Happy 1st Birthday, Anna!

Anna had her first birthday on our vacation, so no homemade cake from Mom or friends around to invite over, but we had a little family celebration in our hotel room with cupcakes from the store and balloons.  Big sister, Alia, was quite concerned that Anna was going to touch the candle, as you can tell by her restraining hand on Anna's arm!

 Alia got to help Anna blow out the candle (Anna was not too excited about that though!)

 I accidently bought trick candles, so it kept re-lighting. 

 Anna devoured her cupcake!

 Fun with balloons!  Anna's main mode of exploration these days is her tongue!

 Yes!  Finally got that headband off!  This is Anna's preferred look these days . . . hair falling freely into her face . . . much to Mom's dismay, who wishes she would keep cute barrettes and bows in her hair.

Ways we have seen God’s hand in Anna’s first year. . . 

-          Her natural birth without complications was a huge answer to prayer, since this was a VBAC!

-          Anna was a good nurser from the beginning which was another answer to prayer after the difficult time Alia had learning to nurse

-          At 2 months of age, Anna had her first plane ride back into Ebony, and God kept her very healthy her first year of life there, living in a place with little access to health care.

-          At 9 months old, she had a difficult bout with 2 ear infections, which was the most trying time with her during her first year.  But through the advice of “Doctor Grandpa” and a kind doctor at the local hospital in town who looked in her ears to affirm she had an infection, when we finally figured out what was bothering her, it cleared up well with antibiotics

-          Anna has responded warmly to our house helper and goes to her easily with smiles.  She is also usually warm with other local people who want to hold her, as long as mom is around.

-          Her favorite friend has been Grace, her 10-year-old babysitter, who has learned exactly what Anna likes since the time Anna was two months old.  When Anna would cry with other strangers, she would be happy with Grace.  And Grace was a huge blessing to me in giving me a break from caring for Alia and Anna.

-          Anna struggled a lot with staying in the nursery for the first time during our conference last week, screaming inconsolably each time we tried to leave her.  Interestingly, on the last day, one of the men was helping out in the nursery and when he had Anna, she was content.  He has a big bushy beard, and I wonder if since she is used to the guys on our team and our doormen who all have beards, if this guy was someone she felt at home with!

Characteristics we see in Anna at one year. . .

-          Anna seems to be intense, throwing herself completely into what she is doing with reckless abandon sometimes.

-          Anna is cuddly when she wants to be, coming up and laying her head down on your lap or leg or whatever part of you is near her.  But when she is playing and you want to cuddle, she will strongly push you away so she can keep doing what she is doing.

-          She is sleeping well these days (at home, not on vacation!)—about 7:30 pm to 6:30 am, with a 2 hour morning nap and 1-2 hour afternoon nap.

-          She is a good eater on her terms, loving to eat lots of things in little bits that she can pick up, but spitting out most pureed food now, except for oatmeal and yogurt.

-          She has two bottom teeth.

-    She prefers scooting on her bottom to crawling and not showing much interest in walking yet.

-          She mimics a lot of things we do, but is stubbornly resisting to do sign language to communicate, no matter how much I try to show her and hold off giving her things until she signs “please.” 

-          She seems to be the more aggressive one of the two girls, sometimes climbing over Alia or being the stronger one to pull things away. 

We love you, Anna Elyse, and are so thankful for the gift you are to our family!

Picnic local style

Picnic out at a local park with our office staff.  The local staff beautifully laid out carpets and cushions to sit on, prepared a great meal of palau, and then these local musicians provided the music.  The young boy is playing a hand drum, the man next to him is actually playing a serving tray! :-), and then two stringed instruments that they play here.

 Alia treasures any chance she can get to be with her daddy.

Anna loved the new environment to explore!

When the musicians began to play, people began suggesting to each other that somebody needed to dance.  Nobody wanted to be the first though, so finally fearless Jason got up and started dancing local style and very quickly other men followed suit.  (Only the men dance in mixed company as it is inappropriate here for women to dance in front of men.)  Almost everyone took a turn and it is fun to see the fun side of people come out as some of those you would never guess were great dancers, especially on older man who works at the office. 

Roses

Alia and Anna in their little local dresses and pants enjoying playing "cooking" outside.

And then just had to post a few more pictures of the beatiful roses God has given us to enjoy in our yard.

Easter Celebrations

God gave us a very meaningful celebration of Jesus's death and resurrection this year!  One of the traditions in the culture here is to put henna on your hands for holidays.  Alia has seen it on the hands of her little local friends and has been asking when she gets to put some on her hands.  So for the week before Easter, we put some henna designs on our hands that told the Easter story. 

So the little lines on the tips of our fingers stand for the nails in Jesus' hands and feet.  Lower on our fingers are the drops of blood that Jesus shed when he was crucified.  Then on our palms are three suns, for the three days he was in the grave, and the third sun has rays radiating showing that he arose!  The zig zag line below our thumb tells of the curtain in the temple that was torn when Jesus died, showing that He had victory over the sin that had separated us from God and now because of Jesus we can boldly come before God's throne of grace. 

I hoped to be able to share the story with friends here, but due to the girls being sick that week, we did not get out much, however we were able to tell the story to our house helper and I pray too that as Alia heard the story several times, the wonder of it is beginning to touch her little heart!

The girls got some cute dresses from their Grammy so we seized the opportunity for some pictures out in our yard that is turning green!

Our team planned a picnic in a local park here for Easter morning, so Alia and I made some cupcakes to take along.  Alia is beginning to love to help in the kitchen!

I frosted the cupcakes and Alia put the sprinkles on!

At the park we found a nice secluded area and had a short acting out of the resurrection morning.  Then we worshipped in song with guitar.  What an amazing thing to lift our voices in song in this place declaring our Savior's resurrection and singing "Our God reigns!!"  Yes, even in this place, He reigns, though few here even know or acknowledge it!  

My thoughts then turned to my sweet little girls sitting here and thinking about what their life is going to be like growing up here . . . or even when they get older what this world may be like.  But then I thought of the song, "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.  Because He lives, all fear is gone.  Because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives."  I don't know what lies ahead for them, but I know that the One who is daily with me is alive and will daily be with them in whatever kind of situation they will be in.

Following our worship, Alia, with two other little girls had an Easter egg hunt!

We enjoyed a picnic together and then Jason joined in a game of dodge ball!

 . . . while Alia went to pick some flowers!

For our celebration as a family . . .

 . . . we made a little Easter scene for the week before starting on Palm Sunday, and had our family Bible time using this.  I got some of the idea from a book by Noel Piper and made the little mountain and grave out of dough.

On Palm Sunday:  we had a branch and told the story of the triumphal entry.

Monday:  a towel, and the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet

Tuesday:  a piece of bread, and the story of the Last Supper

Wednesday: an angel (out of pipe cleaners), and the story of Jesus praying in the garden

Thursday: a soldier and a branch with thorns on it and the story of how Jesus was beaten and a crown of thorns put on his head.

Friday: a nail, and the story of Jesus being nailed to the cross.  We wrapped him in a paper towel and put him in the tomb.

Saturday:  just waiting and talking about the sadness of Jesus' friends because he was dead

Sunday morning: we took Jesus out of the tomb and had him standing on the mountain for Alia to find --alive again!

Each day we retold the stories from the previous day and then added on the story for that day.  It was so neat to see Alia learning the stories, but also so good for Jason and me to be meditating on these stories of our Savior together throughout the week!  This year we did not have any local friends that we shared the stories with using this little scene, but I pray that as this becomes a tradition of our family, it is something that is pretty much reproducible for people here (except for maybe the pipe cleaners! :-) ) to be able to tell the story to their families.

Seeking HIS spring in us while we wait for spring

After about a week of some warmer weather, getting outside, planting grass, having better electricity, and just getting excited about spring coming, another several days of snow, cold weather and weak electricity have hit.  After sharing in our pr time on Monday morning from Jn. 4 and Is. 58 about our Father's promise of springs living water in us, even in dry places, I have felt a very difficult battle going on in my mind, wanting to just give in to discouragement, self-pity, and frustrated critical thoughts.

Yesterday was an especially difficult day with Alia with a lot of clashes between us of her not wanting to obey and me, feeling discouraged already, not having much patience.  At the breakfast table, after a spanking for disobeying, she said to me, "Mommy, can you pray for me." So I prayed for her, that Jesus would help her to obey even when she did not want to and that God would help her to be able to be happy again.  She looked up and said, "but I'm still sad.  Can you pray for me again."  So I prayed for her again.  She looked up again and said, "But I'm still sad."  There was some worship music playing and she sat there for a moment and then said, "Is God in the music?"  "Yes, the music is singing about worshipping God." I said.  She thought again, "Is Jesus in the music?"  "Yes." I said again.  It touched me to see her trying to comprehend how God could help her through low times too.

Today we woke up to a very cold house again and no electricity.  I was struggling again to find some joy in Him and have a kind attitude.  At lunch time, the kitchen was warm since I had been cooking in there, and our family/dining room was 55 degrees, so I told Alia that if she would sit well on her little stool, we could have a special lunch together at her little play table in the kitchen.  So these pictures are of us having our special lunch together in the warm kitchen.  We sat down and Alia prayed, "Thank you, God, for a warm place." :-) After we said, Amen, she says, "So, how was your day?" . . . like she was getting into us having a special girls' lunch together. :-) 

Surprise, Daddy, joined us for lunch a little later, so a pic of him with us in the kitchen too.  And then Anna woke up so we brought her chair into the kitchen with us too.  Somehow, I feel the Father lifting my head today and filling me with His spring, even with special little moments like these. 

Sisters photo shoot

Here are a few shots from a recent photo shoot we did with Alia and Anna wanting to capture some pictures of them together.



Whoa, Anna . . . her endurance for taking pictures came to an end.



Drummer Girls

So Jason, being a drummer, can't help but get his daughters interested in drumming . . .

One of Alia's favorite pastimes with her Daddy is turning on some music and getting out the drum sticks and drumming together on the floor.