Jasmine's 3 year appointments

Yes she is three, and that means three year appointments! Yay! (not!) LOL.

So Saturday we had our first ever dentist appointment. I went first, and she got to watch. I did have 2 small cavities, but they aren't going to fill those until a separate appointment - so just the cleaning. However, even after showing her how "easy" it is she still threw a fit about getting into the chair! Oh well, once she was there she didn't give the dentist any problems.

Yesterday was her 3 year appointment at the doctor. No shots, just a well child checkup. She is now 32.5 lbs and 39 1/8" tall - 75th percentile for both. Which if you plug that into the online calculators means she "should" be between 5'8" and 5'11" as an adult - I guess we'll see!

Anyways, here's some pics for you:

Like Daddy, like daughter:


Say Cheese! Our new shades and clean teeth:


Oh, and we don't have any pics of it, but one HOORAY! Yesterday we also went out and bought Jasmine her "fancy panties"! She is now daytime dry! HOORAY! She is really excited about going to Mr. Marty's Sunday school class and going to "school" in the fall now!

The big THREE!

Yes, today is the day that Jasmine turned THREE. Hard to believe that my baby is now a "preschooler." It was also really the first birthday that I think she actually understood what was going on - she kept saying that it was her birthday today, on her birthday she was three, and similar comments. Winifred stopped by for a visit and Grandma and Grandaddy called - she was pretty excited about getting sung to on the phone!

We kept the celebration small - just family this year. Though I suppose it won't be long and she'll be wanting to invite friends over to help her celebrate as well. Of course I know y'all only stop by for the pics, so here you go!

At breakfast this morning. Athena is not a morning person and did not feel like acknowledging my presence.

Showing off her new shirt. It is much cuter IRL. (Want one of your own? Stop by here and let her know I sent you!)

The big present (and Shane's feet!)

Our new "computer" (Winnie the pooh and does numbers, colors, shapes, spelling)

Our Dora music book (she loves singing along with the MP3 player)

The horsies from "Great Grandma"


Doing the dry erase writing pad with Daddy

Athena helping to clean up

Cake, glorious cake!


I'm this many!

And one of Shane, who was less than impressed with all of the proceedings today.

Glean Ministries E-Newsletter

I know that some of you have expressed interest in our future Africa plans and what is going on there. Please see below the newsletter to get an idea of what is going on. You can also see my previous post, "Sending George to Africa" for additional information and how to donate. Even if you cannot donate with time or money, prayers are always appreciated! If you would like more information, leave a comment with your email addy and I will get back to you! (All comments are moderated, so I will not post your email addy if requested). Click on any pics in my blog to make them bigger.

*My apologies to the original creators of the newsletter, I did need to change the original format slightly to make it more "blog friendly."

Wow we love you guys. We wake up talking of you and go to bed talking of you. We pray for you and wonder how you are doing. The distance complicated by the intensity of life makes it hard to keep up on a daily basis but nothing makes it hard to keep our precious friendships in our hearts. Thanks for being there!

One saw, but the pain in his heart from the gravity of the problem was so overwhelming so he removed himself from the pain. He didn't know that Jesus could move in the midst of any problem.

One saw, but believed his position superseded his duty to respond. He didn't know that Jesus is not a respector of persons.

One saw and let the pity in his heart turn to compassion and the compassion moves him beyond his position and his fear for himself or his prosperity. This one moved and helped and Jesus says this one was obeying the command of His Father. This one was not hindered in his way as the others feared - rather he was blessed as being the one who knew the heart of the Father.

Our friend Edith moves us, we are deeply moved by this girl. In the midst of her bitter pain she believes God loves her. She said, "Yes," to Jesus and prayed to commit her life into His hands. One time when we visited her we found that she spends her days caring for her younger brother. Tenderly making sure his needs are met!

By standards of the world she is "expendable." By standards of this world this is a situation that could cost us a lot of money we don't have-she is too expensive. We can't get over the fact that Jesus made each one of us worth the price of His blood.

Glean Ministries has a grand vision for Benin. You are supporting us to start churches all over the country, a school to educate hundreds of children with a Christian education, a radio station so thousands can hear the Word, a Bible school to invest in leaders for all of West Africa and various plans to reach the communities directly for Christ If in fulfilling this vision we pass by the heart of Christ, we have wasted your support, trust and faithfulness to us. No reward is waiting in heaven for completed work, only for obedient hearts. We as a family have already decided to care for Edith.

We still would like someone capable to look at her x-rays and lab results to give any advice, but we have found a surgeon here who says he can do the surgery. We are praying that it is the right decision for now. The total cost of one surgery, tests and 5 subsequent treatments of chemotherapy will be a little over $6,000. If you want to help with your expertise you can contact MaryAnn Petzold at 216 921-8005. If you can make a donation enclose a separate sheet of paper marked Edith and send it to the Glean Ministries address. Surgery $186.00

Anesthesia $84.00

Lab Analysis $60.00

Chemotherapy 5 treatments $1,446

Hospital Stay $1,561.00

Transport to and from hospital to her village for appointments, surgery, post appointments, and chemotherapy $1,200.00

Care of family while staying with her in the city (six hospital stays of one week each)$1,214.00

Pharmacy bill unknown
MRI $481.00
TOTAL NEEDED thus far $6,232

We are working out a dilemma of sorts right now as we look to get the Bible school started and the Glean offices out of our house. The amount of people in our living room each day is enormous. Sometimes we have work going on from 7 in the morning until 11 at night. We are beginning to feel as if we have no refuge. In addition, the container is arriving shortly allowing us to set up our computer, sewing, poultry labs, ESL, Bible and seminar classrooms and bringing up our need for storage again. The Bible school students are returning their applications and we have promised to start classes.

Prices have sky-rocketed as American aid has allowed the president to promise construction projects that lead everyone to believe that their land is now worth 5 times as much as it was before. We could build a temporary structure on a friend's land, rent a space or try to buy a small area of land for a temporary structure with plans of buying more land in the same area when we expand. We do not see the wisdom in pouring good money into renting, but our needs are becoming immediate. The hours spent on searching for land are uncountable. Just when you think you have found something, you pay to have the land researched and find out that it is disputed land. Or it turns out that they never paid the government the portion it requires making it much smaller than promised or four people try to sell you the same land and you wonder which one it really belongs to. Sometimes things look good but the promised deed never shows up or another sibling changes the price at the last minute or this, or that! Believe us when we say our efforts to find land that we can afford are endless. We know that God will make a way and we know that He is leading us so wait and pray with us please. Pray for wisdom in meeting our immediate need and patience for the future.

We forgot our quote the last time - sorry!
When Oise heard that all our personal belongings did not make it onto the container and the kids were very upset.
Oise said, "Don't worry guys we will just see what we get and then we will rearrange our priorities." Ebi (3) responded in tears, "I don't want priorities I just want my Barbie bicycle!"
Just so you don't worry the bicycle made the cut and is on the way, so for now she won't have to "rearrange" too much.

We want a team to come do medical missions in October or November. The last mission was very effective and we feel it is time to serve our villages in this way again. We have some commitments that we could not fulfill last time and we see how effective this type of mission is for deeply touching people's lives. Last time we hired many people to make it work, and we would love to staff the mission with volunteers supported from the States and Romania this time. We will choose an exact date very soon so if you are interested and have any preferences let us know.

You are looking at spending about

$1,800.00 air-ticket

$600.00 Room and Board (two week stay)

Then you will need to update your shots for the tropics, apply for Benin visa and provide yourself with any needed supplies for the mission.

If you feel you want to go but do not have the money let us know we will begin to pray with you.

We also need support staff very badly! For example, patients sometimes wait all day long to see the doctor. You could be doing a children's program (there are usually 100 or so children hanging around the site) or a Bible study, giving a talk on nutrition or anything in your expertise, or simply praying with individuals. We also have set up and tear down, organizational needs, or cooking. If you can come we can use you!

Did we also mention that it is A LOT of fun?!

Thanks for being interested!

Glean Ministries exists to...

...gather those untouched by the main harvest. Individuals may be unreached by God's Word because they live in hard to reach areas geographically. Perhaps the obstacles are economic, social or purely spiritual. We trust God as He overcomes the "obstacles" and draws His precious creation closer to His heart.

Glean Ministries believes...

...that our lives are not our own. It is not about our own gain but about His kingdom and His glory. The Father's heart aches for the oppressed and the lost so we make ourselves available for His work. He then frees and guides His children home.

To contribute to the work in West Africa, please send any gifts to:

Glean Ministries

3670 Winchell Road

Shaker Heights, OH

44122

Any questions?

Contact MaryAnn Petzold at glean1ro@sbcglobal.net

Busy Weekend

Well, it has been a busy week/weekend around here, and I just realized that I hadn't posted for last week. So here you go, for all of you waiting on the edge of their seats for update posts. :-P

Anyways, last week was rough. Had the return of the dreaded "Aunt Flo" and with it the expected drop in breastmilk supply. So Dr. Reider has put me on a trial run of Reglan (metoclopramide). For those of you not familiar with the drug, it is actually used to treat GI disorders, but has the side effect of creating a milk supply surplus. So in theory we should be able to keep breastfeeding longer. Right now it is just a 12 day trial run. Best case scenario it does the trick and I won't need any more medication. Worst case scenario it won't work at all (which it does seem to be working). Ok scenario it will work but I'll have to remain on it for the rest of the time we breastfeed.

Saturday night was Kim's bachelorette party. Not as fun as you might imagine with a 3 month old to drag around with you. The restaurant was too noisy and he couldn't fall asleep. Oh well. Hard to believe that it is less than two weeks until the wedding!

The next couple of weeks is going to be really busy here. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and my annual OBGYN appointment Thursday. Jasmine's birthday is on Sunday, the following Saturday is her birthday, and then we have all sorts of appointments for all the kids at the end of the month and the beginning of August. So if I'm a little late posting updates, that is why.

Anyways, I know most of y'all only stop by to see the pics, so here you go:

I love this smile on Shane:

A cute one of the girls:

Kim in her tiara:

All of us after dinner (sorry it is blurry, someone else took it):

Shane recovering the next day (isn't he getting BIG?):

Shane's 3 month appointment

Well, after all of the weight issues we had with Athena, we are doing monthly weigh ins for Shane. So yesterday was his 3 month check in - we didn't see Dr. Borus, just the nurse. His stats were:

15 lbs 9 oz
25 1/4"

I didn't get an "official" percentile since we didn't see the doctor, but plugging those numbers in online on the different charts and I get anywhere from 75th to 90th percentile. Graphed out it looks like he is sticking pretty true to his growth curve. So HOORAY and GO BOOBIES!

I'm sure it doesn't surprise you, but he is also much bigger than the girls were. Neither girl was over 25" tall until after their 4 month appointment. Jasmine didn't weigh over 15 lbs until after her 6 month appointment and Athena didn't weigh over 15 lbs until after her 9 month appointment.

So big boy all around! He's also wearing 6-9 month clothing now and size 2-3 diapers!

A picture from this morning (isn't he the handsomest little devil?):



And to get a better idea of just how big he is, here are a couple of Athena "helping" with tummy time: