Imanuel started walking today!  We were visiting his “great-grandparents” from church and he just started walking around their house like it was nothing.  Israel was at the U.P. Men of Faith so he missed it.  Anyway, when we came home, he continued walking around the house like he was an old pro.  I could not believe it.   It was just like that.  Yesterday he was walking maybe 5-7 steps between furniture, and today he’s walking around our whole house, standing on his own, and he even turned around.  All I gotta say is that I prayed this Sabbath would be a blessing and it sure was…in more ways than one! 

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…