September in SC

Today marks 6 weeks in Charleston. The month of September has flown by. During this month we had visits from Nana and Papaw and Grammy and Poppa. Those visits were a huge blessing and kept us pretty busy. With this post I will finally be caught up and ready to be more consistent with posting. Here are a few pictures that capture "regular" life around here. Starting next week we will begin settling into a routine and getting used to our new life. While we are so thankful for the new job and the new house and the abundance of blessings from the Lord, we have really started to feel the pain of leaving so much behind in Cincinnati. Just yesterday Emma asked me at lunch when we could go home. Of course we talked about the fact that we were home. She acknowledged that but clearly stated she meant Cincinnati. I just said I know, I miss home too. Here are a few updates from this month.

Emma is taking a dance class at the rec center in our community. She is in a class of 3-5 year olds learning tap, jazz, and ballet. She could not have been more excited about going. When we got to the first class, she started crying. The crying escalated into screaming until after 20 minutes the teacher had me take her home. When I took her out she started asking why we were leaving...uh really?! We spent the next week praying about it and talking about the class. She was insistant that she wanted to go again. I talked with the teacher and was able to sit in the back of the room for that class. Thankfully mom and dad had Jonah so I could do that. She participated although she made sure I was still there every few minutes. After the class she was so excited, especially about the tap. She carried on about the class all week and we talked and prayed about the next class which I would be outside the door for. On Wednesday we got there, prayed together, and she went in. She occasionally checked to make sure I was still there, but she made it through the class! When I was watching she was really trying to follow the teacher and figure out what to do with her feet. It is so fun to see her finally get to learn more about dance. I am not sure I am cut out to be a dance mom. I have A LOT to learn, but that is what we have Aunt Abby for! Stay tuned for updates on this one!

This boy is amazing. He has learned how to feed himself with a spoon and will not allow help from anyone. He eats oatmeal, yogurt, applesauce, mashed potatoes...you name it...with a spoon. He is talking up a storm and what he doesn't know how to say he repeats when he hears it. He does a great job communicating his desires with us and is smacking his face less when he gets mad. Over the past two weeks he had a nasty cold and is finally done with that. He loves to play with the cans in the pantry and crash his cars and follow his sister around. He is definitely a momma's boy and is developing a great love of reading. He really is getting to a fun place and seeming to leave behind the awfulness of the first few weeks we were here!

This girl could not love to ride her bike anymore. She likes to call it running on her bike when she goes fast. When she crashes she just brushes it off and gets back up. No tears or drama.

Jonah loves this car. He asks to go in the car all day long. He stands at the garage door and yells for his car. It is a great companion to Emma's bike.

The other big news in our family is Jesus Class. I was able to get into our local BSF program along with the kids. I know it will be a great thing for the three of us although it has been stretching! Emma is so excited to have school to go to. The past three weeks they have had to pull her off of me while screaming, but she has made it through the class each time and excited to tell me about it at the end. She absolutely loves her teacher and I am so excited to hear all about what she is doing through her eyes. Jonah went to BSF today for the first time. He was sick the past two weeks and thankfully Mike kept him the first week and my parents the second week. He screamed as well and cried off and on the entire time but he stayed in the nursery! The experience is stretching me in many ways but I am thankful for the time to learn more about the Lord and have an opportunity to start to get connected here.

Aside from visits from the grandparents and the new classes and adjustments to those, we have just been working on the house and spending time with Ms. Miller and Mariela. It is such a blessing to have them here. The Lord has just been so good to us!

Tuesday is our ultrasound with the baby and we are planning to find out the gender. We are really looking forward to that and to a weekend with good weather to just spend time as a family and not work on the house at all. Our goal is to walk the bridge downtown on Saturday. There are lots of things on our "to do" list around Charleston, but with two little ones, those will happen in good time.