A talk with Eliana

I've read that babies can start cooing by 6 weeks. At 10 weeks Eliana is a bit behind, but today she gave it her best effort :). Turn your volume up!

Summer to Winter

Nate, Eliana and I flew back to the USA on Nov 25th. The flights from Sydney to San Fransisco to Chicago to Grand Rapids, MI, went beautifully. Nate and I are slowly adjusting to the 16 hour time difference while Eliana has been a little champion and has quickly settled into her new routine. Thanks be to God for his answers to your prayers! The different time zone has been accompanied by a different season. Last week we were swimming in the ocean and this week we are shovelling snow!

This is us on the beach our last night in Aus. The water was so beautiful and warm!

And this is the gorgous but bitter December weather in Michigan!

The Lakelins

Here are a few photos of our last night with the Lakelins. What a wonderful year we had with my sister and her family. We are so thankful to God for bringing us to them and for their never ending sacrificial giving and love. We learnt so much from them about godly parenting, servanthood, hard work, homekeeping, marriage, contentment, cheerful generosity, selflessness, joyful sacrifice, trust in God, love for Christ and how to function as a devoted Chrisitan in the real world, to name but a few. We had so many laughs and fun times together. We miss them dearly and look forward to the day when we can all sit down over a Milo again.

Jason - 15 months

Wesley - 4 years

AJ -nearly 6 years

The Pipers return

Here are the Pipers, our beloved friends whom we worked with in Mozambique. They are the reason I (Jenni) went to Mozambique, to home-school their 2 boys along with 5 other wonderful kids. They also played a big part in setting me up with Nate. With their gentle nudging and countless morning tea and dinner invites they watched us go from acquaintance to friendship to engagement.
They arrived back in Wollongong, Australia, 5 days before we left for the States. We were so blessed to be able to see them again - and their 3 children who seem double the height they were 2.5 years ago! We love you Pipers!

The first 6 weeks

The first 6 weeks have been wonderful. Parents often say that when the child comes, it was like they were always there. How true this is. I was half marveling yesterday as we went on errands that it felt quite normal to see Nate pushing a pram with our daughter in it!

Eliana is a beautiful happy baby. She smiles daily now and there is nothing like a baby's smile. It makes you laugh and melt at the same time. While she is a happy baby, she still has her fair share of fussiness! She loves to keep reminding her mumma and dadda that they need to constantly turn to God for wisdom and dependence.

Eliana turns 6 weeks next Wednesday. She gets a 6 week check up and immunisations. To us she seems like a very long but skinny baby (apart from her double chin:)) so I'm looking forward to seeing how she is growing. Eliana has untamable hair that Aunty Wooz has appropriately labelled tidal wave hair. Her eyes are a dark, undefinable colour but seem like they'll turn dark brown. Her fingers are super long and I hope that she'll be keen to use them to play the guitar and/or piano one day.

I love the photo below. Eliana is 4 weeks and it's the only one of all three of us taken since the hospital. It's almost a true to life photo. I'm all ruffled and bed-headed from sleeping in after the 11pm, 3am and 6 am feeds and Eliana is loudly letting us know that she's ready for her 9am feed, yet we are all very happy. The only thing that is different from real life is that Nate's head is usually all there.

There are more photos of Eliana on the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=149786&id=543241773&l=8968ebe461

It's a girl!

Our little Eliana Ruth Schoen was born on Wednesday, 30th September at 9:14 am (Aussie time). She weighed 8lb (3.6kg) and was 49 cm long (don't know in inches). We are so thankful to our God for a beautiful healthy baby. She feeds and sleeps like a champion!

I know she's not really smiling in the below photo but she sure does look happy to be on daddy's shoulder!

The task of raising such a small, dependant child is an amazing privilege. We are loving every bit, even the round the clock feedings!

We have such a great love for Eliana. Oh, how it has deepened my awe of God to know that he gave His Only, perfect Son to pay the penalty for sinners! Praise Him!

Lovely Lisa

In my first months as a Christian I was encouraged to form a prayer triplet. So each week I met with 2 wonderful girls, Clare and Lisa, who were such an example to me with their lives, honesty, prayers and love for God and His Word. Last year Lisa left her home comforts and moved to Thailand to home-school missionary children. Within her first few weeks overseas she met Dave. Yesterday they married. Does the story sound familiar???? :)
Congrats my lovely Lisa.

Below I am 39 weeks pregnant. While I am very ready and excited to meet our baby, I'm glad the bub held off so that I could witness the joining of Lisa and Dave in marriage. For 2 weeks now the baby's head has been engaged. On Friday the midwife said everything is looking great and the baby could come any day now. We are just waiting for God's perfect timing!

Dad and Mum Larter have come from Dubbo (6 hours away) to stay with us for a month to be with me when the baby comes. So right now there are 6 adults and 3 kids (soon to be 4) living under the same roof. It is such a wonderful privilege to be surrounded by family. I think our nephews enjoy it the most :)

Labour t-shirt

The hospital that I'm giving birth at asks that you bring some comfy clothing to labour in. I didn't have anything large enough that was ok to ruin so Nate found the perfect cheap mansized t-shirt. Hopefully it should give the midwives a bit of a laugh.

Nate has a job!

Just when we thought it was impossible for Nate to get a job (we only have 2.5 months left in Australia), God does a miracle. The hospital rang Nate up and offered him a job for 2.5 months and they are more than happy for Nate to have time off when I have the baby! What a wonderufl provider God is. Nate's bosses also admitted that it's not the most stimulating job (a lot of scanning documents) so they encouraged the workers to listen to their mp3 players. Nate is loving this opportunity to work. Praise God:)

My sister threw me a wonderful baby shower a week ago. It was so nice to celebrate our baby and have friends pray for us. At present I am 38.5 weeks preggers. I can finally say the baby is due next week! Thursday next week! We are very ready and excited to meet our bub.

Below I am 37 weeks pregnant. When I saw that photo I was shocked at how massive I am!

Relaxing

Besides a bit of bush walking at the Blue Mountains, Nate and I got to enjoy heaps of relaxing. We sampled some of the finest local apple pie, scones with fresh cream and homemade mulberry jam and coffee. (And we easily finished the whole bowl of fresh cream...mmmmm....)

And we also spent heaps of time trying our hand at art using the easels Nate made. Below is Nate in fine form. I bet you want to know what he's painting....

This is the beginning of something wonderful I think. However, Nate will soon be immersed in study, work and fatherhood so we might have to wait a few years for him to have the time to let this talent bloom.

Above is the desk top easel that Nate whipped up so that we could do art at the same time. What a man.

Our Final Fling

Nate and I headed to the Blue Mountains to stay at a friend's holiday house for a week. It was probably our last fling as a couple "married without kids". And it was soooo wonderful. The Blue Mountains are the best "mountains" Australia has and, while not quite the Rockies, they are rugged, vast and, well, true blue.

On our first day we hiked around The Three Sisters...

Echo point lookout, Katoomba...

We hiked down The Giant Staircase (our knees and legs started shaking only halfway down)Into the valley

And then back up again (and boy could I feel my calf muscles for the next few days!). This was me at 33 weeks. I've finally "popped out". Aaaah, I love the Australian bush.

Nate's plants

Here is my gorgeous hubby working on the new art easel.

And here is some evidence of Nate's green thumb. Below are the mint and basil that have sprung up from the seeds he had sown.

And below are Nate's sugar snap peas. Last night a hefty wind blew half of them down but Nate was quick to string them back up first thing this morning. I love watching the way Nate cares for plants, how he studies how they grow and how pruning makes them flourish. I also love thinking about how these plants sprang up from a tiny seed. God is a wonderful, creative designer. How generous he is to give us such a beautiful world rich in colour and intricate goodness!