Eliana in Review

June 2010

tiny, precious, delightful, sleep thief

July 2010

rocked to sleep, swaddled, cooing, thief of many hearts

August 2010

smiling, growing, singing, giggler in training

September 2010

laughter, mountain traveler, adored, a blessing

October 2010

joyful, laundry maker, darling, warmer of many hearts

November 2010 

night waker, tearful evenings, cousin visitor, prayed for A LOT

December 2010

rice cereal eater, tummy time enthusiast, rocking chair fan, expert in spitting up

January 2011

toe sucker, sitter upper, clever, expressionate

February 2011

first fever, first two teeth, park adventurer, stroller expert

March 2011 

book chewer, second fever, two more teeth, flower gazer

April 2011

crawler, life changer, hat wearer, BSFer

May 2011

third fever, two more teeth, bubble watcher, mobile

June 2011

world traveler, preciousa, bathing suit wearer, birthday cake consumer

July 2011

food explorer, first steps, sleeping through the night on occasion (Praise the LORD!!!), loved

This post has taken me many hours on three different days!!!  I had to look through thousands and thousands and thousands of pictures.  I didn't want to repeat any pictures from previous blog posts, so it took a bit of creativity.  I am still stunned that Eliana was born over a year ago.  Since I see her everyday, it is sometimes hard to remember her being smaller.  Yet this post shows that she indeed was a tiny 5 pound 14 ounces infant at one time and is now taking steps here and there and nearing twenty pounds.  We love our daughter and are so glad that God has blessed us with her.

Adventures with Eliana

We've been on a few adventures this week.

Protector Rachel enjoyed some swim time with Eliana on the 4th of July.  I didn't know that Dawson was going to have a pool, so we borrowed a onesie.  Eliana was fascinated by the very warm pool water.  It was SO hot that day that the pool was almost toasty.

Ruli has been waiting for Eliana to walk for many months.  Eliana loved to practice talking steps wirh Ruli after her water time.

Eliana and I enjoyed being outside during the middle of the day on an yesterday.  I prefer in the 90s with overcast clouds rather than the 100+ degree days we've been having lately.

Eliana is regularly on the move!

 I know that I posted pictures of the same type of flower, but they both turned out so well that I couldn't decide which one to post.

On our walk I explained pine cones to Eliana.  She was fascinated.  Eliana is one to show me things, but not to share.  She likes to hold things up for me to see, but that doesn't mean she is offering for me to hold them. ;)

A few weeks back I collected my classroom library that I had been loaning to the fourth grade teacher.  She is moving to a different grade, and it was time for me to collect my books since I am not returning next year.  I'll be honest that the hundreds of books stayed in boxes for a couple of weeks in the corner of my dining room.  It has been difficult for me to give away my books, especially since in this case it is in part of the continued process of handing over teaching in the classroom for this season.  So, to make room for more books in Eliana's room, I got out all of her board books off of the shelves.  She thought she was in heaven!  I'm so glad that she loves books!  I'm not for sure what I'm going to do with all of her board books.  Currently I got another tub for them to be in the living room, but I'm starting to feel the need to put something, anything back in her room to regain my sanity levels.  One blessing of having so many books to share is that I totally made Michele's kids' day yesterday when I brought over a large box of books!  Theresa squealed over and over again with pure delight.  It made my day very special.

Miracles in the Old Testament

I haven't shared a SOAP in a very long time.  I have a brief description of SOAP on the right side bar.


S: "See! For the LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.'  So the people rested on the seventh day."
Exodus 16:29-30


O:Moses is sharing with the people about manana.  They have recently left slavery in Egypt where they saw the devastating plagues, crossed the Red Sea which later swallowed up Pharaoh and his army, and are now in the desert.  They don't have a regular food source, so God provides them with a manana six days of the week.  That in and of itself is an AMAZING miracle.  God made it clear that the people were to totally rely on Him.  They could not gather extra and store it because when they did, the manana got worms and went sour.  However, here is another miracle.  On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much so that they'd be able to rest on the seventh day.  The food didn't go bad on that night.  


A: God knows the needs of His people.  He knew the Hebrews needed food, but they also needed rest.  He provided for both.  Not all of the Hebrews trusted God for that first seventh day.  They went out looking for manana, but there was none to be found.  


God still knows the needs of His people.  Do I trust that He can provide?


P: Dear God,
Thank you for your Word which continues to changes lives thousands of years after it has been written.  Help me to trust you.
In Your Son's Name,
Amen

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Thanks Trish for getting such a cute dress for Eliana!  If you can tell, she wan't too big of a fan of the grass touching her legs.  She had her right leg up for most of the shoot.  The good thing is the grass helped her to stay in one spot. 

She was 9 days old on July 4th, 2010.

 I can't believe that she is over a year already.  Last year at this time she still wasn't supposed to come for another two weeks.  We celebrated with Chet, Terry, Michele, Jeremy, their kiddos, Sherry, Perry, Rachel, and Ruli.  It was such a pleasant time then since I was still a brand new mommy, and I wasn't up to much.

Look at how small she used to be!!!  She fit snuggly in just one of GramE's hands!!!

 Oh the many faces of our little one.  She cracks us up regularly!!!

 I can't remember if my friend Brandy or Eliana's Aunt Aimee made this bow.  We have two Fourth of July bows, so I'm not sure who made which one.

We helped Eliana to stand up. During this photo shoot, she squatted down and then stood back up TWO times!!!  We were very impressed.  She took her first two steps on Wednesday.  It won't be long before she is walking everywhere!!!

 We love our precious little girl!!!

In El Salvador, many people shared in her smiling moments and in her serious moments.

It made sense to me to compare one serious picture with another one. 

Eliana wasn't up to smiling since she was highly curious about a man walking through the parking lot.

You can see last year's July 4th post here.

More Stories from El Salvador- June 13th

Just in case I haven't convinced you that El Salvador is a beautiful place, here are some more pictures to prove it!

Impatiens flowers were found in many flower pots at Casa Clementina.

The rest of the pictures on this post were taken at Paso de Alaska.  We wrote about that adventure here. 

It was significantly cooler up in the mountains.  Clouds gently wandered through the mountain side.  This was a major blessing at the time because it had been very humid and hot when we first arrived.  

You're looking at coffee trees.  El Salvador is know for its coffee.  I don't care for coffee because it makes me jittery, but Kyle loves it!!!  Shrubs and other trees are planted in between the coffee trees to protect them from the wind and moisture.  

Here are some more pictures of the high ropes course.  I really did enjoy my time up there!

This is the same course but from a different angle.

Awe or (AHHHHH!!! depending upon the person), the pendulum.  I didn't try it for a lack of time. This Oklahoma team member in a harness was hosted up and back like he is in a giant invisible swing.  Then he pulled on a cord and swung forward.  I don't remember if he screamed, but I know that some people did.  I'll be honest that I was okay that there wasn't time for me to do this.  There was something similar at the high ropes course at Hume Lake with the exception that at Hume you walk off a high platform and then swing.  I stood on the edge of the platform and fell backwards with my eyes closed because I knew I wouldn't willingly walk off the platform with my eyes open.  It was quite disturbing as I waited for the tug of the harness.  It seemed to take too long in my opinion.

Here are the roofs of the community below Paso de Alaska.

We found cutting open a banana and spooning it out like it was a cup was a much less messy way of serving Eliana bananas.  She sure does love bananas!!!

Let me tell you a little story about us and hydrangeas.  A friend bought some beautiful blue hydrangeas for me on the Mother's Day when I was pregnant with Eliana.  They were beautiful.  The heat here didn't help them to last though.  We were able to revive them a few times, but finally our lack of care combine with many 100+ degree days killed them.  I was very sad.   They are such a pretty flower.

More Stories from El Salvador- June 19th

There are still so many stories I want to share from El Salvador.  I haven't shared anything about the middle of our trip yet, so I'll just jump into the evening of June 19th. 

Eliana wasn't much of a fan of traveling this way, but it worked for short periods of time.  The main problem was that it is so humid that Kyle and Eliana would overheat each other.

It is quite common to have traffic circles.  We used this traffic circle as our spot to air up the giant inflatable and to show a Christian movie. 

The inflatable naturally draws children, and parents came out to see the spectacle.  

You may be wondering how so many children know about the inflatable.  Well, there are a couple of answers for that question.  When we initially get to a new site, the North Americans teamed up with translators from the church and headed into the neighborhood in small groups.  We knocked on doors and told kids about the inflatable and about the movie we'd be showing.  It was important to let them know that it was free!!!  We also shared a tract the started with La Gran Pregunta, also know as The Big Question.  We asked people if they were to die, if they knew they'd go to heaven.  Their answers lead the rest of our conversation.  The hope was to share with them that we can't do enough good things to go into heaven, because we aren't perfect.  God is perfect, and He sent His Son Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin by dying on the cross.  If we want a relationship with God, then we can ask Him to forgive us of our sins and be Lord of our life.  We can do this because Jesus died, but he rose again three days later.

Word quickly spreads from one kid to another about the inflatable.  Plus, we played music from the traffic circle and that helped to draw people.

 When we initially went to this location on the 18th, it began to rain.  We weren't able to set up the inflatable or show the movie.  However, we were able to go knock on a lot of doors.  Several of these boys followed my group.  I, being a former teacher, found it so much easier to talk to kids.  I was able to talk quite a bit to the boy on the far right in the red shirt.  He said that he already went to the church that we were encouraging people to go to.  I asked him what his favorite Bible story was.  He said the creation story.  When I asked him what his favorite day of creation was, he didn't know.  A translator read Genesis 1 to him.  He decided that the fourth day when God made the moon was his favorite!  I was glad to see him and his buddies on the 19th!

This little girl was adorable.  You can't really tell from the picture, but she has beautiful brown ringlets.  Maybe one day Eliana will have hair like her.  The little one and her mom had the opportunitity to watch the movie.  After the movie, a black and white drama was performed that depicted creation, man's choice to sin, and redemption through Jesus's death and resurrection.    

While the movie was playing, we got some pupusas.  It is a staple food for many El Salvadorians.  It is made from a corn or rice mixture of dough.  Cheese, beans, and/or meat is stuffed into the middle of the dough.  Then the dough is patted flat like a pancake and cooked on a griddle.  The ladies at pupusarias often flip the pupusas with their bare hands.  The are steaming hot!!!  Kyle had been talking about pupusas since he came in Januaray.  I'm glad that we were able to try them.

This little one has eyes as big as Eliana's.  That is so rare to see!

Kevin and Javier joined us for pupusas.  We learned a lot about El Salvador by sharing a meal with them.