a Postcard from Africa

to see ASL: click here

In pre-internet days, snail mail was the way to get information. If that information came from abroad, it was bound to be a month or so delayed as it came via the ocean 🚢🚢🚢.. 

So, consider this your postcard from across the pond 📮📨📬

Hello World!

Caydia A'merari was born as the sun came up on April 20th on the DOOR Campus where we are living. She's the first child born on campus and our second child to be born at a Deaf ministry location (Kaspien was born on Deaf Missions campus where we were living at that time - this is turning into a pattern🙊). 

And since she's the fourth child, she gets more pictures since her birth announcement has been so delayed 🙈

Mariah coloring with the kids

Due to Kenyan cultural norms, mom and baby don't do much socialization for the first 2 months - until the child gets their first immunization, I'm told. The concept of meal trains aren't something that happens here either. We've been wonderfully blessed to have our friend, previous housemate and kids "Aunt" Mariah come to Kenya and help out as we adjust to being a family of 6! She arrived at the end of March and heads back to the states the first of June. We are grateful for her help!

As always, our kids names are from our pregnancy journey and what Azael and I are learning in this season.

Caydia is a name I had on the "girl list" when I was pregnant with Kaspien. At that time I wasn't sure if we would spell it Kaydia or Caydia.. but it came from Kay meaning joy or rejoice, dia is spanish for day.

Loosely, Caydia meant to me, the phrase from Psalms 30:5 - joy comes in the morning. 

I mentioned in my recent update that Azael and I took some parenting classes for foster and adoption preparation in the winter/spring of 2021. While we did not move forward with our plans of adoption at that time, the classes were beneficial to see some unhealthy patterns in our parenting. Blending cultural values and norms is not an easy task. Resources in ASL are tremendously lacking, and as a cross-cultural family it has been an arduous journey to figuring out a peace-filled way forward. As we are entering our 8th year of marriage and being parents, I feel as though we are coming out of the "dark night" of the parenting trenches and into the "day of rejoicing".

Paralleling our parenting journey, Abba has been leading me to numerous familiar passages to look deeper at them in the Hebrew and Greek contexts. As a result of this, one of the passages I was pondering/investigating/leaning into was Ephesians 4:31. Getting "rid of bitterness" stuck out to me as that's something that continues to find its way into my thoughts and plans. The greek work used for bitterness is pikria, which I found unappealing as a name, but I knew from earlier study that the name Merari came from the Hebrew word marar meaning 'to be bitter'. Merari in the old testament is a boys name, but I read a book back in 2020 that had a female character named Merari. I liked the thought of it, but didn't want to name a child 'bitter'. 

At that time, I came to find out that in Greek adding "A" to the beginning of a word transforms it into it's opposite. When we were living in missionary housing back in the fall of 2021, a neighbor girl was named Lolyla. When I asked the origins of her name, the mom explained that she liked the name Lyla, but that it meant darkness or night in hebrew and that her husband didn't want to name her that.. However "lo" meant the opposite, or "no darkness", so they came up with Lolyla.. Then it clicked!

adding "A" to "Merari" brings us to A'merari to mean getting rid of bitterness..

 

Welcome to the world, Caydia! We look forward to seeing who you become. 

Soli Deo Gloria
:D

Seeking Joy in the Journey

Hello Friends!

To use some trending slang, "It's been a hot minute" since my last update. In order to try to keep this brief, I'll give a short update from the last 5 months:

August found us packing up our home in Iowa, preparing to move.

September took us to Oklahoma for two weeks, then on to Texas.

October found us staying at friends who lived an hour away from Azael's job and we adjusted to the long commute times waiting for our house to sell. It also brought a bright red cast, as Kaspien fell off the couch breaking his arm >.<

November came with an offer on the house that fell through, and then finally an offer that brought us to close on the house the day before Thanksgiving. God also provided an apartment 15 mins from Azael's work the same day! :)   It also brought us a 1year old! Emaias is not walking yet, but 'cruising the furniture' these days.

December had us moving to our new place (which is 2050 sqft smaller than our house in Iowa - whee!), visiting family in Oklahoma and our first lost tooth!

We have been ready for life to slow down a bit and took some time over the past week to decompress! Hopefully you've been able to spend some time this holiday season taking deep breaths and engaging with those around you! :)

These last few months have brought some clarity and some questions as well. My role in the ministry within Cru has been up in the air for awhile now due to the re-organization and subsequent time that implementation that has taken over the last two years. It's been good to finally land in my new department and at the same time it's been an adjustment.

Since Emaias' birth, I've also felt more 'myself' than I have in the last five years. While we were staying at our friends house this Fall we would often walk to the neighborhood park. One day on our way back to the house, I spontaneously jogged next to Jaelyn as she rode her strider bike in a playful way to race with her. It may sound simple, but I can not remember running, let alone jogging out of enjoyment or 'just because I could' in over 5 years. I am continually amazed at the 'firsts' I am experiencing, as I didn't think I felt 'that' bad. In truth, my body has been fighting itself for the past 5 years, and I'm just now starting to get answers that are encouraging my recovery.

When I was running beside Jaelyn, I heard the
words of Eric Liddell, "When I run, I feel His pleasure." And it hit me in a weird way. I always don't love interpreting in and of itself, but when I am coordinating Interpreters for Cru, or when I am interpreting content for Cru, I feel His pleasure. When I provide access to the Deaf community to the rich wealth of resources that Cru has, I find immense joy. The Deaf community is so deprived of resources and Christian content that when I play an ever so small role in allowing access to supplemental theological conversation, or in relaying the message of the speaker that then leads to an 'ah-ha!' moment for the Deaf individuals in attendance, my heart skips a beat and the enjoyment is to God's glory! I come alive in moments of discipling Deaf individuals with the truths of the gospel in their heart language, American Sign Language.

As you know, with the year coming to a close, gifts made to Cru are tax-deductible. If you are still considering making a year-end gift, please click here. Any new gifts or gifts over and above your regular giving will be doubled until December 31st, 2019.

Thank you to all of you who have been faithful to support me in this endeavor as I continue to minister to the Deaf community under the umbrella of Cru! I am grateful for your desire to enlarge God's kingdom by allowing access to Deaf individuals. Those in the Deaf community are thankful for your on-going and generous gifts that engage with them in situations that they often feel forgotten or ignored. 

Soli Deo Gloria
:D

On Expecting the Unexpected.. and a lil' bitty hello! :)

It's December 19th - technically I should be 41 weeks pregnant today. And because of that my plans for November were as follows:

November 1st - return home from a month long trip to Honduras (visiting Azael's biological family).
November 11th - drive down to Tulsa, help with prep for Lauren's wedding.
November 19th - drive home to Iowa from Lauren's wedding.
November 21st - purchase a van from our friends in Nebraska (as our van died a week earlier).
November 26th through December 14th - PREP. ALL. THE. THINGS
- for Baby's arrival, and for Cru Winter Conference, and the house for Snow, and..
December 16th - have all the things done, and be ready for baby to come. It may seem "late" but since my first two kids came at 42.5 and 41.5 weeks, respectively, I felt like it made sense to anticipate a later delivery.

BUT here's what happened

November 1st - return home from a month long visit to Honduras = Check
November 11th - drive down to Tulsa, help with prep for Lauren's wedding = Check
November 19th - drive home to Iowa from Lauren's wedding = Check
November 21st - purchase a van from our friends in Nebraska = Check
November 24th - 2:34am WATER BREAKS (this has not happened with either of my other kids = surprising!) Midwife checks on me through out the day, labor stalls thrice, but she decides to stay overnight since there's a snowstorm coming which can induce labor. I'm glad she did, as active labor started at 9:30pm, and Baby BOY was born at 11:31pm.

He was 37.5 weeks, so considered 'term'. We didn't have any complications - we also didn't have a name, as Azael and I had scheduled a date for Sunday, the 25th to discuss possible names!
Lil' buddy just couldn't wait.. ;)

I was woefully unprepared, however, for his arrival. We had ordered the 'Birth Kit' for his planned home birth just 2 days prior (it arrived Monday afternoon, when he was 2 days old.. oops!). Since my water broke in the early morning, Azael did have time to run some errands that day to get the necessities. We also had some of the other supplies left over from Kaspien's birth, so it worked out fine. We got the birthing pool set up just in time - that was wonderful!

I was also mentally not prepared for the transition of 2 to 3 kids. I had a list of things I wanted to do before baby came and I felt like the 5 virgins who ran out of oil. The first week of Baby being on the outside was a mess! Fortunately Azael had paternity leave from work and was able to stay home - but it was crazy. At one week old Baby Boy still didn't have a name, so we put off announcing him to the world. We weren't intentionally hiding him, just lots of adjusting for our hearts and minds to welcome this little one so 'early' (in our minds).




My mom was able to come up by the second week, and that gave Azael and I time to discuss names. In the Bible, we see God give very deliberate names to people, and Azael and I feel that same way with our kids. We've been entrusted by our Abba with these small humans to raise, and we feel like naming them in a way that honors Him is part of that responsibility as well.


As always, His name has a story: click here to read it though, as this post is getting long! ;)






On Saturday, December 10th, at two weeks old, he finally had a name! We sent the picture out to family and close friends and planned to make the obligatory Facebook Official post later that night. However, an unfortunate accident that evening landed Emaias in the ER with a broken leg. It was pretty traumatic for all involved. He had to stay overnight in Children's Hospital. I have a new found appreciation of and understanding for NICU parents. Recovery is slow going. He's in a harness - the typical regiment for this age and injury - but diaper changes and any movement of his leg are still pretty painful. I was overly optimistic that he would nurse sooner than he could - and thus have been struggling to keep my milk supply up as well. I texted a friend saying, "You don't realize how hard it is not to hold your baby until you can't." Things take longer now - diaper changes require two of us - one to immobilize his leg, the other to change him. He was nursing well and had a great latch pre-accident, and now I'm having to pump and use bottles (not bad, just more work.) I can't baby-wear him, and we have to give sponge baths for the next month or so. Our days look a lil different than the typical newborn bonding/adjusting and I'm trying to make sure I'm engaging with him as often as I can. It's hard, but God is good in it, helping me to think outside the box for ways to accommodate Emaias and his injury.

We've thought back through all the 'what if's' and 'if only's' to know that it truly was an unintended accident. It doesn't make it easier, but it is what it is, and we look forward to him feeling better. It's hard to see such a lil baby in such intense pain but he is predicted to make a fully recovery.

Thus the reason that he's a little over 3 weeks old and we are just now getting this announcement out. Jaelyn and Kaspien love their brother and are eagerly awaiting when they can hold him again.

WELCOME EMAIAS!

Bringing back --FrienDay FriDay-- !

I know, I know - It's been a while since I've sent out an update. 

Y'all, I've been so pregnant with potential projects 

- there I go again, with that word play analogy that scares or annoys people ;) 

But here's the kicker - somewhere in the midst of all these 'pregnant with potential' projects I got pregnant with the the human kind of potential too!

Baby Bu "da 3rd" coming December 2018.. 

(and unfortunately, pregnancy and I go together like oil and water :( 

Morning (ie:all-day) sickness is my friend currently, 

and sleep demands my attention during the day and ignores me at night :( 

so if you think of me, say a prayer for a settled stomach, 

a non-foggy head and sleep when it's dark outside! Thanks)

Happy 'new' Frien-Day Fri-Day! 

Soli Deo Gloria

:D

[what]S'up, Wednesday?

The "[what]S'up, Wednesday?" update comes on the first Wednesday of the month. Peak into my planner to see my upcoming schedule, catch up on any noteworthy thing happening and check out a recent picture or two from my phone (mostly of the kids, cuz they're the cute ones) ;) .. 
          ******************************************************************

Peak into my Planner: 
December 4th-11th :: Heidi and Dakota are visiting. Both WORK and PLAY are being accomplished.  We have *big and exciting* plans for them to be back on campus as soon as they are able. --Stay Tuned!!--
December 21st-26th :: We (Azael, kids and I) fly to California for Christmas (THANKS PaPa Jim for the miles - though it may be self-serving for him as he's not yet met his second grandson!). ;)
December 26th-January 1st :: I'll be in Baltimore working at the Cru Winter Conference. I'll send out a link once I get there, as the interpreters will be on live-stream those few days. :)

[December 27th - {KASPIEN} turns 1! This big boy will accompany me to CWC-Baltimore, his second work trip with only Momma, as sister will stay home with Daddy - If you think of Azael, pray for wisdom in his few days of flying solo!] ;)

:: *Noteworthy* ::
DECEMBER is here! For most of you that means holiday shopping and wrapping gift (no harm in any of that!) - but for me, as a fundraiser, that means Year-end giving! I look at it as a win-win, really. You get a write off on your taxes for the money that God has entrusted you, and I get to have your donation doubled through matching funds (from a generous donor) that allow me to continue to provide access to the Deaf community at Cru events exposing them to the gospel and resources that allow them to walk deeper with Jesus!! :) I have $8,910 left to raise of the matching grant I received for this calendar year. Every little bit helps, so ask our Father what he would have you give, then click the link to allow Deaf individuals to SEE the gospel! :)

<<<< That's all for now - catch you later >>>>

Soli Deo Gloria
:D