She spent her first night in a drawer!
I love those tiny feet
Daddy and his girl
So glad my whole family was around to meet Talia
Our little family
As many of you already know, we are now a family of three. Talia joined us on July 23, 2009. We are so happy to finally have met her. It seemed like we were going to have to wait forever.
Talia was born in Laguna Hills, California. She weighed 6 lbs 1 oz and was 18 in long. She came 11 days early, which we had no problem with at all. Melissa’s whole family was here in California when she was born. Talia planned her arrival perfectly in time to meet them all. We are so blessed that God has been gracious enough to give her to us.
First Family Photo
We celebrated 5 years of marriage on July 17th. Hannah, Steve and Julianne treated us to a romantic dinner at the Melting Pot (somewhere I’d always wanted to go!). I’m so thankful for the wonderful husband God has given me.
Little did we know, we’d be meeting our daughter a week later!
I’ve always been fascinated with history. Indonesia has a particularly interesting history. I’ll try to make this as brief as possible because I know not everyone may be as interested in it as I am…
- From 400 BC Indonesians traded with other nations such as China and India. Because of these trade relations Hinduism and Buddhism were introduced. The Hindu and Buddhist religions were mixed with local cultural elements. Hindu and Buddhist Kingdoms reigned in Indonesia for centuries. Especially on the island of Java.
- In the 1300’s AD Muslim merchants from Persia began visiting Indonesia. Along with trade they propagated Islam. Islam spread and Islamic sultanates were established throughout Indonesia.
- Indonesia was first colonized by the Portuguese. In 1511 the Portuguese arrived in Indonesia. They captured the Molucca Islands (the Spice Islands) of Indonesia. They made huge profits by transporting spices to Europe and selling them.
- Early in the 17th century the Portuguese lost control of Indonesia to the Dutch. In 1602 the Dutch arrived in Indonesia and established the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch East India Company controlled Indonesia from the 1600’s until World War II.
- In 1942 the Japanese invaded Indonesia and the Dutch surrendered to the Japanese. On August 17, 1945, just days after the Japanese surrender, nationalist movements which had begun prior to the war, were finally able to proclaim Indonesia’s independence. In 1949 the Dutch finally recognized Indonesian independence after four years of guerilla warfare.
Sukarno
- The Republic of Indonesia was restored in 1950, led by Indonesia’s founding father, Sukarno.
- In 1965 Communists attempted a coup in Indonesia. Sukarno signed his presidential powers over to the general of the army, Suharto. Suharto crushed the coup and reigned as a dictator. In 1997, Indonesia was hit by a financial crisis, riots followed. Suharto resigned in 1998. True democracy returned to Indonesia when elections were held in 1999. The current president of Indonesia is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Our friend Janet from www.photographybyja.net recently took some fun pre-baby photos of us. She did an awesome job! Here are some of my favorites. We can’t wait to meet our little girl in less than one month!!
Father's Day
Yes, I know we are a hard couple to keep track of, so I thought I’d answer this common question. We are doing a LOT this summer! We are spending these 3 months in Southern California reconnecting with people and getting ready to have a baby. We are continuing to raise financial support for our ministry in Indonesia, so we are sharing our ministry with different groups, churches and individuals. We’ve also been getting together with as many people as possible and have really enjoyed seeing our friends and family.
Ryan preaching
Last weekend we had the chance to visit Ventura Community Church where my cousin Matt is the worship pastor. Ryan gave the morning message and was able to share about our ministry. We’re excited that they are interested in partnering with us. We got to spend the rest of the weekend with Matt & Kirsten who are also expecting a baby in August.
The preggos!
So, that’s a brief glimpse into what we’re doing this summer. We’re certainly quite busy and very excited to meet our baby girl. It’s been encouraging to see how the Lord is challenging people to partner with us in this ministry.
Auntie Julianne
I was one of the "victims" for people to practice rescuing!
Back in May, I spent a couple of weeks out in North Carolina taking a medical course designed for missionaries serving in remote areas. I’m just now posting about it, because I finally got some pictures of my time out there. Let me tell you, it was intense! It was a 12 day course where we learned skills like suturing, inserting stomach tubes, giving injections, splinting, and more! (And we practiced those on each other!) It was great to have one semester of nursing school under my belt as a foundation to build on.
Practicing suturing... not as easy as I thought it would be.
We lived in little cabins in the woods without any electricity or running water. Most people had to go outside to use an outhouse, but they were so gracious to give me the only cabin with an attached outhouse so that I wouldn’t have to go out in the woods in the middle of the night! They took very good care of me since I was pregnant.
We spent all morning and most afternoon sitting in lectures and doing labs. The rest of the day we spent working on case studies. It was excellent practice in learning how to diagnose and treat many of the illnesses we’ll see in the tropics. Some people stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, but I went to bed early every night just so that I could survive!
I’m so glad I took the course, but I sure missed Ryan while I was gone! I managed to survive the course and made it through with nothing more than some very swollen ankles from sitting so much.
My roommates and are at our little cabin.
One pregnant woman + one long road trip = lots of bathroom breaks!
The bad news: we had to sit in a car for 30+ hours
The good news: we made it to California in one piece!
We’re so excited to be out here for the summer. It’s been fun seeing friends and family already and we can’t wait until we see the rest. We have lots of opportunities to share about our ministry this summer, so we’re really looking forward to that. On top of that, we get to meet our baby girl in less than 10 weeks!
30 weeks!
Melissa has been gone to North Carolina for a week now taking a missionary medical course and she won’t be back for another four days. When I dropped her off at the airport I didn’t think that it would be too bad to be apart for this long. I’ve pretty much had my fill of it now. My parents were here for about a week and I had some big projects to work on so that kept me distracted for a few days. Now I am just really looking forward to seeing my girls again. When she gets back we’ll have a long road trip to California that we can catch up.
Marti and I
My good friend Marti was so sweet and threw me a baby shower last week. It was a lot of fun and everyone gave me cute little girlie gifts. I can’t wait to dress up my little girl
I’m leaving tomorrow for 12 days. I’m going to a missionary medical course in North Carolina and I’m going to miss Ryan SO much!
Pretty flowers
I loved the plates and napkins!
I can't wait to take her swimming!
They said this is as excited as I'll get about diapers.
