Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours....Frohliche Weihnachten! Chris preached at a Heiliger Abend Service/Christmas Eve Service, and we are enjoying a Christmas at home in Germany with friends. This is Emeline's first Christmas home celebrating with us the birth of our savior. What a joy is it to have her home this year!

Isaiah 9:6: For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given...

Thankful

Yep, we are thankful. Sweet girl with her daddy.

This is what Emeline's daddy did to her when she got the tape out of his desk.










18 1/2 weeks pregnant....taken after dinner for the best possible effect.

We had a busy few weeks. Chris and I celebrated our 9th anniversary, which this year fell on Thanksgiving. We were actually married the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so sometimes like this year the dates line up. We celebrated Emeline’s first Thanksgiving home with us. I remember this time last year everything was up in the air with Guatemalan adoptions. I remember it all too well. I remember thinking…please by this time next year let her be home! Oh, and I am so very thankful that she is indeed home. As I hoped and hoped that our girl would come home last year, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would be celebrating the next Thanksgiving with my sweet girl and be pregnant. It’s really too much to get my head around. So, I m still riding the wave of thankfulness. God has blessed us more than we could have asked or imagined.

Sorry I haven’t posted in so long. Our computer was in the shop for 10 days, and I just haven’t had a moment to post. Thank you for all who are praying for a healthy pregnancy. So far, Baby seems to be doing great, and I am feeling pretty good as well! I want to finish off with a little note I typed up the day I found out I was pregnant.

Today is a day I will never forget. Today is the day I found out I was pregnant. After 5 years I had really thought it might not ever happen. I was late…about 10 days late before I took a test, because I just wanted to daydream about the possibility of being pregnant. It was enough to allow myself what I considered somewhat delusional thinking. It just seemed too good to be true. Early this morning, which is Wednesday, September 03, 2008 I got up early while Chris and Emeline were still in bed, and I walked to our corner drug store (after picking up some cereal at the supermarket) and bought 2 pregnancy tests—and some paper towels and toilet paper.

My mouth was dry and I was really nervous as I took the test. I waited for the results praying that God would give me peace no matter what the results, and that I would indeed be pregnant. I was ecstatic and in disbelief when I saw 2 lines on that pregnancy test. I was schwanger!!!! I kept looking at the test…checking the results against the box. I was in shock…a very happy shock.

Then, I went back into the bedroom where Emeline and Chris were still asleep. I gave the positive pregnancy test to Emeline and told her to give it to her daddy. Chris, who was half in a daze could not believe his eyes. We were screaming as Emeline began to pretend the pregnancy stick test was a cell phone and tried to talk on it.

Then, I went to the doctor whose office is in apartment buildings one street over. The nurse was very nice and got me set up to see him in an hour. At 10:30am Chris, Emeline and I were all in his office. A few moments later we were looking at our baby for the first time. Praise the Lord!!!!

Emeline's BIG news

Hey everybody, I am going to be a big sister!!!!

Gimme a kiss 'cause I gonna be a big sister!

I'm not sure what the big deal is...but I'm getting a baby brother or sister.

What!? Being a big sister means I have to share my toys!









Yeah! When I am a big sister I will have to someone to play with me!

It is with great joy and thankfulness to God that we announce that we are expecting a baby. Emeline is going to be a big sister. I am 15 weeks pregnant. We were told by doctors that this was not going to happen, but all we can say is that miracles do happen. Please, please pray for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby--due the first week of May 2009. I am going to post in the coming days with more details like: when we found out, how I told Chris, and how we told our parents. However, for now, we are just going to leave you with some sonogram pictures from last week and this verse.


Psalm 139:14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

Above: Picture of Baby's head and upper body. The 2 markers in the image are measuring the baby's nose. You can see the baby waving hello, and the arm on the other side is bent.

Below: This imave shows the baby's back---you can see the spine. These sonogram pictures were taken at 13 weeks and 6 days.

hhhh

Favorite Photo Friday--HAPPY REFORMATION DAY!

Like Father, Like Daughter... oh my!

Emeline and her daddy posing as John Calvin.

FINALLY MORE PICTURES

In the park in Düsseldorf

In Brugge, Belgium

Reading with Daddy

Riding around and being silly

Finally, the pictures were rescued from the camera. Actually, these are just the first of many to come. Chris' family just visited, and we have pictures from our time here and traveling together. I thought I would save those for the next post at the end of this week or next week. So, check back soon for more pictures. We have now corrected the camera issue and now I can get back to regular picture posting.

We are all still well here. We continue to have warm weather for our neck of the woods--and even have had a good bit of sunshine. I am soaking it up! Emeline also just got one of her back teeth today--can you say ouch?! Although she looks like she has many teeth beacause she has the 4 front top and bottom teeth, the poor baby needs to more teeth to chew. She is not in the best of moods, but we were pleased to note the progress in the tooth making. Also we can add the word "car" to our list of English words that baby girl is now saying.

We have also had some visits from dear friends in the past few weeks (in addition to Chris' family visiting). We have even had a girl party while some of our husbands were in a conference in Spain where we had visitors from France and Holland here for the day. It was a blast...let's do it again soon, ladies!

Better Days

Our camera is not cooperating and allowing us to download pictures at the moment, so I had no new pictures to show you of our girl. However, I have so many pictures I love, so I decided to give you one of the earliest we have. The above picture is from our visit trip to Guatemala when Emeline was just 11-12 weeks old. Was she ever so tiny...it is hard to believe. Look at all that soft, black hair. It was soft like feathers. I would give anything to have had more time with Emeline when she was so tiny, but we are thankful for the times God has given us now. I am so glad we have those precious memories and so many pictures of our short time together. We were in Guatemala for around 10 days. I am thankful we did not know we would have such a long wait to bring her home. (Though, so many more families waited even longer and are waiting even now!) Precious memories...

Back to the present...we are feeling so much better. Thanks for all of you who checked on us. My strong Guatemalan daughter never did get sick. I still can't believe it. Chris and I both had that virus, though Chris has a much milder case than I. We have been blessed with a healthy child. She has yet to even really be sick enough to bring to the doctor for other than vaccinations apart from her sensitive skin when we first arrived home in Germany, and she has been home over 7 months.

Emeline spends much of her time these days caring for her babies, which can anything from baby dolls to stuffed monkeys. She covers them up--sometimes with clothes or with blankets and pushes them in her stroller. She is a good mommy to her babies. Though she still is not saying many words--especially in English, she is saying "shoes." Hmmm could there be a reason she is saying that word. If you saw in her closet you would know why. As soon as we get the camera figured out I will post new pictures.

SICK!!!

The wind in her hair...

Sweet friends--Emma and Emeline. I just love to see them together!

Update Sunday evening: So far Emeline is not sick, but Chris is getting sick as of this evening. He is now asleep. Thankfully, though not even close to 100%, I am feeling MUCH better and am able to take over caring for Emeline. We have her medications her doctor called in ready to go if she gets sick.

Update Tuesday afternoon: Chris seems to have had a very mild case and is feeling much better. Emeline is still not sick....maybe she won't get it after all. I hope that is the case. I am still not 100%, but continue to get better every day.

Update Thurday morning: Our girl is still healthy, and I am amazed. I was waiting a bit to de-germ/deep clean the apartment, but I can wait no longer. I am beginning to believe she might not get it after all...yeah!!!! Chris and I are feeling much better.

I am SICK. I have some kind of horrible stomach flu. I am hoping that I am now coming out on the other side, because I am able to make this post. Seriously, I have not been this sick in about 10 years—which tells you I should be counting my blessings on that. Please pray that sweet Emeline does not get it. I will update if she does. Oh, and hopefully daddy doesn’t get it either. I had her doctor call in some medicine just in case. Poor sweet baby doesn’t understand why mommy won’t hold her. Of course she was eating out of my plate right before I got sick, so I am just HOPING she somehow doesn’t get it. On another note, my doctor actually came to our apartment to take a look at me—how’s that for great service. They were having some kind of doctor strike all over our area—typical European!!. He tried to call one of the house doctors who will come to your house, but they were all on strike, so he said he was coming himself. We are less than a block from his office. Still, it felt good to be so taken care of. He even gave us his home phone number in case things were to get worse. He also called a doctor he knows at a local hospital so he would be informed should I have to go in. I have 2 busted blood vessels under my eyes, and I have passed out at least 2 times that I know of…fun, fun, fun. However, I am keeping down some fluids, so I am not planning a trip the hospital any time soon. Again, I hope I am over the hump as I certainly couldn’t have done this post even this morning. Please pray that it is so!

18 Months

One year ago... August 2007

And here she is at 18 months old in August 2008...

In some ways it seems like just yesterday Emeline came home to be with us. On the other hand, it is hard to remember what life was like without her being here with us. Recently, we were able to visit family, and Emeline had some new photos taken of herself and with her cousins, Dylan and Devon. My baby girl (who I know is technically not a baby but a toddler--but hey, she’s still my baby) is 18 months old this month. She has been home with us for 6 months. This time last year I made a little flyer celebrating Emeline’s ½ birthday. What a difference a year makes!!!! I still can’t stop pinching myself.

Dutch Life, Gnomes and Friends

All 3 of us in front of one of the many gardens we saw. Gnome-a-licious...
Me and my boyfriend.
Check out the windmill and the little fisherman in the boat behind us.
Emeline at the end of a long day.

This weekend we had our friend Rebecca visiting from Toronto, Cananda. She is PhD student in German history. We got to know Rebecca and her husband Dennis in language school in Bonn. (We missed you this time, Dennis!) We look forward to seeing them in times to come when Rebecca’s studies bring them back to Germany. Rebecca had never been to Holland and since we are just over the border here in Germany, we decided on Saturday to visit the Dutch life center, which is in Arnheim. It was a perfect day for being outside and we got to see some very interesting things about everyday Dutch life from the past. Chris and I couldn’t help but think of how much my parents would have loved seeing all the antiques. Emeline loved all the animals and looking at all the other children visiting with their families. We have to thank Rebecca for all these pics she took of us. I just love the picture of Emeline with all the Gnomes.

Chris has been busy this week writing a sermon he will preach on a visitor Sunday in early September at a German church. He has his Bible study at the senior center on Wednesday. We also got invited last week to our neighborhood fair and got to meet the entire extended family of one of our good friends on a couple of occasions. It is finally feeling like we belong in our neighborhood and it is so good that people are going out of their way to make sure we are included in important local events. People still can’t help but be charmed by Emeline and her outgoing personality!

In the Footsteps of Luther

Pretty country (below)/ Outside the church in Leipzig where Bach worked most of his life...Luther also preached in this church (above)

On the road again...our world traveler

Taking the train....we like that!

Dresden

Visiting with our friends

Daddy, Emeline and Uncle Martin in front of the house where he was born.

Emeline and Daddy in front of the church Luther attended as a child in Mansfeld.
Emeline and Chris in Mansfeld.

Last week we Chris has some business to take care of east of us in Germany. So, Emeline and I decided to tag along and got to see Leipzig (think JS Bach) and Dresden. We also got to visit with some friends in Dresden. Emeline’s favorite time was playing with their kids and their little dog Jack. After leaving Dresden we got to go to Eisleben where Martin Luther was born and where he preached his last sermon and died. We also visited his nearby childhood home of Mansfeld. So, it was pretty funny when our daughter got all excited seeing the painting of Martin Luther as Junker Jörg in Luther’s birthplace museum. She also loves Chris’ book on Luther that has that painting on the cover. Yes, we are nerds. Thankfully, Emeline has lots of family to save her from nerdom. What can we say, Emeline loves her some Uncle Martin.

I have so much more to say about our trip, but sadly no time. I definitely have some thoughts on Dresden, which was almost completely bombed away in WWII. I hope to post some more about our trip soon. I might even just add some more to this post next week some time.

But, as is always the case, I don’t want to keep you from seeing Emeline, so I am posting these pictures!