Loving Fall

This morning I crawled out of bed at five am to meet some friends to run. (thanks Angie and Kea!) The weather was perfect running weather. Cold enough to feel great when working up a sweat and not so cold that my throat starting hurting. Anybody know what I mean? Summer is my favorite season, but the older I get the more I appreciate fall. The crispness of the early mornings, the vibrancy of colors in nature, and of course the bounty of fall flavors. Here are some things that I have been enjoying lately:

the perfect shirt...soft and comfortable. 

by Bella Dahl

This sheperd's pie. Have I mentioned I have been eating Paleo? I really owe a whole post on it, but the jist is I just completed the 30 day Paleo challenge at our Crossfit gym. Everyone put fifty dollars into the pot and the winner took home the cash. The winner was rewarded based on percentage body fat lost. I lost three percent body fat, and 10 pounds. I was very happy with the results as I have been "meaning" to lose that last ten pounds of baby weight for let's see, Holden is 15 months old :) I also won the cash! Definitely a win-win. Everyone has asked, "will you keep doing Paleo?" YES. The great thing about Paleo is that it really is a lifestyle change, not a diet. I will probably take the 80/20 approach to just maintain and enjoy the benefits of how it makes you feel. I have more energy, sleep better, and am mostly just more balanced throughout the day. I think what I learned the most the past month is how much sugar I was ingesting was UNHEALTHY. I had sugar almost after every meal... maybe it was just a couple of Reese cups, a cookie, or a brownie, but it added up. Really one might call it a sugar addiction :) Does this mean I will not enjoy desserts now, ummm no...but everyday not so much. Now it is more of a "treat".  The biggest challenge is meal planning for our family dinner. This veggie pie recipe is what James says, "Is one of the only good things you have made so far". So there you go, give it a try!

Reading Domino, Holiday edition:

pictures taken a couple of weeks ago of the boys by my favorite, Catherine Mayo:

and last but not least, Hearing the Voice of God Bible Study by Mark Virkler. 

It is a really practical and easy to remember the four keys:

1. God's voice in your heart often sounds like a flow of spontaneous thoughts.

2. Become still so you can sense God's flow of thoughts and emotions within.

3. As you pray, fix the eyes of your heart on Jesus, seeing in the spirit the dreams and visions of Almighty God

4. Journaling, the writing out of your prayers and God's answers brings great freedom in hearing God's voice 

Here is the link to the PDF that explains this in more detail and gives the scriptural foundations. 

Our homework this week was to "practice", and I had some really fruitful time with Jesus. 

I think the hardest part for me was getting STILL and quieting my mind. The neat thing was though, once I did, it didn't take long for him to begin speaking. He was ready and waiting, all I had to do was ask. 

Iphone Update

Here are some recent pictures from what we have been up to:

This two and a half year old is quite the ham. He is an emotional rollercoaster. He tests my authority one minute, then the next has a sweet pleasing spirit. We are still working on the potty training, some days are great, some days we jump backwards. Last night when we were praying, he thanked God for " big gween trac trac, hwuge trac trac,  and baby blue trac trac" (aka tractors of all shapes and sizes). He is a bit obsessed. 

Last Saturday we went to the Chris Tomlin concert in Birmingham. It is a big worship concert, which makes it really awesome. 

before the concert we had dinner with these lovely folks at Chez Fon Fon

shrimp and avocado salad + coconut cake=one happy lady

we also had a double date day in Birmingham with the Joneses

and baby Oliver Gaines! (Kristen is 22 wks pregnant here, though you can't really tell) It was very relaxing, and the men were troopers to let us shop around. 

Latte love

We also took the boys to the pumpkin patch last weekend. 

They had a big time...well Lane did. Holden kept saying "sticks sticks" and falling on the vines :( 

Poor buddy. He did like the snacks. 

Here he is after stealing my chocolate chip protein bar for breakfast

Who could get upset at that rascal face?

So Glad you were Born

Happy Birthday James!! 

love this picture as it depicts James at his best, a loving present father...

He is hands on with the boys, a wonderful mix of disciplinarian and fun. 

They both love their Daddy the most, and I don't blame them one bit.  

morning wresting sessions with Lane and Ford at the Roost

my best friend and favorite person to hang with

birthday French Toast

(Holdey was still snoozing)

Hope you have the BEST day and a wonderful 31st year! 

Praying that you have increased delight in the Lord and enjoy His land and safe pasture.

More Africa

A few more things I don't want to forget... 

Church in Meto was amazing! These ladies are the choir, and their music is beautiful as are there tribal outfits. They do a cool shoulder move that gets their tribal collars moving in rhythm, unlike anything I have ever seen. 

The prayer chair. We had some awesome prayer warriors on our team. After a patient would see either the doctor or the dentist, they would then rotate to the chair. Isn't that how it should be every time, modern medicine and faith, hand in hand?

I love this picture as it depicts another aspect of their sweet giving spirit. This lady, Elizabeth, was a patient of James earlier in the week. He extracted a couple of teeth that were infected. The day we were leaving, she stood outside our mission center for over an hour until he awoke to give him beaded necklaces she had made just for him. She said (through the translator) that he showed great kindness and compassion.

She also presented me with one as his wife. 

Ashley, Julie, Caroline, Steven, Matt, Charles, Alan, and Joseph 

They hiked to Tanzania on our afternoon off of clinic. I took a nap :)

The last night, Bishop Moses and his wife Agnus invited us to their home to eat dinner. 

We enjoyed lamb (ok I might have just nibbled a bite as I saw them alive a couple hours prior), cabbage, beans, rice, and a delicious fried tortilla bread. The cabbage was the best I have ever had. James ate so much I thought he would be sick. He LOVED it. He is part Maasai at heart. 

The last leg of the trip was a night at Serena Amboseli. Amboseli is a national park that is near the Tanzania border and Mount Kilimanjaro. It is a beautiful place with every animal you can think of. It was a great night to enjoy each other's fellowship and reflect on the week. 

My Aunt Elon is the beautiful brunette that I am standing right behind in the picture above. I was so blessed that she was on the team. There was one particular moment in the church service that I just kept picturing my Aunt Meg. (who passed away of cancer several years ago, but was on the very first trip to Meto and who the library there is named after) I could see her smiling her infectious smile, and picture her loving on the people I was now meeting. It was very emotional, and I was thankful to have Aunt Elon (Meg's sister) there to experience it with. 

James enjoying the safari

The Sams, Osborns, and the Bobos

wonderful ladies on the morning safari

Just some of the amazing animals on the morning and afternoon drives. 

If you can tell, it was a trip of a lifetime, except I hope to go back again (and one day take the boys!) 

My heart has a new love for my brothers and sisters in Christ in Meto. 

The Lord loves all of his children everywhere and to experience that first hand is hard to explain, but forever imprinted on my heart. 

Thanks again to Ashley Johnson for all of the wonderful pictures!!!

A Boys Update

I am way behind on the boys and their milestones, checkups (maybe because they are late on those too!) etc. Lane is 2.5 years and wow, it is like a flip has switched. I was getting a little worried about his speech, he was stringing together short sentences, but they were hard to understand. He also would not attempt words he knew he could not form certain letters, example: I love you...he can't say "lo" so would just go silent. In the past month, all of this has changed. He is speaking longer sentences very clearly. He is coming up with stories and ideas and has begun showing his reasoning skills. A typical rant:  "we can't go outside momma, it got dark.  the moon out. we go inside. I watch "who who" and go night night time." (who who is Curious George, which he can say but prefers who who.)

The other day Mom wanted to take just Holden for a little quality time. I said sure, we will just distract Lane and you can take Holden without him knowing, thinking we would prevent a meltdown. I underestimated Lane. He didn't see Holden go, so at first thought he was playing hide and seek.  Lane walked around the whole house, laughing looking for Holden thinking they were playing a game. Finally, he got worried and said "the monster got Holdey, took him on the choo choo train. I got to go to D's house to get big track hoe and get him off" WHAT? Where do they come up with this stuff?  I explained that Pie had taken him to run errands for the morning, and he would be back soon. Then the meltdown came :)
His favorite expressions are: "See ya next time",  "I Do dat Momma", "But WHYYY?" "I not go to school today, I stay house, Hold go to school"

 He is a pretty good eater. He will at least try everything. His favorite things are riding tractors, playing outside with his toy tractors, and watching tractors. Do you sense the theme? We are working on potty training. He is does great when we leave off his diaper and just let him play au naturale. As soon as a diaper goes on, he reverts back to using it. I totally understand this, but some days are just not conducive to no diaper. I think if we do the three day method one weekend, it would stick for good.

Holden is all over the place at 14 months.  He is a parrot. He repeats everything you say. He is a talker, James says he is definitely a Russell :) His most consistent words are: Eat, Ball, No No Dog (when Amos goes after his breakfast), Ba Ba, Juice (he only gets water though), Momma, Da Da, Pie, Crac Crac (Tractor), Mickey, Hot Hot, Out, Nack (snack) and really the list goes on and on...

This weekend, he went to the oven which was preheating, said "Hot Hot", opened the draw next to it, got the oven mitts, put them on and attempted to open the oven. He doesn't miss a thing. He also probably could be potty trained faster than Lane as he mimics big brother. The other morning, he went and squatted next to the potty to do his business. 

He is a picky eater. He flat refuses to try things. It is exasperating sometimes as Lane was not like this. I have stopped catering to his opinions, and at the advice of other moms, only serve what we are having. He loves his milk, and drinks around 30 ounces a day. 

He still is a cuddle bug and loves to sit in a lap. He has such a sunny disposition and is a content little guy. He sleeps great now that I separated he and Lane into different rooms. A side note on that: At around 8 months, I moved them into the same room. Holden in a crib, Lane in a trundle bed with a rail. At first it was fine as I would just rush in and grab Holden as soon as he starting stirring in the morning as to not wake Lane up. Overtime, I realized this was not really working as Lane would wake up half of the time and be in a terrible mood because he was still tired. Then about two months ago, Lane went through a stage of getting out of his bed and coming into ours in the middle of the night. The problem was when I went to put him back in his bed, it would wake Holden up. I finally would give in and let Lane stay in our bed so I didn't disturb Holden. I realized we were creating a monster and knew something had to give. So now, I moved Lane into the other bedroom that has a queen bed. I just added rails and some of his stuff and we made a big deal about a new BIG boy bed. He bought in, and it was been wonderful! They are both sleeping at least a full hour later in the morning. Also if Lane wanders into our room at night, I walk him right back to his bed. 

I want them to share a room again one day, but they are just not ready yet. 

Sometimes you do what you have to do. 

A Wedding and Meeting James

When we arrived in Meto after a five hour drive in from Nairobi, we were just in time for the wedding of Phillip and Naomi. Phillip is Bishop Moses's son. Bishop Moses is the leader of the Charismatic Church locally (CEC), and also Integrity's local representative. He is a wonderful Christian man and has been blessed by the Lord for his obedience. They scheduled the wedding date and time in hopes that we would be there. It was a blend of the traditional Maasai ceremony and the Christian covenant of marriage. 

(all photo cred: Ashley Johnson)

She looked stunning with all of the handmade bead necklaces.

They immediately ushered the whole team to the front seats by the bridesmaids and family. It was a complete honor. I had never met them, and they were showing honor and love to their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. 

An even more humbling moment is when they served us cake. Their tradition is to cut the cake and then feed not only each other, but people of importance. For example, the wedding party, the church leaders, their parents, and the tribal leaders. They then served us! I knew if this was a glimpse at how the rest of the week and relationships with the people in Meto would develop, I was in for a supernatural blessing. 

They are such colorful people. The first thought I had was, "they are beautiful!". It was not just their physical beauty, but an inner beauty that only comes from knowing Jesus. They have such JOY.

The next day after church (more on that in another post), we toured the small village of Meto. 

Little did I know we were in for the best moment to me of the whole trip. 

We have been sponsoring for the last year, a University of Nairobi student, named James. 

Last year, Integrity held an Impact meeting, asking for sponsorships of students to allow them to continue their education. Some were for primary students, some secondary students, and a handful of University students. We had asked God to show us a specific person to help, and He made it very obvious. James was the first story we read, and not only did it prick our hearts, but his name is the same as my James and he is the exact same age. 

Here is a snippet of his history:

James is one of the brightest and hardworking students in the area. He scored a 440 on the high school exit exam (equivalent to our SATs), the highest in history in the village. To attend school, James would have to work for three years saving to have enough money for one semester of college. Because of the bad drought two years prior, all of his family's animals died, destroying any income he had. Because of this he said, "I almost gave up." He stayed at home to help his family recover. He has 9 brothers and 3 sisters. Only 3 of them are in school. 

We were hoping to meet him, but didn't know when in the trip it would happen as he also teaches at the secondary school to supplement living costs in the city. The first day while we were touring around, he comes up to Alan Jr (who leads the trip, and is accepted as family by the whole village). Alan says "Hello James!" and looks at us with a smile...I knew immediately it was our James. I tried really hard to hold it together as I also knew he didn't know that people were behind the Integrity sponsorships. Alan did a great job of introducing us saying, "James and Rayne in America read your application, and saw your potential and wanted to help"...it then hit him that because of the Lord we were able to help him go to the University. I couldn't hold it in any longer and the tears came. What a sweet moment it was to give him a big hug. I love that Ashley captured it, even though it is a moment I will never forget. He said later he couldn't believe that people would believe in him that much. 

We were able to spend some time with him the next day and really got to know him. He has such vision and wants to change the way his village sees education. He studies sociology and education. I know he will help change their world for the better. He is a believer and gave God the glory in every conversation. It is moments like this you see God at work in a clear way. His plans are much bigger than ours, yet he is in each detail. What a blessing that we get to be apart of it with our relationship with James. 

our friend James