Happy 2nd Birthday Esther!

We are so thankful for God placing Esther into our family two years ago! She has been a blessing since she has come into our lives and is a source of joy. We celebrated yesterday morning by taking her to the mall to see the singing bears and ride the train. Then we finished the time off with her favorite place, Chick-fil-A. She had a blast. (And I'm trying not to be bitter, because I took all these cute pictures of that and our teen caroling event last night, and they somehow got deleted this morning.) I don't have time though to worry about such things, so they'll always be a chance for more pictures. We're leaving tomorrow for Atlanta to spend some time with Stephen's family over Christmas and Esther is going to celebrate her birthday with the Conley's there...so she is getting plenty of celebrating for having a 'December birthday'. She probably thinks it's her birthday every day. Today we gave her our gift to her which was a huge Mr. Potato-head set which she has been playing with all day. This morning she talked to Nana and Poppa, Aunt Trisha & Audrey, Uncle John, and Mimi left her a message to wish her Happy Birthday. Here's a slide show from her first year of life. I can't get over how much she's changed!

Family Christmas Letter

Hopefully, we didn't leave anyone out on our Christmas list of Christmas letters, but I'm sure with the craziness of a move, and all, we did. We did a magnet again through Vistaprint. So here's our e-greeting to all our friends in the blogosphere. For all of our blogging friends, much of this information is repetitive and some of the information has been omitted for privacy reasons, but if you need to be in contact with us, facebook or email is the best way.

Dear friends and family,

What a wonderful time of year to celebrate the incarnation of our Savior Jesus Christ! We rejoice in God’s grace and goodness once again to our family over this past year. “Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.” Psalm 40:5

We’ve had several big events that happened in our lives this past year.

In August, God answered our prayers, and we found out we are expecting our second child April 3. We just found out the baby is a boy so we are going to have to add some blue in the house! Esther is excited about a new baby as much as she can understand anyway. We still are trying to decide on names though!

Another highlight was Stephen’s graduation from seminary. This was a culmination of six years of work between Northland and Central Seminary. All praise belongs to the Lord in allowing Him to finish the course well. It’s nice not to have to bring homework or papers on family vacations now. Stephen and Shannon celebrated his graduation as well as their fifth anniversary at a resort in Tennessee in May while Esther stayed with her grandparents. It was a long-awaited vacation.

Since January, we had been actively seeking options for future ministry once Stephen finished school. In July, we made our first visit to Timberlake Baptist Church. God confirmed in our hearts and amongst the church later on that this is where He would have us. Stephen is the Student Ministries Pastor of the Church and Campus Pastor of the school. We moved here September 26 and have been keeping busy ever since. It has been an adventure changing doctors and learning a new area, but things are getting more settled as time passes. God provided a home for us to live in immediately until we are able to buy a home sometime after the baby is born next spring. We praise God for providing us with a godly staff to work with and a friendly, generous church body.

Esther is doing well and her vocabulary is expanding by the day it seems. It’s hard to believe she’ll be two on the 22nd of this month! It is fun to be able to communicate with her especially the truths of God’s Word. She is enjoying learning about Christmas this year. Thank you for those who have prayed for her kidney reflux. She is on a maintenance dosage of antibiotics daily, and thankfully has not had any infections since her severe one in July. Next fall, she will be reevaluated to see if the condition has improved or not, which will determine whether or not she will need surgery at the Children’s Hospital. We are praying that God will heal her body on its own and know He certainly can!

As we ponder God’s gift of His Son to us once again this year, we marvel that He would humble Himself and come in the form of a servant to be a Savior of sinful mankind. We hope you, too, can celebrate the true meaning of Christmas this year.

Teen Christmas Party

Last Saturday, we had our first Christmas party. It was a progressive dinner at three different houses. Praise the Lord for holding off the bad weather, it was predicted to be bad, but it was only 34 degrees so we only had to deal with rain not ice. We had a great turnout considering the weather, and I think the kids had a good time. Some of the games we played that you'll see from below are from Round Robin Ping Pong, Mad Lib, Catch Phrase, and a gift exchange. Thanks to Maggie, we got lots of pictures from the night, but I'll just post a few here. Eventually, I hope to have our teen website up and working, where we can post pictures from activities there for those that care to see! Obviously, I haven't been online much as of late as we have been swamped as everyone is this time of year. Stephen has so much to do, I've been trying to help him by tackling his to-do list with him so we don't have to bring work on Christmas vacation! Even though, we're still busy, it's fun that we are able to work and minister together. Pray for Stephen if you think of it as he shepherd's this 'flock' at Timberlake and that God would give Him wisdom and direction especially for this next year.

2 year picture shoot

We went to Sears Portrait Studio yesterday for Esther's 2 year picture shoot. It didn't go too hot, once again. We got one or two good pictures, but after they tried to change the background, it was downhill from there. I'm hoping one of these days, she'll outgrow the picture fears.

Book Recommendation

A friend of mine recently loaned me this book. I had read a shorter biography of Gladys Aylward's life, but not this one. My friend just got done reading it out loud to her children. What a great example for us to hold up to our kids as opposed to so much other stuff they see in this day and age! I have been reading a couple chapters a day and must admit it's a hard book to put down. It has been so refreshing to read of Gladys' commitment to God to go to China NO MATTER WHAT. What a testimony of God's grace. She knew what was really important in life. It's caused me to reevaluate priorities and devotion in my life as I see her commitment to Christ. I encourage you to read this book if you can get your hands on it.

Expanding vocabulary

Lately, Esther has been putting phrases together and saying so many new words daily it seems. It's so fun that we can actually communicate with each other. We taught her to see please early on, but lately, she's been doing this thing where she'll say "I want ________". It is her way of trying to communicate with us. So we try to remind her to add "please" with that phrase. Anyways, last night I had to run to the store and told her she could come with me and go shopping. From the time we left until the time we got to the grocery, she said, "I want shopping, I want shopping. " Oh boy, we're starting young with this shopping business. Her favorite "I want" phrase is, "I want rock" which means she wants us to rock her before naps and bed. It's so funny, because she doesn't fall asleep with us rocking and she never used to even care to rock except when she was a newborn. She prefers to just go to sleep on her own, so especially with baby #2 coming, Stephen and I both cherish the times she wants to cuddle. With Christmas coming, she's especially been interested in the nativity scene this year, and she'll say, "I want baby Jesus." It's so cute. She spends all kinds of time looking at all the Christmas decorations. I wasn't sure if I was going to bother with all the decor since we are so busy during the season and traveling, but it's been worth it to be able to explain Christmas to her. She also has been listening to the Christmas carols I have been playing in the van, and the other day I heard singing "Noel, Noel". It's rare that she'll sing with us in the room, so I treasured that moment.She also has been saying several other phrases that are funny but aren't appropriate for the blog. We are working on correcting those, but there have been so many things she's said as of late that we have to hide our smirks and laughing so she doesn't catch on.

She has started also to be more in tune to feelings. The other day I told her at the doctor's I couldn't carry her because my back hurt, and we had been standing in line for a while. Well, when we got back to the waiting room, it was so quiet with everyone reading their magazines, and Esther says so loudly to me, "Mama, back hurt? back hurt?" then starts patting me on the back. I told her it felt okay now, but then she started going through all the body parts and asking if they hurt. I was embarrassed and laughing at the same time. I know she means well and am glad she is starting to be sensitive to other's feelings.

What funny things have your kids said?

Still Thankful?

I have been thinking about this topic a lot lately since it seems like Thanksgiving comes and goes so quickly. My feelings of gratitude to God are so overwhelming around that week, and it seems not long after that, Satan tempts me to be ungrateful with what God has done. Some of my other family members have commented too, about this same fact. I think part of it has to do with Christmas and being bombarded with 'things' and 'deals' this time of year. I have been so encouraged by the articles girltalk has been featuring lately about Fighting Worldliness, and Having a Meaningful Christmas. I encourage you to check those links out.

As far as a family update, as you can tell by the lack of posts, we've been especially busy planning teen activities and trying to get plans made for 2008, if the Lord should tarry. So, I haven't been good about taking pictures but just trying to get things back in order from being on vacation. Since getting back from New Jersey, I finally was able to meet with my doctor who will be delivering the baby, or someone in the practice anyways. I really had a pleasant experience compared with the last place and feel really comfortable with this office. I had the official ultrasound on Tuesday, and Stephen got to be at that appointment. Everything is normal, and we're still having a boy! I met with the doctor Wednesday, and he talked to me about my options for a VBAC or scheduled cesarean. I guess the risks of both are equal. We'll have to see how things go as it gets closer. I hadn't been open to a VBAC in the past because I had a close friend who had a terrible experience, but since then I've heard of many success stories. With our intense schedule of ministry and many other reasons, I really would like the shorter recovery time of a VBAC. The factors that would make a VBAC a possibility are size of the baby as the time gets closer and my going into labor on my own before 40 weeks. Right now the baby is breech so he also needs to turn around before then which is also another factor. So we are praying about the outcome and don't have our expectations set either way as we know God will have it happen in His way and time. One other factor is my due date is April 3. Stephen is going on the Senior Missions Trip to the Bahammas March 1-7. So we are also praying I don't go into labor early. If anyone wants to come visit to keep me company that week, you're more than welcome! In closing, the doctors office gave us a dvd of our ultrasound, but the files aren't any that are supported by my usual video hosting programs. It's a dat file. If anyone knows how to transfer it to something uploadable, please let me know!