Mommy Time

Marc is working in a small town for the next week as part of the fellowship so I am bracing for my days ahead. Actually, if they all go as smoothly as the past two have gone then I will be just fine. I think Eli and Hailey for their respective ages do very well. I mean they have to be good in order for me to feel brave enough to take them both out to eat by MYSELF, right?

We started our day off this morning playing in our "backyard" for a few hours which is actually the daycare playground on the property where we now live. It was a beautiful morning and so refreshing after the 106 degree day yesterday. I know Wichita has seen some hot days this summer, but yesterday was the hottest day we have had since we have been back in town. I had to sit outside the car for 10 minutes with it running before the kids car seats were cool enough to put them in them. It was HOT. So, today was wonderful. Hailey can now climb stairs so I even let her climb up the slide a few times and then I would come around and help her slide down. She was loving it.

I took her 10 month picture today (a little late). I can't believe her birthday is less than two months away. I still have no idea what we are going to do for her party... my brain is constantly thinking trains and cars these days.

Hailey is now cruising furniture pretty well. She will often let go of things and stay standing for a minute or two before she sits down. I think she will be taking some steps in the next few weeks. She has been eating table food only for about a month now. It is great to have everyone eating the same food now at dinnertime. I feel like I am getting to eat my meal now when everyone else does instead of spoon feeding Hailey. She is getting more hair. When she gets sweaty she has a few curls that form in the back. :) She still doesn't seem to have enough hair for a barrette bow but it won't be long. She is SO attached to me at the moment. I can hardly step out of the room without her going crazy. I hope that gets better soon.

After the kids woke up from the longest nap of their lives (3 1/2 hours) I took them to Bradly Fair to walk around in the stroller and see the ducks. I immediately thought back to THIS post last year when I shared pictures from the same spot one month before Hailey was born. It's so fun to see how much Eli has changed over the past year and how much our lives have changed with the addition of Hailey!

After we walked around for a bit I decided to take the kids to dinner. I was assessing their behavior as we were strolling because I knew I would need full cooperation if I was going to take them into a restaurant by myself to sit down and eat a meal. We went to Jason's Deli and had a great dinner. I let Eli sit by me in the booth and put Hailey in a high chair. It worked out well and I enjoyed a stress-free meal. At the end of our meal a mom stood up a few tables over and yelled, "Someone help her!" I quickly realized that her middle school aged daughter was choking. Before I could even get up to help the manager, who was standing very near, came over and gave her three Heimlich thrusts and she was all better. It was crazy to see that in action but I was glad she was ok. They actually stayed and finished their meal.

Tonight, I let Eli stay up a little later after I put Hailey to sleep and we played trains. Eli stayed with my parents last weekend when we went to Memphis and they bought him a cute Thomas travel train set. He has had so much fun playing with it this past week and he always comes up to me when I am cooking or doing dishes and says, "Mommy come play trains?" It is hard to turn down a request as sweet as that. I bought him a few extra trains a few days ago that go with his set as a motivation/reward if he goes #2 in the potty but so far we have had no luck. The only time we got him to fully go #2 in the potty was when I bribed him with a new Diego DVD. He has been doing great staying dry other than that and it is SO nice putting underwear on him now before he goes to school instead of a diaper. Yay!

Memphis Trip

We went on a short trip to Memphis, TN this past weekend to look at a clinic that Marc is interested in working at for a little while when we return from Africa. We were so encouraged by the things that Christ Community Health Services (CCHS) is doing in Memphis! They have family medicine, med-peds, OBs, and surgery physicians as well as many nurse practitioners and a few dentists. They all share a common vision and mission of loving and living sacrificially in order to best serve the poor and uninsured in Christ's name. Marc and I both left the weekend feeling inspired and challenged. We really want to pray over this for a few weeks before we decide if this is where we will end up in the summer of 2012 but I think it would be a great fit for us.

We stayed for the weekend with the director of CCHS and his family. They were great to us and we enjoyed getting to know all their kids. We went to the zoo on Saturday with two of their boys and had so much fun. The Memphis zoo is really great. We will definitely be getting a zoo pass if we move there!

Hailey loves playing peek-a-boo

After the zoo we met up with Stacey and Brandon who were in Memphis for a night to go to an Elvis show of some sort. Brandon is a big fan of the king of rock n roll. :)

We got back on Sunday night and are now trying to get back in our weekday routine of work/school, dinner, baths, and BED! We are really struggling right now adjusting to the lack of a dishwasher at night. Marc and I didn't have one when he was in med school in Springfield, but we were feeding two less mouths and didn't have to tend to children immediately after dinner so we were able to get the dishes done. I feel like I use every dish in the house some nights getting dinner ready so I need to start being more efficient with that as I cook. Our sink it just never empty at this point. Is it possible to teach a 2 1/2 year old how to hand wash dishes???

 Kids sure are messy...

 but they also clean up pretty well. :)

Back in the Swing

This past week has just been a whirlwind. We packed up our apartment in West Virginia last Thursday and began our long 20 hour journey on Friday. We made a brief stop in Illinois to see Marc's family before arriving back in Wichita late Saturday.

Eli loved these old trains that Noreen pulled out. He has been so into trains lately! These trains were from Marc's grandpa's train collection that Marc's mom now has at her house.

I started back to work on Monday and we have had evening events for the fellowship program many nights this week so it has been a bit hectic trying to unpack and help the kids transition yet again to another house. Eli  really likes our apartment here in Wichita (because he can see the train from our living room couch!) and he is enjoying being back in daycare. He is sleeping well in his new big boy bed (we converted his crib once we got back) and is still doing great with the potty training (we are sending him to daycare in underwear!). Hailey has had a harder time. I think mostly because she is at the peak separation anxiety age. She had me by her side all day for six weeks and is now only seeing me in the morning and at night. Each day has gotten a little better for her.

The crazy part is we are packing again tonight. We fly out tomorrow afternoon to go look at a potential job for Marc when we get back from Africa next year. The clinic is located in Memphis and has interested us both for quite some time. We are looking forward to meeting some more of the people involved in this ministry who work with the poor and underserved in Memphis. Check them out here if you want to read more!

Here are the last few pictures I took from Morgantown. We had so much fun taking walks as a family on the river trail at night and these pictures remind me that we are taking quite a journey this year. :) This rotation was such a good experience for our family in many ways and I am glad we had the opportunity to be there with Marc. Marc's pager went off tonight for the first time in nearly two months. I had almost forgotten what the noise was when I heard it going off. :)

Famine

I had a hard time finishing my turkey sandwich today at lunch when I saw this picture of a child on a yahoo news article I was reading about the famine currently in the Horn of Africa...

There are just no words when I look at this picture. Somalia is suffering its worst drought in over 60 years. The United Nations has recently reported 3.2 MILLION people out of 7.5 million people (that is 43%) in Somalia are in need of immediate, life saving assistance... meaning if they don't get the help they need, they will die. Can you imagine, as a parent, watching your children starve to death or have NO water to drink?

Here is the article on yahoo from the Associated Press if you want to read more....link

and here is an article that I was reading off of Samaritan's Purse's website today...link

Some people say that they don't give because they don't think the money gets to the right place, or it gets used up in administrative costs. Those people are probably right some of the time, but I don't think God will ever fault the giver in the end for having good intentions that didn't work out. I have been reading Francis Chan's "Crazy Love" this summer and it has really challenged me and the level of compassion I have for the poor. Read Matthew 25:31-46 today if you want to be challenged as well! World Vision and Samaritan's Purse are two organizations that we believe in their mission and trust if you want to get involved.