Happy New Year!

Greetings Family and Friends,
Happy New Year! As this year came to an end, we decided to take a moment and think about what memories the year 2010 will leave us. In thinking about the past year we are reminded over and over the goodness and providence of God and the blessings of family and friends. As many of you know, we spent 8 months of 2010 unemployed, but thanks to the wonderful providence of God, the amazing love of our family and friends, and the support of our church family, we survived this year and came out with a new appreciation for everything we have been given. Everything we have truly is a gift from God.
The year started out with us on a trip. For Christmas we flew to Wisconsin to be with Neil’s family. After a weekend of fun, we all hit the road and drove to New Jersey to participate in and celebrate the marriage of Neil’s brother Kenneth to his wife Ai Wen. This was a busy and fun trip for all of us, and Abigail did really well in all the new places with new people.
February was quite busy as it started with Sarah taking a trip to Minneapolis. She received tickets to visit her best friend there as a gift from her friend, Neil, and her parents. Neil stayed at home with Abigail and that provided a great bonding time for father and daughter as well as a new appreciation for all stay-at-moms. February also brought Abigail’s first birthday, which we celebrated a little late with a fun afternoon party. Since she was not walking yet we entered her in Ripon’s Almond Blossom Festival Diaper Derby and she surprised all of us when, out of about 40 babies, she won first prize. She was quite the speedy crawler.
March brought us to Washington with the rest of Sarah’s family as we celebrated her dad’s 60th birthday. It was a fun weekend with family and once again, Abigail did great with all of it.
Thankfully April and May were quiet months, since the summer was quite packed. June brought a failed camping trip. Since we had a family reunion camping trip coming we gave it a test run and tried camping overnight closer to home. We packed up close to midnight, after 3 hours of Abigail crying. Although she is a good traveler, apparently she is not a good camper. We still did travel to Oregon, though, for the Haveman family reunion. We stayed in a hotel near the camp ground.
Shortly after arriving home from Oregon we drove up to B.C. Canada to attend a wedding of a college friend. It was quite the drive. We stayed in Salem one night and then made it to Neil’s Pake and Grandma’s for the weekend. Abigail again proved herself to be a good traveler and it was an enjoyable trip.
We had only been home from B.C. a couple weeks when we enjoyed a visit from Neil’s parents. After experiencing some travel difficulty, they made it here to enjoy 10 lovely days with us. We had a lot of fun showing them many different sights in California and it was wonderful for Abigail to spend some more time with her grandparents.
Sarah spent another week in Minneapolis in early August to participate in the wedding of her best friend, Nikki. Again, Neil and Abigail stayed home, which provided some wonderful last minute bonding as shortly after Sarah’s return Neil had his first day at his new job. He was hired at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton. As a housekeeper, his hours have varied, but so far he has always had day shifts. One thing we do miss, though is our weekends as he has had to work every Saturday and Sunday since starting.
Neil’s new job meant less travel, but we didn’t mind a quiet fall. Our biggest trip this fall was a lovely day in the mountains enjoying the Fall color. We drove all the way to Lake Tahoe and back. It was very nice to get a whole day away from Abigail (even though we did miss her ). As the holidays approached, life sped up again and we have thoroughly enjoyed the time of celebrating with family and friends, although we did miss being able to travel to Wisconsin again. Maybe next year. For now, we look ahead to another year of excitement and hope as our family will be growing this summer. We are all excited to meet the newest addition at the end of July.
Thank you for coming on this journey down memory lane with me. Until we meet again, may the Lord continue to bless you.
In Christ,
Neil and Sarah
Abigail and Baby

The Abigail Adventures

Wow! Our little girl is growing up so fast these days! In the last week she has learned to do the slide at Grandpa and Grandma's all by herself (it is a 4 step slide that is about 2 feet taller than herself), climb into her own chair at home and her rocking chair at Grandpa and Grandma's, climb on to our coach, and successfully get off the coach without hitting her head (most of the time). She also had one totally dry day earlier this week and is starting to eat with her own fork and spoon. We are also pleased that her vocabulary is growing, both verbally and in sign. It also seems that she is developing a mind of her own. Surprise! For example, the other day I gave her the choice of 3 different dresses to wear to church. She definitively chose one over the other two. But I wanted her to wear a different one so I let her choose again, putting my favorite ahead of the other two. She still chose the first one. Then I gave her my favorite and put the other two away and she was quite upset until I gave her the dress she had chosen back to her.

Seeing all this growth in such a short amount of time made us think about how kids grow. It seems that kids grow in spurts. Sometimes it seems like she is a tree. If you watch a tree grow you don't notice much difference, but if you leave it for a while and then come back you do see change. Other times she is more like corn where you almost feel like you can seen her growing before your very eyes. Right now she is definitely going through a growth spurt in practically everything.

Thanks again for stopping in.

Happy Canada Day!

Well, long time, no blog. I guess the last number of weeks I have been too busy living life to blog about it. But we have a short break in the craziness now, so I have some time to sit down and share with you.

In June we had family visit and we visited family. My brother and sister-in-law visited and met her parents here to play tour guide for a week. We enjoyed them staying with us for part of the week and having time to visit with them. At the end of that week we all met up in southern Oregon for a family reunion with my mom's side of the family. Due to a previous bad experience with Abigail sleeping in a tent, we decided to take it easy on ourselves and everyone else in the camp ground and get a hotel room for the nights. And we are so glad we did! We had a wonderful time, especially since we got to sleep at night.

Now we are home for a short time before we head out on the road again. This time to Surrey, B.C. to attend a wedding of a college friend and visit some of Neil's family. A couple days after we return Neil's parents arrive for a 10 day visit which we are thrilled about. We are busy trying to make plans about what to see and where to go, but mostly we are excited to just spend time with them, time that will allow Abigail to better know her grandparents. A week after my in-laws leave I leave. I will be off to MN for the wedding of my sister-friend. I am the matron of honor and so have had a lot of fun planning this and that with and without her. I will be flying out on a red-eye and leaving the family behind for almost a week. Hopefully I will be kept so busy I won't have time to miss my wonderful husband and daughter (as much).

So, now the question you are all wanting to know. How is Abigail? Well, she is growing up WAY too fast! She walks everywhere now and even is starting to run. She is experimenting with different laughters, which is always fun for her parents. She is doing really well in the potty training arena and hopefully we will be able to switch to training pants later this summer or fall. She is starting to test us and unfortunately looks way too cute with her bottom lip stuck out. Her only apparent fear is the garbage truck and she is getting really good at signing. I am sure there is more, but for now this blog is already plenty long so I will save it for another day. Thanks for stopping in to read about the Elgersma Times.

Warning: Potty Training Story

First of all, I want to say "thank you" to all of you who have been praying for us and encouraging us. Last week, as you may have noticed, we had a couple bad days. We found out that Neil did not get a job we had really be hoping for. We are moving on now with other potential jobs so please continue to pray for direction and a job. Thank you!
Now on to the main story. As some of you may know, a while back we decided to start potty training Abigail. Some people were questioning of whether we should be doing this so soon but we were curious if she could do it so we started in on training her. We figured that she would catch on to peeing first, it seems like most kids do. But surprisingly she has caught on to pooping on the potty first. We taught her the sign for "toilet" and ask her through out the day if she has to go potty. Sometimes she signs it back and so we take her. Sometimes we take her even if she doesn't sign it back. It has been hard sticking with it, but last week it paid off. For the first time Abigail came up to me and signed "toilet" and when I brought her to the bathroom she pooped on her little potty seat.

Maybe you remember a story I told a while back where Abigail signed "toilet" and then when we brought her there she picked up her book and signed "more." Well, I thought maybe that was what she was doing again, but instead she pooped. And she did again the last 2 days. I think we are on a roll! It seems that she has made the connection and she likes being able to have control over this part of her life. We will keep working on peeing on the potty, but for now I am happy with the progress we have made.

Ponderings on Purpose

I have one of those daily calenders that has a cute saying or a verse from scripture for each day. Todays saying is this: "You don't have to make your life happen; you just have to worship God and let Him make it happen. You don't have to strive to figure out your purpose. You have to strive to know God. He knows your purpose.....You won't have to accomplish it, He will."

That got me to thinking. We currently, as a family, feel purpose-less. Yes, I know I am a wife and mother and daughter and sister. I know who I am in relationship to others. But what is my purpose? What are our purposes as individuals and what is our purpose as a family? What are we here for? What reason is there to get up in the morning?

We have been actively pursuing answers to these questions for almost a year now and all we seem to find are more questions. And according to the quote on my daily calender today, we have been going about it all wrong. We need to stop pursuing our purpose and start pursuing God. But what does that look like in real life? Do we stop applying for jobs? Stop actively searching for a means to financially support our family? But isn't that lazy? Doesn't "God help those who help themselves?" Seems to be the American way to me. But according to the earlier quote (and I realize that both quotes I have used so far are not found in the Bible) the American way is wrong. Shock and awe! What? How can that be? Okay, enough ramblings from me for day. Abigail is calling. I just wanted to share with you some of my ponderings. I would enjoy hearing what you think. Thank you.

I Cried Today

Hope. What is hope? One definition says: the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. Today I do not have hope. Tomorrow holds no promises and yesterday is where I want to be. Where is God when the feelings of hope are gone? What do you do when you can't get out of bed? Where can you go when everywhere there is a dead end? When do the tears stop when hope is gone? Hope. It is amazing how much better life is with hope. It is amazing how everything looks brighter and tastes better with hope. It is amazing how crushing it can be when hope is gone. Some will say to you, but what about this or that? This and that are great when you have hope that they will work. But after a while of every "this and that" ending with nothing, one begins to not even want to consider any more "this or that"s. This probably doesn't make much sense to most of you, and that is okay. This is mostly just the ramblings of a person having a bad day. Or maybe it is more. Tomorrow is another day. Maybe with it will come renewed hope.

My Daughter

It has become quite apparent recently that Abigail is very much my daughter. Most kids have a "lovey", right? Well, Abigail, up until recently, has been an exception to that. We have tried to get her to attach to a stuffed animal or blanket is nothing has really worked. Well, she has picked her lovey. A book. Thats right, she is quite attached to one particular book. She carries it around with her and takes it to bed with her. We have even seen her put it on her crib mattress and lay her head on it. So, there you have it. I am passing my obsession with books on to the next generation.

In other news, Neil has recently applied for several good job possibilities. No interviews yet, but we will keep you informed. I don't want to share too much right now since we are trying not to get too attached to anything until we know for sure. Oh, and more about Neil :). He is in a choir, Voices for the King, and someone recorded a song from their last performance. If you would like to view it, and I know you would, here is the link (please let me know if it doesn't work): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiX39Uo5iOY&feature=player_embedded

Okay, time for bed. I hope and pray that you are all having an AWESOME week!!