Life now

Today is November 8th here (still the 7th in the States) and I just can't believe how fast this year has gone.  I mean, when I was younger people always told me, "You just wait till you have kids!  You'll see how fast time flies."  I never understood that and kind of didn't believe them.  I just thought, well not for me!  I'm not letting time fly.  Yeah... I was wrong.  Ben I were talking last night about how fast this 3rd pregnancy is going.  When I was prego with Braidynn, my first, I was checking my email updates EVERY DAY about how she was developing that day, what she could newly do, how big she was, etc.  With Aben, my second, I checked about once a week.  And here we are with the third, I think I've checked my email updates about how the baby is progressing maybe a total of 5 times... and I'm a couple days shy of 29 weeks!  C.R.A.Z.Y.

That being said, right now we are super busy trying to invest in and challenge these students at the Sports College.  We will leave our home here Dec. 27th and fly to Thailand to have Baby #3.  We will be there for about 2 months.  The first month is because I can't fly after 36 weeks and then the second month is because we are waiting on U.S. Passport & visa so that we can enter back into the country.  We are praying that while we are in Thailand the students will continue to meet on there own and study The Word.  It's exciting watching them take some ownership to this study time!  

I have posted a bunch of pics below trying to update you guys.  Love you guys and love hearing from you!!!  

Braidynn has started Piano - all in Chinese!

Ben with some village kids.

Ben with brothers & sisters out in the village! 

One of the village towns

Beautiful views out in the countryside.

Ben with a village grandma. :)

Ben with martial arts kids.

I can do that...

Practicing

I think we might have a little ball player on our hands.  

Or two ball players - if they can play in dresses.  :)

Braidynn in matching PJ with her Kit.

Love outfits made by Gammy!!! 

Watch out!

B LOVES painting!!!

And they both LOVE the pool!

oh yeah, Baby #3!

Happy 4th!

My cute kiddos celebrating the 4th!

12 month pics

Aben loves his STL Cardinals cap from Margaret!

hugs,
hannah

Better late than never, right... :)

So, I found this post that I had never published.  It was written this summer after teams were here visiting.  I will leave the post as it it below for you to read.  I really am going to try to keep this blog updated!  Please help me and remind me to post!


Post from this summer:
SO BUSY!

We've been crazy busy this past month and a half!!!  And we're so thankful that we have been!  We've had 2 teams come and go and the 3rd team is still here, currently in the village spreading the Good News.  I CANNOT say thank you enough to the people have given up time and money to come here and serve along side of us.  You guys are AWESOME + TOTALLY COOL + FABULOUS + PLUS SOME MORE.  

We've been able to get out in the village a lot this summer and it's been such an amazing experience.  The first 2 teams did a one-day sports clinic for the children of the village.  And the third group now has gone and done follow up on the work they did.  And 6 people believed!!!  PTL!!!  How cool is that?!  Something else totally incredible is that when this group got home, our local new (2)brothers & (2)sisters were baptized!  Yeah, so we've been busy and it's been so awesome!

The kids are doing great! Aben just celebrated his 1st birthday!!!  YUP.  Can you believe how fast that year when by?!  Braidynn is finishing up school (no, they are not out for the summer yet), and growing oh so fast.

Basketball Camp

Braidynn joining the fun!

The kids loved it!

Braidynn & Allison

The group :)

Camp

A local - notice her feet.  Not sure if she owns a pair of shoes...

Local housing in the village

Yeah, I'm much bigger now.  I'll post those soon.

Gary playing with the kids.

Camp!

Happy Happy 1st Birthday to our little Aben!

Present time!

He LOVES opening them, maybe more than the gifts themselves!

Love.

Challenged...

So, I read an article yesterday, I'm sure many of you have also read , you can read it here.  But beware if you are an iPhone, iPad, or any smart phone owner for that matter.  It's a brutal honest child's point of view of parents and their neglect of their kids.  


I started reading it thinking it would give me insite as it's titled "How to miss a Childhood."  I mean that's exactly what we don't want to do right?!  I think everyone should read this article and be challenged.  I like to think that I'm pretty good about not always picking up my phone when my kids around.  (iPhones make this kinda hard to do, as they are the coolest things ever!)  So yesterday after I read the article, I tried to notice how many times I wanted to pick up my phone.  The results were not desirable.  I noticed that almost anytime there was some down time, I wanted to pick up my phone!  I mean, really....  Can I not just appreciate some quiet or just some down time???  


The two times most likely for me to pick up my phone:

1. Nursing my 10 month old.  I've done this for probably about the whole 10 months.  I mean, it's quiet, down time right.  He's nursing and I have nothing to do. Why not pick up my phone and catch up on twitter, instagram, FB, emails, etc?  
2. When my 4 year old wants to watch a movie.  Let's face it, I don't really want to watch the movie too, so why not surf the web and appear to be watching it with her...

Why should I NOT do this:

1. Nursing is a PRECIOUS time between a mom & her baby.  The time will be gone WAY too fast.  I should treasure this time for the sweet moments that they are.  I could use this time to speak truth into his life, pray for him, and just stare at his gorgeous face.  I am committing to you and myself that I will NO longer get on my iPhone will nursing.  For real.
2. She knows.  She knows I'm not REALLY watching the movie with her.  She knows I'm not snuggled up next her, focused on her and the movie.  This time I should choose to let it be her time, whether it be watching a movie together, doing a craft, or just free play.  No matter what it is, I should let it be HER time only.  So, I'm also committing this time to no longer getting on my phone!

And if you know me well, I'm not good at giving quick responses to email.  And do you know why???  Because I've been checking my mail on my phone while I'm nursing or "watching a movie."  How can write an adequate response while doing those things?  Yeah, the same way I'm neglecting my kids in these moments, I'm also neglecting my emailers.  And to you I am sorry!

I know some of this can be a bit extreme.  I mean, I know sometimes while my kids are around I might need to check something on my phone.  No big deal.  I was just challenged by this article and hope you are or will be too.  How to miss a childhood

How in the world could I ever want to miss these children's childhood?!

Always learning.  Always growing.  Thank you Lord!

xoxo,

hannah

I'm really trying to catch up...  Below is a good glimpse of our February.  The biggest change was we had Margaret come live with us for almost 3 whole months!  She felt that Lord was calling her to come serve and we are SOOOO glad she listened to His calling!  I CANNOT believe she's already come and gone.  Margaret was such a blessing to us.  Braidynn will forever have a big sister in her.  Margaret helped us so much.  She had "class" with Braidynn when she was out of school for a month, on top of playing with her all the time and helping out at bath time, etc.  She also made it possible for Ben and I to actually go out on dates once a week!!!  We were spoiled rotten!  Yep, we miss her like crazy.  

This girl came and became a part of our family forever.

And since she was here we got to go out on lots of dates!!!  YAY!!!

Yummi food!!! If you couldn't tell, look at Braidynn.  haha.  :)

Braidynn having class with Margaret.

Fun at the playground

Day at the park!  (Margaret took this pic.)

Gorgeous sunset

Another awesome pic taken by Margaret.

Learning how to drive the scooter.  Yup, I'm the brave one sitting in the back.  :)

Braidynn's favorite spot

Sisters 4ever

Fun on the swing!!!

my lil Pink Floyd fan

"Look at those funny looking foreigners!!!" 

Our parks are amusement parks!

Fun in the hammock with Margaret.

Aben with his other big sis

Braidynn's SOOOOO happy someone could take her to play chalk almost every day!

How fast does this little one grow?!?

He's SOOO much fun!

Dance party!!!  Thanks Mimi & Pop for sending us the new JUST DANCE for the Wii!!!

We LOVE dancing around here!!!

Braidynn dancing with lil friends

Fun in the caterpillar!!!

Daddy giving a little football lesson.  :)

Helping mommy make a king cake!

Happy Mardi Gras!!!

Look who found the Monkey!  (We didn't have any babies laying around here...)