We want to congratulate 2 special babies that were born this past week:

*another edit*  (I hope this one’s right…)  Anah Simwenyi-Rancifer who was born on April 18

and

Sienna Lee who was born on April 24

We’re so thankful that both the babies and the new mommies are doing well!  God is good!

In the morning (before Israel shaved…)

Bentley telling Imanuel a secret

Imanuel’s newest obsession – the CD player

His first time eating spaghetti.  He scraped his tray clean.

Aunt Staci visited us!  Imanuel was able to rebond with her.  🙂  We took her to the Hungarian Falls which is just 20 minutes away.

Imanuel standing next to one of the many beautiful waterfalls there.

Imanuel got this special present from his Grandma & Grandpa Dube from church.  He likes it a lot!

Imanuel has 8 teeth and I think 2 more on top are coming in. 

His current favorite foods are:
–  Rice
–  Bananas
–  Grapes
–  Pears
–  Pasta
–  Corn
–  Grits (I know, we’re super-confused about this one.)

He currently dislikes the following foods: (which means he drops them on the floor for Bentley to eat)
–  Avocados
–  Green Beans
–  Apples
–  Oatmeal

Imanuel seems to be in denial about his Mexican heritage.  He hated flan, he throws up avocados (-I tried to offer it to him more than once!)…the only thing he has going for him is that he loves bananas. 

On the other hand, he loves rice, tofu, and kim-bop.  We haven’t had him try kim-chee yet.  🙂  About the grits…he downs a bowl every morning for breakfast.  He went on strike against oatmeal so I decided to try grits just for variety.  He really loves it.  He must have some southern blood somewhere in him. 

He’s being more brave about the walking thing, but he’s not quite there yet.  Please join me in prayer about this one!

Israel is down in Dalton, GA for the GYC board of directors meeting.  He’ll be coming back on Monday.  It’s totally his turn to post so hopefully the next one will be by him.  Hope you all have a great weekend.  TGIF!

Israel finally arrived home yesterday.  It was doubly exciting because Imanuel was able to recognize him and right when we got home, for the first time EVER, he walked on his own over to where Israel was sitting.  It was about 6-7 steps away.  Imanuel had been taking a few steps between Alanna and I, but only with a lot of encouragement.  He never tried walking anywhere without us asking him to.  So it came with a lot of shock and amazement when he just decided to walk from the couch to Israel on his own.  He was giggling with excitement too.    We’re very happy that he’s ALMOST there. 
Anyway, Israel came back with 2 new stuffed animals to add to Imanuel’s collection – one from Iceland and one from England.  Israel made it a tradition that whenever he goes on an international trip, he brings a stuffed animal back for Imanuel.  It started when I was pregnant, so Imanuel has two from before he was actually born.  I must also note that he didn’t get a stuffed animal when he went to Korea.  I don’t know why.  And now that I think of it, we didn’t get one when we went to Mexico.  So, he’s missing two. 

Well, here are some pics of Imanuel’s international stuffed animal collection and some other miscellaneous pics from the past month.

a hare from South Africa, koala from Australia/New Zealand, exotic fuzzy bear from Ecuador, teddy bear from England, and a real wooly lamb from Iceland

Imanuel giving Bentley an ear inspection

Imanuel handing me a little toy puppy

Imanuel and his daddy (with his favorite stuffed animals)

Israel has been gone since last Thursday and since he’s gone, it has seemed that life has just gotten so unbelieveably crazy.  Imanuel broke out in a rash all over his body.  I tried calling our doctor, but the department was on lunch break so I didn’t know if I should just take him in or wait.  Thanks, all of my doctor friends who helped me with this one (Albert, Dr. Orlich, my sister).  He had just reacted to the MMR vaccine (mumps, measles, rubella) which happens occassionally where a measle-like rash will appear.  Good thing that went away on its own after a few days.  The ridiculous weather really threw us for a loop.  And, I felt really sick too which made it hard to take care of Imanuel.  Anyway, all I gotta say is that if Alanna was not here to help me take care of Imanuel (-feeding him, changing messy diapers, etc!), to clear off our snow (multiple times), go shopping for me, and just be here, I think I would have had an anxiety attack by now.  Israel, you owe her big-time.    Of course I owe her too. 
Last night, Alanna rented some docs for us to watch and one was called “Secret Lives”.  It was about Jewish children whose parents had left them with non-Jewish families during WWII in hopes to preserve their lives.  Anyway, the children who had survived were so thankful to their “second parents” that they often felt tormented by the fact that there was no possible way to repay them.  When I contemplate the long history of our friendship with Alanna, I experience similar sentiments.  She has always made herself available to us when we needed help.  Endless rides to the airport and back, fixing our cars, surprise dinners, watching our pets, cleaning our house, praying for us, sending sweet cards of encouragement and just being there whenever we needed it.  This past week was filled with so many trials- the Lord knows.  There is absolutely no way that we could repay her.  And so what do you do?  To say “thank you” seems almost shameful.  All I can think of is to pray that God will bless her in a way that I never could.  I just hope and pray that I can be that same kind of friend back to her. 
And then I am reminded of Christ.  How often we feel that we’re doing Him a favor by working on His behalf.  That He owes us for all the time that we “waste” for Him.  We think that because we give him one day of the week that He ought to bless us for that.  In reality, we realize that the sacrifice He made for us cannot even be compared to the WWII families who risked their lives to save Jews.  Think about what Christ has done and continues to do for you – what He’s given up for you.  I think it ought to leave us with an even stronger feeling of inadequecy and deep sorrow that we could never repay Him for what He has done.  Then, motivate us to at least give our lives wholly to Him.  And even that wouldn’t be enough.
May the Lord help us to be self-less givers of ourselves to others and most importantly to Him.
(Can’t wait until Israel gets back on Tuesday!)

It’s April 5th, and the snow has still not stopped falling.  Now the snow on our back deck is about 4 feet deep.  Many stores and businesses have closed down (like Taco Bell).  Alanna cleared our drive way twice yesterday.  She has to go run some errands today so she’s outside as we speak clearing the driveway so she can actually leave.  She stayed here the past few days because her landlord is on vacation so there’s no one to plow her driveway.  She can’t get to her place!  Well, here are some pics that I had to take with the computer (photo booth) since our camera battery is dead and we can’t find our charger (again).  

You can’t see our back deck railing anymore.

Here’s Alanna in the snow pile.

Alanna plowing our very long driveway so we can drive out.  On the lower left corner, you can see where her car is.  It’s almost buried. 

Just a couple weeks ago, it was it was in the 70’s with clear, sunny skies and Israel was playing basketball outside with some of the guys from church.  This is craziness!  

The snow has not stopped falling since it started yesterday!  The back deck has snow all the way up to the railing – yes that’s right, like 3 feet of snow!  Alanna is clearing off the driveway with the snow blower.  I don’t know what I’d do without her.  Especially since Israel refused to teach me how to use it.  He won’t even let me touch it because he thinks it will plow me over.  Alanna also made Bentley a nice trail from the back deck so he can relieve himself.  Otherwise, he’d seriously drown.  Anyhow, this is the most snow I’ve seen up here yet!  And it’s April 4th! 

Today Israel arrived in Iceland where he’ll be attending/sharing at the European Youth Conference.   Also today, as I looked out my window, it seems as if Iceland has arrived here.  We have a snow storm which is supposed to continue until Friday!  (Although, I know that Iceland doesn’t really look like this…)    It looks like the groundhog’s shadow was so big and scary that he fell into a coma indefinitely.  Such is life up here…

I saw this YouTube clip from Jeannie’s xanga – thanks so much for sharing this!  Her site has another one with a baby panda that’s cute too.  It totally made my weekend.  If you watch it, be sure to watch the entire thing.  (Alice, it’s so cute you might start crying…) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epUk3T2Kfno

Today Imanuel had his 12 month well-baby doctor’s visit.  It was pretty bad.  I’m not going to lie.  He had to get blood work done for lead poisoning (prick on finger to draw blood – it’s a standard test for 12 month check-up), and then he had 4 vaccine shots into his poor, chunky thighs.  He was not a happy camper.  I felt bad for his doctor.  She’s one of our church members, which is super-nice since she doesn’t think we’re crazy for raising our baby vegan.  But I think she felt really bad for the baby.  Anyway, Imanuel got weighed and measured and we were quite pleased that he isn’t as huge as we thought he was.  He is 30 inches long which puts him in the 55th percentile and he weighs 23.6lbs – 70th percentile.  His head circumference is the 55th percentile too. 

Well, after the doctor’s appointment, the baby fell asleep in the car so Israel thought it would be a good idea to drop by the store to kill some time.  We ended coming home with a couple new toys for Israel and Imanuel and lots of food for brunch.  We got a grill for Israel and a little walker truck for Imanuel. 

Israel had been wanting a grill for some time because for those of you who don’t know, Israel LOVES to cook.  It’s actually been such a blessing, because cooking has become one of his passions, so he cooks for me and our guests all the time.  His favorite TV channel (when has time to watch) is Food Network.  At first I thought his TV watching was a waste of time, but Israel actually experiments and tries to cook things he’s learned (modifying things to make them vegetarian/vegan, of course).  For those of you who’ve eaten his food, you know that he’s actually a great cook (-except for Yumi, remember a long time ago – his Asian salad with rice in it?  That was bad!)  He’s gotten a lot better over the years.    Anyway, his favorite chef is Bobby Flay, and for those of you who know who he is, Bobby grills.  So, Israel really insisted that we get a grill because he was sure he’d use it all the time.  After eating today’s brunch, I think it just may have been a great investment.  It was really good…
As for Imanuel’s toy, I just hope he uses and learns how to walk soon!

PS:  The snow is almost all melted!!

Israel’s new grill

On today’s menu was grilled quesadillas and a big grilled sandwich.  Dessert was grilled peaches topped with vanilla soy yogurt. 

Ingredients for the sandwich included: vegan cheese, tomatoes, portobello mushrooms, red bell peppers, red onions, squash, avocados, and some veggie-meat (all grilled) and some herbs & seasonings.

He made his own salsa for the quesadillas using tomatillos, avocados, poblano peppers, vegan sour cream, and some seasonings.  It was very good.

The grilled sandwich on rosemary & olive oil flatbread.

Imanuel walking his new truck

Thanks, Israel for the great meal today, and for all of the great meals you’ve “thrown” together for me in the past!

We just did this – (clicked one one of the “click here”s that is)-  and it only does takes a minute.  Read below the selected portions of the letter below and I’m sure you’ll be inspired to do the same!

*********************************************************************

Dear
Friends of Freedom:

I
am writing with excellent news – the Workplace Religious Freedom Act
has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. This vital bill is
necessary to stop the abuse of people of faith in the workplace.

Your Voice

This
is an excellent opportunity for each of us to raise our voice for religious
liberty by urging our representatives to support this bill.  CLICK HERE to send a letter supporting the Workplace
Religious Freedom Act now.

What is the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, and Why
Should I Care?

An
increasing number of Sabbath keepers and other people of faith are finding
employers intolerant of religious practices. This isn’t just a hunch,
it is a fact. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
the number of claims involving religious discrimination rose 83% between 1992
and 2006. That is a HUGE increase. Behind the statistics are very real men
and women put in the dreadful position of having to choose between their
faith and their job – people like Mary, a Seventh-day Adventist women who
wrote to me not so long ago.

Mary asked
to leave work a little earlier on Friday evenings during the winter in order
to keep the Sabbath. For reasons he never explained, her employer refused.
Caught between obeying man or obeying God, Mary  made the only
decision a true Christian can make. But when she returned to work on Monday,
her boss fired her on the spot. She struggled to find work quickly because of
her financial commitments to her family, but although she found work as a
substitute teacher, it wasn’t enough to stay ahead of the bills. Soon
she lost her home.  Mary wrote to me from a friend’s
home where she and her son were sleeping on the living room floor.

When
I get a letter like this it goes straight to my heart. How can this happen in
America? 
How can it happen today? But it is, and currently the law is so weak that
employers who demean, demote and fire faithful men and women can do so with
little worry about any consequence.

This
has to change. The Workplace Religious Freedom Act puts some teeth in our
anti-discrimination laws, and provides an incentive for even the most bigoted
employers to sit down and work out sensible ways to accommodate the sincerely
held faith of employees.

This is our chance to make a stand for liberty of
conscience. Send a letter to your elected representatives by CLICKING HERE. It only takes a minute, and your voice
makes all the difference.

Will My Letter Make Any Difference?

Believe it or not, there are still few things as
influential on Capitol Hill as simple letters from every day people. The best
is a letter in your own words, but second best is a pre-written letter. But
any letter is much better than no letter. By CLICKING HERE, you can send a pre-written letter in about
a minute or you can substitute it with your own letter. Either way, no one
else can do what you can.

How Can I Get Others Involved?

Please
send this e-mail to your family, your friends, your fellow church members. We
need “all hands on deck” to get this vital piece of legislation
passed. Let’s do all we can – to write letters and to encourage
our family, friends and fellow church members to do the same, and let’s
uphold to God this critical effort.

Conclusion

I
have been working on this bill for five years now. That is a significant
portion of my working life. And yet, to date, this bill has failed to become
law. 

All of us need to do our part to uphold our
faithful men and women by raising your voice to your members
of Congress. CLICK HERE and make your stand for religious
liberty! 

May
God bless you,
James Standish