Amy's blah, blah, blogging

(Me with my Iranian friends at camp, Zhara and Abbas)

Remember a couple of months ago when I railed on about my sadness about not getting to go back to Hungary this summer?  OK, maybe you weren't with me then and I'm sorry, I'm way too lazy to go and find the post for reference.  Believe me, I did. 

(Us with the kids we taught in Hungary)

And just as a reminder, my husband and I went there on a mission trip when I was three months pregnant 2 years ago.  We worked at Word of Life Camp teaching English and loved it.  We really wanted to go back last year and couldn't because Lilla was just too small so we had always planned on going this year. 

(Us with Lilla, one of our students)

Well, the date to get our names in came and went because Michael hadn't found out about getting off at work and suddenly the trip filled in like 1 week.  Oh, how sad we were.  But, we know that God works all things to His glory so we released the desire and moved on.  Well, He really does work in mysterious ways...

About two weeks ago I got a call and email from the leader of the trip asking if we still had a desire to go because they were adding a second week.  Woo hoo!  How excited was I? 

(Group time where our team would pray, share testimonies, devotionals and sing)

Well then, of course, we had to worry about the days off again.  Not a problem, solved quickly and...drumroll please...WE'RE GOING BACK TO HUNGARY!!  We are so geeked out about it!  It will be July 27th, through that first week of August.  So exciting!  Now of course comes the hard part, raising the support.  We have to raise $3000 before we go.  Always so difficult because Americans seriously like to hold on to their money.   I think how we need to start looking at missionaries raising support is it is our opportunity to go where we normally wouldn't/couldn't go on a mission field.  It's really so exciting! 

(The Americans teaching the Hungarians baseball!)

So, if you want to say a prayer for us that God will open people's hearts and be willing to support us we would really appreciate it.  I can't wait to tell you all more about it!

(Us on the River in Budapest)

{Featured Flickr Feast by stanfisher}

Appetizer
What is your favorite kind of bread?

I can't choose just one.  I seriously love bread.  I love homemade breads, and honey breads, quick breads and garlic bread.  Seriously, I am a carb addict people!

Soup
When was the last time you bought a new pillow?

Last year.

Salad
Approximately how many hours per week do you spend surfing the ‘net?

Too many.  At least blog hopping.

Main Course
What’s the highest you remember your temperature being?

104

Dessert
Fill in the blanks:  When I don't get enough sleep, I seriously lose my patience very easily, not good.

Join in the fun at www.fridaysfeast.com!

Okay, so you will all have to forgive me but I think I'm going to move over to Wordpress.  A lot of bloggers have been going there and I decided to check it out and really like it.  It is really easy to use and I was able to, in one step, take all of my blogs from Blogger over there.  Pretty cool.  The only thing I did not like about it is what a pain it is to put pictures into the blog.  I just figured out that I can use Window Live Writer for it though and easily put in pictures, awesome!

Anyway, you might want to look into it too.  It's nice for everyone to easily comment and it just is much simpler.  I think I had way too much on my spaces blog and I never liked the format for blogger.  So, there you go!

So, my new URL will be http://amyszoo.wordpress.com

See you all there!

We had such a nice time on Easter Sunday. We woke up early, got Lilla up, of course she had no desire to see this lovely display...

...as all she can think about in the mornings is a nice warm cup of boob. Yeah, I am still trying to wean the little bugger. She just wants no part of it. However, once that was taken care of, this is what happened next...

...so, nice to know my Mommy/Easter bunny efforts were not in vain.

We went to the SonRise service at church and then headed down to Louisville to visit my hubby's family. Lilla had a blast playing with her cousins...

And looked beautiful, of course, in her Easter dress!

Hope you all had a great day too!

On this Easter weekend I just want to express how grateful I am to live in a country where I can go to church on Sunday, sit in a pew, worship and go home without ever being concerned that someone will blow up the church, arrest me or torture my family, just for being there. Othere people are not so fortunate, and I think it's a good time to remember them.

I just wanted to make a mention about a country where there is persecution. While it is getting better, we need to be praying for the country of Cuba and it's leadership. While there is more freedom now, than there ever was before since Fidel Castro came to power, there is still persecution of the saints. We need to be praying for their present and future leadership. As many know Fidel Castro is very sick, the Cuban government says he's getting better, but he has been out of the public eye for quite sometime and is probably dying. Let's pray for his salvation in his last days and that God will raise up a Government that loves the Lord and wants to serve Him. 

In 2005 new legislation against house churches was introduced and many protestant house churches have been shut down. Pray that God will raise up the leaders and allow these men and women to preach in His name. Pray for redemption in Cuba.

Please pray for the persecuted church!

www.persecution.com

Appetizer
When you travel, which mode of transportation do you prefer?

Plane, get their as fast as possible.  A jet would be nice!

Soup
Have you ever met a blogging friend in person?

No, but I do have one I previously knew.  Hi Amanda! :)

She's in the middle with her now hubby!

Salad
When was the last time you were really, really tired?

This morning.  My daughter was sick and up until 1:30 last night and then woke up before 7am today.

Main Course
If you could have dinner with any one fictional character from a book or movie, who would it be?

Maybe Darth Vader.  That would be cool. :)

Dessert
Fill in the blank: One day, I hope to see __________.

a giraffe in the wild.  Wouldn't a Safari be the coolest?

I recently heard a sermon on Ruth concerning Boaz and how he was a Redeemer for Ruth.  The Pastor, Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, was extolling all men to reach out to women in their life and become a Redeemer of sorts to them.   Not redemptive like Jesus, but to redeem their broken lives.  He spoke about how God can bring someone in your life and you need to be accepting and willing instead of have a list of expectations and if they don't meet every checkpoint (i.e. never married, no kids, virgin, never drank or done drugs...you get the point) moving on.  What a great message!  It reminded me of how my husband has been a redeemer to me in terms of a life of sadness and despair, brokeness and hurt.  I never thought someone like Michael would marry someone like me.  What a gift!

All that to say, today is our 3rd anniversary, yeah us!  We've made it thus far, which in terms of 25, 40 and 50 or more years is just small potatoes, but we are proud of it!  It has gone so fast! 

Months before our wedding we found this little song, Waltz for Jennifer by FFH that we just felt said how we were feeling.  It's a bit cheesy, but really, it is perfect for how we feel.  It became our first dance.  Here are the lyrics:

Artist: FFH
Album: Ready to Fly
Track: Waltz For Jennifer
Another long day is gone
And I'm ready for another long night
Where I'll be by your side
Another long day will come
And I'll thank Jesus that I am alive and
That He made you mine

(chorus)
We belong together you and me
Holding on tight like lock and key
Going strong the way this love should be our fantasy
And I'm so glad that God made me for you and you for me

I'm having that dream
Where we are walking together along
With the sand in our feet
And I'm awake and I realize it wasn't a dream
It was reality
(chorus)

I hope you each will enjoy your marriages too!

So, I thought I'd give a little update here.  I was thinking about my blog a while ago and how I would like it to be a historical reference of sorts for me and for Lilla, later on.  I look back at the past several months and am amazed at the steps Lilla has grown and how wonderful that I have documented so many.  I think I will print this out at some point in case it somehow gets erased.  I guess that is another nice part of having two blogs, if one gets erased you have the other to fall back on!

Anyway, I put a new song on Spaces.  It's called Let the Peace of God Reign.  It's a worship song from Hillsongs.  I always liked Darlene Zsech and this is one of my favorites of hers.  I thought it was appropriate in this season of Easter to celebrate God's peace and love.  It's so easy to go about the day to days and forget to really remember what Easter is about and how real the cross is.  I don't want to do that.

Lilla has been doing a lot of new things lately.  This weekend she started saying puppy and baby.  How cute is that?  Her cousin is 6 months older and those are two of her favorite words so I think Lilla has picked them up from spending so much time with her lately.  It is so cute.  I say, "Where is the puppy Lilla?"  And she will turn her head and reach out for Ellie.  Adorable!  She also started blowing bubbles into the bath water tonight.  Who knows where that came from!

She still isn't walking.  She'll be 14 months on the 8th so I was starting to get kind of worried.  My mom was always saying how I'd walked at 10 months.  Today I found my baby book, and guess what?  Not so much!  I didn't walk until 15 months.  So, that gave me a bit of comfort, anyway.  Lilla has supertiny feet, she only wears 2 1/2, which usuallly a 6 month old would wear, so I was beginning to think that was it.  My mom insisted I buy her these $50 shoes (of course she paid for them) to make her walk.  We'll see how that goes.  They had to be specially ordered since her feet are so small so they will come this week.

Michael got home from his trip on Friday night, yeah!  It was so good to see him and spend time with him.  It's hard being away from your spouse.  I don't know how single parents do it!

He has been so kind and generous to me lately.  I am an obsessive picture taker (who knew?) and he bought me this seriously fancy camera last week.  I didn't even know how to work it!  He had to go read the instructions, and it can do so much more than I know.  I'll have to delve into it sometime.  Anyway, wow does it take good pictures!  Beautiful!

He also let me get this awesome thing for scrapbooking called a Cricut machine. 

It has always been way too expensive for my taste but it was almost 1/3 of it's price today at Michael's so he told me to go get one!  Whew!  We've spent way too much money this month so we need to reign it in before we get too used to it.  See what happens when you get a decent tax return!  Oh boy!

Anyway, I'm going to close this novel now...hope you are still awake!

Take care,

Amy

When I was a little kid my mom would always play the same joke on my siblings and I.  She would look out the front window and say, "Look, it's Big Bird!"  And, of course, we would go running for the window and she would say, "April Fools!"  Why did this work several years in a row?  Cruel mom!

So anyway, in the spirit of April 1st, here are some sites you can go to for inspiration for your own pranks!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A517240

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/

http://www.funmunch.com/events/april_fools_day/april_fools_day_pranks.shtml

One time my friend and I went around to friends and put post it notes all over one brother's car at work and then wrapped the other's in cellophane.  Good times!

Have fun, and be nice!