VisitorsSaturday night we had lots of new faces at youth club. Sunday we had new faces at church. Plus Grandma Lewis came to visit for the week! Life is good. New pictures are up in the gallery.
Crawling
Yesterday David started moving forward in earnest. He is very serious about it, and we are very seriously thinking about what needs to change in our house now that the little man is on the move!
One Year!
One year ago today our plane landed in Ireland! Wow! We have certainly seen God's hand clearly in that time - in providing us with everything we needed (house, car, etc, etc, etc), in providing for the church, and in providing another healthy little member of the family! It has been a busy year, for sure!!
We are very happy here and after one year, I think we can say confidently that we are settled in! We really like living in Youghal. We are definitely still learning, but who ever learned everything in a year??
an excerpt from an article by Sheila Flitton on ireland-fun-facts.com:
“Nollaig na mBan” or “Little Women’s Christmas” is an old custom that’s still celebrated by women all over Ireland. It goes back to the days when large families were the norm. Men never lifted a finger in the house to help, and were never expected to. If a man washed the dishes, he would be called an “auld woman” by other men. No full blooded Irish man was prepared to risk that!
But each year, after the Christmas holiday, tired women finally got a break – for one day, at least. On January 6th (the same day as the Epiphany), men would take over of the housework, offering women a chance to go out to relax with each other.
We did celebrate, although Seth forgot about it until that evening, so we celebrated on the 7th. There's some pretty good take out food in Youghal...
Hi Mama!
David has started talking! His first (recognizable) word was "Mama", but the next day he very clearly said "Dada" and it sure sounds like he's trying to say "Hi". He even waves while he says it!
Happy New Year!
Hard to believe it's 2010 and we've been in Ireland for almost a whole year! 2009 was a good one, and we definitely saw God's faithfulness all through it!
We rang in the new year with friends from church, and had a great time! We went to Blarney Castle yesterday as well, to show it to our old friend who is visiting. Nothing like kissing the Blarney stone to ring in the new year!
International
On Sunday our church had an international service where everyone from different parts of the world shared Christmas songs or traditions from their countries. Besides Ireland and America (Seth sang "Sweet Little Jesus Boy") we also got a taste of Christmas in Hungary, Romania, Zimbabwe, Armenia and Poland! Not bad for a little church in Youghal!
Yesterday evening a good friend of ours (who is also living abroad) flew in to visit for a few days. It's great to have an old friend here to celebrate New Years with us!
Christmas
We had a wonderful Christmas here in Ireland. On Christmas Eve, our neighbors invited us to come by and hang out with them in the evening. Christmas Day our church had a service in the morning, but we did manage to get some presents opened beforehand! The service ended up being in our teammate's house because the heating had broken in the building we usually use. It was nice to be in a house, though. We were home in the afternoon, opened the rest of the presents and played with them some before going to our teammate's house for a fabulous Christmas feast featuring a few traditional foods we hadn't had before (it was SO good!). The day after Christmas is also a holiday here - St. Stephens Day. It's a great idea. Gives you time to play with your new toys!
Six Months Of David!David is six months old today!! Hard to believe that it's gone so quickly! He is a very alert baby - which can make him a bit hard to entertain at times, but his brother helps with that sometimes. David has eaten a whole (albeit small) sweet potato in one sitting and he loves playing with and tasting anything he can get his hands on. He recently started turning pages in books when we read to him. He's a joy to all of us and it's cool to have a baby boy around at Christmas time!
So It Begins
Daniel's obsession with letters is starting to pay off: he is now sounding out small words on his own. We are thrilled, partly because we're getting tired of constantly hearing the alphabet repeated all day long!
Back In Ireland The conference in Switzerland really was wonderful, as was the setting. The picture above was the view from our window. We were definitely encouraged by our time there! There's more pictures in the gallery. We got home Friday and kept Daniel away from the front door Saturday night - he does NOT like most Halloween costumes!
Laysin, Switzerland
Known as the "sunniest spot in Europe" because of it's location up in the Alps where it is usually above the clouds. Amazing views. If we had better internet access up here, we'd post the pictures, but you'll have to wait on that.
The All-Europe conference for CrossWorld is great - we are seeing friends we haven't seen in years, meeting "legends", taking in great messages, praying and playing games with wonderful people, and of course, hiking in the Alps. Seth also got to try his hand at curling (you know, like shuffleboard on the ice). It's really refreshing. Just breathing the air up here is refreshing!
N is for No
Yesterday Jessica told Daniel it was time to eat. He wanted to keep playing with his letters (all the rage these days), so he said "no, mommy" and then, "N is for No" while he held up the letter "N" to make sure mommy got the message!
Big Boy Bed
David is getting big, so he needed to move up to the crib. That means we needed a "big boy bed" for Daniel. Well, God provided. Our neighbors were getting rid of a nice single bed - so they gave it to us! Daniel is thrilled, and keeps talking about how he is a big boy. David is doing fine in the crib. We thought we were going to have to spend a good bit on the bed, so instead we got a dishwasher. Jessica is thrilled, too!
David's Commitment Service
Sunday we had a special 'Commitment Service' for David. We as a family formally committed to doing everything we can to raise him (and Daniel!) up in the knowledge and love of God to the best of our ability, by the grace of God. The service was really special for us, and even more so because we not only had our church family there to celebrate with us, we also had some neighbors and friends from Youghal who came along as well! It was a beautiful day! Check the gallery for pictures!
This and That
The last two days for Seth were full of meetings. Really, literally, full. We also had a quick visit from the lady in charge of missionary kid services at the home office, which was great, and today we're headed to Cork on the train! While we're there, we'll be going to the US Embassy to register David's birth and we'll also take some time to see a few of the sights.
Driver Theory Test
We are allowed to drive in Ireland on our American driver's licenses for a year, but time is passing, so Seth went today to take his driver theory test. It's a basic multiple-choice test and you can even buy a book that has all the questions in it to study beforehand. We had the book, but the test was recently updated, so it turned out our book didn't have most of the questions in it. Still, Seth got 36 out of 40 questions right, and you only need 35 to pass, so he can now send in the application for his "provisional license", or learner's permit. After that, he can start working on getting a full Irish license... but that takes a driving test and more fees. And we thought we were through with all this when we were 16...
Postponed
It's not normal for rain to slow anyone down in Ireland (if it did, nothing would ever get done), but the weather forecast for today was so bad that they decided to postpone the Medieval Fun Day!
Here's a picture for you, though - it's a family portrait drawn by Daniel:
Comings and Goings
A group of Christian soccer coaches from Northern Ireland have been here all week leading an evangelistic soccer camp here in Youghal. We had a decent turn out and even though it rained some, it has definitely turned out to be a good week. They are finishing up camp today and will head back to the North.
Yesterday, Jessica's dad, brother, and brother's girlfriend came to stay with us for a few days and meet David. It's great to see them!!
Saturday, most of our team is going away one place or another for most of August. That means we'll be responsible for church and an event coming up at the end of August. A lot of it is already planned, though, and we've got lots of help with the great folks at church. It's all good.
Smile!
We got some real on-purpose smiles out of David yesterday for the first time! They are GREAT! I'm not sure when we'll be able to catch one on camera, but we'll try to get one for you soon!
Weekend
Friday night we had a Christian band from Holland come and do a concert in Youghal. Several of the band members grew up as missionary kids in Peru, and some had spent significant time in Ireland before, so the style was quite a mix of Peruvian, Celtic and Dutch... and they sang in three languages as well (but provided translations so we could all understand the message). If that mix of styles sounds interesting to you, you can here samples of their music on www.combotrinity.nl About 100 people came to the concert, almost half of whom were not connected to our group of churches.
On Saturday Seth took the band to where they could catch a bus to their next show, and in the afternoon we drove over to Blarney Castle to meet up with a couple of Seth's friends from high school that are touring Europe and happened to be in the area!
Sunday the short term team from Texas did the service and afterward we had a barbecue. The Irish call outdoor grills 'barbecues', and if you cook anything on them you are having a barbecue - we had burgers and sausages that were sort of like hot dogs.
The picture is us with Nathan Jackson, Seth's friend from High School
Daniel's Birthday Party!
Yesterday we had eight of Daniel's friends over (plus parents and a few older siblings) and it was a beautiful day for a birthday party! Half the kids came from the church, and the others were friends from the area. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll let them speak for themselves:
If that's not enough for you, there are a few more posted in the Gallery!
Grandma's Here
Yesterday Seth picked his mom up at the airport and she'll be here for a couple of weeks to help with the kiddos. Tomorrow we'll have Daniel's birthday party with some kids from church and some from the neighborhood - don't worry, we will take plenty of pictures!
Happy 4th!
Of course, the 4th of July is just another day here in Ireland, but at least it's a Saturday! We actually have sunshine today, and we had it yesterday, too. Yesterday it actually felt hot for a couple of minutes, which is the first time we've felt that way in at least a week. We also got to grill out yesterday with some friends, so that made it feel more like a holiday weekend.
David has been unpredictable, as babies are, and some nights he makes us wonder who ever coined the phrase "sleep like a baby"... maybe it was supposed to be a curse? Anyway, we are managing to get some sleep here and there and it helps a lot that Daniel takes a long nap every afternoon. He is getting his two-year molars, though, so that makes life a little more interesting.
Speaking of Daniel, tomorrow he'll be 2 years old!! We won't have "official" celebrations until later in the week, but he is already pretty excited!!
Two Weeks
We've had two kids for two weeks now, and that's just a little hard to believe. We remember the blur of days and nights after Daniel was born... well, actually, we don't remember much of it and that's why we call it a blur. So we should expect it I suppose. The church has been a huge help - they are delivering dinners until the end of the month! Wow! And boy are they good!
This is a quick video of Daniel pushing his baby brother in the swing, imitating his stretches and going in for a kiss. Sometimes David needs protection from his brother's affection...
Rain Stopper
Daniel wanted to play outside yesterday, but it started raining. So he asked Daddy to fix it. Daddy said he couldn't, but the rain stopped anyway, so out they went and Daniel looked up and calmly noted that Daddy had fixed it. That's faith. It's just in the wrong man!
David and Jessica are both doing very well - better every day. David is still giving us a lot more sleep than we expected and he gets comments like "he's perfect!" at his health check ups, so he must be doing alright! Jessica's mom flew home this morning. We certainly miss her and all the help she was, but we do feel a lot more confident now to be on our own. The timing of her visit really couldn't have been better.
Sleep?
David has been doing very well, and even giving us more sleep than we expected to have. He certainly has his moments, but he has slept well at night and been awake in the day more than we thought possible. Of course, having Jessica's mom here to help means we get more sleep as well! Jess is recovering well - she's been on house arrest most of the time, but today she went to Bible study and got to show off the baby.
Yesterday, we had a short-term team from Texas come. They will be here for a month and will be helping with youth camp, children's Bible clubs and distribution of evangelistic magazines.
The Brothers Meet
This video is uncut footage from Daniel and David's first meeting:
Also, we talked to the surgeon yesterday, and he said that David had turned sideways (transverse breech) by the time they got to him. Also, the meconium may have happened during the c-section. If not it was just before. Anyway, all is well today and Jess has already been able to get up out of bed several times! Grandma Smelser flew over yesterday as well, and will stay for ten days so we are very thankful for the help!!
He's Here!!
David arrived at 6:41pm, weight 6 pounds 14 ounces, scored a 9 out of 10 on the health measure and is doing great! I would tell you the length, but they don't measure newborns here anymore. Mom is also doing well, and Dad is thrilled. Daniel will meet his brother tomorrow morning! Actually, it was good timing - the surgeon said there was meconium in the fluid around David. It must have just happened, because they had been watching for it, but if we had waited longer we probably would have been having an emergency c-section. Thank you for your prayers for us!!!
Section
We talked to the doctor this morning and they went ahead and scheduled us for a c-section today. We're not sure what time, but we're on the list, so we shouldn't have to wait TOO much longer to meet David! Jess is very tired after a long night with a lot more contractions. Pray God gives her strength.
No Labor, No Baby
Well, God's plans certainly are not ours! Jessica had labor pains for almost 20 hours, but never could dilate, and eventually the labor itself died away. The midwives seem to think that her body is just unable to dilate on its own. The next step is to talk to her doctors in the morning, and see what they say about scheduling a C-section. We'll keep you posted. Please pray!
On The Way...
David is on the way now - Jess has had regular labor contractions for almost 16 hours as I write this and although it looks like we probably have a good bit longer to go, we are happy to be moving in the right direction!
Still WaitingWe asked a lot of questions today about what the risks are for our various options, and it sounds like the doctors are right (go figure) and although none of the options are very risky, the safest option right now for mom and baby is to wait a bit longer and see if we can go naturally. Everyone is doing fine. Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement!
Waiting for David
Jessica's water broke on Wednesday night, so we thought that by now we would have had some pictures of David for you, but evidently David is not is as much of a hurry as we are. Although we've had some spurts of labor, nothing has really stuck and right now Jess is in the hospital, waiting and being monitored. They would have induced by now if it hadn't been for the C-section we had with Daniel and the increased risk that brings. Still, if things don't happen on their own, we will probably be induced at some point. David is doing great and has plenty of fluid to keep him company and they are monitoring Jessica to make sure there is no infection. Our teammates have kept Daniel busy and happy as well. In short, everyone is doing fine, except that mom and dad are a little impatient.
Making Friends
We are very thankful that God is already giving us good friends here in Ireland. Yesterday one of our neighbors invited Jessica and Daniel over for some tea along with another friend of hers and her kids. We also had a family from church over for "tea" - a name often used for the evening meal, but not to be confused with the likes of Jessica's literal cup of tea earlier at the neighbor's. Anyway, Daniel had a great time running circles around the house with their kids while we had a great talk with the parents. Today we're having tea (dinner) with our teammates, who we are quickly becoming good friends with. It sure is nice to have friends.
5 Years!
That's how long Seth and Jessica have been married now! Thanks to some wonderful teammates who have made good friends with Daniel, we were able to have a date today! Then some folks from church gave us free tickets to the movies! Cool!
So how was the day? Great. And the five years of happy marriage? Priceless.
School's Out
Well, almost. This is Jessica's last week of grad-school via Liberty University's distance learning program. She'll have a Masters in Counseling. We're certainly not opposed to learning, but it will be nice not to have to worry about school anymore!
People and Blasphemy
We may not have house guests anymore, but we're still around people most of the time, it seems. Everyday this week we've been with other people - sometimes at our place, sometimes at theirs or in town. As Seth types this, Jessica is downstairs with a bunch of teen girls watching a movie. He's never seen it, but it seems to have a pretty good soundtrack.
On a totally different note, here's an interesting article from the Irish Times. It's written by the Minister of Justice and talks about the difficulties in honoring the Irish constitutional requirement that blasphemy be punished. Click Here to read it.
Also, thank you for praying for Jessica's folks (see April 21 post). The insurance company is covering repairs and expenses for a furnished apartment while they wait. Friends from church have been a huge help and God is clearly working in the whole thing. Your prayers are definitely appreciated!
Fire
Jessica's folks got home from visiting us to only to discover that they had had a house fire. It sounds like a couple of the rooms upstairs are pretty much gone, and most of the rest have damage. Please pray for them as they get things sorted out with the insurance company and try to salvage whatever they can and deal with the loss of what they can't.
Dublin
Today Seth is going to Dublin with a couple of our teammates to see a pre-screening of a film that we may be using later for ministry in the area. If it's good, I'll let you know :) Since Seth hasn't been to Dublin yet, he's pretty happy about the opportunity to be there!
Jessica's friend and former college roommate came in from the States yesterday, and we are thrilled to get to spend time with her!
Birthday / Retreat
Jessica's birthday was Thursday, and we had some time in the morning to celebrate as a family. In the afternoon, we went to a birthday party for a girl a couple houses down from us who turned six. We had met them a couple of times before and she liked Daniel, plus her mom wanted us to be able to meet the other families in the neighborhood! It was great! We got to have some great conversations with several folks we hadn't met before, and got to know some others better.
After the party we drove to a beautiful little coastal town on the other side of Cork for a CrossWorld retreat. Our supervisor from headquarters came and all the missionaries with CrossWorld in Ireland were there as well. It was wonderful to spend time with all our teammates! The setting was fabulous, too! Check the gallery for photos!
Sick
Daniel has had a cold for a while and is just starting to feel better, but before he got over it he made sure to pass along the love to Mom and Dad. Dad also got a 24 virus (starting on his birthday!) that he doesn't seem to have passed along, and that's very good! In other words, we've been a regular sick ward this week, but praise the Lord everyone seems to be on the mend!
While Seth was recovering, Jessica went to youth group on Saturday and had a great time getting to know the youth! We also got to help out with creche (nursery) and powerpoint for church this morning, among other things. Thank you for your prayers!
The First Place David Will See
We went to Cork University Maternity Hospital today for Jessica's "booking" visit. Other than a long wait, the whole experience was extremely positive and we left very encouraged about having our baby there. The hospital is brand new, and quite nice! We had an ultrasound while we were there and saw David kicking like crazy! He's growing just like he should be!
We Can Stay!
we went to see the immigration officer today in a nearby town and thanks to our teammates, we had no trouble being accepted. Our teammates already have a good relationship with the immigration officer for our area, so one of them came with us and once the officer knew we were with them, he barely even talked to us - but he gave us permission to stay! We'll have to re-apply every year, but that's just the way it goes. To celebrate, we ate at McDonald's. I know, I know, it's not a very "Irish" thing to do, but the milkshake was good, so hush.
Back Online!
yes, we finally got connected! It's not from the internet provider we've been trying to get - a random coincidence pushed us to another company who just happened to have lower prices anyway... we also tried to get some things for the house and ended up at the wrong store by accident, which just happened to be having a 50% off sale on a bunch of things we needed...
who says God doesn't care about the little things?
speaking of little things, our fridge is little. And so is the microwave. But we did get our container full of all our things! God answered all our prayers - we had plenty of help, sunshine (it rained after we got it all inside!), and a place to put it all! We've already got most of it unpacked, actually :)
Update
We are in the house and loving it, we finally got a bank account, our container is set to come tomorrow and we've got help to unload it! Life is good.
We still don't have internet at the house, though, because we haven't recieved the right bills in the mail that will satisfy the internet company that we actually live there (they are harder to satisfy than the bank!). So, Seth is writing this post from an internet cafe in town and future updates may be a bit slow in coming.
In other news, Jessica drove on the left side of the road for the first time (without any trouble), we burned sod in the fireplace like good Irish folks, and we got to go to church in Youghal!
Progress
House: Thank you for your prayers! The landlord agreed to do the work that the house needed, and should have finished it today. That means we're moving in tomorrow!
Car: We couldn't drive the car home without insurance, and at the last minute the company we had an agreement with backed out because of a technicality! But while we were on the way to pick up the car with one teammate, another teammate was on the phone wrangling a deal with another company so that by the time we got to the car lot, we did have insurance... whew! What a great team to be on!
Other stuff: We still don't have a bank account, cell phones, or internet of our own because we can't get them without proof of address. Only a few things are accepted as proof, but some of them should be in the mail. Maybe we'll have them soon? The good news is that the container full of all our things is supposed to come next Tuesday!
Slow Going
getting set up in Ireland is no sprint... it's more like hurdling.
For our lease agreement on the house, we were supposed to have Irish bank account details. But to open an Irish bank account, you have to have a bill or bank statement that was sent to your house to prove you live there. Catch 22? Thankfully, we have a great teammate who got things figured out for us. Even though we don't have an Irish bank account yet, we were supposed to move into the house today - but it's not ready. A few important things are broken and the place needs cleaning. The landlord is coming tomorrow to take care of it. Pray that he does everything that needs to be done!
Now for the car: they included an inspection with the purchase, and they told us it should be ready to pick up tomorrow. That's fine, because we are not allowed to drive it without insurance, anyway. Pray that the insurance comes through (at a not-too-terrible rate - we're classified as student drivers here, for a while!) so that we can pick up the car and start driving ourselves around!
Car!Here's our new car! It's a 2001 Opel Zafira, with 7 seats and only 32,000 miles! It's also automatic, which is actually pretty rare around here. You can see in the window that the price is posted as €12,990 - can you believe we only paid €7,000?! The whole thing smells strongly of God's providence! We knew we wanted more seats, but the combination of that with an automatic is almost impossible to find here, especially for a reasonable price. God must have had this one marked out for us though, and He put the right people in our path so that we would find it. The car only has one previous owner - the president of GM in Ireland! Needless to say, it has a complete maintainence history :) God is good!!
House!Here's our house! Thank you so much for your prayers! It really is lovely, and we'll have more pictures of it up eventually to prove it to you. It has four bedrooms, but don't let that fool you about the size - they are not big! One is actually more like a walk-in closet... anyway, we are thrilled to have a place and we'll have it set up as soon as we can for whoever wants to come visit :)
What a Tease!
we thought that by now we'd have a house to tell you about. Well, here's what's happening:
over the weekend we decided to rent #3 Meadowlands on Monday unless something stunning popped up. On Monday, we found out that the house we originally tried to get before we came to Ireland was back on the market (see January 6th's post). Today we looked at the place and told the agent "we want it!" but a few hours later we found out that the landlords had changed their mind about it again, and decided not to rent it out! That means they have changed their mind about it four times in all! And I thought I liked roller coasters...
Stay tuned - I don't see any reason why I shouldn't have good news about #3 Meadowlands and maybe even pictures up by tomorrow - but don't hold your breath!
Oh, and the rescue helicopter the other day was doing a practice run :)
We're here!!!
we made it to Ireland yesterday with no trouble, and about as much sleep. Actually, Daniel did get some, just not as much as we hoped he would :) We're set up in our sea-view apartment right now, and we had a chance to look around at a couple of possible rental houses today. We found a couple that look very nice, so we are feeling better about that! Thank you so much for your prayers - we can definitely feel them! We'll be posting pictures as soon as we can, and we'll keep you up to date as things progress!
On our way...
today we're driving to the airport in DC. Not a great day to be anywhere near there, traffic wise, but here we go! We are going to the airport outside the city, at least. Our flight leaves this evening, so we won't get to Ireland until tomorrow, and hopefully we can all sleep on the plane...
This weekend we had a tough time saying goodbye to the folks here, but it really was good in so many ways. Saturday we had an open house at Jessica's folks place with about 60 folks coming by. Seth preached for the morning service at church on Sunday and in the evening we had a commissioning service... everyone was a huge encouragement and we are so thankful that we have such strong support from home!
We'll write from Ireland as soon as possible, but we're not sure when that will be - so stay tuned!
Housing update
we now have an apartment lined up in Ireland for at least a month after we get there. It's furnished and near the city centre, so it will be a great "home base" to work from as we try to find a long-term place to live, a car, phones, etc, etc. Plus it's right next to the sea so we'll have a great view!
It's a boy!!!
we had an ultrasound today and found out that we're having a boy!!! David Joel is the name, we are thrilled, and Daniel is confused about why everyone keeps talking about his "baby brother"!
Countdown to Ireland!
we drove back to Virginia today from Georgia, where we spent the last couple of days with friends. We had an open house at a coffee shop while we were there and it was great to see quite a few of our Georgia friends!
Now that we're home, the final countdown is really here: just ten days to go! The plan is to pack a room a day until Friday when it all goes on the container, then stay with Jessica's folks until we fly out a week from Tuesday (Jan. 20th). Thank you for your prayers - we have lots of details to work out!
Plans change
we've had a couple of changes in plans recently:
Change 1: we thought we were set to rent a nice house in Youghal, but now the landlords are not sure that they want to rent it out at all. They had moved to the country, but it turns out things there are not what they expected and they are considering moving back to the house we were hoping to rent. They have not decided for sure yet, but since we don't have much time, we're looking elsewhere. Thank you for your prayers!
Change 2: the U.S. Social Security system just changed some requirements regarding folks who live overseas, and although it would still be possible to do a 4 year term up front and come back to the States for a year (what we were expecting to do), CrossWorld tells us that it would probably be better to come back for six months after 2 and 1/2 years in Ireland. We think that's fine - we'll get to see everyone on this side of the ocean sooner, and we won't be away from the work in Ireland for a whole year.
Family time
it's been great to get to spend some time with Seth's family in Alabama. We've seen a few friends as well, and we're looking forward to seeing many more folks at an open house we're having on Sunday. We are certainly thankful to the Lord for giving us this time and the time we've had with Jessica's folks before we ship out!
Alabama Christmas
after a great Christmas day with Jessica's folks in VA, we headed down to AL to be with Seth's folks and had another Christmas over the weekend! Both our Christmas' were perfectly golden days and we are thanking the Lord for the gift of such wonderful families - and the gift of Himself!
Merry Christmas!
we pray your celebration is full of the kind of love God gave us on the first Christmas! Our celebration today includes some time with Jessica's folks as well as Seth's aunt, uncle, cousins, grandparents and another uncle. Tomorrow we'll be with Jessica's family some more and then we'll drive to Alabama and have Christmas with Seth's folks over the weekend. Marry Christmas to you!
Man day
one of Seth's buddies planned a "man day" in his honor on Saturday. All Seth knew beforehand was to clear his schedule for the day. It ended up being a full day, too - breakfast, paintball for hours, and a cookout to round it off. Seth is still sore from playing paintball, and he's got a couple of nice welts, but it was worth it! He learned something, too: he's too aggressive. Being on the cutting edge of the front lines can be dangerous. Go figure.
we're coming to Alabama right after Christmas, and we'll be having an open house at Seth's folks house in Owens Cross Roads on Sunday, January 4th, from 12:30-2:30 (there will be food!). If you're in 'Bama, we'd love to see you there!!
in other news: we got a good report on the baby and we had a great time seeing the folks at Fincastle Baptist last night!
thanksgiving
we certainly have plenty to be thankful for this year, and we had a great time celebrating the holiday with our families! On Thursday we had a huge feast with Jessica's folks and on Friday Seth's folks were in town, too, so we had a houseful of people over to celebrate with us at our house! We also got our new furniture (see post from Nov. 22) set up in the house just in time, thanks to some helpful Craigs!
trunk or treatlast night our church had a "trunk or treat" costume party (the adults give out candy from their car trunks). We had lots of fun, and mr. Daniel got some super new pajamas to wear for it :) You can see more pictures from last night on our pictures page.
teaching
Jessica got to teach a devotional for a baby shower she went to this weekend, and Seth got to sub for our Sunday School class. We are both crazy about teaching, so this was a good weekend for us :)
Daniel is VERY interested in letters. We weren't trying to teach him letters - he basically begged us to! I think his passion for shapes had a big part in that.
weekend
we had an eventful weekend. Seth's parents came into town with a group of five international graduate/post-graduate students on a weekend trip. We went hiking with them on Saturday, with Daniel in a baby backpack (it actually worked pretty well, thankfully). On Sunday Jessica had a house full of teen girls over to plan for an upcoming event that they are calling the "Generations Tea Party" where all the ladies at church will get together and serve each other in Titus 2 fashion. The girls are really excited about it, and so are we!
taking inventory
since we are getting so close to being able to move to Ireland, we're trying to get things ready for the move part of that. Phase one is taking inventory, which means we're going through all our stuff, trying to decide what goes and what stays. So far we've been through most of our books (made a little cash on Amazon.com selling some of them), music and today we're working on clothes. We've got a long way to go, but it's much more fun to do it a little at a time! How did this stuff accumulate so fast??
refresh
Daniel went to grandma's while mom and dad took a mini-vacation to the VA mountains the last couple of days. It was great to have a chance to slow down and reconnect after our last few busy weeks! It's great that Daniel loves to stay with his grandparents, too!
MaconWe had a great Sunday in Macon with the Church of the Wildwood, and yesterday we had a cookout with some of the folks from there. Daniel really enjoyed the watermelon, as you can see!
DC
Friday and Saturday we were in the DC area getting to see some old and new friends and having a wonderful time with them! Daniel surprised us by skipping his morning nap on Saturday, but we rolled with it. With Daniel around, surprises are normal. So can you really count them as surprises?
Next weekend we'll be in Lynchburg (VA) so if you're there, we'd like to see you! The weekend after that we'll be in Buena Vista (also VA) and after that we'll be heading to GA and AL (possibly stopping in TN as well). Thank you for your prayers and help!
We have been encouraged to see a significant increase in our committed monthly support recently - we're now just barely below 80%! We're getting close!
back from the beach
we had a wonderful time on vacation last week!
highlights:
1) Daniel started walking in earnest. He went from only taking a couple steps at a time at the beginning of the week to walking pretty much anywhere he wants to by the end. Hooray!
2) good times with the family. Including, but not limited to: yummy food, watching Daniel at the aquarium, and playing games (Seth won a lot of them... just thought you should know...)
3) the ocean. Jessica's brother actually found $20 in the ocean the first time he walked in. As if being at the ocean wasn't good enough... now he gets paid for it??
So there you go. We've got some pictures posted, too!
at the beach
We are very much enjoying our time at Myrtle Beach with Jessica's folks. We've had beautiful weather so far and Daniel is loving the beach! The only thing he doesn't like is the elevator. When we get him down to the water, though, he is delighted! Daniel is also gaining confidence with walking. Now he is willing to walk short distances between things... it won't be long until he's walking everywhere, I guess. We're so excited!
Oh, we've posted a couple of new videos recently if you haven't seen them yet. They're on the movies page.
Birthday, etc.
Daniel turned one on Saturday, July 5th! We had an exciting day celebrating with friends and family (there are some pictures up on our picture page). It's pretty hard to believe that it's been a whole year since Daniel came into our family! He is more fun every day and we have to admit that this is probably the best year we've ever had :)
Daniel now has eight words ("mama", "dada", "up", "more", etc) plus three animal sounds (mostly "quack") and could probably walk just fine on his own if he could just get the courage up. As it is, he loves walking all over as long as he has a hand to hold.
In other news, the past couple of days have been an adventure on another level - our computer started dying on Saturday and finished the job last night, so I'm using a new one to type this now. It's a big process to get everything set up on the new one, but we are very thankful that we did end up having time to get all of our important information off of the old computer while it took it's time dying. God is good! And we've learned our lesson: Now we have a much more efficient back up system, so even if the new computer were to die quickly, we'd still have everything we need.
Family Today we got to hang out with some of the great folks in Seth's extended family: the Hamilton family as well as cousin Katy and husband Jean-Seb. Katy and Jean-Seb work with a church in Quebec, which has a culture that is similar in some significant ways to Ireland, so it was wonderful to get to see them and talk about the Lord!!
11 months and getting ready for bama
Our interned at home is down, but it's nice to have a coffee shop nearby!
Yesterday Daniel turned 11 months old - hard to believe we'll be having a birthday party next month! Wow, that went fast! He's getting closer and closer to walking, but he doesn't seem to sense any need to hurry. He's still a bit scared of venturing out on his own, and doesn't like to be pushed. So we're enjoying the crawling stage. Except now we have to watch him, because he's getting good at climbing stairs.
We'll post pictures in celebration of his 11-month day very soon... but not yet.
Tomorrow we are leaving for Alabama/Georgia! Today we're wrapping up anything that needs to be done here and packing for the trip. We'll keep you posted once we get there!
family time
This weekend Seth's cousin (Mom's side) got married in the area. We had a wonderful time celebrating with tons of family in town from all over the place. The whole family loves the Lord, which makes for some great fellowship, conversation and a whole lot of fun! And we didn't even have to leave town!
first steps
Daniel took his first few steps yesterday!!! He was with Mom and Dad at the park and took one step. We were not sure whether to count it or not, but later he took two steps and then another... so we did.
overdue
For our birthdays (in March) we decided what we'd really like to do is go to Washington DC for a day and look around. Well, we finally got around to going on Friday. We got there late, stayed the night with some good friends in the area and hit the town on Saturday.
Daniel didn't really understand the zoo. But he liked watching the digger.
It was a beautiful day and we had a great time together!
Mom's Day Weekend
On Saturday Jess and Seth were both in the wedding party for our good friends, Adam and Kourtney. The day turned out to be wonderful and the wedding was practically perfect!
We had a good time on Jessica's first Mother's Day as a mom, too. Grandma Smelser certainly enjoys Mr. Daniel!
4 years of matrimonial bliss (mostly)
It's actually a bit hard to remember that there was a different life before we were married. For us, matrimony has only gotten better with time. We know that isn't the case for everyone, so we are all the more thankful to the Lord for blessing us with a great marriage (and now a family!)!
And we are good for each other. Jessica makes sure that Seth eats regular meals, and Seth helps Jessica develop spontaneity. Case in point: the other day Jessica came home right when Seth was supposed to leave. Seth had forgotten to pack his lunch. Jessica spontaneously produced a tasty lunch. Ain't marriage a wonder?
Ohio
We drove to Wapakoneta, Ohio on Sunday morning and presented our ministry at Wapakoneta Nazarene, where Seth's uncle is the pastor. Uncle Ward also commissioned Daniel for missionary service (that's what's going on in the picture below). After church we had a great visit with some of Seth's family that we hadn't seen in years!
Sunday afternoon we ended up close to Cincinnati at the home of one of Seth's cousins and his family - who graciously let us stay the night and introduced us to some of the best ice cream we've ever had! The next day we drove home, but on the way we stopped and saw one of Jessica's friends from college and then stopped again to see another good friend of ours.
Now we're home and thankful for our own house, but we're also super-thankful for a wonderful trip!
Indiana, still
We are still thanking God that the sun came out here!
Wednesday we spoke at Kessler Krest Baptist in Indianapolis, which went well. We are really enjoying the opportunity to see different churches and meet new brothers and sisters in the Lord!
Yesterday we met with several students at Indiana Wesleyan University and had a great time talking about what God is doing in their lives and ours. It was nice to be able to walk around outside between meetings (refer to sentance #1). We also got to have dinner with a group from Grandma's church, which was great!
Daniel is doing very well with all the new places, people and experiences. He is generally happy to meet people and his favorite thing to do these days is walk around (with help from Mom or Dad). He has had a bit of trouble at night, but that's what coffee is for.
