December Birthdays (Blog Back-Issue #1)

Dear Blog Readers,

We are doing some blog back-issues for the past 3 months because we have many pictures and stories we've not yet shared here. December was a busy and difficult month for us. Besides the busyness of 2 birthdays (Juliana on the 4th and Kai on the 17th) and Christmas celebrations, we were saddened to experience a miscarriage. We were 9 weeks pregnant when we miscarried on December 15th. So within two days we mourned the loss of our baby and celebrated the life of our 2-year old son. We sensed God's grace in special ways and felt very cared for by family and friends here and in the U.S. Thanks to the many of you who prayed for us and sent encouraging e-mails our way!


Birthday Bits:
Juliana had been looking forward to her 5th birthday party for quite a long time and frequently asked us, "How many days 'til my birthday?" On her big day, she got to go shopping for new sandals with Mommy, ride bumper cars with Daddy, and eat macaroni and cheese with the whole family.
Above: Daddy and the birthday girl at the bumper-car rink which we had almost to ourselves in the late afternoon. It was good that it was nearly empty, considering there were no seatbelts in the bumper cars and Juliana was excited, but also a bit nervous about her first experience in this kind of entertainment.

The next day, we had five of Juliana's preschool friends over for a party. Mommy made a yummy cake. Here we're singing. Other activities included facepainting, playing in the sandbox, and musical chairs...

Here Juliana poses for a picture with her friend Hannah after receiving a finger print/doodle pad for her birthday.

As for Kai, his party was much more low-key. We celebrated it as a family, inviting Nyaw, our househelper, to join us.

This boy knows what to do in front of a camera!

A family friend offered to make a cake for Kai's birthday because of Bethany being in the hospital and weak from the miscarriage when she would have liked to be baking. Kai loves cars, trucks, and trains so we were blessed that it was such an appropriate cake, complete with a little car on top.

We love our children and were happy to celebrate their birthdays. As we experienced the loss of a little baby in the same month, we were reminded again to not take for granted the wonderful gift of life that God has given us and our two little ones (who aren't so little anymore!).
- Ryan