The Big Sister

She got his first laugh...And she's a really good big sister...and I'm so thankful that he has her and that she has him.  YAY for siblings! 

Jack's Homework

We snapped this picture today because Jack has to bring in a family picture for school this week. It's the first picture of all five of us together.  I'm so bad at getting pictures of all of us, so I'm thankful we "had" to do this! 

OPERATION FORECLOSURE still in progress

Andy and our friend Dan painting the fence.  It hadn't been painted in ten years.  We've spent a whole year looking at the green and black fence and it's nice to see it actually looking white!!! They painted for several hours on Saturday and we're now about 1/20th of the way done.  Project Foreclosure IS  TAKING A                        L       O        N        G           time!  But at least we're getting good time with friends who are so generous to help!  I'm calling for a "barn raising"  this upcoming week...inviting everyone we know to come and bring an old paintbrush.  We'll paint and grill out and hopefully knock this thing out! 

Happiness is...

This man with a pair of chopsticks in his hand and a bowl of rice in front of him! 

 Our friends Chloe and Zeno signed up to bring us a meal after Judah was born and we were delighted to eat some yummy Chinese!    We're still getting meals three times a week and it's such a blessing!  I've been reminded how lavishly God is providing for us here in our "new life!"  So many people have loved on us by bringing meals and we've enjoyed several of them staying to eat with us! 

 Our kiddos LOVE Chloe.  She's so fun, loves to play with them and always brings gifts for them.  Andy and I especially enjoy  her cooking!   Emma Grace  loves her Tea Eggs...eggs hard boiled in Chinese tea.  EG still has quite the Chinese palate, while our Jackie boy must be forced to eat any and every vegetable, Chinese or otherwise!  He prefers anything from the sugar category...work in progress! 

So grateful for our ZHONG GUO PENG YOU MEN! 

Parking Lot friendship

I remember one of the first conversations I had with Brooke. It was during the first 6 months of being back in the US.  I told her how I would run out of church as soon as it was over and sit in the car and wait for my social butterfly husband to get finished chatting with everyone so we could leave!  I wasn't ready to make friends yet.  I was often sobbing after church was over and in no kind of emotional state to talk to strangers.  It seemed the emotions of our move and all we were going through just spilled over every time I sang or listened to a sermon.  I was the crying girl who left church ASAP for a good 9 months.  And Brooke, who had just moved from Pennsylvania told me she did the same thing! We joked that we should hang out in the parking lot while we waited on our hubbies...and thus our friendship began.

God knew I needed a parking lot friend.   A friend who was experiencing the same transition I was.  A friend who was lonely, like me.  A friend who, like me,  was feeling insecure in a new environment, a new state, a new church, a new social network to navigate, a new everything.  A friend who had children the same age as mine.  A friend who lives just minutes from the house we bought.  A friend who, like me, needed a friend.  And two years into our friendship, God continues to bless our family through them. (And we both actually enjoy staying after church to meet people now!)

Our families play together quite often but this week was the first time we've done a kid swap.  EG went to Brooke's for time with her girls and Nathan came to us.  Jack and Nathan are super close in age and play really well together. Nathan is silly and incredibly gregarious, like his mama!  So grateful for this family. 

God is a provider...the giver of all good things. 

So thankful we're in this together!

For the last few months, I've stunk at parenting.  There are seasons when I  am motivated to engage with my kids and I enjoy them and I have a vision for their little hearts  but there are moments where I really fail at all of that...when I chose to stare at my computer rather than help them put together puzzles.  And if you string a lot of those moments together, you get a few months...and that's where I have been...just pretty blah and negative about my very very important job.   I am thankful for grace and thankful that the Holy Spirit lives in me to keep transforming me.  I so need his help to  keep on keepin' on in this job of shaping their hearts and wiping their bottoms and repairing their broken lego creations.  

 Thankfully for them and for me, their dad is on his parenting A game right now.

God has just given Andy so much grace to really thrive in this role as a dad these days.He's been gentle and kind and lots of fun.  He's especially great at playing with them.   I love hearing his thick Scottish accent as lego battles rage upstairs.   He's spent hours just playing with them recently and he's pretty much their favorite person in the world.  They both love to dress like him.  Jack is maybe obsessed...so much so that we've had a few major meltdowns when matching clothes weren't available. 

I feel like God is using my little Judah's arrival to motivate my heart once again for this job.  I am thankful for that.  And I'm  grateful that God has given Andy a heart to love our kids extra well in a season when I have been falling especially short! 

Photo Book for Lucy

Coming your way, Huffmans!!

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ERGO time

I'm not getting many pictures of Judah because he's often on me!! Hard to get a good picture of him when he's snuggled up like this!

 He loves to be on me.  L O V E S it.  And he's pretty much only happy on me (except for a short window of time in the morning, when he lays in the bed and gives me some great smiles!!!) 

 

Not sure if it's his reflux (which is much better with the meds) or just his personality or colic or something else entirely, but his need to be on me is very different than my other kiddos.    For the most part I enjoy all the snuggle time I am getting with him.  Happiness is snuggling with a newborn.  But there are a few moments where it gets tricky.  Trying to just go with it and trust that meeting his need to be on me all the time is God's plan for me during this sweet season of mothering a newborn.   Oh each child is so different and their needs unique!

Mud Cupcakes!

My crafty little girl and her super fun creation! 

GO MOUNTIES!

 WVU won their first game of the season and these little mounties and their parents were ready for the game!  Thanks Tim and Kathi! Jack woke up on Saturday and the first thing he said to me was, "I love the Mountaineers!"  You guys make everything fun!  Thanks for sending some Mountaineer goodness our way!