We are heading home this Friday to spend a few days with family. We are planning on driving through the night Friday because we can't imagine riding 12 hours in a car with Aylah during the day! So you could pray for safety for Josh and I as we drive. We also might be a little tired because there is a teen Christmas party Friday right before we leave. We plan on spending the 22nd to the 26th with my parents in Holland, then the 26th through the 30th with Josh's parents in Traverse City and then the 30th through the 1st in Lansing. We hope that we can hook up with lots of Lansing people when we are in town. We miss our friends so much! We will probably put together a Pizza House party while we are in Lansing. Yummy!
This is all to say that I probably won't be writing anything new until we get back from Michigan. So..... MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! And good luck to all of our friends who are pregnant and due in the next 2 weeks :)
Macy Edelle
Aylah Grace
Monday, December 17, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Update on Life
Here is an update and glimpse into our life ranging from New City to Goth people.
I forgot to write in the last blog that Aylah is now 17 pounds exactly and is 27 1/2 inches long. Only 1 1/2 more inches and she will grow out of her baby car seat. :(
Josh is sometimes not mentioned in our blog too much. Not on purpose. We just figure that everyone would like to see pictures of Aylah in her pink bunny towel more than Josh in a green towel. he he. So here is a little update. The past 2 weeks have been pretty stressful for Josh. He has had the equivalent of parent teacher conferences, except with teens. Each year he has to do 3 evaluations of the teens. That means he types up a report and "grades" the teens and then he has to meet with each of them individually. That has meant some extra hours and some happy and some unhappy teens. I think he is almost done so that is good! Otherwise he is doing well. He has remarkably stayed pretty healthy even though he is around 50 elementary kids every day. And you know how those little ones are.... eeww.
The other day Josh and I were talking about people and growing up. I mentioned I had seen a goth person that day and then I paused and said. "What happens to goth people once they 'grow up?" Josh replied, "Well, I don't think that there have been goth people in previous generations and so it will be interesting to find out what happens to them." After which I said, "I kinda don't want to be in an old person's home posted up next to an old man with black fingernails... if you know what I mean." Any thoughts on this from you guys?
So in Hoboken, the "upscale town" I do my kickboxing and grocery shoppping in ( I grocery shop there so that I don't see guys peeing outside Shop Rite on my way in to get food) is a place I pass every time I go there. "Hoboken Soda and Beer Drive Thru: Kegs available" :) funny
My last pondering is rather serious. I have been co-leading a women's group with Ms. Vicki, a woman who works for New City. The teenage girls are the girls that work for Josh in the after-school program. We are going through the book, "Every Young Woman's Struggle." Last week our topic was Abuse. I was going to post a blog after that meeting but I was too sad. I wanted to cry. I sat there as the girls openly and honestly poured out stories of physical and verbal abuse. Every one had a story, some more willing to share than others. One girl told of the scar above her lip and that it came from a broom handle that her mom hit her with. There were other stories of being hit with the hose attachment from the back of a dryer. And lots of stories of girls getting cussed out by their parents for simple things like not cleaning their rooms and bad grades in school. I thought about how different this culture was than the one in West Michigan where I grew up. Any abuse there would be a deeply buried story, rarely shared with anyone, even a best friend. But here, it is widely known that abuse is a day-to-day occurance. We talked about how to get out of abuse and what you can do to change the way you think of yourself now that you have been abused. I can't even really put into words all the thoughts that circled my mind that night. The best way is just to say that I knew it was out there but hearing stories first hand made it real, vivid, and heart wrenching. Through the stories Vicki and I picked up on a theme of body image. So that is our topic tonight. I'm leading and talking about what it means that our body is a temple. (from 1 Corin. 6) We are trying to keep it a little lighter tonight so we are eating salad as our dinner and then after our talk we have an exercise DVD that the girls are very excited to do together. Pray for this night.... even if you read this 2 weeks from now. These girls need God's presence in their lives!
That's it for now. We are looking forward to seeing a lot of you soon!
I forgot to write in the last blog that Aylah is now 17 pounds exactly and is 27 1/2 inches long. Only 1 1/2 more inches and she will grow out of her baby car seat. :(
Josh is sometimes not mentioned in our blog too much. Not on purpose. We just figure that everyone would like to see pictures of Aylah in her pink bunny towel more than Josh in a green towel. he he. So here is a little update. The past 2 weeks have been pretty stressful for Josh. He has had the equivalent of parent teacher conferences, except with teens. Each year he has to do 3 evaluations of the teens. That means he types up a report and "grades" the teens and then he has to meet with each of them individually. That has meant some extra hours and some happy and some unhappy teens. I think he is almost done so that is good! Otherwise he is doing well. He has remarkably stayed pretty healthy even though he is around 50 elementary kids every day. And you know how those little ones are.... eeww.
The other day Josh and I were talking about people and growing up. I mentioned I had seen a goth person that day and then I paused and said. "What happens to goth people once they 'grow up?" Josh replied, "Well, I don't think that there have been goth people in previous generations and so it will be interesting to find out what happens to them." After which I said, "I kinda don't want to be in an old person's home posted up next to an old man with black fingernails... if you know what I mean." Any thoughts on this from you guys?
So in Hoboken, the "upscale town" I do my kickboxing and grocery shoppping in ( I grocery shop there so that I don't see guys peeing outside Shop Rite on my way in to get food) is a place I pass every time I go there. "Hoboken Soda and Beer Drive Thru: Kegs available" :) funny
My last pondering is rather serious. I have been co-leading a women's group with Ms. Vicki, a woman who works for New City. The teenage girls are the girls that work for Josh in the after-school program. We are going through the book, "Every Young Woman's Struggle." Last week our topic was Abuse. I was going to post a blog after that meeting but I was too sad. I wanted to cry. I sat there as the girls openly and honestly poured out stories of physical and verbal abuse. Every one had a story, some more willing to share than others. One girl told of the scar above her lip and that it came from a broom handle that her mom hit her with. There were other stories of being hit with the hose attachment from the back of a dryer. And lots of stories of girls getting cussed out by their parents for simple things like not cleaning their rooms and bad grades in school. I thought about how different this culture was than the one in West Michigan where I grew up. Any abuse there would be a deeply buried story, rarely shared with anyone, even a best friend. But here, it is widely known that abuse is a day-to-day occurance. We talked about how to get out of abuse and what you can do to change the way you think of yourself now that you have been abused. I can't even really put into words all the thoughts that circled my mind that night. The best way is just to say that I knew it was out there but hearing stories first hand made it real, vivid, and heart wrenching. Through the stories Vicki and I picked up on a theme of body image. So that is our topic tonight. I'm leading and talking about what it means that our body is a temple. (from 1 Corin. 6) We are trying to keep it a little lighter tonight so we are eating salad as our dinner and then after our talk we have an exercise DVD that the girls are very excited to do together. Pray for this night.... even if you read this 2 weeks from now. These girls need God's presence in their lives!
That's it for now. We are looking forward to seeing a lot of you soon!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Aylah is 6 months old!
This past Sunday Aylah turned 6 months old! We can't believe that she's already 6 months. It seems to have gone by so fast. We sat and just watched her play on Sunday and listened to her babble. We felt so blessed by her life and that we get to watch her grow. We can't wait for the next 6 months!
The other day I took out a puzzle of 2 hands for Aylah to play with. Basically she loved throwing the pieces around and she especially liked the number 9 finger and sucked on it until the wood was sopping wet. She was quite proud of her accomplishments. Here is a picture of her playing.
We also took out Aylah's very cute bunny bath towel that Kevin and Rachel and James bought for her. After her bath we wrapped her up and I was laughing so hard because I thought she was so cute. Hence, the picture Josh took :)
Not so great a pic. of me but good of her...
Not so great a pic. of me but good of her...The next picture is Aylah showing off her skill of standing up. Yes, that's right folks. Our little girl loves putting weight on her legs and so today I had her stand by the couch and hold on and she LOVED IT! 
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Cravings
Today I'm feeling a little like I'm just going through the motions of a day. I'm sure all of you have had days like that.
Recently our life has been consumed with trying to get Aylah back on a regular schedule, due to her sickness and still thinking that she should sleep in a big bed, like she did in Michigan.
I've also spent lots of time suctioning all the gunk out of Aylah's nose. Not very fun but hey, that's the life of a mom with a sick kid. I'm surprised our neighbors haven't called the police on us with the screaming Aylah has been doing when we pin her down to suction her nose.
I've also been missing Country music lately. There are absolutely no country stations to be found out here in our urban metropolis. So Sad! :( If you didn't know, Josh and I both like country music. So we have lots of country cd's on our Christmas list.
I've also been missing Kevin DeYoung's sermons, our pastor at our church in Lansing. I'm going to figure out a way to download them onto a cd and bring them upstairs to listen to them. I miss being challenged in my faith on a weekly basis like I was with his sermons. We are challenged in other ways in our faith here now... but I do miss the sermons.
Short one for today...
Recently our life has been consumed with trying to get Aylah back on a regular schedule, due to her sickness and still thinking that she should sleep in a big bed, like she did in Michigan.
I've also spent lots of time suctioning all the gunk out of Aylah's nose. Not very fun but hey, that's the life of a mom with a sick kid. I'm surprised our neighbors haven't called the police on us with the screaming Aylah has been doing when we pin her down to suction her nose.
I've also been missing Country music lately. There are absolutely no country stations to be found out here in our urban metropolis. So Sad! :( If you didn't know, Josh and I both like country music. So we have lots of country cd's on our Christmas list.
I've also been missing Kevin DeYoung's sermons, our pastor at our church in Lansing. I'm going to figure out a way to download them onto a cd and bring them upstairs to listen to them. I miss being challenged in my faith on a weekly basis like I was with his sermons. We are challenged in other ways in our faith here now... but I do miss the sermons.
Short one for today...
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