We wake up at 6 am to Ava running into our room “pitter patter pitter patter”  saying “I need huuuuggie! I need huggie!”  Tj proceeds to pick her up and put her in bed with us, she then wants a huggie from mommy, and of course is done in bed for the night, “get down now”  she runs to the living room to see what she can do, she sits on the couch and yells  “read biiiiible story!  read biiiible story!”  I stay in bed to feed Penny and TJ slowly moves out of bed to take care of Ava.

All that to say… We have been going through a child protection class, and the realities of child abuse is so disconcerting, but so important to be enlightened in what can happen if we don’t take precaution, and what to do to help prevent this from happening.  We have been reading this Book “Too Small to Ignore” by Wess Stafford.  It’s basically a story about his life, and the abuse that he encountered in a boarding school in Africa and how God has used it in his life and has impacted so many others.  He talks about the importance of engaging with your children today, letting your kids make cookies with you in the kitchen regardless whether it’s 10 times more messy or not, the point is that your including your kids in what you do.  He also emphasized getting involved in their world, and if your little girl invited you to her tea party with poo bear, dolly, and Minny Mouse that you would be HONORED to be invited, and be apart of such a wonderful event.  It is helping me look at my kids with a little more respect and  honor to be apart of their lives.  And also the importance in spending time with them (especially Ava right now) in joining with her in her imagination.

Penny turned 7 months on the first, and is almost crawling.  She gets up on her knees and hands and rocks back and forth like she’s going to crawl then lunges forward, so she can get pretty much anywhere by scooching and  pulling and lunging.  She has been getting much more active these days and only taking 2 naps, but they are usually pretty long naps.  One in class in the morning, and one very long nap in the afternoon.  I enjoy her so much, every day I wake up and cherish her as my baby because I know soon she will not be a baby any more  :(.  I love to see Ava and Penny interact as sisters when they are loving.  Sometimes Ava can be mean spirited, but most the time she loves on Penny and gives her huggies and kissies… it’s unfortunate when Penny grabs Ava’s hair at the same time, Ava instantly feels wronged, but we soon recover.  Ava is doing so well in talking.  She is figuring out how to better say things, like for example if you say “here, this is for you”  instead of her repeating that exactly she’ll say “this is for me”  but she still struggles, if someone is up the steps, she says “up here” instead of “up there”.  Her manners are getting better, eating with a big girl spoon and fork all by her self asking for help, she says “I need help please” and saying please and thank you all on her own.  She can now be very clear about what she’s asking us, which is really nice, and we are always encouraging her to say it the right way.   I am constantly impressed with all that she is saying and learning.  She comes home from daycare singing songs, and telling me what the kids did that day and how they got in time out, it can be pretty humurous.

It is our anniversary today… 4 years!  I so love being married to TJ, sure we have our disagreements, and man he can make me angry, but I cherish the relationship  the friendship, and the fact that we are so open with one another…  we both thrive off of that.  God has blessed me with such a great guy, and he is humbly at the Lord’s feet seeking him for wisdom in leading our family, and I love that!  I thank God for giving me this man.

TJ and I want to make the right decision about what field to go to, please pray for wisdom in that area.  I also need prayer with how I spend my time wisely, I have a hard time updating my blog, which I feel like is important… I WANT you to know what’s going on with me, and I want to be a good communicator.  TJ and I are wanting to build relationships with people at church, and we want to be ready to be used by God there if he wants that.  Sometimes it’s hard to know how to spend time with people there, but we see it as important.