Breaking the Rules

So far everyday we've been in Florida we've been breaking Sean's # 1 rule. Don't have too much fun!

Day one was at The Magic Kingdom. Havah rode It's a Small World.

Day two was at Epcot. Sean and I rode Mission to Space and spent the rest of the day regretting it.

Day three was at the revival. A meeting in the morning and a meeting in the evening. It was more exciting than Disney World.

Day four was spent at the beach. We walked 50 yards into the ocean and were only up to our waists. The Gulf of Mexico is so different than the Pacific in Southern California.

Tonight Havah and I are spending the evening with my Dad's cousins Phyllis and Gene while everyone else is back at the revival. Havah's had a lot of late nights and needs a peaceful evenings with no fireworks or characters.

Pictures will follow soon.

Tomorrow's the start of an eventful summer. Early in the morning I take Sean and my Mom to the airport. Late that evening I am going back to the airport with all of my girls. We'll land in Orlando at 1am. We'll spend a week in Florida at the revival and Disney World.

Shortly after we get back our good friends from California are coming with their kids to join Israel for ATC. Then I head to Cincinnati for a family reunion. In July Israel and Judah are going to California for a few weeks. Sean and I are talking about going to Carolina while they are gone.

Once all this is over it's only a short time before the girls start school again.

This is going to be a fun summer.

What I Should Have Said

This is what I thought as I layed in bed yesterday evening. I am having this thought more often than I would like right now. It's one of those glorious times of great weakness brought on by lack of sleep and new stresses. Havah hasn't been sleeping as well as I would like and is often grumpy in the evenings. This puts her mom on edge. When I'm on edge I end up doing and saying things I wish I hadn't. Maybe I still would have done something or said something, but things sound so much better when you have a clear head. I need God's help. I need the Holy Spirit. I need the fruit of the Spirit.

5 Weeks Old

I Forgot to Tell You

Havah also loves it when Auntie Laura comes to town.

The Exciting Life of Havah Henry

Havah's life is quite exciting right now. Her day begins around 6:00 each morning. She politely lets her Momma know that it's time for breakfast. After breakfast her Momma politely lets her know that it is too early to begin the day, so Havah goes to visit Gram.

After Havah's second breakfast Gram and I get ready to run errands. Havah LOVES to run errands. She gets a new diaper, clean cloths and put in the car seat. This is how she let's me know that she loves it.



After running errands it's time for elevensies. After this mid morning snack Havah loves to sit in her swing (this one she really does love). Thank you Auntie Angela for the wonderful swing!




After a nap the sisters usually get home from school. This is one of Havah's favorite times of the day. In her world she becomes a rock star. Her sisters sing and dance her around the kitchen, change her diapers, sit and talk to her about their day and listen to her talk about hers.




This is where the day blurrs. At this point Havah's Momma is tired and ready for Daddy to come hold her. All throughout the day Havah naps when she wants to, cries when she wants to, poops when she wants to and often cries out very clearly GRAM!! When she says this what she is telling Gram is, "No one is holding me. I have this strange sensation on my back! I think it's the bed. Please come save me."

This Face

I love this face and miss this little girl. She's not so much of a baby any longer. There's too much competition in the baby department. I wish she lived closer, but her mom doesn't like it when I pray that He would move them to Kansas City.

Thanks for capturing this beautiful smile Sara!

Gotcha Day!

Check this out!!!

Angela and Charlie came to visit this past weekend. This is just before we went to the City Market. Charlie loved it. Havah slept through it, but I'm sure she would have loved it too.



This is how Havah spends most of her day.

Here are some pictures of the first week.

I Bend in the Middle!

Monday Mom and I went to a fun little part of Kansas City to get fabric for Havah's baby blankie. While we were there we walked around the plaza. I had a few strong contractions, but didn't think too much of it because I've been having Braxton Hicks since about 20 weeks. I would have never guessed that less than 24 hours later I wouldn't be the only one who could carry Havah.

There are so many things about having this little one that I cherish. Late night gazing into each others eyes, seeing her little cheeks fill out, watching her daddy snuggle her, having Israel and Judah enjoy their little sister. I could go on and on.



The past 5 days have been so easy for me. I have Sean, my mom, Christina, and the girls. Everyone pitches in. During the first few nights mom took her for a few hours so we could sleep. In the early mornings Sean snuggles Havah in bed and teaches her about programming when they are at work. I can't imagine how people make it through the first few days of a little ones life without help. I am so thankful.

Well I have a lot that I could tell you about, but instead I'm going to go squish my little squish.

Zeb's Two Best Buds

Zeb had a great day today. He has spent the entire day outside with the neighbor dog Shep. Shep showed up in our backyard one day. We learned from our neighbors that he lives several street away and just roams the neighborhood. We learned from experience that he can jump pretty much any fence. Sometimes when I drive up Shep will patiently wait until I open the garage door, so he can go through the house to get to the backyard instead of hopping the fence.


At one point Judah went outside to play for a while. Zeb was in dog heaven. Having both Judah and Shep outside with him was almost more than he could handle.

Please??

I'm up early tonight. It's only midnight. I'm getting kind of board during these late nights. Being just about ready to pop, people often ask me if they can help with anything. There's not usually anything I need help with (yet). BUT I have a favor to ask of YOU. Yes...I'm talking to YOU. Could you update your blog please? It would make these late nights a little bit easier for me. Doesn't have to be too lengthy. Heck, I'm willing to look at a slide show of pictures of your dog. Now I know I fit into the category of people who do not update their blogs often enough, but at this time of night I really don't have many coherent thoughts. During the day I'm usually so tired that I would have much of anything worth reading to say either.

Tricia Got Lungs!

Pray for Tricia, Nate and Gwen. Maybe you have been following their story. Right now Tricia is in surgery to get her new lungs. Pray that everything goes well. I want their baby to have a mommy for many years to come.

I've been so moved by reading their story. Talk about trust in God and having incredible character. Nate does an incredible job of conveying what's going on in their lives and also being vulnerable with millions of readers. After the past few weeks of reading their blog I feel like a family member. Please pray for a miracle for all three of them.

A Run in My Pantyhose

It all started last week with the wonderful news that baby girl had dropped down a few inches and gave me some breathing room. That morning I noticed a small patch of stretch marks. Just a small one inch by 3 inch patch. Nothing major right? Nothing major till the next morning. My sister made the perfect analogy - stretch marks are like a run in your pantyhose. Only these runs can't be fixed with a dot of clear nail polish.

Oh well. I live in Missoura...the only beach around here is at Longview Lake.

Also...the timestamp is going to be wrong again, but it's 3:30am. I wonder if this early VERY early morning ritual is going to continue after our little girl reaches her eviction date.

See the timestamp on the post below

See it? It says posted by Danielle at 1:33 am. It's actually 3:33 am, but I can't figure out how to change the time zone. This week I can breath. Hopefully next week I'll be able to sleep. Once her eviction date comes I'm sure I won't be getting as much sleep as I would like.

One other fun thing I forgot to mention earlier - Yesterday was the best. Sean and I spent the whole day doing a whole bunch of nothing together. It was great. (nothing did include the grocery store, Sweet Tomatoes and grilling lamb, but other than that it was pretty much the real nothing)

Taking a Deep Breath

We had a great weekend at the Henry household. It started Thursday night with 8 extra Jr High girls. Israel had a slumber party with several of the girls from The Daniel Academy, something we've never had the space of ability to do until now.

The next morning I woke up to Sean and Judah giggling in the kitchen. Apparently they had been looking online at minivans. We'll be running out of space in the car soon. Once we add our baby girl's pumpkin seat the girls will barely fit in my backseat. We definitely need the extra seat belts. How else would we get all of us and Dana and Emily to The View (our local gym with an awesome indoor pool)? So back to the giggling - not only had they been looking...they had also been bidding and were currently winning on FOUR vehicles! By noon we had "won" a Blue Chrysler Town and Country. At 1:00 we were on our way to St Louis to pick it up. Thankfully, by the time we got home we were only still "winning" on one last vehicle - a 15 passenger van. Sadly, yesterday we lost the auction.

Saturday was Purim. There was a great party at our friend Cristina's barn. We all got dressed up for the occasion. Israel was Barbie, Judah was a Girl Scout, Sean was an Amish Tom Petty, I was Esther after she'd been in the palace for a few years (meggo preggo), and Christina was a stunning Esther. I REALLY wish that I could show you a picture cuz we looked great!

That evening Huckleberry was moving quite a bit and making me quite uncomfortable. I felt kind of bad that I couldn't really focus during the reading and reenacting (thank you Judah) of the story of Esther. Every once in a while I have this feeling of...I can't do this for another month. There's no way. The only way I could do this is if I stayed in bed till she decides to make her appearance.

By the time we got home the most amazing thing had happened. She had moved down several inches and for the first time in 2 months I can take a deep breath! This feels like some incredible gift from God. For weeks now every time I eat a meal or have anything with sugar she immediately responds by sticking her feet in my right lung. She was up so high and kept putting those little feet in my chest that I was actually getting quite good at grabbing her foot (really...I could grab it) and pushing it back down where it belonged. This would only last for a few seconds before she put it right back. Now, even when she stretches out I can still breath. :)

International Hope Blankies

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Looks like some genous paid to have Hope Blankies sent to the orphanage that Li Hao (Hope) is at right now. I wish I could have been there when those little ones opened their gift.

Other good news - Zhe Wei has been adopted! Zhe Wei pictured on the 2nd row in the third block holidng the red blankie and cat.

It's Christmas All Year

My amazing sister-in-law gave us the coolest Christmas gift this year. Soap of the Month Club. At first I was amazed by such a cleaver gift! I told my friends and sisters. Naturally, they were jealous of my soap and my good gift giving sister. Later, I found out how naive I was in the estimation of the value of this gift. I read her blog one morning while enjoying the wonderful smell of lavender and lemon grass scented hands and discovered that she had been making the soap all along! I immediately informed the friends and sisters who then had no words to respond to the incredibly amazing discovery of my incredibly amazing new sister. Phew! Try and contain yourself.

The Best News Ever!

It has been a long time waiting, but today our good friends got the okay from China to go bring their little Hope home! They will be able to leave in about one month. Please continue to pray that all of their needs are provided for in the next month and that the travel plans come together easily. Woo Hoo!