Norah's One Year Check Up

Just wanted to let you all know how Norah's check up went today. She still has a week and a half before her birthday, but we wanted to get her in before the big move. Norah weighs 18 lbs. 13 oz., which is still around 20-25%. I don't know how though; it's amazing how much she eats! Maybe she's just blessed with a fast metabolism, which neither Tim nor I have! Her length/height is 30 3/4 inches, which is at the 95th percentile. Tall and slender... she'll be one of THOSE girls someday. :) She did really well the whole time, with the exception of the two shots she got... poor darling.

It was a big day. Norah also had a few other milestones today. She took 2 steps without help today, but I think they were accidental (if that's possible). Norah also used her first sippy cup without a no-spill valve this afternoon. She did really well! It's amazing how fast she progressed from the no-spill cups to straw cups to regular sippy cups. Can't believe she's almost 1 and a walker!

Boy, have we got a story for you!

It all started Friday... we had been packing things up and getting ready to have our things moved to storage Saturday morning. We finally decided to take a break for dinner. Neither of us felt like making anything, so we decided to treat ourselves to Culver's one last time. YUM! As we got in the car at 5:00, Tim checked his voicemail. It was Bob Newton, the District President for California-Nevada-Hawaii. He wanted to talk to Tim about his "potential vicarage." We knew this wording meant bad news.

We switched places so I could drive and Tim called him back right away. After a lot of "yes," "mm hmm," and "okay," it all finally came out. Newton told Tim that he did not want him in his district. It seems that Newton talked with the pastor of Tim's first vicarage placement. (That placement went sour because that pastor wanted Tim to do things that the Seminary says vicars are not supposed to do.) Newton and this pastor agreed that vicars SHOULD consecrate the elements for communion and perform baptisms. Keep in mind these things are expressly listed as things vicars are NOT to do! Tim took a strong stand against this with the first pastor and was allowed to decline the vicarage because of that. Now, here the same issue came up again. When placed at Peace in Fresno (church #2), Nuffer (the placement director) assured Tim that Pastor Young understood this and would not ask Tim to do it. Problem solved, right?! That's what we thought. Now Newton was saying that Pastor Young and he agreed and it seemed it wouldn't work out. Newton also said that he refused to sign the papers (the official ones Tim needed to sign before his vicarage was official). We had been waiting for these papers since May, and everyone at the Sem. assured us that they were coming and it wasn't a concern. At the end of the conversation Newton told Tim that he would never work in that district as long as he was in charge and that he would proceed as if we were not coming.

What a night! At that point, we had 9 days until we needed to be out of our apartment... yikes. Saturday morning we had some friends come and help us move stuff to storage, and we informed everyone along the way of what was going on. Everyone, I mean, EVERYONE was outraged at the situation! It was sure nice and reassuring to know we had support wherever we turned.

Tim ended up having a conversation with Nuffer on Saturday evening while we were with some friends. He didn't really let Tim say too much, but just did a lot of lecturing. By the end of the very one-sided conversation, he had given Tim some options. If Newton (who reported to Nuffer that his and Tim's chat was very congenial-HA) decided to sign the papers, Tim could either go to Fresno as planned or decline the vicarage. If he declined, Tim would be forced to take a year off from Seminary studies, a leave of absence was the term used. If Newton did not sign the papers, Tim would be allowed to take classes this year and take a delayed vicarage. At this point, we had NO idea what was going to happen and figured we'd just have to wait it out until Monday. Stress!

When we got home, I convinced Tim to call Pastor Young (Peace in Fresno) and talk it out with him. He did, and the conversation helped somewhat. Pastor said that he wanted Tim to come and that the church was excited about us being there. The topic of communion and baptisms did not come up though. We are still hopeful that since he told Tim from the beginning it wouldn't be an issue, he won't be asking him to do those things. Pastor also told Tim that he had talked with Newton. Newton said he would sign the papers (reluctantly I'm sure) if that was really what Pastor Young wanted and was comfortable with. So, now we kind of thought we'd be going, but we're too sure yet. We went back and forth between that thought and "Well, if Newton really dislikes you that much and really doesn't want you in his district, he still won't sign... will he?". Neither of us got much sleep Friday and Saturday night!

Sunday was just a long day with no real news. We just tried to keep busy and not think about everything going on. Tim and I actually had a nice little "date" of sorts. We set up the small TV and DVD player we still had in our apartment on some boxes in the bedroom and watched a movie from our mattress on the floor. (I know, it all sounds very white trash!) Tim commented several times that he didn't think about Fresno at all during those two hours! SUCCESS!

This morning, we woke up hoping to have some news as soon as possible. Of course, the darn time change made things a little more complicated. At 9 our time (business hours, we reasoned... Newton could be in his office making a decision), it was only 6 in California! More waiting ensued... At least Norah had a doctor appointment for her one year check up to keep us distracted for a short time.

As we left the doctor's office, Tim checked his voicemail. He had a message from Nuffer's secretary to call her about setting up a meeting for tomorrow... TOMORROW! How could we wait another day and a half until 1 on Tuesday to find out what was going on? Tim ended up going to the Seminary to talk to Nuffer's secretary, Nancy. She is such a nice lady! Tim explained that we were running out of time to make and/or cancel arrangements if we were staying. He asked if she knew what was going on and what the meeting was about. She said she was pretty sure it was just a pep talk, but called Nuffer to double check. She could then confirm for us that everything was fine and Peace still expected us to come. WE HAD AN ANSWER!

Okay, so at this point (and it better not change again), we are going to Fresno. Tim and I are relieved to finally know what's going on. While I'm typing this, he is scrambling around to get some more packing done since we took the weekend off while not knowing what was going on. I'm so sorry that I'm not able to help right now! Thank you all so much for your thoughts, prayers, and support. Hope we won't have any more drama of this kind to post about!

P.S. Bet you're all glad I typed this post... it would have been much shorter had Tim written in! :)

Fresno Vicarage

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers over the last day as Vicarage plans took a turn. After many converstations with many classmates and pastors, including my supervision pastor, it seems as though the plans are back on and we will be leaving in just over a week. At this point I am still waiting for approval from the District President but I have been told that he is signing papers. When things become final I will let you all know. Thank you again!

Tim

Hi Everyone, Yesterday Jana had her first doctor appointment for the new baby. The offical due date is Jan. 28 and everything is looking great. When the doctor went to check the heartbeat she was unable to find it with her little machine so they wanted to do an ultrasound. The same thing happened last time with Norah, and although we had been through it once, our nerves were still going waiting for the ultrasound. But everything turned out great. It was amazing to see the baby move and stretch already at 12 weeks.

Fourth of July Pictures

This is the beautiful dress Grammy made for Norah. She wore it to church on July 5. Hopefully it will fit her next year too... it should be long enough anyway!

This dress was also a little long. Norah did not enjoy trying to crawl in the dress, and had a hard time keeping it on. I found her this way several times!

July Update

Hi everyone,

For those of you who haven't heard from us in a while, we have some exciting news! I am 11 weeks pregnant (tomorrow). I will be seeing the doctor next week, but estimate my due date to be January 28. We couldn't be more thrilled to welcome another blessing into our home. God is great, and has seen to make our year in Fresno even busier with this new addition!

Speaking of Fresno, packing is going pretty well. You know, there is only so much you can do this far ahead of time. It's been a challenge deciding what we need to bring, want to bring, and can live without for a year. We will be leaving Fort Wayne on the 27th of this month and arriving in Fresno at our new home on the 31st. Yes, that's right... 4 and a half days of driving with a one year old! We will be on our fourth day of travels on Norah's birthday. Peace has gotten a nice two bedroom apartment for us on the first floor (YAY!). It even has a little patio area that is fenced in. We're really excited there will be somewhere for us to get outside when it's not too hot. Our address in Fresno is as follows:

4914 N. 9th Street Apartment 105
Fresno, CA 93726

We will be getting internet at home in Fresno, so we can keep you all updated with photos and video as Norah grows (hey, me too!). I'm sure we'll post again before we go as well. God's blessings and stay cool!