"Gahbjj!!"

Yay--Christmas in January! A great, big box finally arrived from our family in Lincoln Park! Nat loves his new "gahbjj" truck! We don't think he's used the word garbage so many times in one day before (although he is particularly interested in "gahbjj"). We're so glad it was not lost in the mail; Nat played with it all afternoon. Thanks ABCD!! Love ya!

FYI: Parcel Post takes a very loooong time to get here. :)

Austrian Excitement

Last week, we spent four wonderful days in Austria. We went with our small Christian group that meets for prayer and bible study weekly. Our days were mainly spent adventuring the snowy Alps and enjoying time playing games and chatting with friends. We stayed in Schloss Mittersill (Schloss means castle). The castle was built in the 1500s! Schloss Mittersill is a Christian ministry which provides long or short term lodging, breakfast, dinner, mentoring and fellowship, all in the refreshing mountains in a beautiful old castle. Here's the link should YOU ever want to visit this awesome place, too! I will add more pictures of our Austrian adventure as I get the time, but below is a slide show of the castle to whet your appetite for more photos to come!

Our Castle Accommodations

Funny Moments

Nathaniel is constantly coming up with new words and ideas. My favorite last week was when he thought Daddy was home and I was just "fooling" about his being gone. He went into the bedroom and said "DADDY!" in a loud voice and looked under the covers to see if he was still there, sleeping in. Bummer, he was not. I explained to him that Daddy had to go to work. He was disappointed, but in true toddler style he got over his disappointment in about 30 seconds.

Another funny favorite moment is when he put his bears and various stuffed animals to bed. He said to me "shhhh" and put his finger to his lips. Then he whispered a sequence of bedtime instructions: "bed....cobbers (covers)....bahs (bears)....shhhh." He put all his stuffed animals (there are many) onto the twin bed in his room and pulled the blankets up over them.

He always likes to sleep with at least 1 or more of his animals (see picture). We try to keep this simple so we don't have to search the world wide for any particular animal. He is so sweet and affectionate to these little stuffed animals! He kisses and hugs them every time he gets up from sleeping and says "bye" or "ciao" or "tschüss." I think his bears are trilingual.

11 Weeks Now

We have begun telling our joyful news - we are expecting another baby! This little one will be due in early August, which means I am currently 11 weeks pregnant.

Yesterday I had my first OB appointment. We were able to hear the our baby's rapid little heart beating! I was so excited, relieved, joyful....happy! It was so awesome to have Tom (and even Nathaniel) right by my side as we heard these first sounds of new life. Tom missed all of these steps along the way during my pregnancy with Nat, so we are both excited to experience all of this together. At my appointment yesterday I also learned that the nearby military hospital is beginning the closing down process, therefore I will now see a German doctor and midwife. I am excited to experience a little different approach to pregnancy care, labor, and delivery. I have heard there are several reputable OB practices in the area, and they speak English, too, so I have no concerns about that.

Alongside this Blog post I have included a couple ultrasounds taken of 11 week old babies. This pictures are not actually of our baby, but I included them to show you all what an awesome creation of life God has already begun. Babies of this age already have a heart, brain, spinal cord, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, arms, legs, fingers, toes, finger and toe nails, and even taste buds! Babies are a one of the most precious examples to me of God's great care to the details of our lives....starting from the very beginning.

Please pray for our new baby, my health and nausea, and our family as we begin to prepare ourselves for this big change.