The twins are here!

Thank you for your prayers for my family!  I have some very good news to share- the twins are here and praise God! they are both fine!  And their Mom is, too!   My brother, Saul, and his wife Laura, are blessed with a new baby girl, Claire, and a new baby boy, Silas.  This makes 5 beautiful, healthy children for them and I couldn't be more thrilled.  You can see pictures of the babies above, as well as one picture of my sister, Hope, and my Dad (Pop) holding them.  Yeah babies!!!  I can't wait to go home at the end of March, prayerfully, and meet these sweet new little ones.  And hug Saul and Laura.  What a journey they have been on but they've made it and now a new version of it begins.  I know they are going to do great as they continue to lean on God for strength and guidance.



I would appreciate continued prayers for our Aunt Teresa, the one on the very left below.  We are still waiting on some tests and results to better understand if she has a cancerous tumor in her abdomen, or not, and possibly on her spleen.  Things just aren't clear at this time and she is continuing to work with the doctors.  Please pray for the best outcome, for healing, for clarity about what to do, and for patience as we all wait and pray and worry a little.  I've always loved this picture below of my mother-in-law, Jackie (in the black and pink dress) and her sisters and mom.  Such a sweet picture!

As for my Gran and Pa, they are both kind of stable, but still not feeling well, and fighting their respective illnesses.  I would appreciate your prayers for their health to be better and for them to feel better.   Here's a picture of my Pa with Jakub at 11 months old, and my Mom (Nana).  So sweet. :)

And my Uncle Preston had a defibrillator successfully placed on Friday afternoon and is now home recovering, and doing well from what I have heard. Hopefully that will continue.

So much going on in our families right now (I didn't even mention here our 2 pregnant sisters, Hope and Laura, both expecting around the 1st of May).  So much and still I know God is in control of it all, he knows the outcomes, it's in His plans, and He provides the comfort and peace as we ask for it.  Lord please give it and give it abundantly to our families now.  Thank you!!!

"Do not be afraid, stand firm!... the Lord will fight for you, you need only be still."  Exodus 14

Happy New Year - and prayer requests!

Happy New Year to all of you!  I hope yours if off to a good and blessed start, and even if it's come with some hard times already I pray you know God goes before you each day, doing His will in and around you, and He stands beside you holding you and loving you each moment.

We had lovely holidays filled with so many beautiful memories I will treasure forever, which is just what I asked God for this holiday time. And our home was filled with a Christmas spirit, joy, laughter, and many friends and visitors.  If you know me well, you know I love this time of year and these kinds of moments.  And I did a lot of holiday cooking.  And played a lot of Bing Crosby Christmas music.  And I played with my kids and read a lot of books with them.  Many moments filled with peace, love, joy, God, and Jesus.

And now prayer warriors out there- I need your help.  There were also a couple of hard times during this season, and a few more just today.  I may not give many details here (you can always email me for more if you need), but I'm going to list a few thing and people I would really like you to immediately start praying for with me.  Thank you so much in advance!  I know God hears us and knows the desires of our hearts.  I'm so thankful we can turn immediately to Him.

1.  A student of ours died in December and his family is still grieving and hurting so much.  Many of our other students are as well.  We miss him and it's still a bit of a shock.

2.  Dear friends of ours on the mission field in Europe lost their mother/mother in law just before Christmas and though she was suffering from a serious illness, it was a sudden and shocking loss.  I know they are still hurting and working through this.

3.  My Grandmother (Gran) has been in and out of the hospital with various big and little illnesses for a few months.  Each one wears her down more, but she still fights hard and tries to stay positive.  She is currently in the hospital now and not doing too well.  Thankfully my Dad and his brothers and families are able to be there with her often.

4.  My Grandfather (Pa) has suffered with Leukemia for a long time, but manages it very well and with an amazing faith and positive spirit that is inspiring to me.  He also suffers from some heart problems and other things.  He is currently in the hospital for pneumonia, congestive heart failure, and some kidney failure.  My Mom is there with him now.

5. My Aunt is with my Uncle right now at a hospital while he waits to have a heart cath procedure done and possibly have a defibrillator placed today.  He's not feeling well and his heart is having some problems.

6.  My sister-in-law and brother are at the hospital right now waiting on the arrival, by c-section, of their twins (4th and 5th babies to have), but one of the twins was not responding well today and they are watching them now by monitor.  This one appears smaller than the other and to have low tone and low movement.  We're praying everything is actually fine and we'll be meeting 2 sweet, perfectly healthy babies today.

7.  My husband's Aunt (mine too now:), recently had a kidney stone and upon ultrasound of it they discovered a mass in her abdomen and some suspicious spots on her spleen.  She's having many tests this week and we should know results tomorrow (Friday).  I'm praying it's as minor as it can be and will be something God will heal her of with a minor amount of medicines or surgeries needed.

I hope I haven't forgotten anybody or anything.  That's a lot.  Please pray with me for these things and these people I love so much.  Most of these things are happening today and I just got a phone call about them all a couple of hours ago.  It was a lot to take in.  But I'm glad my parents taught me to turn immediately to God with it and just trust that it will be what it will be and God holds us no matter what.

If you were to have any prayer requests for me you could leave them in the comments part.  I would love to pray for you.  God bless you and each of your days to come in this new year.

And here's a picture from New Year's.  Those two make my day.  Love them.

Merry Christmas!

I realize as I get ready to write this "Merry Christmas" post that there's a lot of catching up to do... and I'll save that for another post or I'll never write one in the first place.  Here, and now, I'm simply going to write a little about our Christmas time this year.

 

We've had a wonderful family Christmas in Olomouc this year.  It was, of course, hard not to be with our family in the U.S., but it was as good as it gets here.  The few days leading up to Christmas were filled with some relaxation, some movies, walks in the 50F sunshine, kicking balls outside, making Christmas crafts, having friends over, doing lots of shopping and wrapping, managing a date with Josh while the kids spent the night with Madison (and time with Conor, Alyssa, and Robert), and making a ton of traditional holiday foods and sweets.  It felt very special this year and most importantly, intentional about the time together, time with friends, and time reflecting on Jesus and his birth, life, and sacrifice for us.  We also had some wonderful Christmas programs at work and they went very well.  I am thankful for it all and for my home and family to spend it with.  God has greatly blessed me and graced me.

The kids did great Christmas morning and started it off by sleeping to their usual 8am.  I know, we're super blessed in this way as parents. :)  We then exchanged gifts together and had a lot of fun doing so.  Jakub was much more aware and eager than Sofia, so he helped her with hers as well.  One of his favorite gifts was a new hot-wheels car, of course!  And we've been playing a lot of snakes and ladders!  He also really loved a Lego set a friend gave him and spent most of 2 days working on it until it was complete.  Sofia got a small kitchen supplies set for cooking with that she really liked (Jake picked it out) and then a new Barney doll (her favorite character to watch and sing with) and a new stroller to push her baby in.  The stroller now pushes Barney, though.

And at this moment I must take the time to point out, before I forget, that Sofia loves Barney so much that anything with the color purple must be called "Barney purple" and anything green is "Baby Bop green."  Yellow is occasionally "B.J. yellow." So far it's more sweet than annoying, and mostly I just love that she knows so many colors on her own and wants to point them out.  She also knows pink, orange, brown, black, white, blue, and red.

The kids also got some new books they love to read, and I am so happy and proud that they will read with me any time I offer.  I love books!  Right now we're reading Curious George, Berenstein Bears, and some Classics like Goodnight Moon, Harold and the Purple Crayon, and Leo the Late Bloomer.

Ok, off to bed.  More Christmas, New Years, and catching up to come soon I hope.

Oh, and one last thing- one of my favorite images in my head from Christmas.  I made a traditional dinner and set the table very nicely with our wedding dishes, candles, a Christmas arrangement, etc.  And for dinner Jakub prayed very nicely and longer than normal, which is just always touching... to hear your child pray.  Then, during one moment while eating dinner, we were all kind of quiet and I noticed Sofia was mumbling to my right, so I turn to look at her and she has her head bowed and hands intertwined and she was praying.  When we caught her she looked up and smiled, then laughed, and went about eating.  It was awesome.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you and your families!  God bless you each day!!

Happy Birthday Jakub!

Happy Birthday Dear Jakub!  You are FINALLY (in your own words) 5 today.  The big boy number you've been so excited to turn.  You've been asking me "how many days until..." your birthday since I first had to say 62 days.  

 

You woke this morning excitedly and came rushing into the living room in the dark, with your eyes literally half-closed, and saying "it's my birthday!"  You were so excited, but not even fully awake yet.  Daddy and I had decorated your place at the table for breakfast the night before.  We made you birthday sign, and had a cup of cereal waiting with a candle in it.  You opened just 3 of the many (though you don't know about them all yet) gifts we and your family have for you.  You got Superman pajamas, a Curious George book, and a connector-building set that lets you build a tractor.  You loved all of it and said "I thought I would get something with superman, I wanted pajamas.."  It was really sweet and those were from your Grandma and Papa.  I was also really excited about your new book and looked forward all day to reading it with you before bed- which we just did! :) 

You had a great day at school today and seemed really happy when I picked you up this afternoon.  You also had singing class today and you said you did so well in it and listened to the teacher and everything she said.  I was very happy to hear that since you've recently been in some trouble in that class for not listening well and trying to distract the other kids into playing instead of listening and singing.  You said it's because you already know all of the songs well (and you do) and you don't know why you have to keep practicing.  You and I are both working on patience through this process.  You can be so stubborn!!  But you love to sing and you are very talented so I hope Daddy and I can help you find your way through this learning process and you won't give up on the class or the teacher.  You seemed really happy with it today and sang many songs to me this afternoon.  I love to hear you sing!!  Especially in Czech!  God has gifted you so much already in life. 

Your Daddy, little Sister and I love you so much!  Your laugh is infectious, you're full of interesting questions and ideas for having fun, you're also full of a never-ending energy that I can barely keep up with, and you can be so incredibly thoughtful and sweet when you notice someone sad or in need around you.  I'm so thankful to have had 5 years with you already, and I hope for 50+ more together.  We love you to the moon and back (and you say "no, to God and back!") a thousand, million, "fillion" times.

Almost 5!

 

Not the best quality picture I realize,  but one of the most recent I have on my Kindle.  I need to take a few more of this boy!  He had his 5-year old (he will be in another week) health check-up at the doctor today and I'm sincerely thankful and happy to say that everything appears to be good.  He's a healthy boy!  I was also happy to see that our healthcare here is becoming more modern, or at least his pediatrician is, and they did several tests on their own that I was ready to ask for or fight for - and I didn't have to!  Here, they often don't run tests unless a problem presents or there is a concern.  They don't always act in a preventative manner, or at least they don't over-act, which sometimes I'm happy about, and sometimes I'm frustrated and want to know more or do more.  All of that to say that today we had a great visit and I was very pleased.

Jakub did a great job and even followed their directions well in Czech and responded well in Czech.  He weighed 22kg, which is 48lbs.  He measured 121 cm, which is 4 feet tall (88% and 98% according to American percentile charts for 5 year old boys). He passed vision and hearing exams.  His urine tests were without problems.  His blood pressure was 91/48 and his heart rate was 98.  He also received his DTP vaccination and was brave through getting it.   We ordered flu shots for him and Sofia and they will come in 2 weeks.  They don't like to give those to children here, but this year I talked them into it and wanted to try. Jakub has had the flu the past 2 years, and then Josh gets it, and it's been hard on the family.  This year I wanted to try the flu shot and see if it helps protect them better.

Jakub's school is amazing.  I know I've said that before, but I just love it and his teachers.  They are always doing so much to teach the children, to be creative with them, and to involve us parents.  In these pictures you can see Josh and Jakub are making an apple strudel together.  His teachers had an Apple Fall Festival for us and there were lots of different activities and crafts to do and make with real apples.  Making homemade strudel was awesome.  I also especially loved painting with sliced apples.  And one thing I really appreciated at the beginning of the event was the teachers having us all sit around in a circle together and share our names, where we are from, and something about ourselves.  It was good to connect with the other parents and know them better.  God really answered our prayers when we were accepted to this school.  

Here he is with his classmates out on a walk and enjoying the fall leaves.  Jakub is the one in the middle with the black hat and grey/green jacket.  (His teachers are good to take pictures of each event, and random days, and load them on the school website so we can have them).

Jakub is in the white shirt just to the right of the teacher as you look at her.  They had a week full of learning about exercising, why it's important, general health, and learning to do a lot of different exercises and stretches.  And the teachers get in there with the groups and do it all with them.  It's great!  Jakub loves to stretch, run, and do anything active.  I'm glad they want to teach children about this as part of their curriculum.  It's so important!

And lastly, the school's Halloween Party.  A first this year for them.  The children all had to wear black and orange clothes and the teachers made each of them a spider hat and turned them into spiders when they arrived.  One girl's mother ordered that beautiful cake at the top.  The day was full of carving pumpkins, doing various games, exercising, and dancing.  They had so much fun!

That's all for now.  I'll write more about Jake when I post about him turning 5 and the various birthday activities we have planned. ;)  I can't believe it's almost 5 years since he was born!!

It's Fall!

We have been enjoying some beautiful fall weather here lately with days still warm enough to play outside without a hat on and gorgeous blue-skied, sunny afternoons.  The trees are all turning colors and some are already losing their leaves.  Everyone around us has been taking advantage of the last "good" days as well before winter hits and there have been a lot of activities going on and some fun crafts to do as well.  Just yesterday we went to an afternoon event at Jakub's pre-school called "jablečkovani."  I'll have pictures of it to upload later.  We enjoyed lots of activities and crafts to do with apples- including making an apple tree with paper apples, using apples as stamps to paint with, and making home-made apple strudle for the children to enjoy the next day (today!) for their snack.  It was a lot of fun and I'll write more about it when the pictures come in.

Here are some pictures of a craft Sofia and I did together after taking our morning walk.  She liked collecting the leaves and loved even more painting with her hands!  She was very patient for the whole project and very proud of the results.

We also have a beautiful rose-hip bush near our home and so we couldn't resist picking one of the last nice-looking buds before they are all gone.  Czechs enjoy this flavor of tea very much so they pick them from these local bushes and dry them at home to keep for the winter.  Sofia just likes permission to pick anything "pretty," so she was happy to bring these things home today for our project. :)

Here are a few more things going on around here lately:

We are enjoying some of the gifts Grandma sent us from the U.S. recently with some visitors who came to see us from Arkansas.  They are from our church in Fayetteville, and elder and his wife, who oversee and support our work here in Olomouc.  We had a blessed and wonderful visit with them, and they were kind enough to bring us a suitcase full of things from Josh's parents, who go to church with them and know them well.  Sofia and Jakub LOVE goldfish crackers- you can see Sofia thought they were finger-lickin' good. :)

Sofia loves bath time, as long as brother isn't in it.  Neither one thinks they have enough space when the other is there.  She recently has been learning, by herself, to put her face in the water and hold her breath.  You can see some picks of her trying, which she thinks is hilarious.  And of course I had to take a picture of her curls because I love them so much and don't know if they will stay or not.  I had similar ones and they are forever gone.  And she likes to like the water off of her toes.  Gross. ;)  And so adorable all at the same time.

Some other things she's doing now at 20 months:
- Repeating any word we ask her to and saying plenty on her own, not always clearly.
- LOVING to dance, especially with Barney and Baby Bop.
- Hopping around and trying to skip
- Practicing using the kid potty, but not regularly yet and with plenty of accidents
- Starting to eat at the table in a booster sometimes
- Going to bed well on her own (has been for quiet a while) and without much fuss or crying when we leave, if any
- Learning to be less picky with foods again and eat more if we eat it as well
- Trying to count to three and repeats after us well up to ten
- LOVES to play with and blow in her own bubbles
- Likes to play with other kids, especially girls, but gets really quiet while doing so.  Can be pretty social when she warms up and isn't afraid to play with others, but doesn't like to hear them cry and asks me why and wants to give them something to feel better, which is so sweet and tender-hearted
- Fights with brother like a big girl sometimes, gets mad if he won't let her do something alone
- Is very independent and wants to try things alone, won't let us help, and yells "no" at us sometimes if we try to help or have to do it for her
- Gives the best spontaneous hugs and kisses

And one last great picture to end with of both kids:

 

Sweet good-bye kisses before brother goes to school.  She calls him Bubo right now (boo-bow), which is her way of trying to say Kubo (koo-bow), the way Czechs call him.  So cute! :)

Let's Celebrate!

We're so cheesy-happy in this picture, which we took yesterday, because Sofia had just successfully used her kid toilet for the first time. :)  She has been showing interest in this for a couple, or maybe even few, weeks now, but I had not taken the time to help her except to let her sit on it with her diaper on any time she asked.  However, yesterday, I realized we had nothing to really do that morning except be at home together and it was time to give it a try and give her this attention she's been wanting.  So after 30 minutes or so of running around playing and talking about what to do, she then suddenly got wide-eyed, ran over to it and sat down, and within a few seconds was using it.  She had the biggest grin on her face afterward.  It was so sweet!  I took a ton of pictures with our still camera, and this one with the kindle.  It was a good start to this process and even though it's round two for us as parents, it's still just as enjoyable watching her go through her milestones and achievements as it was the first time with Jakub.  And it's also a joy to see how proud Jakub is of her when he founds out good news like this.  He hugged her and congratulated her as well.  So much love!!

And today there's another reason to celebrate as it's my Mom's birthday. :)  I wish I was there to celebrate with her, but hopefully some day in the future we'll share many more birthdays in person.  Today in Olomouc it's exactly her favorite kind of day outside, which makes me really happy to experience on her birthday.  It's gorgeous outside with blue skies, crisp cool air, and trees half-way turned in fall colors.  Thank you God for a good day on my Mom's birthday.  I love you, Mom (Nana).  Happy Birthday!