i am thankful for....

- a kind, and extremely generous, husband who gave me the morning "off" to go to my favorite tea shop and sit and write notes and be free.
- large pots of vanilla rooibos tea with cream. i think it has somehow made it's way from my stomach to my soul it is just that good.
- kind store employees that share their personal vanilla rooibos tea when the store is all out.
- even from the windows of "my" tea shop, the constant drizzle is uplifting somehow. cleansing, offering to us all the opportunity to slow down and savor.

good good things.

for daddy

this is for daddy, when he needs a little asher fix. we miss you, casey!

a tribute

one of the things about watching your kids grow is seeing the great, comical, and even difficult attributes of those that have gone before them show up in their daily habits, schedules, behavior. i marvel at that every time i see asher sway towards his daddy's keen attention to detail or a family member glimpsed in one of his facial expressions. and, today, even in this silly video, i see asher picking up on a favorite chore of his papa's. it makes my heart so happy to know that even across many many miles, my dad is close, present in my little boy and his delight to help wash a car.

love you, dad.

conversations about potty training

mommy: "asher, are you peeing in the tub?"
asher: "oh" (his equivalent for yes).
mommy: "where are we supposed to put our pee?"
asher: "tub."
mommy: "you are supposed to put your pee in the tub?"
asher: "oh."
mommy: "pee pee is supposed to go in the potty. so, where are you supposed to go pee pee?"
asher: "tub."

not necessarily the effect we were going for, but he is taking huge strides. i find it so funny how often the words pee and poop and potty are thrown around the house these days. it provides a certain level of intimacy, don't you think?!

just for fun

i realized how greatly i have slacked at documenting these past months of asher. so, i have really been trying to randomly capture moments here and there. these next two videos capture our daily lives these days.



our small patch of green in the backyard has been lovely. i cannot wait for consistent days of sunshine when i can leave the back door open and let asher roam and dig and poke bugs while i piddle in the laundry room.

and, we have this great dinosaur costume (thanks, johnson family!) that hangs on a hook in asher's room. most often he just likes to point out it is still there, but, on this rare day he wanted to put it on. so i quickly seized the camera, knowing the moment would be short lived. (just for clarities' sake, asher says "oh" for yes.)

i should have known

i should have known after finding this....




...that crawling out of his bed would be the next logical step. of course, we do not have photo documentation. only the thud of him landing on the floor in his room imprinted on our memories. but, no worries. he was so easily distracted, i don't even think he hurt himself. i think he started laughing within minutes. oh asher. what a funny boy you are!

over 100

two disclaimers.
1. sorry, not a tanzania post. i will work on that.
2. this is, most probably, for the grandparents and nostalgia's sake only.

this morning, during our rainy, lazy saturday morning, i thought i would write down all of asher's words. we have a pretty good list, and i just thought i would share. we are SOO thankful to have asher back to himself these days. i think the jet lag and culture shock have finally worn off. what a month :) we have been eating him up these last few days. so, here's to lazy mornings and family time.

asher's words at 18 months:
nana (banana)
puppy
dadi (daddy)
mommy
bumpa
nannie
papa
tow (towel and blanket)
tho (throw)
eh (egg)
peese (please)
ca (car)
tru (truck)
maymay (mailman)
tra tru (trash truck)
moo (moon)
spoo (spoon)
me
kya (kaya)
ha (hat)
shoe
sa (sock)
mi-e (money)
cheh (chair)
t (tv)
ehro (elmo)
breh (bread)
o (cheerios)
heh (hair)
pull
hole (hold)
ruh ruh (run run)
dow (down)
uu (up)
tra (trash)
be (blankie)
ha ha (monkey)
bil (build)
ba (ball)
copta (helicopter or plane)
chu chu (train)
eee (eat)
ju (juice)
eye
no (nose)
no
oh (yes)
rai (rain)
bubu (bubbles)
mayme (tomato)
uh oh
pata (pasta)
tate (potato)
(pancake)
peh (pear)
aaa (apple)
oor (orange)
babe (cranberries)
pru (prunes)
bak bak (chicken)
tore (story)
tu (tub)
poo poo
pee
pla pa (play park)
par (park)
teh (color)
pa (paper)
ra ra (rock rock, in his chair)
heh (help)
ta (talk, ie cell phone)
hi
bye bye
me (meat)
dada (dan dan, ie dan holcomb)
neh (nette, ie annette anderson)
bu (bus)
pre (pretzel)
me (milk)
dan dan (dance dance)
momo (more)
cli (climb)
juh (jump)
bow bow (bounce)
e (ear)
da (glasses)
do (door)
nah (knock)
nuh (knuckles)
heh (hammer)
meow
du du (duck)
mooo
hoo hoo (for owl)
he (heater or fan)
beep
toe (toast)
toes
pe (pizza)
tilla (tortilla)
pay (penny)
pay (paper)
ie (light)
pa (pocket)
han (hand)
te (hot tea or coffee)
chee (cheese)

we're home

well, the two blog posts was not quite what i was hoping for, but, i can for sure update from home. officially at midnight, we are home and headed to bed. we are exhausted. and we are full in so many ways. thank you for your prayers and support and care for us while we were away and when we arrived home. we are so looking forward to sharing our adventures.

love to all!

we have arrived!

oh tanzania! there is so much to love about this place. today on our way back from market (our first experience), we were riding in the car with esther and amos, bumping along the road listening to the church choir sing swahili, and i couldn't stop smiling. it was exactly where i wanted to be. even after just two days of being with these people, already my heart remains here. hmmm. today has been a good day.

there have been several posts on the lahash blog, so, check them out.

wish you were here!

(i am having trouble with uploading pictures, so, will continue trying with that.)

onward

mental checklist:

• house guests arranged
• keys delivered to neighbors
• sheets washed
• bags packed
• asher in sling

check.

it is hard to believe the day has come. and yet, this is what we have been waiting for for five years. i feel like it would take novels to write about how we got here, what it looks like while we are away, where our hearts are at. i think prayer will suffice:

• please pray for our team: we are thrilled to travel with dan, and jim and annette. all of them have such hearts for who will be spending our days with, as well as deep hearts that desire to see God move and show up and amaze. please pray for unity, for health, for communication between a very unique, and different, group than has ever travelled before.
• please pray for perspective: that we would faithfully seek God's perspective in EVERY situation - travel, health, sleep, days, time, opportunities with families we stay with, circumstances casey will be documenting, friendships we will make, expectations we need to die to.
• flexibility: we have very unique needs on this trip. a small toddler. health. rare and sometimes instant opportunities to catch on film. pray that we will take things as they come. that we will have no expectation of how things can, should or would go. that we will allow God to direct our paths, our thoughts, and our attitudes.
• sleep: this one is the most tangible, and felt, request. please pray specifically for asher that he would have peace and rest and calm. that he would supernaturally have the ability to sleep ANYWHERE and at anytime. and that, as his parents, casey and i will have creativity, huge amounts of patience and grace, and wisdom in how to help our little boy. what a gift that he gets to travel with us.
  
• and what a blessing that we get to do this as a family. as we take that blessing, may God supernaturally surpass the extra details that involves.

our primary mode of communication will be the blog, so, check back often. we will update as often as we can, which, we have no idea what that looks like right now. we will also be blogging here. thank you for your prayers. thank you for your support and encouragement and care. thank you for carrying us on the wings of your prayers. until tanzania, friends :)

thank you, gramma

casey and i made time to go to gramma (aka daubin) and bumpa's house this weekend for a quick farewell before we take off on our trip. sunnyside is restful for so many reasons, and we needed a little reprieve. along with resting, asher had his first official haircut. looking at the before pictures, i now completely agree it was time, and necessary. he does not wear long hair as well as his father. i even think he feels lighter :) so, thanks gramma. thanks for paying, thanks for providing distraction, and thanks for the touch ups after the wrestling match at the salon.

before

after

bounty

we return, along with our returned usb cord. thanks, mom and dad! i had to take a moment to record; i am absolutely giddy! promptly at noon, a nice young fellow delivered a huge box of fresh produce, thanks to the generosity of two great new friends. as i sit and look at the overflow of chard, turnips, pears, mushrooms and satsumas, i am quickly reminded of the abundance that God bestows on His kids. i feel as if casey and i are sitting smack in the middle of God's generous and overwhelming provision. it made me realize that i am not so quick with praise when jobs are in place and bills are easily met, and yet, we are no less in need of His provision. so, generous bestowers of the above bounty, thank you for not only filling our stomachs, thank you for joining in His provision for us.

picture hiatus

i started to upload christmas fun to the blog this morning, and realized our USB cable is MIA. so, until it returns, there will, unfortunately, be a pause to the asher cuteness (insert deep sigh from grandparents). the good news: i think i know where it is......in texas.

the plan

it's funny how things work out, isn't it?! armed only with the lone picture frame that sat on his desk and a hard drive full of work from the past three years, casey returned home today, marking the end to his job. had we discussed the possibility that he might lose his job before we were fully supported to work with lahash? yes. did we anticipate it would happen so quickly? no. the weekend provided much time to reflect on "what now, Lord" after casey found out on thursday about the company essentially closing their doors.

what now? that is the question we mulled over a MILLION times this weekend, possible scenerios of how to pay bills and unexpected things like a ghetto fabulous muffler with a GINORMOUS hole. what now as we are only around for five more weeks before leaving for three to tanzania? what now since we have only about an 1/8 of our total support raised?

as these questions flew at us, the place we always returned to, and continue to do so, is what is God's plan for these next months of inbetween? we so often try to arrange and negotiate what we think the future should look like, crowding out the space for God to do amazing things with those not so neat arrangements. so, as we sit in this place of mess and unknown, we are asking what God has for us in today, in the moment? what is HIS greater plan and how is that renegotiating what we do?

will you pray that we will be faithful with that? will you pray that God, by His divine direction, will provide full support if He is opening up a way for us to start with Lahash sooner than anticipated?

may we trust Him with the seen and the unseen.