Pastor Thomas

Thomas has spend all week in Alsace (for you geographically-challenged, that's eastern France) at a conference and business meeting for our denomination here. And, at the same time, they examined AND APPROVED him to be a pastor in our denomination. He won't actually be officially ordained until he receives and accepts a call from a local church, but he's all OK'd for that now. That's a big and exciting answer to prayer!

Alina's 2!!

Here are some precious memories from Alina's 2nd birthday!

Do not...

If your toddler takes your hand and your spouse's, closes her eyes and said "Mina!," thereby indicating that she wants to pray for her paternal grandmother for at least the sixth time during that meal, do not, I repeat, do not, take the hand that is in yours and the hand that is in your spouse's, join them together in front of her, and suggest that she could always just pray for Mina by herself. Unless, of course, you want to deal with a screaming and apparently traumatized toddler for the next 10 minutes.

Just a word of advice.

It's a...

I had my first ultrasound today, and can officially tell you that it's a...baby. (We can't find out the sex until next time, and I'm not sure we want to know. We kind of liked being surprised with Alina.) Everything seems to be fine. The little heart is beat-beat-beating, it has fingers and toes (and arms and legs.) If we had a scanner, I'd scan you a picture. Well, just picture something black-and-white and kind of grainy, and you'll probably be pretty close.

The due date is April 16. This confirms exactly what I thought, except I forgot that in France, a pregnancy lasts 41 weeks, not 40!

I'm still feeling pretty sick sometimes, but I think all in all it's better than with Alina, and hopefully that'll all clear up sometime pretty soon.

Thanks for all your prayers!

Childhood in a Jar

We lived a moment today that brought back my childhood. We were in the kitchen with the window open (to evacuate the smoke, but that's irrelevant to the story). I look up and, what do I see? A grasshopper on the windowframe. And what is my first reaction? Catch it, of course! Lacking the requisite Miracle Whip jar, I had to make do with a honey jar. I also had trouble finding a nail to poke holes in the top, but Papa came through with an awl. And so I find myself laying on the kitchen floor showing Alina his big back legs so he can jump and those funny little fingers around his mouth to help him eat. And then we go out into the yard to find some leaves and grass for him to eat. We were SOOO careful opening the lid so he wouldn't hop out. Do you have any idea how many hours of my life I spent catching and taking care of pet grasshoppers?

And now, I've passed the tradition on.

Top Buttons

Recently, I've been experiencing what may be called "Top Button Syndrome." Suddenly, I have clothes that just don't fit me like they used to. For example, jeans that I can't button anymore. Or, maybe I can button them, but somehow it feels so good at the end of the day when I UNbutton them.

Now, honestly, this is not a problem I'm used to having. Usually things are too big in the waist for me. And, really, when I step on the scale, it doesn't tell me I've gained weight. When I look at myself in the mirror, it doesn't really look like I've gained weight.

And, yet, there it is.

That button.

Yesterday, I took the plunge. I went into the storage room and rifled through boxes until I found the right one. You know. THAT box. The one that says "Maternity Clothes"...

Last Vacation Post?

For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath for the promised last post about my parents' visit, I have bad news for you: It will never materialize. Besides the fact that my busyness and procrastination have not made such a post more or less irrelevant, I have looked over our pictures, and none of them do justice to the event I wanted to describe.

Know this, then: We spent a wonderful day on the Ile de Ré. We biked, put Alina on the merry-go-round, ate ice cream, and went to the beach. It was fun. The scenery was beautiful. The weather was nice. And you just can't show that in a picture.