Here’s Kelly and Champ at 29 weeks! This photo was taken just before the New Year. Champ’s really been kicking lately and sometimes we can feel his (her?) foot poking out–this morning I think I pushed on it too hard because Kelly said that I made Champ flail around a lot. Sorry Champ. Your dad loves you and can’t wait to meet you.
Yes, one of us is a little behind with photos. Champ turned 28 weeks on Christmas Eve and we’re now at 30 weeks and counting! We took our first childbirth class at the hospital this past Thursday; it was the first of a seven-week series. It’s kind of incredible to think that Champ will be (almost) full-term at the end of the class.
(P.S. Photo also available with antlers.)
In January, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary at the Salish Lodge, a beautiful Northwest hotel with wood-burning fireplaces and lavender pillows. Some friends had warned us that the first year of marriage would be the hardest. Well, some parts weren’t easy, but overall we had a wonderful first year and the second’s been even better!
After spending most of our summer weekends in 2008 going to weddings, we were determined to spend more time outdoors in 2009. We started hiking in March, when there was still snow on the ground at higher elevations. This is us at the summit of Tiger Mountain in Issaquah (and here is a 360 degree view I made there!).
We went to England with Kelly’s family in May, and when I say “Kelly’s family,” I mean it–even her grandfather came along for the trip! It was a jolly old time, especially for those of us who had never been to England before. We rode the Tube, we stayed in a 500-year old house courtesy of some of Rachel’s friends, we saw beautiful things and met interesting people, and we took a bajillion photos (here are some, and here are some more, including a picture of a very swollen hand).
In June, we celebrated Kelly’s thirtieth birthday with friends and family. Her grandfather has a birthday just a few days after hers so we celebrated his, too. Cupcakes, candles, and hot dogs all around!
Later in June, we went camping with friends at Orcas Island, after having procured a number of secondhand camping supplies. We’d meant to go camping more often last year and this year we actually got to do it! We made bagel french toast and climbed Mt. Constitution.
2009 was the year of running for Kelly–she completed her first half-marathon in late June with energy to spare! We bought running shoes in the summer of 2008 and began training together, but knee problems soon caught up with Jonathan and she began running solo. Our friends made some signs to show their support!
The right corner of our backyard was a steep, unmaintainable slope filled with weeds, so we designed and built a retaining wall in the summer of 2009–a project that was supposed to last a couple of weekends but wound up taking most of the summer! Next year we hope to plant flowers and vegetables in the new raised bed.
July brought another camping trip–we went to Kalaloch and stayed for a couple of nights in our little two-person tent, visiting the Hoh rain forest and the Sol Duc falls and even Forks, Home of Twilight, which was a spectacle even though neither of us have read the Twilight books.
On the day we got back from Kalaloch, we found out that Kelly was pregnant! We found out at about 5 weeks, which means, yes, Kelly had run a half-marathon with a very little passenger. This ultrasound is from our first doctor’s appointment a few weeks later, in August, and it’s the first photo we have of Champ. Champ looked like a small gray blob, but the doctor enlarged the image until we could see a rhythmic flickering in the middle of the blob. “That’s the heart,” said the doctor. Champ is a little miracle and has since added kicking, squirming, and punching to his or her bag of tricks. We’re eagerly awaiting his or her arrival, probably sometime in March of 2010.
In October, we visited the McPherson side of the family in South Carolina, where we celebrated Jonathan’s birthday and saw the state capitol. We also met the 4 girls that Jonathan’s parents are now fostering, went to a car show in which his brother Eli’s car was a participant, and visited quite a number of fall festivals.
November means Thanksgiving, our favorite low-stress holiday of the year! Rachel and her boyfriend Tim came to the States for a few weeks and stayed with us for the holiday. And, for the second year in a row, we hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house; Ron barbecued the turkey and Jonathan carved it up. This year more than ever we were thankful for our family and friends–things may be busy here but they’re rarely lonely!
In December, Jonathan went to South Africa with a group from our church (pictured) to work with iThemba Lethu, which runs HIV prevention programs in the townships and has a small transitional home for orphaned babies. It’s the same trip we went on together last year, but Champ kept Kelly from coming this year. We were apart for almost two weeks, which was pretty tough but worth it–the Lord is doing some amazing things in Africa through iThemba Lethu’s ministry.
You’ve already seen this photo but it seems like a good one to end the year with! This is Kelly and Champ at 27 weeks, just before Christmas. We cut down our own Christmas tree for the first time this year, and you can see it adorned with lights in the background. Champ is now 29 weeks and getting stronger every day!
So, there you have it: 2009, a year of travelling across the country and across the world, of exploring the outdoors and running a very long way, of holidays with family and events with friends, of pregnancy and baby books, and of experiencing grace in more ways than we thought possible. We are very excited to see what 2010 holds and honored that we have people like you to share the journey with. Happy New Year!
One of the kids took this picture of us. L to R: me, Jele, Smanga, and Reed.
One of the funny things about going on a “missions trip” is that you go hundreds or thousands of miles to work alongside folks for whom the mission is not a short trip but a lifestyle. And that’s funny because the “missions trip” is a Big Deal to you, and everyone you know makes a Big Deal about the fact that you are going, and just when you start to feel important, you realize that these folks are doing the work day in and day out, and that no one is making a Big Deal about them.
So, even though they will probably never read this, I want to recognize these two gentlemen: Jele and Smanga, two young men who are working for iThemba Lethu and mentoring dozens and dozens of kids in their school program. These guys have dreams and plans of their own and yet they’ve chosen to spend time with these kids, mentoring them and hanging out with them and teaching them the kinds of things you don’t learn in a classroom. School pretty much sucks for these kids–they told us stories of the teachers beating them, somtimes with pipes–and their home life is usually worse. These two men are the only ones telling some of those boys that they have a hope and destiny beyond the slums.
So guys, if you’re reading this: I can’t tell you how much I admire what you do.
I returned from South Africa about a week ago and wanted to share a few memories from the trip with you all, so over the next few weeks I’ll be posting some stories and photographs to the blog.
One of my favorite memories of the trip happened early on, the first night of Leadership Camp.
We’d just barely gotten to know these kids over the course of the first day at camp, and it was already getting dark. We corralled them into the hall and commenced with a wrap-up and some singing.
The youth workers got the children started on a Zulu song–Zulu is the first language for most of these kids–and they sang it loud and proud, getting a little louder and prouder with every repetition of the simple chorus. It was a beautiful sound. If you can get American kids to sing, they usually sing on melody and, as they get older, with mumbling and embarassed self-consciousness. The Zulu boys and girls had no such inhibitions. They sang in rich, improvised harmony.
While they sang, I leaned over to one of them and ask them what the song meant. I don’t recall the exact words, but it sounded like something from Revelations, one of those songs sung to God by creatures with eyes and wings. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, who is seated upon the throne–that is the closest I can remember.
After the chorus had run through a few times, the youth workers decided it was time to move on with the program, and so they stopped singing, waiting for the children do the same.
But they didn’t. The kids just kept on singing.
After patiently listening to a few more rounds, the youth workers began actively trying to bring the singing down, shushing and making the universal “sit down and calm down” gesture. It’s the same one you’ve seen American teachers use.
It didn’t work. The kids kept on singing. They were beaming.
We all sort of looked at each other with a “what now” expression. Whistles were blown. The singing got louder. The youth workers shook their heads. By this point our protests were only encouraging the kids, so after a quick huddle, we decided to just walk out on them. We waved goodbye, walked out of the hall into the night, and waited around the corner for the kids to get bored with their game.
They didn’t. They laughed and kept singing the chorus, over and over.
Then they began to walk, almost marching, out of the hall, still singing the chorus. They walked themselves out of the hall and they marched past us, toward the cabins. The music finally died down as they spread out across the camp.
The display amazed me. These kids have nothing. Many don’t have parents, or regular food, or even a safe place to sleep. Yet I couldn’t remember the last time I saw children having so much fun or singing with so much joy.
We were all pretty quiet after they left.
“Let’s start with a song tomorrow night,” suggested one of the youth workers.
We don’t usually do an update every week but I (Jonathan) couldn’t resist sharing this photo because, come on, it’s very cute. 27 weeks and counting!
Kelly and Champ December 2009
As you can tell by comparing the photo to the left and the last photo I posted at 19 weeks, there’s been quite a bit of growth lately! I intentionally wore the same shirt so you could see for sure how things look. Some shirts make me look bigger than others.
About a month ago (November 17th), Jonathan felt Champ move for the first time. Since then, this child has become an unstoppable source of movement! It’s delightful! My sister has also felt Champ move, but so far this child has been stubborn and shy around my Mom. The best was when my sister stayed over last week and she could SEE Champ moving! It’s incredible! I am thankful for every single little kick, punch, squirm or whatever it is.
What do we know about you this week, Champ? According to What to Expect When You’re Expecting, at week 26 “He or She now weighs a full two pounds and measures nine-plus inches. And this week, the eyes, which until now were developing under fused eyelids, start to open. Of course, there’s not much to see in there, but if your baby spots a bright light (or hears a loud noise) near your belly, you may notice an increase in fetal activity.” So far this child does not like loud noise, if lack of activity is any indication. I like to think that means we’ll have a nice, calm child who will not be a screamer. That’s what I’ll continue to think until this baby proves otherwise.
Other exciting things happening lately:
As you can tell by the excessive use of exclamation points, we are very excited to know that Champ is continuing to grow. Sometimes it seems that 40 weeks is forever and other times I am amazed at how quickly the time has gone by already. More than anything, each day we are thankful for this little miracle the Lord has placed in our lives.
Last night, we were enjoying our dinner on the deck as we often do during the summertime, when the deck is cool and the interior of our home is a blazing inferno, or in the case of last night, when the weather is just so beautifully golden I can’t stand to be inside a moment longer. As we were outside during our meal, it began to smell autumn-like to me. I will admit that this is my favorite time of year; the mornings are crisp and dewy and the afternoons are golden sunshine with streaming light. It makes me happy to see the world through this lens for a few weeks every year. Later, it will be cooler and damp, but we have the last bits of summer holding out and displaying their beauty. Breathtaking.
I’m also a big fan of hot apple cider warming my hands after being outside, the hefty comfort of sweaters around my shoulders, feeling the crunch of leaves under my feet, the sights, smells and food of the Puyallup Fair, the soothing and creamy feeling of soups and stews and chowders gliding down my throat, and the delicious taste of freshly baked bread and the sweetness of candy corn. Oh and decorations! I LOVE decorating for Autumn! What do you most look forward to as Autumn approaches?
One of the best things about being married is the way that your differences are often complementary.
A good example is the way that we approach picture-taking. Kelly and I both like to take pictures and share them with our friends, but we take pictures completely differently. Kelly’s great at getting people to get together and smile and at capturing memories. I, on the other hand, lug around a black brick of a camera and have a tendency to try to get all artsy with the scenery and candid shots. So, after a vacation or time with friends we’ve got both kinds of photos to remember it by.
I was reminded of this when I was going through my pile of photos from England this weekend, and I thought I’d share them with you all. Only… looking through other peoples’ vacation photos is so dull that it’s practically a cliche. To make it a little more interesting, I put some of my favorites into slideshows:
The Doors (and Windows) of England
Kelly and Jonathan: Together in England
Kelly: Looking Beautiful in England
Every Last Photo (organized by day and event; browse for hidden gems!)
In the summer, I don’t usually crave meat, but veggies and other lighterish stuff (and chips and queso, naturally). I saw this recipe on Martha Stewart’s website and I knew I wanted to try it!
Okay, Brazilian Black Beans, adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food
Ingredients:
3 medium beets, scrubbed and trimmed, beet greens chopped
3 cans black beans
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 T vegetable oil
1 scallion, thinly sliced, plus more for serving
1/2 C. chopped fresh cilantro
Cooked rice, for serving
lime wedges and shredded cheddar for serving
The night before, roast the beets (I did this in our toaster oven) for 45 minutes to one hour until they are soft. Pop them in the fridge.
Peel and dice the beets into smallish pieces, whatever you like.
Chop the garlic or put it through a garlic press so it’s nice and squishy and small.
Heat the oil in a skillet and add the garlic, scallion and cilantro. Cook for 2 to 4 minutes, until the scallion has softened.
Add the beans and beets to the mixture. Cook for about twenty minutes to allow the flavors to develop.
In another pan, quickly wilt the beet greens. Add them to the beans (or don’t. I served them separately the first time, but I mixed everything together on my plate anyway so I just added the greens to the mix the subsequent time). Also, we didn’t have cheese or lime the last time we ate this and it was still great!
If you’d like to see the original recipe. Here is the link. I made this to the letter originally, with the beet greens on the side because I hate to waste food. EDF has you cook the beets and dried black beans together, which did make for a nice flavor, but took a really long time (like four hours). I do believe that although it doesn’t mention it in the recipe as written, you should soak the beans overnight if you’re going to start out with dry beans. Let me know if you try this one and what you think!