Happy Birthday Grandma Lynn~ Happy Birthday Marian!

August 26- almost two weeks early. It is absolutely beyond my dreams to think that of all the days of the year, that God would arrange for our baby to be delivered on my mom's birthday, and that our baby would be a girl who could have her name... Marian Lynn. We are amazed and joyously grateful.

Not only does she have her grandma's birthday, she positively has her grandma's hands. When my mom went to be with the Lord, I often pictured, and still often miss her hands, her gestures, her elegant fingers. I don't have any pictures of how beautiful her hands were- only in my head and in my heart can I remember her hands. But now we have a living picture of my mom's elegant hands right on my very own daughter. Simply beautiful.

As for Isaiah, he is definitely warming up to his new role as big brother. He gets very concerned when he hears his little sister crying and has taken the initiative several times now to give her a kiss. Marian is one amazingly loved little girl.

Isaiah and Papa

the beginning of the end

I'm so grateful that God gives us seasons. As winter neared its end I was eagerly looking forward to summer... and now I'm already ready for an end to this heat! Our local friends, when they ask when our baby is due, seem to all think that the beginning of Sept is a great time to sheng haizi (give birth) because it will be so much cooler then. That's not how I remember last year, but oh well.... Hot or not, I am super excited to meet this little one!

The past month has been very tiring... but now that we've moved and are feeling settled in our new apartment, our pace is evening out a bit and we're able to focus more on studies again. It took till about week 35 of this pregnancy for us to actually come up with a plan for having Isaiah watched while we trek out to the hospital (across town.) Early into 36 weeks, we finally agreed on names- both in English and the local language, for both a boy or girl. Now, as we near the end of August (actually the day this is posted is Aug 23, not 14), I'm approaching 38 weeks... I am- and we are- so incredibly eager to meet this little baby! Only about two weeks to go until our due date, but there there would only be joy if we get to meet this precious one early!

the boy and the belly

A few fun scenes from exploring the slide


















































Isaiah's first playground crush






























My belly is growing big with this active child... we're so excited to meet this little beauty/ little man in about two more months!

Climbing Papa

Papa and Isaiah discovered a super fun new game together.

Blue Milestone

Since I was a kid, I've always imagined numbers as certain colors. 3 is blue - so now that I've crossed into the thirties (yesterday I joined my husband who's already been there for a few months) I consider myself as beginning a beautifully blue decade. I know that's totally pointless to share with anyone who doesn't think of numbers this way- but regardless of that, 30 is an objective reality.... and it feels like a big one. Feels like I should be much more grown up by now!

My husband celebrated an entire birthday weekend with me. It was a fantastic weekend.... and after all of my sweet little gifts and surprises for two days straight- my amazing man greeted me Monday morning with "Happy Birthday in America!"

It feels pretty special to be nearing 7.5 months pregnant with our second child on my thirtieth birthday. We are super looking forward to "K2's" arrival at the beginning of Sept.

A great new trick

Isaiah is quite a little engineer. Daily, his papa asks him for an evaluation of the effectiveness/ user friendliness of some item in our home- the new fan, the vacuum cleaner, a remote control. He loves giving his full attention to studying how things work. We were outdoors recently and he found an interesting door knob to yonk on for a while. I told him "turn it down, Isaiah". He stopped, looked up at me, and then turned himself around like a regular hokey pokey.

Here is a video of Isaiah's new moonwalking/ "walk backwards" trick that he's really excited about.

Family Journey

We had a great time visiting friends of ours who live way outside the capital city we currently call home. The first day of traveling we had a long layover in a new airport where Isaiah was at his obsessive best- running for nearly an hour between four escalators that lined one side of the terminal where we waited for our flight. He made several new friends there that were delighted to take him up and down and run (literally) between these four pieces of heaven.





















Seeing our dear friends was such a joy for us! And their town is magnificent- desert, surrounded by fantastic mountains, filled with fruit, heat and dust, and inhabited by a most endearing people.
It was a great time for us- to take a tiny break from language study and get out of the big city. We're also glad to be challenged to pick up the pace- even more!- with our language study so we can someday soon be ready to live outside the capital (where English helpers abound!).














Theses last photos were taken by a friend there, in a cooler season. During our short visit, I failed to get my camera out to take many good photos of the local people that are so beautiful! I'm sure going to need to learn to travel well (and still take good photos) while pushing/chasing/ feeding kids- being that we'll have two soon :)!

When he was small

Here is Isaiah as he is just beginning to walk. Feb 7, 2007