lots o' randomness

Here's a big ole dose of randomness for your enjoyment today. I realized I never posted about our Easter festivities. Nor did I post about my & Izzy's 2nd "mommy/daughter" date. Nor did I post about the day Izzy decided to give me a pedicure. And so without further adieu ... here's your random goodies today!

For Easter, everybody & their mama was in town (fyi - about half of our missionaries live 10+ hours on the other side of the country). We had a couple from our home office in the States visiting our Niger IMB missionaries & someone thought it would be a good idea to host a little get together on Easter for all the missionaries to meet this couple. Then someone else thought it'd be a good idea to do it at their house & add an Easter egg hunt for the kiddos on top of it. That other someone was me ... only to realize a few days later that I had signed myself up for hosting FIFTY people at my house! You have no idea what the heat can do to a person's brain.

Easter day it was 108 degrees & we had people in every seat in our house plus 3 tables set up outside. Everyone brought a dish or two & my kitchen was overflowing with food. I made some decor & had fresh flowers on every table but I neglected to take pictures of that. But it was great fun & I'm really glad we were able to host it.

The egg hunt was great. There were 13 or so kids that participated & we managed to hide about 150 eggs in our little yard.

Ms Becky skipped putting candy in eggs & just dropped candy into every kid's basket! (PS - Thanks Amy for Izzy's precious Easter dress!)

Because there were quite a few older kids versus younger kids, we made a rule that you could only have "x" amount of eggs in your basket.

The fellas who hid the eggs had to get a little creative about where to hide them since we don't have a ton of greenery in our yard.

Laura volunteered to ready a story & explain the Resurrection eggs that were hidden.

Izzy & Luke are growing & changing so much everyday. Mark was out of the country for 5 nights & got home yesterday. When he got home, the first thing he said was, "Oh my goodness! Have the kids grown since I've been gone? They seem so much bigger!" Luke does not stop talking at all. Sometimes he just has so much to say, he cannot get it all out. It's too cute! We've also started potty training the little fella but we're taking it s-l-o-w. When Luke has an accident, he'll say, "I pee-pee in my underwear" & he says the word "underwear" with about 14 syllables.

Isabelle is such a sweet big sister. She is such a big help around the house, too. She has her days ... as do most 3 year old girls but we've come a long way from a year ago! I cannot believe she'll be four years old in one week. She still loves to do school & cutting paper is her favorite. She loves, loves, loves to read books together & is currently in a "princess" phase ... hence the reason she's chosen to have a princess birthday party.

precious boy loves to sleep with his big ole puppy

A few weeks ago, Izzy & I had our 2nd mommy/daughter date. This time we did a little shopping, went to eat pizza & then ran a few errands. We had a grand ole time & I was very intentional about trying to have some quality conversation with her ... as much as you can with a 3 year old. We had some good laughs & had some sweet moments together.

after seeing our friend Melissa get a chocolate milkshake not too long before this, Isabelle begged to have one on our date!

This was our attempt at a self-portrait shot of the 2 of us. Woops!

this girl is too much like her Daddy ... there's no such thing as taking pictures without at least one silly face

and see how he's corrupted me? I do it, too! Isabelle was dying to take a picture of me.

Oh & this was the day Isabelle begged me to let her paint my toes. This took about 5 minutes for her to do & about 30 for me to clean up. I looked at Mark & was like, "I'm pretty sure this looks like my feet were just attacked by a machete."

And I don't know how this didn't make it into the beach pictures posts. Ben & Melissa stayed a few doors down from us & Ben became known as the "Candy Man." He & Melissa packed SOOOO much American candy for our vacay, it wasn't even funny. So the kids would follow him down to his room to get their daily supply of chocolate.

Hope you've enjoyed the randomness today! Our first volunteer team of the summer gets here tomorrow. Campbellsville University (our alma mater) is bringing a team of 11. We are really excited about hosting them! It's been a LONG time since I've seen Ed Pavy!!

After they leave, we have a 3 day break before our 6 week summer intern comes. Then we'll host 2 teams in June & one in July. Mark calculated that we have 14 "free" days on the calendar between tomorrow & August 1. It's going to be busy but we love our volunteers!!

Also, just this week we had our 2 partner churches go ahead & put dates on the calendar for 2013 ... with 4 trips each plus a slot for a month long summer intern(s). Wow!! I cannot believe we are already filling up for next year. 2013 is going to be so crazy & exciting. We have a company retreat in Kenya (this will be the first time since 2008 that we've been able to get away for a retreat), Isabelle will start Kindergarten in the fall of next year (tear!) & we hope to bringing home some babies at the end of the year, too!

Okay, I don't know how I got from a machete pedicure to our 2013 calendar but that's how my brain operates during hot season. Forgive me. Go enjoy your day now. I'm done.

coming to fruition

If any of you know the story of Mark & I at all, you may know that when we were first dating (as in, during one of our first 3 or 4 dates), he looked squarely at me & said, "I don't know why but I've always had this feeling that I'll end up in Africa someday. So I just want to let you know that if you stick with me, you may end up there, too." And, well, you know the rest of the story ... we ended up in Africa.

I think it was pretty obvious to both of us soon into dating each other that we were heading to the altar in the next few years. I think it was month 3 that we said the big "I love you" (& if you knew Mark in college, this was a HUGE deal) & it was month 5 that he actually voiced the words of, "Hey, I want to marry you someday." Swoon!

So with that out of the way, we began to talk serious stuff like having a Raiders groom's cake, having a "guy" room at our future house, & putting a PS2 on the registry. Kidding, kidding (although, all of those did happen). But really, we began to talk seriously about family. We both agreed that since he was in full-time ministry & we had spent our dating & soon to be engagement years in college & long distance (he graduated the year before me & was in Bowling Green/Franklin while I was still at Campbellsville), we wanted to wait to have children for at least 5 years. We wanted to be able to focus on the students God had given us to minister among & give us time with each other before we added children into the mix of our crazy lives. And we stuck with that.

 

When we began to talk seriously about children & how many & what names, etc, etc, the Lord both laid something on my & Mark's hearts. We felt strongly that the Lord was pulling both of us towards adoption. I don't remember the exact moment or conversation but you could say it was somewhere circa 2004 that we began to talk about one day having 2 children biologically (if the Lord deemed it so) & adopting 2 children.

 

So all these dreams had come to fruition except one. We were married in 2002, moved to Africa in 2006, waited 5ish years & then had 2 beautiful children (in 2008 & 2010).

As the Lord has molded us & shaped us over the years, we still feel strongly that adoption is the direction the Lord is leading our family. And after years & years of praying about it, we know that this is now the time for the Lord to add to our family through adoption.

Remember all those family goals for 2012 that I keep referring to? Well, up there at the top of the list was this goal: "to start the adoption process in 2012." And ... we have! We are officially IN the process with Lifeline Children's Services (out of Birmingham, AL) & are applying to adopt from Ethiopia.

 

The why's & how's are a whole post in themselves but Mark & I wanted to let y'all know that this next milestone in our life is coming to fruition as we are faithfully trusting the Lord to add to our family through adopting a child from Ethiopia!

So we would love it if you would pray with us & for us as embark on this journey. The road is long ahead of us but we are excited about every step of it. We're already through the first step of being accepted into the Ethiopia program with our agency. Right now, we are getting all of our paperwork together for our homestudy. Everything is a little more complicated or a little more tedious or a little more lengthy because we do not live in the States but we are trusting that the Lord will be over & in every step of it.

Like I said, we'll fill you in more on the why's & how's later but just wanted to get the word out that the Phillips family is growing!

the beach: part 2

On our last full day at the beach, we took some family pictures (thanks to Melissa for being our photog!) There were so many cute ones, I had a hard time narrowing it down. My camera battery was dying but we managed to squeeze out 95 pictures on the beach by taking the battery in & out ... tricks of the trade, I tell ya!

Izzy reminds me of an Olan Mills photo shoot. Totally did this on her own though.

After our family shots, the kids had a little bit o' fun on the beach with Ben & Melissa ... & few shots with them, too. They're pretty much like family anyways! I mean, how can you not be almost like family when you choose to take your vacation with our crazy kids AND drive 38 hours in the car with them?

And then the kids wanted some shots by themselves. Okay, so maybe I suggested it but they were totally up for it ... professional posers!

MISS PRISS

Izzy said, "Hone on (aka - hold on), I want to take a picture by the tree." I thought she meant a palm tree. Apparently not.

So sweet!

Not sure what Izzy was thinking for this pose but still cute anyways!

Seriously, I know I'm biased, but my kids are too stinkin' cute!

Their favorite thing to do together is to hold hands & jump in circles. My kids are easy to please.

This is Izzy's very concerned look over Luke's owie that he received from Izzy's hand.

Awww! Aren't they cute? And that's our bungalow that you can see in the background.

What a great friend! So sad she's leaving in October. (tear)

And there are those blue eyes that capture my heart!

Be still my heart. My little man is so handsome. Look at him with his little hand in his pocket. And his madras pants? I know, I know ... precious!

And here's their Daddy that steals my heart every day!

Luke is showing Ben how to use an iPad ... he's got mad skillz.

Last dinner at the beach. On the other side of that railing is the same view as from our front porch ... sand & beach.

Good to the last drop.

Oh wait, Luke found one more drop of chocolate ice cream!

All of us are already looking forward to the next time we can go to the beach!

the beach: it cures what ails

The last few months have been filled with sicknesses, heat, more heat, more heat & busyness. What can cure these ailments? THE BEACH!!! 

The beach for us is a visa to another country plus a 2 day trip that consists of 19 hours in the car ... one way. Not ideal, but definitely worth it! We stumbled upon this little jewel of a place on the coast of Benin last year when our original vacation plans fell through because of a coup in Burkina Faso. Unfortunate events for sure, but we are so glad we found this place! Upon arriving at our destination, a sigh escapes us as we feel like we can finally breathe & rest & enjoy ourselves (& our family) after 2 months that have seemed to go by in a blur.

And as much as we love our vacations to the States to see family, load up on goodies & stuff our faces with Chick-Fil-A, they are not exactly restful. 6 States in 30 days? A dozen or more different places to rest our heads in 30 days? Fun but not exactly evoking a restful state of mind. The beach? Rest, rest & more rest plus lots & lots of fun! The kids absolutely loved it & are still talking about a week later begging to go back. In my book, that makes it a success! (I just went to check on Luke while he's playing in his room &, without me saying a word, do you know what he said? "I want go to beach, Mommy!" I do too, baby, I do too!)

This is the view from standing in the doorway of our bungalow. Porch, sidewalk, sand, palm trees, beach = perfect.

To save on a little moolah this year, we ate some meals in our room. This is not a condo where a kitchen is provided. It's just a bedroom & bathroom but with a mini-fridge. There are no nearby grocery stores, so we brought almost everything with us to prepare lunches & some suppers in our room.

My 2 cutie-pa-tooties in their swimsuits! They loved the pool.

Precious. Big sis & little bro having a snack.

Does he have the beach all to himself? Pretty much! Could you even imagine doing this in Myrtle Beach or Destin?

Izzy's favorite thing, by far, was taking walks on the beach & getting her toes wet. The beach was not safe at all for swimming (very strong undercurrents) so this was as risky as we got.

Getting ready to head to the capitol for an adventure trip. Cotonou, the capitol of Benin, was about 30 miles away but it took us 1.5 hours to get there. And when we did, we had no idea where we were going! So we finally asked a helpful national to guide us to a place where the "tourists" eat! Ha!!

Breakfast every morning was the same yummy buffet. And this kid DEVOURED it!

My little princess drinking tea. She felt so BIG getting to have tea every morning while we had our coffee.

A yummy cool & messy treat by the beach.

The place we stayed had a "mini golf" course. It was cement & not the easiest course to play but Izzy & Mark had a fun Daddy/Daughter date nonetheless.

Mommy & Luke took advantage of the playground while Daddy & Izzy had their date. This boy does not like to swing normal, he loves to twist in circles until he gets dizzy!

Last year, we missed this little treasure known as the game room. Pool table, ping pong, Foosball & again, all to ourselves! Izzy & Melissa had a great time playing pool!

If you notice, these 2 peeps have the same look of determination on their face.

Okay, so the pool was a little intimidating for one of our children. The child could easily stand & walk around in the shallow end but when it came to jumping in, she wanted to hold someone's hand. Finally, towards the end of the week, we convinced her that she would be fine to jump without holding someone's hand & we'd be right there to catch her if she needed us. Do you see how she jumped? Right against the side of the pool while still holding onto the side. I do not know how she did not scrape the backs of her legs off.

Luke, on the other hand, was our daredevil. Never thought once about it & would just jump in even if we weren't ready. He is fearless!

The boy is a fish. He loved the water!

And one of his favorite things was, of course, Daddy throwing him as high as he could into the air.

I've got more pictures but I thought 45 in one post may be a bit too much. I'll post the rest later this week.