A journey of discovery

One week from today we will take our beautiful girls to Grandma's in preparation to leave on a week long journey.
We will hop on a plane and fly south to a land filled with a language that also fills our community. We will explore a school that teaches spanish, explore a land that displays the glory of the God as creator and hopefully discover a vision for our future!
We will follow some friends around who are laboring to see Jesus' name proclaimed in a community who struggles to find hope. We will listen for God's voice in how we can pursue Him and live our lives in a way that proclaims His name.
We are praying that we can hear God speak no matter what he has to say!

My God, My conqueror

So I have been trying to read through Deuteronomy and though most days I seem to fail to be awake before my kids, or take the time to stop when I have a moment...God is being faithful with the time I have been reading this book recently. I also have just begun a new study, Lord I want to know You (The names of God), by Kay Arthur, I'm only on Day 2 and already God is seeming to say the same things to me in both places. Amazing how God works!

I have lots of fears. However, a recent fear that I have been discovering is the fear of failure. I hadn't labeled it as this until today.

In Deuteronomy, it seems over and over again the Isrealites are afraid that things aren't going to work out and that God will fail them. They continue to turn to other things instead. Giants, hunger, you name it they feared it. I began to realize that I had my own giants and hunger in my life. Currently the Spanish language is a big giant looming in front of me! Not only that but this giant is surrounded by the need to be a mother, wife, friend, and disciple. How can I defeat this giant when so many things need to be done? Will I fail someone or something as I pursue this giant?

God brought the Israelites to the promised land. He defeated many things FOR them. Despite their inabilities and their needs, God conquered all! Deuteronomy 7:6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

God it is not me but YOU that conquers all things!

Romans 8:37 No in all these tings we are more than conquerors though him who loved us.

What plans does He have?

We have just finished the 5th (last) level of English class tonight. We will be the largest graduating class in Mission Adelante's history! We have finished with 10 students all of which are interested in creating a 6th level. What a joy it has been to walk with them as they learn English. I admire their ambition. I am trying to learn Spanish and it such a slow and agonizing process. Our students have been very committed and have shown a lot of progress. I hope that we can create a 'level 6' that will help them continue to learn but also continue to develop our relationships with them.

Jacob and I have continued to discuss our ever growing desire to spend more time with our students and so many others in our community who our seeking to make a better life for their families. We are struggling with how we can make more time for this and our seeking to find a way to be more available for them.

Adiella and Keziah continue to bloom before our eyes. Adiella is a great source of encouragement to me as we walk through our daily routines. The other day I was searching for the 'Q' and 'Z' for Adie's favorite puzzle and was getting frustrated with how much of my time is spent looking for things and picking things up. I often am discouraged with how little progress I make in a day! As I searched the Francesca Battistelli song came on...Adie popped into the room and announced "The key song!", then she promptly left the room only to return with my phone and said "I found it!". She is such good reminder for me to keep things in perspective and she shows so much joy in everything she does.

Keziah is joyful!! She doesn't sleep at night, but she is so full of joy that it makes up for it. She loves people and has the biggest, warmest smile of any baby that I know. She loves to make noise with Adiella and she loves to entertain anyone who will listen!

Jacob is my rock. I am often completely and udderly exhausted by the time he comes home from work. He has been very patient with my grumpiness and has been extremely helpful with all the things that DON'T get done during the day. He also has been very supportive and understanding in the things that are undone when he gets home. I am so thankful for his attitude! God knew what he was doing in bringing Jacob as the eldest of 7 so he fully understands how difficult it can be to get even small things accomplished and how quickly the house can explode into a disaster.

We feel like we are on the brink of a large transition. We have always talked about going to a country that speaks Spanish so I can be fully immersed and he can refine his language skills as well. Our two little ones have prevented this thus far, but we feel we may be approaching a window of opportunity. It continues to be hard for me to grasp what it will look like to take a whole family to an unknown land away from everything we know, but I also am continuing to learn that God has the best plans for us and if He wants it for us it will happen. We don't know how much of a change will be taking place, but we hope that it can lead to better equipping us to serve the people we serve and to integrate us more into the community so that we have more opportunities to serve and love them!

The snow continues to pile up outside as I write and it's super duper freezing outside! So with no where to go...well no desire to get out and a napping Adiella I thought it time to update the blog. It's been a while so I'll just dive right in.

Jacob and I are so excited to be adding daughter number 2 to our family. This pregnancy is going much faster than it did with Adiella. In some ways this is nice and in some ways I feel a little panicked about all the projects on my before the baby to due list. Have I started any of these?! We are expecting this new little one at the end of April and hoping she not as content to stay in mommy's tummy as Adie was.

We're just about to start another trimester of volunteering with Mission Adalante. We are excited to be hosting an ESL class in our home this trimester. Jacob and another volunteer will be teaching a group of 12-14 students in Level 2 English. Jacob got to know most of them last trimester while helping with the level 1 class. We're looking forward to the opportunity to use the home that God has blessed us with to serve our community and continue to build our relationships with them. We are praying that we can deepen the relationships that we have built as well as make some new ones. We are excited about how God will use this class to answer our prayer.

I will continue to help work with the afterschool program (LIT) on Tuesday afternoons. It has been amazing to watch the students grow both spiritually and academically through what God is doing through the LIT program. A couple of the students were telling me that their reading had jumped several levels this year and they were convinced that it was all the work we were doing at LIT. I was very impressed that the kids recognized that there hard work was making a difference in the test scores and was excited to see them so proud of what had been accomplished.

Adiella continues to grow and amazes us more everyday! Her personality is really blooming and it is so fun to watch. I am so thankful to be home with her and get to see so many special moments. We are excited to see her become a big sister and are convinced that she will be amazing....and quite dangerous to her coming sister. I am working on shortening my expectations for myself in what I get done around the house during the day. Not expecting to many quiet moments come April.

Naptime is over! Hopefully I will do better at keeping this updated :).

Open Hands

As Jacob and I look down the road ahead, in regards to being parents, we already have a list of questions. How will we ever do this? What will we do when she writes on the wall? What if we don't agree on the consequence that should take place for each situation...In fact, I think what has surprised me the most about being a parent is the weight of the responsibility of making decisions...even the everyday ones. When should she sleep? Where should she sleep? When should she eat? How long do I wait to call the Dr. if she hasn't pooped?
We've become responsible for a life. A precious, sweet, beautiful life that we can no longer imagine our lives without. The thrill and joy of having this life added to our lives is indescribably amazing. We have many dreams and hopes for this little life and pray that we can bring her up into the woman God has created her to be. We are so thankful that we are surrounded by family and friends that can support us as we walk the road of parenthood. We are even more thankful that we follow a God that knows and cares for this little life more than we could ever imagine. We are honored that He has chosen us to bring up His little princess. We pray that we can raise her in a way that honors Him.

An update on Adie

Jacob surprised me on my birthday by taking the day off. God blessed me with an amazing SPRING day and we got to take Adie to her first picnic in the park! Jacob made the entire day special and ended it with a surprise party out to dinner with friends.

Adiella now has TWO teeth. "One step closer to my steak dinner", says Adie..."She's ahead of all the rest of the babies", says Daddy..."OUCH!!", says Mommy!

She's rolling over and showing all the signs that she wants to run all over the house. For now we are enjoying the fact that she's not, but looking forward to the day that she will. We think she may follow in her Daddy's footsteps and walk before she crawls.

She loves watching sports on TV with her daddy...she won't watch anything else actually.

She thoroughly enjoys eating rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes and avacodos! I think she would eat pretty much anything we would put in her mouth and she drools and lunges toward every bite that goes into our mouths :).

She now weighs in at 16 lbs!!

She loves to go swimming and I think she might stay in the pool all day if we let her.

Adiella's 1st Christmas

We're still celebrating! Adie's aunt and uncle, Tamra and Luke flew in from Germany last night so we will celebrate this weekend with them. The day before Christmas eve we celebrated with just the three of us and then on Christmas eve we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Radatz's. Christmas day was spent at Great-Grandpa Radatz's and the Saturday after we spent with Grandma Holland's side of the family. Adiella got to meet her twin cousins and they all enjoyed playing under the floor gym together :). We're so thankful for all our family and the love they give to Adiella. She is one very loved baby!
Jacob's sister spent Christmas in Canada with her bf so we will celebrate with them in a couple of weeks down in Tulsa. Adiella hasn't made the trip to Tulsa yet so she is looking foward to meeting all of the Tulsa friends that she has heard so much about.