Bringing Joy To Your Heart

Improvised Toys

We are still waiting for our container to arrive from the States, so the only real toys that Caden has at his disposal are what we were able to bring with us from France. He sometimes gets bored with these, and when he does, he finds other ways to entertain himself...

Since we can't drink the water out of the tap here without filtering it first, we wind up with lots of big bottles full of filtered water in our fridge. Once the bottle is empty, watch out! One of Caden's favorite games right now is to whack Mommy and Daddy with the bottles and giggle at our reactions. Sometimes Daddy lets him hit him on the head, and then he pretends to fall over in a very dramatic fashion. Caden thinks this is absolutely hilarious, of course. Mommy lets him hit her in the legs, and then she starts dancing and wiggling, which just about gives Caden a heart attack! While we are excited about his new toys that are arriving on the container, we are also glad that our little boy is learning to improvise and be creative with his environment...Other favorite "toys" include buckets, DVD cases, shampoo bottles, shoes, and the occasional lizard or gecko!
Watch out!!!!!

Too Funny Not To Post

Watch out all Togolese drivers, we have a crazy man on the loose!
Take notice of the hair on the back of Caden's head...can you tell it's a little curly?
(Not to mention sweaty!)

He's One of Those Guys...

...that is so cool, he can pull off wearing sunglasses indoors...

Our Little Problem Solver

So we all know that Caden loves to climb, and his newest adventure has been figuring out how to get on top of things that are too tall to climb on by himself.

For example, the big recliner, notice the conveniently placed beanbag... And over we go...

Mission accomplished!

Daddy's Home!!!

Caden is quite excited because Brett just returned from a 2 day safari in Benin. He just can't get enough of playing with his daddy! For more on Brett's trip, check out his travel blog at http://theplacesivebeen.blogspot.com

Nekkidness

Caden has always loved running around with no clothes on, but for most of our time in France, it was too cold to be without some outer garments. Now that we are living in West Africa, he has very cooperative weather which is providing him with ample opportunity to run around in the buff. The diaper is there by necessity of course, but he often tries to pull that off too! This is Caden with a bucket. Since most of his really cool toys are still on our container, he has had to improvise quite a bit. This bucket and other everyday items have provided him with hours of entertainment!
We can't look at this picture without softly singing to ourselves, "Climb every mountain, ford every stream..." Cade has fallen in love with climbing since we've been here, much to his daddy's delight, but this has also caused us to have to watch him extra close...
You'll rarely meet a little boy who doesn't think that high-fiving is cool, and Caden is no exception. All you have to do is put your hand up close to him and he will start slapping away!

We want everyone to know that Caden is doing great. For awhile he wasn't sleeping well, but that was just due to the major life change, and he is past that now. He is eating better now than he was before we left France, and he loves having so many little kids to play with on the team here. Caden is healthy, happy, and loving this new adventure!

Fun At The Miller's

We are so thankful to have a place to stay while we await all our belongings from the States. Our container is scheduled to arrive at the end of January, please be praying for it's safe arrival. Meanwhile, we are making do at the Miller's home while they are at Harding serving as missionaries in residence. Caden has really enjoyed all the new places to explore. As you can see from the photos, he especially enjoys swinging outside. I know everyone has been anxiously awaiting for us to update...the internet speed has been another thing for us to adjust to. Please be patient with us while we figure out the most time efficient way to post. We love all our devoted readers and love your comments!

We Made It!

After a rough couple of days of travel and battling illness, we made it from Albertville to Paris to London to Accra. Here we were met by our teammates, David and Becky Reeves, as well as our team's new school teacher, Rachel Phillips. We were supposed to come in on the same flight as Rachel, but Caden caught a 24-hour stomach bug so we had to stay an extra night in Paris. Here are two pictures of our adventures: the first one is us in the Albertville train station with our stuff (only about half of it is pictured!), and the second is us trying to navigate the Paris train station, which was quite inconveniently out of baggage carts.

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for our comings and goings. We will be leaving Accra tomorrow and heading to Lome, Togo to get some visa stuff started. We will arrive at our new home in Kara on Wednesday, and we will resume our blogging sometime shortly after that. We love you all, may God bless you as He has us in our travels. It is through difficult times that we are refined into what God intends for us to be. Gloire a Dieu!

Happy New Year!

Caden told us that his new year's resolution is to help out more around the house. He started practicing as we have been packing up so he'd be ready to take on other chores when we get to Togo.

First, he agreed to help me empty the laundry basket once a week...

Then he thought he could help me put sheets on the beds...

Caden decided that he wanted to try vacuuming and discovered that he loves it!

The best part of his new year's resolutions is that he is constantly wanting to help clean the dishes. He's become Mommy's little helper.

And then....he decided he didn't need Mommy's help and he could do the dishes all by himself!

Don't worry...in Togo, child labor laws don't apply.

New Friends

Caden has two new friends: Myriam & Peluche. Myriam is the daughter of Corine (one of Caden's teachers from the nursery). We were invited to their house a few days ago for lunch and had a wonderful time with the Saldana family. Myriam immediately took to Caden and they looked like the best of friends after only 5 minutes. So, today Caden got to return to the Saldana home and spend the day with Corine and Myriam while Brett and I went skiing (Merry Christmas to us!). It was so nice to spend some time together and never worry about how Caden was doing. We knew that he was having a great time. And I think these pictures prove it!

And yes, the rabbit's name is Peluche....or Fluffy.

200 Cheerios & Bananas

When Brett's parents were here, they brought Caden a special gift from the States....CHEERIOS! Now, I'm sure you're thinking, what? no cheerios in France?! Oh, there are Cheerios - but only the honey-nut flavor. These plain toasted oat cereal pieces have become like gold and we are slowly going through them. Caden decided to dump his small bag on the floor and shove as many in his mouth as possible until Mommy caught him.
Caden is making steps towards being a big boy. He loves to eat things that Mommy and Daddy are eating. Often, he refuses to eat cut up fruit pieces insiting he eat them just like us. The only problem is that he has a hard time knowing how much food he can put in his mouth before it's too full. We're working on it...

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The 200 in the title is to announce that this is our 200th post! Can you believe it? We began on March 9th 2005 with the announcement of being pregnant. Thank you for joining us on our journey thus far. ..and we look forward to 200 more with you!

Marilyn Fowler

Over the past several weeks, we have been receiving frequent emails from our friend Al Fowler whose wife, Marilyn, was battling cancer. Today we received an email with a message that is always hard to receive: Marilyn has gone to be with the Lord.

When we lived in Searcy, we attended Covenant Fellowship, a small community church that meets at the local rec center. Al and Marilyn were one of the families that helped start Covenant, and through the years the Lord has used them to impact many, many lives. During our 5 years at Covenant we got to know the Fowlers quite well, and they had a tremendous impact on our lives. During the first few years of our marriage, they provided for us an amazing example of how to use our marriage to glorify God. You will not find a more open, caring, wise, generous, or God-fearing couple, and they were always looking for ways to help others come to know God better.

We will remember Marilyn for ALWAYS having a smile and kind words of encouragement for us. She spent alot of time behind the desk at the Heritage, and you could always count on her to make you feel loved and cared about whenever you walked through those front doors or strolled by on your way to the cafeteria. We are thankful that we had the opportunity to know her, and we rejoice in knowing that she lived her life for the Lord. We will miss her, but we know that she is exactly where she spent her life trying to get to, and we take comfort in that.

Holy Father we thank you for the life of Marilyn Fowler, and we pray that you would receive her with the fullness of your love, your mercy, and your grace...

Joyeux Noël

Christmas in Albertville, France

2006
So, here's the story behind our little Christmas tree. First I have to say that I love my little Christmas tree. Last year we didn't have a Christmas tree...we had decided when we moved from Memphis to Montgomery that we would leave behind our dear fake tree in pursuit of a real one when the time came. Well, the time came and went without a tree...we had a newborn and money was tight. I assumed I would spend another Christmas without a tree. I was wrong. My thoughtful husband yanked one out of the ground one afternoon while he was hiking in the mountains. He was quite proud of himself. We put the tree (roots included) into a mop bucket and attempted to secure it with dish towels. Still wobbly. We then tied a birthday ribbon from the trunk to a hook on the wall. This worked wonderfully for about two weeks. Thankfully, we were home when the tree began to "tilt". We have since leaned it more toward the window for extra support. My Mom sent us the snowflakes and we bought the other ornaments and lights here in town. The one random ornament towards the top has to be our favorite...it says "Mon beau sapin, roi des forets" (my beautiful fir tree, king of the forests). Oh, and don't worry...Brett plans to replant the tree before we leave. Long live mon beau sapin!
Santa Claus came to visit Caden while he was taking his morning nap. He enjoyed opening his gifts (ok, so most of these were regifts from his birthday...but he didn't remember). We had to hide each toy after he opened it so he would be willing to open the next one. Little does he know that Santa was able to put lots of Christmas gifts for him on our container...Christmas will come again in January (maybe February) for this family when we're in Togo.

Merry Christmas!

We love you all!

Countless Faces of Caden

Yes...there are more, but these are the most common.

(Not to mention our favorite!)

Soon Enough, Little Man, Soon Enough...

Check Out This Kid's Chompers!

If you place any value at all on actually having fingers, then do not put them anywhere near Caden's 12 teeth.

Don't let the smile fool you; he will leave you with nubs!

An Afternoon At The Emersons

Emerson_Afternoon
Video sent by emersonstogo

We know many of you are wondering what Caden is doing these days. Here's a short video of some of the cute things we are blessed to enjoy almost everyday. We priase God for our happy little boy!

We're Gonna Need a Good Long Distance Plan...

One of Caden's favorite toys is our old cellphone from when we lived in the States. Since he was about 6-7 months old, he has been holding it up to his ear and gabbing away into it. He's now graduated to other phones and other skills like pushing the buttons to dial a number. His cousin Nate is not even 3 years old yet, and he knows his own phone number and can pick up a phone and call it, so maybe it runs in the family or something. Never let a call go to voicemail, because you never know when Caden may be wanting to talk to you... At a hotel we stayed at in Switzerland; we're pretty sure he called the front desk at least 5 times...This is just a toy phone. We like it when he uses this one because there is no chance of incurring huge long-distance charges...
And of course, like all good 21st century missionary kids, Caden loves to Skype!!!

It's A Good Day

December has arrived...and the Christmas clothing has come out as well (Thank you Gamma).

Fun fact for the day:
Today Caden is one year, one month, and one week old.