Hello Everyone!
First of all, Kristy and I apologize for not updating for awhile... December was INCREDIBLY BUSY! However, here we are in 2012!
December Rumblings:
From teaching to being a student to co-directing a Christmas concert, I was busy! I thank God that Kristy is so patient with me because I really did not spend much time with her at the beginning of December. And she had to put up with me working late into the night, which meant we did not get to go to bed together at the same time. (For some reason that is a major issue for Kristy. Robin... can you help her with that?) Praise God though, since that and a couple of colds were the only major problems Kristy and I faced!
However, we did find some time to have a little fun together! Here is Kristy showing off her baby belly! She is sooooo beautiful! This is her at 21 weeks!
And here is me trying to show off my sympathy belly! Talk about a beauty! Woohoo!
Unfortunately, I think I pulled a muscle in my back trying to do that pose. See how much Kristy has to put up with! Please pray for her!
December Blessings:
Now that the "rough" is out of the way, here is how God overwhelmingly blessed us:
- Christmas Concert: On December 20th, we hosted the Elementary Christmas Concert and it went incredibly well... In fact, it went better than I even thought it could have! We did a musical called Christmas Time in Bethlehem and the fifth graders did all the acting parts, while the other grades sang songs! Here are some pictures:
Some Pre-K3 students helping Mr. Ketchum (the music teacher) tell the story of Christmas through actions and songs! They were/are so precious!
The 5th graders did a great job acting!
Even the guards and maintenance guys who helped bring the stage down to the gym were excited to watch the program. They even had to watch through the fence and the bushes.
The last song at our Christmas program almost brought tears to my eyes. It was Joy to the World sung in the three most common languages spoken natively by the students at our school, English, Khmer, and Korean. I could not get a video to download. I will try to download it on facebook. If you are friends with us please check it out.
We had a great time celebrating Christmas on the last day of school with our classes by having parties. Gideon's class had a pool/ pizza party, had a gingerbread house making contest, and filled up each others stockings they had made with gifts and cards. In Pre-K3 we celebrated Jesus by having a birthday party for him. We made chocolate muffins my mom sent from the States, we made birthday hats, sang Happy Birthday and played games. My students all month long were a little confused with us learning about Baby Jesus and me being pregnant at the same time. I think they finally understood that the baby inside of me is not Baby Jesus. Our students and their parents blessed us with precious gifts. One of my students mothers bought me a cambodian pregnancy outfit. I will wear it and it will always remind me of Cambodia and the precious people I have met here.
Being away from family is hard during the Christmas season, so we felt so blessed that they thought of us and sent us their love through packages. Thank you to both of our parents and families for our Christmas gifts.
People had been asking me if I could feel Kai moving ever since I turned 16 weeks, but it wasn't until week 21 that I could actually tell it was him. Gideon even got to put his hand on my stomach and feel him moving. We could even just stare at my stomach and every once in a while see my stomach pulsate in one section. It is so fun and reassuring to be able to feel him move around in there. Gideon continually says about himself, "I would not know what to do if I had a living human being inside of me. It would be so weird." For me it has gotten to the point where it is normal to feel him moving and I think it will be so weird for the first couple of days that he is no longer inside of me.
With all the busyness of life, school, masters classes, christmas programs Gideon has been blessed by being able to relax while watching the Broncos games live through the internet. He has finally figured out a way. Even if it is at odd hours of the day the Broncos games help him unwind and feel normal.
If you get our email updates you know that we have decided to make this our last year at Logos International School in Cambodia. In November, we had a skype interview with Children with Hope and are excited as we prepare to join them in their ministry to orphans in Eldoret, Kenya hopefully in January of 2013. We will be helping them start a school. We will keep you updated on what our new adventure will look like as we learn more.
December Vacation:
We traveled to Xi'an and Beijing, China this Christmas break on a 12 day vacation with Gideon's sister Anne, her husband Keegan, and our precious nephew and niece, Asher and Hannah. We spent the majority of the time bundled up in as many layers as we could wear as we walked through ancient Chinese buildings, walls and soldiers including: The Terra Cotta Warriors, The Summer Palace, The Temple of Heaven, The Forbidden City, The Great Wall, and the Beijing Zoo (ok its not ancient, but we saw cool panda bears for the first time ever and the most beautiful tigers and lions we have ever seen in person.)
Some of our other highlights included: drinking lots of bubble milk tea and starbucks (for Kristy), running and not sweating (for Gideon), staying in a real house that had a dish washer and an oven, baking chocolate peanut butter cookies, making home made dinners, watching the acrobat show (AMAZING), bargaining at the pearl, market, practicing to be parents on our niece and nephew, cuddling on a leather couch under a fleece blanket and being just the right temperature, watching home alone, eating lots of yummy food (I hope my doctor doesn't yell at me for gaining too much weight), and playing games late into the night.
The Great Wall! We rode up the Gondola walked along for 2 hours and went down the slide. Don't worry I went very slow, but Gideon zoomed down as fast as he could.
The whole group. Asher had so much fun counting all of the steps.
Gideon and Keegan at the top of the temple at The Summer Palace. The emperor made The Summer Palace as a gift for his mother-in-law. It was such a cold day that day we were there, yet it was still busy. Can't imagine how busy it is on a nice summer day.
"TEBOW" Opening Christmas gifts on Christmas morning. Asher helped open most of ours. Thanks for all the help Asher.
Practicing to be parents.
Happy 2012!
Gideon was the only one to stay up till midnight on New Year's Eve. We didn't make New Years resolutions, but I know it is always our goal to be more like Christ in the coming year than we were this last. And I always say I'm going to be better at flossing every day :) We look forward to see how God works his plans for our lives out this year. We have many exciting things to anticipate. Finishing our school year strong and finishing up our time in Cambodia, God bringing Kai into this world, spending quality time with family, and preparing to go to Kenya. We pray that God has given you exciting things to anticipate this coming year. We love each one of you and greatly appreciate your prayers, care, concern and love.
