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!