Little Lilah

Lilah has had a rough few weeks due to some kind of stomach bug but, thanks to the prayers of many, finally seems to be on the mend. She has currently got a ferocious appetite (she eats more brekky than daddy!) which may be her little body catching up, and she is once again her bubbly self.

Eliana now seems to have picked up whatever Lilah had. Having my girls sick is a weak point in my life. I always knew that such times would cause some of my biggest struggles in Mozambique. But the Lord has given me a theme verse for the days that our precious girls are sick:

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

And as a dear friend who has faced much affliction reminded me, "He is worthy of our affliction!"

And, as always, our girls handle their sickness much better than their mama does!

Eliana's first few weeks in Mozambique

Eliana has really been thriving in Mozambique, which has been our prayer for our girls for a long time. When we first arrived she showed signs of culture shock and/or jet lag (like fear to get out of the car and an unusual attachment to her bed), but after 3 days, she started to be in her element.

the river marginal near our house

We make sure to take her outside everyday. She loves to play in the driveway of our apartment building with the Mozambican children that live here. She can't communicate with them yet, but says portuguese phrases when we encourage her.

It was a nice surprise to find that our language learning city, Quelimane, has a couple of parks. Eliana had a ball with Daddy and some local children last weekend at one.

Can you find Eliana in the 2 pictures below? She is the only white face. This is the children's Sunday School of the church we will likely settle at for a first year of language study. Eliana did amazingly well, although it must have been a bit overwhelming to have children surround her and touch her for the majority of the service.

We give thanks to the Lord that Eliana is doing so well. Lilah, on the other hand, has been quite sick since we arrived, but we also give thanks because the Lord has shown His face through it. He is good all the time!

photos of the girls

I just updated two albums I have of the girls on Facebook. If you would like to see them, here are the links:

Eliana's 2nd year

Lilah's 1st year

Lilah walking

Lilah went from mostly crawling to mostly walking about a month ago now. I have the cutest videos of her but apparently our new camera takes videos that I can't upload on blogger. She has the sweetest little waddle and still holds her hands up, either for balance or from a habit formed by practicing while holding our hands :) Mama loves the walking stage!

Grow baby, grow!

In the last 2 months Lilah has grown about 3 inches! We measured her height on the back of great-Grandma's door before we left for Virginia and then again when we arrived back in Michigan yesterday. Here is the proof!

You can see Nathan written at the top of the photo. That's how tall Nate was when he was 13 months! Gotta love family records. We will certainly be starting our own measuring door once we settle in Mozambique :)

Lilah - 12 months

Lilah's quirks at 1 year:

• Steps - Lilah started standing on her own just after her birthday and was taking up to 5 steps a week later. She is still at the 5 step stage. Walking while holing on to our hands is her favourite thing to do.
• Signs - She signs more, please, up please, blows kisses and waves bye and hi. She is pointing at things more often as of today.
• Words - Dadda, Mamma, Ana, Lilah, Amen, Hi, Bye and attempts any words we give her (though they usually come out as Dadda or Bah:)
• Eats - She has gone from eating all table foods to being a fussy duck. If Lilah is not happy with a food I'm trying to feed her she'll bat it out of my hand or grab it from me and throw it on the floor. I have to hide my smile as I attempt to teach her this is not ok. :) She's certainly not as compliant as our little Eliana was :) When she's hungry though, she'll eat just about anything. When Lilah turned one we stopped the bottles and she uses sippy cups now, but also loves drinking from a straw.
• Sleeps - still on 2 naps a day and around 12 hours at night
• Games - peek a boo, clapping, dancing, hide and go seek, sneaking up on big sister, tackling mummy and daddy, kisses, blowing kisses, walking

We love you our sweet tempest :)

Eliana 2.5 years

Eliana is getting close to being 3. Can you believe it? Even in our eight weeks here in Virginia people have been commenting on how much she has grown. Eliana and Lilah have been attending 'culture school' from 9-3 M-F while Nate and I have been in sessions. It was very hard at first to say goodbye to our girls in the morning, but they have adjusted very well. Eliana has especially LOVED preschool and asks to go even on weekends. Some of her favorite things to do these days are:

• be pushed on the swing
• climb
• play on the playground
• jump and skip
• pretend to be different animals
• chase her friends around
• go for runs together as a family
• go for drives together
• preschool
• sing and dance together
• read books
• have cuddles in the morning

We love you our sweet baby girl!