Kofi in Africa

A couple of weeks ago, Jim and I talked and decided to go ahead and pursue sponsoring a child from Compassion. I had already been on their website a few times and discovered that you could search for a child that met certain criteria (age, birth date, gender, etc...) I had done an advanced search and found a young boy who had the same birth date as Elisha, so that was who I intended for us to sponsor.

When I went back on the night we finally made our decision, I entered his birth day and age and could not find "Kofi," the boy I had originally selected. I was so disappointed and told Jim, "Someone took our child!" At that point, I knew that I was already "hooked" and that we were sponsoring a a child even if we could not find "ours."

We finally found "Kofi" in the listings; it looked like the computer had his birth date correct but had his age listed as 4 instead of 5. We entered our information and received our sponsorship packet last weekend. Elisha already knows his child's name and is excited about the prospect of having a pen pal that he can write to.

I'm thrilled about the opportunities this will provide our family on several levels: becoming more aware of global needs, following and celebrating the development of this sweet boy as we watch Elisha grow each day, teaching our kids about God's children around the world and helping them understand His love for all. It's going to be a great thing!

A Peek Inside

Before you check out the photos below, I need to share a bit of my limited understanding of 3D/4D ultrasound. First, I'm told the the best photos are acquired when the baby's face (or hand or foot) are completely surrounded by amniotic fluid. The amount of fluid is out of anyone's control, and how a baby chooses to move and place itself is as well.

Second, while ultrasound technology is amazing, the machine (or sounds waves or whatever - see, my knowledge is limited) is not able to differentiate between various body parts when they are touching each other. So, a hand on the baby's face is kind of merged together and can look like a deformation or a hand growing out of the face. Make sense?

The perfect promotional photos we see in a baby magazines are one in I-don't-know-how-many, and are fairly hard to come by. So, with all that said, I present 3D/4D Baby Womack photos (with descriptions) for your viewing enjoyment.

Here are the baby's hands; you can see the thumb and fingers pretty well.

This is a bit harder to see, but it's a foot.
You can make out the tiny toes on the upper right.

This shows a side of the baby's face:
forehead, one eye, cheek, part of mouth.
A hand was up by the head, so that blocks the rest of the face.

Here is a profile; the hands/arms are still up by the face.
I think it looks like the baby is praying - how spiritual!

Another profile shot - not quite as clear as the last - with mouth closed.

And Bigger...

This is 31 weeks.
Have I mentioned that I am measuring bigger
with this baby than either Elisha or Madelyn?
While I'm all about having a healthy baby, I have to admit
that I'm a bit nervous about delivering a 9 pound baby
considering my others were 6.4 and 4.3, respectively.

Compassion

I have been reading updates from this blog that chronicles a mom's recent
trip to Africa to visit her sponsored child. Her stories and photos have
brought me to tears, as has this music video by Sara Groves.

Ultimately, it has caused our family to consider sponsoring a child.
We checked out the website and discovered a little boy who has
the same birth date (day and age!) as Elisha. We feel this is a great
opportunity to teach our kids about sacrifice, sharing, and compassion.

A reader on Shannon's blog left this comment, and it really resonates
with where I am right now: seeing needs and struggling to discern
what my specific role is in meeting those needs.

"Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention
to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances,
are brought into closer connection with you."

- St. Augustine of Hippo

How do you respond to the overwhelming needs you see?
Do you have words of wisdom
concerning balance and discernment?

Special Delivery

Elisha and Madelyn received money for their birthday
from Great-Grandpa and Grandma Bowman. They decided
to combine their resources and order some play food from online.
It arrived this week, and they were thrilled!
This food is really cool - it has Velcro that sticks it together
and you can use a knife to "cut" it and serve. Very fun!

Growing More

My latest picture today at 28 1/2 weeks.
It's hard to believe I have several more weeks to grow...
I think you will only understand what I'm saying
if you are or have been pregnant before.
You seriously start wondering how big you can get.
The whole baby growing inside of you feeling is a bit surreal.

Semantics

Conversation in our kitchen Friday night:

Elisha: Mom, what is a show off?
Me: Someone who wants everyone to pay attention to them.
Elisha: Well then, Mrs Cerny (his preschool teacher) is a show off.
Me: Why?
Elisha: Because she always wants us to pay attention to her.

There's just something about the English language that requires more than a simple definition, you know? :o)

Odds and Ends

Elisha bought Madelyn a View Master for her birthday.
One day I walked into the living room to see this:

Last week, Madelyn brought me this pretzel and said "E"!
(She was holding onto the round loop, so it really did look like an "e.")
Amazingly, she can recognize all of her letters,
thanks to the Leapfrog Letter Factory video.
Seriously, we cannot take credit for this type of knowledge. :)

Fun with Elisha's hair...pre-haircut

Elisha before bedtime playing with his Leappad

Growing

22 weeks

25 weeks

One more thing...

My mom had her "reconnecting" surgery Wednesday and will be in the hospital until next week. The doctor said things went well, so we are looking forward to her resting, recovering, and resuming her normal activities sometime down the road. We would appreciate your prayers as she completes this final leg of her journey. Thanks!

Fantastic Five

Elisha decided to have a snowman part to celebrate turning 5.
A few friends joined us to create sock snowmen, make minis pizzas,
play games, and enjoy cupcakes. It was a fun day!

Making mini pizzas
(really simple to pull off with store-bought frozen bread dough)

Pin the Nose on the Snowman

Friends having fun at present time

"Happy Birthday to You!"

"Let's eat 'em!"

Startling

We were going a bit stir crazy last night, so I decided about 6:00 to load the kids up and head to Tree of Life so they could spend some birthday money to buy a DVD of their choice. After getting their socks and shoes on, it was my turn.

I grabbed my shoes from our laundry room (a nice warm area that also houses our furnace, water heater and such) and started to put them on. The right one went on fine, but the left one seemed to have something in the toe that was making it uncomfortable ("maybe a piece of lint or a small rock" I thought.) I turned it over, knocked it on the floor and tried again. This time there was something under the ball of my foot. I tried to shake it out but didn't see anything fall out, so I stuck my hand in the toe and tried to scrape it out. I was relieved when something dark appeared in the shoe's opening - finally!

My relief was short lived as the object started to move and crawl onto the heel of my shoe. It was a huge (in my opinion) spider! I jumped up and semi-freaked out for a moment, but quickly regained my composure since the kids were around. Jim was at work and I would have to deal with this. My plan: take it outside and kill it (I didn't want its guts on the carpet). I put on my boots, picked up my shoe (it crawled back inside), took it out to the front porch, shook it out, and stepped on it.

Below is a photo of the remains that Jim took for me this morning. You can't tell how big it was because it's all curled up and there is nothing to show it's size, but I'd say it was bigger than a quarter with its legs out. I considered trying to take photos when it happened, but I was afraid it would crawl away and I would have to stay up all night wondering where it was (shiver).

Thus ends the my spider story, although I still get the heebie geebies just thinking about it: I touched a spider! Eeeehhhhh!

Turning Two

It's been the week of birthdays at the Womack house.
Madelyn turned 2 on Monday,and Elisha turned 5 Thursday.
We are now officially presented, partied and cupcaked out!

More Christmasing

Christmas Sunday

Christmas Eve at Great-Grandpa and Grandma Bowman's

After-Christmas, opening presents from Uncle Dan and Aunt Patti

Funny, Funnier, Funniest

I'll leave it to you to decide which adjective fits which photos.

What happens when you leave clean laundry too accessible.

What happens when you share your hat with a tired 4 year old

What happens when you leave the Kleenex
box within reach of your 1 year old

Christmasing at IWU

IWU has a wonderful Christmas "party" where they have great snacks, fun presents for the children, and (yes) generous bonuses for employees. Here are the kids all dressed up and enjoying their gifts.

Experimenting

I read about this idea in a magazine (I think it was Family Fun) while I was in the doctor's office a few weeks ago. I came home and tried it out that very day. Just fill an ice cube tray with water and put drops of food coloring in each area. Let your child use a plastic dropper to mix colors and experiment. Elisha did this for about an hour, if I remember right. Once the colors get too mixed up, you can just dump it out, rinse the tray and start over. I love fun, inexpensive projects like this!