Maternity pictures preview!

Encouragement.

There seems to be a problem at school. The kids like to tease each other all the time.  I think perhaps it used to be fun teasing, but it has gotten to the point where kids are tearing each other down. They are quick to point out flaws and problems. This has left some of the classes in a bad place, especially the older class. It seems the kids have become experts at hurting one another. David decided to focus his discipleship classes on encouragement and love. In the first week he asked the kids what their ideal class would be like, what it would look like to love one another. The kids came up with great answers, but the challenge is to get them to take it to heart and to act out on what they are saying. He challenged them to come up with a few encouraging things to say about their class mates. There were some rules though, they were not allowed to just say “Joe is nice”  “Jane is pretty”  they had to really think about it. This was last week. He said that is went ok, but that it seemed that some kids really were getting it.
Yesterday he came home from school with a great report. When he he walked into class he asked them how their week had been, and EVERY single student in the class gushed about a single boy who had gone out of his way to encourage everyone in the class. This boy is a known trouble maker, he likes to point out thing other kids are doing wrong to get them in trouble. But the kids could not stop saying how this week he had encouraged each and every one of them. He is helping to turn this class around. David said that many of the other kids now feel like they also want to be like Roberto.
I think it is important for us as adults, and especially as Christians to hold each other up, and to go out of our way to encourage one another. It is such a simple and basic principle, but it is easy to get caught up in our own issues and to forget that there are people around us who need to be encouraged.

Not being at school has been difficult for me, but hearing things like this makes my heart happy. It is amazing to see how one child can make a difference just by pointing out the good rather than the bad. David is doing an amazing job with those kids. Please pray for him, and them. There is only four weeks left in this school year. Next year some of the kids in this class will move on to new schools. And David will not be teaching discipleship next year. This is his last few weeks to really make an impact on these boys and girls. Pray that they will catch a hold of the things that he is teaching them, and that this encouragement bug will bite all of them!

Week 26/27!

It’s here, the third trimester is here! The Christmas trees and decorations going up for sale at the local “Walmart” clued me in to the fact that we are hurtling towards the end of the year. It is getting so hot over here, most days it is well into the 90’s. David has taken his P.E classes indoors at this point it would not even be safe, let alone comfortable, to be in that heat for so long. The sun here is unforgiving and relentless. We were blessed last year with one of the wettest rain season Namibia has seen in decades. So I guess that means we are in for a dry hot one this year. I was reading the Lowe’s blog recently and they had a post about their house in Mexico. It was funny to see all the fans in their house, we have the same thing here! It sounds like the locust plague of Egypt is happening in our house, but no, it is just the fans moving the hot air around the house.

 
How far along? : 27 weeks 3 days.

Total weight gain: Enough to grow a healthy human being!

How big is baby?: He is over 26cm long!

Sleep?: Sleep is good. Last night was funny. Reese likes to stretch as far as he can and then kick with all his might. Last night I yelped in my sleep. Woke David up. He kept doing it. Then he would push himself as far to one side of my belly as he could reach and then just hang out there with his legs tapping on the other side. David got the Seahorse soother for me and as soon as I started to play it he settled down, but a few minutes after the music stopped he went back to kicking as hard as his little legs would allow! We have noticed that music calms him down a lot. Even singing in church makes him slow down. I hope this stays true when he is an outside baby.

 
How are you feeling emotionally?: Content.

Movement?: All the time! We are trying to catch it on video, but of course as soon as the video turns on he mellows out. I did catch a whole bunch the other day, and then I realized I never hit the record button. Duh!

Food cravings?: Cucumbers, French fries, ice cream, water.

What I’m looking forward to: 30 WEEKS!!

Best moment of the week: There were so may this week. Him carrying on like that last night was amazing. We got to see him beautiful little face at the last appointment. I got booked into the hospital for the delivery, stuff is getting real up in here! Talking to my mom on Skype about when I was born, really funny story. 
And then we started our prenatal classes. I have been looking forward to this for a while now. Well since we started trying for a baby in 2009 I was looking into the classes that are available. We found a great class led by a Christian lady. She runs a vaccination/baby clinic in town. The class will run for five weeks and will cover things from the birth to baby care. The dads will even have to bath a doll and then if they do it right they will get a certificate! The class will then run again for three weeks after the baby is born. And the lady will come to our house to help us adjust once Reese is here. When we got to the class we also learned that she is a passionate Christian lady too, so that is a huge blessing for us! We also will be in this class with two other couples so there is a great opportunity to get to know some more local Namibians!
But the best moment of the week was when I could pick up Reese’s heartbeat on my home baby monitor. It is basically a microphone that you strap to your belly. I have had it since week 13 and it finally picked up the heartbeat this week. It is strong and fast!

Dr’s Appointment?: My app. this week went great. Reese is a big healthy boy. He is measuring over two weeks ahead. The dr. said that this means he could come any time from the 9th of Jan. My edd is still only Jan 21 though. The dr. is not ready to move it yet. He did double the amount of magnesium I take every day to try and slow down the braxton hicks I have been having. And he laughed at me when I told him my rib hurts. I guess that means its normal!

Stretch marks ? Not yet. And I smell like a Caribbean holiday thanks to my coconut belly butter.

Thankful for:  I am thankful for all the people around the world who have been praying for us and who are excited for this little boy!

Acts 2:47

Acts 2:47 is my favorite verse. It is a non-traditional “favorite verse” in a sense. It doesn’t talk about being comforted, or being filled with joy. It is not a declaration of love or a promise for believers.

It is a simple statement that changed the course of history, the course of my life.

Paul.

Paul was a missionary.
Paul preached the gospel all over the early world.
Paul was not held back by lack of things.
If Paul did not have a camel, Paul walked. 
Paul was not stopped by threat of death,
threat of bodily harm,
threat of imprinsonmetn.
Paul was not stopped by
beatings,
verbal assaults,
threats,
jailings,
presecution,
hunger,
sickness,
exhaustion,
ship wrecks or
snake bites.
I feel challenged today.

99 days.

That’s all.

Fievel goes west.

Today during my bedresting I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up and guess what I saw?! A field mouse sitting in my sock drawer watching me. Just sitting there. Without a care in the world. I stayed on the bed. There was no way I was going to lumber/waddle over to it and chase it around the room. It’s way too hot here for that. David came home about 15 minutes later, the whole time the mouse just sat there hanging out. So anyway he caught the mouse with an empty ice cream dish. And tomorrow we will go set it free near someone else’s underwear drawer!

It’s October, and time for a cheesy baby update.

Hi! (waving wildly from my bed!)

Things over in Namibia are going swimmingly! 
David is at school, he came home yesterday red from a sunburn (or tan as he calls it). On Monday he teaches 4 P.E classes. He has been teaching the kids American football. According to him it is quite funny to see them throw the ball and then pop up like meerkats to see where the ball goes. But he reports that they do love playing it. He is still terribly busy at school, I expect he will just get busier and busier as the end of the year draws near. 
I will be going in tomorrow for a few hours to teach my Health/Science class. It has been difficult not being able to be at school more often, I really feel like I am missing out on what is happening there, but I know that keeping this baby healthy and on the inside is my biggest, and most important, job right now.


On the baby news front, I am at 25 weeks that means over 60% done and only 15 weeks until my expected due date!!

 
How far along? : 25w 2d

Total weight gain: Depends on what scale I get on…

How big is baby?: The size of an eggpalnt. Or almost 13 inches.

Sleep?: Meh, sleeping only on my right side now. My left side feels bruised from laying on it so much.

How are you feeling emotionally?: Overwhelmed. I ventured out to the grocery store last week. (did not last very long, had to leave without most of what I was intending on getting) And the sight of a baby boy toddling around had me in tears. And then in church on Sunday I was reminded of the journey we have taken to get to where we are and I just felt such a wave of gratitude crashing over me. This is real people!


Movement?: All the time now. On Thursday night we watched my belly move for a long time. It was kind of weird to see the rippling movements. Now I can feel him rolling and pushing, not just the little punches and kicks. Also the hiccups I have been waiting for! It is down right magical to feel him hiccuping in there 🙂

Food cravings?: Salt, Chocolate, and jelly beans. Healthy no?

What I’m looking forward to: Seeing Reese at the next appointment.


Next Appointment: The next routine app is on Nov 20.

Stretch marks ? Nope. My belly is itchy though thanks to mosquito bites. 

Thankful for: Today I am thankful for David, he has been amazing. He is so involved in all of this. Last night I had to swat his face away from my belly, he had  his mouth right by my belly button talking to Reese (although I am pretty sure that is where his butt is). He likes to have “private” conversations with his son (he walked around last week saying “my son, I have a son, MY SON” with that fool smile on his face again). And the nursery, he has been so absolutely involved with every little decision that has been made in the baby room. He even wants to cook, but nobody really wants that…..

Weekly wisdom: Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch missionary said: “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”

normal day… BAM! AWESOME DAY!

David wearing Reese’s bronco cap

Baby Reese Echols (and us parents, wait I am a parent?? What? AAAAAAAHHH!)  got his first package today!

 Squueeeeee!

We picked it up and then waited FIVE hours (stupid time change) for the sun to come up in America. David’s parents and brother (Hi Steve!) skyped in and watched us open the package. Surprisingly I only cried a tiny little bit, I was afraid I would ugly Oprah cry when getting baby stuff, but I think this stuff was so cool I was feeling more “awesome!” than “I loooooooooooovvvee tthiis stuff sniff-sniff!” Does that make sense, or has the bed rest addled my brain?

Anyway without any further rambling from the brain addled pregnant woman here is a picture journey through our package! (You’re welcome, I know you are just interested in what was in the package anyway, nosy nellies!)

My mother in law calls these sassy! I like the “instructions not included” one and David likes the “Nothing is wrong I am just testing you” one.

This little receiving blanket and carters outfit are SO cute. I love the little overalls. I am having a baby!!!!

This is a onesie, I must be quite a weakling…  Flames on the side. I love little baby shoes!  Tiny little baby pajamas. I love this set, the pants are awesome. I wish I had a pair just like it. I would wear it all the time.    The avalanche onsie is awesome. David was wearing his avalanche shirt today, we are looking forward to introducing Reese to “propa” sport’s teams. Also the Bronco receiving blanket is one of my favorite things to have. He is going to be so cute all wrapped up like a little Bronco Burrito.    The Bronco loot, here we have almost everything we will need for football Sunday. The best part is the little hat, it is exactly the same as David’s. Squeeee! Also notice the little Bronco socks, don’t tell David I told you but those tiny little Bronco socks are his favorite thing by far. He keeps talking about them, and he took one out to get a closer look. I think he may have made a silent squeee in his heart when he saw them.   The Bronco onesies. I think my favorite one is the white one with the bronco pattern on it. So cute!   And of course the hat, the little bronco beanie hat. Forgive my tired look, but see what I am holding? The seahorse soother! This is from our registry and it is something that I have wanted for the baby since we first started trying to get pregnant a hundred years ago. I am so happy to have this in my hands finally, it is like a milestone to me. Weird right?! Again brain addled by bed rest…. And finally the coolest Bronco thing to ever come out of the orange and blue kingdom, baby Reebok cleats! I will give you a moment to look at them and take in their awesomeness…… Now you think you have taken in how awesome they are, but check this out: BAM! We want to give a HUGE thank you to our awesome family in America for this package. We have no words to express the love we felt today. You took time to go out and find things for this baby then you sent it, regardless of the shipping costs. We love you all so much! And we can not wait to see you next year. When Reese will be sporting these BAM! cleats on his little cute baby feet!!

This pumpkin time of year.

I know that if I was in America right now I would be smelling pumpkin flavored things everywhere. Pumpkin white chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cream cheese roll, pumpkin spiced lattes. Basically America as a whole smells like the Christmas aisle at hobby lobby. Knowing this has made me want this. I want to eat pumpkin spiced things all day long. I want to drink pumpkin chai, and I want to burn pumpkin candles.
The problem is, pumpkin here is a savory vegetable side only, and there is no such thing as canned pumpkin. At least not anywhere I have looked. In living here we have gotten quite good at making copy cat recipes for American foods. But making my own pumpkin puree just seemed too daunting. But I did it! The baby gave me the extra craving power…

Turns out it is so easy a blind monkey with one arm could do it. Of course it would need help getting things out of the oven. But check out the method here. And I don’t have a food processor so I used a hand blender. Worked great!

So now that I have my orange gold I have made some spiced Chai syrup. It turned out awesome, almost tastes as good as the chai at the Harvest House coffee shop at CCCB.

But the King of all pumpkin things is the pumpkin cinnamon monkey bread. I am off of strict bed rest but just “taking it easy,” I felt like eating this pumpkin bread would be the best way to take it easy. I made it yesterday. Let me tell you it is amazing. I don’t ever put recipes on here, but I think this bread deserves to be made. Today.

 I did make my own glaze with some cream cheese, some melted butter and powdered sugar. Perfection.