sick little Izzy

Isabelle has got some buggies in her belly right now & we are in Niamey waiting for her to get better. I guess that pacifier didn't help her keep certain things out of her mouth, huh? Whatever it was she put in, it put in her an amoeba & bacterial infection. She's doing better & we should be on the road to Ayorou soon.

This picture was taken when Richard & Shawn were here & we were on our way to see giraffes. Izzy was a little puny then, too. When cutting teeth (especially 4 at one time!), she loses interest in food (I know, I know!). And in doing so, she becomes anemic pretty quickly. This particular morning she was as such but it only took her a couple of hours & a dose of iron to get back to her crazy self. Nonetheless, you know Isabelle is sick when she loses interest in food & her eyes get like this. : (

African Queen

As some of you may have glimpsed on our blog, Izzy has a fancy new African outfit. When Abduli brought it over the other day, everyone begged for us to put it on her to show off. The top is a tad bit big in the shoulders but we'll get that adjusted. Watch out Ayorou, here comes Queen Nadia!

PS - I love this face of Isabelle's. This is her new face she makes when a camera is around. Adorable!

I think Hawa is saying, "Nadia, I can't understand a word you are saying with that thing in your mouth!" Yeah, we're trying to work on getting rid of that sucker but it so helps her from putting African toes in her mouth. One of these days ...

it's a ...

BOY!! That's right ladies & gents, we are having ourselves a little boy! His name will be Luke Cleveland Phillips. To give a little background on the name, we decided early on that we wanted our children to know where their names came from. So we agreed that we would give each child one Biblical name and one family name. Isabelle's name comes from my great-grandmother and Ruth, of course, comes from the Bible. For Luke, his first name obviously is the Biblical name and his middle name is from my great-grandfather. Mark likes to think that we named him Luke so he can say, "Luuuuke, I am your faaaaaather." Others may think that we are now "completing the Gospels," so to speak, in Mark's family with his brother & nephew being named Jon & Matthew. Nope, as cute as both of those are, those didn't factor in with the name at all.

People have also been asking us are we excited? scared? Yes & yes! Yes we are excited to have another child but we are also scared because this is another responsibility on our hands. Let me clarify that a little further ... another God given responsibility on our hands to make sure this little fella grows in the wisdom & stature of the Lord. That's a heavy responsibility & one we don't take lightly. So, naturally, it sometimes scares us to think of having not one, but two, children to raise!

In terms of the boy factor, we are both excited & scared, too. When we found out that we were pregnant with Isabelle, Mark was terrified! He didn't know a thing about girls or girly stuff - playing with dolls, dressing up, putting bows in hair, etc, etc. It was all new territory for him. But as soon as he held her in his arms, he was in love and he now knows the wonderful gift of a Daddy/daughter relationship. So it is with me & this boy thing. I am excited, of course, but scared too. The whole cars, trucks, mud & guns thing is all new territory for me. I don't think "blue," I think "pink." But it doesn't mean that I'm not excited, as I think some people have misunderstood me. It's just new territory for me & a new adventure, but one I'm very excited to embark upon.

My sister thinks I'm weird for thinking like this but, let me just tell you, boys & girls are VERY different! VERY. Isabelle has never shot pee across the room or my face, for one. After being in student ministry for 6 years, I know, know, know there are vast differences. Us ladies liked to go have coffee or sit inside the house & chat til 4 am. We liked to get dressed up & paint our nails and our idea of being adventurous was toilet papering someone's house, all the while giggling uncontrollably about it because we were so scared of getting caught. Mark & the fellas, on the other hand, would be outside making up games with soccer balls, throwing small balls of flame or shooting pellets at each other, having pizza eating contests at Cici's or daring each other to down an entire bowl of pico de gallo at Puerto Vallarta. Fancy coffee, inside, nails, chit chatting - that's me. Flame ball, eating contests, not much on talking - this is the new adventure I'm in for!

curious george

If Isabelle is comfortable enough with someone & her surroundings, she loves to see what everyone is up to. She's especially this way if there if food involved! You'll be her instant best friend. But, food or no food, she still is curious about everything. As you can see, she got all up in Alhassane's "bidness" the other day while he was trying to make guitars for Richard & Shawn. Somedays, I would just love to know what's going through her mind as she takes everything in, especially stuff like this.

down on the farm

As you may have seen on our blog a month or so ago, Izzy & I took a trip to the farm to visit Mark & Ibrahim hard at work. At first, Isabelle was a little hesitant about leaving my side but then her independence came out & off she went. She loves the outdoors & she especially loved the wide open spaces of the millet farm!

rice & sauce

As you all know, Isabelle loves (read L-O-V-E-S) food. Even more than American food, she loves African rice & sauce. I really think she'd pick African food over Zaxby's (gasp!). Here's just a couple of examples of her undying love for rice & sauce ...

Rice & sauce for breakfast? You bet! As you can see (& this is a trend), she starts out eating with a crowd, sometimes with someone feeding her.

The crowd slowly dwindles to a few stragglers which Isabelle is always included in. Others have filled up on their food but not Izzy. She doesn't even need someone to feed her now. She says, "I got this y'all!"

And now, it's just Isabelle. Even the other kids have given up, but not Izzy. She's even dropped the spoon & gone straight to shoveling it in via her hand.

Now here we are a few days later with a large gathering of people. We're talking 50 peeps showed up for this fancy meal. As it begins, Izzy has some company while she eats.

And you can see, she's been left almost to herself once again to finish off the platter.

As the dancing begins, it's just Izzy & Hawa left eating.

Now, if you notice, Hawa has left but a new group of kiddos come in to help Izzy finish the platter off. But, first, Isabelle needs to take a little break to join in on the dancing.

All done with the dancing & back to eating. The second wave of kids have finished their meal but Izzy keeps on trucking away at the rice & sauce. Seriously, this is no joke. Our child LOVES to eat African food!

Ahh, at last. She's done!! A full belly, a messy mouth, a ride around the yard on mommy's back ... she's all smiles!

that's my girl

I'm sure these might find their way onto Izzy's blog but they were too cute for a proud dad to pass up.

little miss priss

If you were to hand Isabelle a cell phone, she would know exactly what to do ... put it up to her ear & start talking. She loves to play with our phones & will just walk around & chat to herself. She'll say, "Hello!" into the phone even when no one is on the other end. What's even funnier is that if someone is actually on the other end, she backs away from the phone. Crazy kid!

The other day we were at a restaurant & to occupy her while waiting for our food, I gave her my cell phone to play with. As you can see, she's a natural ...

She can even multi-task while "talking" on the phone.

Enjoy

There have been many moments in my life I've thought "oh man, if I'd just had a video camera to capture that moment for all time!" Thankfully, I don't have to say that about this moment...




Thanks Richard and Shawn for a great week of ministry! We had a blast and the people of Ayorou will remember you forever!

Richard and Shawn

Living Hope has been such a unique partner with our ministry in Ayorou. They first came in 2007 and helped as we laid a foundation of prayer. A team then came in 2008 and was part of our mass seed-sowing effort. Now, in 2009 they've sent two teams to disciple our believers. Richard was part of the 2008 team and couldn't believe how much a village could change in one year!

The guys did an awesome job and our believers were faithful to attend the sessions. Living day to day means they literally left everything to come and hear these lessons about their new faith.

As the pictures will show, these guys got to experience Ayorou in all of its glory!

Richard and Shawn got to see and even work a little on Ibrahim's millet farm.


The guys taught 2 lessons each day. Our believers came anxious to learn. They then went out each afternoon alongside Richard and Shawn to distribute cassettes in their areas of town.


We had 7 people pray to receive Christ during the week. These were all fruit from our believers sharing with their families and friends.


On their last night, Hamsatou cooked a delicious meal for all of our believers.


"hmmm, there's probably no amoebas in there...right?"


What trip to Ayorou isn't complete without meeting Nadia, the queen of Ayorou.


The Songhai men hold hands as a sign of friendship, 3 years later and it still creeps me out but Shawn said this was his favorite part of the culture.


Richard and Shawn showing Ibrahim how they roll in the BG!


Richard and Shawn with Hamsatou


At the river with some of our male believers after a baptism.


Richard said something about how American donkeys were so much cooler than Ayorou donkeys. One thing led to another....


The trip ended with a giraffe visit.

BFFs

Isabelle loves hanging out with her 2 besties, Hawa & Nafisa. Lately, she's been a little more attached to Nafisa & that's probably because Nafisa lets Izzy boss her around! Teasing, teasing ... well, just a little. Nafisa is the only one that wants to come inside our house & so, once in, Izzy rules the roost. Nafisa doesn't seem to mind. Half the time I think she just ignores Isabelle anyways.

Down by the river after a baptism. Izzy & Nafisa holding hands. Hawa not sure what to do.

After a little convincing from Mama Hamsatou, Hawa semi-holds Izzy's hand.

Izzy & Nafisa chillin' on the porch while the adults were meeting for one of the discipleship lessons. As you can see, Izzy is learning to really "ham it up" when a camera is around!