T - 22 hours

ok! so we are down to the hour count! we plan to make it through the whole way to LA. thank you so much for praying...there won't be another update until we are on the other side...so stay tuned but we will let you know asap! love you to all!

Happy Birthday Paul

oh what a kid! he comes in to our room at 5am asking if it's light enough for it to be his birthday yet. and so i say "happy birthday paul" while still sleeping and he jumps up and wants to party! he wants to decorate and get the plans going for the party today and have people over all day and come on mom...why aren't you already up!? thankfully miss ashley came over at 6:30am to wish a happy birthday (and goodbye) to us so he had a visitor already! he has to wait until 1 to have his party...19 friends will all go and play at a play place downtown...they will eat a soccer cake (not made by me...so very sad for me...but bed rest keeps one down) and drink kool-aid. it's going to be a great party in paul's mind cuz they have a trampoline...and he has tricks!

paul is right now sitting in a cardboard box, poking holes in it with hazel on the outside...all is well. he is such a great kid and we love him so! i can't believe he is five already...the days go too fast and he is asking so much of life already...he expects grand things from it and has passion for everything he does...whether he is happy or mad...you don't question cuz it's written all over his face. he loves to laugh and make others laugh...he is quite smart...and asks a lot of deep questions. he is into bugs, cars, drawing, Ben 10, super man, spiderman, batman, (and even enjoys a good barbie movie, computer games, skateboards, skitters, scooters, bikes, and the like...he has a bigger social schedule than anyone in our family and makes instant friends with any age. people around town know paul and like to call out his name when we are out. he does get embarrassed about this but i think he really likes it. his mouth is always going with some noise coming out...he will maybe be a sound effects guy? or a drama king? or a great dad! i think he will LOVE school and be excited for each new subject and getting to be like big brother gavin. right now he is annoyed with a little sister who wants to be just like him and is pretty much a parrot for him. he doesn't understand he is already a leader...and he has followers who love him.
we are happy to have paul in our family to keep us on the lighter side of life. he is so excited to get to america to go to chuckie cheezes...good times! we love paul and are blessed by him daily. happy birthday bud...high 5 for 5 fingers!

3 more days

just a little update for those interested...thanks so much for your prayers and notes already!
still having to do this bedrest thing. i tested the waters and tried to do little things but that backfired pretty good and so i MUST lay. ;(
we have been doing our best to research meds to take on the plane to stop contractions, seems everything has pretty bad side effects. please pray that something comes up very soon that will just "WORK" and it's not so scary. i don't like meds to begin with!
but we went to the dr last night and found i am only 1cm so that confirms in our minds that i can indeed get on those planes unless God closes the doors. we have done what we know and most of what we KNOW is that He is in control and this is why we follow Him in the first place...to put all trust IN HIM and not to think we can handle it ourselves. i have been gossiping the gospel to myself all day cuz i want the control on this one since i figure this is one of the bigger decisions we have had to make. (to get on the plane or not to even start) the idea that we are being taken care of is totally breathtaking...and sometimes hard to grasp but slowly slowly i am learning i am so proud to want to do it all myself! i am a daughter, having a son to a King...it doesn't get much better than that. so help us rest in that peace by praying us through and we'll let you know just as fast as we can that we arrived safely.

8 more days

so i am going to write to update everyone at the same time since i am not SUPPOSE to up.
one week ago i started having contractions...but as there was much to do and i knew this was normal braxton hicks...i kept going with day. by the end of the day they were pretty strong and within minutes of each other. so the OB nurse for our school sent us into the hospital to see if i could be monitored. Praise the Lord they recently acquired a monitoring machine so i was able to get some meds to relax everything and be hooked up to the machine. the contractions stopped within 10 min and i had no more for the hr i laid there.
so the next day i had more contractions and everyone decided i should take it easy. so i rested for the day and went out to dinner with many friends that night but then pain started under my belly and lasted all night. i didn't sleep. the next day i rested again and contacted who i knew could help. my dr in the states can only really reply with "i recommend you not fly" for legal reasons i suppose...and most here were saying the would not recommend it either. so we all decided i would go on bed rest until i was stable. and i also did a urine culture to see if there was any infection making all this happen...but no...only a slightly elivated white blood count...but we decided to go on an antibiotic to see if that could be the cause. and it has seemed to help! the spazms have gone way down and the contractions only go when i am standing. the pain has been reduced by 80% and i feel fine when i am laying down now...so i guess it makes it harder to remain laying down :/ but i do lay as much as humanly possible for me at this time...we leave in 8 days. there is still a lot to be done and while friends are helping with certain things...there are things that have to be done by either greg or i...we are doing our best to deligate and the community here is great to lend hands to help! i had planned to lead a women's retreat this weekend but in the end...i am not there...i handed it over to another lady who will do it for me. thank goodness i have a helper too! this whole pregnancy would look so much different if i didn't have her! she at least feeds the family and helps me not to have to get up every time they need something! so anyway...long story! after one week i am much better but i am writing all this so that you can pray better for us...we leave Feb 27 at 3pm california time and we arrive in LAX Feb 28 7pm...so we need a good amount of prayer in that 28 hr period...i really don't want to be walking off the plane with a baby! i am more and more confident that things are going to be just fine... the indo dr. here gave me the same med i had that night of the contractions and told me to take one before i get on the plane and then every 6-8 hrs after until i get to LA...and that seemed to work for me very well and didn't affect my very active little baby boy inside! so we will pray that we get on the planes we need to and God will stop anything we aren't suppose to do. He knows this plan and so i trust we are in the best care possible. you can also pray for mr. greg...he is so stressed with all this, getting his school work done for the subs to take over, getting the things done that i can not, the stress knowing that i am on bedrest, he has an ingrown toenail...just to slow him down with pain! we are going to be grateful to land on the other side of the world here next week! the kids are very excited and can't wait to get there...we have 4 birthday parties from today until we leave and one of them is Paul's...he will be five already!

so there is our life from the last week...sorry for the many words...but we appreciate the prayers!

peace and love
martha

Gavin learns about Germany

This past month was international month for the elementary. because there are so many kids from around the world, each class picks a country to learn about and then on the last day they invite all the parents and other students to come and travel the world. this year gavin has a many from around the world in his class of 12. some from america, holland, germany, indonesia, korea, and denmark. this year they picked germany for their class to learn about and here are some shots of the boys making food from germany.

if you ask gavin about germany, he will tell you quite a bit of information. he learned about WWII and what happened and who helped the Jews. He learned about how poor people were that they had never even tasted a banana but had only seen pictures. He knows the black forest isn't really black but dark green. he knows why castles were built high on the hills. He even knows some german lingo. it's great they can be exposed to other countries from people who actually live there!
other countries they learned from the K-6 were Dessert countries, India, Costa Rica, and Thiland. Paul and Hazel were given passports to travel around with and get stamped at each country. it was a great creative day :D

Lizard found

this morning when i dropped off greg and gavin at school, paul decided to put on his cowboy boots that had already been in the car overnight. he got on the boot and screamed and threw it off...out came the big lizard onto the passenger seat and hazel, paul and i were all screaming! luckily we were still parked and not on the go! greg came back to rescue us but even he didnt' want to be surprised by the lizard who had now crawled under the floor mat. about 2 min later greg found it and got it out of the car. the poor thing ran to a drain probably suffering greatly after spending the night in paul's shoe! (chrissy, you can sleep at night now...there are no known animals in the car)

27 more days

till we reach LA!

Princess Parties

have you ever been to one? today was my first! hazel and elleah (hazel's friend who has almost the same birthday as her) had their 3 yr. old princess party this afternoon...combined. we had 9 little girls showed up in their party dresses ready to be pampered. we did hair (hazel had hers done 3 times and took it out each time saying "actually, i don't want that.") we did nails. we did toes. we did make up. we did body jewels. we did lipstick (i have to say this one for elleah cuz she constantly put lipstick on for the 2 hours we were there). we did dress up (hazel changed outfits 3 times...are we seeing a pattern here?) the girls were primped and princessed...they felt and acted like it! we played a game, and had a story told to them by miss ashely. then we decorated cupcakes and i made a special barbie ice cream cake. "what?" you might say! yeah...i wasn't thinking...ice cream cake in Indonesia? the two don't mix...i got the form ok...but it melted pretty fast...so i stuck it in the freezer overnight...the next day i took it out to frost. i was proud of the frosting that uncle eric had sent especially for this occasion from america...but the frosting didn't like us! i began to put on the pink icing...trying to make it look like a dress of a barbie (and then later i would put the barbie in the middle) but i could see right away this wasn't going to work! the ice cream was melting, the frosting was drooping, the whole thing was becoming a huge mess...so i stuck it in the freezer for 5 min...opened, and the little bit i had done was NOT what my eye was looking for! so i stood in the freezer and attempted to spread the frosting little by little...having to keep closing the freezer every min. or so...wait 5 and then go again. it was torturous... but in the end barbie wore her dress and all the little princesses ooohhh'd and awwww'd and it was successful...but i learned my lesson...even on a colder day in Indo...we don't frost ice cream! (cuz it never get's that cold) after they ate, all the little ladies went outside to play on the play structure...it looked pretty funny...all the color and fluff out there...pretty soon we heard a brawl. hazel had taken the body jewel off of hasten's arm and hasten was willing to fight for it back! so, we watched and the two of them eventually made up when hazel asked miss ashley for her jewels and then returned to hasten with jewel's AND a ribbon from the decorations...friends again! so easy. i must say this party was much more quiet than any of the boys parties i have had (besides the few screams of excitement)...will this continue to be this way? the brothers thought it was VERY unfair they did not get to attend the all girl event...but we did save them some frosting and cake and ice cream cuz they didnt' like the idea of getting all princessed up...but all that mattered was that we saved them the frosting! (on a side note paul and i came home real quick before the party started to grab a few things i had forgotten...and we found a large lizard in the house...paul HAD to catch this lizard for all the boys (gavin and elleah's two brothers) back at elleah's house...HAD TO MOM! so i tried to wait patiently and a little timid as i was scared of it too and didn't want it in my house...after several attempts and me hurrying him along...he truimphed with little giggles and his cowboys boots to show the friends and brother...but oops! he lost it in the car as he was showing the boys! uh oh! oh fun days...gotta love it! but the lizard was never seen again...does this mean...it's still in the car? oh i know Chrissy would just scream and faint!) the day ended very well and hazel had a great time...even though she ended up looking more like Cindy Laper (spelling help?) than any princess i have seen... but then again...she is "her own princess" as she likes to say :D