Namesake

And here is a picture of JP's grandmother Evelyn at age 13 (one on left)

and her name is.....

First I have to say that great deliberation and prayer went into this name.  We want to give our children names that will mean something, and names that have a life prayer for them included in them.  I had come up with a girl first name before Silas was born (actually before we got married) and like it because it was a family name, pretty, and I knew no one under 70 with the name.  And then it got popular (#24 on the list).  I hate following trends, I go against them- and so we thought a lot more, but still came back to the name.  So this is just a disclaimer that I thought of the name first and am a little bitter toward those who stole my idea :).

First Name:  Evelynn  JP's paternal grandmother's name was Faith Evelyn but she went by Evelyn.  This is where the idea first came from.  I never met Evelyn, but JP thinks of her fondly.  I changed the spelling however to honor my mother Patti Lynn (who I happen to think is an amazing woman).  After deciding on the name, I then found out that my paternal grandfather's great grandmother was called Eva (probably Evelyn) and his aunt was Evelyn.  

Meaning: Hebrew- life ; French- a bird (possible nursery theme?)

We plan to call her Evelynn.  Sure I may shorten it every once in a while, but she will not have an official nickname.  

Middle Name: Sophia  Wisdom in Greek

The middle name is where the bulk of my prayer for our daughter is based.  I have been studying a lot in my times with God about what he desires for me as a woman, and he has impressed upon me that he also desires those things for my daughter.  Proverbs 31: 30 says "...a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised".  and Proverbs 9:10 says "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..."  I pray for my daughter that she will fear the Lord above all else.  That she will not seek first to please men, but to please and honor God.  I pray that she will have wisdom that comes from heaven "pure, peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere" James 3:17.  There are many more verses that I could mention, but I will stop there for now.  Please join us in praying that Evelynn Sophia would be a woman of wisdom who fears the Lord!

One other note: Evelynn means bird, Sophia means wisdom- and in America a wise bird is an owl.  I am thinking she may be our little owl.  It is interesting though the in this country the owl is considered to be a foolish animal.  But as 1 Corinthians says, the wisdom of God is foolishness to the world.  

My Baby is 2

I am over a week late on this post, but Silas is now 2!  In some ways he seems so grown up and yet in other ways he is still a baby.  Silas has a large vocabulary, especially when it comes to modes of transportation, animals, and fruits.  This is partly because he sees things on a daily basis that kids in America only see at zoos or at the farm.  Just today, in addition to the normal cows, pigs, goats..., we say an elephant and a horse walking down the main street of town.  Despite his large vocabulary, he says a lot of things that make absolutely no sense to us, though he is starting to form intelligible sentences.

Right on schedule for 2, the tantrums have started in full swing.  If Silas doesn't like something he lets you know about it with loud sobs.  This generally has to do with not being able to watch a video, play outside, eat a cookie, or go in the auto/car with mommy or daddy.  Silas has learned to ask for things with "please" though sometimes we have to remind him that he needs to do so in a nice voice.

Silas is small- I don't know how much he weighs, but he is about 34 inches tall.  He wears mostly 18-24 month clothing, though pants are often too big in the waist.

He still has the most infectious laugh and sweetest smile.  He love to give eskimo kisses (rub noses) and touch and name all of the parts of your face.  He is very friendly- goes up to strangers and says "hi" but if mommy and daddy are out of sight he doesn't like it very much.  He is a ball of energy and loves to play outside.  He loves to "go, go, go" and run down our street.  "Come here" is not a command he enjoys very much, but he is learning.

Silas still sings all the time.  From worship songs, to ABC, to Happy Birthday, to Hindi.  He has now started to make up his own songs to familiar tunes (often having to do with mommy or airplanes/helicopters).  Speaking of airplanes and helicopters, he loves them.  He has flown in many planes recently and he loves flying (he also enjoys getting scanned at security check).

Elephant for sale at a souvenir shop

Jungle Birthday party.  We celebrated his 1st birthday on the go, so I wanted to do something special for his 2nd birthday.  Unfortunately I wasn't feeling so great and had just returned from a medical trip, but we did pull off a small party with American friends and a monkey cake.  He loved it!

Opening his present from his "aunts and uncle"- it was a ball tent.

Sliding in the park.  He loves to go "weee"

Eating chicken nuggets at the airport.

Island Vacation

We have to leave the country we live in every six months for visa renewal, so while we were out this time, we decided we needed a vacation.  When I was single this meant that I wanted to explore new places, have an adventure... but now it means that I want to relax.  I have never been much of a beach person, but the beach sounded like a perfect place to take Silas so that I  we could relax.  We found a good deal on a nice hotel right on the beach.  One highlight of the hotel for us was the breakfast- complimentary buffet with waffles/pancakes/beef sausage/pork bacon, and every kind of pastry you can imagine, plus fresh fruit juices, omelettes...They also had a really nice pool that Silas has a lot of fun swimming in.  We enjoyed eating beef and other western foods at the restaurant too!

The view from our hotel room

We took a tuk tuk around to visit different sites (driver is in the picture).  This monkey really wanted  Silas' airplane but he settled for the leaf that Silas had in his other hand.

Mommy didn't spend too much time at the beach, but Silas and  Daddy had a great time.  Silas was mesmerized by the waves.  I think he could have just stood and looked at the water for hours.

I preferred the pool- much less sandy.  It was nice to go at sunset and watch  the sky change hues.  One night there was a rainbow in the sky as the sun was setting- it was so beautiful.  We also met some Chinese people at the pool one night so it was fun to talk with them (though it is sad how rusty my Mandarin is).

We went to a Sea Turtle hatchery.  It was interesting learning about  the turtles and seeing them at different ages.  Because only 1% of eggs hatched are female, they keep all the girls here until they turn 5- then they release them into the ocean where they can reproduce.  I am holding a 1 day old male turtle who will be released into the wild at 5 days old.

On our way back from the turtle hatchery and batik factory, we stopped and ate at a restaurant right on the beach.   We had some good food with a great view!

Aside from seeing Silas have so much fun, my favorite part of the trip was getting to see my good friend Ann in her home country.  Unfortunately our time together was short (bad planning on my part), but it was good.  We also got to see some other friends and eat dinner with them in their cute apartment (I have to confess kitchen envy).

Photo Shoot

I decided that we really needed some family pictures taken while we are still a family of 3 and thought that it would be fun to go to the park for a photo shoot.  I recruited a friend to take our pictures, chose a time, picked coordinating outfits, and off we went to the park.  We had never been to park because we could not figure out their hours of operation, but a friend told us they opened at 4, so we arrived at the time of perfect photo lighting only to find that the park did not open until 5.  Unfortunately it was getting a little dark at that point and I had my camera set on manual and did not tell my photographer how to adjust the exposure, so most of the pictures are too dark.  But here are few that turned out ok.

First I wanted to scope out the park and Silas wanted to slide on the slides.  The slides at this park are so much nicer than the one in our neighborhood playground.

Our one acceptable family photo

But we had a lot of pictures like this one- because I had made the mistake of letting Silas discover the slides before we took our posed shot - he did not want to stay still.

After taking a hundred or so pictures of Silas playing on slides and us going down with him (all too dark), we ended the night with a picnic.  It was a fun family outing even if we didn't get many photos out of it.  We will try the photo shoot again.

Bed Rest

I am currently on bed rest- which means that it is the perfect opportunity to update the blog with family photo shoot pictures, vacation information, and gender reveal.  It is ironic however.  I had just resolved that I needed to be more diligent about taking care of the house and meeting my husband's needs as well as Silas', and now I am stuck in bed and JP so graciously takes care of all of us.  I am thankful that we have a few people around to help us with Silas and a friend is bringing a meal over tonight, but it is certainly challenging none the less.  I am trying to get people to come visit me in my bedroom so that I can continue practicing Hindi and building relationships, but I don't know how cultural that is.  Hopefully I will find out soon that I don't have stay confined to bed.  We have so many plans for this month.

Almost 2

Silas will be two in less than a month now!  So excited to watch him continue to grow.  We went to the park for a picnic/photo shoot and found out when we got there at 4:15 that it didn't open until 5.  So here are a few shots from the parking lot of Silas eating Kurkure (like cheetos but with spicy flavoring instead of cheese).  

I love his facial expressions when he is eating spicy food.

Nine Nights

For the past few days we have been surrounded by noise- not a joyful noise unto the Lord, but a cacophony of worship to idols.  Music blaring from loudspeakers all around us featuring many different kinds of instruments and styles of music.  The most annoying is probably the drum cadence that keeps going for about ten minutes three times a day.  It has annoyed me, but it hasn't really moved me until tonight.

This evening we went out on a walk with Silas and saw that our complex garden area was filled with people standing in from of the temple, around a fire, listening to music and a pundit speaking.  We moved to the end of the garden where the children were playing on the playground and allowed Silas to play for a little while I just watched.  Immediately I started singing any song I could think of about God being the only god.  And immediately I began to cry.  I just had to call out the different names and attributes of Almighty God.  I kept crying, moved by the darkness of the moment, praying that Silas would not feel the darkness.  Then Silas came over to me and I heard him singing "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty..."  in the midst of the other music being played.  Then we left because we couldn't stand to be there anymore.  But I went back to take some pictures.

The service is now over and everyone is waiting their turn to go up to the idol and worship.  While waiting some sort of food is brought around.  

The altar in the middle- I don't really know what they put there, but people were going up afterward and lighting incense/putting ashes on their foreheads.

In line to go up to the idol Durga (mother god)

Sunny Day for Strawberry Blondes

Sunny day on the playground

Little neighbor baby with her grandfather.  He is a good grandfather- I see her with the baby or a 5 year old little girl playing outside all the time.

Shepherding Their Hearts

Raaja, Amir, and Santoshi- 12, 10, and 6- The youngest of seven children, living with their parents who are laborers working to build out neighborhood. 
They live in one of the unfinished houses, with no windows, no indoor plumbing, hijacked electricity, no furniture, not fans... Unable to afford education, they spend most of the day playing or doing odd jobs around the neighborhood like mowing (not easy), hauling rocks, pulling weeds...
They are children- so excited by little things, thrilled to have toys to play with- and yet they know hardship.  Often they come to my house hungry, wearing holey clothing that is held up by ropes.  They have no boundaries- coming into our house without knocking, playing with whatever they find...and yet they also know "their place".  Shocked at first when I offered them food or water to drink from our cups, amazed that we would give them a ball to play with outside. 
I feel for these children, I want to help them, I want to teach them to read and let them know that they are more than what their society tells them they are.  And yet there are days when I just want them to go away.  When I want them to stop yelling in my house, messing up my child's toys, pinching Silas's cheeks, hitting eachother and giving Silas a bad example.  And I wonder if having these kids in my house so much is protecting Silas and giving him what he needs. 
Then I realize how much they have to learn that we can teach them.  Though their parents love them, they show them no discipline but a fist, and the only time they can give them is the time spent working to provide for their needs.  But I can teach them discipline, I can give them time.
  I was talking to a friend the other day about how to discipline Silas and I realized that I can apply the same thing to them.  I can shepherd their hearts, point them to the gospel in the way I speak to them, in the way I correct them.  Teach them to honor God and eachother.  Teach them that their actions have eternal consequences, that their actions are sinful...  Oh but I need help.  How do I say all of that in Hindi?  How do I balance showing them love and teaching them with caring for my own family, helping my husband, teaching Silas? 

Thankful for the Process

I apologize that it has almost been two month since I have posted.  So much has happened, and yet really, so little has happened.  The first trimester of pregnancy sent me on a physical and emotional battle in which I entered culture shock and partial lock down where I didn't leave my house much, partly because I didn't feel well, and partly because I didn't want to. 

But now I am on the other side, feeling a lot better, and finally getting back into life.  I am learning that I have to be patient.  Establishing life in a new location is a long process.  We have to work out all of the kinks in our house, learn how to pay bills, where to buy food, how to get our clothes dry during rainy season... We have to make new friends- learn their culture, times and methods of getting together... Find places to play, to work off stress, to relax...  Just figure out a routine of life in which we can thrive as a family.  I wanted it to happen right away, to immediately just get in the swing of things, but it didn't.  It is a slow process and instead of stressing because we are not there yet, I need to start enjoying the process and take it one day and step at a time.  Eventually we will get there.  Eventually this will be home and maybe our neighbors will see us as insiders.  But for now I am thankful that one neighbor came over to borrow a ladder, another brought us some sweets, and another took JP to pay our electric bill.  I am also thankful that although they barely know us, they trust us enough to send their kids over to play (uninvited) and graciously welcome Silas into their homes when he enters uninvited. 

Funny conversation on the playground

Background: On Monday I went to my scheduled pre-natal appointment and was told that all doctor's offices were closed because they had some convention. As I was reading the newspaper later, I discovered that the doctors were actually all on a one day strike because of some ruling that had been made about some doctors who had removed some woman's uterus without cause.

So- I was talking to a lady on the playground and to make conversation I brought up this event. Now most of the conversation was in Hindi except for "uterus" and few other words.

Lady: So do you have a uterus?

Me: Yes...

Her: How old are you?

Me: 30

Her: Aren't you too young to have a uterus?

Me: No, that little girl on the playground has a uterus.

Her: No, a uterus is something you get when you are older.

Me: Do you know what a uterus is.

Her: Yes

And that was the end of the that part of the conversation. I really wonder what she means when she says uterus. Anyway, I got a laugh.

Recent trip

Check out the women in the back cooking lunch for 40 over an open fire in 115 degree weather.  Now these are women!

This boy in the purple shirt thought it was really fun to brush Silas' hair.  Silas didn't mind.  Of course Silas also kept lifting up the boys shirt to find his belly button- a new fascination that Silas has that is a little socially unacceptable.

Lunch- rice, lentils, okra, green beans

A rare family photo.

Animals Along the Way

We recently went on a trip into the countryside.  It was a long, bumpy ride.  For much of the trip we were driving on either dirt roads or one lane roads full of pot holes, cows, and pedestrians, carts, trucks... Along the way we saw many different kinds of animals.  I tried to take more pictures but I am not very good at taking pictures from a bumpy moving vehicle.
   Here is what we saw
       Camels (they came from the West with their owners selling herbal medicines)
       Monkeys
       Sheep
       Goats
       Igrets
       Water Buffalo
        Pigs
       Chickens
        White cows with blue horns
        Brown cows with long ears
        Brown cows with humps
        Brown cows with short ears...  (and on a different recent trip we saw an elephant)
It is fun living in a country where you see things that most people only see in zoos or on farms :)

This last picture was taken right next to the area where our lunch was being cooked...and we got some fresh milk from this cow for Silas.

Some promised photos

Silas loves playing in the dirt outside our house!

He also loves taking a bath.

This is a cow eating trash in our neighborhood.  There are many cows that we pass by as we are walking.  The other day a calf was drinking from its mother's utter right in the middle of the road and had to move over so our car could get past.

A field in our neighborhood.  Not sure what is growing.

Still no Pictures

So, I charged the battery in JPs little camera and have been faithful in taking more pictures (I got some great blackmail photos of Silas), but I cannot find the cord that connects the camera to the computer- so more waiting.
    In other news, we moved into our new place on Saturday evening only to find that ants had taken over our kitchen.  This however was quickly resolved with cockroach chalk.  AMAZING stuff!! They were all dead so quickly.  I have been doing much manual labor the past few days trying to get the place clean.  There was dust all over the floors.  Then we had a welder and carpenter come today to install screen doors and a safety gated on our stairs, so of course much more dust.  I am very thankful for the help of friends.  This house, as expected, is not ideal for a toddler, but we are making it work and I love the neighborhood.  This evening while the carpenters installed the doors I sat outside with a few neighbor women while Silas played in the street (not what is sounds like) with a bunch of children.  I am looking forward to building relationships with these women and watching Silas grow up with their children!

Resist and Draw Near

It is always interesting to me that way I can have a verse memorized and still not really understand- until one day God uses it in the pruning and teaching process and a light comes on and suddenly a new and personal truth is discovered.  This has happened lately with two passages that God has brought together in my quiet times and reflections. 
    James 4:7-8a "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and he will draw near to you."  Now I know this probably appears obvious, but drawing near to God and resisting the devil are very much tied to eachother.  In fact, when you draw near to God, you are resisting the devil.  By spending thoughtful, prayerful time in the Word, time in worship, time in God's presence, time in confession, then you are very much resisting the devil.  You are making it very difficult for the devil to deceive you- to plant lies in your head.  I have discovered this connection because I have not been drawing near enough to God.  Sure, I have a quiet time and I learn things from the Bible and through other believers...but I haven't really been drawing near to God- abiding, dwelling in his presence- letting him teach me and fill me...  Anyway- it was at this time that the deceiver was able to do just that- deceive me- make me doubt the very core of my faith in a way that I had never done before.  This is where the other verse comes in. 
    2 Corinthians 10:5 "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  A thought in and of itself is not sinful- but when we allow it to fester, keep entertaining it, keep meditating upon it, that is when it can lead to sin.  Satan fed me a lie, but I kept meditating on it.  Instead of immediately recognizing it is a lie and replacing it with a truth from scripture, I kept dwelling on it until it so plagued me that I couldn't worship God.  And then that is when I cried out to God and asked for his deliverance- and then got my husband to pray for my deliverance.  Then I was set free.  My mind and faith was set right again.  In a way I am thankful for this crisis of faith, but I also know that if I had stopped the thought from the get go it would not have lead me to the blasphemous thoughts that I entertained. 
     So that was a few months ago, and I write this now because I was reminded of the same verses a few days ago when my thoughts gave way to a different kind of sin- that of speaking in frustration and not honoring a sister in Christ.  I realized that the reason this response came out of me when pressed was because I had been meditating personality traits and actions that bothered me about her instead of focusing on love, patience, humility... Because I did not take the thought captive to the truth- the truth that she is beloved of God, redeemed, precious in God's sight, worthy of my respect...- it multiplied and caused me to lose self-control.  It was a fairly small thing, mostly unnoticed by others, but something that I was not proud of- something that God has helped me to overcome in the past, and something that I had to apologize for. 
   1 Corinthians 10:13 says that God gives you a way out when you are tempted so that you can stand.  I think that often the way out is really in the beginning- it is preventative.  It is drawing near to God daily, hourly, moment by moment so that deceptive thoughts can be immediately taken captive and replaced with the truth!

Peppers...and apology

First- I paid $.02 per bell pepper today at the market.  I picked out 5 bell peppers and asked the lady how much they cost and she said 6 rupees.  I really wasn't sure that I had heard her correctly, but she took my 6 rupees and didn't complain!  You just can't get cheap vegetables like that in the US in any form and definitely not frozen.

Apology- I have not been faithful in taking pictures lately.  I don't really think I have taken any pictures of our new city.  Therefore, I resolve to take my camera with me every day this week and take pictures of the things I see around town.  There really is a visual overload here and want to share it!  Plus my baby is getting so big and I am not documenting it.  So be on the look out for new pictures coming soon!

Photo Dump

It was impossible to get a good picture of Silas and Joyce together (I should have just used the flash).  This was our across the street neighbor in our language school city.

Motilal, aka The Hindi Doctor, and his family

My conversation partner Tina

JP always comments that I take a lot of pictures of his arms,

Our cook Kamla Didi- we miss her.

My 17 month old looking "smart".  He got a hair cut the other day at the mall and he did not like it one bit, but it turned out well.