One-Arm Pushups

As you can see, Caden has been eating his Wheaties, or at least his off-brand cornflakes. We're not sure where he gets his amazing strength, but it's definitely not from his mommy or daddy :)

At Rest

That's where we are right now: in a state of restfulness. With all that has happened with April and contractions and worrying about the baby, we are now only 10 minutes away from a really good hospital. With all of the car drama from the last week, we are again driving a brand new truck, thanks to our dear friends the Crowsons and the Rieses. We will still have to find a new truck for ourselves by January, but it puts us at rest knowing that we have one for now. With all of the people who normally stop by our house, usually 4 or 5 every day, now 9 hours away and in a different country, we are able to spend all the time we want to as a family. We are strengthening our bonds of love and enjoying these last few weeks as a family of 3.

Are our problems all gone? No, of course not. But for a time, even a short one, we don't have to be burdened with them quite so much. We have never before in our 6 years of marriage needed rest so badly, and God has given it in abundance, just as He promised He would. All we have to do is seek Him, and He will draw near, take our troubles, and give us rest. The picture above says it all: we are connected to God, and He whispers words of rest to our hearts. We thank our great God so much for this time...

Comic Relief

Amidst all the stress our family is experiencing these days, God decided we need to laugh a little. A young man came to our door this morning asking if we wanted to buy some bread....or at least that's what we thought he said. When he returned, he opened his sack and we saw a rabbit. In French the two words can sound very close..... le pain (bread) le lapin (rabbit). So what did we do??? We bought the bunny as a birthday present for Caden. It only cost us $10! The best part is that the boy was selling the bunny to help pay for school books. How fun that our son has a new pet rabbit and we got to help another student with school supplies! Don't you love God's sense of humor?! Caden loves the rabbit and couldn't stop saying "rabbit" the entire time the young man was here. He offered to wash the rabbit for us and even to bring food for it later this afternoon. I think through this bunny we have begun yet another relationship with a Togolese student. Enjoy this short video and a few pictures of the event.



The first introductions.

New Rabbit
Uploaded by emersonstogo

Can you see the excitement on Caden's face?!

Caden and Yovo supervise the bathing of the rabbit. Don't worry...the dog was on a chain and unable to reach the rabbit. Don't you just love Caden in his boxers and rainboots?! His choice, of course!

Like We Needed the Drama

Most people who read this are well aware of our truck situation, so I'm not gonna delve into those sordid details right now. The purpose of this post is to inform everyone that last night, April started having some pretty strong contractions. They were about 8 minutes apart and 20 seconds long. I'm no nurse, but even I know that this sort of thing is not good. Fortunately, our friend Edith IS a nurse, and she said pretty firmly that this is not good. We were scheduled to leave for Accra on November 5th to await the baby, but we're going to have to leave two weeks early, probably this coming Wednesday.

If you've been following our truck situation, then you are well aware that we don't need this right now, at all. We just have to accept that it is happening and deal with it. We've got an amazing support team in our teammates, fellow missionaries, our sponsoring church, our family, and of course our friends.

We would really appreciate your continued prayers. All of this is so much to take in all at one time, and we're struggling to deal with it all. Please pray for my beautiful, radiant wife and our unborn child. Pray for me that I will be strong in the Lord for them. Pray that we can, when this is all past, praise God and bring further glory to His name...

Brett

Maternity Portraits

When I was pregnant with Caden my sister-in-law, Betsy, took maternity portraits of me at 32 weeks. It was her first "job" as a photographer and Brett and I loved the results! We couldn't imagine having those beautiful pictures of Caden and not having any this time around. So here I am at 33 weeks taking advantage of a slightly cooler morning to let Brett take pictures of me. I enjoyed playing around with the coloring of the photos afterwards to get these results. While it is not Betsy-quality work, we enjoyed attempting the look we wanted amidst a limited backdrop here in Togo. (Betsy, I still want to send you the originals and let you play.) These are a few of my favorites. Caden enjoys giving the baby kisses and hugs...so cute, I love it!

Brett says...

the world needs to see this face. And I agree.

Big Boy Bed

We are now into night #4 of Caden sleeping in his "big boy bed". Although it's not the final big boy bed, we did convert his crib into a toddler bed. He has done great and is thrilled about the transition. The first night he woke up a few times, but since then he's slept his normal amount at night and at nap time. Just after we finished putting the railings on, he climbed onto his bed and couldn't stop smiling and squealing....this video is dark, but it gives an accurate account of the excitement.

The ironic thing is that we made the move in hopes he would get out of bed on his own and play in the mornings letting mom and dad have a few more minutes of sleep rather than a 6 AM wake-up call. No such luck. When he was in his crib, he would rock back and forth on his feet while holding onto the crib railing and whining till we came in and got him. Now, he just stands up, does the same rocking motion, and whines until we open his door and tell him he can get out.

This was night #2...saying night-night prayers with Daddy.He looks too excited to sleep, don't you think?!
Caden insisted on sitting like Mommy while we read one last book before bed (night #3). The next morning, Caden woke up and came out of his room on his own! Now I know one day I'll be posting about Caden not staying in his bed...but for now, this was a huge step. We'll see how tomorrow morning goes.

A First For Me

I have read numerous posts of people being tagged to make lists of things about themselves. I always enjoy reading these and learning a little more about my friends. Ironically enough, I have never been tagged...until now. Thanks Betsy! So with a curious husband waiting to read my answers, here we go:


1. Who is my man? Brett Darrel Emerson
2.How long have we been together? We recently celebrated 6 years of marriage on Sept.1st
3. How long did we date? 4 months dating + 5 month engagement=9 months (when you know it's the right person, you just know...right?!)
4. How old is he? 30
5.Who eats more? Right now it's a bit of a toss up....oh the joys of pregnancy!
6. Who said "I love you" first? I honestly don't know. We told each other we loved each other in a brotherly-sisterly-Christian way since day one I think.
7. Who is taller? Brett
8. Who sings better? me...but Brett has definitely improved since we got married
9. Who is smarter? Brett
10.Who has more of a temper? Brett...I just shut down.
11.Who does laundry? both of us....but mostly Antionette, our houseworker
12.Who takes out the garbage? Antionette ("taking out the garbage" is totally different concept in Africa)
13. Who sleeps on the right side? I prefer to. But when I'm pregnant I sleep on the left...this allows me more room with the body pillow. (Brett is a bed hog)
14. Who pays the bills? I used to, but Brett has been doing it since we moved to Togo. Actually, our day guard pays most of the local bills for us...you have to go to the building, no paying on-line or over the phone.
15. Who has sharper computer skills? We both have our computer areas that we're sharper in.
16. Who mows the lawn? uhhhh, Eric (our day guardian)
17. Who cooks? me, Antionette, and Brett is a pro at throwing anything in a tortilla
18. Who drives when we are together? Brett
19. Who pays when we are out? Brett
20. Who is more stubborn? Brett
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? me, I hate conflict.
22.Which set of parents do we see the most? now that we're in Africa, it's equal
23. Who asked out who? I sent the first email (thanks to his ex-girlfriend for the e-address), but after that...I don't remember.
24. Who kissed who first? he kissed me...at the Wishing Well in DisneyLand
25. Who is more sensitive? ME, remember, I hate conflict.
26. Who has more friends? Brett
27. Who has more siblings? Brett
28. Who wears the pants? Brett

So there you go...28 bits of information about me and my man.

31 weeks

Coconut Grove

We took our last vacation as a family of 3...

We traveled to the Coconut Grove beach resort in Elmina, Ghana. It is located right on the Atlantic Ocean, and we enjoyed falling to sleep to the sounds of waves.

I'm not sure if this was a full moon or not but it gave the most beautiful moonlight across the rocks on the beach. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Caden was terrified of the ocean. I convinced him to play with some blocks in the sand. Then his creative Daddy convinced him to dig for a small coconut he buried in the sand. Caden didn't realize that the "nut" was moving closer to the water each time until a small wave took over his digging spot...and then he freaked out again. Note to self: Next time, bring more toys for playing in the sand!

Rain Forest Rope Bridge

While in Ghana we were able to visit Kakum National Park where the rope bridges are over 100 feet off the ground. It is home to elephants, monkeys, and bongos (large antelope)...none of which we saw. But we had a great time with Matt & Grace (moving to Togo in a year) and Emily (our curent school teacher).

Safari Caden

Caden loved the bridges but couldn't stay awake on the hike down to the car...poor thing.
Group picture: the Emersons, the Hangens (future teammates), Emily (current school teacher)

Hamper Time, a Bummer and Vacation

Every night after his bath, Caden takes his dirty clothes from the bathroom to his bedroom and puts them in his clothes hamper. At least this is usually how it goes. Sometimes Caden puts Caden in the hamper.
The bummer is that we had our 4th ultrasound yesterday and we still have no definitive answer on whether the baby is a boy or a girl. We've finally just resigned ourselves to the fact that we'll have to wait until he or she makes their debut...
The irony of the whole thing is that with Caden we had every opportunity to find out and chose not to, and now we want to know and can't find out, even after 4 tries! We love surprises, but this is getting ridiculous!
Here is the baby's spine and ribs. At least we know it has those. Seriously though, the ultrasound was a blessing just being able to know that the baby is healthy. Praise God! Caden, of course, wants to do everything that mommy and daddy do, so he was all lined up and ready to go for his own ultrasound. We're pretty sure it would have confirmed the presence of fruit snacks.

We are headed to the beach today for several days, so we will be out of touch with our known world. We are celebrating our 6th anniversary as well as these last two years of our little 3-person family. That's all about to change, but we want to pause and reflect on how amazing this time has been. Having one child to focus all of our love and attention on and enjoy to the fullest has been a beautiful season in our lives, and we thank God for it. Now if He can just prepare us for baby #2, we would greatly appreciate it!

What do you think?

I saw a poll on a friends blog and thought I'd give our readers a chance to cast their thoughts about the gender of this baby. Remember, one doc thinks it's a boy while another thinks it's a girl. What do you think?

We hope to have another ultrasound on Friday...if the baby cooperates, we'll let you know. If not...we'll leave the poll open.

1st Day of "School"

Caden experienced his first day of preschool today. While it was just for the morning and Mommy stayed to help out "Miss" Becky (his teacher), he seemed to really enjoy it.
Caden's classmates: Gabe, Owen, Asher (not pictured)


Circle Time with "Miss" Becky



"choo-choo" to recess train
(the other guys are 3 yrs. old, Caden couldn't reach Owen's shoulders...too cute!)

Caden would prefer to swing all day!

This is mostly just some structured social time for Caden once a week. We don't expect him to participate fully in everything just yet, but thought we'd give him the chance to start learning. We don't have lots of options for playgroups or other special activities, so we take advantage of what we do have. We are blessed to have friends/teammates that are willing to help us make our children's lives as "normal" as possible.

My Birthday

The last two days have been absolutely wonderful! Brett told me that since he couldn't go out and buy me a really good present, he was going to give me the day off. What mom wouldn't love that gift?! Because of other work-related things, we divided up the excitement over two days. Here's a little glimpse of my princess treatment...

Caden helped his daddy pick these flowers from our yard. Aren't they beautiful?! I woke up to these flowers, breakfast in bed, and smiling faces from my boys. In the afternoon, Brett took Caden with him out to a village, giving me time to rest and have the house to myself. Tracey came over with a beautiful cookbook holder that she had made by the iron worker. When Brett and Caden returned home, he brought gifts from the other girls on the team including a cute note pad and Bath&BodyWorks scented hand soaps. Thanks girls! That evening, Brett took me to our favorite restaurant in town and we enjoyed the night just the two of us (thanks Emily for staying with Caden).

Wednesday morning I was woken with smiling faces again and breakfast in bed. This time Brett had made blueberry pancakes (we found frozen blueberries in Accra, Ghana) and brought them with fresh orange juice. Not to mention this was the second morning in a row that I had been treated to sleeping in while Brett got up with Caden, our 6-6:30 riser. And yes, the pancakes were delicious!

That afternoon Brett got in the kitchen to make me a cheesecake, with a little help from Caden (who mostly ate the graham crackers). I woke up from a nap to find the two of them working hard at crushing Petite Beurres (similar to graham crackers) and pecans. You can also see my cookbook holder in this picture. Here's the final product:

And here's my response after the first bite:For dinner, Brett jumped in the kitchen once again to make pizza and salad. It was good for Brett to learn his way around in our new kitchen and he said he actually enjoyed it. He has offered to make pizza night his night to cook dinner once a week! It's the birthday gift that just keeps on giving. Thank you to everyone that made my 29th birthday so special...especially my wonderful, thoughtful husband! (I love you!)

28 weeks

I haven't posted anything on this blog about our trip to Accra, Ghana to check out options for having our baby. We decided to have the baby at Lister Hospital, feel free to read more about it on our Ministry Blog. We also had an ultrasound and were quite disappointed in what the doctor was able to tell us....absolutely nothing! Not exactly true. He did measurements on the baby and said that I was measuring for a due date of November 26th, one week earlier than my original one. He said the baby looks great and my test results all came back good. So what is this "nothing" all about....we couldn't tell what the baby was! The little one was so comfy and curled up that we couldn't determine if it was a girl or boy. And then after much prodding by Brett, the doc finally said, "Well, if I have to say something...I would say it's 70% that it's a girl...but I really can't say." WHAT?! So now we have one doctor betting it's a boy and the other betting it's a girl. We'll keep trying to find out, but as this baby gets bigger, it's only going to be more and more difficult to get him/her to cooperate.

"Cheeeese!"

Caden has learned to say "cheeeese" when posing for a picture. Sometimes you get a very natural smile and then others turn out mostly teeth. This morning, Brett wasn't feeling well and was in bed when Caden crawled up and tucked himself under the covers with his Daddy. So cute! Of course, I had to take a picture and thus began the random photo shoot.

My Very Own Car

I'm sure many of you have been in a grocery store where they have the little cars attached to the grocery cart that keeps your toddler entertained while you get your shopping done. But I bet you would never expect to see them in West Africa...me either! MaxMart in Accra, Ghana knows how to keep their customers coming back...or at least this mommy and daddy.

Our 6th Anniversary

On September 1st, we celebrated our 6th year of being married. We enjoyed a delicious meal at an authentic French restaurant (thanks Dave for keeping Caden) and reminisced over our last 6 years of marriage together. We realized that we have had 6 years packed full of love, laughter, and adventure. We have grown in friendship, trust, and understanding of each other and yet we know God has so much more to teach us. We continue to anticipate what God has planned for us as a family and know that His adventures for us keep getting more exciting.

When we started dating, I never dreamed my life would go the way it has...but I would live it all over again! I love you Brett Emerson and continue to be proud of being your wife and thankful to God for putting you in my life!

Look What I Found...

The other day I went to use the bathroom and lifted up the toilet lid and discovered this....

Can you tell what it is? It's a cloth diaper and diaper cover. Caden has watched me rinse off his cloth diapers in the toilet enough that I guess he thought I'd want this one there (even though it was unused!). I laughed and then told Brett to grab the camera and come here. I have found pieces of paper towel in the toilet too...maybe it's time to try the potty training again.