Vacation Time and/or Baby Moon?

First things first, right Mom? Here is another belly shot. I know I take a lot of belly shots, but I have plenty of requests from family to see as many pictures as they can get from me:) So, this is a picture of me in my bathing suit my Mom sent me for my birthday in June. It's come in handy this summer and is really comfortable. Thanks, Mom!
Here I am on the patio of the place where Josh and I recently stayed when we took a mini-vacation to Lipova Lazne. We took 4 days off and retreated to this village in the nearby Jesenik mountains. It was an amazingly beautiful area and you'll see several pictures of it below. Some friends have teased that this was our "babymoon." I think that means the last sane vacation you'll ever have together before the child comes along and you don't quiet relax/sleep the same again on future vacations:)
Sorry these aren't in the best order. This is a picture of the surrounding area where we stayed. Olomouc is in a relatively flat area of the country so, this was a wonderful change of scenery for us. It was so quiet and peaceful here. We also had amazing weather during our vacation- I think the temperature staying around 70-75 during the day. One day it rained, which was also beautiful, and it was cool enough to wear jackets all day. I liked that:) Our place also had air-conditioning, which was a fun experience, because we've never stayed anywhere here that had it.
This is near a popular ski-resort in the area. Someday I would love to ski in this part of the country.
This is where we stayed. It's a hotel that also has small apartments available to rent for vacation time. We stayed in a small apartment on the bottom right of this hotel.
This small river ran through the village where we stayed. We took walks beside it during the day. It was so peaceful and beautiful here. We both commented on how much we would love to live closer to water and to hear the sound of the river every day.
This is a small fortress in a town near to where we stayed. We didn't go up to see it because it was raining, but we enjoyed a nice long car ride through the mountains on this afternoon.
A view from near our apartment. I really enjoyed this rainy day as a change to the other, sunnier days. This day reminded me of being in Ireland.

Here is the kitchen in the apartment. It was fun to cook together each day in a kitchen that's more nicely equipped than our own:) Somehow that made doing the dishes together more fun:)
This is the living room and the patio is just outside of it. The windows on the left side open up like doors would. It made for a very beautiful view.
Another view of the living/bedroom. It was a small, but beautiful apartment in which to stay. It was perfect for vacation time together. We liked having a place to cook in and a patio to hang out on. We're very thankful for this time we could take together and to relax a bit before heading back to Olomouc and all of the exciting things we have going on here now.

26 Weeks

Wow, what a difference a week or two can make! We're beginning our 26th week now and I have noticed a big change in just the last week. My belly has grown a lot and feels more stretched now, the baby is kicking even harder, and the heat here is more intolerable than before. I accidentally discovered popsicles this weekend and the timing couldn't have been more perfect. We're having some of our hottest days yet and they have come in handy each night at bedtime:) It's funny the little things you get excited about sometimes, like popsicles. I found lemon and orange and both are really good. They do have a few versions of popsicle-like/ice-cream filled desserts here, but they are individually sold and expensive. I've never found a whole box of fruit flavored popsicles like what we are used to having in the states. The funny thing here is that you can find something one time and once it's been bought out of the store you'll not see it again for a long time. Hopefully that won't happen in this case! I know I could make them homemade...I just have never gotten around to it...too lazy I guess:)

We enjoyed a nice grill-out with some of our Czech friends last night. These friends are all of the couples we played floorball with each week throughout last fall, winter and spring. This summer we've moved outside to the park and played some frisbee together. We've also just enjoyed spending time together grilling and hanging out at each others homes. One of the best parts has been that 5 of the 7 of us girls are pregnant right now. One is due in October, 2 in November, then me on the 1st of December, and then Sarah Keen next February. It makes for some really fun times together talking about the pregnancies and encouraging one another.


Today Josh and I are anxiously awaiting the news of the arrivals of two babies we've been praying for and are looking forward to seeing pictures of soon. One is the daughter, Addison, of our cousins in Oklahoma- Nic and Natalie. We just talked to them on the phone at the hospital and that was a great blessing! They are definitely ready to meet their little girl today! The other is the son, Thomas Alexander, of our dear friend Bonnie in Fayetteville. Bonnie has been a good friend of ours since college and there is a very special story to go along with the birth of this precious baby boy.
You can read more about it here: http://www.sweetcarolinebaby.blogspot.com/

It won't be long before we also welcome our 4th niece into the world! I'm looking forward to that day as well! She's due to arrive the first week of September- or maybe even before that:)

A little help...

So I have been told by several people that they aren't sure what they are looking at here:) I completely understand! So, I added a few labels. You'll have to excuse the amateur job in a poor quality program. However, maybe this will give you a better idea of what you are looking at! It really isn't the best picture of the baby, but hopefully you can see him a little better now:)

Another photo of baby!

Well, these are the best pictures we could get...isn't he precious? :) We had another 3D ultrasound done today at our check-up. Everything looks great! He's healthy and on target with where he should be. He was, once again, squirming a lot so, it was hard to get a clear shot of the face. I, personally, think this shot of his face is a little creepy:) You'll have to use your imagination some to fill in the gaps. His eye looks like it's staring right at you, which was odd yet sweet. He also looks like he has some fangs... maybe that's why his movements hurt more lately! If you look closely, you can see a cute little button nose. So, maybe next time the pictures will be better. We'll see. I loved watching his little feet kick, feeling them is becoming a totally different story.

I don't have any results on the glucose tests from last Friday, but thank you for your prayers! Maybe they will have them in later this week.

Finally...another post!

So, I'm finally finding some time to write again. Thanks to all of you who have kept up with me by email and have been praying for me and for our work here, even when I didn't have much time to respond. July was a hectic and wonderful month for us! It began with a team of students from Harding University arriving to help us with our first English Christian Camp. We then had the camp at a retreat facility about 1 1/2 hours away from Olomouc. We were so thankful for the 23 Czech teenagers who showed up for our camp and seemingly had an awesome time with us over the course of a week. After that camp was over another team of students from Conway, AR arrived to join the Harding team in helping us run our next English Christian Camp. I was glad to have this group here with us, because they are from my home town and I grew up with almost all of them. It was nice to have a bit of home here with me for a while. Again, God greatly blessed our camp time with 27 new Czech students who attended this camp. It was held over one week's time directly in Olomouc. We had a blast doing many new things together with these teens. The month was so full of work and joy and fellowship and new friendships and we are still taking it all in. It's overwhelming and humbling. Now, we're beginning to host follow-up activities with all of these new Czech students. Sadly, this week our 2 American teams left and we are also feeling their absense. It was encouraging to us to have so many people to worship with and work with for a month. However, God has already begun to fill some of the void with some Czech friends who have begun attending worship with us more regularly. We praise Him for that and pray it will continue and even grow with these new Czech teens over time. There is still much work to do, but we are looking foward to it and to knowing all of these new friends better! At some other time I'll post pictures from our camps and tell more stories about our time spent at them. For now, a small pregnancy update and then back to some needed resting:)

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. I'm on target measuring at 24 weeks- which means I'm in the 6th month now. I can't believe how fast it all goes by. I know many of you warned me about this already:). The baby was fun to watch as he was moving around a lot. We got one fairly decent picture that I'll post later- it looks like the baby is smiling:) So cute. The heartbeat was going strong and everything measured well. The baby's weight measures at 1 lb 6 oz. It's always a relief to hear that he is healthy. Tomorrow morning I'll go to a special clinic here to do the routine blood glucose testing. Please pray I pass this test and that I do it with strength and patience. I have to fast beginning at 7pm tonight and it's been a long time since I've made it past 7pm without a snack before bed:) Hopefully I won't feel too sick in the morning.

Here are some pictures at 24 weeks and then at 18 weeks to compare to.







So far I haven't had any stretch marks, but I do have dry skin that I put lotion on a lot. It helps with some of that itchy feeling. Most days I feel really good, except for always feeling exhausted. My belly button, which you can't see in the picture, is about to pop out:) With the warmer days I'm having more swelling in my face, hands, and feet. My regular medication helps control some of this, thankfully. Though it's not really hot here, compared to what many of you in the US are experiencing, I'm already looking forward to fall and cold weather:) As for names and plans made for the baby/baby room, we still don't have any answers:) We'll be sure to start some of those preparations soon...

Half Way There!

This week makes 20 weeks of pregnancy- we're half way there! As you can see from the picture above I've grown a bit over the past 2 weeks:) The baby is moving around a lot more now and it is a lot stronger. On Monday morning Josh and I were eating breakfast together and, for the first time, we could actually see the baby moving. It looked like a little elbow poking through the skin in sharp, short little movements. It was the greatest moment thus far and it was awesome to share in it together. It's moving to see Josh's excitement and to hear him transition from calling it "the baby" to "my son." He's going to make a great father! Other than increased movement and hunger not much has changed recently. I'm still feeling well, overall. I still battle fatigue daily and it's a little worse as the weather here is finally getting warmer (on some days). Thankfully, we're having an exceptionally cool summer still and it's helpful to me:) Today, I don't think it got above 65. We've had partly-sunny days mixed with thunderstorms every day for a month now, I think. I don't mind it, though! The only other change is that over the last week I've suddenly noticed I become winded more easily when walking across town. I'm moving a little slower and that's not fun:)


This week we visited our friend Radek at his home. He's become a good friend of ours over the last year and we've enjoyed many fun times together. He's always been a generous friend and tried to help us in many different ways- finding a trust-worthy accountant for our company, helping with Czech translation, helping us with our teen English camps, etc. This week he let us know that the cherries on his tree were ripe and ready to be picked. We had a wonderful time picking them together and eating some along the way:) They are the perfect type for making homemade pies and jam. I can't wait to do both of those things...in August after these English camps are over. He let us keep all of the cherries we were able to pick! We filled 4 large containers with these cherries! These are the types of experiences with friends here that we will cherish forever.

Today we celebrated Christie's 30th birthday. This is another of our "shape cakes," as is tradition for birthdays here. The main rule is that every part must be edible. We died marshmallows to make the numbers on this cake. They didn't taste the best, but they were edible! In the past we've used stick pretzels and icing to hold things together...it can become quiet the adventure. These cakes above were not hard to make this year. These are dice in honor of one of our favorite games to play together- and a game in which we often tease Christie about "going for it" long after she should have stopped. We celebrated together with the group from Harding who are here to help us with our Away English Camp, which begins tomorrow night. We'll be leaving tomorrow afternoon for a retreat center in a town about 1 hour from Olomouc. We have 32 czech teenagers joining us for 7 days of camp. We are looking forward to it and pray that everything goes well. Please pray with us that this is another step (a big one) towards growing a teen ministry in Olomouc for God's kingdom. Many of these students we already know and we are looking forward to knowing them better and sharing more of our faith with them over this next week. Please pray for safety for all of us as we travel to and from this center by bus, train, and/or car over the next week. I look forward to writing all about camp when we get back! Please also pray for our next English camp, Day Camp Olomouc, which begins one week afterthis Away Camp ends.

Surprise!

Joshua and I called our families on the 4th of July to give them a nice surprise- our baby is a BOY! :) It was so much fun to tell everyone. We decided during the ultrasound last week to go ahead and find out what the gender of the baby was. We haven't really been too concerned about it this whole time, but decided in the end we would like to be able to share this news with friends and family. We were both so thrilled! It was exciting for both sides of our families because it's the first grandchild on Josh's side and the first grandson on my side. In my family we already have 3 beautiful nieces- Logan, Ashlyn, and Harper- and there is another sure-t0-be beautiful niece on her way soon. She's due to arrive at the beginning of September. So, it was fun all around to share the news of a boy. Now, we'll actually have to start thinking of some names for this child and what we might want to buy for its room. No, we don't have any of those things done, yet. Since we will be moving sometime this fall it's hard to imagine what room this child will have, so we don't feel too rushed into buying things for it just yet. We still have plenty of time, right? :)