Asmayzing News

So Wednesday morning we went to the doctors office to find out the gender of our baby... but instead of having Dr. Stigen tell us whether it was a boy or girl we decided we'd do something a little different; we had her seal the results in an envelope and give it to us - so we had no clue which one it was. We thought it would be a wonderful Christmas surprise for ourselves, as indeed it was, if we waited to find out until Christmas morning. We ended up choosing to entrust the contents of the envelope to some dear friends (thank you Fisks!), and asked if they would wrap up a present with contents indicative of either sex. Well, they went above and beyond and... well, we'll just let the video below explain the rest!

We know it's been a LOOOOOONG time since we've posted anything here, but hopefully this post will make up for it just a bit! As most of you know we've gone through a lot of major transitions lately. To be honest, it has been very difficult at times. Yet, through it all, we've seen the Father work in some mighty and amazing ways... and ultimately, He has graciously seen fit to grant us one of the desires of our hearts. After years of trying to start a family our pr@yers have been answered! This is a video we put together of us sharing the news with our loved ones, and meeting our child for the first time. Hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed putting it together. Thank you all for continuing to stand beside us through everything and for constantly bringing us before His throne. All our love!

Finally had a good opportunity to capture someone making 'chai' at the stand we normally go to. Been trying to capture a bunch of video from all over the city in hopes of creating a larger film that will do a much better job conveying what life is like here.

A quick video of our rapidly emptying house as we prepare to move back to the US...

I'll just leave you with the age-old adage to summarize things:

"My daddy could beat up your daddy!" :D

*We arrived back early Friday morning. Our friends came to pick us up at the airport and we were thrilled to see them. We brought a few surprises for them too. What would any cheese head kid want? Dairy! Dairy! Dairy! That's right! We froze a gallon of delicious 2% milk, cheesecake, cheese, cream cheese, donuts, candy, candy, and more candy. Needless to say the kids were all thrilled. I think John shed a tear too. That day we went to sleep and we didn't wake up until the evening. Some friends came over to visit and after they left back to sleep we went. Thank goodness for Melatonin.

*Two days later was my 28th Birthday. After church, we went out to a local A/C restaurant and ordered the infamous Paper Dosa. As you can see it is huge and delicious. If you are ever in an South Asian restaurant order the Dosa. You won't be disappointed.

*A friend of ours from our fellowship here is getting married this week but there are many pre wedding get togethers that usually happen first. Sunday evening was Nalugu. Nalugu, according to tradition, is when the bride-to-be gets absolutely covered in Turmeric paste by all of her family and friends. It is thought to represent the glow that she will have on her wedding day. She wears yellow so that she doesn't ruin her sari. After she gets covered, some of the more rowdy women start covering everyone else with the turmeric paste. I guess so we all have that beautiful glow. I turned out looking more like Lisa Simpson!

*Monday night our friends wanted to do a little something extra for my B-day (they made me feel so special!). All 12 of us went to go see Kung Fu Panda 2 with McDonalds Ice cream afterwards. This truly was a special treat. My gift from them was the Ronald McDonald Back Pack. They called me Dora the Explorer for the rest of the night.

*Now, here comes the real "kicker" (literally). On Wednesday morning Isaac and I had a long list of things to do for the day. We were both in high spirits and just happy to be busy. While Isaac was sitting in our office I asked him to help me take the fan out of the bathroom.  For some reason the plug wasn't coming out of the outlet.  When I asked him this is what he said to me, "Oh, you can't get it out because you gotta have skillz!" In my witty response I said to him, "I'll show you skills!" Up my foot went to Karate Chop my husband (I blame Kung Fu Panda) and instantly my foot went back down.  I completely missed Isaac and caught my pinky toe on the edge of his chair. The pain was instant. I looked down and my toe was hanging on the side of my foot! It wasn't pretty. I went to the doctor the next day and after the X-rays it was clear. I broke my toe. So for the past week I have been sitting. Not because I want to but because I have to. It literally hurts to walk.

This is my "you think this is funny Isaac" face!?

I think the Father knew we needed some rest so that's what we are doing. We'll enjoy it while it lasts. We miss you guys and we are super thankful for our time together. Keep lifting us up! Until we meet again or as Dora would say Hasta Luego!

We know we've been sporadic in our posts lately (to say the least)… one of the hardest things to do was to even conceive of following up (or moving on from) our latest post. To be honest, where do you go from there? It kinda makes other things pale in comparison, don't you think? Life and death obviously overshadow other monotonous things we share about our days. Just a difficult thing for us to process and think through. Fortunately, we feel this video-post is a good starting (or restarting) point for us. It's a great reminder of the important things, and has given us a moment of clear and appreciated perspective. Hope you enjoy!

Last night we had a "Celebration of Life" service for my father. I was blessed to get to be a part of remembering him through giving the eulogy. Though it was difficult and extremely emotional we know our Heavenly Father was glorified in what was shared and spoken about my dad. Thank you all so much for your help in making it an incredibly memorable occasion. Below we have posted two of the video slide-shows we put together for the event. One is a compilation meant to capture the life and joy of my father accurately, and the other chronicles my parents 37 years of marriage together. Hopefully they relay through pictures concisely what would otherwise take many, many words to convey. Please be remembering my entire family as we continue to mourn through this process…