Kayleigh is 10 months!

It is amazing how time flies! I can't believe we are just two months away from her 1st birthday. Every day a little bit more of her personality emerges. Here's a little about Kayleigh:

-She loves music. If she hears music or if you sing to her, she'll bounce up and down! My friends will often ask me to sing a song just to see her "dance."

-With her big blue eyes and light hair, she gets a LOT of attention. Sometimes she handles it well, waving and jabbering to strangers. Other times she cries and bats their hands away from her face.

-She likes to do things by herself, including brushing her teeth.

-She does not like to be confined very long (in the high chair, stroller, play yard, etc)

-Crawling is a piece of cake and she really enjoys being chased.

-It won't be long til she's walking on her own. Currently she will stand unassisted for a few seconds.

-She loves to go "bye bye." She will even crawl over to her stroller and start tugging on it when she's ready to go.

-Riding in the car is more enjoyable for her here since she can face forward. Plus, the traffic is a lot more exciting to watch here, with scooters zipping around the cars.

-When she's tired not only does she rub her eyes, but she'll tug on her ears.

-She will chew anything and everything! I've used a variety of things to keep her from chewing on her crib, but it still looks like a family of beavers resides there. :(

-She enjoys xi fan (a rice porridge) or toast for breakfast. She's also a big fan of green beans, mangoes, applesauce, bananas, and peaches.

some of kayleigh's words

kayleigh loves to babble (just like her mama)! lately we've noticed she's saying lots of nonsense words, but a few actual words, most of which she has no idea of the meaning. here are a few of them...

ma ma

da da

ba ba ("father" in chinese)

doy

toy

gu gu ("older brother" in chinese)

ta da

pie

ta ("he/she" in chinese)

pow

bow

di di ("younger brother" in chinese)

whenever she makes one of the sounds that is a chinese word, several of our taiwanese friends will exclaim, "she can speak chinese!" :)

my favorite time of day

my favorite time of day is about 3/4 pm. i'm anxious for kayleigh to wake up so we can go down to the courtyard and visit with our friends. several moms and their kids (along with a few grandparents) always spend a couple hours together. i'm slowly learning the names of the moms and kids and which kids get along, and which need a little more supervision. ;) kayleigh loves watching them play, but after awhile she gets really jealous and wants to get down and play with them. i'm hoping maybe i can get a walker or something that she can get in and have a little more freedom. and altho it's still blazing hot here, i enjoy this time so much.

We're back!

We arrived on island late Thursday, Sept 1st. We were all pretty weary from the travels and so happy to finally walk into our home and drop all 9 pieces of checked bags, 6 carry-ons, a stroller and a car seat! We know so many of you were praying for our travels, especially for Kayleigh. And we're happy to say that she did very well! We're so proud of her! She did have some moments of frustration b/c she wanted to get down and crawl. But we were seated in the bulkhead row, so we had lots of leg room, and this allowed Kayleigh to sit at our feet and play for a bit. We were actually the first row of seats in coach, and one time I had to grab her before she took off to first class! Though we were thankful for our seats, it was difficult to see just how amazing it would be to fly 1st class on that long 14 hours plane ride!

She did have some interesting moments. Several times she would fight sleep. As she would fall asleep she would thrash around in our arms, and once I saw her smack her cheeks like an adult might do to keep from falling asleep! And I think at hour 12 of 14, she was starting to get pretty delirious! She was standing on my lap, facing all the rows behind us, waving and hollering at all the people behind us! It was pretty hysterical.

Now we are all fighting jet lag. It's been much harder on Kayleigh than on us. Sunday, day 3 of being back, was probably the hardest for us all. Kayleigh was pretty content in the morning when we went to church, but afterwards she was very clingly and whiny. Nothing seemed to console her and you could tell all she wanted to do was sleep. After three significant naps during the day, we put her down at 7 pm. And then I think Lance and I were both asleep at 8:30! Hopefully today will be a better day!

Thank you all so much for your prayers! We felt them the whole way here!

6 is the new 8

I'm biting the bullet. I've been wanting to do this for awhile now, but just haven't had the gumption to do it. Kayleigh helped jump start me this morning, so I figured, "Ok, today is the day." Today is the day that I (begin) to become a morning person. I say "begin" because I know this is going to be a process, a transformation if you will. See I am definitely not a morning person, but neither am I a late night owl... I guess you could say I'm more of a mid-morning/afternoon person. Lately my alarm clock has been my daughter, and she's been waking up about 8 am. And just about every night before I get in bed, I think about the things that didn't get done that day. An intriguing thought or a fun experience that didn't get blogged about, a chapter of a book that didn't get read, laundry that didn't get washed, a prayer time that got cut short, and some days a shower that didn't get taken.

I probably won't be jumping out of bed and getting the laundry going or typing up an inspiring blog entry... but I will take the time to get myself ready for the day. Physically ready for what God has in store. Spiritually ready so that I can know what that is.

So my 8 is now 6. I'm going to become a morning person. It won't be easy... in fact I'm sure that some mornings I will put up a very weak fight, turn the alarm off and roll over in my bed. But hopefully I'll grow more accustomed to 6. Hopefully I'll like how 6 changes me and that will be my morning motivation.

When/where you can see us...

June 5th FCC Beardstown

June 12th Madison Park Christian Church-Quincy

June 13th MPCC’s DayFest

June 26th Virginia Church of Christ

June 26-Jul 1 LaMoine Christian Service Camp (Junior 1)

July 2 LaMoine Christian Service Camp (Day Camp)

July 3 FCC Beardstown

Filling up

Filling up our gas tank is something we all do quite frequently. It seems like we are doing it more this home assignment because we are traveling more. But one thing we’ve learned is that this is exactly what home assignment is all about--filling up our tanks. It’s not about our gas tank, but about our spiritual, relational and emotional tanks.

Living in a different culture, speaking a difficult language, attempting to minister to lost souls while maintaining your own can be draining. When we arrived on United States soil, we felt like we were running on fumes. Two months into our home assignment though, we are noticing the gauge on our tanks is steadily rising.

Invitations to play a round of frisbee golf or homerun derby, going to playgroups, sharing meals with family, shopping with the girls, seeing grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all play with Kayleigh, going to baseball games and watching the NBA finals with friends (even if our teams always lose) have all helped fill our tanks.

Recently, we have been filled up through our presentations. So far we’ve had the opportunity to share with some of our supporters, elders/staff at Maryland Community Church, Beardstown Christian Academy, and a small group. Each meeting has revived us and given us more passion to see Taiwanese people come to the Lord. Many have asked questions about our life and ministry in Taiwan and even spoken some encouraging words that have been a fuel our souls needed.

We can’t begin to thank the Lord enough for the ways that we have been encouraged the past two months. We know that when August 30th rolls around and we board the plane bound for Taiwan, our tanks will be overflowing. Because the Lord has used you to encourage us and excite us about our next term in Taiwan.