Speak again bright angel...

Noah gave me his Christmas present today. While playing with his toys Noah was said for the first time "Momma, ba-ba, momma!!" It was very sweet to hear him call me even though he doesn't know what it means yet and was just babbling. Every day I say things like...."where's momma's nose? baby's nose?" so that he learns the sounds. So when do you know when your baby actually knows the meaning behind the words for all your experienced moms out there? :)

Noah preaching with daddy on Sunday :) Clint's been preaching through a series of parables, its been awesome.

Noah, future preacher of righteousness?

And this is my last post for a while, so Merry Christmas from all of us! :)

Christmas shopping....

We are flying to Pretoria on Christmas eve to see Noah's grandparents, and then to Plettenburg Bay to see his great Aunty...I can't wait! Plet. Bay is on South Africa's garden route along the ocean, I've heard millions of stories of how beautiful it is...it looks amazing from the photos: I can't wait for our holiday!

A new mall opened with in walking distance from our house, so Clint and I have been walking to get our Christmas shopping done. The weather has been awesome (warm and sunny, cool breeze...gotta love Christmas in Summer!) so its been fun going on walks to shop. Noah graduated to his "big boy" stroller instead of the baby one that was more like a cradle. He faces out now, and loves looking at the world and the zillions of people shopping. He looks around with such wide eyes. And I love the bright red color! Its festive for the season :)

I think he likes it :)

Party at my crib, 4am

Ahh, I miss daylight savings! I used to think it was so dumb in the states, but now I realize how cool it is. It's getting closer to the Summer solstice, and it gets light at 4am, which means our room (and Noah's room) is super bright at 4:30am. The world is awake.....The birds are chirping, Spurgeon our dog is barking. So Noah just recently started thinking that its party time at 4am. If he could order a pizza, there would be one in his crib along with a disco ball. It starts out as laughing squeals, followed by coo's and gurgles until 4:30am he's completely taken all the covers off, and he's in a random corner of his crib playing with the edges of his blanket, or his pacifier. At 4:45 he realizes that he's actually tired and his pacifier is out of the crib, and his blankets are everywhere, and he's cold. So I finally go in groggy and put everything back in its place, including Noah, and he goes back to sleep very quickly. I've tried everything (blackout in the windows, putting extra blankets over the windows etc) but nothing works! Ahh the days where its dark till a normal hour! I can't help but laugh when I walk in though cause I get what Clint calls....the billionaire smile:

Tobi pretending to be laundry...again. :)

Applesauce

So I've been making all of Noah's baby food instead of buying the jars, cause I think its probably healthier, and it saves money. But I thought the one thing I wouldn't make is applesauce, because you can buy it in little cups anyway, and its usually pretty cheap. I walk into our local supermarket, and I realize that I've actually never bought applesauce in SA before. I look up and down each isle, and can't find it. I ask two workers in the store, and they have no clue what I'm talking about. So I finally find the manager, and ask where the applesauce is. He takes me to the section with like, ketchup and mayonnaise, and points to the top top shelf, where there is ONE (count them 1) jar of "Apple Sauce" and on the jar it says "to be served with pork" etc. etc. It's a tiny jar, which doesn't even look like applesauce, for 27 rand (that's about 4 dollars). I was super confused, and asked him...."don't you just have like mushed up apples in fruit cups for like a few rand?" He shook his head, and pointed to the fresh produce section. He said rather rudely..."no. take an apple, peel it, boil it, and mash it. there's your apple sauce." Well, I found this rather funny cause you walk down any isle in any supermarket in LA, and you can get like 50 different kinds of applesauce...more pulp, sweetened, with pears, etc. etc. So I found myself this morning, for the first time, making my own homemade applesauce. It's so yummy! Homemade pearsauce is even better! Convenience foods here are way way more expensive. It's fun though cause when you go to someones house for dinner, its usually something made from scratch, and is sooo yummy. I think Trader Joe's would do so well out here, man I miss their already prepared orange chicken that you just pop in the oven! Yum.

Squeals of glee

Every week I get emails from www.babycentre.com telling me Noah's developmental stage etc. and a few weeks ago they recommended giving him plastic kitchen stuff to play with and bang around. So yesterday I tried my spatulas and plastic bowls which they said would make a great drum....(not much of a hit) but today was my measuring cups, and he loved them!! I heard squeals of glee for about an hour!

So happy

How can I fit them BOTH in my mouth at the same time?

Silly toothy grin

Quiet time

Bedtime is my favorite time with Noah. Every night before putting him to bed I have a little "quiet time" with him where after he's eaten we just stare at each other and I chat to him softly and pray with him and he stares back at me and babbles, like he knows what I'm saying. He is extra cuddly, and usually when we do this he's playing with my hair, or touching my face. It's my favorite "shnizzle" time with him, I just love it! It calms him down right before bedtime so he falls asleep right away, and I get to just enjoy my baby boy..... But when he has quiet time with Clint, its very funny because he touches Clint's face, and it's all prickly because of Clint's beard, which cracks Noah up! So it quickly becomes "silly" time instead of sleepy time! He loves daddy's beard, and grabs at it with all his might! Silly boy...

Sploosh

Some exciting things have been happening at our church the last few weeks. We tore out the media centre (like the bookshack) to make more room in the church building, and went back down to one service...which is awesome cause its just packed with people, and the singing is amazing. Our church has grown so much the last two years, you could hardly recognize it from when we first came. God is so good and gracious to bring people in to hear His word!

Three people got baptized this last Sunday.

Giving testimonies:

Ilse Kirk:

Bruce Kirk


PJ Combrinck

Its always breathtaking to hear how God has changed each life.

And I had to post a photo of the Molokwana family in our church. They are just amazing. They foster all these kids (count them...9!) and teach them the Bible...its awesome.

Vicky was kind enough to hold Noah for me while I shot family photos for our church directory :) Since we are back to one service, church runs through Noah's whole naptime, but that nap never really happens, so by the end....he's so zonked!

Noah and the tree...

Everytime I walk by the tree with Noah on my hip, he reaches for it (why wouldn't he...its a tree full of shiny things that look like toys!) So yesterday I let him "play" with the tree a bit, and he stared at all the balls and lights, and eventually started taking them off one by one (I let him for a bit, until he wanted to put the lights in his mouth!) It was so sweet watching him explore.

So my new goal is to teach him colors. I put all his red toys in a pile, and all his blue toys in a pile, and talk about his "red block" vs. his "blue block." Someone told me that by 8-9 months they can pick up the "blue" one vs. the "red" one. But for now, he just thinks its a very very funny game.

7 Months Old!

At 7 months: Noah loves to touch his daddy's beard, he thinks its very funny. He loves sucking on his toes, he loves bathtime (especially the part right before bathtime where I let him wiggle on the floor on a towel stark naked! :) He laughs if you squeeze his feet or his legs really tight. He seems to know his own name, Tobi's name, and smiles if you say "daddy" or "mommy." He loves the game peek-a-boo. He can sit, and move to a crawling position from sitting. He says the "vvvv" sound now that he has two bottom teeth. He loves his "Praise Baby" video, (I love it too!) and his favorite things to play with are....paper (just loves crumpling it into a little ball) and 3 simple rings that he can chew on.

I took him to the Doc. on Wed, and she said he's in the 50% percentile for weight and height....so I guess he's as average as they come. :)

As you know I usually take photos of Noah on his "month" birthday, but this time Lyle took photos of the whole family on his 7 month birthday this last Wednesday. It was exactly a year ago on December 5 that I found out I was having a boy, and now he's 7 months, I can't believe it! Here are some of my favorites taken in our back yard, and the pre-school playyard next door.

Two years....

So this blog has been looking the same for over 2 years now, so I decided to shake it up a bit, for a while anyway.

Speaking of two years, it was two years ago that we said goodbye to family and friends in LA and moved to Durban, SA, on Nov 30, 2005. I remember when we were dating Clint would say "you realize if we get married you will probably live in another country, and be a pastors wife." That seemed so daunting then, and scary. I pictured me in a foreign country as a pastors wife wearing long puffy floral sleeves, a long floral pink skirt past my ankles, learning some foreign language with three dirty kids running around (silly picture, isn't it!). Didn't sound like what I wanted. But I knew I loved Clint, and I trusted God. And life has been a wonderful adventure since, absolutely no regrets.

Now I don't think I could live a life that wasn't immersed in ministry. It's so awesome to witness peoples lives being changed by the Word of God. And to be involved in a church that upholds Scripture like it does is such a pleasure. My ministry has changed since having Noah. I used to be able to be involved in many different things and in peoples lives, and now, in this stage of life, my family is my #1 ministry. As Proverbs 31 says… "She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. " May this be true of me! It took a little while to realize when I wasn’t able to be as involved as I used to be, but taking care of Noah frees Clint up to do ministry. And raising Noah in the fear and admonition of the Lord is my ministry now (once he can understand all these things anyway!) But for now I'm trying to learn as much as I can so that when the moments arise, I will be equipped for the occasion.

I do miss the States sometimes, especially the people and Grace Church. But we are in a place that is really filling a gap in ministry. There aren't many churches in SA that teach Biblically, and very very few in the Durban area.

When I miss LA I usually listen to Derek Webb. He is a songwriter that really puts life into perspective about what really matters in life.

From his song "I repent"
"I repent, I repent of my pursuit of the American dream
I repent, I repent, of living like I deserve anything
Of my house, my fence, my kids, my wife
In our suburb where we're safe and white
Well I am wrong and of these things I repent."

It's just a reminder to me of what's important in life. Eternity is at stake, so me missing Starbucks coffee and air conditioning, and it being winter instead of summer around Christmas time, the "American dream" doesn't really matter in the end. Life isn't about comfort, but about the gospel. I guess our life must look kinda crazy to some outsiders. My most frequent question is...."if your from America why did you move here?" But honestly we could give up a lot more, and live in like Papua New Guinea! But this is where the Lord has us, and it's a joy to serve Him here, and I love it!!!!!

Little sitter

I don't know if this is true of other moms, but I always forget to put Noah's toys/clothes away in his room while he's awake, so there is perpetually a pile of laundry/toys/stuff outside his door. So today I forgot again..so during his nap in attempts to clean up I put all his toys all over the house into his carry cot ready to go into his room when he woke up. When he was done with his nap, I put him in the cot with ALL his toys, and he just thought this was the best thing yet....

He sits so well now and plays with his toys all by himself, he seems so grown up! I was able to get alot of work done today on the computer while he happily played next to me in his little cot, flashing smiles every few minutes. So fun.

Elf Yourself

In my inbox this morning from Marietjie was this:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1158029866
Thanks Marietjie for the laughter :)

Psychobabble

So Noah is totally going through what the experts call the "separation anxiety" stage. (Sounds like psychobabble huh?) If someone else holds him, he cries. Sometimes when I leave him to play, he cries. But when he sees me or Clint, we get a huge smile, or when the "stranger" hands him back to me, he's back to his normal self! Strangely the tears are very cute to me. It lets me know that he loves Clint and I quite a lot :)

Noah and I in our future home! :)

We are at the stage of building our house that we go down every couple of days or so to see the changes, talk to the builder, and make sure everything is being built according to plan. It's very fun seeing the changes every day.

Noah and I on our front step:

The ceilings are in, and they've started with the first whitewash paint, so its starting to feel more like a home

Our next door neighbor is in the "Palm" business, so he planted palms on our property down his driveway that goes past our garage. It reminds me of California, I love them!

Looking at our future next door neighbors

Noah discovering daddy's cap

We were hoping to be in by Christmas, but it looks more like Feb or March.

Christmas Come!

So usually the Christmas season equates the weather getting colder, sipping hot drinks and eating warm fuzzy foods. But its slowly becoming Summer here :) The little reminder here comes in the form of a bird that has this call that sounds exactly like its saying "Christmas come, Christmas COME!" And for some reason, the one in our yard this year sounds very very insistent that Christmas come very soon. It's awesome cause it only chirps when it starts to get hot at the end of November, right when you just start to think about Christmas coming.

It's so fun having a baby in the house around the Christmas season. It was fun decorating the tree while Noah watched with wide eyes of curiosity. And its an awesome reminder of how God sent His son as a baby, exactly what we are celebrating. I can't imagine giving up Noah, but God gave His only son to live on earth and to die for us. Its a sobering thought as I look into Noah's little eyes thinking about how God became a man just to save us. I can't wait to tell Noah all about it! Maybe next year :)

This last week the kids at our church put on a Christmas play from the animals perspective. There was no way that Noah was going to be baby Jesus after I saw the kids throw around the doll that represented Him! :) It was very cute, and Clint shared an awesome gospel message to those who came afterwards....

Unrequited Love

Noah and Tobi have a love/hate relationship.

It's the all too familiar plot:

Boy meets Tobi

Boy loves Tobi

(It starts out as loving pats, but ends up with fists full of fur)

Boy loses Tobi
Boy is rejected.

His first lesson in unrequited love.

(I'm so glad I'm a girl, I have no idea how you guys go through this! :)

Spring in Durbs

Durban sometimes reminds me of Hawaii, especially in the Spring/Summer when it rains almost every afternoon, making everything green with it. There won't be a cloud in the sky, and then all of a sudden great big thunderclaps and lightning appear from nowhere, and its POURING! Coming from LA where there is never any thunder, its quite breathtaking. Clint and I decided to go exploring last Monday...it was so beautiful, and HOT! Summer is definitely on its way!

Noah's not so interested in the view...

Thanksgiving

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to turn a real live pumpkin into 2 pumpkin pies made from scratch, tons of baby food, and my aunts famous "yams and apples" before Thanksgiving.

The gory pumpkin guts (my kitchen rarely looks like Martha Stewart's when I cook, it usually looks like a bomb went off, flour everywhere, sugar strewn across the counters, but it all gets cleaned up eventually!)

Tada!

So South Africans usually don't have a clue what Thanksgiving is. More often than not I hear "isn't Thanksgiving the same as Christmas?" So they don't sell things like pumpkin in a can, or frozen pumpkin pies, or anything of that nature. So I made my first pumpkin pie from scratch. Even the crust! I must admit, it was a heck of a lot of work...cutting up the pumpkin, boiling it, pureeing it, and making my own crust....but the results were amazing. I've never had pumpkin pie so good! So fresh tasting, yummy! I highly recommend trying it.

We went over to some American missionaries house for Thanksgiving this year. The Ferran's started coming to our church for a few months until they were moved to a more Zulu area to learn the language more efficiently. But we met up for Thanksgiving, along with their other American missionary friends, it was great fellowship! And together we made all the traditional food, Turkey, stuffing, the works!

I'm thankful for my family!

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!" Psalm 107:1

Thanksgiving is still one of my favorite holidays cause there is no "confusion" with all the commercial-ness behind it. The true meaning of the holiday is still there. Thanking God for his good gifts, especially GREAT food and family.