Painting Day: Unexpected results

Dave had met a Chinese pastor named, Keon. (He's pictured wearing long pants.) Keon offered to help us paint and he brought 3 Chinese friends. One friend is John (sitting on the steps). John has only been in the country 4 months. Keon, Lewis & John were upstairs after lunch painting Lilia's room and Dave could pick up that they were talking with John about spiritual things. It was all in Chinese so he couldn't totally follow along. Later in the afternoon Keon came down stairs and told us that John wanted to become a Christian.

We were absolutely amazed and in awe of what God was doing already in our home. This is exactly why we spent a year in Asia and why we now have moved to Philadelphia! We all sat around and Dave led John in a prayer to give his life over to Christ. It was such an awesome moment! One man was moving from eternity without God to eternity with God right in our living room. Thank you Jesus for dying for anyone that would chose to believe in you!

Lilia drawing a watch in John's wrist

Drew rolling on the dining room paint

We painted the sunroom, fireplace wall, whole dining room and kitchen this soft green. (It's in the green family.) We love the color, it's so calming.

Clare & Mark edging the dining room

John, William & Lewis painting the Sunroom

Lewis & John painting Lilia's room

God gets ALL the credit for this house!

God has reserved this house for us. It is so beautiful as you can see from the pics. What's amazing is that our neighbors are Christians and they have a 1yr old son, we can afford the house on our own, and it's in the shuttle range for Penn students.
The same day we put a bid on the house another couple did too. The seller, Mark (great guy), he picked our bid because he preferred working with our realtor.
Our inspector, through the realtor, was amazing and very thorough.
The seller agreed to all of the the things we wanted fixed, plus the stuff that our loan people required.
We locked into a mortgage rate, which is amazingly low, about a month and a half ago. It's through a smaller bank called Harleysville Bank. The paper work for the bank to write up our mortgage stuff just got finished yesterday. There was no way any other larger bank could have gotten the paper work done by settlement today at 2:30. (Not totally sure of the terminology so go with it.)
THIS IS NO COINCIDENCE!!! God has set this house aside for us and has seen it through. Thank you so much God. You spoil us!!!!!!!

We proudly present to you...5005 Chestnut St

The Living room (looking from both directions)

The Kitchen

Our getaway weekend

Last weekend Dave and I got to spend time in Cold Spring, New York alone. It was really nice. We stayed at this great bed and breakfast. We have wanted to do this ever since we got back from East Asia and so we jumped on the opportunity.
It was a cute little town on the Hudson, across the river from West Point. We enjoyed leisurely time and time away from Lilia. She's great, but it's nice to get away.

John D Rockefeller's Summer Estate

We took a tour of the Rockefeller's summer place. It was really cool. The house is small for the richest man who ever lived. The entire property is on 4,000 acres. The house was built in 1903 I believe and back then he spent a million on it. He was a man that cared more about landscaping and he spend 1.8 million on the grounds, which were stunning!
There was a lot of Chinese art pieces and statues in the house which was really interesting to Dave and I. We asked the tour guide about it and she wasn't exactly sure. They were a Protestant family and so she thought it may have been tied to missions. Interesting...

A profile of the house

Tomorrow's the Day!

Tomorrow we settle on our house! We are so excited! We'll take pics tomorrow and post them for all to see.

Oh Internet, You're the Best

Lilia was fighting us on naps, big time. She just wasn't interested, but we knew she was tired. So I went to my friend, the internet to get some understanding and some ideas. One mom said she put up a baby gate in the door and the toddler was to get some "alone time."

Well we tried it and now it's working! It's been about a week and a half and all except one day she eventually lays down on her little mat and goes to sleep on the floor. It's great. She's getting the idea of having alone play time too. That is a much needed concept for when her baby brother arrives in about 9 more weeks.

Thanks internet!

Our year so far at a glance

We lived in Asia.
Lilia turned 2.
Dave turned 30.
We came home from Asia.
Bought a new house. (1st time home buyers.)
Moving to a new city.
Starting a new job - Bridges is uncharted territory for us.
Having a baby - mid-October.
Katie will turn 30. (Not till Dec)

It's happening!

We got a call today from our realtor that we officially settle on August 27th at 2pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh my gosh, we're buying a house! This is so crazy and fun!
It's move-in condition too. All we have to do is paint and decorate! I've been working on choosing paint colors for the house to get it all ready. It's very fun, but also super difficult.
Chestnut Street, Philadelphia...here we come!

9 weeks till baby boy's due date!

Peddlers Village

Helping Poppop water the flowers

Breakfast time

It's 5:30 am and we're watching the sunrise!

Lilia came in our room at 5 am with a Dora coloring book saying she wants to color. We said Lilia, it's still dark out go back to bed. Dave had offered to go back to bed with her. Then we hear my mom in the hallway saying that she had thrown up.

My mom jumped out of bed at 4:30 because she thought the lid to the crock pot was off. She found Lilia sitting in the hallway at the top of the steps. She went back into bed with her and laid down...in something wet. She could smell it was throw up. Lilia had thrown up in her bed and then sat out in the hallway, I guess waiting for someone to go down stairs with her.

By the time Dave and I had been woken up by Lilia my mom already had wash going and new sheets on the bed. We knew from our "recovering from jet lag" days that Lilia was up for good. So here we are watching the sky turn from black to light blue!

The cause: possibly pool water. We went swimming at my mom's friend's pool yesterday and she swallowed some of the water. We'll see how the day goes, but she seems fine now.

The End is in Sight

The pregnancy continues to go well. I only have 10 weeks and 2 days left till the baby's due date. The crazy part is I have nothing together! I know I have time, but I think I'm nesting. We are also in limbo with the move and all.

I will still deliver at Doylestown Hopital, which is only 5 miles from my parents house. As the time gets closer I will spend more time here.

This little boy's coming soon!

We're Buying A House!!!

I can't believe it! God has really just dropped this on our lap. We had been in Philly about a month ago and so we asked a realtor to show us a few places. We wanted to see what our money could buy. Well the 4th house we looked at we fell in love with. The inside is beautiful! The price was right, but it wasn't selling. The reason was the location. It's right on Chestnut & 50th.

It turns out that the neighbor and us have a mutual friend. We got the neighbors number and called her up. She invited us in and we talked with her for an hour asking her every question we could think of.

They are a Christian couple with a 1 yr old son. We couldn't believe it. God didn't have to do that, but it's awesome! So they've lived there for 2 years and have loved it. So talking with her helped us in our decision.

We prayed about it, thought about it and talked it over with people we trust. We put a bid in and it's been accepted. We already had an inspector come through and the seller has agreed to fixing up some of the problem spots. If all continues to go well, we settle on August 27th!

We chose to live in Philly because we are going to be working with international students at UPenn & Drexel. A part of that is having them in your home for meals and social times. We wanted to be close enough to school so the shuttle can drop them off.

We'll put pictures up eventually. Right now we don't have any. They got deleted off the camera by mistake.

In moving in all we have to do is paint! The whole place was gutted and redone from top to bottom. It's so beautiful! Hardwood floors all downstairs and new carpeting upstairs. It's 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. The kitchen is brand new with all new appliances! We finally will have a dishwasher after 5 1/2 years!

Anyway, we are really thrilled. Thanks so much God for providing for us!

Just a Sunday afternoon

Lilia was playing nicely in her room with some stickers. She was having trouble getting them off the page. I walked into the room and she handed me the sticker sheet and said, "Mommy, I'm frustrated!"
I know I have used that phrase to help her describe her emotions, but I'm not 100% sure she knows what it means. However, she did use it in the right context. It gave Dave and I a good laugh!