Linnan's Photos - Part 1

Our friend Linnan is visiting us from Boston and last night, he took the most amazing photos of Daniel! I was just amazed to see what a difference a really good camera makes - it captured the colors and the light in our home so well! But of course, Linnan is a very gifted photographer and we are just so thankful that he took these. Thank you so much Linnan!!! See below some of our favorites and in the slideshow, you can see more of the photos and download them too! Linnan will be staying with us until Saturday and he said he will take more photos of us, so keep posted for more of these to come!








Slideshow of photos - click on it to see larger and/or download:

Watering Can Video!

Here is a video of Daniel using the watering can in the pool for the first time ever! We are so thankful summer is just beginning since, God willing, we will be able to enjoy many special moments like this!

Gymboree Video!

Here is a video of Daniel at the Gymboree class this past weekend. As you will see, he enjoyed some activities but wasn't too sure about others... It was so cute to watch him experiencing it all!

Yay, The Watering Can!

After many days of rain, we got to enjoy the pool again this past weekend. This time, it was warm enough for me to get in and I thoroughly enjoyed playing with Daniel. For the first time ever, he understood how to play with his watering can and bucket, and he did that for ages and just loved it!

He loves the water so much and has no fear whatsoever - not sure that's a good thing! :-) When we first got to the pool, Daniel just walked in straight with Jonny and just squealed with excitement, not even noticing how cold it was. Jonny kept saying "uh, it's cold!", but Daniel just kept walking in and squealing! He has definitely taken after Jonny in this aspect, I usually take a long time to get the courage to get in the pool!

He focused intensely on pouring the water into the bucket... most of it did not make it in! :-)

Going home after the pool - still holding the watering can!

We think this outfit is so cute on him!

P.S. In case you noticed that my hair looks "orange" in some photos... Well, in bright sunlight, it does! Let's just say I had a bad highlighting experience... Though it's been "corrected", it's still not perfect! At least now it's closer to caramel...before, it was orange/red - no kidding!

Indoor Activities At 15 Months - Slideshow

Daniel turned 15 months this past week! It's so amazing how he has grown and how he is becoming his own little person. We are loving this age so much!

In the past week, we tried out two different indoor playgrounds/activities and it was great seeing Daniel experiencing new things. The first place we went to, PlayWise, was a bit disappointing, I felt it was rundown and dark, but Daniel particularly enjoyed playing in the small houses, getting to see and go in his first ever real fire truck (which he loves pointing to in books and on the road) and playing on a keyboard piano. He also got to play in the sand for the first time, but wasn't too thrilled about it.

We then went with our neighbors, Justyna, Konrad and Enya, to a Gymboree (a well known play gym for children) class called "Play and Music." As we were just trying it out, we got to go for free and it was fun! It is so colorful, the teacher was great and Daniel really enjoyed it - particularly playing with the maracas they were given and banging on the "air log."

Check out the slideshow of Daniel having fun!

The Door Has Opened

We knew change was coming, but we didn't know exactly what this would look like. But after a long year of waiting and trusting in God to open a door, He has done so, and in a way that clearly shows His mark.

After almost 6 years of living here in the U.S., we knew that Jonny's post-doc at Hopkins was coming to an end this summer and that he would need to get a new job. So for the past year, we have been preparing for this in many ways. We have spent a lot of time talking and praying about our future, asking God to clearly show us where He would like us to go next, by opening the right door and closing the wrong ones.

We considered leaving the country to be closer to family and even purposefully went to Portugal after my sister's wedding to discern if that is where God wanted us to go next - we both felt we were not supposed to move there. After returning to Malaysia after many years this past Christmas, we both felt we would love to live in Asia again. Jonny looked at opportunities in Singapore and Malaysia, but no doors opened there either. And here in the US, Jonny applied to different science jobs around the country, but the doors remained closed.

Jonny took the opportunity of this "time of transition" to see if God wanted him to become a school teacher. For a long time, Jonny has felt that he would really enjoy being a teacher. He loves communicating about science and would love to be able to impact youth directly. So after a long process of talking to different people about this, Jonny applied to two "teaching fellows programs", which would give him "on the job training" and at the end of 2 years, he would be certified. We were excited about this possibility, not only because Jonny would get the training and certification needed to be a teacher, but after being certified, the world would be open to us since teachers are needed everywhere. But, after some challenging interviews, Jonny was not accepted onto the teaching programs and was told that there were not any openings for Biology teachers in the area. In summary, this door too remained closed.

The same week that Jonny started to hear back from the teaching programs, a science institute nearby invited him for a day of interviews. He had applied a couple of months previously for a post-doctoral position there but since he had not heard back from them, we had thought that this door had been closed too. But Jonny went, and after enjoying what he saw, we waited to see if this was the door we had been waiting for.

And guess what happened? We would never have guessed. After interviewing other candidates, Jonny was told that he had been selected out of over 100 applicants! Amazing, finally a "yes", finally an open door! But the story doesn't end there. Though Jonny applied for a post-doctoral position, they said that due to his experience, they wanted to offer him a "staff scientist" position - in other words, a promotion! So basically, Jonny has been offered a job he didn't even apply for (his new job starts on September 1st)! Only God could do something like that and direct us so clearly! To Him be all the glory!

What this means for our family is that we are not going anywhere! We don't even have to move house since the new job is the exact same distance as his current job - just in a different direction. And for that we are also thankful since housing prices in our area have gone down due to the recession and it would not even be possible for us to sell our home without losing money - God knew that too!

In all honesty, I received this news with mixed feelings. I was so excited for Jonny and so thankful that God was being so gracious to us and so clear in His direction, but, I was also sad that this would mean we would continue here, far away from our families and in a place that has not been easy for me to adapt to - for a variety of reasons. In addition, I'm used to changing countries after an average of 5 years, so it's strange to still be in the same place.

But for us, one thing has always been clear. Wherever our family would go next, we wanted it to be where God wanted us to go and not just where we would like to go. We have been shown many times in our lives that what we think is best is not the best unless, it is in line with God's will.

So it is in faith that we embrace this new open door. We truly believe that there is no better place for us to be than where He has lead us and therefore, there is no better place for us to be than exactly where we are right now. And so in that knowledge, we are excited (and this includes me! :-)) to see all that God has in store for us here.

One thing we believe God would like us to grow in more is in serving others - hearing Rachel Barkey reminded us that we are too often guilty of living for ourselves and that is not God's purpose for our lives. Instead of continuing to search for all that we can gain by living here (which never has and never will bring contentment), we would like to give more of ourselves to others. What this exactly looks like is not completely clear yet, but we have some ideas...

So thank you Lord for opening this door. May our family embrace all that You have planned for us to experience here, may we continue to grow, especially in the area of serving and contentment, and may You be glorified in all that we experience.

Memorial Day

Monday was a holiday here, Memorial Day. We took the opportunity to visit Jonathan David's grave. It was a sweet visit: Jonny cleaned the marker with much love, we put new flowers and having Daniel there with us was very comforting (the last time we visited, he was only about 3 months old and slept the whole time). To see him playing next to the grave, so innocently, was very special. He didn't know where we were, next year he may... We definitely look forward to telling Daniel about his big brother, who we love dearly.

We prayed together as a family and we told Jonathan David how much we miss him and how we wish we could hold, kiss and hug him the way we do with Daniel... But, it's amazing how God has restored us, we have been comforted and feel very at peace with all that we have experienced.

P.S. We received some great news while we were at the Memorial Park. The Japanese Maple Tree that we were given by friends to remember Jonathan David and that we have kept on our deck (see this previous blog for photos of the tree), is going to be planted very close to his grave. Either right next to it, or by the children's garden. What a perfect solution, it will grow much better there and we look forward to seeing it the next times we visit.

Slide show of Daniel at 14 Months

We've had so many nice times this month and as a result, have too many things to blog about and loads of photos to share. But, due to the lack of time, I thought it would be easiest to put up a slide show of all the photos as they speak for themselves. So check out the slide show below! If you click on it, you will be able to see it larger and download the photos from Picasa.

Quick update on Daniel:

Daniel is doing great - what a wonderful age this is, we are loving it! It's been now over a month since he started walking and he is so stable that we have started putting him in shorts (before, we wanted to protect his knees so he was always wearing pants).

He is also understanding us so much more and constantly points at things for us to name. When he is in the car, we have to repeatedly tell him "tree" or "car" for things he sees from the window. At least it's a distraction in the car! :-)

He's got two more teeth coming on the top, which now makes a total of 9 teeth (6 on top and 3 on the bottom).

He has been playing very well with other kids and interacting with them more and more, as opposed to just "parallel playing."

He went through a phase last week of being very attached to a pen - see slide show - which he had to carry around the whole day. Thank God he's forgotten about it now cause I was worried of him falling on it... Nevertheless, it was cute to see the bizarre attachment!

Happy Boy!

Too cute not to post immediately. This is Daniel at the park today. He was in a great mood and I got some wonderful photos. Enjoy!

First Story-Time At The Library

Since Daniel only takes one nap after lunch now, we are doing lots of fun things together in the morning. I have wanted to take him to story-time at our local library for a long time, but it's on a Wednesday and I usually work that day. But last week, I had a different work schedule so I was able to take Daniel to the story-time for children under 2, called "Babies in Bloom."

It was so fun to see all the babies and experience the different little activities the Librarian had for the children. Daniel enjoyed most of it: after about 5 minutes, he wanted to walk around instead of sit and listen, but he particularly enjoyed when the librarian played music and gave them little rattles for the children to shake together. At the end, she used a bubble-making machine to blow hundreds of bubbles around. Since it was the first time Daniel had ever seen so many bubbles, he just watched quietly, not too sure what to do with them.

Here are some photos of our first story-time at the library:

Daniel listening to the Librarian

Walking around shaking the rattle

Looking at the bubbles...

Daniel's friend Nina was really excited about the bubbles. Maybe after seeing how she played with them, Daniel will know what to do next time!