Remember me next time your sleeping

I am welcoming coffee back into my life. And by welcoming it, I mean chugging it, and clinging to Jesus. 

I am about to enter the busiest season of ministry with InterVarsity. I am so excited. It is going to be hard work, long hours, oh...and add some hard work to that. NSO time can be a time of little sleep due to the amount of campus work, and then going home to the family and household stuff. 

God has a sense of timing that I will not quite understand. I kept praying today, "Lord, why  do you think is a good time for us to have a baby that doesn't sleep? Would this summer have been much better when I was MUCH LESS busy?" 

I am clinging to the prayers of my colleagues as they prayed for me, praying that I would have the rest I need, that I would fully depend on God and that our new baby would indeed sleep. 

Baby? What baby? Earlier this week, we received a placement for a 3 week old boy, Mr. J. Tonight we picked him up. He is great in every way minus the sleeping. He will only sleep if I am holding him, great for him, bad for me. 

Would you pray that Mr. J would get some deep rest, acclimate to our house, and feel comfortable? Pray for my attitude, strength and rest as I dive into New Student Outreach. 

 

Things you may not know about me, nor do you probably care to know.

1. I hate when people don't clean off their dishes and leave the food to harden. (Ahem...coughcoughhusbandcoughcough).

2. I often find myself day dreaming about: where we could move next, photo ideas, what it would look like if God really did use me to change the world,  and chocolate.

3. I will never ever ever be excited about church buildings. Not only am I not excited for it, it is a point of contention deep in my soul. So much so that I shudder when I think about it. So much so that every once in a  while Jon asks if we should give extra to the building fund in the offering. And then I give him the death look. And then he laughs. And then I realize he was joking and I laugh with him and am glad that he knows me.

4. I am becoming a morning person. Well, its still hard to get out of bed, but once I am out of bed, I do like it.

5. I have an elliptical now. I love it, and have lost 10lbs so far this summer. Only 40 to go to my goal:)

6. I love expositional Bible teaching and manusript Bible study. Wait...if you know me at all, you know this already.

7. I cleaned out my mess of my attic/closet a few weekends ago. I have a maid this summer and she helps out a lot. Just kidding. I can't afford a maid, but we do have a college student living with us that pays us in cleaning and babysitting.

8. Two nights ago, I may or may not have eaten half a pan of brownies. See #2.

9.  If we had tons of money and could travel anywhere I would travel to the following places:
     -Greece and Italy in one trip
     -Cruise--carribbean, bahamas, etc....
     - Oregon to see my sweet friend Krista
     -New Zealand- we have friends there, so free housing, right?
 
10. One day, maybe God will lead us to adopt from Ethiopia. Or maybe God just brings it to my mind all the time so I can pray more.

11. I can't garden worth a lick.

12. I hate when people touch my feet.

The end. Back to photo editing:)

And I proudly accept the "Mom of the Year Award."

Remember my last post about the rollercoaster? And Caleb being scared? And my feeling bad. Good.

On Saturday, after LOTS of cleaning, and house work we thought it would be a great idea to go get Jimmy John's for dinner (do you think if I mention their name enough on the blog, that I will get free meals? Because I REALLY LOVE JIMMY JOHNS. And free meals aren't bad either.) Jimmy Johns and a picnic in the park. Great summer night, right?

Until Caleb decided that he only like turkey in sandwiches. Not the cheese. Not the bread

Fine, you can feed your bread to the ducks.

And so he did. And he loved it.

Until the attack.

That's right folks. While Jon was giving Caleb bread, Caleb was throwing the bread into the water for the ducks, and I was being mom of the year taking pictures, we looked up and were surrounded by about 30 geese. 30 hissing geese.

At this point, I thought we should get out of there. Jon confirmed it with, "Get Caleb in the car now, they are attacking!"

Seriously.

Nature is better through a window friends.

The time I let my child ride a coaster.

A few weeks ago, a nearby town had their annual Hot Air Balloon Festival. It is so fun to watch 30+ balloons (depending on the year) fly up in the air. Caleb loved watching them. At one point, Jon taught him to say, "Take me with you" when a balloon would fly directly over our heads.

Before the balloons took off, we took a walk around and ate some really fatty, delicious fair food, and even asked Caleb if he wanted to ride a few rides. He's two, that's practically a teenager, right? Bring on the rides!

"What have I got myself into?" 

See the car with no head? That's Caleb! 

The ride passed us, and he said, "Can I stop?" 

It wasn't until I looked the pictures that I realized, how incredibly small my baby was as he was flying all over the place on that alligator rollercoaster.

 And his face, his poor precious, scared for his life, questioning why his mommy and daddy would ever allow him to do this...oh, that face. It makes me so sad, and makes me giggle at the same time.

But there were tractors....and tractors make everything better. Tractors and trains.

The Big 3-0

In honor of my husband's 30th Birthday

30 Reasons Why I love you

1. I love that you are the most amazing father. 

2. I love that you are such a hard worker. 

3. I love that you bought me my fist DSLR. 

4. I love that you will talk smack about Western Michigan University 

5. I love that you spend time with my family. 

6. I love watching King of the Hill together. 

7. I love that we are pursuing adoption together. 

8. I love that I can totally be myself with you. 

9. I love that you have always sacrificed and have given me the "better" car. 

10. I love that you sacrificed and bought me a "new" car. 

11. I love seeing you passionate in ministry. 

12. I love listening to you sing and play guitar. 

13. I love that you can make me laugh. 

14. I love our inside jokes. 

15. I love that we are on the same team. 

16. I love that you cook. 

17. I love that you enjoy having people over at our house. 

18. I love that you don't mind having college students around all the time. 

19. I love that you will volunteer with InterVarsity. 

20. I love that we have the same heart and passion in many areas. 

21. I love your kisses. 

22. I love your hugs. 

23. I love to hold your hand. 

24. I love that you are always in my corner. 

25. I love that you can be and are honest with me. 

26. I love your quiet presence. 

27. I love your patience. 

28. I love that you let me get Lila even if she is a big huge pain. 

29. I love that I can wrestle through ideas with you. 

30. I love doing life together. 

30 Date Ideas that we will do in the next year. 

Things my kid says #3

I walked into his room and he was sitting on his bed. "Mumma come sit. Let's talk."
Me: "Ok, what do you want to talk about?"
C: "Jesus. Let's talk about Jesus."

Sure thing. How I hope he says those words all the days of his life.
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Me: "Are you my big boy?"
C: "No, I, a cow boy."

FYI, a cow boy in Caleb's mind is a farmer, because they live by the cows.
_______________________________________________________________________________
C: "My a hereo" (Yes, HERE E OH)
Me: "A hero"
C: "Yes, my a hereo. My hit things."

My= I am.
_______________________________________________________________________________
C: "Mumma, how's your family."
Me: "Good. I love my husband and I love my son.: How is your family?"
C: "I'm Jon Sausser."
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Two is hard. On Monday, I heard Jon say to Caleb, "We know you have a switch, just tell us what makes it go off, and we can avoid it." I chuckled, because that question sums up all that we have been feeling and experiencing the last few months. Two is so hard. 

 Except when you see smiles like this. Then two is really fun. And hilarious. And special and sweet. 

 Until you have a toy thrown at you. Or food. Or both. At the same time. Then two is so not fun. 

 Except when it is. Like when he says, "I just wanna snuggle mamma." Then I melt. Those times, I think, "Man, I love two. It is so fun. Can he be two forever?" 

 Until I hear a crashing noise in his room and realize that he has thrown a porcelain piggy bank and it has shattered. Then I hate two. When will it be over? I can't do this anymore. 

 And then he crawls up on my lap, gives me big kisses, and says, "Mamma, how's your day? How we doing? How's your family?" And then I laugh out loud and can't believe how funny he is, wonder where he has heard this before and then become very aware that everything I say, he hears and repeats. 

 Excuse me while I go clean up the plate of food that was just thrown across the room. 

Does this post seem a little bi-polar? Emotional? From one extreme to another? 

You're welcome. 

You officially know what it's like in my house EVERY DAY. 

I like two. 

Except when I hate it.