Grandmothers... leaving a Legacy of Faith

We received sad news yesterday.  E's Grandma passed away quite suddenly. She had been in the hospital for about a week, but when we talked to my mother-in-law on Wednesday, there was no indication anyone thought she was near the end. She was confused, but they weren't really getting any medical answers as to what was wrong. We're not sure (at the moment) what happened, but it was a surprise when we received the call yesterday to hear that she was gone.

I'm so thankful we were in Vancouver for Christmas this year and that we made it out twice to visit with Grandma. I love the picture below - 4 generations.

Isn't she cute?

Grandma F was a missionary for many years in Venezuela. My father-in-law was born and spent his childhood there before coming to Canada for school. Grandma lived a life well for the Lord and I know she has heard her Saviour say "well done, faithful child."

Grandma will be missed. If you have a moment, pray for the family as they go through all the preparations and decisions that come at a time like this.

Ironically (?), on Wednesday we heard that my Dad's mother, Grammie R had "taken a turn" and the family was called in. Not quite sure what that means. Unlike E's grandmother, who was mostly coherent and mobile, my grandmother has been lost in her world because of Alzheimer's and deafness. Her body is weak and she doesn't move on her own. But my mom was in yesterday afternoon and Grammie seemed to be doing "ok". Obviously, who knows from hour-to-hour; it's like that with many her age. But yesterday she looked like this:

The Grandmother I remember would "DIE" if she knew this picture would be seen by anyone, but... she won't know. :) When this picture was taken she was surrounded with love - her 2 daughters, a daughter-in-law and a granddaughter. 

What a day it will be when she enters her eternal home and sees her Saviour face-to-face. Her mind will be clear and she will be able to HEAR. I can't wait for that for her. Reality is, we have been missing her all these years, mourning the loss of the grandmother/mother we knew and loved. It will be sad to hear when she is gone, but for her sake there will be relief and joy.

Someday soon, both our grandmothers may be rejoicing side-by-side in their Saviour's presence... lives lived on earth for God's glory and pleasure. They lived knowing their treasure was in heaven, and the longing of their hearts have been there for a long, long time. Both ladies raised families with their husbands gone for long periods of time sharing the gospel with others. Both ladies lived by faith - not having a steady income, but trusting God to meet their every need. Often meals were beyond simple, and the same night after night. At times, they didn't know where their next meal would come from to feed their little family.... but God always provided. Both ladies were strong women - holding the fort down during difficult times while their husbands were away.

Ladies, leaving a legacy of faith. They lived by faith. And they were faithful servants. And we love them dearly. May we continue on as they did... and keep our eyes and hearts on what matters... having our treasure in Heaven.

My Rwandan Son

Isn't he precious?! My heart melts whenever I look at his picture; he is a gift to me.

I had talked about sponsoring a child for a long time... another good intention going stale without action. For my birthday, my Man gave me a wonderful gift through Compassion Canada - a Rwandan 'son' born on January 10th - my birthday. He's 10 years old. 

I wish I had clearer pictures of his precious face, but am thankful for the visuals I do have.

Correspondence is relatively slow in this age of instant messaging, text messages, facebook, email, etc. I have received one letter from David so far; it seems someone in his family wrote it for him before it was translated for me. I hope over time, as David gets older, letters and pictures will be more frequent and personal.

But that is just an added bonus.

I have the gift and joy of praying for David and his family, and offering just a little financial assistance to hopefully ease their burden in a small way. Giving a little help in the name of Jesus, knowing the gospel is reaching this family.

I urge you to visit Compassion Canada's website, or the US site for my American friends, and look at the sweet faces waiting for a sponsor to love them. Maybe you are being called to be a friend to one?

Bath Time

Full on joy in the tub :)

(Taken over the Christmas holidays... but thought it was cute enough to still share)

Eight Month Update

Disclaimer:  Please remember I'm treating these posts as a stand-in for the traditional baby books... sorry for the boring details!

I started this post over a month ago... sad right? Guess I should start it fresh...

In seven days, little man will be nine months... W.H.E.R.E. does the time go??

Tooth update: five little chicklettes - top two middle and three bottom center... four in seven months and the fifth one came in two weeks ago. And by the amount of teething signs this week, there will be more very shortly.

Moving:  When I started this post, AJ was ready to crawl - up on all fours, swaying, going from a lying down position to sitting on his own...  milestones I was excited about. ;)  But on February 9th - it clicked.  I was looking after him in the church nursery during our Thursday night ESL class, and he was exhausted and clingy... I was across the room, and I guess he just wanted close, because up and over he came! Crying/whining as he speedily crawled. Crying to my cheers... haha

On the move...

He's much happier about it now... and loves to get under my feet no matter where I am in the room. He has yet to venture too far away for exploration, but that day will come soon enough. It's amazing how quickly things progress once the crawling kicks in. He's pulling himself up all over the place as if he's been doing it his whole life.

One of his favorite past-times is playing with clothes...

Is this a hint I should fold more frequently??

... his socks are a favourite!  Who needs toys?!

Most days AJ is a pretty chatty kid. Especially at church. Always at church. At full volume. He doesn't really have a gradual volume - just silence... to full on noise that can't be ignored. Happy! But loud. I love hearing all the new sounds he can make. I especially love hearing "mamamama"... whether or not he knows what he's saying has yet to be decided. ;)

At 7 months - pre-crawling days... and this video really doesn't show the cute gibberish - just the volume

Eating:  When we first started AJ on solids, I thought he was going to be a great eater. Unfortunately it seems he's more of a moody eater. Some days it goes great, others - meh. Food? Who needs real food? YOU DO AJ! :) He's more into eating with his hands now instead of allowing me to spoon feed him... it keeps him busy longer, but pretty sure he's getting less IN his mouth. He will eat pieces of pasta, rice, chicken, apple, tomato, etc... but his favourite is the Gerber Puffs... loves the peach ones. Maybe THAT'S why his nose is orange?? (See pictures - can't figure out why his nose and cheeks are leaning toward the orange colour... certainly *not* because of an overabundance of carrots unfortunately)


AJ loves water... he would go nuts seeing us drink a glass of water without sharing, but now that he can hold his own sippy-cup, he's happy with that.

(sorry - my video clips are a bit long!)

Is it a bad thing that the child has figured out exactly what to do with a coffee mug?

Sleeping: Well, we won't really even go there. Sleeping habits (night and napping) plummeted downhill after Christmas. I'm not sure if it was the time-change, new places (Vancouver and then Grand Bend), and/or just a 6-month twist in habits. January was a bit of a nightmare for naps - I gave into his crying most days and took drives for my sanity and AJ's sleeping health. But things have improved quite a bit now, and while not perfectly scheduled (ha.), naps are in his crib unless we are out for other reasons. Nights are getting there... we had to work through a nasty cold in February and then all those teeth coming through.

Growth:  The constant growing has slowed down a bit right now (thankfully), and he's been in the same size clothes for a couple months now: 9-12 months or 12 months  AJ's legs, which seemed shorter in proportion, have now seemed to have caught up to the rest of his body. His weight is holding steady at 20-21 lbs. Not sure his height at the moment.

Random:

AJ has no fear of dogs... he loved this beautiful Golden Retriever he met at a friend's place.

He went for his first swing in February (at 7 months)! He wasn't quite sure what to think, but that may have been a result of the frigid temperatures that his mom dragged him out in!

Uncle Lucas came to visit on his spring break - how fun!! :)

AJ loves books... and who better to enjoy them with than Grammie?

The whole tongue out thing had slowed down for awhile... then Grammie came to visit and out it came again! It really seemed like he remembered she was the one to laugh hysterically at it in the past...

Finally - we've gone to the zoo quite a few times during the day, but AJ thought it was a lot more fun when Daddy came along on a Saturday! :)

Giveaway you don't want to miss!

Hey!

Check out my friend's giveaway for a trendy coloured guest book or diary from Graphic Image.
You can find Janna at Swoon! Interiors for amazing interior design and ideas... and follow their unbelievable house renos. :)

Christmas Recap 2

We flew home from Vancouver on Boxing Day. The plane was half empty and we were given a set of 4 seats to ourselves. SO much better than the flight out which was packed. This allowed AJ some room to kick it out a bit.

Once we collected all our bags we headed out on the trek to reach our car. To save a few dollars we parked in an cheaper off-site parking garage which we took a "train" to. It actually worked very well. With all that we had to carry/push, AJ hung out in my Moby wrap (soooo good for trips!). He was content to just look around and take everything in. He is definitely getting heavier though... whoa.

We found our car. Which was completely DEAD.  aaahhhh  So glad we arrived in the afternoon and not late at night; it would have seemed like a much bigger deal at night. We used our Honda Roadside Assistance for the first time, and in less than an hour our battery was rebooted and ready to go. So two tow-truck calls in less than 3 days. Lovely.

We made a quick out-of-the-way pit stop in Markham to pack a few more things into our vehicle and grab a pizza...  then we hit the road for an almost 3-hour drive to Grand Bend where we planned to spend the next week of vacation. We recently bought a little place there for an escape from the city... within walking distance to the beach! I.can.not.wait.for.summer! A 3 hour drive after a 4+ hour plane ride didn't really seem appealing, but it was great to get there, fall into bed and crash. AJ miraculously slept the entire trip - perfect.

We are good friends with the last 2 owners of the little house. It's a great little place, but we set out to make it "our own"... I had paint colours chosen, and my Man was determined to use this week of vacation to paint. I was so tired from my lack of sleep in Vancouver that I wanted to just S.L.E.E.P. but we went to work... and I'm glad we did. We only did the main living area which led into 2 little alcoves. Doesn't sound like a lot, but you have to remember we had a little 6 month old who needed us too. :)

It went from this:

To This:

To This (Please don't look closely - we are FAR from professionals!):

There's still lots to do, so it will be an ongoing work in progress. I'm pleased with how the colours turned out. Just need some colour pop in artwork, accents, etc.  A step at a time.

AJ and I took a break on New Year's Eve and walked down to the Pier. It's not quite as attractive as it is in the summer months, but I love being near the water regardless of what season it is. It's just missing the "salt water" smell of the ocean. :)

We planned to stay until Monday, January 1st but our plans were changed... A very blustery wind blew in Sunday afternoon and the forecast called for snow that nigh... around 3:30pm the power went out. We had heard about the frequent power outages in Grand Bend, but hadn't thought to prepare for them. We didn't have a candle, match or flashlight! But! We *did* have our phones and laptops. We waited around for awhile to see if the power would come back on, but as the place got colder, we made the decision to head home that night instead of the possibility of spending a cold night cuddled together. ;)  Now, since we planned to go home Monday - nothing was packed or strategically placed... dishes were sitting on the counter and in the sink.  We turn the heat off when we're not there, so there were certain "anti-freeze" procedures that needed to be done for the coming months... and it was completely dark. We propped the laptop open in front of AJ to help him cope with the darkness when we couldn't sit and entertain him, then hustled around with our cell phones to do the packing, dishes and closing up procedures. Our batteries were getting very low but we made it! We had the car mostly packed when the power came back on. :) That was ok - it allowed us to do a run through to make sure we had everything. We hit the road and AJ slept the entire way home... again. Amazing.

We had something to look forward to in getting home (besides our own bed and not living out of suitcases!).

Dad was visiting in between a youth ministry weekend in Midland Ontario and a bible conference in New Jersey! We had 4 days with him and it was a great way to cap off my holidays! :)

Happy 2012 to all of you!

Backing up a bit... Christmas recap

I have many topics swirling around in my head... hard to focus for the short segments of time I get to write.  I always seem to leave too much time after holidays to recap, and then life moves on... but it just seems a little wrong to move on without mentioning our Christmas holidays - AJ's first Christmas!

AJ's first Christmas landed on the Vancouver rotation, which was nice since my sister-in-law and her husband were also going to be home from Arizona for the holidays. We only overlapped 4 days but I know my in-laws were thrilled to have their whole family under one roof. Not to mention their grandson...  AJ was certainly spoiled with love and attention!

My man had to work one day while we were there (his boss is based out of Vancouver), so I took the opportunity to have lunch with a good friend and her girls... I was pleasantly surprised when her husband joined us! I hadn't seen him in quite a while, so it was a very nice lunch. The girls were fantastic with AJ; I think they need a nephew or niece! ;) AJ was super tired, so it took all their creative energy to keep him happily entertained. For the most part, it worked!

Love this couple :)

We made it out to see my Man's Grandma twice. It was special to get a 4-generation picture to capture the memory.

Red Robin is a must for us when we go West, so we were happy to get there once for lunch. I could be shot for posting this picture, but I like to show my father-in-law's playful side. :)

Love their burgers... fries are good too! mmm... now I'm hungry. (not really anything new)

Since we're so rarely ALL together, we had family pictures taken. It was a rainy chilly day, but we made the best of it down at Granville Island.  I had fun! :) I am so pleased with Kezia's work, and highly recommend her if you're in the Vancouver area. Here's a sample.

It was my father-in-law's 60th birthday in December, so while we were all together, we had a nice belated dinner to celebrate. Happy 60th Birthday Dad! :) 

We moved the Christmas traditions up a day and did everything on Saturday. We went out for a nice brunch at White Spot, opened gifts, relaxed and ate a delicious turkey dinner. 

Love AJ's little head peaking over the chair ;)

I guess I should include one of our eventful moments of the trip. Between opening gifts and dinner, there was a nice stretch of downtime.  My Man suggested he and I go out for a bit and enjoy a Starbucks... of course I jumped and ran for the door! AJ wasn't napping so we stuck him in the carseat and headed out. There was a sunny break in the clouds and I had my camera out snapping pictures in the driveway. Somehow, while putting AJ in the van, the keys dropped on his knees unnoticed. The door shut. My man goes to open his door and... nothing. The van was locked. How convenient for AJ to somehow hit the lock button on the keys in those 2 seconds! Here we are, salivating for a latte (well, I was) and we're standing in the driveway with our poor little guy locked inside the van. No extra set of keys as we were using a friend's vehicle. 

AJ inside - looking out forlornly. Thankfully he had Sophie (the giraffe) to keep him company

Coquitlam Towing was quickly called - huge shout-out to them! They were in the driveway in less than 10 minutes. Apparently the guy flew out of his office and into the truck when he heard there was a baby in the vehicle, honking his horn all the way to the house to get there as fast as he could. We were SO thankful! AJ perfectly fine throughout all this - content to chew on Sophie. Likely wondering why it was taking his parents so stinkin' long to get in the vehicle!  

Since the towing company was so fast, we still had time to enjoy our Starbucks. Phew. Oh, Cinnamon Dolce - how I love you! 

Bonus: AJ slept through the entire outing, so we really felt like we had a date. A rare date.

See what AJ is clutching so tightly? His favorite Christmas gift - a fruit bar... no, he didn't eat it. He chewed on it, crinkled the wrapper, studied the colours, etc. He had it for days!

At 6 months, AJ was still pretty young for Christmas. He liked the lights on the tree, the colourful presents, and played with the tissue paper a bit. But he was even a bit too young to really be into that too. I noticed he was more into ripping paper this week than he was at Christmas.

He still loves to be on his feet so much, even though he has absolutely no balance. He likes to "dance" and wiggle. He kept his grandparents and aunt busy over the holidays walking around and around.

He traveled well, all things considering. The plane rides were super l.o.n.g. I'm not sure I would ever attempt that distance by myself - at least while he's so young. He slept some, cried a bit (thankfully not too much), chattered away, and... squirmed. The turbulence wasn't bad, so we were able to get up and walk around with him. Relief! He would never have slept otherwise! I had tylenol and gravel on hand in case we were torturing other passengers, but thankfully I didn't have to use it. :)

Sleep. Well, sleep was completely messed up with the time change and bed change. I was up so often with him in the night that I was exhausted. I couldn't get caught up during the day like he could. I stopped feeding him solids half-way through the week (he hadn't built up to a whole lot yet, so it was ok) because he seemed more gassy; I thought that might be waking him up... but it didn't really change anything. Even though he wasn't 100% himself, he was a pretty good guy for having everything so mixed up.  I'm so thankful for this (usually) easy-going kid we have... 

We had a great week in Vancouver - the time flew by. I know I've gone on about this before, but it makes me sad that AJ's grandparents, aunts and uncles aren't able to be in his life a little more frequently. We were sad saying goodbye since we don't have a "next date" to look forward to yet. But, if I have learned anything this past year, it's that time zips by and I need to be grateful for each moment. We were very thankful to have the time together we did have over the holidays - making memories.

(Christmas Part 2 to come: will hopefully be MUCH shorter!)