We had our first craft on Thursday~ water colors!

It was really fun and not that messy.  Apart from Elijah eating the paint and at times sucking the brush dry after dunking it in the water cup, it went really well.  Don’t worry Grandma, it was non-toxic paint .

One reason I wanted to post this blog was to gain insight from any mothers/teachers/crafty gurus for Elijah’s and my next craft.  If you have any ideas for a craft suitable for a 2-year-old, please leave a comment or link me to another site.  Thanks!

We spoke with our foster agency and they said the good news is that all of the paperwork & classes we have completed will not expire until one year from the time we completed them (this last May).  This is great news because it means we could still get licensed without having to stat all over again!

Please pray with us as we try to complete the paperwork & the other necessary steps involved.  :)

We are 17 weeks pregnant this week!  Little Sunshine is growing like a little weed.  We found out last week that Elijah will have a brother in about 23 weeks!  He is in the 70 percentile for his gestational age- which is funny.  My kids are always higher on the charts inside my body than when they come outside.  We’ll see how this little man does as he grows.  Here are a few pictures of his progress.

10 weeks old:

12 weeks old:

16 weeks:

This last photo is of just his “boy parts”.  He must have grabbed them five times while we were checking him out.  He’s already like his older brother!  ;)  While we were at the 16 week appointment, Dr. Seeker (the OB) showed us his tiny heart.  It already has four chambers!  His brain was divided into different lobes!  Wow.

Its remarkable to see how this little guy has grown in just 6 weeks.  God is truly amazing!

These pictures remind me of Psalm 139.13-16:

“For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.”

Jesus is intimately acquainted with our baby, even though Jerod & I haven’t even seen his precious face.  Its comforting to know that the God of the Universe would bend low to be near and orchestrate the formation of our second offspring.  My heart can find so many things to be anxious about, but the fact that Jesus is there with him, dissipates my fears.

Praise Jesus

We are pregnant with our Little #2.  Like Elijah, we weren’t aiming to get pregnant, but God in His wisdom opened it up and here we are.  We are pretty excited.  Even Eli seems happy about it.  When we ask him where the baby is, he points at my belly.  So brilliant

Our due date is January 7.  We don’t know if its a boy or girl yet.  We are scheduled to find out on July 21.  Elijah will be 2 years old and month when the newest member of our family arrives.

We’re calling the baby “Little Sunshine” because we called Elijah “Little Moon” while he was in my belly.  So it seems appropriate to call this next one “Little Sunshine”.  The series of these names derives from the nickname given to me by Jerod’s stepdad, Michael.  He calls me “Sunshine”.

This comes as a surprise because we were in the middle of becoming foster-to-adopt parents through the state of Texas.  We anticipated that the next baby added to our quiver would be an adopted baby, but God had a different idea.  We have to put the adoption process on hold because I didn’t get a tuberculosis test before I got knocked up.  Apparently there is an active bacteria in the test which would not be good to expose to the baby in my belly.   The TB test is necessary to be licensed by the state.

God is sovereign though and we know that He will bring us the baby He wants to add to our family through adoption in His timing.

http://vimeo.com/11971319

Praise God that He is stirring the hearts of His Church.

As you know, the Haitian church has been devastated by the earthquake.

Pastors are dead.

Church buildings have been demolished.

Our Haitian brothers and sisters are suffering in inconceivable ways.

To use an analogy, if the Western Hemisphere is the setting of The Parable of the Good Samaritan instead of the land of Israel, the church in Haiti is the man half dead and we are the neighbor. Our Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ have immense needs, and God has given us the opportunity and responsibility to care for them as the Good Samaritan cared for the man who fell among thieves.

As you have likely heard, many more children have become orphans as a result of the earthquake. What was already an orphan crisis in Haiti has become an exponentially greater crisis. Since the church in Haiti is itself suffering terribly from the devastating earthquake, they are not in a position to even begin to care for their orphans.

So, we are actively working on an initiative to mobilize the U.S. church to be the hands and feet of the Haitian church to care for its orphans. We want to serve our Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ by coming alongside them and doing for them what they cannot do themselves: care for their orphans in crisis.

As you can imagine, executing an initiative like this is complicated. We are working to put a clear plan of action together. If you are interested in knowing how you and your church can participate, please send an e-mail to dan.cruver@TogetherforAdoption.org and keep checking the T4A website for updates.

More information will be coming. In the meantime, pray that we as the church will rise up to come alongside our Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ for the sake of Haiti’s orphans.

If you have $25, consider buying a shirt.  Every time you wear it, it will remind you to pray for the People of Haiti.  Pray God would restore them.

http://haitirescuecenter.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/sleeping-outside-again-tonight/

Pray for these kids and if you are able, help!

The first thing I gleaned from the gathering is that every tradition my family holds should be linked to a value Jerod and  I embrace.  Here are the values we discussed:

1.  We value Jesus Christ and believe He was sent by God to pay the price for our sins so that we could intimately enjoy God and His relationship with us forever.

2.  We value quality time spent together as a family.  We value the roles God gave us as husband and wife and the roles our children play in our family.

3.  We value missions and the spread of God’s Holy Name and His plan for all people.

4.  We value obeying God in all things because we know obedience leads us to deeper intimacy with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

5.  We value being wholistically healthy- body, mind, and spirit.  We’re still working on the “body” part.

6.  We value all people.  We believe all people were made in God’s image, therefore the orphan, slave and prisoner need care in light of Jesus’ sacrifice.

7.  We value expressing our creativity and talents in a God-honoring way.

After we hashed out our family values, we brain-stormed a few ways to reveal our values through our family traditions.  We linked each tradition back to our values.  Some of the ideas below came from the wise ladies at my church.  I hope you take from this list or create some of your own.

Holidays

We have a “thankful” box that comes out the beginning of November.

During the month, each family member (who can contribute) writes down things they are thankful for from the current year.  We read the cards on Thanksgiving morning over breakfast.  This allows us to reflect on God’s faithfulness to our family.

The cards are then displayed throughout December as a reminder of our good God.

The cards go into a holiday scrapbook with our family Christmas picture.  We want to store our family memories and reflect on God’s faithfulness so that we will remember in the future.

We volunteered by serving Thanksgiving dinner in St. John’s (a poorer neighborhood in Austin- not the Caribbean- though I wouldn’t be opposed to serving there  ).  We want to serve others during the holiday season.  It is so easy to get “caught up” selfishly in your own family.  This activity will change each year as our kids grow older.

We ate favorite foods for Thanksgiving: pecan pie, turkey, broccoli casserole, cream cheese + olives stuffed in celery, sweet potato casserole, and stuffing.

We make ornaments each year.  We make a family ornament and one for each kid (so far we only have one kid).

We’ve just started this so I’ll let you know as we add more traditions.  One we’ve started with Elijah almost everyday is to read him a story, pray and then put him in his bed for the night.

A great resource is Noel Piper’s book, “Treasuring God in our Traditions”.  Each family is so unique and its exciting to create your own family’s culture.

May God richly add to your family, friends, and relationships.  If you have a tradition that you observe, please share it with us.  Leave a comment or link us to your blog.  

and a Merry New Year!