Day 6 - Tenuta Le Velette

We had a lazy morning and then headed past Orvieto to the vineyard estate, Tenuta Le Velette. The estate overlooked Orvieto which was awesome.

We had a tour of the Etruscan wine cellar which dates back to 500 BC and enjoyed a wine tasting with food. It was amazing and we bought several bottles for our “collection”. They had this dessert wine that was to die for! I dipped my biscotti in my wine glass (they told us to!) and I was in heaven.

We had no drama with Hadleigh, she was perfect.

Dinner was homemade spaghetti with tomato sauce, more artichoke paste bruschetta, and some kind of meat, I don’t remember, but I know it was good.

Day 5- Orvieto

According to Rick Steves Tuesday was Market Day in Orvieto, so we thought it would be perfect to chill there for the day. We got Hadleigh ready and headed out a little before noon.

The old town of Orvieto sits on the top of a hill, so we took a funicular up to the top and then a bus to the main square. The church is totally rocking and Dave and I spent a long time in awe of the church.

We wandered around, had lunch, looked for the Market which we ended up hearing is now on Thursdays, not Tuesdays, got a gelato and went into a photo store to look for another memory card for Dave’s camera. I had wanted to get one before we left, but Dave thought he wouldn’t take that many pictures. When we arrived in Tuscany the day before he said “you didn’t tell me it was going to be pretty”. I thought that was funny, but knew at that point we would need a new card.

Just before we went into the store I had put sun block on Hadleigh, so after looking around a little bit I grabbed her leg and when it was a little wet I thought I hadn’t rubbed the sunblock in well enough. Only I happen to glance at my one free hand (the other was holding my gelato) and found that it was covered in poop. I screamed, leaned back (so that the carrier wasn’t against my body because I was wearing white capris) and began yelling at Dave to get the wipes. We paid for the card, and ran out into the square where Dave managed to get her off me without getting poop on my white pants (very important). Now, there was poop all up her back, up to her neck and up her front. We weren’t sure how to get her clothes off without getting the poop all over her. Dave lifted her upside by her feet while I stripped her down and proceeded to wipe off every inch of her little body.

Of course since we were just going to Orvieto and would only be gone a few hours I hadn’t brought an extra change of clothes. So I wrapped Hadleigh up in a blanket and we headed back to the funicular and back to La Cassette.

Dinner tonight was artichoke paste bruchetta, mushroom lasagna, and veal.

Day 4- Tuscany and Umbria

We took the highway down to Florence and then jumped onto some back roads that took us down to Siena, all over the countryside through Tuscany and finally ending up in Umbria near Orvieto where we would be staying for 3 nights at La Cassette.

Hadleigh did better in the car, and we slowly meandered around through the hills and little towns. We loved it. The vineyards, the stone houses, the wild flowers, the hills. Beautiful, gorgeous, wish you were here!

We wound our way past Orvieto and into Baschi and then up this hill to the farm where we were staying. The place was quiet, beautiful and perfect. The only bad thing was the pool wasn’t open yet because the water was too cold.

We had half pension here so we were to take breakfast and dinner at the main house. We had great fun at dinner. There were 2 Italian couples, a German couple and 2 ladies from the states staying there. We sat with the Germans and Americans and had a wonderful conversation over fresh, ripe cantaloupe, amazing, homemade raviolis, and duck that makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Day 3- Venice

We took the train from Padova into Venice which was a 15 minute train ride. Hadleigh was strapped into her infant carrier and was great the whole day. All the Italians stopped and wanted a peak at her.

We took the Vaparetto from Santa Lucia to San Marco square. We had fun with pigeons and Hadleigh and then began to wander around. We took a ride on a gondola, crossed the Rialto, etc.

We thought it best to head out of town and try to get back to Padua for an early dinner and to get Hadleigh to bed at a decent time. Of course it never works out as you want it to, but we did get her down at some point before 11.

Day 2- Padova

We woke up early, and took turns eating breakfast downstairs. We tried to get an early start, but Hadleigh was sleeping so well we didn’t want to wake her. We got on the road at about 1000, only to find out that as we checked out breakfast was not included in our hotel rate and was 12 euro per person. I was furious, of course. I hardly ate 12 euro worth of food since I had eaten 2 rolls, a hard boiled egg and a cup of tea. Dave paid the dude and I stormed out to the car.

We drove down to Garmisch, took a break and then through the Alps into Austria and down into Italy. Between Hadleigh and traffic we managed to arrive in Padova at around 1700, and then we drove around Padova before locating our hotel at about 1900.

Driving in Italy is insanity, if you can avoid it, do so. Our hotel was wonderful, we had a wonderful Paduan dinner with a great 14 euro bottle of wine. Italians know how to do wine…wowee.

Day 1- Augsburg

Here is a blow by blow look at our trip to Italy. We found all of the redeeming qualities about Italy. You can have Rome, Florence and Venice, but give me Tuscany and Umbria.

Today I had a million things to do between 0600 and 1700 when Dave was to get off of work and we were to leave. I let Hadleigh sleep all morning while I piled my bed high with clothes and things that we needed to take with us. My big dilemma was what to take for her. She has a history of pooping through clothes, and on vaca you can’t really do laundry, so…I pretty much took every piece of clothing that she owned.

At noon my friend Jess drove Hadleigh and I down to Ramstein to pick up our rental car (since our BMW is having clutch problems). We had lunch at our fav little Mexican restaurant and then picked up the car. After that I headed to the commissary to pick up groceries, and was even able to find “Little Swimmers” diapers. At Baumholder the only size they carry is large. The smalls are even way too big for Hadleigh since the weight for smalls begins at 16 pounds, and she is just over 10. Anyway, I loaded up on swimmers, and headed to the PX to look for a map of Italy.

I got home right about 1600, and managed to catch Dave at the office so that he could fax his driver’s licence to the car place so that he could drive too.

We hit the road at 1730 and only had a 3 hour drive to Augsburg where we would spend the night and continue on to Venice the following day. Well, wouldn’t you know Hadleigh began to struggle in the car, so stopped at 1830 and I fed her. We arrived in Stuttgart at 2030, just in time to fill up the car and to grab a quick bite to eat. We were shocked to find out that Stuttgart is more ghetto than Baumholder and their shops close at 2000, instead of 2100. Dave bought two TV dinners at the gas station and that was our dinner. Onto to Augsburg, we got into the town at 2300, and drove around and around for 45 minutes trying to locate the hotel. All the while Hadleigh screamed in the backseat. We finally found it, ran upstairs, threw her into bed and tried to recover from our first HORIBBLE day on the road.

June Fire

Has anyone ever had a fire in the fireplace in June? I can now add myself to the list. We arrived back from Italy which had 28+ degree weather to Germany which has been 6+ degrees. Our heat was turned off before we left, so now I am burning paper and cardboard to heat our living room so I don't loose my fingers to frost bite.

Stay tuned, I will be posting pics from our Italy tour soon. And say a pray that the sun will come out and give us a wonderful WARM summer.

We are Famous

So Hadleigh and I made it onto a commercial. We attended a Volunteer Appreciation dinner a few weeks ago, and the got a couple second shot of Hadleigh and I. You-all have been saying you want to see me as a mom...well here you go. It is a little dark, but you can it is us. Follow the link above.

The gal that they show right before us, in the red, is one of my good friends, Sara.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day means something when you know and live with the people who are serving our country. It means even more when you know someone who has died in service. Read the article in the Boston Globe

What the article doesn't mention is that Doug was a believer and he and his wife and son attended our Chapel. The Memorial Service is tomorrow.

We Got It

For those of you waiting on pins and needles to hear how our trip to Dusseldorf went, we got it!

Shortly after Hadleigh was born we made arrangements to apply for her birth documents and passport. Upon arriving at the military passport office we were informed that it would take 16 weeks to receive her passport. I almost had a heart attack right then. 16 weeks? For the love of Pete that is 4 months? Are you really going to hold us captive in Germany for 4 months, I asked? Do you know that in the states I can rush it and get it in 2 weeks, I strongly argued, as if somehow that would change the lady's mind and she would say, "Oh honey, in that case..." The woman also assured us that the consulate would not help us, and would take just as long.

Imagine my surprise when I called the Frankfurt Consulate the next morning to hear on the recording that passports are generally received in 5-10 days. Hmm...4 months...2 weeks. I sent Dave back by the passport office to pick up our stuff the following day.

Since I failed to ever talk to a normal human being at the Frankfurt and the folks at the Dusseldorf consulate were more than helpful, we decided to trek up to Ddorf to see if they would give us the goods.

We drove up Wednesday evening so that we could be the first in the line Thursday morning at 0900. I checked online about 50 times to make sure yesterday wasn't a German or American holiday. I called and talked to 3 different people that gave me the list of all the documents we needed to produce. And I prayed and prayed.

Folks kept telling me that we would be rejected and sent back to Baumholder since we are affiliated with a military post. I tried to imagine my life this summer as we were held hostage in Germany, unable to leave because some lady in some office wanted to take her sweet time sending our stuff in.

Thankfully it all worked out. Hadleigh should now be official with a passport in the next 5-10 business days. Everyone at the Ddorf Consulate is awesome and we love them all. Thank you for letting us leave Germany and the EU.

Stats

A friend informed me today that I didn't have enough info about Hadleigh that other Mom's are interested in. So here are some interesting factoids.

Hadleigh Claire was born Tuesday, March 7 at 0352, she was 54cm and 3300g (21 inches and 7lb. 3oz.)

My contractions started at 0500 March 6. We went to the hospital at 1100, I was less than 1 cm dialated. After having contractions 6-7 minutes apart all day I was still oless than 1 cm dialated. We left the hospital at 1800. We went back to the hospital at 2100. I finally dialated up to 2 cm at 2330 and we were admited to the labor room. I sat on the fun excercise ball and we sang along to an oldies CD. I was 3 cm at 0200. At 0330 they called the doc and I pushed her out at 0352.

I lost a lot of blood during the birth and so because of my blood iron level they wanted me to stay at the hospital until Saturday (after she was born on Tues morning). But I managed to convince them by dinner time on Friday that I was ready to go home. The German hospital was awesome and I have already told Dave if the Lord gives us another baby I will fly back here to deliver. The Germans know how to do babies.

I am nursing and will continue until 6 months or she gets teeth. She is a good eater, and haven't had any issues there.

We had a family bed for the first 3 weeks she was alive which was a literal nightmare. But at 3 weeks she finally made it to her own bed. Thank the Lord.

At 4 weeks she started smiling.

At 6 weeks she began sleeping through the night. She generally sleeps 8-10 hours, but every now and then will go 6 hours and then eat and then go antoher 6. She likes to be up with us, but I am pretty nazi-ish about her sleep ("Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby" by Weisbluth).

At her 2 month appt she was 24 inches and 4600g (which I think is about 10lbs. 4oz). She is in 90% for height and 50% for weight.

She likes her swing, and her bouncy seat. She LOVES bath time.

She can roll from stomach to back. She has discovered her tongue (which helps with her drooling problem) and has discovered she can use her feet to make sounds out of her bouncy seat and to splash Dave and I while she is in the tub.

She likes to read with me. Baby books as well as theology books.

She loves other people. She has always been very alert, loves looking around. She likes being held by anyone (she is very cuddly) and usually rewards folks with her beautiful smile.

We love our little Hadleigh.

Baby Contest

Very out of character for us, but we did enter Hadleigh in a Baby Contest last week. It is hard for a 9 week old to compete with little girls in pigtails who can smile and laugh on command (that is my sorry excuse for why she didn't win). That will certainly be the last contest we enter her in, I felt like I was corrupting her by even entering her to begin with. But as Dave says now we have gotten that over with and don't have to do it again.

As everyone continues to tell us what a beautiful baby we have, we both continue to thank the Lord for giving us Hadleigh. It has also motivated me to begin praying that the Lord would make her beautiful on the inside. I have been praying the Lord would give her strong character and a love for all kinds of people.

As well, we pray that the Lord would call her to Himself. It is amazing to think that little Hadleigh was born into sin. But she has this new cry which I call the sinful cry. It is not a hungry, or tired cry, it is just a scream that she didn't get something she wanted. Yes, my 10 week old is sinful, but we continue to pray that the Lord will change her heart of stone into a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36).

Hadleigh Claire Prepares to See the Sun

We are going to Italy soon, and as the sun doesn't shine much in Baumholder we thought we should get Hadleigh some cool shades and a hat to protect her little skin. The shades almost fit, she just needs a bigger nose.

Rolling, rolling, rolling

Hadleigh is rolling over! I started putting her on her stomach a week or so ago. I had read that it was important for her to have stomach time so that she could learn how to lift her head, etc. She is great at lifting her head and can get it up to 90 degrees, but last week she would get so frustrated because she wanted to roll over but couldn't. She would try and try, and then cry. We kept encouraging her to roll over, Dave saying things like "McNays never give up!" I had warned him not to tell me that when I was in labor.
Anyway, she has finally mastered it and can roll from stomach to back pretty easily.
I tried to get pictures of the process. You can see she was pretty upset with me. Well, as soon as she saw the camera she stopped crying. Hmmm. Can we say ham? Is it possible to be a ham at 2 months? Note the drool from her mouth. She can't stop!

Well, she saw the camera, stopped crying, rolled over and started smiling. It looks like she is a little performer already.

He's Big, I'm Little

So, I have mentioned before that ever since Hadleigh was born I have been reading a ton. It is kind of amazing because everyone said once she came I wouldn’t have time to read anymore. Well, at least at this point, they are wrong. Since I spend the majority of my day feeding her, I have found that time is a great time for us to read together. We continue to be up to our elbows in Horton’s book that I mentioned before. I also have time to work on the study that I am in PWOC, we are working through I and II Timothy, as well I usually have time to work on the study that Dave is leading in our Community Group. We are currently doing a study called Gospel and Heart which is written by a pastor named Tim Keller. Keller is the pastor of a large church in NYC called Redeemer. The former pastor of Intown (our church in Atlanta) used to work with Keller and thus the connection.

We are on week 9 of the study and have looked at things like “Why Did Jesus Have to Die?” and “What is Wrong with Us” (looking at sin), etc. Our study yesterday was called “How Do We Know about Jesus?” I was pretty skeptical and read the study…yea, yea, I thought I know all this already. The Bible is historical; it is true, etc, etc. I even told Dave, this will be a quick one, huh? I am sure he wanted to smack me for not completely getting it. The study ended up taking a turn that I never expected. One of the questions (that I Just sort of breezed over) was

“Think of the Biblical account of David and Goliath. a) If you look at the story in itself, apart from the rest of the Bible--then what is its main message or teaching to the reader? b) If you look at the story as part of the Bible's overall story--about how God saves us by grace through Christ--then what is its main message or teaching?”

I answered a) with the generic…little guy beats big guy, and someone started singing the Veggie Tales “He’s big…I’m little”. And then the also generic David trusted God and God delivered Goliath into David’s hand. You get the idea. I basically skimmed over question b) because I just didn’t really understand it, but it was this question that brought the biggest discussion and revelation for me. I don’t think that I can attempt to explain it as well as it was explained last night, but here were a couple of thoughts that came out.

Israel and the Philistines are at war. They decided to pick one person to represent them in a fight. These men would fight and if the rep for Israel won all the Philistines would become slaves for the Israelites and vice versa. All the Israelites are terrified to fight Goliath…in walks David, shepherd boy who has NOTHING to do with this battle. He fights Goliath representing Israel. He fought in the place of the people he was trying to deliver. David won the battle for the Israelites. The Israelites didn’t earn the victory or do anything to achieve the victory. Hmm…could David be a representation of Christ in the Old Testament? Christ took my place in a war that he didn’t belong in. Through his death and resurrection he achieved victory over sin and gave that victory to me. It is a victory I don’t deserve and did nothing to help win. It was through God’s grace that he delivered the Israelites out of the hands of the Philistines…not because of their faith or courage, but because of God’s goodness. In the same way, it is by God’s grace that he saved me, not because of my faith or courage, but because of God’s mercy and goodness. This was a fresh revelation of the gospel for me. I hope to continue to see the Old Testament stories as pointing to Christ and his grace, mercy and goodness, and I hope that I am able to teach Hadleigh these truths so that she will grow up knowing them.

Miss Hadleigh Claire Goes to the Netherlands

This past weekend we ventured out again, for a weekend trip beyond the German borders. It was a wonderful weekend filled with some adventures and fun. Friday we drove up to Haarlem so that Hadleigh could go into Hiding. We visited the Corrie ten Boom house, where Corrie and her family hid Jewish people during the war. I read Corrie’s book “The Hiding Place” when I was in elementary and it tells the story of Corrie and her family, and how God was with her. Eventually the family was found out and she and her sister were taken to a concentration camp. After the war Corrie had a worldwide ministry speaking on things like "There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still".

Here is Hadleigh hiding in the little room where 4 Jews and 2 Dutch resistance workers hid and eventually escaped after the ten Boom family was betrayed.

After the tour we were able to meet up with Shawna Snow and 3 of her kids, Mia, Ari and Shea. Shawna is living in Amsterdam, church planting with Christian Associates. We hadn’t seen each other in several years, but since we were in the area we were able to hook up. Her youngest, Shea is a real character. I told her the last time I had seen her she was in her mommy’s tummy. She thought that was pretty cool and responded “but here I am, I am here now!” Shawna discipled me when I was in high school and college.

Saturday we hit Amsterdam and boy did we ever hit it! It happened to be Queen’s Day, which apparently is like Mardi Gras or Oktober Fest on steroids. None of the trams were working, so we walked from the Centraal Station to the Van Gogh (which I didn’t know is pronounced Van Hock) Museum which was 3 miles away. The crazy thing is that I haven’t seen that many people in my entire life. There were people EVERYWHERE. We kept thinking that the Sea of people would let up, but it was steady down the 3 mile stretch and back a different 3 mile stretch. Unbelievable. There is no way I can describe it. Apparently the Dutch have a thing for orange. If you watched the Winter Olympics you might have noticed that the Dutch wore a lot of orange. We never did find out the reason (since their flag is red, white and blue), but the whole thing kind of reminded us of a TN Vol football game. Not only were the streets filled with people, but the canals were filled with boats that were filled with people.

We managed to get back to the train station and back to Delft (the cute little town we stayed in) by dinner time. We had great Mexican food and margaritas for an early birthday celebration for Kristen. The Dutch definitely outdo the Germans in their Mexican food.

Sunday we left Delft and went to the Keukenhof to see the bulbs. It was amazing. Dave and I went last year, but neither Kristen or Melissa had been. It is kind of like Disneyland without the rides, it is just a happy place. The bulbs were awesome, but not as good as last year. This “spring” (if you can call it that) has been really unpredictable, so we think that had an effect on the bulbs. But, cannot complain, the Dutch know how to put on a flower show. On Sunday instead of seeing a sea of people, we saw a sea of bulbs.

The weekend was great. We had wonderful weather, which was partly cloudy (but we did see the sun) and in the 50’s. Hadleigh was a perfect angel, sleeping in the car virtually the whole 6 hour drive up and back, and allowing us to do a whole lot during all 3 days. Of course, a snow storm welcomed us back to Germany. We crossed the border and the rain turned to snow and it dropped to 32 degrees. I was bitter…but by the time we got home the snow had stopped and it was up to 40. Maybe the sun will come up today.

Sacred Ink

My old youth pastor put together this web site called Sacred Ink on Christians, Tattoos and Christian Tatoos. It is pretty interesting, but even more interesting is that my bro is on the site. SO check it out and click on Chris F to see my little brother, the PhD candidate.

Smiles

Little Hadleigh Claire has been smiling for a few weeks, but we have failed to get it on film. Finally this morning I put on a little outfit that Grandma and Grandpa got her for Christmas and she was all smiles. I grabbed the camera and went to town and we managed to get a couple good shots.

Ethiopian Feast?

As I mentioned previously, Hadleigh and I are reading a book called "Putting Amazing Back into Grace" by Michael Horton. We have liked it so much that we have gotten Dave into it as well and so now our whole family is reading it together. I thought it ironic since we just visited a Luther sight over the weekend that Horton quoted Luther's "Bondage of the Will".

And if God be robbed of His power to elect, what will there be remaining but that idol, Fortune, under the name of which all things take place at random! Nay, we shall eventually come to this: That God has not determined by certain and glorious election who should be saved, but has left them to choose for themselves whether they shall be saved, while He, in the meantime, should be gone to an Ethiopian Feast!

If therefore we are taught, and if we believe, that we do not need to know these things, Christian faith is utterly destroyed and the promises of God and the whole Gospel fall entirely to the ground; for the greatest and only consolation and assurance for Christians in their adversity is that...God does all things immutably and that His will cannot be resisted, changed, or hindered."

Good Ole' Marty

This weekend was Protestant Women of the Chapel's Annual Training Conference. For those of you who don't know, this past year I served as the President of PWOC in Baumholder. I basically headed up the women's ministry for the chapel. It has been good, bad and ugly! Overall I am very thankful for the opportunity I had to intentionally serve the Lord and to serve the women of this community. Now that my time as Pres is drawing to a close I am thankful too.

When I was asked to serve in this role Hadleigh wasn't a gleam in our eye, let alone a thought in my brain. Now that she is here I am anxious to be able to focus on her and devote my time to being a mom. I cannot even believe I am saying this, but it is true.

This weekend I had a wonderful opportunity to teach a seminar at the conference. The topic was "Community Matters" and I basically taught a biblical overview of why it is important to care about "outreach" and what local PWOC's can do to make a difference in their respective communities. Women from all over Europe gather at this conference every year to be trained. My class was at 0830 and I didn't think I would have maore than 15 ladies...but 30 showed up, including the lady who was in charge of organizing all the seminars and also a Chaplain (that was a little intimidating). The Lord was gracious and we had a great time exploring the scriptures and coming to an understanding of why the Lord has called us to care for the women he has entrusted to us in ministry.

The conference was in a little town called Willingen which Dave equates to being Germany's version of Gatlinberg, TN. Willingen is also near Assinghausen which Dave HAD to drive through to get a picture of. According to Dave, if we ever get a dog, he will be named Assinghausen. On the way home we stopped at a city called Marburg, which I think has now become one of our favorite German cities. Marburg is a famous university town. It is famous for the Grimm Brother's Fairy Tales and also for Martin Luther. It was here that the Marburg Colloquy took place. Luther, of the German reformers and Ulrich Zwingli of the Swiss Reformers met to debate 15 points. They came to cuffs over the Lord's Supper (you can read the article for more info) and parted ways.

The city is on a hill, a steep hill, with the castle at the top. Apparently legend has it that Jacob Grimm said there were more stairs in the alleys of Marburg than in the houses. We walked the streets until we reached the castle and then back down.

You can't tell from our clothes, but spring has almost arrived in Germany. Friday it was 22 degrees (not sure what that is for you Americans, but it is warm for us), and Saturday it was about 16. In the morning it was cold and rainy, so we put on warm clothes but by the afternoon it was nice and warm. It is so nice to see the sun and to have warm weather. We are REALLY hoping that it sticks. In any case we never would have stopped in Marburg were it not for Martin Luther, so we are thankful that he had his counsel there so that it would become a famous reformers sight. Thank you Marty!

Happy Easter!

Yesterday Hadleigh Claire began her first Easter festivities with a little package from Papa Froggy and Nana Patti.

She received an adorable little dress and two Peter Rabbit books.

Here is our new little family just after celebrating Easter in our newly renovated chapel and having a good meal at the DFac.

During our worship service I was excited to sing one of my favorite songs (and we rarely sing it), "In Christ Alone" enjoy the words.

Verse 1:
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My comforter, my all in all
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

Verse 2:
In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless Babe
This gift if love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save

'Til on the cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ in I live

Verse 3:
There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then, bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost it's grip on me
For I am His and He us mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

Verse 4:
No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
'Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand

He Numbered the Stars

Hadleigh and I like to read together. We have made it through quite a few books recently, including, but not limited to "The Poky Little Puppy", "Snow Bear" (which her grandparents just sent), "London Refrain" and "Paris Encore" by Bodie and Brock Thoene. We are currently working on "Putting Amazing Back into Grace" by Michael Horton. Horton actually has a radio program called The White Horse Inn which deals with issues that in evangelical America (OK, I am totally not doing that justice...anyway). There are a few of us in our chapel community that get together on a monthly basis to listen to one of the radio broadcasts and then to discuss it. We call it "Reformation Sunday" and it is pretty fun/interesting.

When I realized that Horton was the one on this radio program we were occassionaly listening to, I remembered there was a book on my shelf that I had yet to read and I thought this sufficient motivation to pick up the book. It is a wonderful book. In fact, Hadleigh might become a theologian since she is hearing great theology at this early age... I was struck by this passage early in the book and so here it is my musings for the day.

"In his best-seller 'When Bad Things Happen to Good People', Rabbi Harold Kushner states, 'Bad things do happen to good people in this world, but it is not God who wills it. God would like people to get what they deserve in life, but He cannot always arrange it. Even God has a hard time keeping chaos in check and limiting the damage evil can do.' Such a limited view of God is exploded by the biblical notion of creation. It fails to account for a God who 'determines the number of the stars' and who 'calls them each by name' (Ps. 147.4), who numbers our hairs and sees to it that every robin's breast has a pattern. While sin introduced disorder, destruction, and decay, the same God who created order from chaos is ruling and redeeming his world so that one day 'the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay'...(Rom. 8.21-22)."

Swing Time

She is just a little too small, but she still really likes her swing.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

It is so much fun to have Hadleigh around and to continue to get to know her. More and more we recognize little things in her that remind us of me or of Dave.

She has some crazy expressions like her daddy. She doesn’t like taking her vitamins like her mommy. She takes about 30 minutes of stretching and yawning to wake up like her mommy and she also has a slobber problem.

Soon after Dave and I started dating he kindly offered to make me a night guard. One night he brought over some materials to make a mold of my teeth. He prepared the materials and put the tray in my mouth and I held it in place. After a minute I started feeling like I was drooling, so I tried to wipe my bottom lip only to pull away a strand of spit. Dave, ever the gentleman, grabbed a paper towel for me to wipe, but to no avail.

Finally he pulled over a trash can and I stood above it with a long strand of drool that went from my mouth into the trash can. I was mortified, since we had only been dating a couple of weeks, and Dave was hysterical. In any case my saliva ducts are in good working order, and so apparently are Hadleigh’s.

The Moores

This past weekend we had a special visit from our buddies Paul and Lisa Moore. They are our good buds from Atlanta, but we actually haven't seen them since before they got married, September 2004. Now they are expecting their own little one this August.
They came through on a whirlwind tour of Germany and England. While they were here we sent them to Trier and Luxembourg City. We also took them to dinner at Burg Lichtenburg, which is an old castle about 4km from our house. They have the best German food we have had since being here.

It was fun to catch up a bit and to introduce them to little Hadleigh who slept wonderfully each night they stayed with us.

A Christmas Story revisited

Little Hadleigh Claire loves to go on walks. This past week the sun decided to make an appearance everyday which warrants celebration for one, and a walk. Even though the sun was out and the birds were chirping it was still pretty chilly, in the low 30s, so the first day I went out I bundled Hadleigh Claire up and put her in her car seat. Once I put her in, I just had to start laughing because she looked like Ralphie's little brother from "A Christmas Story". Her arms stuck straight out and I couldn't get them to stay down. She was so cute I had to take a picture. We went on our walk that day and even though it was sunny when we started out, it was hailing by the time I got back to the house. The rest of the week was fine, no hail, only sun, so we went on walks everyday. Unfortunately this week is off to a bad start. I don't think this week we'll be able to walk outside because it is overcast and rainy.

Miss Hadleigh Claire Goes to France

Today we took Hadleigh and Mom to one of our favorite little towns in France. Metz is a little over an hour drive for us just across the French border. The cathedral there is pretty cool. Some of the windows were bombed out during WWII and Chagall redid a couple of the stain glass which is totally awesome.

After the cathedral we roamed the streets and managed to find the tea shop that has some of Mom’s favorite tea- Tango Blues. It rained off and on during the day, but we did manage to see a little sun. Once we had finished with Metz we drove back home through Luxembourg City.

Four Things

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Hadleigh’s Mom
2. President of Protestant Women of the Chapel
3. Testing Administrator at Army Education Center
4. Assistant to Two Year Director, Mission to the World

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Anne of Green Gables
2. A&E Pride and Prejudice
3. Princess Bride
4. Napolean Dynamite (it is funnier after the first time)

Four places you have lived:
1. Mettweiler, Germany
2. Atlanta, Georgia
3. Wilmore, Kentucky
4. Newbury Park, California

Four TV shows you love to watch: Well, since we don’t have American TV, I’ll mention what I used to enjoy watching.
1. Extreme Home Makeover- Home Edition
2. Alias…Vaughn is not Vaughn!
3. Survivor
4. The Bachelor

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Europe in general...
2. Antalya, Turkey (the Turkish Riviera)
3. Ljubljana, Piran or Lake Bled, Slovenia
4. Bavaria- Garmisch
5. Emerald Lake, in the Canadian Rockies

Four web sites I visit daily:
1. Blogger.com
2. Yahoo.com
3. Babies R Us
4. Rick Steves Travel Tips

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Marshmallows the mini-Jet Puffed ones…this has been a prego craving
2. Zucchini, any and every way
3. Mexican Food, specifically Baja Fresh, which I haven’t had in 2 years
4. Peanut Butter Toast, another prego specialty

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Shopping at Ann Taylor
2. In Atlanta introducing Hadleigh to my buddies
3. Gimmelwald, Switzerland…the hills are alive!
4. On the beach somewhere warm

Four things I always carry with me:
1. Now, a diaper bag
2. My ID card
3. Water
4. Graham Crackers (for those prego sick times)

Wowee

Dave and Hadleigh

I can't figure out where she got all of her facial expressions...

Nana Patti

Here is Hadleigh with her Nana Patti. She likes going on walks with Nana and playing with her. Nana calls her "Funny Face" and "Bright Eyes".

Bath Time

Little Hadleigh is destined to be a sun worshiper. In the hospital over the changing table in the nursery there was a heat lamp and when Hadleigh was under that lamp you could do anything to her. She had her blood taken while under the lamp and didn't flinch or cry. Though, in general she hates to be naked, she seems to enjoy her baths (probably because we keep the water pretty warm). Dave has a lot of fun giving her baths as you can see.

First Outing

Hadleigh's first big outing was this past Saturday to Burg Lichtenburg. Our good buddy Mike Wolfe and his girlfriend, Trudy, stopped by Germany on their way back to Asia. They stayed with us and we took them down the road to see a real live castle. My mom also arrived last week so it was a major adventure. Hadleigh did great and slept as we walked around the ruins.