10 oz!

We went to the doctor on Friday and learned that Josiah had gained 10 oz. in 2 weeks!  They were very impressed with his progress and said that as long as he stays in the percentile that he is in, they won't be concerned. 

We've had a very busy weekend.  Mimi and Cousin Tayler came for a visit.  There are LOTS of pictures of the many things we did while they were here.  Hope you enjoy looking at them all.  We went shopping the first day they were here.  Then on Saturday we babysat for a family from church.  While we were there, we decorated some Valentine's Day cookies.  That night, we celebrated Tayler's 10th birthday!  On Sunday, we went to church.  Tayler and Mimi babysat Josiah so Chris and I could go out on a date.  On Monday, we went to the Air & Space Museum.  There were LOTS of cool things, and I was able to enjoy playing with my new 35mm digital camera.  Poor Josiah is going to be so sick of seeing a camera!  I am going to need to play with it before I shoot my first solo wedding in July.  My mom and I have done some weddings in the past, but this is my first one all by myself.  For Him Photography is in the process of getting started.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, the Greenwood family is going to be fairly busy for the next few weeks.  Thus, the reason of only having two pictures downloaded.  I still need to take his 7 month picture!  Last Friday and Saturday, Chris was at a presbytery meeting in Baltimore, MD.  It wouldn't have been so bad, but they drove back Friday night and then went back on Saturday morning.  They decided to do this to try to save the church some money.  Then on Sunday we had a congregational meeting at the church.  To help out, I made some of my "famous" chili and baked some of the potatoes.  This weekend, my niece and mom will be coming into for a visit.  This will be Tayler's first time to our place in VA.  I have a busy Sunday as I will be trying to get parents to update their child's information between the services and Sunday School.  Then that night I will be having a  meeting to start the planning process for VBS.  Then the weekend after that, Chris will be having a training seminar at the church for the Home Fellowship Group leaders.  Josiah and I won't see him very much Friday or Saturday, but it'll be nice to have him home each night.  The first Sunday in March, Chris will be preaching and then the second weekend in March all of the grandparents will be in town for Josiah's baptizim.  So as you can see, we will be pretty busy for the next few weeks.  This doesn't even include our Bible studies or the daily tasks we need to get done.  I'm tired just thinking about it!  I just pray that I don't forget Josiah somewhere during the next few weeks!    I will be so thankful when this season is over because I don't like to stay busy, and I miss our quiet time as a family.  I will try my best to keep taking pictures of Josiah--I might just be a little delayed on downloading them. 

Well, I should get going because I need to get dinner ready before I head to Bible study tonight. 

Doctor Visit

Well, Josiah went back to the doctor on Friday and only gained 1/2 pound in a month.  We will need to go back in 2 weeks to check him again.  One doctor wanted to go ahead and send him to a specialist, while another doctor said to add an extra bottle of formula and give him some avacados since they are high in calories.  We are going with the second doctor's opinion of adding an extra meal and avacados.  I guess they just don't understand his strong Greenwood genes!  What we will do next time if he hasn't gained weight like they want him to,  I don't know?  Like I've said before, we aren't concerned about his weight because he eats, is happy, is VERY active and sleeps well.  The doctors even say he is progressing developmentally like he is supposed to.  I just wished they would believe us when we say that it is in his genes.  Maybe we need to get Granny Kay to come over here and deal with these doctors for us--she has seen quite a few Greenwood men grow up!   

Well, just say a prayer that all will go well at the next visit on Feb. 13th.

Trip to NC

Well, we just got back from spending the weekend in NC.  We were able to meet Baby Harper for the first time--she's absolutely beautiful--if her proud Auntie can say that without being considered biased! 

The trip down to NC was pretty rough.  Josiah got his first fever on our way down there.  He was acting very clingy on Thursday, but wasn't running a fever.  I just thought he was needing some extra mommy time since we had a pretty busy week.  We also thought he might being cutting  his second tooth, so we didn't think too much about it.  Well, an hour into our trip, Josiah just starts screaming.  We thought maybe he wasn't too excited about traveling since this was his first long trip since we moved to VA.  We pull over to see what is wrong, and he ends up eating.  We get him calmed down and get back on the road. About an hour later, he starts screaming again.  This time when we stop , he is burning up.  We go ahead and take his temperature and it is 101.7.  At this point, we are half way there.  We give him some Tylenol and start praying fervently.  He calms down again, but an hour later he is screaming some more.  I start feeling like a horrible mother because here I am traveling with a sick baby.  I feed him some more and just hold him for awhile.  He gets calmed down.  At that point, Chris and I decide that if he wakes up screaming again, we will just get a hotel room for the night.  We get back on the road, and Josiah falls asleep until about 30 minutes from Goldsboro.  This time when he got up, he woke up in a fairly decent mood.  When we arrived in Goldsboro, we took his temperature again---it had gone down almost 2 degrees!  By the time he woke up the next morning, his temperature had returned to normal and we had our happy Josiah again!  I know without a doubt that our prayers were answered that night, and we praise the Lord for answering them. 

We enjoyed our time getting to know Harper and visiting with Corey and Simon.  It was fun comparing stories about what Josiah and Harper are doing.  We wish we lived closer, so the cousins could spend more time together.  We are so appreciative of Corey and Simon being willing to spend the time and money to travel to the US for a visit.  We hope to have our first visit to England this coming fall. While in NC, we were able to visit some of our friends.  Then on Sunday Harper was baptized.  Chris was able to say a special prayer for Harper just before she was baptized.  It was nice that he was able to take part in the ceremony.  After the ceremony we went out for lunch.  Chris and I have been practicing at home with Josiah on going out to eat.  After he finishes eating, he is given a toy to play with until we finish eating.  He did an EXCELLENT job going out to eat for the first time.  He ate his food like he was suppose to and then played with his toy while we finished.  I couldn't have been prouder of him!  The rest of the time was spent hanging out with the family and just catching up.  We also did quite a bit of walking to balance out all the eating we did there! 

Our trip home was a lot less eventful than the one going down---for that I praise the Lord!  He was so much fun in the car.  He has the personality of his Uncle Richard---I will-keep-doing-something-as-long-as-it-is-making-you-laugh.  Josiah does bring so much laughter to our lives, and we are so thankful for the laughter.  I hope we as a family never stop laughing and being silly together.

Well, I should get going because I have tons of things to put up from our trip and the laundry isn't getting done by itself.  Hope you enjoy the pictures we took while in NC.

CHRISTmas 2008

I can’t believe this is our 6^th year of writing our family Christmas letter!  This year has been full of trials and blessings.  The biggest lesson we’ve learned this year is “God’s timing is perfect.”  Chris’ phrase for the year has been, “It’ll be alright! God will work it out.”  
          One of our greatest trials this year was waiting patiently as God revealed His ministry to us.  Chris started applying to church positions in October 2007.  In anticipation of “quickly” being called to a church, we moved in with Chris’ dad and step mom.  We thought it would be just a couple of months but ended up being there for ten.  They were very gracious to us in opening up their home for that long and for soon having to live with a newborn again! In October 2008 (a full year later), Chris was called to Reston Presbyterian Church (RPC) as Assistant Pastor of Assimilation in Reston, Virginia.  His main responsibilities include being in charge of the Home Fellowship Groups and getting people involved in the life of the church.  This position is part-time for now, so he also works part-time at Fairfax Christian School as an ESL teacher. The school is right next door to the church, so he doesn’t have far to commute between jobs. If you know where Reston, VA is, then, you will realize that this is a HUGE blessing!  God worked it out that the school needed a part time ESL teacher the same time the church was trying to fill a new part time staff position. What seemed like forever to us was God putting all the pieces of his perfectly timed plan together.  Chris has an amazing ministry at the school.  He teaches five different classes everyday in four hours. The kids are from all around the world, but mostly from Korea. They are very honest about their spiritual lives and many have shared that they aren’t sure about the claims of Jesus. They have been challenging Chris with their questions and he has been working hard on communicating the wonderfully good news of the Gospel without using all the “Christian” words we’ve all become so accustomed to.

As many of you already know, we welcomed Josiah Potter Greenwood into our family on June 28^th – our BIGGEST blessing of the year!  We are truly honored and blessed to be called his parents.  Each day is new and exciting as Josiah learns how to do something new or as God reveals his unique personality to us.  We still have his website for you to visit (Go to www.babysites.com, type in Josiah Greenwood to read our journal entries and see pictures of our family), which might be better than filling up our entire Christmas letter with stories about Josiah!  We do want to say that when he laughs and smiles it seems as if the room grows brighter and the stresses of living in a busy culture fade away. We wish all of you could experience the joy he has brought into our lives.

Well, I’ve finally “retired” from the public school system to be a stay-at-home-mom!  When Chris and I went on our first date back in December 2000, he asked me what I wanted to do with my life.  I told him I wanted to be a stay-at-home-wife and mom.  I felt like my calling was to raise children in a Christ-centered home and to support my husband in his calling.  Well, eight years later I am FINALLY able to start my ministry!  One of the hardest things I had to do this year was to step back into the classroom.  Things had not been finalized with RPC, so Chris and I thought it would be foolish for me to quit my job and try to live off his part-time job at Target.  Chris quit his job to be a stay-at-home-dad while I went back to teaching. The first day back, I cried the whole way to work and kept asking God, “Why?”  A few days later, when I was willing to listen to God, He revealed to me that situations in my life aren’t done in vain.  He helped me realize I will be able to minister to other women who have to go back to work after having a baby, and FULLY know what they are feeling.  On September 26^th, I taught my last lesson at Eastern Wayne Elementary School.  I traded in my lesson plan book for some cook books, work clothes for some blue jeans, and washing hands because of germy kids to washing hands because of dirty diapers, and I’m thankful for it!  I’ve enjoyed setting up our home here in Centreville, VA.  The most exciting room to set up was Josiah’s nursery.  It brought my heart great joy to finally “nest.”  We made sure to have a guest room for any who would like to visit us.  We are about 30 minutes from Washington, DC, so there is LOTS to do!

We could write tons more but we realize you have more to do than read all about the Greenwoods. May the Lord grant you a wonderful Christmas season and a wonderful New Year!

Human Teether

It's official---Josiah has cut his first tooth!  It has barely surfaced, but we can definitely feel a sharp little point on his front/bottom/left gum.  The last few days of nursing have been rather interesting.  Josiah has thought I am his own personal teether.  I've had to be a little firm with him by not nursing him for about 15 minutes.  The strategy seems to be working because the rest of his meal goes without me being in pain!  I've heard horror stories about babies teething, and I have to say that yet again we've been blessed!  He's been a little bit whiny, but nothing unusual. 

He continues to do well with solid foods.  We've introduced carrots because after a few days of just rice cereal he wasn't the least bit interested. I don't blame him for not wanting to eat just the plain rice cereal.  He is LOVING his carrots--I think he gets that from me!  He grunts at me when I'm not feeding him fast enough. 

This year has been fun incorporating Christmas traditions for our new family.  Some traditions are from our childhood and others are new for us.  Josiah can't fully enjoy them now, but we hope that in the future our traditions will be special to him, and he will incorporate some of them into his family.

We hope everyone takes the time to focus on the real meaning of Christmas--Jesus' arrival.

Can't Keep Up with this Feeding Monster

Well, Josiah will being having his first experience with real food today!  We were going to wait until he was six months since that is what our pediatricians suggested. Mommy has had a hard time keeping up with our little feeding monster, so we are going to go ahead and do some rice cereal.  The last few nights before bed he has been nursing for a good 30 minutes and then Daddy has had to give him an extra bottle to top him off.  Lastnight, Josiah ate an extra five and half ounces!  After having some play dates over the weekend, we realized that Josiah is REALLY big for his size!  We hung out with Owen and John on Saturday night.  John is a month older than Josiah and was so tiny compared to Josiah.  Then on Sunday we hung out with Jesse as we watched a football game.  Jesse is two months older than Josiah and again Josiah towered over him.  We feel like it is time for Josiah to start on cereal to help him out and to also help Mommy out with nursing. 

On Thursday, Josiah and I will be going to our first MOPS (Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers) group.  I am really excited to finally connect with other women who are stay at home moms.  This will also be a good opportunity for Josiah to be around other children.  It'll be interesting to see if we can get there on time--Josiah has been sleeping until a little before 9:00 the last few days!



*3:15pm*

Well, Josiah just finished eating his rice cereal, and he LOVED it!  He knew exactly what to do with the spoon.  After eating quite a bit of cereal, he finished his 3 1/2 ounces of milk!  I will be posting some pictures for you to watch his first feeding.