First Snowfall

So glad that it snowed today so Philippe could experience what winter is all about,

especially since this was his first time to ever shovel snow!

Love seeing my man all bundled up, shoveling that snow!



Oh Christmas Tree

Since this was Philippe's first time to see Mom & Dad's Christmas tree,

they were kind enough to leave it up until now so we could get this picture

SIMStart

Like I said, we arrived in the States on January 4th and the main reason for our trip here is to meet in person with the mission agency, SIM, with whom we've applied.  After a lengthy review of both of our applications throughout the past few months, we received word at the end of November from SIM that we were officially invited to attend SIMStart - the 4-day evaluation component of the application that takes place at their headquarters in Charlotte, NC.

Therefore, we traveled 4,143 miles from Senegal (something we learned at SIM - as you can see in the picture below) and spent the past 4 days in Charlotte, meeting with SIM staff and really getting to know the organization to see if it is a good fit for both us and them, especially in light of the sports & children's ministry that God has called Philippe & I to continue doing in Senegal.

Overall, we came back to PA truly encouraged by our time with SIM and even more convinced then ever that this is the right organization for us to partner with as we look to do ministry together now as a couple.  Thank you, to those of you who have been praying for us as we've continued in this process.  The next step for us is to attend SIM's candidate orientation, called SIMCO.  We're looking to attend this program in just a month and a half: March 3-17.  Please continue to pray as we prepare now for this next step in the process of joining a new mission organization. 



Happy Birthday, Mom!

Surprise!

Looks like we're gonna have ourselves a baby!

This little piece of paper confirmed my suspicions - yep, I'm PREGNANT.

I think I'd recognize the word "positive" no matter

what language it was written in, haha.

After a few weeks of feeling really tired & nauseous & experiencing some other telltale signs, I determined it was finally time that I put to use one of the at-home pregnancy tests that I'd brought from the States.  So, I nervously waited until Philippe left the house for work on Friday morning, Dec 1, 2011 and pee'd on the stick.  I didn't have to wait long cause the test pretty much immediately showed a positive sign.  Hmm... so many thoughts were going thru my head that day!  It was hard, but I waited until that night to turn to Philippe and say..."babe, I think I'm pregnant..."

[imagine: my sheepish grin & his shocked face, haha!]

I then told him that I wanted to go to the nearby medical clinic to have the test done there, just to confirm it for sure.  So, we got up early on Monday morning, Dec 5, 2011 and went to Clinique La Sagesse where they did the pregnancy test and gave us this little paper, neatly folded & stuffed in an envelope.  When we got outside, Philippe took the paper out of the envelope and...let's just say, I will never forget the smile that came on his face when he saw that one little word, "positif". 

It was priceless. :-)

   

Right before Christmas, Dec 23, 2011, we decided to go back to the Clinique to have our first checkup to make sure everything was still fine.  Amazingly, we got to see our baby and hear his/her heartbeat for the first time! 

Here's our first & now your first glimpse of our little one...   

We're sharing our news with you now because when we found out we were pregnant, we also found out that we'd be coming back to the States in January... so we decided that it would be so much more fun to share this news with family & friends in person, rather than thru skype or a mass email.  And so we purposely planned our arrival to the US yesterday, Jan 4, 2012, because today was my mom's birthday and we couldn't think of a better birthday present to give her than the special news that  grandchild #7 was on his/her way! 

So, Happy Birthday, Mom...although this present you're going to have to wait another 7 months to actually receive!