Look out world...

He's walking. Here is a video of the first day he started walking. The video doesn't really show off his "skills", but it is adorable! You can hear the full story on our other website http://paulandbecca.wordpress.com

God's Creation

Today we heard a new little heart beat. Today, for the first time, we saw God’s creation in our second child. It was so amazing to see this tiny baby that is currently only 2.7cm or barely over an inch. God is an amazing Creator. We feel incredibly gracious to be pregnant.

I am currently about 10 weeks along and we are expecting the little one around August 18th. We actually found out we were pregnant on Christmas morning. It was so special to have an extra gift and we were even able to tell our families when they called that day. We had previously decided we would come home to the US to deliver in order to be with family and for a planned c-section. (Nathan was a c-section and it was decided by us and our OB then that future c-sections would be a good choice.) So we are planning a trip home. Nathan and I will travel to Houston in early June and Paul in early August. We are already dreading the time apart, but know it will be best for Nathan and me to come home in plenty of time. We hope to travel to Dallas in June, but other than that I will have to stay put.

Nathan is very excited about having a brother or sister. He loves other children or babies of any age and we know he will be a great big brother. He has been doing handstands where he makes a little triangle by standing on his feet and hands and then looks under through his legs. Etagainu said that in Ethiopia that means they are looking for a little brother or sister to come along.

We feel so blessed to be able to pray and nurture this little life. Although God is the one who is sustaining it’s life and creating it in His image.

I should tell you this is still not our permanent blog. We are unable to post to blogspot with where we live, please visit us at http://paulandbecca.wordpress.com for the latest stories in Ethiopia.

Love to All!
Paul, Becca, Nathan and very tiny Baby

WE'VE MOVED

Not only have we moved to Ethiopia, but we have also moved our blog. Our blog has moved to www.paulandbecca.wordpress.com Please come and join us there. We promise pictures of Africa!

Goodbye blogspot!

Hello? Is this thing on?

We have asked our friends in Dallas to post this information for you. We apologize for the lack of input on this blog since we arrived in Ethiopia, but it appears Ethiopia has blocked many blogger sites and we are unable to access the site from Soddo. We are in the process of setting up a different site and will post the new information on this site and in our next mailed newsletter as soon as we have the information. Thank you so much for your patience and looking forward to sharing our experiences! As of now, we are doing well. God has been merciful and kind to us and we are settling in.

Paul and Becca

We Made It!

We have made it safely to our new home! We are in Soddo, Ethiopia.
We have been settling in and Paul starts at the hospital on Monday.
Most of the things packed in our really heavy bags seems useful,
however we did not bring enough warm clothes. When we got off the
plane it was 59 degrees and it has only broken 70 one day. But trust
me we are NOT complaining after hearing Dallas was scheduled to 107 a
few days ago.

The trip went well and after arriving in Addis Ababa we spent a few
days there buying appliances and meat and cheese. We are 8 hours
ahead of central time and we are over jet lag. Nathan did great
switching his clock to African time.

We are having trouble accessing our blog and have had our good friends
Dan and Diedra post this for us. Hopefully we will figure it out and
be able to access it soon, but we do have reliable email, so feel free
to email us at paulandbecca@gmail.com

Thanks for the prayers and encouragement, they have helped a lot.
Please let us know if there are things we are missing out on in your
lives, so we can be praying for you.

love, Becca, Paul and baby Nate

Peope, people, everywhere

I'm thankful that God has arranged a little time for reflection before we fly to Ethiopia. As Becca mentioned below, we are currently in Washington DC and will be departing for Addis Ababa tomorrow evening. We arrived at the hotel via shuttle with our quarter ton of luggage so we aren't going anywhere except back to the airport tomorrow afternoon. Perfect!

It has been a long time of goodbye's. God has blessed us with so many wonderful people that it takes a long time to say goodbye to only a fraction of them! Wonderful parents who raised us and taught us to be the people we are today (Mom, JD, Dad, Kim, Patty and Steve, I'm going to miss you all big-time). Amazing grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Close and endearing friends (today I talked with a very dear friend, Chad, a surgeon in Dallas). They are all over the world. Due to our layover here we had the opportunity to spend an evening with one of my long-lost and much-admired uncles, Uncle Dan. He lives here in Washington and works for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He's a brilliant lawyer, one of the smartest people I know. The congressmen may talk about their laws, but Dan is the one who writes them. I haven't seen him in over 10 years and, thanks to this trip, we had a great dinner and I got to show off my wife and son.

It makes me think of all the places God is putting people. I recently talked with an old roommate and friend from college who is leaving for the mission field in Angola as a church leader and pastoral educator. As we talked, we realized that three of the seven of us guys who shared a suite in college will be living in Africa! In addition to the two of us, our other friend is working for the US government in Nairobi, Kenya. One of my best friends from medical school is living and working at a mission hospital in Cameroon as a family practice and obstetrics doctor. My sister-in-law and her husband, two people dear to my heart, will be leaving for the mission field around December this year to work with Wycliffe Bible translators, likely in west Asia.

For an introvert who has often struggled with people skills, God has put a lot of awesome people in my life! I realize I'm kind of rambling, but it's late and I've had about seven hours of sleep in the last 72 hours. I say all that to say this: it's people that really matter. I thank God for the people I've met and known. I'm going to miss all you people, but it's for people that we're going. I'm also excited about the new people we will meet and befriend. Looking forward to sharing them with you.

Paul

Half Way There...

Well, we are in Washington DC and although it is not technically half way to Ethiopia, we are very thankful we have made it this far without any hassles. In fact, at 4am this morning in the Houston airport we had the nicest ticket agent. She was such a hidden blessing. We were afraid they would give us a hard time about having 7 huge bags, but she was so friendly and helpful and even let us board early with Nathan. Now we just have one more flight from DC, USA to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is a direct flight with just a stop in Rome to refuel, but we won't get off the plane.

We leave DC at 8:30 eastern time Monday and should arrive in Addis in the evening on Tuesday. Which will be around midday central time. We hope to be able to blog from Ethiopia in a few days, to let you know we made it safe and sound...