Secret Keeper Girl Date #1

Riding off into the the sunset....Abigail & I are off to our Secret Keeper Girl Date #1 while David took Audrey An on a daddy/daughter date with him.  So glad I have my own chauffeur (aka David)!   We had to modify the date a bit (and have to modify a lot in our lives in our new surroundings!) since our mode of transportation is a motor bike : )

Date #1: I chose a new tea room for us to try out.  I called ahead and told them of our special date, and they came out and explained all the different teas and that they get their tea leaves from the northern part of the country....very fascinating to hear how they make the teas!

incredible view of the lake...

We ordered two different kinds of tea and an apple cake....yummo!

The purpose of this date was to explain that she is God's masterpiece..."You are incredibly valued in God's eyes.  That's why He takes so much time to work with you, just as a potter with his clay.  Your value doesn't change...ever...but the world will often judge your value based on how you present yourself....we're either a throwaway Styrofoam cup, old ceramic mugs, or PRICELESS china teacups in the way we dress, talk, or act, or in the places we're willing to go." (Dannah Gresh).   Isaiah 64:8 says, "We are the clay, You are the Potter; we are the work of Your hand."

If you remember from a couple of posts ago, I invited Abigail to join me for a special date and this is when I gave her the new book, 8 Great Dates for Moms & Daughters by Dannah Gresh.  It was SUCH a special date with my sweet "tween"!  I told David last night that it was neat to see how our relationship has developed while I've been ill....love her so much!  The time is now- not 2 months ago, not one month ago.  Now was the perfect time for us to start this book together based on how the past few months have developed.  I'm obviously knee deep into a new season of parenting, and I'm loving it.  I think this book is a great resource for moms and dads who are trying to instill what True Beauty and modesty is.  Click here a link to her website.

Cheers to a family get away....finally!

Last week I was strong enough to go on a trip- woo hoo!  David had a few days if a row so we went a trip to celebrate two BIG birthdays, our wedding anniversary, kindergarten graduation and my improved health!!!  I was so thrilled to get out of our four walls and have a BEAUTIFUL change of scenery...one of my most favorite destinations- the BEACH!!!  Even though I had to use masses amounts of sunscreen, stay under the shade, wear a sun visor, and and even a long sleeved shirt at times, it truly was one of the best vacations we've been on a s a family of four!

SUCH fun...Audrey An's first jet skiing ride, and she loved it! 

Home schooling's not too bad when you get to graduate from kindergarten on the beach : )

Congratulations, 4th grade and kindergarten graduates!!!  Girls, I couldn't be more thrilled with your hard work this semester.  It's not been easy on you at all with mommy so sick, but you did fantastic with your school. You both persevered, and we managed to get the work done.   Abigail has officially earned her Ph. D. in Education, too!  Although we made a big deal of AA's graduation, we HAVE to keep her going on some school stuff throughout the summer or she'll just lose everything she's learned since she's had so much catching up to do.  Abigail and I are in a sneaky partnership though.  "Super Summer Sister Camp" (summer school for AA!) has officially started, and Audrey An doesn't have a clue... (yet!).  Abigail is great!  She's made her own lesson plans with such creative activities for her little mei mei.  My BIG goal for Audrey An this summer is to really get her confident in reading.   Oh....and yes, that's the one thing I always told David when Abigail was in kindergarten at a "typical" school...."Man, I sure am glad someone else is teaching her to read.  That would really be a hard thing to do!"  Is that sooooo typical Christa or what!?!?!  Guess what I'm getting to do this year : )  NEVER say NEVER!!!  Will I ever learn that??

Graduation is just not graduation unless you throw your cap, ya know?!

 These locals appeared to be charging at us...probably had never seen a a kindergarten graduation on the beach before!

The 4th grade graduate got her first tennis lessons from her daddy-o!  She loved it.  She had to shed the flip flops pretty quick, but they had FUN!

My view of this country for the past 6 months...the back of the motor bike!

 My sweet Abigail is going to be as tall as her momma pretty soon, I think!

I could soooo wake up to this each morning!  Oh, wait...I did...for a few days!

Our last full day on the island it POURED....but we still had FUN!!! We sat on the beach (and actually got a little cool!).   We went around and had to say at least 5 positive things or what we were thankful for about each other. We decided to give it a cool name and voted on "S cubed" or ( "Sea Salt Spray"...double meanings if you're smart enough to figure it out!)... Pretty cute to see your girls beam when they hear their family building each other up, huh : ) It was pretty cute they couldn't stop at 5 for each other!

 What I did ALLLLLLL week....read (under the shade!).   See a portion of my book list in my previous post!

BUDDY'S ice cream...our favorite treat place each nite!

 This was at dusk prior us to eating at the night market...winds picking up.  Cool shot, David!

Now this is what Audrey An spotted outside as we were about to land back home...beautiful!

Just a few reasons I love being a mom!

opening a special invitation left on her pillow...I adore the sparkle in her eye!

I love her answer!

While we were on vacation last week, Abigail and I had a very special "date" together.  We go on lots of dates, and she (we!) love it!  She couldn't be more of a "quality time" girl! She's growing up right before my very eyes...can't believe it!   I can't wait to go through our book together this summer, Little Miss Abigail!  I love you to the moon and back!  I'm thoroughly enjoying this new season of parenting.  Parenting is a challenge...no matter what stage.

  David and I have chosen to do "blessing ceremonies" at significant milestones in the lives of our girls.  It's a time to acknowledge, encourage, pray and bless that season of their life.  The first "ceremony" for each girl was the day we publically dedicated our girls in front to the One Who Created them and promised to do our very best to raise them in "the ways they should go."  The second was the weekend they both were baptized (yes, they both have, too...PTL!)...acknowledging the public obedience of their faith.  The third was when they graduated kindergarten.  So, wow we've already had three blessing ceremonies for each.  I guess you could call my date with Abigail a "mini" blessing ceremony...just a time when mommy/daughter (although daddy will be very much involved, too!) are entering a new phase of parenting and "tween"times. Other times we'll to blessing ceremonies are most likely at their Sweet 16, high school graduation and weddings...and whenever else we deem appropriate! We also celebrate their spiritual birthday each year, too (and Audrey An's adoption day....we like to celebrate around our house!!).

  Well, we had a little pomp and circumstance on the beach last week!  Audrey An graduated kindergarten and Abigail graduated 4th grade.  I surprised them them matching monogrammed shirts for a little graduation gift....they were so thrilled! Great job on the shirts, Shanna!

Marriage and parenting is very difficult life work, and anyone who thinks differently is C.R.A.Z.Y (and I mean that in a verse nice way!!)!!  Our natural fleshly self is to be selfish, impatient, and a host of other negative adjectives.  But...there's tremendous JOY in the journey when you look for opportunities to invest. instill, love, cherish and bless your family in ways only God could allow you to do.  It's not too difficult to see that most everything in our culture goes against what Truths you are striving to teach/train our children.  It's work.  It's hard work, but it's worth every second to ground them as best as you can to stand up for what is right.  My goal as a parent is to instill in them Deut. 6:5, have their speech/actions displayed out of heart change (not robotic discipline), and spread their wings how HE would want them to fly!

Here are a few of the books Abigail and I have just completed or in the process of completing.  (I'll let you you guess what tween is in to Nancy Drew!).  Now, David just got a Kindle for his birthday (Thanks, Poppy!) so his aren't in this "stack".  Audrey An is coming along with her reading, and one of our summer goals for her is to really catch her up on her skills.  If you have good recommendations, leave me a comment (or email me if you know me personally).  I'm always looking for a good read and am always updating a resource list that I started a few years ago!

 

Birthdays & Anniversary...they all come at once!

Let me back up a few weeks...

Anniversary dinner nite out on the town...we celebrated 12 years on May 29! Thank you, Jason & Jill for letting our girls play at your house so we could have a real love DATE : )

This meal was BY FAR the best "western" meal we've had out here...even a taste of home with a yummo peach tart for dessert!  Thanks for a great evening, David.  I loved every minute of it!

The next day was David's BIG 4-0...the girls made him cards and breakfast!

A little later in the day we surprised David with a surprise party.  It's way more fun too eat whipping cream out of the bottle, right!?!

Abs gets in on the action!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, David/Daddy/Hubby!!!!

Audrey An even got a birthday card in mid-June! When David came back from his checkride he brought an entire stack of Christmas cards that we hadn't received prior to our move.  AA's birthday is in December, too, so she thought it was pretty cool to get a birthday card in the middle June from her Aunt Janice!

Then....my big 4-0 came a few days later!

CPK=88!!!

WOW!!!!!  Little did my husband know this morning when he surprised me with these beautiful flowers that we'd be celebrating a very important number this afternoon!  My CPK has dropped to 88!!!!!!!  Yes, is that not unbelievable!?!?  It was once at almost 8000!  Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!!!!

Last week, I proved that I couldn't talk on my cell and walk down the street at the same time without falling into a pothole.  Well, I fell flat to the street, twisted my ankle, and it ballooned up like nobody's business.  I didn't break it, but Dr. nathalie told me she wouldn't be surprised if my CPK would be up because of this minor set back of swelling.  CPK last week still decreased to 1244 last week.  So, if you've been following the journey you know this CPK number is a biggie (no pun intended!), but it hasn't necessarily correlated with how I feel.  Well, we just returned from a mini vacation to celebrate our birthdays and anniversary and I felt stronger and better than I had in a VERY long time!  So THIS time it does go hand in hand!  Yes, I SHOULD live on the beach....it always makes me feel better : )  I have to say I've never been to the beach and not come back with a suntan though!!  I followed doctor's order preetttttttty good I must say.  Shade, suncreen, visor, etc.    WOO HOO!!!!!!  I'm still weak and it's going to take more time to build back my muscle mass, but I'm getting so much better!

On another note, our sweet Abigail hasn't been feeling well  (sluggish, etc.) so I took her in with me today for some blood tests.  She has an iron deficiency, and we are awaiting more results for her.   She's a trooper.  She can't stand getting her blood drawn or shots, but she was strong and courageous today, too.  Pray for accurate results for her (we'll not know those for 4-5 days).  She was excited that her new, cool retainer came in at the dentist today though!  I guess I was kinda excited to wear one at her age, too.  Well, after four years of braces for me , the coolness wore off for me!

I planned to post about our trip today, but I'm too excited about my wonderful answered prayer!!  More pics later : )

Christmas is June!

Two very happy girls...open goodies WHILE their Nana & Papa D are watching via skype!

Well, this week I had been dreading a bit, but it turned out to be great!  David flew back to the states for some training that was rescheduled due to my earlier hospitalization.  David and I were both a bit hesitant about him leaving me in "my condition", but the girls and I did fabulous.  Many people checked in on us while he was gone, our new helper has been fabulous, and I was even up for having a girl's nite out with two of my friends!  It was a crazy busy week for my man, but he passed his checkride, got to spend some great time with his dad and sister and even slipped in a quick breakfast/lunch with a couple of his buddies....blessings for him, too!!!  I had list after list for him to do while he was there- my lists were having babies....like multiple times a day!  MANY of my family and friends had been shopping/gathering/shipping things to my sister-in-law's home and my sweet friend, Brantley's, home for weeks now.  I cannot thank them enough for taking some of that errand running off of David while he was there as his time was so very limited.  John  and Deborah (his dad and sister), I'm soooooo thankful it worked out you all got to fly out and meet up with him.  It really meant a lot to him (and me)....thank you!  Reagan, thank you for holding down the fort with your kiddoes so your sweet wife could come out to see her brother!

Deborah, John and David!

I, of course, had my weekly "CPK #" check, and guess what???  It continues to decrease....yeah!  On Tuesday, it was down to 1643 (from 2006 the week before).  Again, I was a bit surprised at the amount of the decrease because I had  had a very busy weekend prior....thought I had done a bit too much.  My doctor (along with me!) was thrilled to see/hear how much better I'm feeling/doing.  She was able to continue to decrease the dosage of steroid AND we still didn't have to start the methotrexate Rx.  THAT'S a huge praise for me....just really want to avoid that if at all possible!

So...you might be wondering what in the world would be on this massive "to do/get/pretty, pretty please bring back for us" list!  Well, when you've been spoiled enough all your life to hop in your car to run to Target, Kroger, or a any store that you can read english as your first language....you tend to start making a list pretty fast when you don't have access to that- or anything like that!  Although I'm pretty used to google translating our items as I stand in front of the shampoo aisle, there's just something nice about asking David, “Please, get.....” (and I KNOW what it is!). I don't think I've ever been so excited to open a box of roll-on deoderant (how weird is that?!?!), blonde hair highlight kit (umm...yes, my Renaissance Man is quite good at that, too!), socks (you wouldn't think THAT would be a difficult item to find!?!?!), flour tortillas, chocolate, medicines/vitamins, sunscreen, flip flops for people with feet a “tad” longer than normal (!), school curriculum, lipstick, ziploc bags (with the slider locks that actually stay closed!), and just gads of other fun stuff that in which we were surprised!  I even sat and opened Christmas cards (literally!) while I ate my Special K with strawberries cereal, chocolate and cherry sours for breakfast this morning....how fun is that!?!

Audrey An's princess costumes were top on her list!

David, kinda didn't think about it until now, but this was the first time you got to celebrate your birthday  starting in one country, cross the ocean the same day, then end up celebrating in your home country....like all at the same time!  Kinda cool-  you even got your seat changed and had more leg room  : )

David with a few friends/co-workers...just hours prior to him leaving.  It's hard catching a bunch of pilots in the same place at the same time!!!

So glad you're home now, baby.  We missed you, but I'm so thankful you had a good week...and we did, too!  HE is faithful Provider and Sustainer!  Now...let's get me well and go somewhere together, okay!?!?

If you're David and have two thoughtful daughters....you are greeted with welcome home signs.  Also, our great friend, Gregg, did a little shopping from the girls (I wasn't quite able to "shop" for his bday)....thanks, Gregg!  He's had his eye on that shirt for awhile : )