The best $3 dollars I ever spent

We have been unusually busy lately. Last week we met with two different pastors on two different nights, and Vince got to go see the TU vs. Boise State game last Wednesday. Friday I got a call at work around lunch time that Ziva had a fever of 101, so I packed up my books and picked her up early. She conked out before I even got her car seat straps on, and then slept for about 2 hours without even eating lunch first. When she woke up she was still burning up, so I gave her some Tylenol and by the time we got to the doctor her fever was gone. It turned out to be an ear infection, so she's on antibiotics for 10 days. Which is where the best $3 I ever spent comes in. I wish I could shake the hand of the man (or maybe mom) who came up with the brilliant idea of adding flavor to kids' medicine. Ziva has always taken medicine pretty well, but this time, other than the very first dose, she just wasn't having it. We tried every thing we could think of--forcing it down her throat, mixing it with yogurt or juice--all things everyone knows you're not suppsoed to do. And they didn't work that well anyway. So yesterday I headed back to Walgreens in desperation and paid $3 to add grape flavoring to the yucky amoxicillin. (no idea how to spell that) Ziva loves grape Tylenol and actually asks for it ("peez!") whenever she sees the bottle. So after we added the grapde flavoring, Vince had the awesome idea to rinse out an old, almost empty bottle of Tylenol and use that dropper to give Ziva her meds. And it worked!!! It takes about 8 droppers worth to give her each dose, but she sucks down all 8 without one bit of protest. Our home is peaceful once again!

Ziva showing us her grill

Showing off Uncle Mitch's hat

Go Hurricanes!

Bedtime story with Daddy

Finding Home

After many, many months of searching, we have finally found a church to call home, and we are EXCITED! Monday night we met with an associate pastor at Discovery Bible Fellowship and did all the "official" business of joining the church: sharing our testimonies, discussing our talents, interests, and spiritual gifts in order to find a place to serve, and signing the church's membership covenant. At some point we'll be introduced to the congregation, but even without that, we feel finally at home. Another pastor emailed us about finding a small group to join, and we're meeting tomorrow night with the youth pastor and his wife to find out if/where/how we can work with the student ministry. Did I say we're EXCITED?

I have to confess, when we moved up here from Florida, finding a church was the last thing I expected to be difficult. And yet, that's been one of the toughest parts of this season for us. We both loved Calvary so much, and were so plugged in there, that the leaving was definitely an up-rooting, and left some painful reverberations in our life. There were some weekends when we didn't even want to visit a new church, because we could never find something as great as Calvary, and wasn't it just so easy to watch Calvary online?

We know that God has many different seasons for us to walk through, and when we're in one we really really love it's hard to move on to the next, but we trust His heart and His plan for us and move forward on our journey. It's been a long (to us) walk in the dim light, not fully seeing why we had to leave what we loved so much, but God in His goodness is giving us more and more glimpses into the "why," and we are feeling more and more settled in our new life, in this season. Of course, the moment we begin to feel settled may be the next time He moves us (like we're finally making some good friends, but found out this week they're moving to Texas. Boo.), but every change draws our eyes back to Him and reminds us that we just don't know. And that's okay. And it's EXCITING. Because only He could plan exactly what we don't even know we need.

(And yes, Ziva pictures will come soon. And maybe some awesome video, if you're lucky. You've got to see her show her "grill". We love our gangta girl!)