Feeling the Man Love

I realized this morning that I had gotten into a "funk" in my house so I escaped. I grabbed my camera, my bible and journal and headed to mall road. I sat at Barista and read for a while and then decided to find a theme to take pics of today. After about 2 minutes the theme was clear. I would do it on "man love". Here in India, man love is a big deal. I don't even notice it anymore, but as I took these pictures I found myself laughing out loud about how different this is in America.
Here are just random pictures of men walking down mall road. Hope you enjoy and feel the love!

These are normally the most common....the arm around the shoulder walk.

The classic hand holding!

The arm in arm...more common with the girls, but the guys really enjoy this too!

 And my favorite...the arm around the lower back! Awesome!

Mold and Sunshine

I have been hesitant to post pictures of these things because they are such shockers for those living in America. If I had seen these things a couple of years ago, I would tell the person to move because living in Mold while preggo is a big no-no! But we don't live in America and it isn't that easy to move here. So we have been working on it and waiting for the sun to come and dry out our walls again so the mold can really go away. Today is our 3rd day with no rain! I am praising the Lord for what that may mean for our house. Anyway, here are some pics.

24 weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 24 weeks

Total Weight Gain/Loss: not as fat as I look in this picture!

Maternity Clothes: Most clothes I wear these days feel like maternity clothes anyway! wear lots of work out pants under my long shirts and a few maternity jeans

Best Moment this week: Levi seeing the baby kick from across the room! Crazy

Gender: No Idea! (but we think it is a boy!)

Movement: Lots of movement!

Food Craving: tomatoes

What I miss:sleeping well

Sleep: struggling with the sleeping on my side idea.

What I am looking forward to: getting the bedrooms painted and the mold out of our poor little one's room

Belly Button: In but coming out slowly!

Symptoms: still get tired, some motion sickness on the rough roads

Love

Today as I was on Levi's computer, I found a copy of our wedding from 3 years ago. I sat with my crystal light lemonade and watched the whole thing. I laughed, I cried and I sat blown away at how young we seemed then! Especially Levi who seems like a completely different person now than during that time. I realized that his accent is even so much different than when we got married! 

The man I married had one of the biggest hearts I had ever seen, he loved with his whole heart. He was passionate about the L*rd, caring and strong....little did I know that he would gain so many more characteristics in such a short time! He would become the leader of our family, and the leader of so much more. Stress would make him stronger and in just 3 1/2 years he would change from "the baby" to the "father of a baby"! 

I also realized today how deep our love is now. What was once young and innocent has become deep, strong, unbreakable. We no longer think as individuals but as one. We tell the same jokes, we repeat the same stories, we share (most of) the same dreams....

Today I praise G*d so much for bringing us together. I always asked for someone that would be my partner. Levi is more than that. He is my best friend. Many young people ask me for my advice about love. (well, sometimes they don't ask ;) I love to tell people that the truth about love is totally Chr*st. That when you love the L*rd and let Him guide you in ALL decisions, he will be faithful. He gave me a passion, and He decided I needed a partner. We look back and have no idea how on earth we made it to the alter because at the time we just didn't fit. It was only through the grace of G*d who had a purpose for us, who had a plan for us. His plan was not for us to be happy, but for us to really sharpen one another for His glory. For us to see each other's faults and forgive, love and grow. 

Our Poor House

We are in like the 6th or 7th week of rain now. My poor house may not make it. Every room upstairs is just covered in mildew and mold. We have sprayed clorox, vinegar, ect. but the walls can't dry so the stuff comes back with a vengance!

We also blocked off the rat holes on our staircase with tin foil and I guess some rats got trapped somewhere in the tunnels in our house because our bedroom upstairs definitely smells like a dead animal.

Levi left today so he got the 2 guys that hang out with us to go with him and clear out our room. Everything from the mattresses to the clothes came down stairs. So this week I am rearranging and making this downstairs bedroom our home for the next few days, weeks, months....however long it takes I guess! I would take pictures for you but I am scared to go up there! I am so thankful we have this house though because we have the option to live downstairs when the upstairs falls apart. This will just put off planning through a baby room for a while.

Sometimes when you choose to live overseas you have to deal with the inconveniences and frustrations that come with it. We are in the middle of making the choice to laugh off the chaos in our home. For this is India, and life is crazy!

Rainy season

It has been raining here for 5 weeks nonstop. So much rain definitely changes things. The roads are bad, the people a little more irritable, and life is just a lot more gray. Our house is full of mildew and mice, and lots of water when the rain is hard. This time of year definitely makes us appreciate the sunshine and we can't wait for this season to end in a few weeks. I think everyone in our area are ready for some sunshine!

Even though rainy season is rough here in the mountains, I can't say enough how thankful I am that we don't have misquitos! Dengue fever is horrible this year in this country and so many are affected by it. I am a magnet for misquitos and I feel so blessed to have one less thing to worry about with this little one.

Dreams

I'm sure this doesn't come as a surprise to most, but I am a HUGE dreamer! I always have some outlandish dream for my life and make plans surrounding this big dream. Since college, my dream was to live overseas. I would find a way to "change the world". Wasn't quite sure how that was going to happen, but I tried to plan my life around this dream. I met a man who shared this dream and married him. I went to school to fulfill this dream.

Now I live the dream. I love what we do. I am passionate about it, fulfilled by it, excited about it! Perhaps I am not "changing the world" but definitely feel that I am making a difference. I do have a fear that when I have children, it will mess up this dream. I fear that my focus will become my kids and I will no longer focus on the world around me. I will be changing the world for my kids, but this dream has always seemed so small. I pray that as the Lord enlarges our family, he will enlarge my dreams. He will continue to use me to make a difference in the lives of others here where I live. I hope that I will not find myself "stuck" at home while Levi gets to go and do all that WE are passionate about.

We have been pushing real hard since I've been pregnant to continue the lifestyle so that I won't find it easy to stay at home. This has been awesome but now the rain and the apple trucks have washed out the roads and 8 hours on really rough roads makes me miserable. Both ways I ended the trip sick as a dog and that is when we knew that I would not be doing this again until after the baby comes. How hard it is to realize that I have no choice but to stop for this time. How afraid I am that I may be home for longer than my heart desires!

Here are some pics from the land that we have come to love: