Happy Halloween!

We had a couple of costume options for Callie's 1st Halloween, but since they were all so cute & it was just too hard to choose, we decided she would dress up in all 3!

Our little butterfly...

A perfect garden flower...

Our tasty "Halloweiner"...

The day to day...

With all the recent Thailand excitement around here, there hasn't been much time for blogging lately, so I thought I'd quickly add a few new photos from the last few weeks. Callie continues to bring a ridiculous amount of cuteness and fun to our day-to-day lives, and I often have to apologize to her for constantly showering her with a billion and one kisses each day. :) She'll be 4 months old at the end of this week, so after Thursday's check-up, we'll know just how much our little "chubs" weighs and all that other good stuff. So without further ado, here's a little peek into our lives as of late.

Enjoying some time in the Bumbo seat...

Callie pretty much hates tummy time, but I still try to make the effort to get her some "fun" time on her belly. She doesn't seem to mind it quite as much if we put this toy in front of her...

... but she still prefers sneaking a peek at the TV instead...

We had the opportunity to get away for an evening last week with our good friends Ginny & Steve. The Phoenix Suns had a pre-season game at GM Place in Vancouver and took on the Portland Trailblazers. Unfortunately, the Suns lost (much to Steve's delight) but we had a wonderful time watching the game and spending some time with the 'soon-to-be-newlyweds'...

Ginny & Steve

(their big day is coming up really soon... Nov.28!)

If you look closely, you'll see Steve Nash on the far right (white jersey)...

Wave for the camera Callie...

Guess the flash was a bit much... :)

Evening cuddles with Daddy...

MAJOR changes for us...

Wow. I hardly know where to begin. Life has taken a very dramatic and interesting turn in the last few days so I'll do my best to fill you in. But first, I'll give you some quick background information, just to get you up to speed, so that this all makes a little more sense. :)

Jon and I have been in deep discussion for quite some time now, regarding where we should go with our lives, and trying to get a sense of where/what God is calling us to do. Jon has personally felt a strong call to Missions for a long time, but I, on the other hand, have not. And because of this impasse, we've both been feeling quite discouraged. Its not easy when you don't have the same vision as your spouse. I will admit that I've actually been extremely 'close-minded' to missions work, and adding Callie to the mix, had made me even more stuck in my ways in relation to this topic. The thought of being away from family & friends just didn't appeal to me.

But on Tuesday morning, I got a call from a man by the name of Sam Dick @ MBMS International. I knew of him, because he had spoken at our church a few months back, but I was certain that neither Jon or I had met him personally. So obviously, this phone call came as a surprise to me. He quickly explained that he had been given our names by Ricky & Karen Sanchez (full-time missionaries, whom Jon worked with on a missions trip with Bethany College years ago). They were asking Jon and I to join a small team of people on a 'vision' trip to Thailand, along with 2-3 other couples, to see what God is doing in Thailand, and to explore their vision for the next 10 years of missions there.

Now here is the interesting part. As soon as Sam explained what the call was about, I had an instant sense that this was, #1) NOT a coincidence, and #2) something we should definitely do. The fact that his call was so 'out of the blue' and, dealt with something so dear to Jon's heart, made it clear to me that God was trying to get a message across.

After speaking with Sam, I lay down on our bed and smiled at how surprisingly willing I felt to jump at this opportunity. It surprised me, and made it obvious that God has been slowly working away at my hardened heart, maybe even without me realizing it. :)

Just as I suspected, Jon was elated about the opportunity to go to Thailand and was even moved to tears at how timely this felt. He said it was exactly what he had needed to hear right now.

So here's where the REALLY amazing part comes in, in regards to God's hand moving in this situation. On Tuesday night, we received the official invitation email from Sam, listing the goals of the trip, the financial cost of it and the deadlines for all of these things. Because the trip is scheduled for Dec. 8-19 (a mere 7 weeks away!), we had to have our decision in to him no later than Tuesday, Oct. 20 and with that, a deposit of $500 in order to secure our spot.

Secondly, and definitely the biggest 'hurdle,' was the financial side to this trip. All our funds would need to be in by Nov 1 in order for them to secure plane tickets, etc., which meant we only had 2.5 weeks to come up with the money. Not a lot of time, even if we DID have the money, but because we DON'T, it felt far more daunting! So... 2.5 weeks to come up with just shy of $5,000. Yikes.

As soon as I told Jon what the trip was going to cost, he instantly looked defeated. But something inside of me felt fully confident that if this was indeed meant to be (which it felt like it was), then God would supply the funds. I pointed out to Jon that, yes... $5,000 was absolutely impossible for us, but to God... that was no big deal.

So we immediately started praying and decided that the funds would be our "fleece." If God wanted us to go on this trip, then we would need him to work a miracle for us, and come up with the money in time. Both Jon and I sent out an email to our closest friends, explaining the situation, and asking them to pray for us.

Well, within 1 hour of sending out the email, some of our closest friends sent an email back, saying that they wanted to bless us & provide the full deposit we needed! Both Jon and I started to cry. Wow! God was already at work.

So now we had a big decision to make. Should we wait until the rest of the funds came in and then commit to the trip? Or should we take a huge leap of faith (only having the deposit side of the funds) and say yes to the trip, trusting that somehow, God would take care of the rest? After a quick discussion, we agreed that God was calling us out of our comfort zone and wanting us to just FULLY trust him.

Wednesday morning came, and I quickly emailed Sam to let him know that we would commit to the trip. And as scary as it was to take this leap of faith, both Jon and I felt truly honoured to get to be a part of this kind of faith-stretching experience, even if nothing ever came of it.

To make a long story short... God provided the rest of the money by the end of Wednesday night! No joke. Just like that... God worked a miracle and blessed us by the generosity of some incredible people. Proving, as he always does, that when He wants something to happen, NOTHING can stand in His way!

So, with that being said, we feel extremely excited at this opportunity, as well as completely terrified. :) Its definitely scary to think of taking a 5 month old on the 2nd longest plane ride in the world, and trying to be involved over there with a little one in tow. But we're excited at the thought & feeling of being right in the pocket of God's will.

We would greatly appreciate your prayers for us as we step out on this adventure! If you'd like to know more about our trip, or hear of specific things we could use prayer for, please feel free to email us or send us a message on Facebook! We truly do covet your prayers and know that none of this can be done without God's guidance & leading. Thank-you for your support! We'll do our best to keep you updated. :)

Happy Thanksgiving...

... from our 4 favorite little turkeys!

Lots to do...

It was a busy weekend here at the Esau household...

Friday marked my Dad's 59th birthday (sorry Dad... secret's out!) and I volunteered to make the cake for his party. For those of you who know my Dad, he lives & breathes the game of golf. :) So to celebrate, I made a 'golf ball on a tee' for his birthday dessert. My sister Viv and her hubby Rich, hosted the evening, and between Viv and my Mom, we had a lovely meal together. The evening was spent watching football, looking through Viv & Rich's many photos (they just got back from a 2 week vacation in California), and just enjoying each other's company. We sure missed you Craig & Jen! Here are a few pictures from the evening...

Callie fell asleep in the car on the way over to V & R's. Her hat had fallen over her eyes, so this is what we found when we went to take her out of the car :)

Very contentedly watching football with Daddy...

(... she may only be 3 months old but she already loves TV... uh oh... ;))

Dad's cake...

All tuckered out from the partying...

Helping Grampa blow out the candles...

And for those of you who haven't heard, Viv & Rich are expecting their first child! They're due at the end of February and we're very excited about Callie having a cousin so close in age. They'll only be 8 months apart!

Here's a picture of Viv at 19 weeks...

Saturday was spent at home, getting things done around the house. Jon made a lot of progress on the basement and is well on his way to the painting stage (in fact, he's already got the priming done). Then its just flooring, baseboards, light fixture & hanging the closet door. I can't wait to have it finished so we can start organizing the office!

Then came Sunday. It was a pretty special day for us because we had Callie dedicated at church. She's been playing shy with almost everyone these days (other than Jon & I) so we thought for sure she would scream when Pastor Ron tried to hold her. But thankfully, she didn't make a peep and stared out at the congregation with total curiosity.

Jon and I chose Ephesians 3:16-19 as our prayer for Callie's life. Jon read it from the New Living translation and we cling to Paul's words for our little girl.

"I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God."

Pastor Ron had both our sets of parents join us on stage for the dedication. Jon's parents are on the far left, and my parents are next to Jon. It was a pretty special morning. We felt so loved and supported by our families and friends. Jon's grandparents were also there, as well as Susanne & Juergen, Naomi & the kids (Erich was away because of work), and Viv & Rich. I want to say an extra special thank-you to Rich for coming, as he had only got home from work at 6:00am that morning! And he still showed up. THANK-YOU Rich... now that's dedication :)


Jon's sister Susanne planned a nice family lunch for all of us after the service. Naomi hosted it and everyone brought a little something for the meal. It was nice to sit around and chat and celebrate Callie's dedication like that. Thanks again girls! It meant a lot to us.

The many faces of Callie...

3 months old and getting more & more fun each day!

... Not so sure...

... Happy...

... Surprised...

... Giddy...

... Shocked...

... Pouty...

... Contemplative...

Baby showers & bargains...

My dear friend Ginny threw a shower for Callie last Sunday and to say that she got spoiled is an understatement. :) So many of my wonderful friends came out to celebrate and brought Callie the most delightful gifts. I've been to so many showers where the person gets a million pink onesies, (which is great too) but not this time. We got such a neat variety of sweet, girly things and I can't wait for Callie to wear them. Everything from hats, to furry boots; vests, hoodies, sleepers, a beautiful picture frame, and so much more. Thank-you again for your generosity everyone! It was fabulous spending the afternoon with you all... Callie & I were so blessed by you!

Digging in to the tasty treats

My friend Lauren makes the most incredible cakes and made a beautiful one for the shower. She's started a little business now so if you're needing a cake for a special occasion, and you want it to taste delicious AND look amazing, let me know and I'll give you her number.

The bottom layer was a chocolate cake w/ peanut butter filling and the top layer was a white cake w/ mocha filling. SOOOO scrumptious!

Jamie & Callie

Opening all the wonderful presents

I was worried that Callie would be a grump the whole time because it was during her nap time. But she did very well and even fell asleep for a while in Lauren's arms. When she was awake, she was actually a pretty happy camper, bar a few small 'melt-downs.' :)

Hailey came all the way from Vancouver for the shower. I hadn't seen her in ages so it was a sweet little reunion and first introduction to Callie.

Me & the beautiful hostess, Ginny

As for another story of being "spoiled," our neighbours stopped by the other day with a card for us and inside was a $50 gift card for Please Mum! We don't actually know our neighbours that well so we were not only touched by the fact that they had got us a card, but $50... that's unbelievably generous!! We had also received another Please Mum card from one of Jon's Great Aunts a while ago, so today, Callie and I went on a little shopping spree. Much to my delight, they were having a big sale and I came away with a ton of cute stuff...
And... after perusing Craig's List today, I stumbled across an ad for a jogging stroller. I've joined the walking/running class at our church's "Women's Break" on Tuesday mornings so I've been on the hunt for a running stroller seeing as our stroller is just a regular day-to-day one. The ad said that one minor clip on it was broken and that one of the tires has a really slow leak in it, (only about $10 to fix) but they only wanted $40 for it! So I went to check it out and was thrilled when I saw it. Its not in "mint" condition but considering its a couple years old, its definitely in really good condition. And heck... for $40, I figured I can't go wrong. So today was definitely the day of bargains! I love days like today. :)

No thank-you, Mommy...

This makes me laugh every time. Enjoy :)

Prayer...

I've been sitting here tonight, with a very heavy heart for our friends Steph & Clay. I'd like to request prayer for them and their baby girl, Dallyce. She was born this March and they've had an extremely difficult road to walk. Dallyce has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (Type 1) and will likely never live the life that I'm sure they had imagined for her. I cannot even begin to imagine the pain and grief they are going through, and so I ask that you lift them in prayer. I believe that God still works miracles and that is my prayer for them-- that He would heal Dallyce and give her a long & full life. Click here to read their story.

This and that...

I took Callie for her 2 month check-up yesterday, even though she's already 2.5 months old. Turns out that her weight measurement from the health unit last week wasn't very accurate because they weighed her with her clothes on. So they stripped her down for a 'true' weighing yesterday. She now weighs 12 lbs. 3 oz. (75th percentile for weight) and is 24 inches long (97th percentile for height). She's "long & lean" as the nurse put it :) And everything else is looking good. She's a happy & healthy girl.
Thanks to everyone who commented in regards to my breastfeeding struggles. I appreciate your concern, as well as your encouragement. I'm happy to say that things are going quite well now, even though it scares me to say that. :) I've had about a week & a half of "pain-free" nursing and am really hoping we've finally turned that corner. All I know is that I'm definitely bound & determined about this issue. I haven't come this far, just to give up now. So regardless, I have made up my mind to push through and nurse Callie no matter what. Hopefully, that decision will be an easy one to stick to.
Callie has a new "little" friend, Joshua, so we went for a play date with him and his big sister, Natalie, yesterday morning (though I use the word "little" loosely). Our friend's Nate & Melissa had a baby boy 5 weeks after Callie was born. The reason I say Joshua isn't exactly a "little" friend, is that even though he's over a month younger than Callie, he is about the same size as her :) Melissa and I put them side by side to compare, and we think that Josh might even be slightly bigger than Callie. I thought Callie was big for her age, but Josh puts her to shame. :)

As you can see from the pictures above, we've quickly entered the stage of drool with Callie. She is a slobber monster already and I fear that she is going to be one of those kids that teethes far sooner than she should. I've had to start putting a bib on her when she's awake in an attempt to keep her shirts somewhat dry. She's figured out how to pull her clothes up to her mouth to suck on them, so the bib is becoming a bit of a necessity these days. She also loves to suck on her fists now so that only adds to the drooly mess.

In other news, Jon has resumed work in our basement again. Now that life has slowed down a bit, he's been able to continue on our last few reno projects. We're hoping to list our place in the next little while so we need to finish up the loose ends around here. His Dad came over tonight and they got the lino laid for the washer/dryer section of the basement. Jon also got the door hung and now its just a matter of finishing the mudding, sanding, painting, re-laying the laminate & adding the trim and a bi-fold door. We're also going to re-carpet the stairs to the basement but that will be the very last thing we do. I'll be sure to post pictures of the finished product when everything else is complete.

Have a great weekend everyone! Looks like we're heading into another 'heat-wave' here in the Lower Mainland so I'll be taking advantage of the warmer weather while I can. Fall is just around the corner.

Callie Lauryn...

We had our friend Roxanna take some pictures of Callie when she was just 3 weeks old. I've posted them on Facebook but seeing as not all of you are on Facebook, I thought I'd put some of the photos on here as well. I have way too many favorites, so although I didn't post all of the pictures, I did add quite a few. Hope you enjoy her newborn cuteness. Its crazy how much she's grown since then but I love looking back at how teeny tiny she was...

Growing up...

Callie is now 2 months old (9 weeks to be precise) and with that comes the dreaded 2 month immunizations. Worst experience ever.

I took her to the health unit this morning and as she smiled and cooed at me while I had her registered & weighed, I felt like such an awful parent. I'm sure all of you mom's out there know exactly what I'm talking about. These poor, innocent little munchkins have no idea that they are about to be pricked & poked within an inch of their lives. And all the while, we, their parents, have to hold them pinned in our laps as they scream bloody murder. I had an exceptionally hard time not crying even harder than Callie. She was a real trooper though. The tears flowed and her screams were definitely heard, but it didn't take long to settle her down and before I knew it, she was smiling and talking to me again, almost as if nothing had ever happened. Phhhew... glad that's over. At least for another 2 months.

They didn't measure her length today but she weighed in at 12 lbs. 2 oz. which puts her in the 80th percentile for her age group. Yes, she is indeed "filling out" to say the least :) We see our doctor next week for the full 2 month check-up so I'll fill you in on all of her stats after that.

As for me, things are improving in some areas, and regressing in others. My tear has finally healed up so that is a HUGE relief. But as for breastfeeding, it continues to be an ongoing battle. I'm so frustrated with it because one week, things will be going great and I think we've finally turned a corner. And then the next week, something else goes wrong. I've had a number of nurses & lactation specialists tell me that Callie is latching well and I'm doing everything correctly, but the fact that I am as damaged as I am, tells me she's not. I'm dealing with really deep cracks & blisters right now and wonder if breastfeeding will ever not hurt. Plus, I have developed an extremely large blocked duct on one side, that isn't going away (and trust me, I've tried everything to get rid of it. Hot compress, cold compress, hot showers, massage, cabbage leaves, pumping, nursing on that side, and even a vitamin supplement called Lecithin. But to no avail), so they're sending me for an ultrasound later this week to ensure nothing else is wrong. And its hard because I feel like I'm all alone in this. Is it just me, or does no one else struggle like this with breastfeeding? Maybe its just that people don't like to share their nursing troubles, and that is fine, but my goodness is this proverbial tunnel feeling LONG, and the light seems awfully dim... if not, non-existent.

Anyway... I don't want to rant too much because on a positive note, Callie is officially sleeping through the night and has been for the last week and a half already. I never thought I'd be one to be blessed with a sleeping baby, but thank the Lord, I have. She seems to love the fact that we've got her into a solid routine. Every evening, we bath her at around 8:45pm, then I feed her at 9:00 and she's usually asleep by 9:30. Then she wakes at around 6:30am (today it was 7:30!!), happy as can be. I don't wake to her crying anymore, but rather, her kicking and talking in her crib. Its absolutely delightful! As soon as I lean over her crib, its all smiles. And every morning, I feel deeply blessed to be her Mommy.