Well, Esther is walking.  Apparently, this is pretty important.  Now she chases us everywhere and points and whines to be put in our laps.  oh joy.

She is such a joy though, really.  It's fun to have her around.  She looooves giving sweet hugs now.  She'll come give you one for no reason at all, patting your back and saying "awww" in her sweet little baby voice.

Jamin mentioned that the curtains would make a good dress for EJ.


So I made one.  



It's reversible.


And here is the crib, all painted a light shade of yellow/cream (which you can't really see in the photo.)  It's an antique, I think, but it had to be painted.  It used to be gray.  yuck.


And here are Jamin and Esther hard at work...or hardly working.  I think this is the only time in her life she'll be allowed to sit on the tail of an airplane that size.


We're hopefully flying to Winston Salem tomorrow where Jamin will help fix a flap on one of Compass' planes, and then we'll fly on up to Raleigh/Durham for the weekend.  

Well, folks, it has been way too long since we posted an update on how we're doing, how Esther's growing, and what our lives are like here in Shelby now.

The Lord has been so good to us.  We have a two-bedroom apartment that is even bigger than the one we had at LeTourneau.  We live in a nice, quiet cul-de-sac with 5 neighbors.  Updated photos of our home will come soon.  I only have the "before" pictures of how the rooms looked on the day we moved in.  I'll have to go around and take the "after" shots.  Shelby is a small town, about an hour's drive from Charlotte, with Gastonia only half an hour away between Charlotte and Shelby.  We have a Wal-mart here, and that's about all.  Not really--we do have a small mall and Lowe's and a Ruby Tuesday's.    Sadly, no craft or fabric stores, but I've discovered a few in Gastonia.  More about that later.

Let me tell you the amazing story of the couch. 

When we moved in, we were a bit disappointed that we were not going to have 3 bedrooms, so Esther could have her own room, and the third room would be for an office/guest room.  I was especially disappointed about this because I had been looking forward to finally being able to have fun decorating a room just for her.  However, I realized just how blessed we were in so many other ways, and we decided to settle for a sleeper sofa so we might be able to have friends and family overnight, since they live only 3 hours away now. 

I got onto Craigslist and tried to find something that would work.  Everything seemed to be either ridiculously overpriced or ugly and worn out.  I did see one beautiful microsuede couch that would match perfectly with one of the couches we already had, but it was priced at $450.  Jamin had already said that he didn't want to spend more than like $125 for a couch, and I knew that would be nearly impossible, so I just prayed and kept looking.  Well, a few days later, I saw this same couch had come down to $300!  So, I approached Jamin about offering them $225 cash and seeing what happened.  He agreed to it, and I emailed the lady.  I got an email response just minutes later saying that she'd take the offer--when could we come pick it up?!  I talked to her for a little longer, just explaining why we needed it and that we had just moved here to work at Compass Aviation.  Turns out she is a Christian that works at a Christian recruiting organization of some sort, and she knew all about MAF. 

Jamin and John Watt (Jamin's boss) went to Charlotte the following day (Saturday) and picked it up.  They came back all smiles and said "Guess what?!"  I knew it could only be one thing.  "Did you get it free?" I asked.  "YEP!" 

Here they are enjoying the fruit of their labor, in red-neck fashion.

It is sooooo comfortable to sit AND sleep on.  It is so beautiful as well, and now, my living room finally matches.  Hurray!!!

Esther is growing so big--what did you expect?  I'm getting to the point where I don't care how much I'll have to chase her around, I just want her to start walking everywhere so I won't have to carry her so much.  She is really catching on to communication.  She knows how to use four signs: all done, bye-bye, milk, and food.  We're working on more now that she gets the concept.  She points at something if she wants it or if she wants more of it.  She wrinkles her nose and rubs her face if she doesn't want any more.  She is very vocal, always saying "ba-ba-ba" or singing or yelling very loudly.  Daddy taught her yesterday how to vibrate her fingers against her lips and hum making a "brrbrrbrrbrr" sound. 

I love this picture of them together.


She plays nicely most of the day, but is very vocal when she is hungry or tired.  She is such a little people person.  She still needs to know there's someone in the room with her all the time.  She crawls furiously around the house trying to follow me as I do chores, and gets very frustrated sometimes when I keep doubling back on my steps, so she has to keep turning around to go back the way she came from.  Trips to the bathroom are the worst, as she wails that I've left her and keeps wailing at the closed door til I come out.  Sheesh.  Not even a moment of peace.  I can only hope that she will be a good big sister and entertain her little siblings so I can get away for a second when they're all at this age.

Here she is in her playpen, just chillin'.


And here she is enjoying controlled disaster.  Those plastic lids and containers are for her pleasure and enjoyment while Mommy is cooking.


Talk about disastrous though.  Here's a story for you.  The other night, Jamin and I were watching "The Ghost and the Darkness" because I had never seen it, and it is a classic, especially for those who have been to Africa.  We had put Esther down to sleep on our bed, since we still wanted to do things on the computer in her room.  About half-way through at about 11:15, Jamin thought he heard some rustling of paper (over the roars of lions in the movie--imagine that!), so he went to check on Esther.  Sure enough, she was sitting up in the middle of our bed, tearing pages out of my Bible, looking ever so innocent and unaccustomed to the light.  She had strewn little pieces of paper I used as bookmarks all over the floor, after having thoroughly soaked them and knawed pieces out of them.  Thankfully, she only demolished two pages out of my older Bible.  It still felt like little Esther had something in common with those lions on the movie that night.



For a final tale of God's goodness, I will tell the story of Friday.

I have been quite discouraged lately because there is little at home to do besides babysit and do housework, so I have determined to keep busy by making myself projects.  I have always loved making things look beautiful, using my imagination and the most inexpensive things I can find that I also really really love.  In lieu of painting and decorating Esther's room exactly how I had imagined it, I decided to settle for sewing her a crib set, curtain, diaper organizer, etc. for much cheaper than I could buy one and have the pleasure of picking out the fabric, matching it, and making it myself.  I was very disappointed to see that the Hancock's here in Shelby had been closed down, and the Walmart selection was tiny.  I didn't see any good fabric stores in Gastonia either, except one that looked (from the website) that it would be very expensive, selling only designer fabrics to professionals.  I didn't have high hopes for Hobby Lobby, but after looking online at fabric, and deciding fabric must be felt before it's bought, I had little other choice. 

I set off on Friday morning, grateful to get out of the house (even though it meant Esther would lose her morning nap).  I missed my exit for Hobby Lobby but took it as a blessing because gas was advertised at the next exit as 12 cents cheaper than you can get it anywhere in Shelby.  As I came off the exit, I could see "Mary-Jo's Fabric" on the side of a building immediately to my right.  I remembered that was the one I had seen on the internet, and though I had little faith, I decided to check it out anyway. 

I have never seen a bigger fabric store in my life.  I later found out after checking the website again, that it is a sort of "Mecca" for seamstresses just because it is so abundant, not because of it's "elite" brands.  God is so amazing.  If He had not led me there, I would have continued to be discouraged in my search.  I checked out Hobby Lobby later, and they have nothing.  I picked out a Michael Miller print called Carnival Bloom (apparently they're a pretty famous and trendy company) and here are some complementing patterns.
 

Here is Esther in the shopping basket with the vinyl version of it (they were all out of the cotton version--I'll have to wait at least 3 weeks for that.)



God is really just so good to me.  That simple song has been playing over and over in my head today.  There are so many other daily testimonies to the Lord trying to get my attention.  I hope these shared here have encouraged you.




~Elizabeth~

3 on airliners.net, who knows how many to go.