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.

Birth of Kayleigh Elizabeth Hampton

Well, since Kayleigh is 6 weeks old today, I thought it was probably time to update the blog with her birth story. It seems like a lifetime ago, but I'll do my best to remember. This will just be a very shortened version, maybe someday I'll have the time to write the full version.

We (Lance and myself plus my mom) headed to the hospital on Wed, Nov 24th at 10 am for an induction. It took awhile for some preliminary things to be done, but I think we started the Pitocin before noon.

The Pitocin is started and it didn't take long for the contractions to start. They were pretty erratic in the beginning but then they came regularly every 3-5 mins. Oh, and take note of the lovely gowns they give you. :)
This is after one of MANY walks around the Labor and Delivery floor. I'm guessing this was sometime on Wed because I still cared about trying to look good for pictures. But by Thursday, I didn't care much about what I looked like. Thursday night we celebrated Thanksgiving in this room and thanks to Brenda we had a small Thanksgiving meal (turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls and cranberry sauce). But I have to admit, I didn't really feel like eating much. By this time, I'd been having contractions for about 36 hours. My constant prayer was that at each check I would be at 3 cm. (3 cm was the magic number for the wonderful world of pain relief--an epidural.) But each exam would have the same result: 1 lousy cm. I think by Friday morning the doctor told me I was barely 2 cm. But after 48 hours of torture, I begged the doctor for a c-section.

This picture really makes me laugh. At this point, I have had the spinal tap, and I'm really feeling the effects. One of which was constant gagging. I wasn't actually throwing up, but it was the weirdest sensation. It was like I was fake gagging. And after every "gag" I would start giggling uncontrollably because it just felt weird--and I'm sure it looked pretty silly. Eventually that stopped and the surgery began. Technically in Taiwan, the husband isn't allowed in the operating room, but our doctor pulled some strings and let him be there. I was SO grateful Lance could be there with me to experience Kayleigh's birth.

This is my first look at my daughter. What an amazing moment. Lance was able to hold her and I was so jealous! I was desperate to reach out and touch her. Thankfully, before they took her away, the nurse rubbed her face against mine. I remember the tears streaming down my cheeks. What a beautiful thing, to touch your baby for the first time.

Kayleigh ended up having some breathing difficulties because of "wet lungs." Sometimes when babies are born via cesarean, they have fluid on their lungs. Most babies when delivered naturally, the fluid in their lungs is squeezed out as they travel through the birth canal. But since Kayleigh was born via c-section, her lungs didn't have the opportunity to get rid of the extra fluid.

Just before they wheeled me off to the Recovery Room, my doctor told me they were taking Kayleigh to the NICU. Then I was whisked away without knowing the details of what was wrong. I'm not sure how long I was in Recovery, but it seemed like days. This was actually worse than the 48 hours of labor. I was so anxious to get back to Lance and find out how Kayleigh was. I actually wasn't even able to see her again that day. The NICU visiting hours were twice a day for 30 mins. That evening, Lance and my mom went to see her, but I couldn't go because I was still recovering from the surgery. This was also a low point. I had to stay and wait in my room while they got to go see our baby. It was a long half hour wait. But they brought back good reports from the dr and some pictures and videos for me to see. This was all the motivation I needed to get up out of bed and start moving around. I NEEDED to see my baby at the next visiting hours the following morning.
So at 10:30 am, 24 hours later, I was finally able to hold my baby girl. And by now, she wasn't even on round the clock oxygen. She was already improving.
The next day, Kayleigh was moved to the Sick Baby Room, a step down from the NICU. But the visiting hours were the same, twice a day for 30 mins. Although I was able to go down and feed Kayleigh several times a day while she was in the SBR. But each time we had to leave her and go back to my room, it was really sad. This is one of my favorite pictures, here Lance is saying goodbye for now.
Thirty minutes just goes by too quickly! By Sunday, Kayleigh was doing great. Her doctors said that whenever I was released she could go home too. So I begged the doctor to release me early. (In Taiwan, after a c-section, the mother stays in the hospital for 7 days.) On Monday, my doctor gave me the ok to go home. We were so excited to spend more than an hour a day with our baby!
As excited as we were, she was just content to sleep!
Yay! We're FINALLY home!