Perfectly Pink! My Olivia Garon

An 'encouragement' lunch after being two weeks overdue! :)
Hmmm, not much fun sideways, not sure how I managed this. Sigh
An in love daddy!
Miss Olivia today.

Its the end of what has been a delightful and busy day. Miss Olivia is sleeping soundly next to me as she likes to do (always needing to touch me or be near) and Dave is crashed on the other side of her. Sometimes we just sit for what seems like an eternity staring at her like idiots..... how can we be SOO mesmerized by a little person? We laugh at ourselves because we have already done this 5 other times and it always gets us deep in our gut... there is SUCH LOVE.
The crazy thing about this little one, is that she is SO completely the boys and yet SO completely unique. I was just in giggles today watching her as the co-op sang Happy Birthday to her. She was sooo 'girly, princessy, cutsey shy, and diva-ish' all at the same time. She was in this 'its all about me' zone. It was hilarious and just caught me off guard. I think I am still not used to this 'girly' thing. She daily alters our life for the better and throws wild new scenarios my way. After 3 years, I still have to remind myself that I should play dolls with her. I just Dont process that way.
Its been so lovely to think back on today 3 years ago. However, I imagine that for Dave and I her birthday will always be rather significant and special. I dont imagine forgetting any aspect of it- EVER. (corporate laugh)
We have a picture in our living room of David with his best buds all holding pink balloons and grinning from ear to ear. That picture for 'me' just has 50 Instant thoughts surrounding it. All clear. And all of them make me giddy.
After thinking I had miscarried my girl at 8 wks (no ultrasound, but a sense that God has said 'yes, Im giving you Olivia Garon'... and then being two full weeks overdue, I finally went in on the 26th of Sept. to be induced. It was sooo very perfect, we had Paula Deen on the food channel making Taco Soup (told you I remember everything... and yes, it sounds like a weird recipe), and a singing anesthesiologist giving me a perfect epideral.. I really wanted to enjoy this last delivery. :) My nails were long and perfectly pink and I was refreshed and eager to be cradleing my precious new one. Delivery was fantastic (and such fun with my dear friend and OB Dr. Renee!) and over in a few hours.
The incredible delight was yet to come.. David seeing it WAS a girl and looking like he had been physically shocked out of his body... the numerous phone calls to eager family members, waiting children and friends (no really, it IS a girl!) and the insane Joy of actually holding and kissing to death this new little daughter that had entered our world.
I could also not get out of my mind for days this physical image of Jesus sitting with his chin in his hand calling all of the heavenly host together and saying 'watch, watch what is about to happen to this family... its going to be SO GREAT!' (and then Olivia being brought into this world!) I just giggled and worshipped for days. We also could not get the 'she, her' pronouns into our vocabulary. That took a good month. Go figure.
Now, here we are, three years later. I would beg for time to stand still, or at least slow down or pause for a bit. Give me more, more time, more hugs and kisses, more spills on the floor, more tears I have to kiss away, more giggles, more firsts, more questions and for sure more 'mommy,I want to hold you'.... :) With every lovely child that has entered my arms and been called 'Mine', I have begged for this, and here I have a gorgeous young man who is learning to drive, and this precious baby who is talking and starting to make decisions on her own and its just going too fast.
I praise God for the Joy in my life. Im so desperately in love with being a mother and being Their mother.
And I am so crazily in love with my only daughter and her charming, energetic and dramatic ways. For all of you who have not seen her since we left the USA, I ache inside that I could not share these years with you. Ive never had so much fun learning how to mother a daughter and look silly in the process.. She really captures peoples hearts and loves fully. I long for the day she will meet you!
I guess this is enough reminiscing! I could go on and on and on,, but maybe Ill go find some old fashion pen and paper now. :)
Jen

Inside/Out WILL fall start... random pics of kiddos~!

What? Me, a princess!! :)

Loving brother and sister


Hudson with Shadow and Barack

Nathaniel in his 'classroom'. He is enjoying (so far!) doing the UNL independant High School curriculum. He has many different 'tutors' here for subjects, that he is able to meet with for help when he needs it.

The youth group started up again a couple weeks ago. We are much smaller this year as so many families have left, but those returning were eager to start and to get together again. We are going to walk through the study Experiencing God as none of them have heard about it. We sense that G really wants to reveal Him self in a more powerful and Real way to them at this stage in their lives and to show them that He IS always at work around them and aches for a deep Love relationship with them. It will take us 9 weeks to do this study. We have many unfinished rooms in our new home, however , we focused on getting the living room done which was necessary for the Coffee House we had the night before and our youth gp and co-op meetings. It was perfect and nice to be able to be the host for this again this year.

I also added some pics of the kids from the past few weeks... the kids are really growing and seem to be enjoying the new things in life right now like the house and co-op situation.

'Friday Night Coffee House`

Welcome!

Nate and Somphou

Gabe and Jack playing a game
Borrowed coffee pots! yeah!!
Nates friend Jessie is decorating our walls for us~ She just has the cup left to do, and we Love it! Great job Jessie! :)

Olivia with Sodachan and Omala
Omala, Isaak and Olivia trying to make the peace sign. :) hehe

Jenny B with friends
brilliant lao speakers, hanging out with beginning English class speakers. :)
Bethann, Tik, Mee...and others playing UNO. The table was full all night with people trying their hand at UNO.
The other entrance... & game spot
Lam nyai anyone? Olivias FAVORITE fruit

David had been planning on doing a coffee house at Our house this past week which we all thought was a great idea. There had been one at the Candlelight school building a few months before and it was a big hit with the students, so another one seemed like a fun idea. Since we had just moved, we wanted to host it at our house so that students knew where we lived now and just to give everyone a different environment to meet up in.

After little mishaps, like our ONLY coffee pot busting and the majority of our family getting sick before hand, we had an incredibly delightful evening with about 60 people sitting around playing games, random singing with the guitar, chatting, and making fun drinks together. The boys had been told they could head upstairs when they felt overwhelmed or like it was to slow for them, but they were deeply involved the entire time, and the last ones to go to bed. We are so grateful they are social and love the people who enter our home. Isaak said later, 'Mom, could we just Please do this Every Fri. pm?!' It was awesome and we had a great time together! Here are some pics... there were about 40+ Lao and 20 expats and the heart of the evening was to just sit and visit together so we could get to know each other better.

Vientiane Christian Homeschool Co-op

Here is the gang of VCHC.... excluding spouses and pets! :) We have a handful of kids in each class from creche to high school and all of us 'parent/teachers' are mixed in the lot. This group of ex-pats have become dear, dear friends to us personally, but also, they are kindred spirits in the goal to homeschool effectively and eventually serve others who are in need here in Laos.

If you want more info on who we 'are' or our 'vision' etc... please ask on this post. Also, if you are interested in anyway coming alongside the VCHC we have needs of all kinds... specifically in the teaching department!

Thank you for all your prayers for us, and please continue to pray for our diligence, physical strength and Joy in the journey!

Love, Jen

VCHC's first week!!!

Yeah! VCHC is Vientiane Christian Homeschool Co-op!
Last week was our first official week and it was soooo great! Everyone was so anxious to get there early and get classes started. We had a great time, got everything done and started writing notes on how to make Tuesday go better etc... Our meeting of Friday following our first week allowed us to acknowledge that Gods hand was all over our time and in every activity. We praised Him for that and chatted about a couple things we could do different on Mon. I think we were all pinching ourselves that it had gone as smoothly as it did.
I am delighted and pinching myself that this vision from last year took off as it did and that Father saw fit to give us the desires of our heart. We were able to get through all of the appropriate materials and the High Schoolers did a fab. job being on their own with a part time teacher and part time monitor.
We are all memorizing Philippians 2:3-11. Our heart in this is that we would learn through Christ Jesus' example how to humble ourselves and treat others as more important than ourselves. For many of the kids it is a new way to school and we are all learning how to work together and follow new rules etc... We are so desirous to see this en devour be a sweet aroma to God. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts over us. All of your prayers are so coveted.

Nathaniel and Jessicas Recording Weekend!

The summer is almost over and we cant believe how quickly it went by. One of the projects Nathaniel set up for himself was to record some of his music. He tried gathering his usual band together but for this reason and that it didnt fly. However, Jessie was totally free and poured herself into this project with Nate. They got together three times a week to practice and work on their music. Jessie wrote the lyrics for one song and Nate helped tweek it and did the music. Nate did the second song and Jessie helped tweek that one.. They work together beautifully. We went to Indee Record Company which is huge here in Laos and spent two afternoons there- one per song. The pics are not in order, but the drums were recorded first, followed by acoustic, bass and electric guitars. They they sang and that was the hardest part of all! They were so used to singing next to each other that it took many takes to get it right while recording in the room alone. I was dubbed 'Manager Mom' for the summer and loved being a part of this with them. Its fun being 'asked' to be the proverbial fly on the wall in situations like this with your teen! Coolness!

They have two copies of the songs done and are taking this very seriously, providing credits, an album cover, and a blog of sorts in the cd cover. hmmmm, wonder if they will have an asking price also? :)

Anyway, as amateurs we had to stop at two songs but when he saves up enough money, Nate has big plans to get back in and record some of his other songs he has written and some of his instrumental music. All in all, what a fun way to end the summer!

I will try and learn how to add the music on here for you later... I just wanted to get this out.

Tomorrow is Nates 15th bday.. I will try and get him to add to this blog himself.

Lots of love,

Jen

Udon Thani, Dentist and Meat...

Jackson today getting his braces checked by the orthodontist who comes into Udon Thani from Bangkok once a month.
We have been very happy with their braces and Jackson has another 1 1/2 years before his are off.

He wasnt to thrilled that I took this pic~ hehe

Nathaniel got his braces OFF today while in Udon and has been laughing all day about how funny it is to feel them free of wires! He now has a lovely smile with perfectly straight teeth.. He goes back to Udon on Sat. for his retainer.. of course, they are NOT thrilled with this idea.
Normally, I just scoot across the border with the two older boys, but today the other three boys joined out of pure boredom at being home all the time.
Gabe is THRILLED to be going as you can see. They enjoyed Dairy Queen malts and Mr. Donut.. maybe They should have been at the dentist today eh!? :)
Hudson was thrilled because we also made the weekly stop to the post office and he had 2 birthday packages from Grandparents!~ Gum, clothes, notes, $ and M& M's! Yeah! Its always fun to get mail.

One of my favorite things to do while in Thailand, is to stock up on groceries for the month. I buy 7 kilos of butter, bulk sugar, flour and rice and yogurt boxes etc... But we really go to town on the meat. In our 'western style ' shop called 'Tesco', we can buy beautiful meat MINUS the swarming flies and I take it home and freeze it all, using it as we need it. Normally, we have lots of snickers from Thai bystanders who themselves usually by 1/2 kilo. at a time. From our cart, you can see we load up... Im often tempted to say we run a restaurant... and actually, I might be able to get away with it without lying! :) The boys all the way down the line, found a type of meat today and filled bag after bag for me. Hudson can handle this part, but we have to bypass the fishy, open intestines and bug part... it makes him gag.... not nice in front of everyone. :)
We always feel we are walking into a Walmart type deal when we visit Tesco.. Praise God its here! :)

Thats all for now folks!~