Joyeuses Pâques... Happy Easter!

The French word for Easter is 'pâques' the same word for passover. Much more accurate than our english pagan word 'easter'. Mikaylah wore her Pâques chapeau that we bought her last year that she was not interested in last year.
Here are the kiddos in their Easter best,

Mikaylah sans(without) bonnet because she couldn't look up into the camera with it on! Enjoy! Mikaylah is three now and Jayson is almost five months, next week he will be five months old!

relâche 07-- in other words, Spring Break!

This is actually a pic of our friends, the
Hedges whom we met up with at the camping municipal. Mikaylah and Hedges daughter, Ruth were with me in the front, I just turned around and snapped this pic so you get the idea.

We had a great week of Relâche last week. We took advantage of the family friendly activities that were for FREE! We took the kids on a sleigh ride drawn by horses and Mikaylah got to feed the donkey at the petting zoo and I use the term lightly as there were only two animals, a dwarf donkey and a pregnant goat who was not interested in anything to eat!

You can click on the picture and make it bigger!
Jayson has become a lot more fun too! Here is a pic of him in his carseat at the camping municipal

We also helped Mikaylah make a snowman in our front yard. She was all excited about having a real carrot for his nose. When some big kids came and knocked him down the next day, Mikaylah reasoned that he was tired and was having a nap!


We also took a quick trip to the border to get Tim's student visa. Now we can say we have been to Maine! Unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera so no pics of the spectacular scenery, but here is a pic of Mikaylah and her brother for your viewing pleasure!

We also took Jayson to the US consolate yesterday to get his American passport. We were kind of surprised at all the rigmarole we had to go through! We are still waiting for Mikaylah's and Jayson's Canadian identity papers... hopefully before we go to Niger!

Jayson is Three months old!

Mikaylah loves her baby brother, Here he is holding his own bottle, Making eyes at the camera, sitting up with big sister at three months old ! and waving "hi". Isn't he cute?

New Pictures

Took this picture this morning as he was all smiles. Marilee Neer gave this outfit to Jayson, never thought he'd fit into it so soon! Mikaylah has been doing some fun things too. Maybe I'll get to that tomorrow! Notice the weather stickers for Quebec and Niamey?

Bonne Nuit (not BON NEWIT)

Another blessing in our life is that Monday January 15th Tim's CAQ arrived in the mail! That means that now Tim can go to the US border (Maine) to get his student visa. We also got a phone call from Kokomo saying that we have renters for our home in Kokomo so that is a huge financial burden lifted from our shoulders.
"Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done, The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare."
Psalm 40:5
Sorry I haven't blogged in such a long time, I'm trying to get at least one in every month and February is almost over!
I started with my tutrice, Susanne on Wednesday. She says the biggest thing for me is to practise practise practise! So I'm going to have to watch Dora en français from now on! Hopefully I will have time to take some pics of Jayson at three months he is all smiles in the morning and not nearly so fussy as he used to be.
It is past midnight now so I am going to bed, bonne nuit!

Quebec Canada WEATHER is COLD!

Quebec, Canada Weather

Oui! Je parle Francais !!

Eh Bien, Avec notre Seigneur nous sommes ici en Quebec! We actually arrived in Canada December 30, 2006. Some friends of ours in Kokomo loaned us their truck and trailer to move up to Canada (see photo). What a HUGE blessing that was as we couldn't fit everything into the van. Tim's CAQ (Certificat d'acceptance au Quebec)never actually arrived so we came into Canada as visitors. The immigration officers at the border told us we could go to our apartment and unpack and then re-enter the country when the CAQ arrived. So that is what we did. I just heard from the VISA office in Montreal (that issues the CAQ) that they mailed Tim his CAQ yesterday! Praise the Lord that it is in the mail! We did ask that they mail it to our address in Quebec City so hopefully we will get it before February!
When we got here everything was wet and relatively warm! good for driving and unpacking! We were also surprised to learn that we have a kitchen table and four chairs! We were not expecting that either! We are in a three bedroom apartment with a washer and dryer fridge and stove! Yesterday they replaced our toilet because there were cracks in the porcelain and I was worried that we might have a disaster on our hands! So we are all set now. It started to snow last Monday and it hasn't stopped! Tim has his first French test today and tomorrow he is driving the truck and trailer back to my parents house in Toronto (500 miles one way)to trade back with our friends Paul and Sherrie who are driving our van up from Kokomo. What precious people they are!
"Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare!" Psalm 40:5
Here are some recent pictures of our son Jayson at 6 weeks, and of Mikaylah in the snow!

Jayson under the sunlamps

Oops, here is a picture of Jayson under the sun lamps. Doesn't he look cute with his little "sun-glasses" as Mikaylah calls them. Mikaylah loves to hug and kiss her brother and only occasionally wants me to put him down. If he makes any noise at all she is in his face making sure he is okay. She also wants to bathe in the sink and get her diaper changed on his change table! I guess toilet training will really take a back seat now!

It's a Boy!

Yes, he is here! He was born November 16, 2006 at 11:20 am EST. 3.5 kilos (seven lbs 14 oz)and 20 inches long. An easy birth he was out in ten minutes! We are very blessed. He was a bit jaundiced (biliruben level at 12.4)and was sent home Nov 18 with a bili blanket only to be readmitted to the hospital Nov 19 when his biliruben (spelling?) level went up(to 15.6). I was pretty upset as I was not expecting that result at all! They allowed me to be a "room in" mother so I could continue to nurse him. Thankfully his numbers began to come down under the "sun lamps" so he was allowed to come home Nov 21(at level 8.4). Anyways here are pictures of our sweet boy, called Jayson Scott Phillips... thanks to everyone who contributed to the name search. We put the y in Jayson's name partly because Mikaylah has a y and partly in honor of Jayson Keidel one of the boys from Bethel dorm in Cote d'Ivoire.

Tagged

Three Things Meme

1.Things that scare me:
-The possibility that my children may reject Jesus Christ.
-heights.
-cockroaches.

2. People who make me laugh:
-my sister.
-my daughter.
-my husband.

3. Things I hate the most:
-Being unorganized.
-Clutter.
-When people deny Christ.

4. Things I don't understand:
-How to do my website
-Why my daughter sleeps less when put to bed late.
-How I don't get anything done when I have a whole day free.

5. Things I'm doing right now:
-feeding my daughter.
-laundry.
-trying to figure out my website.

6. Things I want to do before I die:
-witness my children following Jesus.
-live in Africa.
-Figure out my website.

7. Things I can do:
-kiss away my child's boo-boos.
-french braid.
-explain the Gospel.

8. Ways to describe my personality:
-happy.
-sensitive.
-easy to please.

9. Things I can't do:
-stay organized three days in a row.
-wipe my daugher's nose without her complaining.
-figure out my website.

10. Things I think you should listen to:
-God.
-Children.
-music that you can sing with.

11. Things you should never listen to:
-whining.
-Whining.
-Whining.

12. Things I'd like to learn:
-How to be consistantly organized.
-How to completely speak, understand and think in French.
-How to do my website.

13. Favorite foods:
-perfectly ripe Mangoes.
-perfectly ripe avocadoes.
-perfectly seasoned juicy steak.

14. Beverages I drink regularly:
-Milk
-Ice Water
-Orange Juice

15. Shows I watched as a kid:
-Flintstones.
-Gilligan's Island.
-Little House on the Prairie.

Tent Camping in OCTOBER!

Yes, we did! We travelled out to Wilson Kansas on September 28 and returned to Indiana last Saturday October 7. Mikaylah saw her first tumbleweed in Wilson (that reminds me very much of Saskatchewan minus the wheat fields). She was in heaven because the family we stayed with had four children who were all older than Mikaylah and were very attentive towards her, which she loved! Plus they had a playground complete with two slides, two swings and a trampoline! Pure heaven for a two and a half year old!
The Missions Conference ended Wednesday night so Thursday morning we began the trip home. We camped one night in Missouri and one night in Illinois. It was cold! But we forced ourselves to stay up long enough to roast marshmallows and make s'mores! We were in bed by 9:30 shivering away while Mikaylah was cozy in her sleeping bag. Stay tuned for pictures!!
Sorry about the teaser for pics, Tim just took video, no stills, so sorry about that!

Please Pray

Our mission board just informed us that the 2007 support levels will be assesed this month and we should hear by early October what our new support level will be. It is with fear and trembling that we await this news. Please pray that it will not be significantly higher than what it is now. Perhaps even lower!! That would be a miracle! Tee Hee! Thanks

In the miracle dept... daughter age 2 years 4 months two weeks did her first pee pee in the potty! It was bedtime of course and after all the routine and she was properly tucked in under her pink comforter she pleds to papa "go potty". She is lying, I told dear hubby, it is just a stall tactic to waylay going to bed. But dear patient hubby took her to the potty, helped her take off all her p.js (top included... I'm thinking boy does she have her papa hoodwinked) and diaper and all and she sits on the potty and demands "brown m&m please". To his credit, papa did not fold, "you must pee pee in the potty first". Then papa leaves me in the bathroom with her to demonstrate, which isn't too difficult for a 7 month pregnant woman. and Low and behold... she produced!! "Papa come back in here! Mikaylah just went pee pee in the potty!!" We praised her up and down, but her only response was, "brown m&m please." Papa proudly brought her the ziplock bag of m&ms and let her pick one. Then he again left the room. "ready to get back in your p.j.s?" I inquired, "no, green m&m, please!"
It was 9:58 when she finally went to bed last night! sigh! but she did sleep in til 10:00 this morning!

Oui! Il fait tres bien!

Oops, so sorry it has been so long, yikes over a month! Tim just got back his first French test score.... 98% Waahoo! He even got a sticker on his page! Mikaylah and I are so proud of him. He is working so hard!
We have less than four months before we go to Quebec so Tim is wanting to get at least a little bit of French under his belt before we go "native" or at least are immersed in it! We are up to 87.4% of our needed support. We have heard from a couple of churches who would like to support us, but are either waiting for us to begin language study in Quebec or for their budgets to be approved for the next year. So we are teetering awfully close to the 90 percentage point! VERY exciting to us!
Most of you know that it has been a very long deputation trail. We can hardly believe that it is actually becoming a reality. We heard from Sahel Academy this week. They got off to a great start. The dorm has 18 kids this year, nine boys and nine girls. Pray for Tim and Brenda and Amber, the dorm assistant as they nurture these young people. We are excited and anxious to join them in what looks like could be fifteen months from now! WaaaHooo!
Any more of you think of baby boy names for our son we are open to all suggestions!

oops here's the "after" photo

Okay, sorry about that, yesterday, I was having trouble uploading pictures. So when I did it over again today, with the after shot I just had to include a cute picture of our daughter asleep in her "big bed". We sure are gratefull to all of our friends who have loaned us furniture for the "mean time" between now and Quebec! Hopefully there will be new friends in Quebec who will loan us some furniture until we leave for Niger! Tee Hee! Thanks for the good response of name suggestions both on the blog and on our email. We are working on a website through this mission at a reduced rate, still not free like blogspots, but hopefully easier to publish pictures!

The Container is GONE!

Waahooo! What a relief! We never thought we would be so excited to see an empty room! What we thought would be an 8x8x8 foot cube of our worldly goods ended up being almost 6.5x8x8 or 323 cubic feet for all you math geniuses out there, well, at least my brother in law! Here are the before and after pictures, mind you we also had a couple of extra mattresses and some boxes of tables and chairs for the Niger field that are not technically ours, just being stored in our huge dining room until the UHaul could come and carry it all away! We are so thankful for the Marines, our friends, not the corps, for packing it all in the container and looking after it when it arrives in Niger. We have had many people ask us when we are actually leaving. Truth be told we don't know, but the opportunity to send our "stuff" arose at a reduced rate so we jumped at the chance. Many people in the church here in Kokomo have loaned us beds, a microwave, a rocking chair, dishes, etc. to tide us over until we leave for Quebec (hopefully in January) for language study. Another answer to prayer is that Tim will be studying French here in Kokomo this semester. His first class is two weeks from today. Pray for him. We are so glad that he has the opportunity to take an elementary French class as it is not always available! God's good timing!
I have one more thing that we would like help in... choosing a name for our son. Yes, we are having a baby boy! Mikaylah would like to name him Brutus, but I am not totally sold on the idea. We would like him to have Tim's middle name, Scott. But we are stuck for a first name. Any ideas would be appreciated. We have looked on line and still haven't found one that resonates as "that's it!" yet. So send in your ideas and suggestions! The boy is due November 23rd but I may very well have him early as Mikaylah came 20 days early. I'm aiming for the eleventh, that should be memorable, don't you think? And he won't have to share a birthday with daddy or uncles or grandpa! Maybe we should have a contest and the one that wins gets a signed autograph of the baby??? hmmm we'll have to think this one through!
Okay I have given you lots to praise the Lord for and lots to think about!

Good News!

We have had a good report of my dad. He is home now and a little afraid of doing too much (which is good). We are just so thankful that the doctors and nurses took such good care of him. God is good all the time!

Pray for my Papa

We got the news this weekend that my (Janice's) dad was rushed to the hospital with chest pains. For dad to tell my mum to call 911 is serious. Poor mum, she must have felt so helpless. The EMT people reassured her that she did the right thing. Dad had a bunch of tests done and they discovered that yes, he did have a small heart attack. No more mowing the lawn or vacuuming for him! We had just celebrated mum and dad's 45th wedding anniversary on July 8th. So this came as such a shock after visiting with them last weekend. It was so fun to see Mikaylah playing "frisbee" with "grampa" and gathering raspberries and feeding the birds. Mikaylah still associates the word "backyard" with Grandpa. We did have the camera out but it wasn't working :( Anyways. Dad is still in the hsptl and hopefully he will be coming home today. Please keep both my parents in your prayers. THanks.

Yes we are having a baby!

We told Mikaylah this week that she is going to be a big sister. When Tim asked her where the baby is she said "hiding!" another of her favourite words! :) You know this baby really is a miracle child. We were hoping that Mikaylah wouldn't be an only child, but we knew she would have plenty of "brothers and sisters" in Niger. I was in a state of disbelief and wonder when I found out that we were indeed having another child. We were not planning this child, but God was. He knows the plans he has for us. Are you tired of hearing me quote Jeremiah 29:11. To be honest I never tire of hearing it. It is a constant reminder to me that He holds our future! I woke up on Monday morning and did not feel queazy at all! With Mikaylah I was sick for nine months. Throwing up two or three times a day! (I know too much information) but to put it in perspective, I have only thrown up four times with this one! God knew I needed to be on top of things with a two year old to care for! So when I woke up Monday morning and didn't even feel queazy I panicked and called the doctor's office. Now who but a neurotic geriatric mother would call the doctor because she feels good???? But they patiently let me come in and listen to the heart tones. 153 per minute. Mikaylah was there too. She was laying on my legs with her ear on my tummy... "baby, hiding". I wish I had a photo of that, but it is in my heart forever. We are 16 weeks along and expect this little one for Thanksgiving. How awesome is that! And since we are not on EBM's insurance yet we do qualify for Medicaid so all of the baby hospital and prenatal care will be looked after. Praise the Lord!

I'm Happy!

Mikaylah is two. We are trying to raise her to be a happy child who loves Jesus and is obedient. Right now she is opposed to change. She doesn't like to get her diaper changed, she doesn't like to get out of bed in the morning, she doesn't like to go to bed for her nap or for the night, she doesn't like to get in the tub or out of the tub. Her standard answers for "let's change your stinky diaper" is "No, I'm happy!". Like her disposition is going to effect the state of her diaper. "It is time for a bath, Mikaylah." "No, I'm happy!" forces me to take a very unhappy child and undress her and put her in the tub. After twenty minutes and very wrinkly toes and fingers, "Time to let the water out of the tub!" You guessed it, "NO! I'm happy!" Sometimes these protestations are through the midst of many tears and foot stamping and not the "If you're happy and you know it stamp your feet" kind! Well, I guess one out of three is better than nothing, though she knows Jesus is a bearded man to whom she prays and she wants her own way rather than Mommy and Papa's she is always "Happy!" at least so she says!

God's Waiting Room

I hate waiting! I am a fairly spontaneous person and love it when my husband surprises me but I hate to wait! We just finished studying the Gospel of John. Before He went to the cross Jesus told his disciples to wait for him at a particular mountain in Galilee. They still didn't understand what was going to happen. After Jesus was crucified they were crushed! Their Lord was dead! They still didn't clue in that he would be raised from the dead. They were hiding! Did they go to the mountain? Maybe but they got tired of waiting. Peter decided to go fishing. That's all that he knew how to do. Besides the last time he saw Jesus was just as the rooster crowed after he denied knowing Jesus for the third time. Even if Jesus was to come back would he even want anything to do with him?
Right now I feel like Peter. I feel like everything we planned for is falling apart. We had a three bedroom apartment in Quebec ready and furnished for our arrival the end of June. We have 79.5% of our support. Not enough to go to language study says our missions committee. Maybe in January. Tim and I were devastated. This is not how we had planned. Is God's word still true? "For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord,'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you and you will seek Me and find Me when you search for me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:11-13) Yes God's word is still true. We don't know why we have to wait right now, but wait we will. We will pray. We will trust. We will obey.
You know what happened to Peter when he went fishing? He caught NO fish. He fished all night and caught nothing. Jesus then came to him. Jesus told him to cast his net on the right side of the boat. When he obeyed his net was FULL of fish. Jesus' timing. Peter obeyed. The rest of the chapter shows how Jesus reinstated Peter to the ministry. How beautiful to be in God's waiting room. To wait on him. Yes, He is rarely early and Yes, he is never late. Trust is a hard thing to do when you think you' ve got it all figured out. But He wants us to lean on Him not on our own understanding. So we wait. we may have to start the process of getting into language school all over again. But we wait.