Baby Update

Just wanted to let you know. We went to the Dr. today and things are looking good. The baby is about 7 lbs right now and we have scheduled a c-section for 8am, Friday, November 9th. It is so weird to know when this baby is going to arrive. Assuming of course that God doesn't bless us with a surprise sometime before then - which could happen and make everything a little more exciting :-)

My Mom arrives on Thursday to help us take care of Josiah and to be here to help with the new little one. I am SO excited to have her come. She has never traveled overseas and here she comes all by herself. I am SO proud of her for making the trip. You can pray she has safe travels and lots of blessing.

We will fill you in on anymore details and happenings that come this way involving chunk #2. I am so anxious to meet him or her!!!

Its all about communication

Like many parents these days we decided to try and teach Josiah how to say some words using sign language. It was our hope that communication could consist of more than tears and frustration for all of us.

Well, we decided to really push saying "please". Other things we worked on too, but not as diligently. The appropriate sign for please is rubbing your hand on your chest in a slow circular manner. We did this over and over again. Before he got to eat more food, before he got a drink, before we would pick him up, before anything we practiced saying please.

Somehow our incredibly smart son decided he wanted to create his own version of sign language. Who knew he would be so innovative. Somehow Josiah transferred our hand rubbing on our chests to his right ear. Yep, thats right he rubs his ear, quite quickly in order to communicate please. It is great, and super cute. The only issue is when he eats spaghetti or cake with loads of frosting and suddenly whatever he ate for dinner is in his hair.

We still have to smile as he says please. It is just TOO cute. Now that we've gotten "please" down, or at least understandable, we are working on some other words. It is so much fun to watch him communicate with us. He is really the smartest kid alive. No, I'm not biased at all :-)


Here are some action shots of him saying please, isn't he cute!

The Chunk Turns One!

Today is Josiah's first birthday. I can't believe that my little chubby "bump" is so grown up.

a few hours old

He is so much fun to watch and play with. I love watching him grow and learn new things. He is always so curious to see what is happening around him. He loves watching people and animals. He really loves his Daddy too. He is always pretending to talk to him on the phone and during the day he asks me where he is. When Joey comes home Josiah usually goes crawling towards him super excited.

The big one-year-old


Today we took it easy lounging around the house and taking some one year old pictures. Then we had a little birthday party with homemade tortillas and all the burrito fixin's. In my family there is a tradition that on a kiddo's first birthday they get their own cake. Well Josiah wasn't too sure about the whole thing at first, I don't think he could believe that we were actually giving him such a big piece of cake. Once he figured out that we were serious he dove right in.

Is this really for me?

Happy Birthday Chunk. I love you!!!

Fruit Snacks!!!

It is pomegranate season here and we are loving the yummy fruit. It took us a while to figure out exactly how to get into these things but once we did we found that they were full of little "fruit snacks"




Josiah Especially loves them!

Baby Update

Well, now that I've filled you in on our trip I thought I'd give you a quick update on Baby #2. We've already filled some of you in on all these details, but thats ok :-)

When we arrived back from our trip we went to see the Dr. She did one final ultrasound (they do those a lot around here.) and checked out the weight of the baby, the location of the placenta and did a general health check. Things looked ok except that the placenta is very low.

She said that based on all the information she had we were going to need to do another c-section. Since my last c-section was less than 2 years ago and the placenta is low there really isn't another option. Joey and I were prepared for another c-section so it wasn't a big deal. Its actually kinda nice to be able to plan on a general time for the arrival of Baby #2.

I will go and see the Dr. again on the 29th and then every week following that until around the 8th of November. At that point we will decide exactly which date we want to have the baby and see if the clinic is available and if everything is a go. We are thinking that 11-11-07 would be a really fun birthday, but its a Sunday and we don't know how that works. When we know, we'll let you know :-)

While we wait we are just hanging out and getting ready. Since Ramadan is over Joey is busy getting work going again. Its hard to come back after a month away, but he is such a hard worker he was anxious to get things up and running. I am going through baby clothes and spending lots of time with Josiah. It is nice to have the freedom to relax and rest up before the Baby comes. Can you believe it in less than a month I'll be posting about our new little one! I am SO excited!!!

Part 4 - The Grand Finale

The last part of our journey was a special treat for our 3rd anniversary. We arrived in Istanbul around 6 in the morning, grabbed our rented car and were off. It was about an 8 hour drive to the town where we were headed and Joey kept a close watch on the map not letting me see where we were headed. Not that it would have really mattered - my geography, especially of Turkey, is not what it should be. Finally as night came we were at our hotel, in the city of Kusadasi. It was a big fancy hotel with an all inclusive deal that Joey had found online to fit our budget. While the Hotel was slightly cheesy it was so much fun to just relax, enjoy the yummy buffets, and the swimming pool. We spent 3 nights relaxing and living it up.

Joey and Josiah enjoying the pool. Josiah loved swimming!

Every hotel we stay at we set up a bed for Josiah in the bath tub. It works just like his pack and play and is really cozy. One morning on this trip we woke up to the sound of water running, he finally figured out how to turn it on! Luckily it was warm and his blankets dried quickly.

We were near the ancient city of Ephesus so we took a day and headed out to see the sights. It was incredible to walk the streets that long ago Paul had walked. Things have been incredibly well perserved and you really can get an idea of the vastness of the town. At one point this town had over 200,000 people in it! Amazing. The two most incredible things that we saw were the Library and the Grand Theater. The Library still has the front facing on it. You can see the statues placed there and much of the engravings. The Grand Theater can seat 25,000 people and is still used today from time to time.

The front of the Library. It wasn't a very large space so the guy who had it built made the front look as impressive as possible. He did pretty good don't you think?!

This is the Grand Theater. They are still doing some excavation work which is why the crane is there. If you read in Acts when Paul was in Ephesus it talks about this theater and how the people gathered there to protest the Christians. Amazing!!!

After our time in Kusadasi came to a close and we drove back to Istanbul. It was so much fun to drive and see the country. Turkey really is a beautiful place. We were then off again to finally make the journey home. Our last layover was 14 hours overnight in Zürich, Switzerland. Zürich was an extra special treat. It reminded us so much of home - the air was cool and crisp and the trees were actually turning shades of red and orange. It even rained while we were there, the cool misty rain of Seattle. It was wonderful. We also go to eat at a Bar and Grill specializing in Mexican food. Let me tell you there is NOTHING like a yummy chicken burrito and nachos!

Here we are in Switzerland, adding one more stamp to our passports!

Zürich is beautiful, and quite the contrast from all the Muslim countries we visited. It was shocking, in a nice way, to see church steeples instead of minarets from a mosque.

Finally we headed home. It was so nice to be back among the familiar things. We stayed one night in the city and then were on our way to head home when the car broke down. It was such bummer to be in the home stretch and have to turn around. We ended up staying for an extra week in the city doing some more relaxing and catching up on emails. I guess the Lord knew that we weren't completely ready to get back to the daily grind. All in all it was an incredible trip full of adventure, fun and loads of relaxing. We are so blessed we had the opportunity to get away and see such incredible places!

Part 3 - Yemen!

Many of you know that I have been waiting to get to Yemen for years now. Joey went long before I met him and then again while we were dating. It is a country that has a special place in our hearts and I have been anxiously waiting for the chance to go. Unfortunately it is incredibly expensive to get there from the states (we've seen tickets for as much as $3000!). Fortunately it is not so expensive traveling when you're already almost half way there!

We arrived in Yemen around 2 am and headed to our hotel. Since it is Ramadan lots of people were still out and about and the city wasn't quiet yet. Almost all of the women there dress in all black and most of them cover their faces entirely so that only their eyes show. It strikes you pretty quickly as you glance over a crowd of people. We settled into our hotel room and got some much needed sleep. Josiah had a VERY rough flight from Istanbul and was anxious to snooze (me too!)

The next day we realized that since it was Ramadan we were going to have a hard time getting anything to eat. No one gets up before 12 and even thing things aren't open. Joey was able to find some water and a little bread. So we munched on that and then headed out to see a bit of the city. We were staying in Sana'a, the capital city. Sana'a is the one city in Yemen that does get some tourists, so it has a bit of a western influence. They have a KFC, Pizza Hut and even a Baskin and Robins with REAL Baskin and Robins' Ice Cream!!! The old city - where we walked - is incredible. Most of the buildings are over 1000 years old and beautiful. The people there are great too. Always saying "Welcome to Yemen" wherever we went.

Some buildings in the old city

A shop owner in Sana'a - those are knives on the back wall, an important part of your daily attire!

Most of our time in Sana'a was spent walking around the old city, relaxing for the afternoons and finding yummy food in the evenings. Yemeni food doesn't have a lot of variety but it is really good. They make a fresh bread that is thin kinda like pita bread, but really nothing the same as far as consistency. It is SO good. They also eat something called "fool" which in Arabic means beans. They are basically refried beans, but oh so much more. The food really was incredible.

Joey and Josiah enjoying some yummy "fool"

After a few days in Sana'a we headed to Taiz. Taiz is about 5 hours south of Sana'a and it is the city where Joey taught English for a summer. He still has some friends there and we were excited to see them and hear about what is going on in Taiz. We were hoping to take a bus there, but again because of Ramadan things were a little messed up so we took a taxi called a "peugeot" Basically they take a station wagon, a small station wagon, and they add a third seat. Then they put three people up front, four in the middle and three in the back. It is pretty squished. We paid for an extra seat and sat in the middle. It worked out great and in no time we were in Taiz.

Cairo Castle built by the Ottoman Empire, we had a great view of it from the guest house.

It was really exciting to see the place where Joey taught English. I could imagine him teaching students and spending his days preparing lessons and meeting with friends. We stayed in a guest house that the school provides and had a wonderful relaxing time. We were blessed with an opportunity to have lunch with some friends of Joeys and to get the scoop on all the different things happening. We also got the chance to drive up Saber mountain. Unfortunately we couldn't find a taxi to take us all the way up, but we got to see some great views anyways. We also got to experience a huge rain storm and Joey got to participate in an English Cafe thing put on by the school. It was a great taste of the country and I truly loved it.

A view of Taiz from Saber mountain

It was a pretty short taste. Due to the fact that not a lot of people go to Yemen, there aren't many flights so we had to head back after only 5 days in the country. Little did I know that Joey had more surprises up his sleeve. We flew out of Sana'a at midnight or so and headed back again to Turkey, but this time we were renting a car and driving off into the countryside to some unknown city!

Part 2 - Three turkeys in Turkey...

After we got our coffee we were finally ready to head into the city and hopefully check into our hotel. We jumped on the metro and off we went into town. It was hard to really know where we were going and what stop was ours. Luckily an older university professor noticed our predicament and helped us find the stop. Our hotel was lovely and we were excited to get to sleep a bit after the rough night.

Istanbul was a really interesting place. There were so many people. Unlike many of the other Muslim countries we've been in you couldn't even tell it was Ramadan. People were eating and drinking. The only noticeable part was the lights on the mosques wishing us a joyful Ramadan. We spent our days walking around the city, eating the yummy kebabs (a pita sandwich with chicken or lamb and veggies) and taking in the sights.

A guy cutting off the meat for a traditional Turkish kebab.

We spent some time at the Hagia Spohia a beautiful church built in the 6th century by the romans. It was later taken over by Muslims and made into a mosque. Now it is a museum and is incredible in size and beauty. It was incredible to see the mosaics of Christ and the Virgin Mary in a Mosque.

The church being dedicated to Baby Jesus by Justinian and the city of Istanbul by Constantine.

We also went to the Topkapi Palace. It was pretty incredible too. The part that was most fascinating to me was all the incredible jewels. There were sword hilts covered in emeralds and rubies and an incredible 32 carat diamond. Unfortunately they wouldn't let us snap any photos of the jewels, but they were pretty amazing.

The entrance to Topkapi Palace

Josiah and I enjoying the sun on a balcony in the palace.

Our last night in Istanbul we went to a restaurant that looked over the harbor and gave us a great view of the Blue Mosque. The food was so good and raised our appreciation for Turkish style yummies. Josiah of course loved it, and especially enjoyed getting to watch all the birds fly past as the sun set.

At the yummy restaurant.

After a great time in Istanbul we were off to Yemen, the main destination on our trip. We flew out of Istanbul late in the evening and excitedly anticipated the adventures that lay ahead.

And we're back...

We have finally arrived back home after two glorious weeks of traveling all over the world. Here are a few pictures to start things off right.

On our way, the first family picture of the trip

The Blue mosque in Istanbul, Turkey

Josiah loved traveling and was SO good. We are so thankful for his flexibility and willingness to go with the flow.

A street in Sana'a, Yemen

Another family picture in the ancient city of Ephesus.

Joey did such a wonderful job putting this trip together. Since we were trying to be good stewards of our money that meant we had a lot of flights and layovers which meant we got to see a total of 6 countries (counting the one we started in). We spent some time in Spain, Germany, Turkey, Yemen and Switzerland. We had so many adventures and loads of rubbish parties, but all in all it was an incredibly relaxing and revitalizing time.

There is more to tell you about than any of us have time for, but I will try and tell you a little about each place and about my favorite parts over the next few days. Our trip started with an over night stay in Madrid, Spain. We've been there quite a few times, but this time there was a big mix up with the hotel and they had to move us to a hotel that was located in an industrial park type area. That meant no roaming the streets and checking out the sights. It worked out ok, we ordered pizza and watched English TV. It was a great way to start the trip.

I found out the next morning the first of many surprises that Joey had for us. We were off to Turkey. We had a lay over in Frankfurt for about 6 hours. We had fun taking the train out to a small suburb of Frankfurt and walking around the city. We spent quite a bit of time roaming through an old cemetery which was a lot of fun and then we were off to Istanbul. Unfortunately the Istanbul airport receives many of its flights in the middle of the night. We arrived around 2am and did our best to find a bench to sleep on. It was a rough couple of hours, but all was made right when we were able to order a nice cup of coffee. Is there anything better than a White Chocolate Mocha?!

More to come tomorrow...