waiting for baby girl Seiler #2

The wait continues... today Jen is 40 weeks and 4 days.  That means 4 days past due date.  Not sure how proven it is, but I'm afraid that I may have passed on a family gene.  I was 1-2 weeks overdue with all four girls. It seems normal to me.

Last Sunday, on her due date, we were too close to the Allen's to not get to see them (mostly 2 month old Lola Mae....sorry Michael and Bethany and Ellie Faye)  so we all drove and met in Tulsa for a few hours. While letting the toddlers play at a park, we decided to get some last pictures of Jen with the baby inside, since she had not taken many this time around.

Yesterday, I got to go with her to her dr. appt. and meet her dr.  The nurse raved over Jen and how great she looked, how happy she was and still smiling.  She said many women come in overdue and are angry, mad, and crying.  I ask, "Why?".  The dr. reminded us that every woman has her own internal time clock and the baby will come when her body is ready.  The baby will NOT stay in there forever. What good does it do to get grumpy?  I am proud of Jen for waiting it out and agree she looks and is beautiful in this stage as she waits.

Everything is ready and waiting for baby in their home.  Ruby Kay talks about baby sissy a lot.

We are all anxious for the name reveal, after the birth.

Their little family of three is soon to become a family of four. 

The timing is becoming a little tricky and we have no other choice but to go with the flow.  Jen and Ben had decided to host Thanksgiving for us this year, not knowing the timing of baby girl. So for now, we are not sure if they will have a houseful and still be waiting, or have a newborn, or if we need to change the date of Thanksgiving this year if she is in the hospital.  Regardless, I am thrilled to get to cook the turkey for everyone, since I have not been able to do that for (who knows how many) years. Also, with our return tickets to Thailand on December 8th, we do not want the arrival and recovery days too close to our departure.  So for now, we wait in God's timing and remind each other that He is always in control and wait with open arms for baby girl.

c o u s i n s reunite

It is a three hour drive between the Allens in Fayetteville and the Seilers in Stillwater.  Yesterday on Jen's due date, we decided to drive and meet halfway in Tulsa. Well, actually more like 1/3 and 2/3rd's for the drive. 

Hello from Tulsa!

These two cousins have grown up almost like sisters and were so happy to see each other again. Being 2 year olds and only 6 weeks apart, they like to copy what the other one does.

Noticing that they have "sort of" matching boots.  

Love these silly cousins as they are so much fun when together. 

They truly do love each other (most of the time).

I think we were all most excited to see, two month old, Lola Mae. 

She has changed so much since we last saw her, smiling, cooing, and charming us all.

She got passed around the entire time we were together. 

And now we just wait for her next cousin to join us any day.  Jen is keeping super active, doing all those "nesting" projects, but as we all know... babies will come when they are good and ready and she just must not be ready yet. 

Veteran's Day-2015

What a fun opportunity it was for Mike and I to help with a "Veteran's Appreciation Event" this year in Iowa.  A friend of ours had worked hard on it and needed more volunteers to help with the day, since last year they served a meal to over 500.  We felt honored to get to help.

I had never been to one of these so did not know what to expect.  Veteran's were there that had served many years ago and up through some who had just come back home.

There were displays and artifacts going back to World War I.

There were old memories being  shared between the men and artifacts.

Mike and I started out at the registration table, and enjoyed hearing the guests tell us where they had served as they arrived. 

We  were very impressed  with the way so many area businesses and organizations partnered to provide complimentary services. 

Living out of the USA for most all of my adult life has made me feel emotional and grateful  when I hear our American patriotic songs.  This was no exception when I heard a  local band play, "God Bless America" and other patriotic songs. 

Mike and I helped serve the veterans and their spouses the lunch of "Soup and Sandwiches" donated by local restaurants. 

They also had a Veteran's Tribute Service.

Many of the men there made great sacrifices for the freedom of America and we saw it throughout the day.

We thanked our friend, Lorna,  for asking for our help and giving us the opportunity. It was our privilege indeed to help honor these veterans. 

some good reads to share....

Commenting on three books from this week:

"For the Love" goes first.  I was so looking forward to reading this book.  It seems it is the "craze" right now for a lot of my young Christian friends.  I can't tell you how many IG photo posts that I have seen in the past few months since it came out (most always with an artsy pose of a coffee mug beside the book).  So many people made comments how they did not want the book to end because they enjoyed it so much.  Hmmmm???  I came to the conclusion that maybe Jen, the author's, audience is  for a younger generation than I.  Yes, parts of the book were really funny as Jen has a unique humor. My biggest disappointment is that as a Christian writer, she did not have much scripture in it.  It seemed to be mostly her experiences and opinions and more like blog post writings. I often like to read a bit of a book in the morning after my quiet time, but I did not feel like this book fit into that time of encouragement so much.  It was more like fun reading to do at other times of day. Even though it lacked the scripture backing that I like, Jen still encouraged me through her passion to live for Jesus and I did gleam some quotes and thoughts from it, like:
"I only have one wild and precious life.  It matters!  I want to hear 'well done, good and faithful servant..you were fun to watch'"
"If people don't recognize that God is good by watching Christians, then we have tragically derailed."
and more for you to find....
Overall, it is a very easy and quick read. She is very honest and personal.  It's worth your time if you're a reader.

Moving on to: "Be a Circle Maker".  This is another book recommended by friends.  I usually read most of my books because a friend recommends them.  How else do you know if a book is  good? But I was not sure if I wanted to read this whole book, so I got one of those smaller condensed versions of the book. It was interesting to learn about the circle maker legend that encourages me to pray bold, tenacious prayers.

"The Power of Praying for your Adult Children" is my favorite right now, that I am still plodding through.  I have read her others "The Power of a Praying Wife and "The Power of a Praying Parent" and enjoyed them, so I am motivated to study through this one, too. Parenting never ends.  Our heart and mind will always be with our children the rest of our life. I am enjoying the fresh insight on praying with the power of God's Word over my entire family.

My other read from this week, was one last tub of files that needed to be sorted.  This pile is going to the recycle bin, but mixed in it were some priceless notebooks, journals, and term-papers  from high-school and college.  Some of them were sooo humorous.... parts of my past that I had totally forgotten about and others that triggered some of the best nostalgic memories.  Times have changed so much. This is truly a different world today. We are usually too busy in Iowa  to read and sort stuff like this, but this month has been a change of pace. I'm stashing some away for the next time the doctor orders some 'sit still' time.  They kind of help me to know myself better as I re-learn about my past, and are worth the read to me. Dig out some of your old high-school/college journals-- I think you may enjoy them.

Boy and War

We continue to think often about one of our staff families in Thailand and pray for them. War was Mike's secretary at GCTC in Chiang Mai- but now War and Boy live in southern Thailand. Just before we came back to the USA, we took a trip to visit them and our staff team in Hat Yai.  This "photo opp" was taken in a mall in their city.  They have three boys and at the time of the pix, they were:
Praise - 6 years old
Trust- 4 years old
Amen -8 months old

War has had advanced cancer for about one year.  She found out just after baby Amen was born, and has been on chemo treatments ever since. I was able to sit with her through one of her treatments, and with a room full of cancer patients in lazy boys getting their chemo- it was an all new experience for me. Continuing on in full time ministry, with three small children while she is so sick has been very difficult for them.  Boy's recent messages to us are always a mix of medical trials and  setbacks and yet encouraging because of their continued faith in God and thankfulness for prayers and love shown to them. Our hearts ache for them.

Please pray for their family as God brings them to mind.  It is so hard to see a young mom with her baby as she fights cancer.

life right now......

Yes, it has been pretty quiet on the blog lately. Recovery is going well and I am undeniably enjoying the down time and trying to obey the doctors orders. Quiet sit down projects, reading,cleaning out files, making some gifts, etc. have been a very welcome change of pace from our normal "on the go" lifestyle.

The changing of leaves around our cabin, cool crisp air, and change of seasons have absolutely brought both Mike and I so much enjoyment.  The lack of, in our Asian tropical climate is one thing that we miss the most.

Mike is getting in as much time in nature as he can (deer hunting with a bow) and I decided to join him for one day last week.  We drove up to Volga,Iowa where he joined a friend and he was thrilled to have me experience his world.

We sat in this hay bale blind in an alfalfa field for 3 hours, and although Mike saw two out his window, I did not see anything.  Talk about boring..........BORING........ it is just something I will never understand.  I am just too task and goal oriented.  Good thing, that I had a book to read....and of coarse- just spending time with Mike in his "happy place" was fun.

This has also been a good time to get some much needed projects on our cabin done that Mike has wanted to do for years.  Scraping, painting, etc.- but mostly crawling under the cabin to replace the broken support joists.  He is relieved to have that project done.

After a trip to a Mayo Clinic dermatologist last week, we stopped by the "Little Brown Church in the Vale". Such a fun historical church so close to home.  Did you know that the famous song "The Church in the Wildwood" was written in 1857 about the church- but the church was not built until 1864.

A wedding tradition began there and by the year 2014, over 73,800 couples had repeated their wedding vows at this "Little Brown Church".

For those who have wanted to see our new little "Fun Finder"...here it is.  It is our new "home away from home" when we are on the road. More pictures to come later.

Jen's due date is just 10 days away now.  Hang on baby girl for a few more days, till we finish up some appointments here and come down in one week to meet you! But don't wait too long after that because of  our return tickets to Thailand!  As if we or Jen or baby girl have any control over that arrival date anyway! Stay tuned!