Baby E's first pictures!

Rubbing his face or sucking his thumb for much of the sonogram!

5 minutes before going into my ultrasound appointment I leaned over and told T, (yes, she got to come with me to the sonogram and I was THRILLED!) that I was 95% confident this was a little girl.  My pregnancy thus far just felt so similar to Ellianna's. 

As I recounted my pregnancy stats; LMP, change in fatigue/nausea, first fetal movement, I was equally as confident that February 29th was the due date.  "I'm 22 weeks along" I explained. 

This pregnancy and the little life that is growing within me continues to be a call to surrender in my plans and expectations.  Within the first 2 minutes the Dr. confidently announced that we will be having our 3rd SON!  By the end of the sonogram, measurements carefully taken, she told me that I was rather just barely 19 weeks along. 

The dwindling girl population on our team (one other sweet girl who is 12) and the fact that all of our neighbor kids are little boys had Elli and I really routing for a little girl.  Apparently she cried for quiet some time when Austin told her the news.

And I've all but wanted to cry.  Adding 3 more weeks to a pregnancy is never fun.  Especially when you go past due date typically.  Remember little Elias, born at 42 weeks?  Kind of feels like I get to do those weeks over again! 

So we've tucked our girl name list to the back of my journal and are prayerfully considering what name God has for this gift.  Meanings of names are very important to me and open doors to spiritual conversations in the culture in which we live.  Right now it feels like "the Lord will surprise" would be a meaning true to where I'm at.  Praise God that His plans are so much greater, for my life and the life of our son!  3 boys; I guess we are working towards our own mini football team!   

Impromptu Halloween

5 minutes our from their arrival at our home, Nathan and Duncan called to let us know they would be stopping by to "Trick-r-Treat."  And my kiddos aren't for being left out of the fun.  Quick donning of dress up clothes and a swapping of special treats brought in from our American friends . . . and it was Halloween.  So different from last year, helping plan the Kindergarten class' "Fall Party."  Different worlds and different seasons. 

 The little poser: "To Infinity and Beyond!"

And then some pumpkin carving fun.  They were showing their Jack-o-lantern smiles!

It will be funny to take the carved pumpkins to the neighbor cow when it comes time to dispose of them.  How exactly do you explain why we do this?

Frantic Guest Preperations

This was my frantic preparation to try and get life ready for 2 weeks of back to back visitors from the States.  One of the things I greatly miss (and I'll be honest, on many days I have to fight coveting) is a dryer and a laundry room.  I tell Austin often, "when we retire I want a home with a space to fold my laundry!"  Probably by that point I'll only be folding for 2 of us and not (almost) 6.  The stateside visitors went great and all the work preparing beforehand was well worth it.  What I didn't know when I started those preparations was that:

•  Both my house helpers would leave town, leaving me without the extra hands I was planning on.
• All 3 of my kiddos would get sick the day between one group leaving and the next coming
• Our water would be incredibly inconsistent, some times drying up completely, during our second week of guests.

Yet, Father knew all those things long before they happened.  We (all 11 of us at times) were warm, well fed and encouraged.  I'm so grateful that each of them came. 

And now, we are back to tackling the laundry!

It's a ball being one!

Elias turned one on October 1st (and we actually celebrated that day; I'm just blogging about it way after the fact!)  We celebrated on his actual birthday with our American friends and then had a co-Osh (local celebration) with the son in our host family on the following day; he turned 11.  At one I don't know how much they understand of what is going on; it's almost more fun to watch the excitement coming out of big brother and big sister!  Of course, they were present and very much a part of each present opening, singing and blowing out the candles.

This year seems to have really flown by; it's hard to believe he is already one!  He's taking 2-3 tentative steps but is eager to get that figured out quick.  He loves to give hugs and kisses and is eager to initiate that loving!  He squeals when he sees friends or siblings and is always eager to play with them.  He loves to throw his milk cup and Daddy says he has quite the arm! 

Elias, I LOVE YOU!!!

Celebrating Success!

Life has been more than a little full these days.  Within the last week we've moved out of over half our house for our landlord to host a party to then move back in again; ripped up a molded and rotting floor out of our children's bedroom; which Austin and E worked hard to replace; Austin has attended 7 hours of language class; attended a 3 hour local party in total darkness (cause the electricity was out) and tried to keep our kids sane; and much more.  I also did a BIG canning week; 19 L (that is roughly equivalent to 19 pints) of Bread and Butter Pickles and then 9L of salsa. 

So you ask, what success are we celebrating?  We all still love each other!  The picture is of the kids with all the canned goods lined up and ready to be carried down into our root cellar.  Among all the other things of the week, canning in such quantity can be a little stressful.  Yes, I'm glad I got the canning done.  No doubt it will help this winter when cucumbers and tomatoes are no where to be found.  And hopefully I'll be able to share with my friend T whose missed all of the canning season.  But more than that, I'm celebrating that my family and I made good memories working together.  And we love each other after it all. 

A little time away

We took a 4 day trip to the Capitol last week for a little time out of town.  The first time, other than camping, that I've left our little rural corner of the world.  The travel was a little rough -see previous post.  And Ethan is already trying to come up with ways to stay home when we leave the country to have our baby in Turkey (we'll be gone for close to 8 weeks time) just so he doesn't have to ride on the road!  But the time in the capitol was so wonderful.

Lots of good family time.  We enjoyed multiple meals out; which for this mama a break from 3 meals from scratch/day was such a gift.  The guest house has a room with AC, and it's amazing how much better you sleep in AC!  There were many points throughout the time where my kids and Austin played around me, while mom crashed out (like mouth open, zonked out kind of crashed out) for a nap!  Didn't realize I was as tired as I was.

Austin and I snuck away for a 9 year anniversary dinner thanks to some loving teammates who came to town early just to watch our kiddos!  For Wichita readers, it was as close to a date at Il Vicino as you can get; minus the amazing Mango tea!  (Anyone know if they sell that stuff?)  It is refreshing for my heart to enjoy things that are aesthetically pleasing to my cultural eye!  I'm not even all out aesthetically geared, but I do notice and it does start to have it's impact.  The food was good, the conversation good.  And again, more air conditioning.

I didn't take many pictures, but here are a couple of time together playing puzzles.  I think I shot the pictures . . . and then crashed out for a nap! :)

 

Brothers doing puzzles together!  Elias doesn't want to miss out. 

 

 Elli showing her "modern art" interpretation of Nemo.  Who says the rules of puzzle making are that all the pieces have to go together only one way?  This little girl has the drama pose down.  And don't tell me those eyes to say something!

We also got to see a Dr. and have a sonogram of baby E.  We were able to see the little heartbeat fluttering, which is so encouraging.  The sonogram gave us a different due date, with a month discrepancy.  But we are choosing to disregard it based on the quality of the technology used.  :)  Hopefully we'll head back for another sonogram the end of September; though Ethan will choose to stay home on account of the road.

All in all a great trip! 

First Haircut

She's been begging for a haircut.  I think because it's been really hot and her head just sweats.  And without the good ol' Kansas humidity her longer curls don't curl up, they just frizz.  So we tried to go to a salon in the Capitol last week when we were there. 

Probably Mommy's bad timing, in that we made the appointment for 30 minutes after we rolled into town from our 6 hour over the Mountains trek, in 106F plus temps with not much ac to speak of.  Kept thinking we'd stop in the shade and there never was shade to stop in.  Ethan threw up, Elli almost did and Elias just laid motionless in his car seat with the look of "Mommy, what are you doing to me."  Probably should have done chicken nuggets first, then the first hair cut. 

Anyway, she refused.  So we left the Capitol without a haircut.  (The trip back was MUCH better in the Pajero- with full functioning ac and amazing shocks)

So after some you tube research.  Mommy tried.

 And this is what we ended up with!

 

 So glad curly hair is forgiving.  It hides all the places it's not quite even. :) 

 The fun part, is that the cut really fits her spunky little spirit.  And our local friends like it too.