Almost 4 months old

I haven't posted all the things I've thought of posting... but MJ just rolled over for the very first time and I knew I needed to write it down before I forgot!


He's going to be 4 months old on Sunday, T and I have been waiting and waiting for MJ to roll, we knew it was close.  So today we were skyping with his parents while drinking our morning coffees when all of a sudden he was 90% rolled :-)   We moved him and gave him more space, then with lots of smiles and encouragement he rolled right over for the camera!  T's parents were so happy to have been part of this little moment :-)   MJ usually gets fussy on his tummy, and he did after a minute or two so we rolled him onto his back.  Then one minute later he's 90% the way there again!  But this time he was very angry, nearly crying he was so frustrated (but it was quite cute!).

He's a real pro now :-)  Crawling is next!  T and I are thinking of how we'll need to baby proof very soon, oh how fast things are going to change now!

Harry Potter!

A few weeks ago T and I went down to the Harry Potter studios with two awesome friends!

Hogwarts model - the whole castle is huge, like the whole downstairs of our house

Hogwarts at night

the front of the Great Hall

The Burrow!

Butterbeer!

the Knight Bus

Gryffindor Common Room

Dumbledore's Office

Diagon Alley

It was awesome :-)

Country music comes to London

We bought the tickets like three months before the concert... so I had a long, long wait... for Lady Antebellum!! The concert was fantastic, we were so close!  I caught one of Dave's guitar pics we were so close!  

So here are some pics:::

Herbilicious

This has been a very long harbored desire: a vegetable garden :-)  But alas, our back yard is far too full of weeds (that I'm not even strong enough to pull down) to fathom a garden just yet... but a few months ago I thought, "Hey, maybe I can't have a veggie patch yet but I can definitely have pots of stuff inside!"  So naturally, that 'stuff' begins with herbs :-)  Simple and delicious.... with everything!  I just upgraded the two pots we had on the windowsill into an adorable arrangement of sage, chives, mint and a huge basil plant that's trying to take over the whole kitchen.  It's fun :-)

now we just need to pray they'll all live and thrive :-)

Who remembers Freddy?

Freddy is my favorite.  The longest and most special boyfriend I ever had :-)

He's the lovely stuffed animal I got at build-a-bear many years ago, a super adorable green froggy.  But, tragically, I left him in Richmond!  I blame it on ''waking up'' at 4am to catch my plane... so he's been staying with my neice & nephew for a few days while I beg my mom to ship him out back home to me!

But in the mean time.....

I thought this was a wonderful time to beg T that I needed a new build-a-bear for a pregnancy gift!  It was something I'd been begging him for two years, so it was well overdue!  We came home from the mall with the cutest little addition: WoodyDog

And I do completely plan on putting this outfit on the baby... those pictures will be priceless!

19 weeks and counting

I'm 19 weeks along in my pregnancy :-) (So sorry for the people we didn't get to tell, and you're finding out via the internet --not such a fun way to find out!)  This is the first ultrasound pic, it's just perfect!  This was taken at 11 weeks 5 days.  It's just the perfect little profile picture everyone hopes to get!

Then these next two were taken at 18 weeks in Richmond.  I was so lucky and so blessed!  We were staying with the Coleman's and they were just incredible hosts.  So incredible that I got a free ultrasound!  Yay :-)  We were really (really!) hoping to find out the gender, but alas, the baby's little legs were crossed!  Can you make out the little legs?

                                                                                                                                                   

And this last one is the spine!  It looks so weird, like a bug :-)                                                

I'm due just a few days after my birthday :-)  The fun part is that I've got a friend here in Cheltenham due just a few days after her birthday, too, in April; and another friend in Richmond due a week before me!  Gotta love getting married and having babies :-) I do!!  God is brilliantly awesome :-)

did anyone catch the play on words in the title? just me? yeah.

Our trip back to VA

26 that's how many days I got to spend back home!  T and I went back out to Richmond for an amazingly long, great trip :-)  We bought a car, a lovely old (very, very old) Buick that T named Bocephus :-)  And we got to spend tons of time with my family and friends.  I think we managed to hit most of my favorite restaurants, we went swimming at the river and some neighborhood pools, and just massively enjoyed that last few weeks of summer in Richmond.

I didn't take too many pictures, a bit too busy soaking it all in to get the camera out.  Which naturally, I regret now, but oh well.

I've got some funny pics of little A who dressed up as a monkey in his halloween costume.  It was too cute, he's so reserved and quiet that when we first tried to get the costume on him he wouldn't have any of it -screamed bloody murder.  So we managed to get his big sister into the costume -hilarious seeing that she's 6 years old and the costume is meant for a toddler.  And after that he was fine with it, he wandered around playing like it was normal jeans & a t-shirt :-)

Mozambique

all the older posts are from Mozambique :-)

What’s bringing me home

I’m going to update this a few times I think, don’t think these are the only things I miss lol.

*well obviously what I miss most about home is my family and friends, but there are lots and lots of little things I reaaaaally miss about Richmond and the States in general:

*Kitchen 64 & having Graham serve me just like old times :o)

*Mojo’s Cheese fries w/ ranch and Jessica!!!!

*choice. you have so many choices in America.  200 types of cereal, all readily available at all times, as with everything else in grocery stores.  *You can even ask grocery stores to stock items for you personally!* 200 restaurants to visit in any given 20mile radius.  Choices choices choices!

*my beautiful VW Passat!!!!! Taylor, I’ve longed for you so, so desperately  :-) I can’t wait to drive you again!!

*my 2nd neice/nephew! due November 5th!!!

*the colemans, katie, scott, connor, brayden, cason and declan –>those little cuties better remember me and remember well! lol

*something in my heart is really calling me to Richmond’s children, maybe God has something in store for me

*beautifully paved roads (yep, even downtown’s Richmond’s roads)

*rules for the order and chaos that can happen in community living

Dia das Criancas

  wrote this a couple days ago:

This day is huge –or so I’ve heard.  Every time it’s spoken of (in hushed tones of course, and with s-p-e-l-l-e-d words) it’s portrayed to be an equivalent to Christmas.  And let me tell ya… Christmas was a huge day. Great day, lots of fun. New Years was –by far!– the most fun day yet, but Christmas was really close too.  So… Children’s Day… wooosh, it’s gonna be something else :-)  Well anyway, today Laura and I started prep for the gifts the boys will get.  Together we went through all the big huge wooden boxes in the middle room of the dorm and pulled out all the toys we have stored.  I should say that Iris runs completely on donations.  It’s amazing. From missionaries to children to staff, all salaries and needs are met by donations :-) Ahhmazing!  Well, we started organizing all the toys. All the many, many toys.  Any child’s heaven, in fact. I  love organizing, so I was in my zone, lol.  We had little grocery bags filled for each type of toy: bouncy balls, slinkys, action figures, army men, match box cars (which will forever remind me of Josh & Jason), arts and crafts, pencils, notebooks, and on and on and on.  It was really awesome, knowing we are able to give 30 boys a bag full of toys twice a year (Christmas & Children’s Day) and still even more throughout the year all thanks to visitors’ donations.  So in the next couple days I’ll decorate bags for the boys and then Laura and I will organize what goes into each one.  They’ll also get shoes and a whole outfit :-)  It’s gonna be really cute. 

I’ve posted up some pics of Christmas, one of the whole dorm and one with my uncle playing with their new toys. When I was looking back through my pictures for Christmas, I realized the Christmas card I sent home was of me, Laura and room 1. This is the room Naftal was in, he’s front and centre in that picture. With the best smile ever, he’s so beautiful. So strong and stoic, but he could have the greatest smile when he wanted to. I take great comfort in knowing I’ll see him again. Amazing comfort.. but I just wanted to let you guys know that –if you got a Christmas card, you also got a great picture of Naftal :-) 
(or if you just got your Christmas card, in May… like Jessica’s lol)

the best memory ever

story time:
I had only been here about seven-ish weeks, Laura had been gone for only a week or two and I had my first new boy to greet.  I didn’t know exactly how to welcome him, not sure what the tias had or didn’t have to give him and such.  So I say hello to him and give him a hug then try to fit him for a shirt and pants, which was a bit challenging b/c he was really big and built.  Well, about a week goes by, he’s starting to get his feel for the centre and understanding the ins & outs, of which I’m sure the boys’ explained to him.  He’s come to the afternoon program, gone to church and maybe school –can’t remember if it was out by then? 

One day, as I’m walking up to the dorm under the heat of that blazing afternoon sun, this little boy comes running up to me.  As he’s speeding away from the dorm he looks up at me and smiles, grabs my hand and turns around to walk with me to the dorm.  I about melted to the ground in a puddle.  Up until that point the boys had held my hand often, but it was only because I was a new person not because I was me.  Well this time, it was because I was me.  It was Naftal.  I loved that day.  I wrote it down in my heart the moment it happened.  I knew then how special it was and I know now how even more special it’s become.


it was the first great memory I made at the centre

YouTube link

check out my life in movies: http://www.youtube.com/user/pelicanorc

Family Update (and Richmond/jobs plans)

huge, amazing, awesome, spectacular news: my sister is pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so stoked it’s crazy.  This is my happy place when things get hard    :-)  She’s due November 5th.  I’m back in Richmond August 5th, just in time to start her 3rd trimester.  feels like everyone is preggo..?  I’m so excited to have another neice/nephew it’s ridonkulous!  I hope its a girl  :-D

So, if God wants things to go as I’ve roughly got planned out…this is what the next year of my life looks like:  Moz until August, then Richmond until early 2011, then finally head off to Nashville (or at least a city that is not Richmond, but this is only if I choose to lower my standards –I haven’t chosen this yet though lol).  And then, lol (I realize it’s silly planning thiiiiis far in advance) after about 2 or 3 years in Nashville I’d really love to move to Australia, Melbourne-ish area.

So many people think I’m crazy.  It’s nothing new.  I’ve heard things along the lines of “crazy dreamer” since I was 12.  I dream big :-)  If you don’t dream big then what do you expect out of your life?  Laura and I had a big conversation about this last week, when I was feeling a bit down about dreaming of Nashville.  She’s so lovely :-)  Anyhoo… I need to find a job to support me while I’m in Richmond and I need to find a job in Nashville.  I love how these are just the sorts of things you can’t do on your own.  I’ll only ever find a job with God’s grace and my community’s support.  Life is beautiful :-)

I really want to work with Jen while I’m in Richmond.  That would be amazingly perfect.  She’s just started watching kids in her home so that she can stay home with Kayla and the new baby.  I SO want to do this with her!  I’d also really love to be a nanny.  I know nanny jobs don’t really lead anywhere, they’re certainly not career-starters.  But I’d still love to do to it in Richmond :-)  I’ve got my eye on a place called Youth Villages in Nashville.  I’ve really got a heart for residential care for children/older youth.  Here at the centre we have tias who work 4 days on 3 days off and live here full-time when they’re “on.”  I want to do this in the states.  I feel like I can invest so fully and easily if I live where the kids live.  Youth Villages seems to have this same mission.  Please pray I’ll find something like this in Nashville :o)


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Nelspruit Pictures

for those who can’t see these pictures on Facebook, here are some pics from a weekend in South Africa with Emily & Heather as I bought a new visa

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Friend Update

ANNE’S COMING IN 9 DAYS!!!!!!!!!

I’m so excited it’s crazy :-)  I wish everyone from home could come see my life here.  I’ve invested so much here I can’t even begin to explain everything, I want you all to see it first hand!  But it’s okay.  Before I left Anne and I had already talked about her coming to visit and I was 95% confident she could come.  I was only holding back that little 5% in case she couldn’t, I’d have room to be disappointed.  I’ve already got our time together planned out, well mais ou menos.. I’ll meet her and my aunt at the air port then go home with my aunt for the whole weekend.  Me and Anne will spend Thursday night and Friday catching up and hanging out with my family.  Then on Saturday my friends from the centre will come out and hopefully stay the night.  I want to head out to an island or the beach, but (as usual) transportation and finances are a bit of an issue.  So I don’t know how that’ll work out but I know it’ll be fun :-)  **God’s really been showing me how to trust him, and not worry but just be confident in waiting, it’s great**  Then Sunday night we’ll go to worship @ Jimmy & Linda’s house and finally go to the centre afterwards. 

We’ll spend the whole week with the boys and going on visitors’ outreaches.  It’ll be my first time on a lot of the ministries the visitors participate in, I’m excited to finally have the chance.  We’ve got four main outreaches that include visitors’ regular help: street ministry (they visit the jail and give food out in a park in the city), hospital ministry (go into the city and pray over the sick in the hospital), the Bocaria (local trash dump, they go and minister to and pray over the community living there), and weekend outreaches into the bush where they preach the Gospel.  I’m excited!  Anne’s gonna love it.  Then the next weekend we’ll (omgomgomg!) go to Kruger Park with my family.  This is the best part.  Kruger is a safari park!  I’m finally gonna see lions and zebras and really feel like I’m truly living in Africa.  It’s going to be friggin sweet!  We’ll drive down Friday or Saturday and then (God’s such a smarty pants) Anne and I will head home on Monday, catching a ride with Meghann and her mom who will be in Kruger that same weekend.  While my aunt and cousin drive down to meet up with Uncle Todd.  It looks as though everything will work out wonderfully :-)  I’ve been trying to get to Kruger for so long, when I was last in South Africa I was really disapointed to not have the finances to afford the trip, since we drove past the park!  Ahh, it hurt.  But whatever, even if Anne and I don’t go to Kruger it’s still going to be an amazing time  :-)


**she just got here this afternoon!  we went to dinner and ice cream with my family :o) and sat outside by the pool chatting for ages, with tea of course!**

Life Update

Job Update
Things change here so often, it’s ridiculous. People come and go all the time; new people come, old people leave, current people visit home for two months at a time.  It’s ridiculous!  So, in light of these changes, I’ve taken on more responsibilities.  In hospitality it’s: keys.  Keys.  Keys.  Keys.   It’s a nightmare, but it’s all about organizing and categorizing…sooooo, (call me loony) I love it!  At any given time we’ve got between 15-50 visitors, they sleep in their own little area we call the Visitor’s Compound.  They each get a set with 3 keys (their room, their kitchen and to the actual compound which stays locked 24/7).  I’m the one who has/gets to make sure each set of keys is correct.  I’m not sure how to explain just how headachy this job is.  I’ve been doing this since December and it’s just never ending.  I just stepped in and took over because I love organizing.  But I didn’t realize it would never be fixed.  We never truly have all the keys we need and certainly not the number of extra copies we want.  But it’s cool, it’s cool. :o) 

I’m also doing this new thingie I call “car mileage.”  The directors asked me to do the admin on keeping track of cars: how much they’re driven, their problems, and how much money is put into their tanks.  It’s pretty messy because there are 14 cars and one missionary keeps track of these things for one car.  So every Monday I’m emailing all the missionaries trying to track down what they wrote for their car.  But it’s working pretty well, I’d give it an 85% success rate.  It’s only lacking because drivers don’t write everything down the way their supposed to and I’ve got quite a bit of chasing to do with my colleagues.  It’s a work in progress. :o)

The big change is this: Laura’s going home for 6 months!  She’s leaving in mid-June, 7 weeks before I follow suit and head to Richmond.  This is going to be tricky, because it means I’ll have to train-up a new missionary, leave for the States and then Laura will come back to a new person running the dorm.  It’s going to be a bit odd, but I’m really excited for Laura.  She’s going home to spend more time with her family and to start graduate school.  I’m such a huge supporter of both these things :-)  Please pray that a missionary will come here long-term with a heart for working with my dorm.  And pray we get one before I leave.  I don’t particularly want to run the dorm alone again, it’s a bit lonely and I still haven’t learned quite enough Portuguese to feel confident with the Tias’ explanations for things.  But I especially want the chance to train a new missionary so that the boys’ lives are still relatively the same until Laura comes home. *I know I use the word home a lot, to talk about the States and here.. but that’s just my life*  Pray over this whole situation in general :-)  I know it’ll work out, but as usual, I just wish God would let me (little miss planner) know soon.

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Sopa!

I did the Afternoon Program today with Room 3 (the youngest who are about 6) and we made soup :-)  The only other time I’ve ever cooked with them was when we made a cake for Laura’s homecoming back when I first got here.  So this was a new adventure..one that I didn’t even volunteer for without first stepping back and really processing through it.  But then I figured how bad could it be?  I’ve only made soup one other time in my life but these are six year olds.  And not just American six year olds, but six year olds who will eat anything you put in their hands and say “doce!” (candy!). 

It was a good time, lol :o)  I love cooking, especially when I don’t follow a recipe and just go for something.  The first step, the same one every young chef learns is: wash your hands.  So I stood at the sink with a chair from the kitchen table and had each boy come and wash their hands.  They were surprisingly good at this… the kids in America put their hands under the water right when you put the soap on, its useless.  But my (amazing) boys first scrubbed their hands without provocation and then rinsed them –I was proud.  Haha.  Well after all hands were clean I set them up to color (and touch what I can only assume are germ-ridden colored pencils…. heh… oops?) I had each boy come up in turn and pour water into the pot, put vegetables in along with it and then stir.  It was pretty freakin’ cute, I’m not gonna lie :-) And the soup turned out delicious (yay me).  It was so good I even gave some to a tia, because I wasn’t worried she’d hate it :-)  I love the Afternoon Program

Anatomia de Grey

Grey’s is my favorite show and Meghann is my hero.

She visited home in February and brought back with her all (yes ALL!) seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, even some of the current season! It was heaven. So for the past, I dunno, 3-ish months we’ve been spending most Tuesday nights watching Grey’s. When Emily got here she brought season 2, then Meghann returned home with all seasons… we’re about to start season 5 tonight. Haha, it’s so great. It’s the little things, ya know? Don’t tell me anything about the current season, please, I've only seen the first 13 episodes. But that’s so exciting –I’ve seen the first half and I’m in Mozambique!! God is good in so many ways :-) Me and Emily are the hardcore viewers, Meghann and Erin watch often but then there’s Fiona and Heather… Maybe it’s because their English? They hardly watched until recently. As of last night I think I’ve finally got Fiona into it :-) She was really upset when Season 4 ended, until I got to tell her we’ve got Season 5, hah. But we’re still working on Hev. Pray for her lol, she needs to join us :-)

yes, I just devoted a whole post to Grey’s --it’s that good.


life updates are on their way soon. hopefully this week :-) lots to update!

lovelovelove

City Streets

I made a video a few days ago, and now I’m sitting in a coffee shop able to enjoy internet strong enough to upload it :-)  It’s not the smartest thing to take pictures out in the street, but I couldn’t imagine going home and not having what I see everyday on video.  So I took the risk, and because of it I’m super happy.  Stupid, maybe, but happy? Yes! 

I’m in cafe sol right now with a big group of girl friends.  This place is the closest I can get to Starbucks, it’s an ex-pat haven :-)  I can actually evesdrop on conversations in English!  I can people watch and understand their language –love it :-) It’s a very needed break after

a hard last week. 

ShopRite

This is our local grocery store, ShopRite, it’s kind of like a Food Lion.  Kinda.  Last friday there was a ShopRite run in the afternoon so I took one of my boys with me.  I took Estevao (steve) who’s about 8 years old.  I went up to the dorm and told him to stay in his nice school clothes but told him I’d explain why later.  I didn’t want the entire dorm knowing I was taking him until the very last minute otherwise I’d be showered with “take me too!”  I ended up being showered in those anyway, but I like to think I stopped some of it, lol.  So anyway, we’re in the bus with two other missionaries and one visitor and I pull out my old cell phone so we can listen to music with earphones.  Estevao is not a quiet kid, not at all, it’s part of what I adore about him.  But on the ride there he was so out of his element it was adorable!  He was silent!  I kept dancing to the music trying to get him into it and he’d only give like 10% effort :-)  So when we get there I tell him the rules of ShopRite before we walk in –something I learned from babysitting.  I told him to always hold my hand or touch the cart and not to ask for anything, at all.  He did amazing!  He was my little helper, it was so cute :-)  He loved pushing the cart, something I forgot all kids love to do.  He carried things for me, and put the vegetables on the scales.  So cute!  And he did really well not asking for anything, but he did make an effort to point out every cool toy. Which up until that point I had never noticed.  Nearing the end of the trip he saw a big cool toy car and said in English, “me for car.”  I died laughing inside, but told him, “Don’t ask for anything please.”  And then he said, again in English, “I said Jesus!”   Hahaha, I died.  So once we had finished getting all of our coisas (things) I bought him a soda and chocolate.  The drive home was lovely, he almost spilled his soda a hundred times and his hands were covered in chocolate –a true kid :-)