Lasts

I had imagined this post to be full of pictures of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Pictures of them cuddling our kids, eating in our living room, hanging out at Gigi's house. Pictures of the people who we'll lay in bed at night thinking about and praying for.

But time has gotten the better of me and I'm just simply all out!

So words will have to do. And just a few words at that.

My heart feels like an ocean full of emotions. Calm at times. Tumultuous at others. Huge waves of emotion overcome me late at night and early in the morning. (thus the blog post at 7 am!) I'm a little bit of a pregnant emotional basket-case anyway, but it seems I'm even more so lately.

Tonight we'll spend one last night in this house. A house that has been such an enormous blessing to our family. A house we hope to get to stay in again someday!

Today I'll go to one last doctor's appointment for Caleb in the USA.

We'll make one last trip to Academy to pick up one last trunk for packing the last of our things.

We'll meet Audrey at her school for one last school lunch.

Tomorrow we'll spend our last full day in America enjoying family, eating the foods our stomachs will miss, and frantically finishing up the last minute moving and packing.

Tomorrow night we'll spend one last night at my parent's house....probably with me not able to sleep much out of fear that I'll forget the little things. The smell of their home. The feeling of waking up to see my mom's bed hair. The walk to the barn to feed the horses.

Thursday we'll have last hugs and kisses. Last goodbyes to the people we're least excited to say goodbye to.

And then we'll board a plane that afternoon headed to our new home.



But just in case you thought this post was going to be ALL Debbie Downer...rest assured that our hearts are also incredibly excited about all the FIRSTS that wait for us!

The first hug with new friends.

The first local family friend we'll meet. You never forget that first friend!

The first night in our new apartment. (and the first time we get to paint the yellow walls! :)

The first hot pot meal. YUM!

The first (of many) times that Eden will look at something and say, "What's that?!?!"

And the first time she'll say it in Chinese instead of English.

The first time family comes to visit.


Our world is literally about to change. And with the change comes some incredible heartache and many tears, but also some excitement and reassurance about where our family is meant to be!
We praise the Lord for His goodness and provision and that when everything around us will be different, He'll remain the same.

Looking forward to many new firsts!!

Friday Foto

21 Weeks!

Thanks to Sharon's persistent nagging encouragement :), I'll have at least one picture of me to document this pregnancy!

A Long Overdue Blog Post

I should be kicked out of the blog-osphere.
It's shameful that it's taken me this long to update our blog.

But, really, I feel like I have a pretty good excuse.

We're moving our family overseas. Remember?
Oh maybe you forgot, since it's been awhile since you've heard from us!

The countdown to April 14th is on.
A countdown that includes lots of boxes going into storage.
Lots of tears. Yes, I am becoming that emotional mess I spoke about.
And pulling out the big suitcases to see which ones make the cut for a 30 hour trip.

Meanwhile in the past few un-blogged weeks:
I've turned 28.
We celebrated our 6th Anniversary.
I surpassed the halfway mark of this pregnancy.
A garage sale.
Caleb's first movements are being felt finally!
Eden and Salem have parted ways with some treasured toys, which they handled surprisingly well!


Looking forward to some special time with family before the departure day.
Looking forward to meeting new friends in our new city.
Looking forward to finding a new apartment that we'll hopefully be able to call home for the next several years!
It's a season of our lives that has lots of excitement and lots of tears. Many mixed emotions are floating around this household!

My teacher, the Three Year Old

This week Eden has been mastering the art of coloring purple butterflies, writing uppercase B's, matching uppercase letters with lowercase ones, and glue-sticking. "Glewery" as we call it around here.

And by purple butterflies, I mean, purple butterflies.
She insists on coloring things all one color lately: purple.
The purple marker will meet it's death any day now.



While working on her "homework" yesterday, I came across an interesting idea she's got in her head.

Notice her name on the paper?

Yes. Her name.

You know. The part that says "NEED"



I asked her to write her name on her "homework."  (by the way...she insists on calling it this because cousin Audrey does homework.)

So she did just that.
She wrote an E, a D, another E, and an N.

I asked her what it said, to which of course she said, "EDEN!" with a little "duh-mom" sound in her voice.

And then I went on a tangent about letters being in the right order, etc, etc, all to which I'm sure she was listening with attentive and open ears.

And then she said in her best 15 year old voice possible, "Mom, it doesn't matter. All four letters are still there. It says EDEN!"

So there you have it. Lessons from a three year old.

You can just call me RIPAL.

Boys!

Boys.
There will be multiple boys in my house.
Sons.
2 Sons.



I get to be one of those moms that says, "Yeah, my boys are out back playing in the mud."

Or... "The boys? Oh, they're playing cowboys and indians in their room."

or... "Brandon, please come home. Your boys just brought home a goat."

Because those things are what moms of boys experience and say right?



Another little brother.

Eden took the news better than expected. After being completely convinced she was having a little sister, when we broke the news to her today her response was,
"COOL! Two baby brothers! One! (pointing at Salem) Two!" (pointing at my belly.)

What a doll she is. And soon to be outnumbered.

Praising the Lord for you already, Caleb Turner Chancler!!

Pieces of Texas

At some point in every boy's life, there comes that point in time where the leap from baby boy to big boy occurs.
Sometimes it's the first hair cut.
Other times it's when their first toy gun is constructed out of sticks.
Could be the first time they smear themselves with mud from head to toe.
Maybe it's the moment they'd rather sit by themselves on the couch instead of cuddle with mommy. Thankfully, this one has yet to happen to me.

For Salem, he made a big leap into boy-hood this week.
Hand in hand, he made the big leap into becoming a true Texan.

Because very few things in this world say, "Texas!" as much as a new pair of cowboy boots.



Because you can't move to the other side of the world without taking pieces of home with you.

I'm hoping his cowboy boots remind him of Texas. And his Gramma and Granddad, who so fittingly bought him his first pair. And of riding horses and tractors in a State he won't remember much of.

As with any boy and his first pair of boots, he prefers to wear them at all times.
Last thing at night and the first thing in the morning.

Boots.
Still-a-little-bit-too-big Cowboy Boots.

Correction....this morning the first thing he asked for was a tent. Then while I was turning our dining room table into a fort, he'd gone off and found his new favorite toy. The boots.


See that proud look on his face?
He knows he's all boy. He knows he wants to be a cowboy when he grows up. And here's hoping he knows that these boots came straight from the heart of Texas!

Siblings

While enjoying the sunshine the other day, we paused, I told Eden and Salem to say, "CHEESE!" and the result was a cute picture of them together...



Of course, that picture only came about after we told Eden to hug Salem.

Because her natural reaction looks a little more like this...