We did it, we made it to the six month mark! 

There are two families at our church who both have two daughters who are the same age apart as Ellie & Josie  (Around 18.5 months)  and they both told us, "The first six months are the hardest."  They both also said how they have loved having their girls so close in age.  (The girls are now middle school aged so they would know I guess :) Noah and I reminded each other of this many times when the days got crazy. "We're still in the first six months : ) We expected this to be hard!"

When Josie was born, Ellie was JUST learning to walk and could do almost NOTHING for herself. Yet, it wasn't like having twins... as a newborn and an 18 months daily lives look VERY different!  It was a big adjustment! It has been a challenging season, but a very sweet one as well! 

Add to the normal "life with two under two" Josie is our little spit up queen... She is finally starting to slow down some, but I'm not exaggerating when I say for her first six months of life she spit up after every feeding, every side, nearly every hour, ALL OF THE TIME!  I don't think 24 hours ever went by when I didn't do a load of laundry to keep up on burpcloths for her! It never seemed to bother her or make her cry, but it was constant.  She somehow managed to spit up in such a way that I would have to change my entire outfit after some feedings... right down to my underwear! Talk about hard to keep up!

Looking back we have come along way. In the midst of the chaos I have truly done my best to focus on the girls and enjoy them, as they grow up far too fast!  We are know proud to say we have a six month darling who is learning so much and gives the best giggles!  and a 2 year old "helper" who is incredibly verbal. We have two healthy, beautiful little girls and we are very grateful!


Now here's to the next many, many years :)

As we prepare to move to Whitewater, Wisconsin we've spent lots of time organizing, packing and preparing. If you know my husband, you know he wouldn't neglect our website. As you can see by our new and improved website he's given the same care and attention to our website as he has to our home :)

Enjoy!

We've updated you recently on some Navigator students who play on Fighting Illini sports teams.

We just found out that one of them, Justin Parr, was named Big Ten MVP in baseball!

Check out the article here.  It gives a nod to Justin's character as well. We're thankful for Justin and excited to see what the Lord has in store for him.

Have a great weekend.  In three weeks, we'll be in Whitewater!

-Noah

I think the past two years of our life could be well described by our stroller usage.

After we found out we were pregnant, our dear friends Norm & Katie gave us their carseat/stroller combo. It was only used for one child and in nice shape. We were SO grateful! Although it wasn't the combo I would have selected, it was free, easy to use, and nice and compact for our small car. I remember staring at that carseat for months imagining it holding my little girl. We were grateful.

A year later we were preparing to go to Spring Hill STP and aware that we would probably need a more durable stroller. (The one we had was more like a glorified umbrella stroller) and would be hard to maneuver on gravel roads and all over camp as we trekked to meals, our cabin, etc.  We purchased a single jogging stroller on craigslist for $30. Maybe not my first choice of stroller, but it was in good shape, a great deal, and served us well.  We were grateful.

Oddly enough before we were even pregnant with Josie, we saw the double stroller version that went with the carseat/stroller combo we already had on craigslist. It was in like-new condition, super cheap and hard to resist. Funny that months after we bought it, we found out we were expecting and would have a newborn while our oldest was just learning to walk.  Honestly this stroller has its share of problems and isn't one you'd want to push on a long walk, but it worked for our outings throughout the winter. You could snap Josie's carseat in and push Ellie around when she was tired. It worked. We were grateful.

As the weather gets nice and we're eager to get outside and go on long walks, get to the park, and enjoy SUMMER, I've been frustrated that we have THREE strollers, and none seem to really fit our needs. I feel so ungrateful, when I've wanted to be GRATEFUL. 

<Let me tell you how much I love craigslist... here is a shameless plug!> It's been a big week. We sold both the single jogging stroller and the double stroller for the SAME PRICE we bought them for over a year ago. That's what you call a great deal! That money added up to be over half of what we needed to buy another USED stroller off of craigslist- a beautiful Schwinn Tourismo double jogging stroller.

WE ARE GRATEFUL! (And laughing at how much life changes every few months with little kids!) 

What do you think? I think they might be sisters :)  (L- Josie, R- Ellie) 

Our "pumpkin pie" as Ellie has officially nicknamed her is turning 6 months TOMORROW! How did that happen? I'm so grateful the Lord brought her into our family at just the perfect time. It has been Such a special season of life to get to know Ms. Josie!

She rolled over for the first time today (Go Josie!)  I know Ellie is not the "normal standard" for gross motor development, so I find myself really anticipating some of these gross motor milestones!

Josie has started sleeping 12 hour nights!
She's moved to 3 naps a day
She LOVES cereal while we have supper (and for the first few nights, Ellie thought she needed to have cereal for supper too :)
She started sweet potatoes yesterday and didn't even make a face- ate them all like she's been eating them her whole life :)
She LOVES being in on all of the action and watching Ellie play. She' most unhappy if she gets left alone in the room.
As long as she's sleeping and eating well, she's a very content and happy girl.
She's found her feet and loves to "touch her toes" as Ellie says.
She loves to use her voice and Ellie loves when  she talks. Ellie's first full sentence was "Josie talking to me"
She has the most BEAUTIFUL eyes and eyelashes- seriously!

We love you Josie!

22 Days

I get a pit in my stomach just thinking about it.  We have 22 days left in Champaign.

We have grown up here.

We have doubled our family here.

We have become parents here.

We have made great, great GREAT friends here.

We have spent 4 years with a special class of students here.

We have made lots of memories (and lots of mistakes) here.

We have learned SO much here.

We have LOVED it here.

We came here expecting it to be a “pit stop” in our journey of life... and instead found ourselves putting down roots.  It’s going to be hard to leave.

People keep asking, “Are you ready to move?”

Physically am I ready? NO- we have so much packing to do!

Emotionally am I ready? NO- I love it here.

But am I ready? In some strange way , I feel like the Lord is making me ready.  It’s not going to be easy, but I feel a peace which surpasses all understanding preparing me for what is to come.

We got some books for Ellie from the library about moving. As I read them to her, I could feel my stomach begin to turn. Ugh, it just hurts my heart to think about leaving. I can tell she was really thinking as I read 5 or 6 books to her about moving/a new house. She was picking up on the theme. She was so focused she forgot to eat her snack in front of her (unusual!). We were talking about our new house and I told her “Ellie is going to move to a new house” 

She responded “Daddy move to a new house?”

(Me) “Yes!”

“Mommy move to a new house?”

(Me) “Yes!”

“Josie move to a new house?”

(Me) “Yes!”

(Ellie) “Ok!


Thank you Lord for some helpful perspective- through the mouth of my 2 year old.

“Sundays are Hard”

Shortly after Ellie was born someone told me, “Sundays are hard.” When Ellie was a newborn and slept in my arms through church, it didn’t seem hard at all! When she no longer wanted to sleep in my arms and missed a nap, it seemed a little hard as she was missing a nap.  When we started having to wake her from her nap to take her to church, that was inconvenient and seemed hard at the time (If you know me, I’m all about my schedule!) Looking back, I have to laugh because I had no idea what was coming!

Let me explain.


Get girls ready + try to get all dressed up at once with no major spit up on us
Arrive at church
Noah drops me and Ellie off and goes to park the car (it’s a bit of a walk from parking lot to church at our church)
Help Ellie walk up the stairs. Every week someone comments “Those stairs look pretty hard for her” or “She’s working hard at those stairs” (I want to respond by saying YES she is, and if you would’ve seen her 6 months ago when she was taking her first steps, you’d be proud of her too!)
Take Ellie to the bathroom
Bring Ellie to her class
Meet Noah at the door and unload Josie
Go into sanctuary with Josie
Take Josie out when she gets fussy
Feed Josie
Return to sanctuary with Josie to give her time to spit up (it happens EVERY feeding, I know the drill)
Get spit up all over
Go clean up Josie and myself
Take Josie to nursery
Go sit by Noah for the rest of the service
Do my best to FOCUS
Go get Ellie, take her to the bathroom
Pick up Josie from the nursery
Say hi to friends
Pack up
Noah goes to get the car and picks us up


Yes, Sundays ARE hard. But I'm grateful, and I truly have nothing to complain about. More than anything, I'm finding it pretty laughable that this is the definition of me "going to church" :)

We've been blessed to have some student-athletes involved in our ministry...students from the baseball, track, swimming/diving, and volleyball teams.

This article appeared in last Sunday's paper.  One player from each sport was interviewed.  Navigator student Jordan Parr was baseball's representative.  He ended up repping Jesus Christ more than anything.  Great job Jordan! (scroll down the page about 4/5 of the way).

Jordan's twin brother just completed a hitting streak of 33 games (an Illini record!), and is currently second in the whole NCAA in batting average!  It's exciting to watch these guys succeed on the field as they seek to be a light for Christ to their teams.

Pray that their light would impact many!

Four weeks from today, we'll be moving to Whitewater!  Whoa!

-Noah

This is the phrase we often use to describe our ministry to those who aren't familiar with it.  The point being that while our ministry includes many "programmatic" elements like large-group meetings, conferences, workshops, etc -- the bread and butter of our ministry is sharing life with our students.  We point to Jesus and the way He shared life with His disciples...

Many times this involves meeting across the table from an individual student, teaching, encouraging, exhorting, and opening the Scriptures together.  Sometimes it means sharing the gospel side-by-side with a friend or stranger.  Sometimes it means one of our guys helping me replace the storm windows on our house with screens, or a girl helping Katie prepare a meal for an event.

The end of the semester and graduation of many of our students has opened up many unique opportunities for life-on-life ministry.  These last two weeks have or will involve:

• attending an Illinois baseball game to watch the three Nav students who play on the team (one's now a record holder!)
• a graduation ceremony for one of our students
• an engagement party for two of our students
• a ceremony commissioning one of our grads as an officer in the US Air Force

Would Jesus have attended the ceremony if one of his disciples was graduating from college?  I think so!  We're blessed to take part closely in our students lives, often as their "second parents".


In other news, we move to Whitewater in just over a month!  whew!  Your prayers are much appreciated.  Have a great weekend!

-Noah