The Details...

At this stage it’s so hard to capture Jude in a picture. He’s always going, talking, reading , riding, running, and BLINKING. He TOTALLY takes after me! If I had a dollar for every picture I caught with his eyes closed I could BUY the country we live in!!
He's totally into playing pretend, helping us cook, reading books to himself, riding his tricycle (...well sitting on it at least!), playing in the SUNshine, and tickles!
Jude is running hard and fast to the terrible twos. He’s giving us a LOT of opportunities to learn about parenting THIS child. Over the past few months we’ve learned…

-that Jude needs bunches of hugs and kisses
-that he needs EYE CONTACT
-that he wants us to get on his level…in play and in discipline
-that strong, harsh words are NOT successful in convincing him of what’s good for him...he needs gentleness and patience! Who knew that the fruits of the Spirit applied to parenting!!!???
-that reading a book ALWAYS calms him down and puts him in a good mood
-music in the morning makes for a good day
-that he WANTS to make us laugh…and when he succeeds in this venture he is VERY pleased!!

Cutie J and my new Tun Haircut
(I was so nervous!!! But I'd say it turned out ok!)

We are immersed in language learning at this point. We’re in an Arabic class 5 days/week, 2 ½ hrs per day and both studying individually with a tutor 2-4hrs a week. Not to mention all the time we spend in personal study and of course time out with our local friends!! We have AMPLE opportunity to practice our Arabic and PTL! It’s coming along quickly for us!

Our little HAM!!

For Jude this means that a 20-something local girl comes to watch him almost 4 hrs a day while we’re in language learning (travel time included). At first he seemed to not be adjusting very well…but after talking to my friend Jenn with a lil’ Treston the same age, I found that Jude is QUITE normal! Jude LOVES our new nanny Hoodea!!! His little eyes get bright when she walks into the room! From the moment he met her they’ve had a connection…which is such a blessing to me! She speaks a little more English than I do Arabic, which means we can communicate well enough to tell her what we need her to do for Jude. We’re hoping that during this time we get to bless her and love her!!

My neighbor downstairs, Emen, has become a WONDERFUL friend!! She is always welcoming me in for coffee and a treat and bringing me yummy local delights! We have been able to share together about our “rough spots” in life as well as our joys. When we look back and wonder how we ever ended up in this apartment (it didn’t meet ONE of our top 3 criteria!!), we know for CERTAIN that there was something stronger leading us here! And amazingly enough…she speaks ENGLISH! This meant that I had a friend from the moment we moved in! And Lord knows I needed one!

As most of you have heard…WE’RE EXPECTING!!! Things are coming along very well, it seems. I’ve not had much morning sickness (PTL!), and I feel like I’m gaining more energy every day. I’ve tried to be disciplined about getting at least 8 hrs of sleep every night and exercising regularly, and this has improved my life DRASTICALLY! I don’t even need naps! During Jude’s pregnancy I was VERY sick and napped EVERY day! Of course that meant that I hardly exercised…who wants to when they’re sick every 5 min?? Anyway, we have our first appt on Friday and can’t wait to hear the heartbeat! We should find out the gender sometime in March. We’re due at the end of July…which puts us at 14 weeks today!!

Jon has been working terribly hard at acquiring internet these past few days (which also means LOTS of practice in Arabic!). He’s such a hero for me!! And Jon’s hardwork has been matched by favor from the Almighty One in the eyes of the internet company! So…we’re now on a temporary dial-up connection until our wireless is set and ready to go. Woohoo!! PTL!!!

He’s also reading a book called Tender Warrior which seems to be having a powerful impact on him. He’s also started his seminary courses this semester as well! But I am thankful to say that he’s 3 weeks ahead and STILL excelling in language learning!!

Funny story…
We were on a way to school one day in a taxi (now we take the metro-rail), and we were trying to direct the taxi driver in Arabic. We wanted to tell him to go the big stone archway near our school. Well…the words for arch and diaper are apparently VERY similar! You guessed it!! We told the taxi driver to go to the Big Diaper!! …leave it to us…haha!

I’m sorry you’ve waited SO long for pictures…I hope it was worth it!!

We’ll load some cute videos of our Jude-bug when we have a faster connection!!

We love you!!!!

Our New Place!!

Get excited!! Here's a video of our new, unfurnished place!
We're so excited to share it with you!!

It has two bedrooms, a kitchen, 1 bathroom, a living room/dining room, rooftop access, two tiny little balconies, and a place for Jude to play! All the walls
are yellow! I'm going to be quite limited in my decorating with it! At least
with the color schemes I have here!

You must understand that places here do NOT have closets or shelving...and our kitchen has PLENTY AND we have one in each bedroom! I'm thrilled!

Jude even has two playmates in the apartment below us!!

From the rooftop, there is a BEAUTIFUL view of the city! You can even see the mountains! Jon said it was a great reminder for us to see everyday.

Thank you SOOOO much for asking for a place
for us!! We love it!

And since you're all dying to know, we get to start moving in THIS coming week!!

We'll upload another video when we've got the place furnished!!

All Sorts of Things and a Traveling Rocker Baby

To answer your question:
Yes, I'm still blogging!!
If you can't read the WHOLE post, AT LEAST look the pictures!!
Pay special attention to the fam pics by Brandon & Bethan!

Jude in his rocker baby do!

He looks like a different kid doesn't he?!
We've come to find that moving is the theme of Jude's life. His little body is always going, even when he's sleeping he's all over the bed!! He's also been on 6 round-trip flights and by the time we move he will have taken 8!!! This little one is a trooper!

He's using lots of words now and beginning to sign really well. Although it is quite common that he learns the word before he learns the sign! What good is that?? He now uses signs for eat, momma, thank you, please, fish, and water. He attempts to sign cracker and diaper as well.

He's constantly singing or making music with anything he can turn into a musical instrument! He's fallen in love with guitars. Somehow he knows to hit the strings and not the body...he pays more attention to things than we think! He's also recently learned not just to bang, but to strum with his fingers!

He's mastered a quick walk that's sure to turn into a run in no time. As always, he LOVES to play chase with Daddy. He giggles so hard as he walks that it makes him fall!

Here's a recent development...Rocker Baby.

We spent a great two weeks in Colorado at PILAT, a how-to-learn-language school...meaning we didn't actually learn our target language. I know this is confusing...it was to us before we went! But we were so thankful for it! It focused on a learner-driven style and taught us how to prepare best for using a language tutor. We were also surrounded by gorgeous scenery and new friends! I was so excited that we got to hike!Sunrise Picture!!
Gorgeous Colorado Sunrise! PTL!

Our new friends Consuelo & Aaron with precious Malachi & Sonora!
(Give us a break, it's hard to get 3 kids to look at the camera!)
(for the record, Jude is blowing a kiss to the camera!)
My friend Becky and I on Pike's Peak
(okay so we didn't exactly make it to the Peak...)

So in a 24-hr turnaround we headed to College Station to connect with our WONDERFUL friends there! We were so thrilled to be back at LH! We got share at Hope Groups and meet some new friends! Thanks so much to the Royers, Supers, and Amanda who let us crash their places! Here's a fun video of Jude and Josiah! I just caught the tail-end of Jude laughing at Mrs. Rachel!




Here are Thomas & Rachel! Our sweet, sweet friends who willingly host us EVERY time we come to College Station! We are so thankful for their wonderful hearts! The Father is really working among us!
(who knows why my eyebrows are clear up to heaven in this picture!
I was happy, what can I say?)

So in another whirlwind 24hr turn around, we headed to be with our friends Brandon & Bethan in KY for 6 days!! We SO enjoyed our time with them and I, personally, gained so much from this godly woman! Just being in her presence is good for my soul! We got to talk through a lot of things that really gave me a lot of perspective! I am so thankful for their place in our lives!
But can you believe that the WHOLE time we were there we did not get ONE picture of the four of us!??! TRAGIC!!!
However, they did take some fun pics of us!! They are so talented!
Sweet Kisses!!
May He make our path straight...
Precious Jude!!Finally! Couple Pictures! These are our first since our engagement!


Want to hire them? They're professional photographers! And they're willing to travel!!

And AFTER THAT...in a 5 hr turn around, my sister Kaye and niece Gracie (who live in FL) surprised us in Houston!! Soon followed my sister Mary and niece Chloe (who live in San Antonio)!! And of course wonderful Amy was already here in Houston! It was so fun to be all together again! I definitely didn't think this was going to happen for AWHILE!
This a pic my mom caught of me cuddling Grace when they surprised me!
I was so thrilled to see her!! You can connect emotionally with adults over the phone or Skype...but babies are so different, you just have to be there to touch them! And I thought I wasn't going to get to hold Grace for several YEARS!

Okay, that's enough uploading of pictures!! I'm just going to have to do the pictures of Jude, Grace, & Chloe later!!

Hope you made it through the whole ENTIRE post!

Hayden's Brain

So now that I haven't posted in 146 days, or close to that, I figured that it would be appropriate to reopen this whole blogging adventure with letting someone else write for me so I can delay writing a real post.

Now people, don't even be tempted to think that I'd pass on a lame story to you. I really need you to go to this link and read this story.


Do it.

Now.

I'm not kidding.

Go read it.

I FEAR raising a boy because of the stories this woman produces about her children, namely Hayden. But in the same breath I must say that I CANNOT wait to see what Jude comes up with. I just don't think Heather's life could be any funnier. Without this child, her life (and mine for that matter) just might be void of all humor. And the greatest thing about it is...

It all comes from Hayden's brain.

No one wrote him a script.

No one has to pay money or turn on the TV to see this kid.

Wonderful!

I hope you laughed as hard as I did.

And I just have to say, Heather wonders where this child gets his strange brain and hilarious humor from????

Look in the mirror sista. He's your boy clone!

Happy 1st Birthday Jude!!!

It's amazing the transformation!!

Our sweet little boy celebrated ONE YEAR yesterday!
(We were out of town and couldn't blog about it, sorry!)

We could never put into words our love for this child!
We discover new things we love about you everyday!
What a joy you have been!
Our short time with you so far has taught us so much about the character of God. His goodness to us is unending and his love for us is immovable. You are a pure example of His goodness!

Pics of the celebration to come!!