Natalie's Birthday

We celebrated Natalie's birthday a week late, but I think at this age we could have had it in the middle of summer and she wouldn't have known the difference! Just a two hour affair with all of her friends. Ten kids under the age of 8 and their parents - it was a lot of fun. It started off like most of my endeavors - lots of grand ideas and then when it coms down to the event, doing the minimum I can possibly get away with and still have it not be a flop! So much I wanted to do but just ran out of time. I think everyone had a good time though. We ate, we decorated salt-dough ornaments (FYI: If you do dough ornaments in very humid places, the hardened ornaments amazingly become pliable again! Note to self: dough ornaments won't survive in Singapore!) :), and had individual chocolate cakes.

Enjoy the pics - until next time!

"That" Family

I'm not even going to mention the fact that it's been over 4 months since I last blogged or make any reference to my complete lack of consistency... oops! So I'm horrible at blogging! I admit it. No excuses. And moving on…

Last Tuesday we celebrated Jeremiah's 1 year birthday. Well "celebrate" is somewhat relative. Not that we didn't want to do something special, mind you. But keep in mind that we recently moved, that we sill don't have many friends and even fewer friends with young children and our limited time to plan a big hoopla. And yes, we did feel a bit shameful initially that we hadn’t planned something extravagant until we realized… Jeremiah doesn’t have a clue! Good or bad, birthday parties at this age are mostly for the parents. We’re simply taking advantage of the few years we have of blissful ignorance when the kids don’t expect a pile of gifts and a major shindig. Now, this is not say that we didn’t do anything at all . . . We asked another family to join us in inaugurating the newly opened Chili’s. It seemed harmless enough, but on that special night we became “that” family.

You know what I’m talking about – “that” family. The one with the rambunctious, undisciplined kids. The one that makes you shutter in fear that they may be seated in the booth next to you and shatter your quaint evening out. The one that (before having kids at least) I would look upon with disdain for subjecting innocent bystanders to a public nuisance. (Strangely, they’re the families that I now offer that sympathetic smile of “been there, cleaned up that”). The one that you wonder if the parents have suffered some sort of hearing loss to be able to continue their meal, non-pulsed, in the midst of the chaos. Yes, Tuesday night we were “that” family.

Natalie was wound up at having a friend to play with and Jeremiah, who’s current preferred form of communication is screaming (oh… the screaming!), was exhausted… it was a stellar night for all! I have, however, discovered 2 benefits to being “that” family.

1. 1. As Tim and I are usually fully occupied with either convincing Natalie to eat anything at all or making sure Jeremiah continually has a fist full of food to shove in his mouth, we don’t general get to eat much of our own meals. How’s this a benefit you ask? Thanks to leftovers, lunch is taken care of for the next 2 days (and usually in a much more relaxed environment)!

2. 2. The waitress – for some reason – is exceptionally fast in bringing the check. Hmmm.

But I guess it’s only proper that we celebrated Jeremiah’s anniversary in this world with some of the same pains and tears we experienced one year ago – minus the epidural (I could have used that the other night!). But with the “labor” comes the same overwhelming joy, love and assurance that despite the chaotic days, sleepless nights, hectic schedules and torturous meal times, we wouldn’t trade it for all the quiet in the world.

Well, for those of you who have been waiting for this update (ie, Mom and Dad), sorry for the delay. Many of you have been keeping up with Tim’s (more reliable and self-disciplined) blog and know that our work situation has recently changed. I’m currently working full-time for Focus on the Family Singapore and Tim is freelancing from home while speaking and doing workshops for Focus. Though it’s still not a perfect fit for us, we’re making it work and we’re doing well.

We sincerely thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Our adjustment here has been a bit more challenging than we anticipated but we know that we couldn’t have done it without the prayers of the Saints. It’s taken longer than we expected but we're just starting to make friends which is exciting – I’ll update more in a future post (in 6 months :) ) along with some new photo’s by Natalie – our new family photographer!

Oh, and if you happen to get seated next to "that" family the next time you're out to dinner - give them a little extra grace for us. They need it!

Blessings to you all and until next time…

Night Safari

Alright, I know, this wasn't as prompt a follow up as I had promised - sorry!

Just a quick update tonight before we head to bed. As we've been trying to see some of the sights in our new home we had the opportunity last week to go to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo. Basically, the zoo is open from 7pm - 12am and you can walk or take a tram

 to see some of the nocturnal animals... and it's fantastic! What an ingenious idea. We took the tram (we had just done a crazy long hike the day before - you can read about it on our Whetstone Chronicles blog - so we were a little pooped), and it went inches from some of the animals that are seemingly roaming around. We all really enjoyed it. Natalie keeps asking when we're going to go back to see the animals (which from the mouth of a 2 year old sounds just like "when are we going back to see elmo" - very confusing). I had wanted to post some pictures but being that it's a "night" safari, our pictures didn't turn out so well :). If only we had a really cool Nikon D60 or 90! 

Also had a chance to go to the beach. Tim's company was putting on a workshop so we tagged along and spent the afternoon playing in the water. Though Singapore is a very small island it's not known for having amazing beaches but we had a good time. 

An update on our everyday life: Tim's working for Focus on the Family Singapore and doing his best to find his niche. While we're extremely happy that he has a job to support the family and especially during such a tumultuous time, it has been tough fit as much of it is administration (which, for those of you who know Tim know that's NOT his area of expertise). At least at this point however, the end result is what we believe in and that's serving the King for the sake of his Kingdom but we're praying that in time he can move to something that is a little more enjoyable and rewarding for him. I'm looking at possibly going to work part-time for Focus as well at their new learning center but we're still trying to work out childcare for the kiddos. We'll keep you posted as you keep us in your thoughts!

Other than that, we're still settling in, getting acclimated and eating lots of rice and noodles! We've been trying to be intentional about opening our home to guests at least once a week which we've really been enjoying. I'm by far not the best cook but it's nice to offer a home cooked meal (however inedible it may be) and enjoy the fellowship of new friends. 

Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. May God richly bless you as you prepare for the coming of Easter! 

So... I'm a little embarrassed that my last posting still shows a picture of Natalie playing in the snow in Kansas City - over 2 months ago! I've been trying to console myself that our family just made the biggest transition in our history, but still, to all of you have been anxiously awaiting our new post (i.e. mom & dad), here goes!

Yes, we made it to Singapore! We've been here now for a month and a half and I think we're settling in pretty well. We hit the ground running with a week of work orientation and then another week of cultural orientation but while we were running Natalie had dug her feet in the ground and was determined to stay firmly rooted! It was a hard transition for her at first - new home, new

places, new faces... it was all just a little much for our 2 year old. Now that things are a bit more familiar and she sees some of the same faces throughout the week things are going much better and we're seeing the Natalie that we all love. And Jeremiah... as long as someone - doesn't matter who - is looking at him, he's happy (hmm, I wonder where he gets that trait from?) :). 

Tim's job blessed us by arranging temporary housing with the option of staying on to rent. Knowing that our home would be the source of many of our connections we really took the time to pray and seek direction. But within a week we were confident that this is where God had provided. 

We'll be here at least 2 years (hopefully longer - which I realized will be the longest that we'll have lived at one address since we've been married!), and what a blessing it's been already! Our landlords are believers and have gone out of their way to help us out - providing us with a larger fridge, a washer, and an oven (since most

Singaporeans don't do much cooking most apartments don't come with an oven). They even lowered the rent for us to be far lower than the market value - praise the Lord! I've included some pictures of our new home. We're on the 7th floor of a 21 story building with the Nature Reserve directly behind us (read: jungle with monkeys, iguanas, and I'm sure many other creature we've yet to discover!). We've enjoyed the few walks that we've been able to take on the trails and it's wild to think that Natalie and Jeremiah will grow up thinking it common place to see monkeys in their backyard! It really is beautiful. 

Well, I didn't want to pack too much into this first post and hoping that will leave me plenty to write in subsequent (more frequent) posts. :) Thank you to all of you who have prayed for us and have encouraged us along the way - we have certainly sensed your prayers and have found strength in your words in this time of transition. Blessings to each of you and you'll be hearing from us again SOON!

T, D, N & J