jesus loves me & a count to 10...

Mommy thinks it's soooo sweet that I'm starting to sing along on my favorite songs. All of a sudden at dinner last night I busted out singing the last phrase on my own to Mommy & Daddy's surprise... (yes, of course, happy tears were shed!) :) Oh, and it's not my clearest counting to 10 ever, but hey- you get the idea, right? I can do it now!

on the other side of the camera...

It's too bad I didn't get to go floating down the James River with Daddy & our RUF students today...


But I was sure glad to have him home tonight.


Uh oh... wonder where this idea came from...??

1st ruf of the year!...

Yay! We had a terrific first RUF of the year tonight! Instead of meeting at a local hotel like we did all of last year, we moved RUF to our basement to give it the more cozy, "home-y" feel. And even though we were packed in like sardines, I think it made everything all the better!


A sweet, SWEET family in our church offered to bring home-baked goodies/snacks to our meeting each week. Yummmmm....


During the announcement time, a certain little "someone" was the center of attention! Even though she was in pajamas & ready for bed, she was feeding off of all the energy in the room & cracking everyone up. :) What a great ice-breaker for the crowd, though! (and then she went to bed upstairs in her room & slept through the rest of the time! Woohoo!)


We had around 40 students come tonight. This semester Marc is doing a series called "The Gospel According to Abraham" where he's teaching through Abraham's life in Genesis 12-25.


Remember our very 1st RUF Lynchburg LAST year? Here Margaret & Lindsay had JUST met for the first time & were the first two gals to ever walk into our new group.


And here they were tonight as our veteran sophomores and sweet friends. (and they wanted to let it be known that tonight they were the LAST to arrive! ha!)

We had LOTS of new faces tonight!


Including (left to right) 2 Caitlyn's, 2 Katie's, & 2 Kate's. How funny, right?


And before you think there was only a sea of girls there... (though we really need some more guys! Come on-- look at all these beautiful gals! Isn't that enough to recruit them?) :)

Oh, and here's the best part... the SINGING! As I (Amy) was putting Caroline to bed upstairs hearing this AMAZING singing downstairs, I ran to get my video camera & got a few seconds of it from the top of the stairs! Take a quick listen-- there's just nothing like cramming 40 people in your basement & all singing together!


Praise God for giving us such a wonderful first night & we are looking forward to really getting to know and love some new faces as well as deepen our relationship with the old ones! Thanks for y'all's prayers & support of RUF! God is at work!

peek-a-boo...

In other news, look who's about to say bye-bye high chair and hello booster seat!

happy b-day, daddy...

Daddy, last year on your birthday you had me smiling...


And even though I'm alot bigger now, some things never change... :) Happy 35, Daddy! Your girls loooooove you!

what i'm trying to say is...

"Mom, I don't get why you are taking a picture of the mirror."


"You should really consider brushing those teeth, Miss Bear."


"That's my name. Don't wear it out."


"I am SO happy my Mommy is feeling great again!"

Update from Mommy...

Thanks, guys, for your prayers & encouraging notes, emails, etc. I am almost back to 100% normal walking! (as opposed to a hobble) No more pain medicine & my wound seems like it's healing well. (although it makes me a little woozy to look at it with the stitches and all-- those of you who know me will get a laugh at that one! Thankfully Marc has been helping me change out my bandages...ha! What a great hubby...) Next week I'll call the doc to get the lab results of the biopsy & be able to get my stitches taken out. (yikes!) Keep you posted!

the tale of Tuh...

Once upon a time, Daddy found a turtle crossing the road. He decided to take it to the Princess.


The Princess was quite fond of the turtle, and said, "henceforth, his name shall be 'Tuh.'"


But as much as she loved Tuh, Tuh didn't return her love.


So the Princess and Daddy decided to treat Tuh like the royalty they were. They gave Tuh everything a turtle would want: dirt, water, and a worm!


Tuh was beside himself, and he really came out of his shell. After he enjoyed his worm, he swore his undying love to the Princess.


And everyone lived happily ever after. (well, except the worm...)

THE END.

Update from Mommy...

I turned a corner today! My pain is still under control with the medication, and I was able to ditch the crutches that have been my only way to get from the couch to the bathroom and back. Though I'm not walking flat-footed yet, (too painful!) I can now hobble around pretty well on the top part of my right foot. Also took my bandages off today for the first time (ew... saw the stitches...), washed the wound, and had to redress the wound. (doctor's orders to do this every day now for the next 2 weeks until the stitches come out... yuck.) I'm also SO thankful for our student, Lindsay, who came over to help watch Caroline and clean up our house this morning. Grace upon grace.

I'll still be leading music tomorrow at church (probably sitting down rather than standing up!), and my hope is that I'll be walking normal and flat-footed without pain soon. But I'm just glad to be worlds ahead in my recovery today than I was yesterday. Thank you so much for your prayers for our family!

bubble bath...

Daddy gave me my first real bubble bath tonight!


It was pretty great, if I do say so myself.


I found my toes! :)

Update from Mommy...

Thanks for your prayers and comments that you left on this morning's post. They were each touching and meant so much to me! I have so much for which to be grateful:

-The doctor called in some tylenol with codeine for my pain, and that has brought my pain level (on a scale from 1 to 10) from a 7 down to about a 3. Still not standing or walking because to put pressure on my foot is too unbearable, but I'm thankful to have a little relief. I was also able to get a nice long nap this afternoon, too.

-Marc rearranged his schedule today to work at home and has served his gals well. He deserves a medal for his excellent husband-ry. :) Elizabeth, our intern, also came over this morning to help watch Caroline with me.

-A family in our church brought us a home-cooked meal for dinner. What a ministry food is. What grace! I am so thankful.

I don't think either Marc or I knew that the recovery from this biopsy/excision would be so hard, and we certainly weren't planning on having me being out of commission. It's so discouraging. But God is so good and so faithful to us, and He's giving us the strength and comfort to endure.

Now I think it's time for someone else in this family to get a bubble bath...

pain...

So I (Amy) am laying here on the couch at 3am on Friday morning in quite a bit of pain and thought I'd ask for your prayers.

Most of you probably know that I've got an extremely rare birthmark on the back of one of my legs, (I definitely don't want to draw attention to it, but it's pretty hard to miss) and for the past year I've had an extremely sensitive spot on the top of my foot (looks more like a sore that hasn't healed) that has been raised up from the surface of my skin and has been giving me lots of trouble. (unable to wear shoes, pain, etc.)

Well, after months & months of letting it go, hoping it would heal itself, & seeing my regular doc about it, yesterday I finally got in to see a leading dermatologist at UVA in Charlottesville (1 hour away from us), who took one look at it & knew exactly what my birthmark was and what needed to be done to the spot. (thank you, God! You see, I am usually greeted by doctors with somewhat glazed-over, perplexed expressions because my birthmark is so rare.)

Since I'm apparently such a medical "marvel" in the dermatology world (oh, & I'm sooo proud of that... let me tell you...ugh...), about 30 different doctors, residents/interns, & med students rushed into the office yesterday, (it's a teaching hospital) excited to see my leg, asking me questions, touching it, and taking pictures of it for future teaching. They were thanking me profusely for coming in. (as if THAT'S why I came in!) Quite the different story from something I usually spend most of my time trying to cover up & hide. :)

So anyways, the doctor did a procedure to cut out the "spot" which will now be taken to the lab for testing. He said the spot is likely a low-grade cancer that doesn't spread, and for birthmarks like mine, when those spots come up, you just need to get them taken out like we did. So I'll know for sure in a week or so, but I'm not worried on that end.

I thought the recovery would be fairly easy, too. (especially as I happily walked out of the office and went out to lunch with Marc & Caroline afterward) However, after the Novocaine wore off yesterday afternoon, I have been in pretty severe pain and they told me to only take extra-strength Tylenol, saying that ibuprofen & all the other over-the-counter pain medicines will only make my wound worse. (I'll spare you any graphic information on that.)

Long story short, I can't sleep with that much pain, so I'm up on the couch waiting for 8am when I plan to call & ask them to call in something to help ease the pain so hopefully I can get some sleep. My foot is completely wrapped up in bandages (not able to undress it or shower for 48 hours, and then it'll take another few weeks of bandaging it), and because it causes SOOO much searing pain to put any pressure on the foot, sweet Marc has gotten me a pair of crutches to hobble around the house.

But I could use your prayers. I'd sure like to ease the physical discomfort I'm in. (I mean, who here LIKES physical suffering??) But also pray for our family-- it's just a terrible time of year for me to be laid-out on the couch when Marc is at his busiest time with RUF stuff starting up, and now he's having to juggle way too much and I feel terrible. Pray that my foot might be able to recover quickly so that I can get around and take care of sweet Caroline. (who, so far, I've been able to entertain pretty well from the couch, but getting up to change diapers & get her food is difficult) And pray that I'll be able to get some much needed sleep/rest tomorrow.

Thanks for praying. I'll keep you guys posted.

at 18 months...

- Weight: 24 lbs 3 oz (50-75%)
-Height: 32 in. (50%)
-Head circumference: 19 1/8" (90%)

-I like to fill in the blanks to songs (for example...
MOMMY: "Jesus loves me this I...."
ME: "KNOW!"
MOMMY: "For the..."
ME: "Bible"
MOMMY: "tells me"
ME:"so!")

-I also fill in the blanks on counting to 10. Usually I say the numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, & 10. :)

-If I had one, my perfect fantasy 1 1/2 yr. birthday party would be: swimming in a pool while ALSO popping bubbles WHILE planes fly overhead and lawnmowers mow next to us. :) Then I'd probably get out of the pool & color with crayons, put together a puzzle, and ask for more bubbles.

-I'm turning into one sweet little lady. :)

hee-go Cee-ya...

Just look at us last summer when you came out to Virginia to visit me... (I was only 6 months old!)


and look at us now at our 2nd annual "Camp Corbett." :) Oh "Cee-ya" (Alyssa), we're sure gonna miss you! I had SO many fun times while you were here!

Like this time...


(did you catch my new phrase, "hee-go" (here you go)?)

Or this time...



Thanks for coming all the way out here from Texas! Tell everybody back in Lubbock we miss 'em!


I can't wait to see what next year holds in store for us...

drama queen...

Okay, remember that book "Eyes, Nose, Fingers, and Toes" I dramatized for you a little while ago with a few still photos? Well, here's somethin' even better... a live, debut performance so you can see all the things I'm learning and doing these days! :)



Other new "things" I just started doing/saying this weekend:

1. Saying "hee-go" (here you go) when I hand you something and "tik-oo" (thank you) when I'm handed something. HA!
2. Other new words: people & "brek" (breakfast)
3. Kissing with my mouth small (as opposed to the huge, open-mouthed baby kisses!)


My friend, "Zih-zee." (Lindsay) :)

p.s. from Mommy...

Another cute story-- (Megan, you'll like this one!) As I was changing her diaper the other day, I was telling Caroline her story about how she came out of birthmommy Megan's tummy and then to see what her response would be, I said, "And birthmommy Megan has a son named...."

And as clear as could be, she answered matter-of-fact-ly, "Brayden"!!!

come on in! the water's fine...

New favorite pool tricks...

1. Jumping in! (with Daddy's help, of course)


2. Climbing up the ladder.


3. 3...2...1... blastoff!


4. Being Mommy's baby-burrito.