WGM, Remodeling. & Father's Day

We had a missionary couple who I have known for several years stay with us on Thursday night. They work with World Gospel Mission (WGM) and have been on deputation (homeland ministry assignment) or "rest & support raising" over the last year or so. They are planning on returning back to Mexico in about 2 months. I originally met them when I took a semester off at the end of my sophomore year at Asbury to work with WGM for 6 1/2 months. They were very influential in my life at a crucial point and I have been very grateful for their support and influence during that time. This has been the first time since 1999 that I have seen them and it was great to hear more about their ministry, family, and catch up on people we had both worked with. We had a great time hosting them and also had a few of our friends in the Berea area over to have coffee & dessert to have an informal time to get to know about the work they are involved in, about some of the experiences they have had with their family, and to simply get to know them on a personal level.

On a much different note I finally finished up priming the downstairs bathroom ... still waiting for Sarah to decide on the color but at least it looks nice. I also started really working on finishing pulling the wallpaper & old paint off the walls of the upstairs bathroom. It'll be awhile before it's done but I'm enjoying the work.

Sarah allowed me and Benjamin to go to Lowes last night to pick out my Father's day gift. Good thing she wasn't with us... I think she would have been bored after 30 minutes... Benjamin did great because we talked about hammers and I let him carry a little one around while I finished up my shopping. She worked hard helping me wrap up some loose ends around the house today and I really appreciate all that she had done.

Happy Father's Day pop. Look forward to celebrating a more in years to come. Thanks for all of your help and encouragement over the years. Glad to see you enjoying your grandchildren.

A Whirlwind of a week or so

Thank you for being patient while life resumed to a semi-normal status. The last week and a half have been a whirlwind. You might think that most of this is due to the arrival of Jonathan but that is really just a portion of it. Seems like the ole stomach virus setup residence in our house a few days before Jonathan decided to show up. First is was Benjamin. Then a day or so later was Sarah. Then Sarah finally figured realized that she was having full blown contractions instead of just a rumbling GI issue. Then in a flash (almost literally) little Jonathan was here. We checked into the hospital on Wednesday at 8 cm at 10:30 and Jonathan was in Sarah's arms before 12:30. Then Wednesday evening I came down with the GI bug and didn't really get over it until after lunch on Sunday. We were back at home from the hospital with Sarah and Jonthan by 3 pm on Thursday. We had various family members at our house from Wednesday night through this afternoon. We also friends stop by for short visits and to give us food :-) Then we've been to the Drs office for Jonathan 4 times to check his weight. Seemed it dropped down and so we had to make an adjustment to his eating to help him out a little. Sarah is really working hard to not bottle feed this round. It's been challenging but I've very proud of her effort. It's great to see her bond with Jonathan and trying to figure out just what his little needs are. Benjamin is adjusting to being a little brother. In the next week or so we'll resume working on potty training.

If you'd like to see more photos check out the link to "Skip's Photos" on the right. It's a flickr sight. Hope you enjoy ... more to come.

Jonathan Haddock Little

Born: Wednesday May 2 at 12:24 PM

Lenght: 20 1/2 inches

Weight: 7 lbs. 15 oz

Mom and baby are doing great.

More to come later.

Highlights

We've been working on "final" preparations for the new little one. It could be any day but despite all the planning and preperation I'm sure there will be something that we forget and then remember in retrospect. Regardless ... the delivery, the excitement of caring for a new baby and sharing the new moments with our friends and family should help ease any major worries we have.

We spent last weekend visiting the area where Sarah went to High School. It was my second trip to the area in 7 years. We have a couple who we went to college with who now work at that school... so I had a great time catching up with them and getting to know their kids. We also had a chance to meet other staff and it seems they have a really wonderful community to work at and to raise their children.

I'm now working on potty training Benjamin. It's great to watch him when everything goes well and a bit challenging for me when it doesn't. He's also enjoyed playing in the little plastic outdoor pool the last day or two. We let him play for about a week with no water so he really thinks the water is pretty fun. His vocabulary is really picking up. His newest phrases or words are "I'm sorry" "Giraffe" and "Jellyfish". He is really interested in one Spanish-English bilingual DVD we checked out from the library here. The title is Professor Parrot ... and I guess we'll have to buy it soon so other people at the library will have a chance to watch it.

Last week we had a family from church over for dinner. It was great to see Benjamin interact with their children - one who is older by a couple of years and one who is younger. Sarah and I enjoyed visiting and sharing with another couple who are close to us in age and in life.

preparation

Sarah and I spent most of today working on the "nursery". I say it like that only because our intention is to actually use the room as a guest bedroom in a year or so. In the mean time Sarah has done a really nice job decorating. I'll post a before (ie. pink) and after (ie. cafe mocha) picture in the next couple of days. (I've also posted a few pictures of our family under "Skip's Photos".

Sarah is feeling the aches of the last month of pregnancy. She is holding up well and has actually progressed more than she did with Benjamin in the same period of time.

Benjamin has slept on his toddler bed several times over the last few days. He's done well at nap time in early afternoon but has struggled a bit during bedtime. He really likes his new bed and has enjoyed showing it off to a few of our friends who have stopped by. We still have the crib up in his room as a backup ... but hopefully by the time the new baby arrives we can totally switch him over.

Our friends Camille & Roger who have worked with unreached in China are now back in the US preparing for their new arrival. Their due date is about 2 weeks ahead of ours.

Related but not along the same lines... I was in church this morning and began to think about how interesting the relationship between Jesus as a child and his parent's must have been. (Max Lucado wrote a piece similiar in one of his books several years ago) Below are some thoughts I had:

• When Joseph and Jesus (as a child) talked about the Old Testament scriptures... did Jesus have to teach his Dad... did he talked about it like he had experienced it first-hand?
• When they played games together did Jesus have a twinkle in his eyes when he let his parent's win?
• Was Mary the envy of the other Hebrew mothers because she had the "perfect" child?
• Did Jesus always do what Mary and Joseph asked?
• When Jesus worked with Joseph as a Carpenter was his craftsmanship better than Joseph's?
• Did raising Jesus make it more challenging to raise is siblings?
• What was his sense of humor like as a child?
• Did Joseph and Jesus ever go fishing together?
• What was it like for Jesus to pray?
• Did Jesus ever talk about what he wanted to be when he "grew up"?

What Every Father Needs to Know

"So let me say this as clearly as I can: You, Dad, are the most powerful man in the world...at least in their (your child's) world. Your children are looking to you to answer the deepest question of their lives. How you handle their hearts will shape them for the rest of their lives. Never forget that no one is as powerful as you are in the lives of your sons and daughters."

from: You Have What It Takes by John Eldredge

In the Shadow

The weather here has been absolutely wonderful the last 3 days. Benjamin and I have spent several hours outside each day. He's old enough now that he doesn't eat everything and he gets around pretty well so I've been catching up on some much belated raking. He loves to wonder around the yard looking at this, picking up that, etc... He loves to go on walks down the hill by our house and lately he's been a bit fascinated with shadows. He likes to point down at my shadow and say "dadda" and the point at his and say "benjamin or baby". For fun I stepped behind him and then my shadow covered up his. Nice concept to think about in my walk with God.

Benjamin also went through a very clinggy faze about a week ago. Most of that has settled down but occassionaly when he's tired or sick he really starts up again. It's been a little challenging for Sarah because it could be percieved that he's not interested in her but that's not really the case. It's nice to be needed and to know that he Loves me but for a while it was really wearing me out. With the warmer weather he really wants to explore his little world. Most of the time he wants his Daddy to share in all of his excitement. Another interesting concept to think about in how much of the time I allow God to share in my life.

Visit, Snow, Cold, Squirrels ...

We had a great time visiting extended family and catching up friends a couple of weekends ago while we were in Hendersonville, NC & Anderson, SC. It would have been nice to spend more time with everyone but we tried to have quality time with just about everyone for the short while we were there. We had the pleasure of driving through semi-blizzard conditions on the way back - nothing like swirling snow blowing at a high rate in all directions as you slowly drive through the gap between NC & TN. To make it even more exciting the temperature with wind-chill was around 7 degrees most of our trip back. Our little 5 hour trip was stretched into 7 but we made it back home safely and recoverd on our sleep deprivation after a couple of days.

I think that maybe this cold weather has decided to attach itself to us for a while. I'm not really a winter person. I'll gladly take warm or hot over cold, frigid, snowy, icy days. The last week or so it's snowed off and on and then the temperature has dropped down to close to ZERO with the wind chill. I think we have about another week or so and then the tide will begin to turn again. Hopefully for good.

I had a really good day of working on larger projects around the house. I added lots of insulation in the attic before the worst of the cold weather came through. I also prepped the soon to be nursery for painting. My goal is to get the priming portion knocked out by the end of this weekend. I also finished moving things around in the garage so Sarah can park her car inside during this lovely weather.

Benjamin has been helping me shoo off squirrels that are making a habit of eating our bird food. If he sees a squirrel he'll point at it and say something that sounds like "Get back squirrel." Its really hilarious. He's very serious about this task. Sometimes he even bangs on the window to really get their attention.

More later...

The Country Mouse & The City Mouse

Benjamin has a First Little Golden Book titled "The Country Mouse & The City Mouse." For some reason he has adopted this as his book to be read multiple times each day for the last couple of weeks. While the book is interesting I struggle at times with how to read it to him and still find news ways to present it each time. When we first began to read it all we did was discuss the pictures. Then we would read portions of the actual story and talk about the main characters. Lately I've been reading the full story and discussing all the small details in the pictures. He still seems to find it enjoyable but after about the 10th time in a 15 minute setting I began to wain a little. Some parts I speed up through one time and then drag out the next time. I've watched Benjamin seem to be learning something new each time. Sometimes I switch the names of the characters to people he actually knows who have similiar personalities to the main characters. This afternoon I came to an interesting - most likely obvious - realization. The way that Benjamin gains new insights to the stories we read over and over and over . is similiar to the way that the Lord reveals the meaning of scripture in my Life. I can't imagine the Patience He has and the ways He must smile when I gain new insight in something that has been in front of me the whole time.

Random Reflections

Sarah's staring to hmm... NEST... a little. She was really into baking over Thansgiving and then made a choclate bunt cake with choclate icing... she's pretty talented. She also talking about sewing and sewing machines and mini-vans .... whoa now. No mini-vans for a while and I'm not sure where this sewing stuff came from. I'm finding it quite funny.

Benjamin must be fighting a cold or going through yet another growth spurt. Normally he takes one to two naps a day for a total of 2 1/2 hours of naps. Today he's slept for 4 hours and it wasn't because he wore himself out the day before. Maybe he's experiencing CHRISTMAS TREE anxiety... you know when you see something really shiny and sparkelly and you reach up to touch it and someone bellows no... then after the go to the other room you reach up to touch it and the little good angle on the left side says no ... but the little red one says go ahead and take it off the tree - so he sits there and shakes his head and says no... no... but keeps reaching... until someone says "just look... no touching..." He just sits on the window sile and stares at the lights and ornaments....

Clemson/KY bowl games... looks like it'll be a sellout. UK sold 20,000 tickets in no time and Clemson is reporting it will most likely sell-out. Maybe the SEC folks can teach the ACC team a little something...

My Son

Several events over the last week or so have really challenged me about what my hopes and dreams are for my son primarly but also my personal life, my marriage, and our family. I've sat around most of today thinking about what type of Man I hope that Benjamin will grow into one day. Then as I think on that I do a little self-reflection about what type of Man (including Husband, Father, Son, Brother, Uncle, etc...) I am currently and what type of Man I think I should be. If I have certain ideal goals for the types of traits that I would like to see my son have as he matures ... yet I am not currently modeling those attitudes, behaviors, beliefs... that what will be the fruit of my hopes? Then at the same time I wonder if I do model these attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs and work toward developing them in my son... how will I feel if at some point in the future chooses to behave or act in a way that is quite the opposite of my hopes? Will I feel like I have done a poor job during raising him? Will I feel like I have failed him as a Father? Will I feel like there was something I should have done differently at some point? Will I merely say that he as an individual has the ability to make his own choices at some point and I may not agree with his decision(s) but choose to Love him? Will I withdraw from him at the point where he needs my Love the most? Will differences of opinion cause a rift or a chasm to develop in how we communicate or relate with each other?

Firsts

1. Benjamin’s first haircut was on Friday. His curls are gone and I couldn’t get Sarah to agree to a rat-tail or a mullet. He looks pretty sharp.
2. My parent’s first trip to Berea. Great time – they brought up a piano and another mattress set so we actually have a true bed for company. We had a great time with them and Benjamin really enjoyed hanging out with his grandparents.
3. Our first trip to Henderson Settlement. This is an outreach that the church I grew up at in Mississippi helps support. It was a good experience and you can check out the website at www.hendersonsettlement.org
4. Our first hiking trip since we’ve been in Kentucky. We didn’t hike all that far but really got a chance to check out all the fall colors. The colors are at their peak for the next week or two. We hiked at Pine Mountain State Park down "Chained Rock" trial. Benjamin did great during our road trip and hike.
5. A mostly retired couple from Anderson, SC came up and visited us on Monday. They stayed the night on Sunday and then spent most of Monday sight-seeing and shopping. It was great to visit with them.
   
   You can check out a few pictures by clicking on the links to the right.

Out Near Big Hill

Thursday evening we had dinner with the Escobar family. They live near the Big Hill community. No this isn’t exactly a name of a street – more the name of a place. The Big Hill food mart is on the corner and the BIG HILL is just down the road. That’s my kind of directions – go towards BIG HILL and turn this way or that. That’s much easier than looking for road signs or highways numbers. They are one of the first younger families we have interacted with and gotten to know a little better since we’ve been in Berea. We’ve really enjoyed the time we have spent with them and have already shared many laughs. Their young girls have already wanted to adopt little Benjamin. Both Jennifer and Alfredo are very talented artist – I added a link to their websites so you can check them out when you have time.

Sarah, Benjamin and I also spent Friday night in Hazard, KY. Benjamin really enjoyed spending time with his cousins Katie and Crystal. Benjamin had the best spot as he rode on my back in the shoulder backpack as we ran around and played soccer and frisbee. I’m glad to see that he already has an interest in Soccer and the outdoors. The park near their house is really interesting and I hope to take a few pictures the next time we are there.

I think Benjamin is in a little shock. We've had our first fairly cold weather (ie. around freezing) - and he's having to wear socks and shoes a little more often. He was so used to the warmer weather but he'll do just fine. He really enjoys wearing his little hat and blue-jean jacket that a friend gave us. I'll have to see if I can get a picture of him with them on.

Benjamin

Benjamin is starting to look more and more like a little boy. Sometimes he really cracks me up. After his bath today I put on his cover-alls. He hadn't worn them in several weeks. He was really confused about what he was supposed to do with his hands. Instead of putting them in his pockets - he kept putting them inside his cover-alls between them and his shirt. He seemed really puzzled by this. Maybe he was wanting to play with his shirt and couldn't figure out how to get to it...

Mega-Blocks - I pulled out his bag of Mega Blocks. He was so super excited that he practically jumped off of the rocking chair he was sitting on. He couldn't wait to play with them. He would pull one or two out of the bag at a time and give them to me to build something. About the time that our building project was a reasonable size ... he stopped pulling out new blocks ... and turned his attention to destroying our project. If he couldn't get them to pull apart ... he would pick up the big stack of blocks and toss them to the ground (looked like a wrestling move) ... if he still couldn't get them loose he would bite them .... I guess to get a better grip. Finally if they were really stuck ... he would hold them out and say "Gunh.." - which is his universal word for needing help or not understanding.

Socks - we've been working with Benjamin to be comfortable wearing socks ... but he really hasn't taken to them. So the other day I put the socks on one of his stuffed animals. He thought that was so funny. We'll today we were playing and he found one of the socks and asked me to put it on the animal... then he asked me to put it on his foot ... which he then pulled right off and asked me to do it all over again. So at some point I put one of his socks on his hand - he thought that was funny - so he asked me to put the other one on the other hand ... so he ran around his room claping his socked-hands together like they were boxing gloves.

One of his favorite things to do now is to explore outside. He'll go around and pick up sticks, rocks, leaves ... he'll point out bugs ... and try to play with spider-webs. He's already brought home a collection of acorns and fall leaves for his mom...

Highpoints

• Weekend before last we (Sarah, Benjamin, & I) drove up to Indianapolis, IN to stay with our friend Anna and her husband. Then on Saturday we all carpooled to Dayton, OH to a surprise birthday party for Caren, Sarah's old roommate from college. It was good to see everyone - and now that we are closer we hope to do it a little more often.
• Benjamin started going to Day-care one day a week. He also came down with horrible allergies/cold around the first day. He's doing much better now but had raccoon eyes for several days and a low grade fever. We're happy with daycare - and Benjamin seems to be adjusting well. He hadn't been around any other kids close to his age in almost 3 months - and it gives me a chance to meet others in Berea - and to develop my business some.
• I spent all day in Madisonville, KY catching up with several friends and meeting a couple of potential clients. It was a very long day but great to talk with everyone.
• It rained and rained and rained here for a couple of days straight. All the radio stations were starting to make jokes about building Arks. It actually caused significant flooding in the Lexington area.
• We are still looking for a church. We re-visited a church we had attended in early August. We've been to several in the local area now .... hopefully we'll settle on one soon.
• We're still working on selling our house in SC. We had a open house this past Sunday that seemed to be well attended. ... so maybe we'll have an offer soon.
• Grill - we finally are using a little charcoal grill. It's been nice and I've had a chance to use the Weber Grill Cookbook someone gave me.
• Benjamin's latest word is "Pumk'n or Pum Pum" - he loves the little pumpkin we picked up for him the other day and calls the little decorative squash his "pum pums"

Labor Day Weekend

Benjamin and I spent almost a week in Mississippi around Labor Day weekend. It was one of the longest visits that we have had with my family and friends in several years. We really enjoyed ourselves. I went Dove Hunting on Saturday and Trot-Line fishing several times while home. On Saturday most of my extended family came down to the Farm where we go hunting for a big family lunch. We also celebrated my 30th and my brothers 25th birthdays. I had a great time taking pictures. My little 11 year old cousin Blayne shot his first bird on Saturday morning – ie. also bird hunted with his first shotgun – he went trot-line fishing for the first time – and he cleaned his first catfish. Benjamin had a great time with his Grandma & Grandpa Little, Uncle Cr, Cousin Blayne, and all the others on my mom’s side of the family. I also had dinner with a couple of friends from highschool that I hadn’t seen in more than 5 years. Although our time was short it was great to visit with them and hopefully we’ll get more time during the week of Christmas. The last night we were in town my brother cooked some great BBQ chicken.

Some of my favorite times were: watching Benjamin dance with Grandpa & Grandma Little, watching Uncle CR and Benjamin play together, going hunting with Cousin Blayne, seeing all the family together at the farm on Saturday, having a big fish fry on Labor Day, catching up with friends

You can also read more by clicking on the link for Sandy the under People in the column to the right.

Top 10 Things I learned from my recent trip to MS

1. If you load 20 gauge shells in a 12 gauge gun you better hope that all that happens is that your gun doesn't fire
2. Fishing with dead previously frozen minnows is not as efficient as live ones
3. You have a better chance of catching a variety of things by alternating bait on trot-line hooks
4. When totaling your catch from fishing - do you count snakes and gars?
5. Big fish are more fun to catch and clean than smaller ones
6. Fishing Worms will begin to dry-out if left in the inside a car all day
7. Both Old and Young tire easily after to going to bed late and getting up early several days in a row
8. Some people really can sleep anywhere
9. It's always nice to have a couple of paddles handy just in case the boat decides to "run out of gas"
10. You know the color of you neck - when your whole family sits around having a good time while cleaning a Budweiserer cooler full of fish

Check out the latest pictures under the link Skip's Photos at the right and http://www.flickr.com/photos/hrlittlephotos

First

On Sunday we visited a church here and met a young lady just out of college who was getting ready to go to Russia to spend a year there with Campus Crusade for Christ. We wanted to hear more about what she would be doing, what brought her to that decision, and how she was doing on support. So we invited her over for coffee and dessert last night. We sat around the table on our back porch for about 2 hours talking with her and sharing about some of our experiences. We are very excited for her. She leaves next week and really only has a small amount of support left to raise. I would ask that you keep Laura and her team of 4 others in your prayers as she completes her fund-raising and prepares to go to Russia. She has been on a 6 week trip before but this will be her first year long trip.

Benjamin has had a several first the last couple of days. The two I think I am most proud of are that he caught his first bug (a small moth) - I let him play with it for a while then we turned it loose (before he ate it) ... and that he ate and enjoyed his first Grits this morning. He's really coming along well :-) We are also working with him on learning a little sign language. He had "More" down for a while - and now he has picked up "Thank You" and "Please". I checked out a book for the library to give us a few more ideas on words he could learn. He also is really into things with wheels - not just touching and spinning the wheels but actually pusing the car or tractor down the hall or across the floor. Finally he's rode his first Trike - or tricycle - stationary for now but he likes it. It was one of his birthday presents that we finally finished putting together.

Saturday

Sarah and little Benjamin went to visit with her parents for the day. That left me with all kinds of time on my hands today. Everyone I talked with on the phone said I could relax and enjoy my day. I did enjoy my day - although until now there was not much relaxing. I worked steady all day - about half outside and the other half inside. I managed to use our little Accord to help pull a huge 16-20 long - 8-10 in diameter limb that fell - from the middle of our yard to the road. I did it early in the morning so none of our neighbors would think too bad of me. A couple of yellow tie straps and a little pressure on the gas pedal and you would have thought I had a 4 wheel drive truck instead of an Accord. I caught up on mowing and spent a little while working on two electric weed-eaters that the previous owners left. I managed to get both of them working but neither is really adequate for the yard we have. I'd really like to purchase one - something pretty durable and something that should hold up - but haven't decided yet. One of our neighbors insisted that I use his riding-lawn mower for the large flat section of our yard. I realized that it has been at least 6 years if not more since. It really made for quick work but I reverted back to the push-mower for the more detailed work. The other larger project I tackled was installing a baby gate at the top of the stairs. Benjamin finally figured out how to push our "temporary"boxes out of the way when he wanted to go by. This new gate is attached to the wall and should do fine until he jumps up & down on it a few times.

A while back we recieved some really neat cards from designed by Susan Loy at Literary Calligraphy. She and her husband now have blogs and a link to their website. You can click
here to read more.

A couple of notes on little Benjamin. Lately he has discovered magnets. He'll take one off of the refridgerator and then try to put it on a cabniet door, then he'll discover it sticks to the oven and later his one of his toy buckets (that's the good story) - the other item we're struggling with some right now is that just about every time he gets into the car for more than about 10 minutes he starts to have a little melt-down. He likes to be so active that I think he feels a little restrained. Changing toys and changning music and talking to him really doesn't seem to help. I'm really hoping this is a stage that he will soon pass through - could make for some very long road trips.

Family, China, & Friends

Today was Sarah’s first day at her new job. It was nice to have her come home relatively relaxed – at least compared to the last several months. I was starting to work on cooking dinner and she said “I’ll help” – and then she proceeded to cook up a really great taco meal: ground beef, black beans, sautéed mushrooms & onions, diced fresh tomatoes, grated cheese – throw in a little lettuce and a batch of soft-corn tortillas and it was a good meal. Afterwards we turned on the stereo – watch our son play all over the living and dining room – and then we finished off with a little ice-cream and chocolate syrup. At one point little Benjamin was lying on a pillow on the middle of the floor, polishing off the rest of his milk out of his bigger sippy cup, staring at the ceiling, wearing his little John Deer (24m) t-shirt, and listening to John Mellencamp. It was a priceless picture. It was an unusually calm, non-stressful evening – great time with the family.

On Sunday night we drove over to Louisville, KY to here our friends Roger & Camille share one last time before they headed back to China. They have been there about 5 years and have been back in the states about 6 months. They have had some really amazing experiences and it has been an absolute blessing to be able to participate with them in their ministry. The “sending off” service was absolutely amazing. I know the experience was very meaningful to both me and Sarah.

We also met another friend from college at the church service. Both of us drove about 2 hours – and basically met in the middle. Our friend Anna and her husband joined us at the church service and then we went out to eat at Bucca-di-beppos in Louisville. Other than their wedding the last time we saw Anna was at that same restaurant when Sarah graduated from med school 3 years ago. It was great to catch up with them and we look forward to seeing them a little more often.

If you get a chance you may want to click here to catch up on what is going on with little Issac Clardy. He is really struggling right now.