-6yo already.  You weigh about 19-20 kg now, I think. :)  You are healthy for the most part, but you do catch many colds and coughs from school, so we've been testing you lately at the doctor for allergies, low immunity, and asthma.  You don't have allergies and your immune system looks fine, but you did test positive for asthma so you are taking an inhaler 2x a day for a few months to see how you respond to that.  When you get a cough it takes forever to go away.  I hope you won't always suffer from this and I pray you won't ever have emergency attacks of any kind. Hopefully you'll grow out of this soon.  When you aren't at school, or it's summer time, you're completely fine, so I feel very hopeful that soon you'll be ok and not need the medicine.

Your favorite shows/movies right now are Curious George, Cars, Krtek fairytales, Berenstain Bears, and Finding Nemo.  You really prefer to play outside though, and ride your bike, or race your toy cars inside and build garages.

One last thing before I go to bed- one of my favorite things about you right now is that you always want to know what is more, or bigger, or higher when it comes to something you are trying to be the best at, or know the most about, etc.  For example (my favorite example), you ask how much I love you and I tell you something like "to the moon and back one thousand times."  And you want to know what is more than one thousand, because that's how much you love me back.  Always a competition with you, but when it comes to love I'll take it. :)  So you made up the word "killion" and you think it's the ultimate number.  Usually I let you have it because I know you'll want to win, so I'll say a billion and wait for you to say a "killion."  Tonight when I told you I love you and I missed you (you were away at a babysitter's home) and was glad to see you I then told you that I love you one killion times (thinking I would win), and you said "I love you to God and back, is that more than a killion?"  Wow.  Thanks Jakub.  You made my heart sing.  Yes, that's more than a killion.  That's the best.  Thanks for thinking of God as well and bringing Him into our love.  It doesn't get better than that.

I love you, Jake!

Walking, running, tumbling...

 

Pretty much in that order every time Sofia has finally decided to step out on her own.  On Sunday we had a friend over for lunch before church and while we were all talking in the living room she took a step away from Josh and the couch, and then took another 4 before sitting down.  She was so proud of herself!  Later that day, at church, two of our good friends decided to share a snickerdoodle cookie with her and entice her to walk between them.  Well that definitely worked! :)  This girl loves food and that cookie was great motivation.  They had her walking over and over between them, about 5 to 10 steps at a time.  Of course, it didn't take her long to gather courage and begin running as well.  That was crazy to see and it almost always ended badly. :)  The picture above is fuzzy, but you can see that she has a slightly blackened  right eye with a bruised and bloody area where she hit the edge of our kitchen chair before going down.  She's had about 3 big spills like that while trying to run and it seems to have set in the caution I was trying to give her.   She no longer runs so quickly, but she definitely walks smoothly and with confidence when she decides to.  I'm so happy for her and it's just in time for spring.  I'm looking forward to some fun and adventurous walks with her and Jakub once the weather's a little warmer.  We also bought her her first real pair of shoes that will be great for walking outside.  Her Daddy picked them out and they are so cute.  I'll have to get a picture soon.  They are pink and grey and super sweet. :)  She's also a huge fan of going outside for any reason and as soon as she hears it mentioned she goes to the front door to get dressed for it.  Since we bought the shoes on Monday she now goes to the door and finds her shoes and holds them up for me to put on her.  She's a very clever little thing.  Today she even got one of my big winter boots and brought it to me.  It's amazing how much they catch on to even when they can still say so little themselves.

Sofia, you keep me on my toys and practically running myself.  I love, love, love you!

P.S.  Your sweet Aunt Hopey reminded me that I forgot to write something about you under your one-year birthday note.  You get really shy when meeting people the first time and you put your head down and look at the ground of table, whatever's below you, and you won't look up until I or Daddy coaxes you out of it.  You're almost always smiling, even when you look down, like you know it's funny also, but you're just too shy and not ready to look up right away.  But, then you do, and you warm up to people well and even will go off to play with them.  It's charming. :)  Thanks, Hope, for the reminder.  I don't ever want to forget this about her.

Happy One Year Sofia!

So I have been extremely behind on blogging lately.  I will catch up soon because I don't want to leave out some of the best times we've had as a family and also with our friends and family.  The hiatus is mostly due to a sudden illness for me, which had to be handled and completely given focus for a while, and then we went home to the U.S. on furlough for the holidays. 

We're back now in Olomouc, we're settling in to our life here again, and we're enjoying so much of it.  I'll catch up on that soon, too.

For now I want to quickly record some things about Sofia and her turning one.  I just can't believe it's been one year already.  The time has flown ever faster than I remember it with Jakub.  There's so much I want to say so I'll just record it all as quickly as I can before she needs me to get her a snack and go for her morning nap. :)

Sofia, you are so very precious to us.  Here are all of the things I want to remember about you at this time that you have just turned one:

 

- You are extremely kind and loving.  You generously give hugs and kisses to me, Daddy, and Jakub.  You will blow kisses to friends and even strangers if asked.

- You love to smile and laugh.  Your brother gets the biggest and longest laughs out of you when he does silly tricks like sliding across the floor on his knees, playing peek-a-boo, and singing silly songs with dances.

- You play pretty well on your own, but you really love it when we join you and immediately start giving us your toys and sharing with us.

- You are good at the doctor just like Jakub was.  You rarely cry or fuss- you just watch the doctor in amazement and curiosity for what they are doing.  If you get an immunization you only cry a moment and then are fine and want to play with the toys at the doctor's office. :)

- At your one-year check-up you weighed exactly 12kg and were 74cm tall.  Everything else was fine and you seem to be very healthy.  The doctor commented on how you are "healthy" looking with all of your sweet, chubby rolls and that you must be a good eater.  And you are!

- You do eat well the things you like, but you can also be picky.  You like to smell, touch, and gently taste something for the first time if you don't know what it is.  Then if you like it you will eat it all.  If you don't we have to coax you with some cheering and clapping.  This usually helps. :)

 

- Your favorite things to eat right now are bananas, apples with cinnamon, grapes, jogurt without fruit chunks in it, rice or pasta, spaghetti, broccoli, carrots, mashed potatoes, and Bebe crackers. 

- You began walking 2 weeks after your first birthday.  You did it for the first time at home when you walked from the couch to Daddy.  You took about 5 steps.  Then later you did it several times at church between two of our friends who were tossing back and forth a cookie to motivate you.  And it did!!  You love sweet stuff. :)

- You love to hear the word outside and then go there for walks in the stroller.  You love to go get brother after school and the minute you see him you start babbling and reaching open your arms for him to come get a hug.  You hug and kiss him generously and he loves it.  I love to see you two together and am proud of how much you already love each other.

- You go pretty well to strangers or friends and don't yet cry when we are gone for a while.  You just love to be played with and especially if Jakub is with you then you don't mind going to do whatever adventure you can.

- You started last week going on Thursdays, for the first time, with Jakub after school to our Babička's (grandmother in Olomouc) house. She keeps you both while Daddy and I go to our teen devotional time.  She said you did great and loved to play patty-cake with her.  She loves you both very much and is glad you will be with her and Jakub now.

- You also love to sing and dance like your brother did as a baby.  If we say "dance" you will start to wiggle around or sway back and forth if you are standing.  You also do it alone if I start to sing to you.  You like the songs:  Wheels on the bus, row your boat, gumdrops (thanks Nellie!), pat the Bible, Kingdom come, and Trust and obey (great for putting you to sleep). :)

- You have two teeth on the bottom and it's taking FOREVER for them to come in.  The first one came during our trip home to the U.S. and you were 11 months.  The second one was just visible at that time and didn't completely break through until literally your first birthday.  The third is growing now.  I hope to see it sometime in the next month. :)

That's all for now.  Sofia, your family loves you very, very much.  We're so thankful to have you in our lives and to watch you learn and grow each day.  You truly are so sweet and gentle and you bring a lot of love, joy, and positivity to our home.  Thank you for the open arms and generous hugs and kisses you give us.  As Jakub would say "we love you a million, billion, killion times."  Happy one year!