5 Nuns in a Car

It was a highlight of my Thanksgiving weekend: 5 nuns in a car. I had never seen one nun in real life, much less five in a car on the interstate. I stared. I couldn't help myself. It was probably more like gawking. I couldn't help it. I wish I had taken a picture.

Obviously, it wasn't THE highlight of the holiday. I mean, it was the first holiday in almost 8 years that Chandler was not employed in the retail industry. The first Black Friday in 8 years that he did not have to be at work at 4:00am.. 3:00am? Who knows. Praise the Lord. The best Thanksgiving in 8 years.

Holidays, in general, have always been hectic for me: going here to there to see mom, dad, mom's family, dad's family, step mom's family, step dad's family. It only seemed fitting that once I got married and added another immediate family and two more extended families, our holidays would be nothing short of a whirlwind and a lot of stress. Surprisingly, though, everything has gotten a bit easier. It all just fell into place. Praise the Lord, again.

So, we spent Thanksgiving lunch with my dad and Karlette's extended family, then dinner with the Snyder's. AND because it was the first Black Friday in 8 years that Chandler did not have to work, we headed down to Tennessee to spend a couple of days with my mom and her extended family. It was on this day that we saw 5 nuns in a car on the interstate. The best Black Friday ever.

Is it obvious what I was thankful for this year?

There was a little bittersweetness though. My Grammy and Daddy Paul no longer run the camp where my cousins and I basically grew up. They now live on their own acreage just a short ways from the camp near my aunt and uncle with two horses and about a million dogs.

I don't really consider myself a country-girl. Not in the least. Not at all. I'm all city-girl. But I really, really enjoyed the quietness of the country and the noise of family. Between hanging out at my Aunt Cyrisse and Uncle Jeff's house and my Grammy and DP's house, there was ALWAYS someone to hang out with. Saturday, we even took a drive into town! to do some shopping.

What made this quick trip even better was the fact that 1. Waverly had a blast and spent most of the two days playing outside. She ended both days absolutely filthy, looking like a crazed mad woman, but she loved every minute of it. And 2. She slept awesome Friday night. It is highly unusual for her to sleep at all when she's not in her bed in her room, so we were both super relieved that, after crying for half an hour, she fell asleep and stayed asleep until the wee hours, at which point, we put her in our bed and she slept through the rest of the night. Winning.

It was hard to leave. I'll even admit, I cried as we headed toward the interstate. Our time in the States is waning and it's hard to remember that we will be back, when all I can think of is we're leaving. I am trying so desperately to soak in the minutes we have with family before it becomes an impossibility to visit for four years at a time.

Enough on that. Look at these photos!

Monumental Moments

Never, not in a million billion years, did I expect to celebrate waste, but here I am writing about how proud I am of Waverly for doing her biz in the big girl potty. It is definitely a cause for celebration when I hear that tinkle and plop. Waverly, on the other hand, simply acts like she's done it since her first breath twenty months ago. She just wants that toilet paper. Yes, you read correctly; her motivator is toilet paper. And she doesn't get that toilet paper anywhere near where she needs to, but by golly, she is a big girl. She doesn't even get hyped about flushing the toilet, just the toilet paper. I rewarded her with 3 M&Ms the first time she pooped in the potty, but when she pooped just a few minutes ago, she didn't even ask for candy. She wanted that darn toilet paper.

I feel like I should get candy for getting through this new stage in her life. Ask me on any day and I will tell you my three greatest child-rearing fears: discipline, potty training, and raising my children in the way of the Lord.

This is Waverly praying before breakfast one morning, practically prostrate. So I think we're headed in the right direction spiritually. :) Chandler and I have discussed in length how we want to approach discipline and have adopted a method that we believe works best for our family. That does not mean in any way that I am not still terrified of discipline. No mom wants to screw up their kids. That brings us to potty training in which I take comfort in the fact that at some point she will be out of diapers. If you know Waverly, she's a go-getter. Tons of energy and spunk. Oh, and stubborn potential to beat the band. I think this has played to our advantage with this new endeavor. When she gets her mind set to sit on the potty, she will sit there until everyone else is beyond disinterested, but she will sit and make it happen. For that, I am grateful. 

At home it is easy to let her run around pantless with her potty in plain view (well, she wants it behind her house for a little privacy, you know), but I am not entirely sure how all of this will work when she goes to MDO during the week and church on Sunday mornings. She's not quite to the point where she can consistently tell you when she has to use the potty, but if you ask her, she's generally pretty honest about it. Guess I'll be having conversations with her teachers this week. I hate to make their lives any more complicated with six other 2-year-olds to wrangle, but we have to take advantage of her willingness to potty train. Argh. Surely they've had this situation before, right? 

Anyway, I guess this a new phase in my life too and I will celebrate waste until my last child is successfully potty trained. Such is the life of a mom. And I love it.

Playing Catch Up.

Wow, it is really difficult to keep up with this blog. I left you with a cliff hanger, that's for sure.

So, we received the much anticipated phone call and were told to continue on in the process! What an exciting day! Then we started the not so exciting paperwork. Once Chandler got the email outlining the this step of the process, we had three months to get it all done. We had to complete medical forms to receive medical clearance and educational evaluations for Waverly. Chandler and I needed 10 references each with strict guidelines on who those references could be and we had to write nine position papers each. Now, the papers were no more than 2,000 characters, but it was so challenging because I have never had to work through my specific beliefs about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the church. It was good for me though. I have to know why I believe what I believe and back it up with Scripture, so I'm thankful for the challenge.

Over the course of the three months, Chandler quit Best Buy and became the interim youth pastor at our church. At the same time, I took the position as his part-time assistant and Waverly started going to Mom's Day Out, so our world was kind of rocked and our paperwork was put aside for a bit. Needless to say, we scrambled at the last minute to wrap things up and even turned in a few things a few days late, but it's done. Then, we receive an email from our SBTS representative saying our file will be read in December... December. But that's okay...I guess. Our part is done for now.

Probably the most exciting part of this step in the process has nothing to do with the application at all. Al, the IMB affinity group leader for sub-saharan Africa, called Chandler about a week ago concerning a job opportunity that had just crossed his desk. He was excited to share the news with us and asked us to pray about it over the next month. Up until this point, we had been praying about a specific job in Mozambique, but now we've kind of shifted our prayers toward this job in Madagascar. I don't want to give a whole lot of specifics at this point, but let's just say, it meets both of our desires. If this were to be God's will, it would be a clear outpouring of His grace on our lives in this situation; giving us what we don't deserve, placing us in a part of Africa where Chandler can be the pioneer, while we can live in a place around people and around another missionary family with children.

Pray with us. We have to let Al know whether this is something we're interested in or not by the end of November.

Something Interesting.

I wish I had something interesting going on. Don't get me wrong, we've been super busy, but nothing particularly exciting. We're still doing the work/school/MDO thing. And speaking of MDO, I haven't received anymore reports of Waverly pushing, thank goodness.

OH! This is kind of exciting. How could I forgot our Halloween festivities? Right, because I haven't had time to remember! Photo overload below.

Minnie and Mickey!

So proud of herself for riding the horse

Her face is priceless.

 

Loved it. Of course.

Jude- Take picture uh me.

Emersen the puppy dog!

Learning Curve.

Week 2 of being a part-time working girl and I'm exhausted. Waverly's exhausted. I think Chandler probably is too. And we're busier than before; something-every-night kind of busy. But it's good because 1. Work schedules allow us to do stuff in the evenings and 2. We're doing it as a family (most of the time). It's definitely a change for all of us though.

Waverly goes to Mom's Day Out two days a week from 9-2. Her teacher told me today that she was pushing other kids. Pushing??? MY precious, sweet, docile angel was pushing?!? She must've been talking about someone else's kid because my princess hits when she doesn't get her way. For the most part, Chandler and I have stopped her from hitting people, but she still continues to hit things or herself. So, anyway, my child was pushing. I don't make excuses for her; however, I know she doesn't know how to say, "May I please have that toy now?", so pushing is her way of.. well, getting her way, I guess. I just have to trust that her teachers are showing her, in the moment, how to respectfully "get her way". We'll work on it here too.

It's a lot of pressure putting your kid in daycare of any kind. Or maybe it's just me. I don't want my child to be the bad kid or the kid whose Mom never packs her a healthy snack and lunch or the kid whose socks don't match or the kid who doesn't have a bow in her hair (even if the bow only lasts half the day). The teacher has already commented that Waverly is intelligent and somehow, she totally is, and she's generally well-behaved and listens...most of the time, but this is the first time in 19 months that she has been in a daycare/school-type setting with other kids and without Momma around, not including Sunday morning nursery. I know she will learn things from the other kids in her class and let me tell you, I am not looking forward to the day she comes home having learned a negative behavior. I also don't want her to be the kid TEACHING the negative behavior. But I know Waverly is a sponge. She mimics everything, even when you don't think she is listening. Out of the blue, one morning she got in my bathroom drawer, took out my contact case and used her first finger to "put her contacts in". I didn't know she had ever seen me do that before, but she did at some point. She's an observer, that one. So I guarantee she is observing the other kids. I just hope she picks up on good things too.

I have to keep telling myself that there will be a learning curve. This is a big change for all of us and we're all having to adjust to our new schedules and lifestyle, not to mention less Momma-Waverly time. We've definitely experienced some separation anxiety. No, not me, necessarily. Ha ha. She cries when I drop her off at school and she cries when I drop her off for Sunday morning worship and Sunday evening worship. She's always been pretty good about just walking into class, but just recently she's been away from me more than ever. The good news is once I'm out of sight, she is fine and when I pick her up she's super pumped to see me. That part is good.

I hope things start to get easier in the next week or so. This is a good season of life for all three of us. It just takes some adjusting.

Working Girl.

What a whirlwind of two months it has been and it all boils down to this: Tomorrow I become a working girl. Part time, but working girl, nonetheless. In one way, I am excited. I like being busy, planning and organizing events and such; plus, I get to be around my family pretty much all of the time. On the other hand, I am a little sad and overwhelmed. I have not worked since Waverly was born and I am saying good-bye to the nights of going to bed knowing that we can do whatever we want the next day. But we need some structure. I need direction. I think it will help improve my memory... I still have bouts of "pregnancy brain".

I know this is all in God's plan for our lives. He has brought us a gift, but we are not so naive to believe that working at a church is going to be easy. Still, Chandler was able to leave behind the stress of numbers, revenue, and rude customers. Anything has to be better than dealing with all of that. We prayed for months and the Lord chose to bless us by getting Chandler out of there. We are very thankful.

So, now I am accountable to get a job done. Oy. And I was just getting used to the easy life. Ha!

Dog Wash

(Sorry about the grain.)

Best Friends. For Life.