Good Report

It had been 2 1/2 years, but Liv just had another check-up appointment with a pediatric cardiologist from Mayo. She had one right after we brought her home but haven't had one since. Fortunately, every Thursday one of the doctors drives to our clinic here in town, and so we didn't have to drive all the way there. This doctor is known for bringing a portable echo-cardiogram machine. So she listened to Liv's heart for a little bit, and then as Liv would say, "She put jelly on my tummy and took pictures." LIV DID AWESOME!!! She gets very hesitant at the doctor's office and has had many tears at times. But we tried to prep her for what to expect at breakfast that morning, and she did so good! She sat really still for the doctor to listen to her heart. Then she kindof laid on me for the echo. She laid so still and was very cooperative. I was so grateful. The overall report is that the hole in Liv's heart has gotten smaller. We'll go back for another check-up before kindergarten. The best-case scenario is that Liv won't need anything done, and the worst-case is that she'll need a patch put in during early elementary school (and that can be done through a catheter - it doesn't need to be open heart surgery). We are so grateful that her health is good.

And she's grown an inch since her 3 year check-up in July. We're at an even 3 feet now :).

October so far...

Hangin' with Dad during football on Sunday afternoons.

Our favorite cousin/nephew turned 2! He's like trying to photograph an active puppy. So this is the best I could do. But he's so much fun and LOVES Liv and always carries a car in each hand. She's edged a little bit ahead of him in height. It was getting close, but thanks to a recent growth spurt she's barely holding her own.

Here he is with Grandma and Grandpa and his delicious birthday cake. Liv can't help but be part of the action.

And here she is sneaking a little frosting. She had accidentally gotten a little on her finger and wanted it wiped off (she hates being messy). Our friend told her to just lick her finger leading to the discovery that frosting on your hand really isn't a bad thing... Needless to say that side of the cake had a couple dings in it :).

And because Blogger makes me really mad at how they load pictures on a post, I'm going to do a separate one on Fall retreat which we just had this weekend.

Apple Orchard

We've had an some amazing fall weather up here and have been loving it! We're trying to take advantage of it as much as we can. Here's our trip to the orchard:

Myself and dear friend Londa. (along with co-worker and boss and available :)
Super Livie! Dad has been throwing her around since she came home - no fear.

Here's the fam! Love the scenery here. There's quite a few orchards all near each other + rolling Wisconsin hills = beautiful :).

Hi Sweet Pea,

On this anniversary celebrating the day you got to see Jesus face to face, I find myself thinking of you and even more so thinking of heaven. What's it like? What are you like? Are you a bounding 4 1/2 year old continuing to explore and discover? Do you have favorite places that you like to go? What do you play? What do you sing? Do you just get to sit in the warmth of His light and listen to songs of heaven all around you? Do you dance? Do you go explore? What are you learning? What does it feel like? Does time pass or does it feel like a day and an eternity at the same time? Can you see little sister and little brother? Do you know who little brother is before we do? What are your gifts and talents? Mama is reading a big long book about heaven, and it fills me with so many questions and so much longing. And I always think of you. There. In it. Experiencing it. And I can't wait for you to take me by the hand and show me around and introduce me to all your friends and angels you have met. Oh Sweetheart, sometimes it's hard to remember that heaven is really real. But it is. I'm going there someday, and I can't wait. In a blink it'll happen, and my eyes will look wide-eyed for Jesus and for you. I'll finally be home. Forever.
Kisses and Love Sweet Girl.

I John 5:11-13
"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."

Adoption Update

I wanted to let you in on where we're at. When we finished our homestudy the end of July, our social worker said it would be about 6 months before they'd have us start our dossier - probably January - because it expires in a year (?), and they want to time it to when they think you'll get a referral. We didn't need a dossier for Korea, but it's required for Ethiopia. Here's what a dossier is... more paperwork!!! This time, it's not paperwork to fill out; it's paperwork to collect. Most of it is documents that we need to get notarized. We have to get statements from the bank, our employer, the police department, etc. and have them all notarized. A few documents we have to send to our Secretary of State's office to be authenticated. Anyway, imagine my surprise when we got an email last Tuesday with instructions for completing our dossier! Much earlier than I was expecting! Apparently they think we may receive a referral quicker than we thought. Granted it's still probably going to be months, but we were wondering if it would take a year or more. So that's where we're at. And we have to have our dossier completed in 7 weeks... We'll keep you posted!

Pictures from the summer project before it's officially fall...

Here's the beautiful and wonderful staff women I got to spend our 6 weeks with. From left to right: Jess, Kristina, and Erin. Love them!

On Aaron's birthday we went to visit this 600 year old tree. It's huge! Obviously. It has a huge canopy, and there's lots of tables and chairs under it to drink tea. It was really fun to see.

Here's one view from our apartment balcony. We lived in the part of the city that was more "hilly", and I loved being able to look out over the city to the hills beyond.

One of my best friends shares her birthday with Liv. She also lives in this country. It was such a treat to have her visit and celebrate their birthdays together.

Here we are with our big 3 year old! So far Liv has only had one b-day in the states...

We had an amazing little farmer's market a couple blocks from our house. In the same weekend it was Liv's b-day party, Father's day, and friends visiting. So that week I ran over by myself with a backpack and carried back 20+ pounds of produce which I bought for about $20? Produce was definitely a bargain over there.

Here's another view from our balcony.

With limited space to pack toys, I brought water colors, glue, and little scissors. Liv got introductory lessons in all 3 and loved it.

Here's our staff team at one of our favorite restaurants downtown. They've been open for over 100 years and only serve one thing - a cultural dish that they're known for and is delicious. Might I add there's a "butter guy" that walks around with a skillet of melted butter to pour over the dish. I declined, but man, there were people in that restaurant that had to get close to a stick of butter on their dish. They didn't mess around.

From left to right: Top - Erin, Emily, and Jess. Bottom - Luke and Kristina (our roommates as well) and Aaron and I.


One of the fun things about being overseas is observing the random things that are sold. One of my favorites to look at is the freakish looking toys. This doll looked especially "pleasant". After taking this picture the security guard made us put our cameras away. But truly, there's some scary toys out there...

Adoption update

Part of what's made the summer full was coming home from project the beginning of July and, after unpacking, starting immediately to get ready for our homestudy visit which we had a couple weeks later. So now our homestudy is done! We're officially on the waiting list for a boy from Ethiopia! So now we wait... potentially for a long time... The wait for a healthy child is 18-24 months just for a referral. Then it's another 6ish months before he'd come home. However, we're open to another heart baby or some other (hopefully not major) health concerns so our wait may not be quite as long. We'll see. But I wanted to update on where we are in the process. There probably won't be any more news for a while. I know this winter we'll get our dossier together - not sure what all is in that cause we didn't need one for Korea. But I'm sure it'll include more fun paperwork to fill out, assemble, or both! :)
In the meantime we're praying for this little guy who will someday join our family.

WAY BEHIND...

So many posts... I posted a quick one below from a social outing with our students to an "amusement park" while we were on summer project overseas. All the rides looked like second hand and just a little bit shady. But we had a good time! I'll get some more posts up soon!

If you're going to cheat death...

Why not do it on a second hand amusement park ride in a foreign country...
With your friends...

Closed in a cage...

Upside down...

Why not!

Date Night

I wanted to post a little culture for you. On Wednesday nights, Aaron and I have a babysitter and are able to go for a date - with him leading the project, it's hard to get much time together. So a week and a half ago we went down to the city center. It's one of our favorite places to just walk around and explore. We found this year that instead of taking the bus, you can take a car which you just pay a little per person. The car takes 4 people and will drop you off where you want along the main drag. So we took the car downtown which just amazes me in the first place. People are so alert to body language here. To catch one of these cars (or a taxi) all you do is stand on the side of the street and barely lift your hand and pointer finger, and they see it and stop. Then to watch them drive in the traffic is like a dance (see previous post on the miracle we haven't died here yet...). They drive so tightly together - lane lines are a suggestion - and just know when to weave in and out.

We got downtown and went to a little "home-cooking" restaurant - basically, this place was located in an alley and was the size of a living room with 4 tables inside and a couple outside the door. Then back through swinging doors was a tiny kitchen with this awesome little guy with a white apron and white hair who I think was the cook. We had a nice little meal and headed out to walk around.

There's an awesome old building - all stone and in a square shape - that's all small stores of scarves and silk products. It's awesome. All the girls here love it :). We walked in there a little and headed further back from the main drag into what would best be described as a permenant covered bazaar. There's all kinds of produce, nuts, meats and different sections selling jewelry, household goods, textiles, clothes (I got a shirt for $3), meat, and other random stuff. It's just so fun to wander around in.

Then we walked to a little Burger King ice-cream hut and shared a little icecream, went to mall and grocery store and headed home. I told Aaron, you can't do any date nights like this in the states! ...except I guess if you live in a big city, which we don't. So that's a taste of our time here.

Little Sparrow

Here's another thing I wanted to blog so I'd remember:
We were walking to the store together a couple days ago, and there was a little sparrow on the sidewalk in front of us. I pointed it out to Liv and said, "Look, there's a sparrow! Jesus knows where all the sparrows are in the whole world, and He knows where we are all the time too." To which she replied, "That means He loves us," Which I thought was amazing. Continuing to pray that the Lord keeps her heart tender towards Him.

Three

Liv turns 3 today! I was so sentimental last night, how does a 2 year old to bed and wake up 3 the next morning. It's gone so fast - and will continue to I know. We had a birthday party last night cause the summer project students and staff are having an outreach event tonight making a party not possible. We had our fellow project staff, a few of the interns here, and a few of the long team staff here all over for dinner and chocolate cake. It was fun - Liv was high on people (and sugar). This morning we had breakfast together, opened her presents, and took the metro to a playground with (no joking) 2 story high slides. They're seriously bigger than anything I've seen in the states. So with a new influx of a couple toys, she's got more options to play with and has been enjoying that a bunch last night and this morning.

I've been teaching Liv some "new skills" in our days together. With suitcase space at a premium I only brought a couple toys and books but brought construction paper and a few crafty things cause they take up less space. So the last few weeks Liv has learned how to do watercolors, glue, and use scissors (which she says pronouncing the "s's" like in the word "hiss" - I love it). So we'll keep working with that as well. We often go on walks to the little grocery store up the road. I can only carry what I can manage in one hand along with holding her hand as we walk cause we live on a busy street. So we go to the store often. She's learning how to kick the ball really well and keeps saying that when she's older she's going to play soccer. We've been inside a lot lately cause it's just hot - thankfully this year we have air conditioning (which they won't keep powered on all day, but still, it helps a lot).

We have another week and a half here in this city. Then we leave to go to a bigger city for a couple days to debrief and tour before the students and 3 of the staff head home. Aaron, Liv, another staff women, and I are heading to the city Aaron and I interned in 9 years ago. We have some great friends serving there, and we're looking forward to a couple days of spending time with them. But again I'm missing the 4th of July in America. I love the 4th of July :). Oh well, hopefully next year.

2 weeks in...

We're doing really well! As is our habit, we forgot our camera cord... so, no pictures. Though if you're my friend on facebook, students and staff have already uploaded some photos and have tagged Liv and I in some. So until we get home (or I steal pictures from someone else) I don't have any pictures to post. I'm sorry, I know that makes blog reading more enjoyable.

Tonight, Aaron and I took a walk with Liv to our little grocery store that's about 3 blocks away to grab a couple things. I commented that it's really kindof amazing that with all the time we've spent in this country, it's amazing we haven't died yet :). I'm sure that's of great comfort to the grandparents... I'm sure the angels watching over us work double time when we're here. With traffic, transportation, etc... But I try to keep my eyes open and a tight hold on Liv. There's definitely incoveniences in living overseas, but one of the benefits - at least being here - has been the produce. The farmer's market comes to our area every Tuesday. So tomorrow, I'll load up Liv in the stroller, wheel up and down foot high curbs about 3-4 blocks, load up the basket of the stroller, and come back to our apartment with absolutely amazing fruit and veggies for super cheap. We got perfect watermelons last week - probably one of my favorites. Man, so good. I'm planning to get another tomorrow, along with peppers, zucchini, cherries, peaches, and strawberries.

I think each time I come here, more and more the Lord guides my heart for prayer as I'm out and about. Someone will catch my eye or just cause my heart to ache, and the Lord brings me to pray for them, to bless them, to ask the Lord's Spirit to touch them. I'm just so sensitive to the darkness here - absence of the light of Christ. It's heavy, it's depressing at times, and it brings me to ask Him to continue to be light and life. Thank goodness that I know He's in me and with me and that my light is sure, my identity in Him is secure, my future is sealed. And hence the reason to go, to tell others, to let our light shine before men...

I have luggage!

My luggage came on Thursday. The man at the front desk called up and said cargo had come for Heath James - I assumed that would be me. Liv and I went down to grab it but then had to come back up to my room to get $50 to pay for the delivery. Yup, I got to pay $50 for the airline to lose my luggage and then bring it to me. The gratitude for having it somewhat helped overshadow the frustration. But truly, overall I'm so grateful to have Liv's and my clothing and toiletries.

Our first (almost) week here has gone well. Liv has been sleeping through the night... I have not. I've slept 2 full nights with the help of Benedryl. The others I've woken up for hours. Hopefully I'll get straightened out soon. I'd rather be the one awake at night rather than Liv.

The students have been adjusting pretty well. And I'm learning to navigate around our neighborhood a bit. It's been fun to see that even in the first week, students are making connections and having GREAT conversations with students here. The Lord continues to lead, guide, and open doors.

My computer battery is about to die, but I wanted to at least post that my luggage has come (!) and we're doing well. Much love from the Joneses :)

More Adventures

Well, I'm certainly NOT going to win any awards for consistent posting this school year. The last couple months have been crazy and especially the last few weeks. We're currently on our summer project with the students back in the Middle East where we were last summer (the source of some of the craziness trying to get packed and ready to leave). We just got in early, early this morning our time here after a long day of travel and misadventures. We literally took just about every form of transportation. We took the metro train in Minneapolis to the airport where we were 5 minutes from missing the deadline to check in for a flight due to a large group in front of us. We made it to our gate, loaded the plan and then sat there for 2 hours before we took off due to a few minor issues. Because of that we missed our connecting flight in Amersterdam. So we got to wait there an extra 5 hours (could have been better, but also could have been worse - so grateful it wasn't worse). Then we took off there to land in country where ALL of our luggage managed to be rerouted EXCEPT for 2 of our 3 suitcases which had all of my and Liv's clothes and toiletries. I'm praying to have them by this weekend (welcome to international travel, not as speedy). Then we got on a bus for the 3 hour ride to our city which included a 1 hour ferry ride - see, all the transportation covered.

So right now I'm borrowing Aaron's clothes to sleep in and washing the clothes on my back in the washer. Our living situation here is great. We have bedrooms, a washer, and air conditioning! The weather is absolutely perfect now, but it'll quickly get pretty hot. So we're really grateful to have air this summer. It just got so hot last summer.

This summer we have 15 students and 6 staff. A quieter group than last summer, but so far so good. I think it'll be fun. I'm looking forward to getting to know them better. I will hopefully do a better job updating. I'll try to give you a peak into this summer's adventures.