The Kiddos Update - Part 4

Sweet, sweet Cass. She is now 8 months old (as of yesterday). I've said it before, but there really is no better adjective to describe this little girl. Just perfect. I continue to be astounded by her.

She is all over the place these days and into everything. She is not interested at all in sitting up. In fact, when we sit her up (she still doesn't sit up on her own and even when we put her in that position, she doesn't stay that way), she fusses and cries because she wants to get down and scoot around and explore. She still isn't crawling either, but gets up on all fours and looks as though she's halfway interested in the crawl. But, don't think that stops her. No, she's got the scooting/army crawl thing down pat. Like I said...all over the place now.

She is SO VERY easygoing. Seriously, if every baby was like this little girl, everyone on the whole planet would want at least 25. :)

With Cass, I'll just SHOW you all about her. Unfortunately, my captions still aren't lining up with my pics. Is anyone else having this problem these days? So annoying. Seriously, if anyone has any suggestions on how to maybe fix this, please let me know.

Now for the pictures...and video.

#1-Laughing and playing with a neighbor friend.
#2 - "Hmm...how do I get out of here?"
#3 - Her sibling lounge chair.

#5 - Cass sneaking some popcorn that was dropped. She had some in her hand and had already touched it to her mouth.
#6 - Cass, the reader. She seems to take after Grady with books. Hadley and Eissa (but esp. Hadley) were like little puppies. Our little board books were in perfect condition after Grady. Hadley got ahold of them and they were chewed to bits. :) Eissa wasn't much better. So far Cass is very gentle.
#7- Cass was trying to get Hadley's popcorn.
#8 - Hadley thought it was so funny.
#9 - Hadley moved it behind her.
#10 - So, Cass slung her arm around Hadley's body and was still trying to get to it.
#11 - She was determined to get some popcorn. :)
#12 - A cute little rubbing of the nose.
#13 - Her position for jumping out of an airplane...she also likes to do this often.
#14 - Getting up on all fours.
#15 - One of her favorite things...the nose squench.
#16 - Again with the squench.
#17 - And the head throw-back. :) Too cute.

#19 - Doing a little upper body workout. :) Her tricks are just endless.
#20 - I went to get her after her nap (she had been playing in there a while) and her little toy was all the way up on her leg. Funny.
#21 - "Thanks for my rattle, Enna!"



#25 - And this new trick she did this morning. Grady said, "Look Mama!" :) She's almost pulled up to her knees before, but this time she really did it and stayed that way for at least 5 minutues.
#26 - I thought she'd probably fall trying to get back down, but she didn't...just eased herself down like a pro. Will she be one of those babies that pulls up and walks across the room without ever really crawling? :)

Video 1: 11-17-08 Cass making her way across the floor. Her scoot/army crawl in full display.

Video 2: 11-15-08 Daddy helping Cass see life from a different perspective.

The Kiddos Update - Part 3

Eissa, Eissa, Eissa!! What a fun girl. And what a challenge right now. ;) What can I say...she's 2. She's learning and shaping into the little person God wants her to be with each day. Makes my heart happy. It's fun to see.

Eissa stuff:

*She's talking ALL THE TIME now and says all kinds of things all the time that we didn't even know she knew the meaning of.

*Her favorite show on TV is Hi-5. When I turn the TV on for it (we now know what times our favorite shows come on), she jumps around and says "fi, Mama...fi!!!!!" all while holding up her hand (her five fingers). She loves all the dancing and joins in wholeheartedly.

*She's super squishy and great to squeeze and snuggle with.

*She's got such a great belly laugh.

*She loves to do her special jobs and feels very important and proud doing them. For instance, she always remembers to ask for their vitamins every morning after breakfast. Me and her walk to the cabinet...she, all the while, saying, "Grady, Hadley, Mama...Grady, Hadley." Every time I give her something, she asks for more of whatever it is to give to Grady and Hadley. She very big-like finishes up her vitamin job by dispersing them to her older siblings. She gets VERY excited about it.

*Speaking of excited, she says 'wow' about everything. The whole world is just such an exciting place. :) So cute.

*We went to the grand opening of our new mall type place last night. We were walking along and I asked her to hold my hand. She said, very diplomatically, "No thank you." :) She's very polite...always says her pleases, thank yous, sorrys, excuse mes, and is very sweet and also says her I love yous, even just out of the blue, when we haven't even said it to her. Really cute.

*She is basically in love with all her siblings. She gets REALLY excited about Cass though...when Cass wakes up from a nap and Eissa hears her in there playing, she says, "Cass, Mama...Cass" as in, let's go get her so I can play with her...now. :) She adores Cass.

I wish you all could actually be here to see her in person. It's really hard to explain on a blog post all that she says, how she says it in her cute little 2 year old pronunciations, and all the fun and funny things she does. I wish you could experience it all for yourself (with all the kids actually). But, unfortunately this will have to do for now.

Alright, now some pics. (Is it just my computer or is it Blogger that isn't lining up the captions with the pictures? Even the old posts that I did long ago are no longer lining up. I'm thinking it might be our computer since this only happened after we had a big computer crash last week. Let me know what it looks like on your computer, k?) And just a little video of Eissa being Eissa.


Daddy is so much fun.










With her first braids (and a sunburn).
Laughing. She's got a GREAT laugh!

The Kiddos Update - Part 2

Hadley's turn.

Oh, Hadley. This chic is growing up and it's so much fun. She is now 3 years and 9 months old. She's pretty cool, just like her older brother.

She is definitely more carefree than her brother. Is it that she's a girl, is it that she's the second-born, is it her age, is it just her personality, or a combo of all of the above? Not sure, but she is what she is and it's fun discovering all of her.

Hadley happenings:

*While Grady compliments me by telling me that I'm soft, Hadley always looks at me and gasps and says, "Wow, Mama...you're pretty like a princess." Cuteness. By the way, the word 'pretty' is never said without the phrase 'like a princess' following right behind. :)

*Anything that happened in the past (yesterday and beyond) was "uh uddah day" (the other day).

*She is obsessed with "lips" (anything of the chapstick/lip gloss nature).

*She says 'what' and 'God' like she's British or an old Southern black preacher..."wawt" and "Gawd." It's really funny. She also says 'Mama' like that sometimes..."Mawmaw" (but not pronounced like the grandmother Mawmaw...remember, British).

*She is super obedient and easy these days. I tell her something and she says 'O.K.' Even if she really, really wants to do something else, she says, "O.K. Mama." Ahh, so nice.

*She says really grown-up things these days like, when I ask her a question, "Not really" or "I don't think so." :)

*Although she loves to play and get dirty, she also is very, very girly. Not disgustingly, annoyingly girly, but just cute girly. She loves her sparkly shoes. She loves to brush her hair and have her hair fixed. It doesn't have to be perfect (thank goodness), but she likes the process of picking out what she wants (braids, ponytails, barrettes, etc.). But, she's not a primper, so it's nothing obsessive. She looks in the mirror maybe once a day...she says "pretty" (she's got good self-esteem), and then she's done. :)

*She loves to play with her babies and take care of them. She also loves her real babies here (Eissa still to some extent and Cass) and is really calm and sweet in taking care of them.

*She will eat most anything, although recently has developed a distaste for one particular food. The first 3 years of her life she loved raisins. Now...not so much. She says they hurt her mouth. Joel told her that was silly...they don't hurt her mouth. But, I can relate...they probably hurt the taste buds part of her mouth. :)

*She's really, really affectionate. Every time we are reading books, for instance, she hooks her arms through mine and smashes her whole body up against my side. Every time I sit down by her, she rubs my shoulder and we have to nuzzle. It's sweet.

*She's very creative. For instance, when doing school, she always has to add a certain 'flair.' :) Like yesterday...she was supposed to be putting a circle around something. I looked over and she had started making the circle frilly (not just a straight-lined circle). I asked her why she was doing it that way. She said, "Because I want to make it pretty." She thinks outside the box...literally (ha ha ha...let me explain). "Uh uddah day" we were doing school and she was supposed to draw a line from the rabbit to the carrot. Both items were inside a box with lines sticking up randomly inside the box. She couldn't pick up the pencil and she couldn't touch the random lines on her way from the rabbit to the carrot. Hmmm...I told her those two rules (like the book said), but didn't think to tell her that she couldn't go outside the box to get from the rabbit to the carrot. She nodded her head and smiled letting me know she understood the instructions, then promptly moved her pencil from the rabbit to the carrot, without picking up the pencil and without touching the lines...very easily since she had gone around all the obstacles by just going outside the box. She looked at me like, O.K., that was easy...what's next? Cracked me up.

*Grady can get really excited about things, but overall he is pretty low key. Hadley is not. She is very expressive. I think Grady loves that about her. They're liked a married couple...balancing each other out. :) Ha ha ha.

*She has recently started sitting with her legs crossed and her hands folded in her lap...shaking her foot ever so slightly. :) Not because she is trying to act grown-up or prissy, but just because it has come naturally for her. It's not one of those things where she's said, "Look how I'm sitting Mama" and made a deal out of it. No, it's just one of those things I noticed one day...she sits like that sometimes...and then I look back over and she's stretching her foot up to her head or putting her foot in her lap, playing with her shoes. :) Funny.

*We might have to find a way to get this chic in a dance class. She's quite the dancer.

*She is a very loyal friend and loves to hang out with her friends (she doesn't call them by name usually...just 'my friends')...Sara, Audrey, Maira, etc. It's really cute. She is super social and remains a leader (whereas Grady is more of a follower...although all of his friends are way older which I'm sure has something to do with it...that little factor has never stopped Hadley, but does Grady).

It's so fun to watch Grady and Hadley together, how they interact, how they are different and how they are the same. It's such an honor to see the little adult female (I'm not sure why, but I don't really like the terms 'woman' or 'lady'...they both conjur up images in my head of not cool things) she is becoming, day by day. So, so fun. Can't wait to watch it all.

Now pictures and a little live action. By the way, had a major computer crash last Friday. Joel spent all weekend recovering our computer...thankfully we have it again. But, all the pictures/videos that we'd taken since we moved here to the apartment were lost. Sadness!! Anyway, here are some that we do have. (I have no idea why the captions aren't lining up with the pictures...I've been doing this blog thing a long time and know what I'm doing in that area, but today for some reason it isn't working...sorry.)



Hadley and Eissa taking care of their babies.
Loves Cass.
Hadley's swimsuit the other day. Eissa did have on a swim diaper...don't worry...not totally nude the whole time.
See what I mean about the legs? :)

We went over to some friends' house last night. Hadley's little friend put make-up on her. Too funny (also seen in that first picture at the beginning of this post...taken today). Hadley apparently doesn't even know the term 'make-up'...she just said that her friend drew on her with a marker. Oh dear...we take Christmas card pictures in a few days. :) Hilarious.


11-16-08 Hadley dancing around...Hi 5 style.

11-18-08 Hadley's eyes.

The Kiddos Update - Part 1

The 'king of the castle' as he says.

Time for a good update on the kids. It seems like they are growing up so fast. Don't get me wrong...that is partly really nice. But, at the same time...sadness. :) But (again), so fun too!! I'll update you on one at a time. Today is Grady's turn.

Grady and Hadley are seriously pretty much all grown up now. They'll probaby graduate from college and get married sometime next week. :)

Grady is 4 years and 10 months old now. He is as sweet as ever and is really, really maturing. Here are a few Grady happenings as of late:

*Eliane has a motorcycle and the kids aren't supposed to touch it. When we were still in the old house, the horn on her motorcycle honked. I went outside and asked who did it. Now, at this point most of the time the kids would say (in that lovely kid way) 'I don't know' or 'Eissa' (because poor Eissa couldn't speak up for herself and would most likely be considered innocent since she didn't know better...those days are dwindling though...she now knows exactly what she's doing most time). Well, that day Grady just immediately and with a soft, repentant voice said, "Me." So proud I was.

*Also when in the other house, he loved to catch butterflies...O.K., he loved to try to catch butterflies. It never quite worked out, but one day when he was about to set at this task, he was talking about catching a butterfly, "just one." Joel said something about how just one butterfly would be sad and lonely...that they would miss their family. So, Grady didn't say that he was going to get 2 butterflies so that his butterfly wouldn't be lonely. He said that he would get 3...a Mama, a Daddy, and a baby. He groups everything into families...cute.

*Every day after we get done eating lunch, Joel has a "Bible lesson" with the kids...just a little devotional. He is reading through "Devotions for the Children's Hour" (we have the old school hardcover version, copyright 1954...it was a whopping $2.50 brand new back then). We talk about Jesus with them alot. We talk about God too. But, we have apparently not vocalized "Holy Spirit" much to them (although the Holy Spirit is very much a part of our lives, I guess it just doesn't come up in our conversations...when praying, for example, I guess our kids haven't ever heard us say "Holy Spirit"...only Jesus/God). In one of the devotions it talks about the trinity and how there are 3 persons in one. Grady was obviously listening and wanted to re-trace their steps through the devotion. At the end, he said, "So there's God and there's Jesus." Then he wrinkled his nose and thought, then he asked, "who's the 3rd guy?" It was funny.

*He is constantly rubbing his face on me saying "you're so soft." It's really sweet.

*Sometimes I make a big fuss over them getting so big and I pretend like I'm crying and say, "Please...please don't get any bigger." :) This is usually Grady's reply..."Jesus wants me to grow up and be just like Daddy." He knows I'm just joking around, but he also usually nips my silliness in the bud on this issue. He knows God's design for us. It's not up for discussion.

*He loves to carry Cass. There were a couple of times that he just brought her to us. It was crazy, because he really is capable, but it was just a little unnerving...we aren't ready for that. He has since learned that he can't just do it...he can only do it when we tell him to. But, he loves to carry her...because he just loves her, but also probably because he feels so big and strong when he does.

*He continues to be the "Great Organizer." :) A month or so before we left the old house, I had taken a bunch of clothes out of storage bags for Cass for the coming months and had arranged them by age (6-9 months, 9-12 months, etc.). Within the age groupings I had arranged them according to type and use, as I always do(shirts, dresses, long-sleeve/short-sleeve, etc.). So, about a week or so after I had spent a good bit of time doing this, Grady "arranged" it for me again. Apparently they weren't color coordinated enough for him. He put all the pinks together (and thought that we should focus on those clothes since she's a girl). We had to laugh.

*Recently I told him to smile for a pic. He said, "A man doesn't do 'cheese.'"

*Yesterday I took all 4 kids to do the grocery shopping with me. I've never done that before alone. Turns out, it was actually a breeze (this time)...no potty issues, no meltdowns. It was great and they helped me a ton. When we got back from the store, I put Cass down for a nap and then the other 3 and me had to then lug all the bags up the stairs to our apartment. It was awesome...even Eissa did her part. At one point, Grady and Hadley had both just gotten a load of something to take up. I noticed that Hadley had 2 bags of pretty heavy things and Grady had one thing that was pretty light. I started to say something, but decided against it...thought they should do it on their own. I got a load and then headed back in the building. At that point, what I saw put a big proud smile on my face. Grady was coming back down the stairs and telling Hadley that those bags were too heavy for her...that they needed to switch. So, Grady gave her his light load and took the heavy load for her. So, so sweet. He takes such good care of his little sisters.

He is just so mature now...and really gets it about things. It's so great to be able to have a conversation about something with your little one and he fully understand (or mostly anyway). When he gets in trouble now, it really does grieve him that he made the wrong choice deliberately. It's amazing to see it all come together, and I know that I will only see more and more of this through the years...so fun to see them blossom.

All ready for church.
He just recently got a gift in the mail...thanks Aunt Marilyn (Madden Williams)...a Cars book complete with stickers. He loved it. They love stickers, although they don't last long. He decided he preferred to put them all over his body obviously.
He's such a help. I was feeding Cass when Joel sent Eissa out of the shower the other night. I asked Grady to put Eissa's diaper on for me. I was interested to see how he would do. Well, he set to it and even saw that Eissa was a little red and got the medicine and applied it. He was so matter-of-fact about it all and didn't ask for any help...like he'd been applying diapers for a couple of years already. :) Of course, I guess he has watched others do it constantly his whole life. ;) We did have to discreetly rearrange it on her little tush, but I was impressed with Grady's abilities. I will probably be utilizing this newfound talent of his some in the future.
Finishing the job.
He went to his room and came out dressed like Superman. Note the underwear over his pants. I never realized he had studied an image of Superman to that extent. :)
Flying.
The Superman stance, folding of the arms (I really don't know where he's seen this).
A day or two after we got here to the apartment, Grady asked if he could go outside and pick some flowers for me (they did that every day at least once a day at the old house). Of course, he couldn't (I don't think there are any flowers out there anyway). :) So, he resolved to get me some flowers. He drew some and cut them out and gave them to me. Too cute. Then I let him use the camera to take pictures (he loves to take pictures).
Complete with ladybug and lizard he told me.

10-27-08 We had just got Cass's jumper out (thanks Anna!!) and Grady was showing her how to do it. This little snippit is nothing compared to what it was before I reached for my camera...belly laughter like crazy from Cass.

10-28-08 Right before leaving the old house, we went swimming in the pool there at the seminary. Grady is pretty fearless, even if he does close his eyes the whole time. ;)

Apartment Life

It's been a long time since I actually talked about US on here, right? So, here goes a little update about where we are, k?

We said goodbye to our big wonderful house on the seminary campus at the end of October. We are so thankful for our time there...what a blessing it was!!

We moved across town into a very not big apartment. :) We are very close to Asas though, so that's a plus for sure. It was a crazy time packing up and getting things ready to go and then going and getting settled into this apartment, but thankfully we are now in a good routine here and things are a bit more peaceful around here. :)

Even though it is pretty small, it's a great place to live. The other apartments I've seen here are very cramped. As far as apartments go, this one is perfect for a family with 4 small children. It isn't as cramped. The living room/dining area is one great open space, so that's so nice. The rooms are small, but not too small. The bathrooms are also tiny...hardly room to close the door (so I don't). :)

The kitchen doesn't have any counter space. It also doesn't have any cabinets for the food (just enough space for the dishes...some of them). And there is nowhere to hang clothes here...nowhere outside, just a couple of racks here in the apt. It takes forever for the clothes to dry. We also don't have any closets for the kids. It's...interesting. :)

There's nowhere for the kids to go outside. We live on the 2nd floor, but even the apts. on the first floor have no yard area. All the apartments are in buildings and the doors are on the inside of the buildings...no doors leading directly outside. They don't have a park or anything near here either, but we do take walks with them, esp. Joel in the evenings when he gets home (it's hard for me to get out during the day with housework and Cass napping and such). We've resorted to the boob tube alot while living here. Given the limited play space/no outside option and also the need for quiet when naps are taking place (since we are in such close proximity to the napper), it's a good option here. Plus, we have cable here and Discovery Kids (dubbed in Portuguese...it's good for them to hear Portuguese though, so another good thing about the TV).

So, there are challenges to living here, but it's also really fun at the same time. It's really cozy, I always know exactly where the kids are at all times (ha ha ha...a friend of ours said, 'yeah, under your feet,' but not quite), it's easier in some ways (less space to keep, less stuff to deal with, etc.), it's great to have Joel so close...he has more time with us at lunchtime and is home sooner in the evenings, I have a great washing machine here (we are probably actually going to buy this one and sell ours), hmmm, what else?

To sum it up, it's small, it's challenging, but it's fun. So, we're enjoying our time here, although we're also very grateful it's only temporary. ;)

We will probably be moving to the new house (different house but on the same seminary campus) sometime around Dec. 12th. Such a great little house that we are going to. We left a pretty huge house to come to this tee-ninesy place. Maybe God planned it that way so when we go to the new house (which is a good bit smaller than the first house, but way bigger than this apartment) we will feel like we are just swimming in all that space. :)

Thanks for asking how it's all been. More updates to come (kids, school, etc.). But it literally took me all day long today to write just this little bit. Now I'm going to add a video and maybe some pics and call it a day. :)

Here's a little virtual tour...



Isn't this so cute? I looked down from my chair this morning and this was my view. Had to grab a shot of Eissa's cuteness.
Cass crawled (more of an army crawl, but not really...you'll see it soon) out of her pants. Too funny. The other kids got a real kick out of it.
Doing school (this was taken yesterday).
I got me some aipo!! :) Can you tell I'm excited about my celery? I haven't seen celery since we left the states. My portuguese teacher gave this to me yesterday...she had told me that she sees it sometimes...rarely, but she does see it. She just happened to see it again not long after we had talked about it and she got me a present. :)
This was taken today (these pics are not in any kind of order). Gigi has seen better days. This was after Eissa fed her a snack. Eissa: "Baby snack, Mama, baby snack."
The girls ready to head out...Eissa saying, 'there's Cass, Mama.'
Playing together.
There is a built-in desk here...you just unlatch it and lower it and voila. Grady thinks it's super cool.

Alright, now I'm off to make some chicken salad (mix for sandwiches) with my celery...woohoo!!

Post-Christian America

That's a pretty dramatic title, huh? I'm not into sensationalism, so just know that I'm not putting that as the title just to get attention.

But, I do believe that's where we are. Maybe that's a given...maybe others know that already. I mean, take a look at this article from a year and a half ago. And this, reported on 2 years ago.

I've been meaning to post about my feelings after the election to follow up with my last post. It just hasn't happened until now. I am not a gloom and doom type of person, so I can always find good things about something, thankfully. Here's just a little rundown of my thoughts:

First of all, I'm sad for John McCain. What a love he has for his country. It showed in his speeches and debates during the campaign and also here, in part of a speech made in 1988 (I had seen this email before). It shows in his history of service to our country. I watched his concession speech. It was so very gracious. Sadness showed on his face so strongly. I know that he would have served his country that he loves so much with true honor, as he's done for so long already.

But, the people spoke. Barack Obama is president-elect now as we all know. I watched clips of his press conference he did recently. I do like seeing a black man in that position, it's true. As far as the history that was made on that topic, that makes me very, very proud that the United States obviously isn't held by that bondage any longer. The color of your skin has nothing to do with what positions you can hold in the U.S. any longer and that's been proven now...I am very glad of that.

Unfortunately, I can't be completely rejoiceful for reasons stated before on this blog. I saw just today what someone I respect very much recently said and I have to say that I totally agree: "People often become concerned too late. Then it is impossible to turn the tide back. And like the tide, it happens slowly. It's like the proverbial frog in the water. When it realizes it's being cooked, it's too late. It happened to the people of Germany under Hitler. Most could not be convinced that anything too bad was happening at the beginning of Hitler's reign. Most believed later, but it was too late then." I saw those words just minutes after I saw this article. So very interesting. The conditions in that article sound pretty familiar, don't they?

Some might think, what are you so afraid of Michawn...why so fearful? Please understand that I am not shaking in my boots (um, flip-flops). I do not believe in living in fear. I don't live in fear. But, I do believe in fearing God. I found this very good definition of what I mean: A Biblical fear of God, for the believer, includes understanding how much God hates sin, and fearing His judgment on sin – even in the life of a believer. I also believe in having a sombering awareness of what is going on around us...on the superficial level of just the natural things, but also on a much deeper level of what things could mean in the spiritual.

No, I'm not a fearmonger. But, I do believe that we are living in a very, very interesting time. Now that the media, liberals, democrats have gotten their wish, we will see how things unfold.

Do I believe that we are under the rule of the next Hitler? No (although, he could turn out to be just that sort of person). Do I believe that we are in store for the next holocaust? Nope. Actually I believe we are in the middle of another holocaust already!! 3,700 human beings of a certain kind are already being murdered every single day in our country. 1.37 million a year. Let's get some perspective here...there were 5,860,000 Jewish lives lost during the Holocaust. We've been at abortion long enough to have WELL surpassed this number.

More perspective: Some of my friends here, when saying that I do not believe in murder and therefore I would not be voting for Obama, chuckled and asked "what about war...that's murder too." 1) There have been only around 100,000 lives lost (from what I can tell from the sources I've read) in the war, including Americans, Iraqis, soldiers from other countries, etc., and 2) Even the innocent victims of war (there are always some) have choices and are aware that they are in danger. Imagine this...a little life, floating around in her Mama's belly, getting nourishment, feeling secure, smiling and sucking her thumb (because we've all seen ultrasound images of this very thing). Then suddenly, without warning, her leg is ripped from her body, her skull is crushed...unimaginable pain...and then her life is no more.

No, it's very different than lives lost in war. And, I also think that sometimes we just hear the word abortion and think of it in terms of just a simple procedure...a legal action...a cultural right. I know that I, and many people, esp. my age, have probably grown a little numb to it when hearing the word 'abortion'...after all, it's been legal my whole life. We sometimes think of it as nothing more than going to have a wart removed. How wrong we are and how grieved God is over all these truly undeniable innocent lives! We will answer for this. It is not 'abortion'...it is MURDER!! And, this holocaust is sure to only get worse under this administration. I mean, he did promise to make one of his first acts the signing of the Freedom Of Choice Act (FOCA), which would invalidate all state laws regarding abortion and make abortion legal for all nine months of pregnancy. Campaign promises don't always come to fruition...prayerfully this won't. But, we definitely know where this man stands on this issue.

The entire world is elated at the election of this man. My portuguese teacher cried and cried...was overcome with emotion. Unfortunately, it may very well mean good things for the rest of the world...not for Americans I'm afraid...not for the people that we don't acknowledge as people as a nation, the unborn.

So, what do we do now? How does this change things as far as the way we see things? It doesn't. We do, hopefully, what we've always done. We pray. We seek God's face, grace, and will. We remain vigilant and very aware of all that is going on around us. We pray to see through God's eyes, with His eternal perspective. We love those around us, even if they do not believe as we do. We pray for those who persecute us (and the unborn). We become/continue to be a voice for those who can't speak for themselves. We honor our President and his high calling and pray for him continually. We pray, among other things, that first and foremost, God will really get ahold of his heart. We pray that he be broken before God...that the things that breaks God heart will start to break his also. No matter what, we must remember that God can do anything...always has been able to and always will be able to, no matter who is President of the little speck on the world called the United States.

We do live in very interesting times.

Feelings on Election Day

My feelings today were strange. The most prominent one was that of disappointment. Not disappointment in the result because the results still aren't in as I type this. I haven't even seen any preliminary results.

But, do you know how very cool I think it would've been to have helped vote the first black American president into office? I am hoping that this particular black American won't win (Obama) and that I will still get that chance. But, oh that Barack were really good.

He seems to be just that. He looks to be so very kind and gentle, so calm and endearing, so patient...a man just oozing integrity. Too bad we can't ever go by looks alone. (By the way, this is obviously not at all mentioned to try to convince you how to vote...too late for that. But, this is very interesting, so just thought I'd pass this along.)

Seriously, I wish he were what he seems to be. I really do. But, it isn't so. Not this time. It grieves me. I love the idea of him and what he seems to represent (as far as goodness). Sad that his record and true beliefs prove differently.

I can't wait for a truly good black American to come along and sweep us off our feet...one who is truly who he seems to be, one who really walks with God and lives according to His principles. That will be a glorious day.