I’ve been terrible about taking pictures this week. Part of this has to do with the fact that it’s not easy to take pictures when you’re wet. We’ve been enjoying the apartment pool and the water play area at the park. We’re so blessed to have access to water activities so close by. I’m completely enjoying being a mommy this summer. I can run in the fountains and play in the pool and no one gives me a second look — I’m just a mommy playing with her toddler. I get to have loads of fun without feeling guilty about other things that need to be done, since I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing . . . taking care of my baby. What a lovely gift God has given me this summer.

Don’t worry, Josh hasn’t been lost in the shuffle of his girls’ summer play. He’s happy that his girls are happy in the sun, and we’re always delighted when he can join us. Josh continues to spend much of his time gathering data from his Jarai consultants. We’re hoping that this summer will give him the bulk of the data he needs to write his dissertation.

Friday, we had our neighbor over for lunch. Friday evening, we enjoyed dinner with the Woods. Saturday, we had one of Josh’s Jarai consultants and his wife over for lunch. Sorry, no pictures; entertaining and watching Becca make grabbing the camera a distant idea in my mind. I did however, take a few pictures in the nursery on Sunday.

Yesterday at The Levitt Pavilion, we saw the Lannaya West African Drum and Dance Ensemble. Becca enjoyed the drumming, especially since I had just given her a drum lesson that morning. She needs a little work on her stick technique. Most of all, Becca loved the fountains. She walked in among them for the first time . . . brave little girl.

Today is the day our little one was supposed to be born, but God in His sovereignty said no. Our comfort is that God is in control of all things, even miscarriages. Our joy is that “Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face” (William Cowper, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way). For Mother’s Day, Josh gave me Piper’s book on Ruth. It’s been a great encouragement to me to see God’s hand in Naomi’s life to perform His good and sovereign will for her life and for eternity.

“Thousands of Christians who have walked through fire and have seen horrors embrace God’s control of all things as the comfort and hope of their lives. It is not comforting or hopeful in their pain to tell them that God is not in control. Giving Satan the decisive control or ascribing pain to chance is not true or helpful. When the world is crashing in, we need assurance that God reigns over it all.”  ~Piper in A Sweet & Bitter Providence p. 27

“The life of the godly is not a straight line to glory, but they do get there. The life of the godly is not an Interstate through Nebraska, but a state road through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee. There are rock slides and precipices and dark mists and bears and slippery curves and hairpin turns that make you go backwards in order to go forwards. But all along this hazardous, twisted road that doesn’t let you see very far ahead there are frequent signs that say, “The best is yet to come. ” ~Piper in A Sweet & Bitter Providence pp. 99-100

Welcome to our new apartment! Last fall, we put ourselves on a waiting list for some two-bedroom apartments near campus. In April, we received a call that a unit was available for us (at that point we were not planning on moving, since Becca was surviving in the closet). After looking at the apartment, we didn’t feel comfortable with moving there, but since we were in the looking mood, we decided to go across the street and see if the other nearby apartment complex had anything available. They did — an apartment that they were redoing. To make a long story short, we signed the papers and prepared for our move . . . but we didn’t think we’d like it that much, since we loved our first apartment.

We now frequently talk about how much we like our new apartment.  We are thankful to the Lord for providing above and beyond what we asked for . . . even when we’d stopped asking! We love having the extra space — Josh can concentrate on his research, we don’t have to worry about waking Becca up when we’re in our room, and people can use the bathroom without going through our bedroom.  We also love having “all bills paid” — living with 75 degree air conditioning all the time is very nice! I was a little worried about using a gas stove/oven — but I love it, and I love having a big window in the kitchen!

We really like our apartment manager. He lives on site with his family (wife and 4 kids) and is very friendly. When the building’s air conditioning broke, he was out there at 11PM and then again the next morning trying to fix the unit. One evening last week, Josh and I were in our bedroom working on our computer (since we have wireless access on that side of the apartment — legally, since it’s UTA wireless from a nearby building), when we heard banging on our window . . . it was our apartment manager saying hi and telling me I had put our outgoing mail in his box instead of the outgoing box! [And I think it’s cool that he shares a first name with the found, ruler, and emperor of the Mongol Empire! -Josh]

The past two Wednesday mornings, Becca and I have gone to the free kids concert at The Levitt Pavilion. She doesn’t really enjoy the music, but she does enjoy the fountains. We plan to go every Wednesday this month for the kids’ concerts. Friday evening we went to a park that has water play. Becca loved it and we all enjoyed getting wet.

Becca is enjoying helping in the kitchen. She likes scrambling eggs in the mornings and really enjoyed helping me make pizza dough and brownies recently. We have lots of fun in our new apartment and are enjoying running around. Becca continues to fill our house with joy. We are so blessed to be married to each other and to have our precious little gift, Becca Bear. What a kind and gracious God we have!

The month of May has flown by for us. We began the month with moving to our new apartment and then leaving for our trip to SC. Before we left on our trip, we had everything unpacked and put in its “place” — only the pictures remained to be hung on our return. I hope to post pictures of our apartment next week for those who have been asking.

Josh graded his students’ final exam when we returned and is now working some hours for the adoption agency and continues to collect Jarai data for his dissertation. The picture on the left is Josh with Hendy, one of Josh’s Jarai consultants. During the school year, Josh met with Hendy on Saturdays; now that they both have more time they are meeting twice a week. On Memorial Day we attended the Jarai church picnic. We both enjoyed meeting more Jarai speakers.

I’ve spent my days playing with Becca. I’m delighted that she has finally learned to say “mama” – I love hearing her little voice call me. [When Amy is gone, Becca walks around saying “Mama! Mama!” –Josh] She loves going outside and now enjoys being in the pool. We got together with Yani and Amaris last Tuesday, and last Friday we went to a ladies and children’s pool party at the Woods’. We were also able to mingle with some of the Special Olympics – Texas players. They held an event on campus last weekend.  One of Becca’s favorite things to do is playing in the waterfall fountain on UTA campus.

One funny Becca story. This past weekend Becca and I were looking at the pictures in The Jesus Storybook Bible. We came to the picture of healed Namaan and I told her how Namaan was happy.  Then I turned back to the picture of Namaan with leprosy and Becca lost it – had a breakdown – yelped and turned and hugged me. She hates the picture of Namaan with leprosy. When she sees it she cries and flails her arms. It’s rather humorous. She continues to dislike the picture . . . but she still asks to see it by saying “illlllll” – what I said when I showed her the picture. (See video on facebook)

On Memorial Day (after the Jarai picnic) we had the Countrymans over for our own Memorial Day picnic. Josh grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and we all enjoyed dinner, water balloons, and swimming. Memorial Day weekend, Josh and I attended an outdoor concert to hear the Quebe Sisters Band. They specialize in Western Swing and sang like the Andrew Sisters. We enjoyed our evening out — thanks Yi Ling, for babysitting!

Gary and Karen Isham had a lovely graduation reception for me at their home. Everything was beautiful and very classy. I was honored to be given such a nice reception with our friends here in TX.

That pretty much sums up the month of May for us.

Thanks to members of our families who love to take pictures, we hardly took out our camera during our SC trip but still  have over 700 pictures from our time with family and friends. I’m using this week’s blog to highlight pictures from our time with both sides of our families. A big thanks to all who took pictures for us that week! Uncle Joey takes great pictures with and of Becca!

Visiting with Uncle Jon and Aunt Ashleigh. Becca loved their house and enjoyed doing a rain dance with Uncle Jon in his fire pit.

Grammy and Granddaddy Sutter

Aunt Emily – who always makes Becca laugh!

Meeting Cousin Colette Elisse Sutter. Becca is very happy to have another cousin! Becca also enjoyed her time with cousin Bella.

Visiting the mountains of GA with Grandma and Grandpa Jensen

Great Grandma Martin, Great Grandma Buecher, and Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Jensen

We enjoyed our trip to SC for my graduation. It was an especially exciting day for my side of the family, as my youngest brother, Joey, graduated with his BS in Accounting, my sister-in-law graduated with her MS in Accountancy, and I graduated with my Ed.D. in Instruction and Curriculum. Four years ago, when Joey started his freshman year, we figured that if I remained on track, we’d graduate the same year. I didn’t think it would happen . . . thanks for the extra motivation, Joey!

Graduation day was a bittersweet, emotional day for me. Sweet, because it was a celebration of the completion of hours of work and a testimony to God’s grace in my life, but also sad because I should have been walking across the platform with a big belly and about a month of pregnancy left. I would gladly trade my doctorate for the little one we lost. But I have confidence that the Lord’s ways are perfect and that all details of our lives are in His hands.

I am very thankful to my committee members for their assistance throughout this project: Dr. Brenda Ball (dissertation committee chair), Dr. Dan Turner, and Dr. Sue Quindag. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Steve Walter (committee member) who introduced me to the data from the Eritrea National Reading Survey and suggested that I investigate the effects of writing script. I am also thankful for many family members and friends who encouraged me throughout my degree.

A very special thanks goes to my sweet wonderful husband, Josh. I would have given up on my degree if not for his love, support, continual encouragement, and watching our daughter so I could have uninterrupted times of research. He also read through my manuscript multiple times and provided help with formatting details.

The completion of my dissertation is a testimony to the faithfulness of the Lord. While working on the initial stages of this research, Becca was born three months before her due date. During the final stages of this research, I went through a miscarriage with complications that lasted three months. During both of these times, working on dissertation research was the last thing I wanted to do. But the Lord faithfully carried me through and gave me the time and strength to complete my dissertation. The greatest thing I will take away from working on this project is the ways the Lord faithfully helped me through the difficult times.

We have lots of pictures from our visits with both sides of our families. If I have time, I’ll do an extra blog post, if not stay tuned for more next week. . . .

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More pictures to come next week!

Our big news this week is that we moved to a new apartment. The Lord opened up the door for us to move into a 2-bedroom apartment right across the street from where we were living. The move keeps us close to campus — where Josh walks to school and Becca and I explore — and it allows Becca to have her own room. Also, it is about the same price that we were paying for our 1-bedroom apartment. As you can see from the picture above,  our family has grown since we moved into our first home. We’ve been through many adventures in Apt. 253. It was a wonderful apartment and we have many good memories there.

We’ve spent the week packing and cleaning our old apartment and moving, cleaning, and unpacking our new apartment. We’ve very thankful for all who helped with our move: Micah and Anna, Pastor John, and Parke — and also for Lynnelle for watching Becca during our move and feeding us dinner that night, for Heather who made us a wonderful meal, and for Vitaly who lent us lots of boxes. All made our move smooth and we’re very grateful for each person’s gift of time and work.

As of today, I’m finished with all the unpacking. I’ll take pictures of the completed rooms once we finish hanging things and get rid of the boxes. The main things I have to get used to are not having a washer or dryer and cooking with a gas stove. So far, we’re pleased with our new apartment and are very thankful for the Lord’s direction.

Josh has been a wonderful husband during the entire moving process. He’s given up lots of research time to move us to our new place. I’m very thankful that I’m married to a man who has such a servant’s heart. Becca has gotten used to the new apartment and is enjoying the extra space.

One quick cute story about Becca. Every morning Josh and I have devotions together. Becca used to sleep through them, but recently she’s been getting up before we’re finished. This week when we were kneeling to pray, Becca expressed the desire to pray with us. She knelt between us at the couch and folded her hands as Josh prayed a short prayer and then said “Amen!” at the end. It is so cute, I wish I could get a picture of it. Since then, we’ve had her pray with us each morning.

Ok, I know what some of you might be wondering . . . are Daddy and Mommy so busy with me that they’ve forgotten each other (hear the beautiful background music I’m playing as I speak)? Today we’re celebrating Daddy and Mommy’s 34th month wedding anniversary! I’m here to tell you that no, even though Daddy and Mommy have a lot of fun with me, they are still enjoying being married. And they tell me that they love each other more than they love me! Gasp! How can this be?!?

Friday night is “date/family night,” and I usually get to attend part of the evening until my bedtime. But last Friday night Josh and Meredith came over to play with me while Daddy and Mommy went out all by themselves. I had a great time playing with Josh and Meredith, and only cried when they put me to bed. As you can see, when I realized that the crying trick was not going to get me any extra awake time, I went to sleep.

Saturday night we had our neighbors, Samir, RJ, and Ahana, over to decorate and hide Easter eggs. Ahana is three and a half and lives in an apartment below us. Ahana and I loved decorating the eggs, and we had a blast finding them twice after our daddies hid them. I wanted to drink the egg dye, but Mommy said no. It looked so delicious that I tried anyway and now we have yellow spots on my chair.

Easter Sunday we had Aaron Countryman, René Rodriguez, and Barry over for dinner. I wasn’t sure what to think of all the men at the dinner table and was glad when Mommy finally sat down next to me. As you can see from the picture above, I’ve grown quite a bit since last Easter. For Easter, Daddy and Mommy bought me a new Bible story book called The Big Picture Story Bible. It’s purpose is to show how Bible stories all point to the big picture of God’s plan. It also has really big illustrations.

In other exciting news, I learned how to drink from a straw just in time to enjoy the free milkshakes Daddy and Mommy got from Chick-Fil-A for turning in their old cell phones. Daddy and Mommy bought me a new cup with a straw and I really like it.

Mommy says a lot of people are asking her what she’s doing with all her free time, now that she’s finished with her dissertation. Since she can never come up with a good answer, I thought I would let you peek into what we do during the week, or at least what I do during the week. (All the exciting stuff happens when I’m the center of attention!)

In the mornings, Mommy and I usually try to spend some time outside walking around campus. I think it’s really fun to sit in the car trunk while Mommy gets the stroller out and I usually ask her to lower the door on me. I’m a great explorer of the campus. I love climbing stairs and picking up sticks. On Mondays we like to visit Daddy at school. I see all sorts of interesting people while we walk to see Daddy. We try go outside in the afternoons too.

Eating is always a fun activity. I can say “eat” and I know what it means. This week I’ve enjoyed eating my sweet potatoes with a real fork. It’s really fun to poke the food and put it in my mouth. I also enjoy drinking out of a big cup. I get lots of practice in the bathtub with my stacking cups, but Mommy says it’s not best to pour water all over my tummy when I drink around the apartment.

During the day we do all sorts of other activities like coloring, lots of reading, playing hide-n-seek, going to the pool, singing, playing chase, and having all sorts of fun adventures. Yes, Mommy makes me take a nap too. But I make sure I’m only away from the excitement for about an hour. This past week, we participated in an apartment event for child abuse awareness. We had our silhouettes traced outside our door. I thought it was great!

By the end of the day, I’m very tried. I usually go to bed before 7PM. I’m not sure what Daddy and Mommy do after I go to sleep. But I think someone comes and cleans up all my toys during the night.

So there’s a little view into what I do all day. Now that I think about it, I’m really not sure what Mommy does with all the free time she has now that she’s finished with her dissertation. I’m too busy to notice.

Oh, this weekend we had Presley and Mary over for dinner. The last time we had them over was before they were married. They are preparing to go to Vietnam where Presley will be a teacher (and teacher-trainer) and Mary will be involved in social work. Presley was a classmate of Daddy’s a few years ago.

Mommy tells me that people are supposed to sleep in on Saturday, I don’t believe her! Usually I’m up early on Saturdays, making sure that if it is a day when Daddy and Mommy were intending to sleep until 7, I keep them from giving in to laziness. Good Morning! (I should add that I usually wake up crying and then smile when I’m rescued from my bed.)

Saturday afternoons Daddy has to do Jarai research, so Mommy and I always find interesting things to keep us entertained. We made a really neat tunnel from the bedroom to our living room. We went swimming in the apartment pool. It was a little chilly, but I enjoyed climbing in and out of the pool. We also read, and as you can see in the picture I sometimes read to Flopsie (which Daddy and Mommy say is really cute).

As you can see on the left, I tend to make a mess on the floor. Mommy let me play with the bread bag. It only had an end in it, but I successfully got it open. So, Mommy let me help her wash the floor last Saturday. It was a blast. I was really surprised when I hugged my rag and got soaking wet. But what was really fun was dumping the bucket of water all over me. Mommy and I laughed a lot and I thought it was fantastic! So, now you have a little idea of what goes on in our home on Saturdays.

A big congratulations to my Uncle Joey. He’s graduating from BJU this May with a degree in accounting and just got a job with “one of the Big Four” – I’m not sure what that means. He’s going to be consulting in Washington, D.C., and I think he’s going to be helping our government. I hope they don’t ask him about the best way to get hazelnuts from a bowl, because he wasn’t very helpful to me in that area. In fact, I think he’s the one who made it hard for me!

Last Thursday afternoon, we got together with Yani and Amaris. We had a fun time together. Mommy and Daddy say I need to learn to share. They tell me that I’m a sinner and need Jesus to rescue me. For now I’m content to go my own way. Please pray that I will learn to love and obey Jesus.

Our precious little girl is growing up so fast. This week she’s discovered the joy of hiding from Mommy. In the past when we’ve played hide-n-seek, I’m the hider and Becca is always the seeker. But this week, Becca learned to hide all by herself. Granted, she always hides in the same place (behind her bed in the closet), but she loves being found. It always catches me off guard when I look around for Becca and realize she’s waiting for me to find her.

We enjoyed celebrating Josh’s birthday last weekend. Friday night we got together with some friends to celebrate. We were limited on who we could invite due to our small apartment. Five extra people made it feel very small! Becca and I are delighted to have Josh as the #1 man in our lives. Josh is keeping busy with his teaching and research. The end of the semester means a break from teaching and additional research. Ph.D. students who are working on dissertations don’t get the summer off.

(Unexplained pictures include a visit to the park, playing on campus near our apartment, having dinner at the Thai House with Yi Ling, and hanging out at home.)

A very happy 30th birthday to my amazing husband and Becca’s wonderful daddy! I am so privileged to be married to you, my darling. Thank you for choosing me to be your wife and for showing me love each day of our marriage. You are the most wonderful man in the world and I adore you!

Josh, you are the man who make us smile many times each day. Thanks for being our favorite man! Happy Birthday!

Love,

~your girls

In the past 70 weeks, we’ve seen Becca grow from a tiny baby to an energetic toddler. Becca’s newest outside activity is climbing the 17 stairs to our second floor apartment. On Saturday, she decided to use the railing to pull herself up, instead of crawling up the stairs. It takes a while (old smashed pieces of chewing gum are very interesting to little girls), but Becca is determined to climb up all by herself (with very close supervision, of course!).

Becca’s newest indoor activity is building towers with her blocks. On Monday, I found her building little towers all by herself and was so delighted with her. When I expressed my pleasure to her, she made the sign for more. Yes, more, more! She can stack three blocks and is working on getting a fourth one up there.

We’ve established a bedtime routine for Becca that’s been in place for a few months now. When Becca is all ready for bed, she sits on my lap and drinks a bottle of milk (she gets so excited to see that bottle full of milk) while Josh reads to us from The Jesus Storybook Bible. This is an excellent book that goes through the Bible and shows us how Every Story Whispers His Name. We pray that Becca will understand at an early age that she needs Jesus to be her rescuer.

After we read to Becca, we sing her the Goodnight Song. I’m not sure what the official title is, but it’s the song my dad sang to me when he put me to bed. We would sing it to Becca every night before we left the NICU and we still sing it to her every night before she goes to bed. After singing, we pray, tell Becca that we love her, and remind her that “most of all Jesus loves you.” Our prayer is that Becca will come to love Jesus with all her heart.

After two days apart, we were all delighted when I came home from SC. I was so excited to fly back to TX that I woke up early Saturday morning, and even though I was tired, I didn’t sleep a wink on the plane. I could not wait to be back with Josh and Becca. Josh did a wonderful job taking care of Becca and managing our home so I didn’t have a lot of work to do to prepare for Sunday. He even made Becca’s weekly batch of sweet potatoes. We celebrated my return by taking a trip to the park.

My time in SC went well. I was able to attend BJU’s opera with Mom J and Rebekah Pringle. I was also able to see many friends at the surprise post-defense party my family planned for me. It was good to see many people who have been with me on this journey for the past 5+ years. The highlight of my trip was having breakfast with Mrs. Burch. It was wonderful to sit and talk with a godly older woman whose friendship I cherish.

In case you haven’t heard, I successfully defended my dissertation. We are thanking the Lord for answering so many prayers these past two years, as I’ve finished my classes and worked on my research. I was on the verge of tears all Friday night and Saturday, because it is such a relief to be finished. Lord willing, I’ll be walking in graduation with my youngest brother Joey (BA in Accounting) and sister-in-law Ashleigh (MBA). It will be exciting time for my family.

If you’re wondering what I’m doing with all my free-time . . . I haven’t noticed yet that I have “extra time.” Becca is keeping me busy with all sorts of activities and I have a list of things I need to do. Right now I’m enjoying my family and not having the pressure of dissertation deadlines. There has been talk of submitting a version of my research to a journal, but I’m waiting a little while before I start working on that.

Saturday Becca turns 16 months old. It’s hard to believe it’s been 69 weeks since her birth. She loves going outside. Josh is back teaching and working on his research. I’m very blessed to have both Josh and Becca as my family!

At 4:54pm ET, I heard from Amy that she successfully defended her dissertation! Amy’s completion is, first, a testimony to God’s grace: there were many points along the way that we prayed (often with wavering faith) about deadlines that seemed impossible to meet; and always, God gave Amy grace. And it’s a testament to Amy’s giftedness and persevering character.

You might think that now I get my wife back. But the truth is, I never lost her to the process. Ever since we got married, she’s been a wife first — when she was a teacher, when she became a mother, and all along while she was working on her doctorate. She’s been my constant companion, my best friend, and a remarkable manager of the home even during times of intense academic pressure. And she’s repeatedly told people that when she “gets those letters behind her name” (to quote our late friend, Mr. Leo West) she’ll still be a wife and mommy first of all. That makes me smile!

I rise up and call you blessed, my love (and someday Becca will, too). And I praise you: “Many women have done well, but you surpass them all.” The fruit of your hands speaks loud praise!

This morning I’m flying to SC for my dissertation defense (scheduled for tomorrow). Normally Friday afternoons are when Becca and I go to the park; in fact, when we were there last week, I realized that in exactly a week I would be in a very different setting (defending a dissertation is a bit different than playing at the park!). But you know what I’m going to do the Friday after my defense? Go to the park and play with Becca.

Defending (and, Lord willing, completing) my research are not going to make me a different person. There will be no noticeable change in me, accept the fact that I won’t have school work to do in my spare time. I’ll be delighted to be done and delighted to get back to taking care of my precious family. I appreciate your prayers for me as I defend Friday afternoon. The Lord has been so faithful in helping me work on my research.

This week, Josh is on spring break! We’ve enjoyed the extra time with him without the pressure of his having to prepare for and teach class. Tuesday afternoon we took Becca to the zoo. The zoo was packed with children on spring break. Becca really enjoyed seeing the animals, at least the ones she could see up close. (She wasn’t too impressed by the roaring lions — guess they weren’t close enough.) She was certainly worn out by her day at the zoo.

It’s been amazing to watch Becca progress in her walking ability. She is fast! It’s hard to believe that she’s only been walking a month. On Sunday she was walking all over the church building and didn’t seem to be concerned where she left her parents.

One of the things I’m trying to teach Becca is to have a happy, thankful heart. From the pictures on our blog, people might assume that Becca is always happy, and though she is a very happy baby, she still has her unhappy “gimmie” moments. Typically, when Becca is crying about not getting her own way I remind her to say thank you. It’s always neat to watch her stop and say “thank you,”  even when she’s still displeased about something. So in a little way, we’re planting the seed in Becca to be thankful and happy when things aren’t going her way.  A phrase that I’m saying a lot these days is “do you have a happy/thankful heart?” It’s also a phrase that I need to ask myself throughout the day.

Friday night we had dinner with René, Yani, and Amaris Rodriguez. We’re very thankful for René and Yani’s friendship. Yani took the girls down to the pond and Becca absolutely loved the ducks and swan. If it weren’t for the metal bars, Becca would have jumped in with the ducks. She wasn’t even afraid when the swan was nipping at her.

Becca’s new toy is our recycle bin. She fits perfectly in it and loves being zoomed around the floor in her own little vehicle. It’s cute to hear her squeal as we race through our rooms with it. Oh and if you haven’t noticed, Becca had her first little haircut this weekend. I cut her bangs back so she doesn’t have to deal with hair getting into her eyes.

On Friday, Josh presented a poster at the 18th Annual University of Texas at Arlington Student Conference in Linguistics and TESOL. His poster presentation won an award. Josh also participated on the grants panel. Speaking of grants, Josh just found out that he’s been awarded an NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant for his project entitled “Doctoral Dissertation Research: Clauses and Clause Types in Jarai.” The money from the grant will help pay Josh’s Jarai consultants and other research expenses. Becca and I are very proud of Josh, and we’re very thankful for the Lord provision for Josh’s research.

I continue to prepare for my defense next week. I haven’t had a lot of time, since Becca has decided to take really short naps this week. She must know that her mommy is leaving her next week and wants to cash in on extra time with me! I’m looking forward to being finished and not having my research hanging over my head.

Four years ago today, my precious husband asked me to officially date him. I was wild with excitement to be Joshua Jensen’s girlfriend — what could be better than that?! I’ll tell you what’s better…being Joshua Jensen’s wife. I love being married to my darling man. Thank you so much, Josh, for asking me to date you and for continuing to date me into marriage. I adore you!

(If you’re looking for pictures of Becca, see today’s first post.)

A few weeks ago I was introduced to a song by Andrew Peterson, Planting Trees, in which he compares raising children to the process of planting a tree.

We chose the spot, we dug the hole
We laid the maples in the ground to have and hold
As Autumn falls to Winters sleep
We pray that somehow in the Spring
The roots grow deep

And many years from now
Long after we are gone
These trees will spread their branches out
And bless the dawn

At 15 months, we are in the very early stages of planting our sweet little tree. Even in this early stage when cultivation may not seem as important, we still want the ways we interact with Becca to provide her a lifelong pattern of loving Jesus. I’ll admit, as a mom, I worry about being a Christ-like example for Becca with my words, actions, and attitudes. I desire her to see Christ in me and don’t want my sin to be a stumbling block to her.

My prayer is that I will continue to grow in Christ, so I can show Becca Christ in my life.You might wonder, how can a 15-month-old see Christ in her mommy? Here’s just a few ways I’ve come up with: the ways I interact with Josh, the ways I consistently enforce the expectations we have for Becca, the ways I praise Becca for doing good, the ways I show patience toward Becca, and the ways I speak to Becca. It is my prayer that we will be faithful in planting our little tree so she grow to bless others with the love of Christ.

Of course, trees grow in stature. Becca had a great doctor’s appointment this week (see previous blog post for stats). Though she eats a lot (evidenced by how much food I make and freeze for her every week), she is our cute petite girl. She fits into a set of 3-month Carter onesies her Aunt Ashleigh just sent her, and she’s getting good use out of all her 6-month clothing.

We’ve been enjoying the weather. Becca and I usually go outside for about an hour each day. Becca’s new favorite outside activity is throwing things into the little creek that runs near our apartments. She is very eager to pick up sticks, leaves, tennis balls, etc and then “run” down to the creek to throw them in. When we’re inside, Becca enjoys discovering new things in our little home.

Becca started using her potty this week. I thought we would just practice sitting on it, but Becca knows exactly what to do. Though we’re not officially potty-training yet, we’re having fun using the potty multiple times a day. And it saves me from cleaning up messy diapers.

Two weeks from tomorrow I defend my research. I appreciate your prayers as I prepare for my defense.