dear abby...

Hello sweet Abigail!

You are only 29 weeks old (still in the belly), but I wanted to take this chance to write my first letter to you!

At school yesterday, I read a story to my kindergartners by one of my favorite children's book authors, Robert Munsch.  Usually his books are very silly and funny, but this story was more sweet than funny, and the simple message rang in my heart.  Later that day, I realized it was because it encompasses my prayer for you.

Abigail in the Bible (1 Samuel 25), for whom you will be named, was described as being intelligent and beautiful.  This is our prayer for you, too, but even more than that, we pray that you will have the humble and generous heart that we see in the pages of Abigail's story.

This is the heart of the girl, Jillian, in Ribbon Rescue.  Like Jesus, she selflessly gave so others could benefit, even when it came at a great cost.  And also like Jesus, and those who follow His example, she was lifted up/honored in the end.

My heart is so happy when I think about your upcoming arrival!  You are super active and wiggly these days, and your brother J already loves you so much.  He calls you "Baby Abby" and loves to give you hugs and kisses through my belly.  I pray that his affection for you will only grow when he gets to meet you in June, and that you two will be close friends!

I love you, little girl.  Until next time...

twenty!

Dearest J,
You're twenty months old!   Hard to believe that in four short months, you'll be TWO and also an older brother!
Every day, your daddy and I thank God for you - that He is letting us borrow you for this lifetime.  We get to watch you learn and laugh with glee, and it just fills our hearts with joy!
You're developing lots of opinions about things - and with that, your own will - but in the midst of the temper tantrums you sometimes throw, we also see your tender heart and compassion for others.  This is what we've prayed for since before you were born -that you'd be a good friend like Jonathan in the Bible...and we are so thankful to witness God's answer to prayer in your life!
We love you so much! :)


This is what you can do at 20 months (learned in the past 2 months):

• Make requests about who to pray for.  When we're praying at bedtime or before meals, you interrupt with prayer topics, like the names of people or things you love (family members and ball are the most frequent requests)
• Recognize the purpose of most household items. You like to put on Daddy's deodorant in the morning...both on him and on your arm.
• Play the number-counting app, seek and find app, and the matching game app on the iPad.
• Share your toys and food with others - you especially like distributing your food to your friends one by one.
• Show us where something belongs, or help us find something that is lost.
• Stack cans of soup from the pantry (up to 5 or 6)
• Sit in time-out for up to a minute.  You've also figured out a way to try to butter us up by giving us crinkly eyed smiles while in time-out.
• Play with puppets.  You like to kiss them repeatedly.
• Pretend your stuffed dog is a baby. You rock it in your rocking chair, give it your sippy cup, and pat its back on the bed, saying "night night..."
• Pretend cans are salt and pepper and shake them onto food.
• Do the motions to "The Wheels on the Bus" (Baby Einstein version) and wave both hands to "Twinkle twinkle."  Your favorite part is "Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky" because you like to point to the sky.
• Put on your snow boots by yourself, or try on everyone else's shoes. You can also identify whose shoes they are.
• Engage in a conversation - usually one that consists of us asking you questions; if they are yes/no questions, you always answer, "Yeah."  If they aren't a yes/no question, you make sounds in different tones like you're trying to say words and then say one word.  (For example:  Did you have fun downstairs? Yeah.  What did you do?  Uh-uh-uh-uh...ball!)
• Pretend to shiver when you feel or see something cold.
• Play hide and seek with your babysitters
• Play basketball on your hoop
• Hit the t-ball without hitting the tee.
• Close doors (from the inside of the rooms) and lock them.  (Thankfully they don't need a key to be unlocked!)

Words you now say (learned in the past 2 months):

• Downstairs
• Good job
• Sounds for animals: horse (neigh), elephant (trumpeting), 
• Bubbles
• Bible
• Blue ball, purple ball, orange ball
• Game
• Milk
• James
• Tia (Spanish for "aunt" - what you call Adriana)
• Owl
• Bear
• Hippo
• Jacket
• Bah-jee - (Korean for "pants")
• Pants
• Towel
• Animal (also used to refer to animal crackers)
• Go
• Ice
• Bed
• Pray
• Yum
• Gummy (you are my child, after all...)
• Back (as in "go back")
• Salt
• Pepper
  

Words you've recently made up to consistently mean something else:

• Ha-jee - Haraboji ("Grandpa" in Korean)
• Ha-mee - Halmoni ("Grandma" in Korean)
• Dool - school
• Dool-buh - school bus
• Garbah truh - garbage truck
• Ah-doo! - cock-a-doodle-doo (sometimes the way you refer to "rooster")
• Beh-noona - Bella noona
• Doy-noona - Joy noona
• Bekah-noona - Rebekah noona
• Oo-ah - Nooga (Korean for "Luke")
• Eep - sheep
• Eh - elephant
• Chee-ah - cheetah
• Tie - tiger
• Jer-ah - giraffe
• Peng-in- penguin
• Mello-mello - marshmallow
• Ice keem - ice cream
• Gogo - Gogurt
• Vee-oh - video
• Kib - crib
• Bah-ball - basketball
• Doe! - throw!
• Don-din! - Jonathan
• Pih-yo - pillow
• Wha-dat? - What's that?
• Dare-ih! - There it is!

Signs you now know (new ones learned in the past 2 months in italics):

• More
• Please
• All done
• Milk
• Please give it to me (in Korean)
• Thank you (sort of)
• Help (your version)
• Outside (a sign you made up yourself to consistently mean "go outside")
• School
• Refrigerator (your version)
• Table
• Play (your version)
• Drink
• Eat

favorite song

Well, that's the title...though this could easily work its way to the top for me :)



The Lord your God is with you,
    he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
    he will quiet you with his love,
    he will rejoice over you with singing.”
-Zephaniah 3:17


PS- Happy 100th post to this blog!

kings and queens

This song has been stirring my heart.  Love it.



Kings and Queens
Audio Adrenaline

Little hands, shoeless feet
Lonely eyes looking back at me
Will we leave behind the innocent too brief
On their own, on the run 
When their lives have only begun
These could be our daughters and our sons
And just like a drum I can hear their hearts beating
I know my God won't let them be defeated
Every child has a dream to belong and be loved

(Chorus)
Boys become kings, girls will be queens
Wrapped in Your majesty
When we love, when we love the least of these
Then they will be brave and free
Shout Your name in victory
When we love, when we love the least of these
When we love the least of these

Break our hearts once again
Help us to remember when
We were only children hoping for a friend
Won't you look around 
These are the lives that the world has forgotten
Waiting for doors of our hearts and our homes to open

Chorus

If not us, who will be like Jesus
To the least of these
If not us tell me who will be like Jesus
Like Jesus to the least of these

Boys become kings, girls will be queens
Wrapped in your majesty
When we love, when we love the least of these
Then they will be brave and free shout your name in victory
We will love we will love the least of these
We will love the least of these (Repeat)

blessing carrier.

My absolute favorite person, besides Jesus, in the Bible is (Old Testament) Joseph - hands down.  It was easy for me to pick out J's middle name because of Joseph's character.  He was, in so many ways, like Jesus Himself:

Wrong accused, betrayed, hated (even by those who were supposed to be closest to him)...yet he chose to forgive and to love.

Unjustly punished and put through suffering he didn't deserve...yet he remained faithful and didn't cave into bitterness.

He's probably most remembered for running away in the face of temptation and being able to provide wisdom and insight from God for the king.  But today, as I read Genesis 39, I was reminded of yet another reason why I chose this as my boy's middle name.


Genesis 39
² The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. ³ When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, ⁴ Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. ⁵ From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. ⁶ So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.


Amazing!  I could understand the Lord blessing Joseph in all the areas of his life because He was with him (as it's mentioned at least 3 times in this chapter)...but the mere thought that God would bless all the people (and even things!) around him just because of Joseph's faith and heart?   Amazing.

A blessing carrier.  That's what Joseph was.  It's ironic because when you consider Joseph's life from the outside (especially the part about him being a slave and prisoner), it doesn't even look like God blessed Joseph's life at all.  Yet I believe God did way more than that - He blessed him in such a way that it spilled out into other peoples' lives and thus spoke a louder message to those around him about what kind of God he served.

This is what I want - to walk with God and have His blessings overflow from my life to those around me.  That my actions and reactions would only point to my ever faithful, unchanging Father in an unfaithful and transient world.  To live like Jesus.

funny :)

OK I'm literally going to post this just so I can watch it over and over again when I need a laugh :)

letter to an eighteen month old

Dearest J, 
You're 1 1/2!  So crazy to think about! :)  Every day is a new adventure.
I'm not sure how much longer I can keep bimonthly list this up. Your vocabulary is growing exponentially and you're doing so much that it might almost be easier to start recording what you can't yet do instead!

Needless to say, we are always so proud of you, and we're thrilled and thankful God chose us to be your parents :)  I love you!


This is what you can do at 18 months (learned in the past 2 months):

• Mimic almost any word we ask you to say.
• Laugh delightedly when we guess correctly what you're trying to tell us (You also shake your head and say no or get mad when we guess incorrectly)
• Stomp just your right foot and clap along to music.
• Jump (although you usually don't quite get off the ground)
• Show me your hair, tongue, teeth, cheeks, hands, fingers, elbows, armpits, and feet when prompted. 
• Turn on and unlock the iPad.  Due to my morning sickness this past month or two, we finally started letting you watch some Baby Einstein videos or home videos.  You can navigate the YouTube app and know to press the home key when you've pressed the wrong button.
• Throw away trash (and your rolled up diapers) when asked to do so.
• Listen to directions fairly well (unless you get distracted).  For example, this morning, you brought me two glue sticks you must have found in my desk drawer.  When I asked you to put them back and to close the drawer, you obeyed :)
• Lie down on the floor unprompted when it's time to change your diaper or to pray before bedtime
• TMI warning, but you (sometimes) let us know when it's time to change your diaper.
• Identify pictures of most animals, modes of transportation, and household items in books when prompted
• Bow when prompted to say thank you or a formal hello/goodbye in Korean.  Depending on your mood, this can vary from a quick head nod to a deep 90 degree bow. :)
• Pull your hand back quickly and frantically say "Hot!" when you see the stove/oven or anything mildly hot.  You also do this and say "Ouch!" for things that are sharp, like Christmas tree needles.
• Open the pantry doors (even though the handles are above your head) and "go shopping" for boxes of jello and canned soup.
• Use modified sign language for "help" (the same one you made up before 14 months) and "sorry."  For "help," you try to say "help" and knock two fists (in thumbs up position) together.  "Sorry" is the same as "please" (open hand instead of sign language "S").
• Throw tantrums when things don't go your way.  These can sometimes quickly be resolved when we distract you with something else.
• Hug and kiss your stuffed animals and your baby sister in mommy's belly

Words you now say (learned in the past 2 months):

• Down or Down-dare (downstairs...your favorite place in any house!)
• Up (usually a request for us to hold you so you can see something better)
• No
• Door
• All done! (still accompanied by sign language)
• Sounds for animals-  bear/tiger (throaty roar), turkey ("gobble gobble"), rooster ("cock-a-doodle-doo!"), frog (ribbit), duck ("quack quack"), cow  ("mooooo"), chicken ("bawk bawwwk"), monkey ("ooh ooh ah ah ah"), 
• Bye! (You wave and say this when leaving, when someone else leaves, and every time Daddy takes you downstairs while I'm still upstairs)
• Joe, Dan, Fred.  When we correct you, saying "Uncle Joe,"  you respond with "Uh-joe!")
• Bap (Korean for 'rice')
• Gim (Korean for 'dried seaweed')
• Joh-  (Korean informal way of saying "give it to me," even though we always teach you the formal way!)
• Bboh-bboh (Korean for 'kiss')
• Yeah
• Ew! (Said regarding anything that looks out of place (like a piece of lint on the floor), and also your dirty diapers)
• Wow!
• Whoa!
• Ooooh (in awe)
• OK!
• Ow! /Ouch!
• Hot
• Door
• Blue bib
• Juice
• Apple
• Eat
• Choo-choo (as in train)
• Girl
• iPad
• Peepee/poopoo
  
  Words you've recently made up to consistently mean something else:

• I - you! - I love you
• Jee-uh - Jesus
• Peez - please
• Die-der- diaper
• Mill- milk  (instead of "me! me!")
• Dow - cow
• Dat (or 'meeoow') - cat
• Eesh - sheep
• Shhhh- fish
• Buh - bus
• Truh - truck
• Bo - boat
• Mo - motorcycle
• A-pay - airplane
• Trah-duh - tractor
• Buy - bicycle
• Try - tricycle
• Bootball - football
• No - snow
• Jee! - "cheese!' (usu. when you see the iPad or sometimes the camera)
• Heh-oh? - hello (when playing with phones)
• Own - phone
• Dop - stop
• Elp - help
• Duck - stuck
• Dum - drum
• Gas - grass
• Ree - read
• Booh - book
• Ai-cheh - high chair
• Uh-pyoo-uh - computer
• Ee-oh - video
• Ee-ull - cereal (we often get confused between whether you're saying video & cereal)
• Beel - peel  (you call clementines "beel" because I'm always asking if you want me to peel them for you)