Ainsley school updates

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Favorite new things...Nanas

The Pineapples here are hands down one of the most amazing things i have ever eaten. They are not acidic like in American, they are sweet and a little bit tart, they taste like a white gummy bear!

The are much smaller and there would not be much flesh left to eat if you cut down past the prickles so they cut them in this amazing spiral. So pretty :)

 

 

 

Market morning

Markets are one of my most favorite things. Ever.  Its an easy trip into town, but usually my Ibu goes once a week, mostly because its easier for her and she gets better prices than "the American Lady", :).... but I wanted to try some of the sea food out of the market. Im feeling brave....

Yummy crabs. We attempted a version of chili crab.

girls

some updated snaps of the girls....hopefully (fingers and toes crossed, counting down the days) our shipment will be here soon and I can get the computer set up and post more often....

 sisters!

 

Im three months old!!!

Favorite things...jungle view

This is one of my favorite views so far here, this was right behind our guest house. I see it almost everyday going to park or when out for a jog. Its striking the way the light hits the leaves they just glow.If you stop and listen the jungle beyond has this humming sound that fluctuates with an warning tone, its surreal really. As normal as some of these things become the longer we are here this little sport reminds me that I freakin live in the jungle !!!!

Elephant Camp

One of the things we were most looking forward to when coming here was the Elephant Camp!
Sadly, The Sumatra jungle is quickly being burnt up for land to plant "Sawit" (the tree used to make Palm oil.) These Elephants have lost their habitat and were being snared and killed when they would stomp through the sawit plantations. Inside Chevron camp is some of the only untouched jungle. And my understanding is that they have given use of part of the jungle to the tribe that helps to take care of the elephants.
So you can visit pretty much any day to feed and ride the elephants! We showed up with a car load of food, watermelon, pineapple, apples, etc, plus a load of sugarcane.
They loved it.
Right when we hopped out of the car they came up and Ella hands the elephant a whole watermelon. It took Ainsley awhile to warm up :)
After feeding them we took our turn to ride the largest female through their trail in the jungle. It was amazing! A bit scary too, as some of the slopes were quite steep and I felt like I was going to fall off the back! The elephants were so amazing to watch. Using their knees to pull out of the mud. THe baby holding the mamas tail.

What a fun adventure!

First Day of School and family introduction to Rumbai!

The girls started school today. Ella in Kindergarten and Ainsley in Pre-K 3!

Our biggest adjustment is that both girls come home for lunch. A at 11 and E at 12 then E goes back to finish her day while A stays here with me and the Ivah!

 

We are still in the guesthouse so they girls are picked up by their own special driver instead of the bus/van that will pick them up with the rest of the kids in our new neighborhood. They Love it!  (seriously spoiled rotten)

 

Ella has a hard time with anything that doesnt follow the pattern she has planned. We had a gate at St Rose that we would wave goodbye from after assembly and there is no gate here so she got a bit teary on the first day, and I promised her a treat if she made it to Friday....well, luckily she came home and said "i dont need a treat I want to go to school just because I like it!" Yay!

 

Its a tradition here that new families get introduced and "Gonged" in at morning assembly after a few questions like 'whats your favorite food?' (Ella=smoked salmon, Ainsley=noodles???)

The principal here is the most even tempered calm spoken and at the same time excited person I have ever met, of course Ella loves her :)

 

We are very happy with how welcoming everyone has been:)

 

A Loooooooong way to a new home

"HOME?

Yes I am HOME!

HOME is WHENever Im with you."

We arrived safely in Rumbai after a Looooooooong 31 hr trip door to door. Whew.

Really though it wasnt that bad, the girls were great, They slept on both flights and loved the service from the nice Singapore air ladys (which we told them NOT to get used to, its coach from here on out ;)

 

 

We hit a small bump in the road in PKU airport customs. we were dropped off in the wrong part of the new airport and had to go through immigration the wrong way, which they were none to happy with. Then we get to customs with 6 out of the 18 bags that the want to search, including the ice chest full of venison yikes! Little did we know traveling with a baby makes things very easy in customs. every bag they opened as soon as they saw baby items, it was "Oh, for baby?" and bag was closed. this was especially fun when the shy Indonesian opened my breast pump and we had to use charades to explain what it was and he turned bright red and didnt inspect any more bags. :)

Coming in you arrive early in the morning and have to try and stay awake as long as possible to start adjusting to the time zone. I think because of the baby and the limited sleep I have been getting it wasnt so bad for me. Ainsley did amazing, actually, she made it to 6pm the first night.
Jet lag however got the best of Ella....

 

I have been nervous as can be about this whole house staff thing. So strange to get use to. Then I found out they were going to be at the house to meet us when we arrived. Ahaa!
Turns out, not that hard to get used too :)We went to the park to try and stay awake while our bags were getting unpacked.

 Dylans favorite part was the couple bags we did unpack, they didnt like how we folded our clothes and the following day they were all refolded. My closet looks like a table at the Gap.

I think I will like it here.

 

 

Farewell Houston....

You have given us two wonderful years full of friends and family, another beautiful baby girl and fantastic memories. We discovered a new community with a church and school that we adore, and Houston for some reason is always good on our waistlines ;)
Luckily it seems, in our world that all roads lead back to Houston.
Maybe I'm naively optimistic and I should be more sad..... after all people change, neighborhoods grow, friends move....
But the building up to this departure has lead me to believe whole heartedly that our family is following a path laid out for us, its up to us to go discover it.

and to that....

 Adieu Htown,
till we meet again

Maternity Family Shot by Jane Foster

I like to have a family picture that represents our "current state of life" before each move. While I had tried to get it done before I was showing, or after baby 3 was born, these pictures could not represent our Houston yesrs any better! Outside, girls running, me pregnant :)

 Im always behind the camera and knowing what I am looking for makes it more difficult to step in front of someone elses. LUCKILY I reconnected with a friend I knew at A&M, who is a brillant photograher and was able to capture our family perfectly. I havent kept up with "clients" in awhile with baby 3 on the way, but am more than happy to refer everyone on to Jane, such a sweetheart!...All pictures by Jane Foster Photography, please visit her beautiful blog!
http://www.janefosterphotography.com/

Below is the picture I had in my head that Jane was able to capture so well.  Love the lopsided belly :)

IF D was miked in this pic you would hear "You owe me so big for this!" haha

Our little Miracle.....

Its taken me awhile to be able to post this story...Not just because it is so intimate and raw, but I feel like I need to share it with everyone and want to express it correctly....
I had been waiting to choose and transfer to a midwife after my 20week ultrasound. Dylan was out of town and I went to get the results from the OB. He simply said we needed to repeat the Ultrasound b/c they did not see a small membrane in the baby's brain but not to worry the baby was moving a lot and they probably couldn't get a good picture....well I worried...and started researching (bad idea)...
The small membrane is called the Septum Periducullim, its a small Membrane that divides the brain, which is not exactly the problem, the concern is that it is in the midline of the brain where all kinds of important things meet up including the optic nerves, the corpus callus, as well as the pituitary glands. Its extremely rare for it to be missing, like .2 out of 10,000.
I was referred to a Radiologist that I saw the following Tues.
It wasn't good.
He clearly showed me where the membrane should be and it was clearly not there. I fell into a tunnel at that moment. He started on a long list of different diagnosis, what else could be missing, a bunch of things I couldn't even begin to focus on.
Manly what stuck out was his rush to get me to an MRI so we could see WHAT ELSE was missing, so that we had the opportunity to terminate......

Well, of course my world fell apart. Or more like it stopped. I spent hours on the internet looking for any glimpse of Hope. I found a few articles but most of them showed the varying degrees of Septo-optic displasia, (WOW, these parents are amazing, I just don't know if I could be that person...) to a forum that had stories like "I do not have a septum and am fine", or "My daughter is a blind but successful musician" which I held onto, but most were really scarey.
First the guilt, all Mamas know it
Mama Guilt...
THe thinking back to every time I forgot to take a vitamin, ate sushi, or took a sip of wine, to the absurd like driving with my cell phone in my lap, or not choosing organic.
I felt like the most selfish person on the planet. I saw dreams of our family future falling apart. It was hard but I learned a lot.
A lot About myself and about what you don't see inside the people around you that might be hiding something huge they are dealing with, just trying to fight through the day.
A lot of patience.
My Mantra became "Lord, grant me the strength to accept the things that I do not control".
It was hard, and am not sure I convicence myself I was that strong of a person.


Finally the big day. Dylan took off a special friend took the girls for the day so we could get through it all.  (how blessed I am)
It started with yet another ultra sound that showed the same results. Quite room. Lots of important smart people from Texas Childrens, with blank stares. Then to the MRI, where I laid for over an hour b/c the baby did not like that loud noise and it was hard to get a good picture.

Then Lunch,
not much eating,
plenty of worry.
lots of love.
I can't believe how much my husband loves me. and I him. What a rock I married.

We go back to meet the head neurologist who has agreed to come over to give us the results b/c it is so rare....great.
They put us in a room, close the door and 2 min later returns with a box of tissues that she sets right in front of us....awesome.
I will never look at a box of tissues the same. ever.

The Doctor arrives finally and after some small talk turns to open the results and says, " I don't know how to tell you this...but I have great news! everything is there! everything is fine"
WHAT?!
"See" He says " I told them you were going to cry!"
indeed I did.
Turns out they never see it 'reapear' on an MRI, like I said these tests were to see what else was missing not to find out the baby was fine. The explanation for it is that the septum is actually two thin layers of membrane very close to together and this baby has a small gap making it less dense and was not picked up on ultrasound.
Whatever, I have my own explanation, my prayers were answered.
My rock said "just remember to pray for all those who left this room, that did not get the results that we did." I love him.


We normally do not find out the sex of our baby....but after all those expensive pictures it was quite obvious that we are having another beautiful baby GIRL :)
And could NOT in anyway be more happy.
It puts new meaning to ..."as long as they are health"

Here is a video of our little blessing, its a new technology called an MRI movement study. SO COOL :)

Rodeo-Mutton Bustin'

We have some good friends on the Mutton Bustin committee at Rodeo Houston. Their son was going to ride this Sat so we decided if Ella in anyway wanted to do it, the only way she would is when her friend did it too, and she knew some of the adults in the stadium. So we made a last min trip to the rodeo on a Sat while my Mom, sister and niece were in town.
Of course as soon as we walked near the barn where they were just starting a round, Ella went white and started freaking out, saying "I dont want to do it!" We put no pressure on her, Papa just held her while we watched the first kids go, and the announcer seemed to get less loud! lol...I simply said, "Its completely fine if you dont want to do it, but remember only 5 and 6 year old get to and we might not be back next year." She thought long and hard and said yes. (well at least it would only be $15 that we would loose when she turned right around in the chute)
Papa waited with her as they dressed in their vests and helmets and I took to the stands, even Aunt Melissa and Uncle Mychal showed up to cheer her on!

This picture is where I just KNEW she would kick and scream and say NOOO WAY! as they put her in the chute.....but she didnt!!!
And this is also the point where I just LOST it! haha FULL ON crocodile tears! My timid little baby is growing up so fast and so BRAVE!!

Her Sheep was named "Ewe go Girl" haha perfect, and jumped right out the gate and stoped. The man leaned down give her a nudge......

And she took off!!! ran super fast all way to the end :) Score of 93!! (over 90 is great!)

She fell off stood up and they picked her up as she did the cutest little wave...(I missed that pic, b/c I was too busy sobbing my eyes out yelling I cant believe she did it!!! ahaaaaa!)


Ella walking out at the end, like "whatev...I got this" she ended up 2nd place to a little boy with a score of 95.

I cant lie Im a proud MAMA :D

Ainsley got to ride the Pony :) and was quite happy to stop there haha!