Snow Days...Cold days

Josh and Jakub watching the beautiful snow falling. We ended up getting a total of 6 inches last week, and it was gorgeous. Now the temps have started to warm, finally, into the mid 30's and it's amazing what a 30-degree increase feels like. :) I've never lived through such prolonged cold temperatures and it was actually painful at times to walk in. It's been an interesting experience, though. Our rivers nearby are still frozen completely, but in a couple of days I'm sure they won't be for long. I was never brave enough to walk on them.

Jakub loves to stand, daily, on the radiator just below the window in the picture above and watch life happening outside. He's lately taken to yelling "Dobry Den (hello)" to people and doesn't believe me when I say they can't hear him. He's so friendly. :) It's much more embarrassing when he does it outside, near the people, and startles them. Most then react with smiles and I like to think he's terribly polite and charming for a 2 year old. :)







Going sledding...








We made a friend outside and she helped us build a huge snowman. She was so sweet and kept pulling Jakub around on his sled and racing him down a small hill with her own. She even let him ride in hers, which went much faster and he loved it.







The snowman... I especially like the hair on top.








And then the snowball fight ensued... Can you tell Jakub just chunked one at his Dad? What do you think Josh did about that?










Look closely. Jakub doesn't know what's coming. :)







Proof Josh has great aim and our boy is tough. :)








They kissed and made up. Then they snuggled and watched cars race around a track. Jakub's favorite thing right now. Seems to hypnotize him... :)


We have loved the beautiful winter we have been blessed with here. It's a complete contrast to the one we endured last year. This winter has been full of sunshine, snow, and shockingly cold temps. I've loved it all. Thanks be to God for his beautiful creation!

Furlough part 3 - Beall Family Christmas

Here are some pictures from our time in the states with Josh's side of the family, especially around the holiday time. Their home belongs on a Christmas card. I love it. Enjoy. :)




The stockings all hung by the chimney with care...







Jedediah made an excellent turkey








And Mom made the duck







And we feasted...






And we decorated the Christmas tree together...













It was beautiful and smelled just the way Christmas should...







Santa was really good to us this year...







Her new Santa stocking holder, thanks to Nellie :)








Santa was really, really good to Jakub, too. He loves this ball game set and the best part is that it folds up into this tiny, neat, little round bag, which fit very nicely in our suitcase. :)








And it goes back into that tiny, neat, little round bag so easily... right guys? Thanks for a wonderful memory and a lot of laughs. :)







This swing was so great for Jakub. He loved being pushed in it and being able to be inside around all of us. He would watch while we were cooking, or relax in it and get sleepy before bedtime. It was so much fun to have- thanks Grandma and Papa (and for so much more than just the swing). We love you and miss you all so much! More to come....

Love

I LOVE this boy and all of the joy he brings to our lives. I love how happy he is. Love, love, love him! That's all. :) Off to bed. Maybe I'll actually get back to blogging and posting some more pics soon... after more sleep...

Update on Sarah...

Thank you to all of you who prayed for my cousin Sarah and her surgery. If you want to know more about her recovery now you can go here for more details. The surgery went as well as it could and she is now recovering in the hospital. She'll be there for a few more days and if all goes well she'll then be released to a nearby hotel for a couple more days, and then she'll go home to Tulsa. There are still some things I would like for you to pray about, please. You can read more details on her blog, but there is a national shortage of the type of pain medicine they need to give her so, at times she's had none or had only Tylenol to help. So please pray for God to give her an extra amount of comfort and peace through all of this, as well as the pain meds she needs. Also, she cannot speak for 6 weeks and I can't begin to imagine how truly difficult that must be. It will be especially hard when she returns home to her 3 wonderful children who will want to hear her voice. Please pray for a lot of patience for her and her family in this area. I'm sure it will be very frustrating at times- or maybe all the time! And please keep praying for her and her family as they try to help each other through this trying time as best they can. Thankfully they have a lot of family and church family around them who love them very much. I hope Sarah can see and feel a lot of love around her. Thank you for your prayers!!!

Prayer Requests

I just wanted to give a small update from here to say that I haven't been blogging because I've not been feeling well and we've been out of town some. I would appreciate your prayers for a tooth problem I've been having that is almost resolved now- I hope and pray! It began last week with a lot of pain, and then an infection, and now I'm on antibiotics and have seen a dentist 4 times. I should have only one more visit next Tuesday and then prayerfully everything will be healed and well again. It's nothing major, but mouth pain and headaches can feel so consuming at times. I would appreciate your prayers for healing to come and come soon.

Also, I would like to ask for your prayers today for my cousins, through Josh's side, Sarah and Jason, who are in Boston this week for a surgery Sarah will have today. To find out more information about her and her story please read her blog: Sarah Grounds

Her surgery is today at 10am (U.S. time) and if everything goes well she'll be in the hospital for another 7-8 days and then released to a nearby hotel for another couple of days before returning home to Tulsa. She and Jason had to leave behind their 3 children and I know that's weighing on their hearts and minds a lot. Thankfully they/we have great family and church family who are doing so much to help care for them and their needs right now. I praise God for that!

Thank you for your prayers- especially for Sarah G. today. We hope this surgery will happen, will go well, and that it will be the next step towards her healing and being well again. The surgeon she will be with is supposed to be one of the best and I'm so thankful he took her case. Please pray for her and their family. I'll post again when I know something more. Thank you!

Other random news: It's snowing right now and should get up to 19F today, which is like a heat wave here. :) I have to admit, though, that I'm really enjoying the cold and snow, because we've also had a lot of sunshine with it. It's been a beautiful winter so far.

We've been applying to some local pre-schools this week because it's required if you want to get on a list for next winter's entrance. After he turns 3 in November he could start to school and we likely will do it for 1/2 a day each day. He loves to be with other children, to learn, and to play. When we've visited the schools this week he's immediately left our side to go play with the other children there and to talk to the teachers. :) He's so social! I think in one more year he'll be really ready. He's already ready because he's been asking to go back to school, or školka as we call it. (sh-coal-ka). I'm happy that he likes it so much already. I hope he will one day when he gets to really go. Please pray for this process for us and that he'll be accepted somewhere and it will be the right place for him and for us.

Jakub's big thing right now is getting someone to laugh, or getting someone to make him laugh by doing something silly, and then he says "So-and-so is so funny!" or "Jakub is funny!" It's so cute! I like it when we're playing together and he stops and says "Mommy, you're funny!" :) He also likes to change the pitch of his voice while talking or singing and tries to imitate different voices and sounds. It's hilarious. He's quite the entertainer already...

Random picture (because I can't post without at least one...) being silly and showing his food... :)


Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers about all of these things mentioned above. I'm glad I can ask for your help. Love you all!!!

Furlough... part 2

More great memories from furlough...

My beautiful nieces Ashlyn and Harper





My niece Logan and my Mom or "Nana." Logan really was happy to take the picture, I just didn't catch the smile in time. :)








Building a really tall tower with Aunt Hopey and Uncle Saul... something we do on a regular basis now!






Sweet Lillian and Jakub... so much changes in 15 months... they still like to watch the dog, though:)






The following picture(s) describes exactly how I felt at our first Jump Zone experience with Jakub and the family...

SO. MUCH. FUN.

My sister-in-law, Laura , has even better pictures if you want to see them on her site. I think I had too much fun and forgot to take many photos. Thankfully, she took several as well!





Josh loved it, too! :) That's a fairly large jump he's about to take and the kids loved seeing him play like this. So did I!





We even rode some slides together!






The little ones loved it, too! They were running around like crazy from one jumping place to another. It was nice to know they could safely run around and play on their own. Jakub even took himself down some slides. It was a great afternoon together (though we were really sorry Ashlyn was sick and didn't get to go!).







CHRISTMAS TIME - Dunseath side!









Santa's elf was not so thrilled with his mandatory hat this year. :) The kids certainly loved the oh-so-annoying, I mean cheerful, little song it played. Over. And over. And over...






Helping Nana open her gifts.





Immediately wanting to try on some new pants. Thanks Kinsey! :)









As a nice surprise on Christmas morning we woke up to an extra visitor- my Uncle Dave! It was great to have some unexpected time with him and Jakub really enjoyed playing with him.






Riding his new bike! Thanks, Pop and Nana!












Me and my sister Hope. I'm so glad she and her husband Neil could spend Christmas with us. She was also a huge help and comfort to me as Jakub was really sick on Christmas Eve and Christmas with a high fever, congestion, and cough. He did so well through the illness, though, that we didn't realize how sick he was until the day after Christmas, when we ended in the ER just after arriving to Josh's home to spend Christmas with his family. Thankfully, after just a few hours there, good blood-work results, a breathing treatment, and a shot of antibiotics, we were back on our way home to be with Josh's family. He made a quick recovery afterward, but it was certainly scary for us before that. I later found out that a rapidly-spreading prayer chain began amongst our family and friends. Thank you for your prayers! God heard you and gave us great comfort, care, and healing in our time of need. We love you all so much!!

Next post... Christmas with the Bealls! :)

Random news...

No, that's not anyone I know, but it gives you a good idea of what our life is like these days and I wanted to remember how it's been around here this week. I've been fighting jet-lag more than I usually do, which is not much at all usually, and have been falling asleep the moment I get still. Josh has been making fun of me for it so I wanted to remember that last night, on our first Friday night home since furlough, we were excited to have some time together after getting Jakub to bed. First, I have to say that we had a program for our teens and college-aged friends last night at our center and we didn't get home until 915pm (It was an excellent program- praise God!). We gave Jakub a snack and then put him to bed and by 945 we were getting our dinner ready and happy to watch a show together. We watch some American shows on our computer so we had that between us on the bed and watched while eating. I remember finishing eating and putting my plate down and then laying back to finish watching the show and the next thing I know it's 2am and the computer's still on, lights are on, and Josh is laying slumped over. ;) Maybe it's not that funny to anyone else, but it was funny to me. Especially since Josh has found me asleep a lot this week in the evenings working at my computer or reading in bed... Now it's happened to him, too. I wish I had a picture of us.... I'm certain we did not look as cute as the couple above!

Other great and random news from this week:

Jakub asked to pray himself before dinner one time this week. That day we had learned that his closest friend here, Mikulas, was very sick with pneumonia and a high fever. We had visited with his Mom, my friend Stana, earlier in the day and Jakub was excited to see her and kept asking for Mikulas. Then, when he finally understood he was sick right now, he said "Miki get better!" His concern was sweet to hear. So, later, before dinner we were sitting at the table together and Jakub said "Mommy no pray, Daddy no pray, Jakub pray." Then he actually started a prayer on his own and said "Dear God, pray for Daddy, Mommy, Jakub, Stana, Miki." I was filled with joy at the sound of him asking to pray and remembering his dear friends here in the prayer. I'm certain, even though he didn't say it, that he was thinking of Mikulas being sick. He's so aware of people around him, their emotions, the way they interact with him, etc. It's awesome! It's a great gift from God to have Jakub in our lives and to be a part of his growing and developing. I hope he always wants to talk to God and to pray for others around him out of concern and love.

Jakub has also started asking who the clothes are from that we put him in each day. He especially wants to know if it's from his Grandma or Nana. It's so sweet to see him thinking of them and he seems to find it special that he's wearing their clothes they bought him.

We've had a little snow and ice here recently so Josh took Jakub sledding yesterday and he loved it! He kept demanding that Josh keep running so he could go fast, which wore Josh out. :) Our temps here are very cold and getting even colder over the next week. I just read that our HIGHS coming up are anywhere from 7F to 19F over the next week, with lows around -9 to 0F. No more snow, though. :(



One more picture before I go. I stole this one from my sister-in-law Laura- thank you! :) Jakub with his cousin Lillian on Christmas morning before church. They look like siblings to me! Love you and miss you Lillian (and all the cousins!). More furlough posts and pictures to come soon. :)