Christmas newsletter 2010

Dearest family and friends near and far,

This morning there is a beautiful thin layer of snow on the ground which will probably melt by noon, while in Leo’s home village of Lipová, Czech Republic there is at least a foot of snow which will remain until spring! Although I can honestly say that I do not miss all that snow, we are often homesick for Czech and miss our dear family and friends there more than we ever thought possible.

We have much to praise the Lord for this year. After 2 years of waiting, praying, writing and rewriting resumes, God has blessed Leo with a wonderful job as a manufacturing engineer at Charter Medical in Winston-Salem, NC. He started on July 12th and all is going well. He is responsible for validating manufacturing processes for a variety of plastic containers that are used to store and transport medical equipment, such as syringes, blood transfusion bags and various bio-technological materials. We give all the glory to God for His provision of this job and we are very thankful that Leo’s manager recognized Leo’s potential when he first met Leo 2 ½ years ago.

We continue to live at my parents’ home – thank you, Mom and Dad! I don’t think they ever anticipated having their grandchildren THIS close, but it has been a blessing to each of us. It’s a noisy, happy place all day long with a lot of girl drama! Nora at 22 months is quite the little homemaker. She loves loading the washer and playing in the soapy dishwater! The sweetest words we love to hear her say are our names.

Adéla turns 5 on February 3rd and is full of energy! She loves to draw, sing and make up her own dance routines. Come on over for a visit – we’re ALWAYS ready for a play date!

Adela drew this sketch of the choir singing at church

I also praise the Lord that I have been able to stay home with the girls. It is the most demanding job I’ve ever had but the most rewarding! I’ve had the privilege of being a part of Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) for the past 3 years. This year we are studying the book of Isaiah. Adéla also attends her own class and learns the same lessons. I am volunteering in her class as a children’s leader and love it. Studying God’s word daily has changed me and challenges me to seek Him more.

We are looking forward to 2011 and excited about God’s plan for our family. We would be very grateful if you would remember us in your prayers when you think of us! On February 23rd, Nora will have an exam and x-ray to determine if this past year of walking has moved the ball of the femur in her left leg far enough into the hip socket. If not, she will need surgery for hip dysplasia. We also hope to buy our first home sometime next year. We are asking the Lord to give us wisdom on the right home, location and school district! We trust that He will provide and give us clear direction in His time, just as He did for Leo’s job.

May this Christmas be a special time for each of you as you celebrate the Savior's birth. Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

The Great Trade-In

This past Saturday Nora FINALLY moved up in the world and got a new car seat. It was a little sad as we said goodbye to our very worn out stroller that we bought for about $50 from Wal-mart when Adela was about a year old. Some good friends personally brought it to us in Czech. It has seen many places including Brno, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Asheboro zoo.... :) and had a few rough plane rides. It even took a trip to Greece without us when some friends borrowed it for their vacation!



I left our forlorn looking stroller at Babies R Us and received 25% off the purchase of this car seat from Britax. The discount gave us about $50 off the total price of the carseat, so the stroller truly served us well! :)



As you can see Nora was so excited about her new ride. I think she really liked being able to see the backs of her heads instead of the back of the car!

God Sightings

At VBS this past July, we talked about "God Sightings." These are various ways that the Lord speaks to us or shows us Himself throughout the day. Well, today the Lord used a stranger to remind me to count my blessings instead of grumbling. A lovely lady was standing behind our family in line at Arby's. She commented on how sweet the girls were and we started talking. I discovered that she had never been able to have children. She had married at 31 years old and only 11 days after the wedding was in a near fatal car accident and she survived a terrible head injury. Unfortunately, her marriage did not survive this and her husband left after 2 years. I don't know how many years it has been since all this happened, but what truly amazed me was her attitude. She had no bitterness and praised the Lord that she was alive. She most likely has to choose joy over bitterness everyday. This impressed me to not take having children and a wonderful husband for granted. There will be trials and hardships, but I want to have the joy of the Lord as my strength! (Nehemiah 8:10)

It's about time...for some new pictures!

This is a short and sweet version of August for our family. We celebrated Adela's 4.5 birthday :) on August 3rd at the Winston-Salem Dash game. Nora just turned 18 months on the 19th. It's been a hot and not so relaxing summer, but awesome times together as a family. We are very blessed and praise the Lord everyday for Leo's new job.

"I Can't Wait" video of Nora's first 5 months

Leo is teaching me how to combine video clips so this is my first try! I hope you enjoy it. I made it using the shortcut where the program cuts/edits each clip for you. It takes a lot of time to really make it just right, so for now I'm satisfied with the shortcut.

We had a great Memorial Day and spent the morning in Thomasville watching the parade. We arrived about an hour before the parade started and we got to actually sit in some Vietnam helicopters and see some other planes. It didn't start to rain until after the parade. We spent the afternoon just playing with the girls and had tacos for supper (not real appropriate for Memorial Day, but we did at least have lunch at Waffle House. he,he.)

Some Recent Havhaps

Here are some fun pictures from the month of March! Nora loves to make funny faces and has recently starting shaking her head to say "NO" especially if a stranger wants to hold her! Adela is wearing a mask cut out from a Czech preschooler's magazine from Babicka. Other pictures include: the big move to the booster seat, fun on the playground, sisters with toothbrushes, funny hat night at AWANA.

Jak je chytrá Norinka? Táááááááááák je chytrá!

Já vím, já vím. Chudák naše děti budou mít strašný přízvuk jako jížní američani. ALE aspoň budou mluvit česky! Tohle je pro vás, rodino a kamáradi v česku. Ještě jsme češtinu úlplně nezapoměli. :)

Birthday Cake Practice and Silly Nora

When I was a kid, my mom had this great Baker's "Cut-Up Cake Party Book." We got to pick out which birthday cake design we wanted and then Mom would make that cake for our birthday. I thought I'd try to carry on the tradition, so we "practiced" making one of the cakes today. We chose this butterfly pattern because it was fairly simple. Adela enjoyed putting food coloring in the frosting the most.

Nora is quite a character and has already learned many ways to get our attention. One of them is squealing. Today she did this. I think she's already developing a sense of humor and she even looked to Leo and Papa to see if they were watching!

Who's in Charge?

To say that today was a difficult day as a parent would be a HUGE understatement. I felt so NOT in control and frustrated that I went in our bedroom, closed the door and said to myself, "I quit." This all happened before church of course. Adela had gotten up at 5:30am, whined all morning, asked to watch TV a million times, would not come when called to get dressed, brush teeth, etc. The final straw came when it was time to leave for church and I was trying to comb her hair ( a constant battle in our house). She squealed at the slightest pull and by then I'd had enough.

Later this afternoon I discussed all of this with my Dad. I tried hard to be objective and not say, "But, I've done that..." He said, "One thing you need to eliminate from your vocabulary is "Okay?" I honestly didn't think that was a big deal because I was thinking that my "okay?" meant "Is that clear?" I got to thinking about it and realized that he's probably got a good point. AND to confirm his wise advise, I had received this week's Home Training Lesson from Bible Study Fellowship International http://www.bsfinternational.org/ (This is my 2nd year and I absolutely LOVE it! Adela attends a class as well.) and decided to read it especially since it was titled "Who's In Charge - You or Your Child?"

Well, Daddy had hit the nail and I was sure to tell him! :) To paraphrase:

Adults often give up control in their home when they say, "It's time for bed. All right? Okay?" This kind of question at the end of a direction gives the impression that the child can choose to obey or not.

So, tonight I put this new idea into practice. I couldn't believe how many times I caught myself before ending the direction with "Okay?" She did seem to obey better though, so we'll see what tomorrow brings!

Lord, I pray that you would open my eyes that I might see areas where I can be a better parent. Help me to be objective and see ways that I can train my child to be more like you.

Nora the Chair Conqueror

She isn't walking at all yet, BUT she can climb this chair with the greatest of ease! She gets to the top, and yells, "Look at me, World! I did it!" Okay, she doesn't really say that but she has this giant grin on her face as if she is ready to take over the world. She also climbs to the top level of Adela's dollhouse, supervised of course. She is definitely becoming more vocal and can loudly let you know even in the middle of the night that she is NOT happy about something. Sweet Angel Baby is now called Night Time Terror - just kidding. :)

Adela is learning not to talk back (very exciting times in our house :). She is also very into knock-knock jokes, so if you know any good ones, please pass them along. She tries to make up her own and they go something like this:

"Knock-knock.

Who's there?

Banana

Banana who?

Monkey ate a banana."

Then she laughs. She's still learning about play on words obviously!