Dress-up box

Hannah got a neat girly gift in the mail from her Grandma & Grandpa Holton and Aunt Jenn. She got a box of dress-up things and cute dress-up shoes. She had fun looking through the box, then wore a dress to cook in her new kitchen.


Exploring the box, finding butterfly wings


"Look, purple bracelets!"

The Merciful Hand of God

Our God is a merciful God. Every day we have is a gift from Him. So often we take for granted each breath we take. Saturday, November 28 we were reminded of how much our lives depend on our Heavenly Father. Forest had taken Hannah shopping with him across the river in Indiana. On their way back, on the bridge over the Ohio River, they were in a serious car accident. Behind Forest was an older Ford truck that was pulling a loaded trailer that was unable or did not try to stop soon enough as traffic built up on the bridge in the right lane and Forest had to stop. That Ford slammed into the back of the Mountaineer, pushing it into the Altima in front of it, smashing it's trunk into the back seat. The truck's momentum still carried both the Mountaineer and Altima into the next lane over. The Mountaineer scraped the whole driver's side of the Altima, trunk to front panel. Then a U-Haul truck, that had already merged over to the far left lane, was unable to avoid Forest's car coming into his lane, swiped the front, driver's corner panel with the cargo area of the truck. Finally everything came to a stop.

Hannah was terrified and hurting, since Forest's seat had come back onto her left foot. Her carseat was in the center of the back seat, but the driver's seat overlaps the space for her seat by about a fourth, so when the back of his seat broke free, it landed on her little foot. When Forest called Laura to tell her they had been hit, Hannah was still screaming in the background. Once Forest got her out of the car and was holding her she calmed down. Praise the LORD no one, in any of the four vehicles, was injured. Just bruises and strained muscles. Hannah, being a little person, was taken by ambulance to the children's hospital to make sure nothing was wrong that she couldn't communicate to Forest. She was great with the ambulance crew and didn't complain one bit, even though it was uncomfortable. She wouldn't say anything while she had the brace and straps on though. She really is a calm, easy-going little girl.

Laura was able to borrow a vehicle from some wonderful friends who even had extra car seats for Nathanael and Talitha. Nathanael stayed at their house and Talitha went with Laura to meet Forest and Hannah at the hospital. They actually arrived at about the same time as the ambulance. Hannah was in good spirits, hungry, but a little disheveled since Forest's open coffee cup from the morning had spilled all over her during the accident. She was happy to see Laura and Talitha and ate lunch and was playing around. She was limping a little bit, and complained about her foot hurting, but she was her happy, dancing self. After precautionary x-rays revealed no damage, she was released. The only other thing that appears to be wrong with her is her carseat straps gave her a couple bruises on her neck, but she doesn't complain of any pain there. Her first night home, she woke a little more than usual, but since then appears to have no lasting effects. She even still asks to go on the bridge since that is a favorite route for the kids to take because they can see the Ohio River from the car, and sometimes there are boats or barges down there.

Hannah in her hospital gown, complete with coffee-filled hair.

When Laura asked Hannah what happened in the car with Daddy, Hannah said, "I was dancing in my seat like this (wiggles side-to-side) and I got all wet and my foot hurt." It was cute to hear her describe it this way. A few hours later, Forest told Laura that they hadn't been listening to any music. So the reference to dancing must be the only way she can describe the impact with her two-year-old vocabulary. We are thankful she is not saying she was scared, or anything that indicates lasting psycological effects.

Forest went the next day to the doctor to make sure he did only receive bumps and bruises and not some deeper injury that he couldn't see or feel fully. He is really sore, though. He'll tell you, "I feel like I got hit by a truck, or two." We'll probably never use that phrase to describe how we feel when we're just tired and sore, or have the flu or something, because that just doesn't feel near as bad as actually being hit by a truck.

Now we begin the process of dealing with insurance companies to try to replace our vehicle and carseats that were in the car. We don't want to take chances with their seats since they were all in the car at the time and may have damage that we can't see. Technically right now the car is drivable, though it doesn't look it. When the tow truck dropped it off at our house, Forest drove it into our parking space, dragging something hanging down in the front the whole way. We're pretty sure the cost to fix it will exceed it's value due to the multiple hits it received. We were going to have to replace it at some point before next summer anyhow, since our family is out-growing the Mountaineer. We just were planning on waiting till spring and taking our time finding a good, reliable vehicle at a reasonable price.

The LORD is always good to us. We may not know why something unpredictable happens to us, but we always know we serve a Sovereign God who is in control. We are thankful for each day, whether it contains an accident, or is just a run-of-the-mill day full of work, chores, meals, fun, etc.

Some pictures of the damage. Ford sure does know how to build a sturdy vehicle.

Hannah is TWO!

Happy Birthday Hannah. Two years ago Laura went into labor while shopping on "Black Friday" at the mall. The labor became active in the late afternoon at the hospital and she arrived at 10:21 pm and weighed 7lbs 4oz. She had difficulty breathing overnight and spent a week in the children's hospital. However, God has been gracious to her and she has had no further breathing problems and has remained pretty healthy, only the occasional virus.

Today before Forest left for work he brought Hannah to the study to see her new kitchen. He brought her in to the room with her back to it and said "are you ready to see your birthday present?" When she turned and saw it she wasn't sure what to say. Forest asked, "what is it?" and she replied "it's a birthday!" He then corrected her and she began exploring it with her brother's help. All day she wanted to be in there cooking up all sorts of things and making various drinks for Laura. She even cleaned up the counters several times with a "wet" washcloth.

After Forest came home from work she received her second gift: pads and helmet with Dora on them. After being stiffly outfitted in them Forest asked what they were for, when she would wear them. She replied, "um a bike" and then to the question of what else, "a s(c)ooter" and Forest brought out her Dora scooter and she just got so excited she would have jumped up and down if she could well enough without the pads on her knees. When she got on it she proclaimed "it not working" and was taken outside for a lesson. She had a blast having Forest help her scoot around the driveway while we waited for her birthday pineapple pizza to arrive.

After dinner she enjoyed her birthday cupcakes. She has several shirts and some pj's with cupcakes on them and sounds so cute when she says "cu-cake" that her cake this year just had to be that. With pink or purple Black-Eyed Susan type flowers on top. She had picked out a cherry-chip cake and cherry frosting for it. She ate the frosting off the top, and about half the cake.

In the evening during night-time talk we read the story of Hannah in the Bible from 1 Samuel chapter one. Hannah was a faithful worshipper of God who was unable to have children. One year when making yearly sacrifice to God with her husband, she was praying for a son and told the Lord if he would give her a son she would give him back to service to the Lord in the temple when he was old enough. Eli the priest heard her, and when she told him of her request of the Lord, Eli said it her petition would be granted. Hannah then went home with her husband, and conceived a son which she named Samuel. And, indeed, when he was weaned, she brought him back to the temple to serve the Lord and Eli. It was this Samuel that would go on to be a great prophet for the Lord, and would eventually anoint David as King over Israel.

As we reflect on the story from which we got her name, we pray the Lord would continue to bless Hannah with the same grace he has shown her already in her life and that she too would become a faithful worshipper of God.

It's too far away

After bath last night Hannah had a funny comment. She lifted Laura's shirt a little to pat Laura's belly. Laura asked what was in her belly, and Hannah said the baby. Then she put her face really close to Laura's belly button, so Laura asked if she could see the baby in there (Forest started the idea of seeing the baby through Mommy's belly button when Hannah was in there). Hannah replied, no, when prompted why, she replied "It's too far away." Haha, so true, at only 13 weeks, the baby is quite far away from the belly button still.

Fun kiddos

Nathanael has been having fun learning some motor skills at the Seminary this semester. Next week he and his classmates will all show off their new skills for all the parents. He's been learning to jump, tumble, balance, stand on one foot (which seems to be easier if you hold on to the opposite ear), among other necessary physical skills. He also is getting pretty good at telling what time it is (to the hour at least, and sometimes the half-hour) on the living room clock with roman numerals, I guess it helps that it chimes too.

Hannah is hilarious with her facial expressions! The way she can turn up her eyebrows when she doesn't understand our response to a question is priceless. I'll have to get a picture of it sometime. She still loves to cuddle and is getting better at undressing--so potty-training should be coming soon.

Talitha is starting to experiment with signs. She has learned to say "hi" and "(b)ye" by opening and closing her hands. We're working on table words like "more" "all done". She is so cute when we get her to say "more" with her hands, and then she gets so excited when we smile at her and give her more dinner. By the way, she can eat about a piece and a half of pizza for dinner--cut into tiny pieces.

Baby #4 is now 12 weeks old in the womb!! We are entering the second trimester. Laura is still feeling sick, which is reassuring since it means Baby is healthy. The kids all got to go to an appointment with Laura to hear the heartbeat on the doppler. Nathanael has heard baby heartbeats before, so he knew how it goes. He was mostly busy telling the doctor and nurse that it was going to be a baby brother. We'll have to wait till about the first of the year to see if he's right. Hannah was most fascinated by how the doctor did it. She told Forest later that evening the "doctor pushed on Mommy's tummy like this, (lifted shirt and pushed hard on her tummy) and it whshew whshew". Talitha was sitting on Laura's legs for the event, and watched the doctor's every move. When the heartbeat sound came from the speakers, her eyes got real big and she looked at the doctor, at Laura, then the doppler and smiled real big.