Our Christmas

We are currently in Florida enjoying some warmer weather and ocean views. We have had a wonderful time at every place we have been over the past week and our kids have been the best little travelers even with a few Delta delays along the way.

On our way to Illinois for Christmas we tried out our new carrier with Hailey in the airport. I loved our Baby Bjorn when Eli and Hailey were little but it is not friendly on the back with bigger babies. I settled on this Ergo carrier that holds babies up to 40 lbs. and it felt great all day long. It took Hailey a little while to warm back up to a carrier but she ended up liking it by the end of the day.

Marc's mom found Hailey a beautiful little dress for the Christmas Eve service at church and we all enjoyed getting dressed up and taking some family pictures before heading out.

It is lots of fun when all the cousins are together.

We opened a few gifts after church and then saved the rest for Christmas morning! Eli got so excited for himself and everyone else opening presents. It was really cute to watch.

These two kids loved their time with Mama Reenie and Papa over the past week, and Marc and I enjoyed the free babysitting. We were able to get away for a hot chocolate date and also a movie night which was so fun for us. :)

Thanks to the Carrigans for giving us a wonderful Christmas with lots of memories. We'll miss you so much while we are gone and look forward to seeing you again in June!

Off We Go

On Tuesday we started a cross country trek that will take us from Kansas, to Illinois, to Florida (where we are meeting up with all my family from Arkansas), and then back to Kansas again as we try to squeeze in some time with all our family. We decided to do some small gift opening with our kids this past Monday night before leaving for Kansas City the next morning to start this journey. We have tried to keep gift giving with our kids simple for several reasons but mostly because we desire to penetrate their hearts more this time of year with the reason we have to celebrate. I was reading this blog last week and absolutely fell in love with this party idea and think it would be such a fun tradition to have a birthday party for Jesus every year with our kids and our friend's kids. Here are a few pics of our kids opening up some presents from mommy and daddy a little early this year.

Look at those sweet, sweet faces.

Hailey got this baby doll from the fellowship director and his wife. They were missionaries in Kenya and Rwanda for several years. They said that every little girl that visits Africa needs an "African" baby doll. Hailey adores this doll and it was the first one to get a ride in her new stroller. :)

On Tuesday afternoon we headed out to Kansas City for a night's stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. I had won a free night at my work Christmas party last year but it took us a while to find a good time to get away as a family and to feel like both of our kids would enjoy the water park. They both had a ball. Eli was even able to ride the big slides in an inner tube sitting in front of Marc (on top of his feet) which he loved.

 Hailey had so much fun. I had no idea she would love it so much.

 There were a few little kid slides that Eli was able to go down by himself.

 At bedtime every night they read stories in the lobby and have snow falling down from the ceiling on the kids below. Then Rowdy the Reindeer paid us all a visit and even stuck around for some picture time afterwards.

We really enjoyed our stay. I think one night was perfect for us considering the ages of our kids but maybe we will go to another Great Wolf Lodge again when they get a little bit older.

Then, on Wednesday we flew out of KC and headed to Bloomington-Normal, Illinois where we will remain until after Christmas. We hope you all have a blessed Christmas this year. I will try to get some more posts in after the holidays! Merry Christmas!

Change is a Comin'

I can't believe that I am finished working full-time. Thursday was my last day at the clinic and the last day I plan on being a full-time working mom. Unless something unforeseen happens, I only plan on working PRN in our next city to keep my license up. I am thrilled beyond words to get to spend more time at home with these sweet kids and doing some other things I love like cooking.

Which brings me to the next piece of "change" that has come upon us. Towards the end of summer we went and visited a clinic in Memphis, TN. We both loved the people that were working there as well as the clinic's mission to serve the poor and needy in Christ's name. We prayed through our decision a lot and Marc eventually signed a contract with them in the early fall to begin work in late summer 2012. I had mentally prepared myself for warmer winters and closer proximity to some of my family in Arkansas and the friends I went to college with who have stayed in the Memphis area. And to be honest, I was really itching to get back to the South. It feels to me like I imagine a Snuggie feels (though I can say for sure I do not own one of those things), just comfortable.

Marc had asked me on a few occasions over the past few years what I would think about living in Peoria, Illinois (where Marc was born and many of his family still live.) I always answered him with a very prompt (yet polite) "no way." We had lived in Springfield, Illinois (just an hour south of Peoria) together for Marc's last two years of medical school after we were married. I'll go ahead and admit that I am a very poor sport about cold weather. We had street parking for the two years that we lived there and it was brutal during winter. Marc was in the hospital early many mornings so I was stuck scraping off snow or melting off ice with buckets of hot water. I remember pulling away from our house in a Budget rental truck as we headed to Wichita thinking, "Well, I won't ever be living through another winter like that again." Hmmm. How often in our lives do we tell God we are not going to do something and then he asks us to do that very thing?

I am sure you get where this is going, but fast forward to November 12th. Marc had just spent the weekend in Louisville for an annual medical missions conference and came home to share with me some shocking news. "I think we are supposed to live in Peoria for the next few years." What??? I mean what about the... and did you forget about the... and don't you remember about the.... I was full of lots of reasons that this seemed crazy, but I agreed to pray about it and agreed that Marc could "look" for job opportunities. As I was praying (selfishly I'll confess) that nothing would work out while Marc began seeking employment, God began to move mountains before my eyes. It became undeniably obvious to me that Marc was right and our ministry was meant to be amongst family and friends in Peoria. The director with Christ Community Health Services in Memphis was very gracious to release Marc from his contract and give him his blessing as well. Then, two days later, on December 7th, Methodist Medical Center flew Marc out to interview him for a job. He was given an offer for that job as well as another great job within two days. See what I mean when I say moving mountains??? After heavily weighing the two jobs, this past Wednesday Marc accepted an offer with Methodist to come on as faculty with their family medicine residency program in Peoria. It is a wonderful fit for Marc's giftings and God has already brought alongside Marc another faculty physician who was a missionary in India for seven years (and also played football years ago at the same college Marc played at!) and has offered to be a mentor for Marc. I am looking forward to meeting his wife and kids when we visit in a few weeks for Christmas.

I am totally at peace with this change at this point, but it has been a painful process for me to say the least to get here (and for Marc as well to watch me pour out my tears to him over the past several weeks). I can say for sure that through this time of having to trust and depend on God my faith has grown even deeper in a beautiful way. This is probably the "wordiest" post I have done in a while, but I felt like it would be much easier to write all this out once for our family and friends who read our blog and may not know all that we have been up to in the last month.

It has certainly been busy with this job change and our preparations for our upcoming trip in January to Niger. Marc thought we should go out and celebrate after my last day of work on Thursday. We went out to eat with Eli and Hailey and then drove around to look at Christmas lights afterwards. It was a wonderful night.

We have been trying to break Eli's thumb sucking. We started with some cool band aids as a "reminder." It worked well for a few days but now he just takes them off when he wants his thumb back. Oh, well. :)

Life is good. Even if it has to be one spoonful at a time.

And the Packing Begins

I can't believe that we are a month away from leaving for Africa. I have piles of stuff shoved into most closets and we have started purchasing several trunks to put it all in. We are planning on taking 2 trunks per person which amounts to 400 lbs. of stuff. It sounded like a ton to me at first, but I am quickly finding it is not that much when you are going somewhere with two children for five months. Oh, how I love the things God is teaching me through this process. :) Trusting. Depending, Believing. Walking hand in hand with the One who has called us to be His children. While the lessons we learn in life can sometimes be very difficult, it is so fulfilling to look back and to see how far God has brought us.

My "To Do" lists are scattered all over the place. I make one every time I have some down time but can never seem to find the same list to add to so I have about five lists scattered about in purses, my car, our house, and at work. I am not sure how much of it will get accomplished but I know that whatever needs to happen will and the rest probably doesn't matter that much anyways. :) I was able to mark off a few things on my list this past week.

I ordered both of the kids some African sun hats from Amazon. These Sunday Afternoon hats were suggested by one of the missionary moms for good protection from the sun. They are floppy to cover the neck and shoulders and are supposed to reflect some of the harmful UV rays. We are going to have some very hot weather while we are there, mostly in the last two months of our visit so I think these will come in handy. Eli and Hailey LOVE them. Hailey would have worn hers to bed tonight if we had let her. :)

I have also taken care of most of Hailey's diapers for our trip. We are planning on doing half cloth and half disposable. However, some of her disposable diapers are on the top list of things that might get booted if we are limited on space. They take up lots of room. After talking to a cloth diapering friend (thanks Jo!) and a lady at the cloth diapering store in town I decided to go with diaper covers over the prefolds so I can hopefully reuse the cover throughout the day and just change the prefold inside. I tried one on Hailey tonight and it worked great. She didn't even seem to notice the difference. It is tough getting the cloth diaper part folded just right with a moving target. I think I need some more practice. :)

There is still lots more to do but we are so excited for what awaits us in just a month!

Arkansas Christmas

We knew we wouldn't see my family anymore before Christmas so we decided to work in some Christmas cheer with our Thanksgiving weekend. When we arrived to my parents' house last week my dad already had the lights up and my mom had the Christmas tree decorated with presents wrapped underneath. It was great getting to celebrate some of our traditions with them even if it was a little early. :)

Since before Marc and I were married my family has taken a trip every year to Fayetteville to look at the square decorated with lights for Christmas. I have a picture of Marc and me sitting on a bench 7 years ago sipping hot chocolate on the square about a month before we became engaged. It has been such a fun tradition for our family. Over the years the activities they have at the square have become more elaborate. There are now pony rides, camel rides, horse drawn carriage rides, as well as some fresh kettle corn. We headed to Fayetteville the day after Thanksgiving to eat some pizza and enjoy some of the fun.

 Eli enjoyed riding the pony with daddy's help

 Teaching Eli how to smile AND keep his eyes open has been quite a challenge.

 Such a cute little family they make... and they will be adding to it next June with their first baby!

 It took Hailey a few days to warm up to everyone (she still has some separation/stranger anxiety issues) but Papa D loved the time he had with her once she finally let him hold her.

 Who says you have to go to Africa to ride a camel???

 Eli ADORES his Uncle Brandon.

My mom and I had found these Gingerbread train kits at Bed, Bath, and Beyond a month ago that we thought would be a fun project for Eli and Tucker. However, we never found the time to start the project until after our family had left. Eli loves art stuff and this was lots of fun for him to do and a wonderful lesson for me in patience and flexibility. Ha! :)

 The final project! Good job Eli.

We topped off our Christmas celebrations opening some wondeful gifts. Most of the clothes my parents gave the kids this year were things my mom and I had found in after summer sales. My mom kept commenting how weird it felt to be buying summer clothes for Christmas but I think we will be glad to have them as we try to dress the kids for the 120 degree dry desert heat in Niger.

Stacey and Brandon opened up some presents for Baby Feagans. We are so excited for them!

 This Cars themed lego set was Eli's favorite gift. It now holds a stiff competition with his train stuff. :)

And since I have already overloaded this blog post with 20+ pictures I think I will just finish it off with pictures the Arkansas Razorback basketball game we went to our last night in Arkansas. Eli and Hailey had so much fun taking it all in and dancing to all the music (at least for the first half). My mom caught Eli the next day saying "Woo pig sooie" while playing with his trains. :)

We feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful week making memories with our family. Thank you Lord for all that you provide us.