Happy 2nd Wedding Anniversary, RuthAmy! Thanks for two wonderful years of love, friendship, help, encouragement, and faithfulness. Thanks for being a great wife and a great mom. And, especially, thanks for continuing to be a great wife after becoming a mom!

I love you, and I’m still committed to the promises that I made 2 years ago (and I think I understand them a little better now):

Declaration of Intent

Joshua, wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness, and in health? And forsaking all other, keep thee only to her, so long as you both shall live?

Covenant of Marriage

I Joshua take thee RuthAmy to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, to love and to cherish as Christ doth the Church, till death us depart, according to God’s holy ordinance; I will live with thee according to knowledge, I will esteem thee better than myself, I will sanctify thee for the Great Day of Judgment: And to this end I pledge thee my faithfulness.

Exchange of Rings

With this ring I thee wed: with my being I thee honor: and with all my worldly goods I thee endow. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Today is Becca’s 30-week birthday, on Tuesday her adjusted age reaches 4 months, and this Saturday Becca will celebrate her 7-month birthday! But our biggest celebration this week was Father’s Day! For Father’s Day, Becca made her daddy a card, soft tacos, and a three-layer strawberry cake. She wanted her daddy to know in just a small way how much she loves him and appreciates all that he does for her.

Becca had a doctor’s appointment yesterday. She now weighs 12lbs & 15oz. and is 23 1/4 in. long. Dr. Raine is pleased with her progress. Becca is making lots of sounds and has mastered the “geeeee” sound. On our recent trip (more below) she did a wonderful job traveling and was pretty happy on the plane flights. After sleeping in 6 different beds, she was very happy to come home and sleep in her own bed.

This past Saturday night, we flew home from our two-week trip to the east coast. We’re calling our trip “The Becca Tour”, since most of our trip was spent introducing Becca to family and friends. We spent the first few days in Greenville, SC, then we headed to Charleston, SC, for a wedding; from there we went to Atlanta, GA, and then flew to PA and drove to NJ. I’ve decided to spread out the pictures and stories from our tour over the next several blog posts.

The first part of our trip consisted of flying from Dallas, TX, to Greenville, SC, and spending Sunday through Thursday morning with Josh’s family. After we arrived at the Greenville airport, we drove to Spartanburg to say hello to our friends from Cleveland Park Bible Church. We were able to have dinner with Mrs. Burch and her family, and then stop by to visit Mr. Leo West. It was a busy afternoon. That evening we had dinner at Dad and Mom Jensen’s with the family and Grandpa and Grandma Hess. Becca enjoyed meeting everyone.

Becca met her Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Jensen and other family members. She also spent time with her cousin, Baby Girl Floyd. We hope Baby Girl Floyd didn’t mind that Becca fell asleep on her “home.” Next week, we’ll continue pictures from the “Becca Tour.” Right now we’re recovering from our trip and enjoying being home. Next week , both Josh and I will start our “summer schedule” of dissertation research.

I recently caught a photo of Becca standing “on her own” next to the couch (with Daddy’s hand behind her, just in case). She can’t do it long — her head is still a bit too heavy relative to her neck strength, and she starts tipping.

And she can also “feed herself” from the bottle now. Not that the skill will come in handy much now that Mommy is home all day.

(Next week we’ll start back with the photo-filled posts.)

Becca’s been quite pleased to have Mommy with her all day!

And one more photo, for good measure. This one from the church nursery. (Sorry no collages this week.)

Today Becca is 27 weeks old! Saturday night we spent the evening with the family of one of Josh’s classmates from Russia. We had some delicious cold soup and got a walking tour of the GIAL campus. Sunday evening we had dinner at Micah and Anna’s new house. We also played Phase 10. (Sorry, Micah and Anna . .  . maybe you can beat us next time.) We enjoyed my extra day off (Memorial Day) and went to Chick-Fil-A to get our free sample of their new SPICY chicken sandwich — beware, it is spicy! Becca also helped Josh and me make lots of chocolate chip cookies to give to my students for their music party in class.  Even though Becca has had a very busy week, she still helped me out with the laundry Saturday morning.

This week, Becca was taken off her last medication (it was for reflux). We’re hoping she does fine without it! Today is my last day of teaching at Cochran Elementary. I’ll miss my students . . . but I’m ready to stay at home full-time with my little Becca.