Oct 21, 2009 | Baby Photos, Scotland, South Africa, Stories, Top Ten Lists
Top of the week to ya! This Sunday was the Bear’s 14 Month Birthday, and I think that is just plain special! Since everyone seems to like to see pictures of him, and his grandparents most especially miss him, I thought I would arrange a special Top Ten plus Four for you this week, with 14 of our favourite photos of our special wee man.
Hope you enjoy!
1. This one is from the day he was born… His first good shot in good lighting. (The delivery room was kind of dark at 2 am.)
2. This one is from when my Mom was visiting and helped him nap on his tummy so I could get some rest…
3. Aunt Dodi gave him this adorable onesie and he just posed so well in it!
4. One day, I got ready to take the Bear outside in the Scottish cold. I bundled him up and left the room for a moment, because I’d forgotten something. He started crying while I was away. I wondered why he seemed so upset, but then he got really quiet. This is what I returned to…
5. This was taken the first time he saw a Christmas tree. If you look closely, you can see the lights of the tree in his eyes!
6. This was at a snugly wuggly bafftime.
7. This was also an outfit from Aunt Dodi…also taken in South Africa. How precious is this baby zebra?
8. This was in America when he found his feet for the first time. I had no idea how adorable babies playing with their feet could be. We took lots of pictures of him in this pose because he was just being so adorable. At first we got lots of naked shots, which were of course so cute and funny, but then we decided to slap a nappy on him so that he didn’t grow up to rue the day his parents bought a camera. I think that was a good decision.
9. Here is the Bear, posing as a very very very young version of Rocky. Adwiannnn!
10. You may have already seen this one…still a personal favourite. The hair, the moobs, the drool…fabulous.
11. I call this one ‘the bairn upon the rock’ because this is on the Isle of Skye, in Scotland and ‘bairn’ is a Scots word for child. I don’t know why I love this one. I just do! (Mark was hiding behind the rock to make sure he didn’t fall off!)
12. Sorry, Mom…I just can’t let this one go. I mean look at his face! (And yours! Tehe!)
13. This was at the Bear’s First Birthday Party! He had some of his amazing jungle birthday cake and I think he rather liked it!
14. And here he is … looking almost grown up! Our 14 Month Old Bear!
So that’s the fantastic fourteen! Many thanks to the little bundle bringing us so much joy! Happy Birthday Bear!
Oct 19, 2009 | Baby Photos, South Africa, Stories
So… we are finally in our new place. And I’ve been a little reticent to tell you all the details about it because I feel like it’s so nice missionaries shouldn’t be living here! It is so amazing how the Lord just provides in His supernatural ways – sometimes you don’t even realise He’s moving, until you stop, look around and think WHOA. That was God.
This is the view from the 3rd balcony off our bedroom! We can see a tiny bit of ocean!
We started out looking for a place to live in Cape Town and decided it was rather expensive, and we could pay less and get more if we lived outside the ‘big city.’ We ended up looking in the area of Gordon’s Bay, and Mark decided it would be a good idea to even further reduce our rent budget, which made me a little nervous.
We were hoping to keep our budget really tight on rent, so that we could pay off our car quickly, but when we spoke with letting agencies (rental agencies) and said, “We’re hoping for a fully furnished place for such and such†they often responded with, “Okay, that’s gonna be a bit tough.† Finally one agency had a place for us to visit. It was a two bedroom apartment, but we were hoping for a three so Mark’s parents and other guests could come and stay regularly and we wouldn’t have to cart Asher around all the time. But this place had a sun room they’d closed in which was a perfect size to be a nursery, and I could peek through the window in the kitchen to check on him without bothering him.
It was still a little above budget, so we asked if they’d make an offer to the landlord for about 600 Rand (about $80 or £50) less than what he was asking, if we were to sign a twelve month contract. They asked, he accepted, and we moved in! So we’re paying about $350 less on rent per month than we were in Edinburgh – which is good because we have Health Care to pay for here, and the Bear is starting to eat a lot with that one tooth! AND they let us pay a lower deposit than the original figure. FAVOUR! (We’ve spoken to some friends in Cape Town who are paying a similar amount for a one bedroom!)
The best part...the view from our balcony!
So that’s all the backstory for the place we are now living in, which has blessed our socks off. Our living room and kitchen look out onto a little harbour directly below us, and then the Hottentots Holland mountains are in the distance. We have three balconies with beautiful views (and we can see tiny bits of ocean here and there). We’re a stone’s throw (literally!) from the beach, and there’s a grocery store across the street. We’re in one of the most secure complexes in Gordon’s Bay, which was a big part of our housing choice, where lots of people own properties that they lock up and leave 11 months out of the year. (It’s very safe, Mom and Dad!) There’s a big circuit we can run around the harbour in the morning, which makes a fantastic jogging trail…I mean seriously, do you want me to go on? So our little 2ish bedroom flat has blessed us beyond belief. The only thing that would improve it would be a dishwasher! 🙂
We’ve settled down in Gordon’s Bay for the time being, and it’s good to be home! (More photos below!)
This is our living room/kitchen/dining area. (Asher's nursery is through the doors at the back)
Our flat is on the left -- on the middle floor with a window open.
And that's our boat! Not!
Oct 15, 2009 | Baby Photos, Stories
One lovely thing about being in a new country is enjoying the differences in words and their meanings from one place to the next. Pants in America = underpants in Britain. Fanny pack in America = not a nice thing to say in Britain.
And “Doo-doos,” as in poop, in America is another word for a nap in South Africa. I don’t know yet whether ‘cuss’ is a word commonly used in South Africa, but I had a wee experience the other day that almost made me do so. Hopefully you can have a laugh at my expense.
We’ve had this issue for a while where the Bear (our 13 month old) will wake up much earlier than he normally does because he is so wet he has soaked through his nappy (diaper) and his clothes. A lot of times his sheets are wet too. We were thinking about perhaps starting to double up diapers at night, or to look somewhere for some night-time ones, but we didn’t have it figured out yet. Lots on the list when you’re settling in to a new country. So the stage is set!
A few days ago we tried a different brand of nappies called ‘Cuddlers’ and glory, hallelujah, the Bear slept through the night and didn’t wake us up! We were up before he was. When Mark went in to get him, his clothes were as dry as parmesan cheese when you leave it out too long. I decided Cuddlers were the super diapers I’d been looking for. Hello, sweet friend. It’s nice to finally meet you.
The day went along as usual. Bear had some milk before his afternoon nap, then I took him in and laid him down. After a wee while he was still awake, but happy. I left him since he was happy, but eventually he got UNhappy. I thought perhaps it was annoyance with the washer and dryer noises and that he would settle down, but the grumbling continued.
Eventually, I went in to see if he’d perhaps done a dirty doodle, (since he hadn’t yet that day and I pay attention to these things!) and at first I thought he had, but it was not so, friend! His diaper seemed a little wet but sometimes it’s hard to tell how wet diapers are because they’re so darn good at feeling dry these days. I decided he was being a cheeky monkey and laid him back down. He chilled out but still didn’t go to sleep. Finally when I was terribly tired of the grumbling, I went back in and brought him out to lie on the couch for a while in hopes of settling him down for a doo-doos. Still…not a chance he was gonna fall asleep.
Then suddenly I realised – hey! He’s wet! His jeans and his top are wet. Dern! So I went to change him and was highly disappointed with what I thought were the magic diapers I’d always dreamed of. Newoutfitnewnappynoproblem. By this time it was too late for the nap, so I gave up and turned the dryer back on and started another load of laundry while the Bear played on his bed for a little while. I went back and picked him up to bring him out to his toys, and realised…Dern! He is wet again! How is this possible? I looked all around to try to figure it out. His bed was wet, his bodysuit was wet, his lil’ trackpants… his blanket…what had happened, yo? No bottles lingering about…no leaks in the ceiling (yeah, I checked)… so finally I checked the new nappy. And what did I discover, pray tell? The Bear’s teeter totter, sticking out the side of the nappy had happily moistened everything in its path, except the nappy itself.
SOOO… after another fresh bodysuit, t-shirt, and trousers the Bear skipped his nap and hit the toybox, while I started my third load of laundry. Goodie.
It dawned on me as trousers number three were being scooched up around and into place – yeah this is frustrating, but my attitude is still my choice. I can laugh or cuss, and get on with it. Fortunately, I’m not too much of a cusser, so I decided to smile and chuckle at the mishap. Hopefully now you can too!
Oct 1, 2009 | Baby Photos, South Africa, Stories
We are now in Bloemfontein visiting Mark’s Mom and Dad. It’s really good to be here. We hope to take the next few days to rest after going and going and going, and pray and prepare to jump in with both feet and get started. And great news, we will be able to move in to our new place on October 1st! Â We are very thankful and excited to finally unpack our suitcases after over two months of nomadic living! I think this lifestyle is a constant reminder that we really are temporarily on this earth, and the long stay — the settling in where you don’t pack again — will happen in eternity.
I don’t know if it’s just because of all the changes that have happened seemingly suddenly (if it’s okay to put those two words together…it seems strange) but I am just overwhelmed with joy when Asher gets to be around his grandparents. I am the same way when we’re in Washington with my Mom and Dad…I mean you would think I was pregnant again it makes me so emotional! I’m almost teary just passing Asher to his Grandpa Collie so he can hold him for a while, and I’m running to fetch the camera. (By the way, I’m not pregnant again — just emotional!) I can look at pictures of my Mom or Dad holding him, and get emotional. A big part of our decision to move here was for Asher to get to know his grandparents here before we eventually settle down in the States (Lord willing and the creek don’t rise). So I suppose it’s just really great to be here, enjoying one of the reasons we’re here, seeing it happen before our eyes.
There is something significant in Scripture about generations — God being a generational God — the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I hope the Lord can become the God of the generations in the Collie family as well.
So we’ve finally arrived back in Mark’s hometown, Bloemfontein. And we are on the way to the place we’ll be settling in for a while. Even though this is at least 6,000 miles away from my hometown, it’s very good to be here, and it feels like home.
xCC
Sep 28, 2009 | Baby Photos, Stories, The Good Word
Sunday morning the Bear woke up with a sneezy, coughy, chesty cold. (I laugh when I use the term chesty — I first heard it when I went to the doctor with a bad cold for the first time in Scotland. He asked “Are you quite a chesty person?” Having no clue at first what “chesty” meant, I wanted to say, “Om, I think you can look at me and tell, I’m not a particularly chesty young lady. haha) Anyway! Asher had a cold is his chest, and we decided to stay at home, because this seemed to be the same cold he’d been struggling with since we passed through Scotland, and the weather wasn’t nice, and we thought rest would be the best thing for him.
We listened to some worship music and praised the Lord, listened to a podcast sermon, and spent time in prayer together while Asher had his usual morning nap. (Praise the Lord, he sleeps 2 – 2 1/2 hours every morning!) I was challenged to the core by something the pastor said over the course of that sermon. He was talking about an interview he’d seen of an atheist celebrity, who was talking about people trying to share the Gospel with him. The celeb said, “It doesn’t bother me so much, the people that preach to me. I don’t believe it, but what bothers me is the people who don’t. I mean, if you really believe there is a hell, how much do you have to hate someone not to tell them about it?”
Whoa. I thought that this was an incredible comment to make, and a perceptive observation. I think one of the greatest lies of the enemy, totally from the pit of hell, is the lie that there is no hell. Or that God is too nice and lovey dovey to ever send anyone there. Sometimes I find myself wanting to believe that. It is nicer to believe there isn’t a hell. It is nicer to think no matter what we live like in this life, the outcome will basically be the same. We want to believe all of our family members will be in heaven with us. If we do believe there’s no hell, then we don’t have to share the Gospel, and we can kind of just live how we want. The problem is, that is not what the Bible says! Ouch!
If you remember a wee while back, I was deep into the parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, and began to recognise a pattern. Jesus is constantly warning about the wrath that is to come, and more specifically about all the people who think they’re okay, but aren’t. Think about the wise and the foolish virgins (Matthew 25) — all of them were waiting for the bridegroom. Some of them just weren’t ready for him. Think about the parable of the talents in the same chapter. All of those guys were servants of the Master — some of them just didn’t understand who the Master was, or what His expectations were.
That’s what’s scary. Jesus is continually making it apparent that a lot of people who think they are all right with Him aren’t. Perhaps I can slightly modernize this statement for you: “Not everybody who says, ‘Yeah Jesus, you’re my homeboy…I mean Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven. The people who will are the ones who actually make Me their Lord, by doing My Father’s will. And when judgement comes, a lot of people are going to be like, ‘Hey Jesus! Remember me though, right? I prayed a prayer when I was five. Okay so maybe I didn’t do much after that but…remember me?’ Or, ‘Hey Jesus, I made you my Lord! I went to church every Sunday. And I did stuff in Your Name.’ But I’m going to have to reply, ‘I didn’t know you. Depart from Me. You ignored my commands and did your own thing.'” (Matthew 7:21-23, heavily paraphrased)
Now some of you might get a bit huffy at this point and say, “well, is our faith justified by our works, or are we saved by grace, and through faith? You make it sound like we work our way to heaven.” That is definitely not the case. I don’t believe your works get you into heaven — and hope you won’t believe that either for a second. Just like Ephesians 2 explains it, our salvation is by grace, and through faith. It is absolutely a gift of God, and it is not by works, so that no one can boast that they earned it in their own merit. And Romans 10 makes it clear again — if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you’ll be saved.
So is there a contradiction here? Not at all. If we really believe Jesus is who He says He is, and we confess Him as Lord, and actually mean it, then we are saying He is our Lord. Meaning He is boss. He is in the driver seat and we are riding shotgun. Â With the gift of His Holy Spirit, we can begin to follow His lead for our lives. As sheep spend time in the presence of a shepherd, and begin to learn His voice, we spend time in the presence of God, begin to learn His voice and His ways, and where He leads us, we follow.
If you are going to claim Christianity, it seems apparent from Scripture that there’s more to it than coming down to the front and praying a prayer once when you’re eight years old. It sounds to me like Jesus says, “Come and die, and find your life again in Me.” “Follow Me.” And if we really believe what the Scriptures say, then 1) we have to obey them and 2) we should be warning people about the judgement that is to come.
The only thing I know for sure we can do now that we won’t be able to do in heaven (besides sin) is share the Gospel. Because everyone in heaven will already know it. So here’s the opportunity. Start by asking, “Do I really know Him?” The next question is, “Do you?”
xCC
Sep 14, 2009 | Baby Photos, South Africa
This one is mostly for the grandparents, but perhaps you can all enjoy. The Bear had his first African bath the day before yesterday. Yeah, we’d been here a couple of days, (okay…maybe four…) but I got so used to my Mom bathing him every day when we were back in North Carolina, it kind of slipped off the radar that that was my responsibility again! Whoops! At least he didn’t smell. =)
So we had to make a plan since his big rubber duck tub is hopefully floating somewhere over the ocean, along with the rest of our stuff on its way here, and our accommodation only has a shower. The options were the complex’s outdoor swimming pool, the mop bucket and kitchen sink. After much deliberation, kitchen sink was victorious. Mark made one side soapy and the other one not, so that he had a wash and a rinse. Very efficient.
 Any if you look very very closely at the shot below, you might be able to see his Praise-the-Lord-it’s-finally-here-first-tooth just breaking through his bottom gums! (Just right of centre)
Yay!
xCCÂ
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