Sunday, January 27, 2008

Injuries

I just have a few moments to write, but I wanted to tell you that the past 12 hours in the Davis household has been entitled "Injuries".

Last night, Pete was stretching on the floor of our bedroom and swiped his arm hard against the metal frame of our bed. It was very sharp and put a pretty big gash in his forearm. It looked like it needed stitches, but since it wasn't bleeding hardly at all we decided to wait to go to urgent care in the morning verses pay a huge fee for an emergency room trip. Today he went to urgent care to find out that he had waited too long for stitches (and yes, he did need them) and so they had to glue his skin together. The doctor told him he will have a pretty big scar. Check out his blog to find a much more interesting story (www.peterdavis2.blogspot.com).

In addition to this, I was downstairs this morning heating up hot water in the microwave. I guess I didn't gauge the time well, so I overheated the water. Somehow when I went to get the mug out of the microwave the boiling water splashed onto my face!! It hurt so bad and out of panic and reaction I screamed and dropped the mug on our ceramic tile floor and the mug shattered to pieces. No one was hurt (the girls were playing in the living room) but my face hurt a little. The girls had been fighting and testing me most of the morning, Pete was sleeping in, (finally his turn to sleep in!! He ALWAYS lets me sleep in) I was tired from a 5:00am morning with Avery, and not in the best of moods. I knew I needed to change my attitude. So, the hot water incident was basically the last straw for me. I started to cry, not out of pain, but mostly because I was frustrated with myself. Poor Pete, he thought I was really hurt. But I was mostly frustrated.

The morning became much better. We all had a nice lunch together as a family after Pete got home from urgent care. Then, Pete let me take a nap. Now the girls are napping for a little while. (sigh.....)

This morning was just one of those mornings. Those kind of not-so-perfect mornings, living in a house full of not-so-perfect people, with not-so-perfect attitudes.

This is why I am so thankful for God's grace. His mercies are new every morning.






Thursday, January 17, 2008

A Dream Comes True

About one week ago I was accepted to Newlife International School of Midwifery. Peter, Kyla, Avery and myself will be flying to the Philippines in June of this year if the Lord provides the finances for us to go. If the Lord continues to provide and open up doors for us to move to Davao, Philippines, our lives will be changing a lot. I cannot tell you how much it means to me to have the opportunity to study midwifery while at the same time serving impoverished women as a missionary. Pete and I have always had a dream to be missionaries overseas, and since the birth of Kyla, I have felt the Lord tenderly nudging my spirit to become a midwife. A dream is beginning to come true. An adventure is about to take place. We have a lot of work to do between now and June, but we know the Lord will continue to guide our steps.

We have to have roughly about $30,000 for the first year which includes all of our family's living expenses, travel costs, missionary visas, tuition, books, and supplies. We are beginning to see the Lord provide for us with friends pledging gifts, and we received word yesterday from one of the pastors of our church here that they might take us on as one of their missionaries. What a blessing that would be. The pastor we met with yesterday encouraged us and prayed for us, and was very excited about the calling that God has laid on our hearts.

Through the Lord's amazing grace and provision we will do this. Only through him, though. This cannot happen at all on our own! Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Apart from Him we can truely do NOTHING. Oh, but with Him, just imagine what He can do!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008


"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

"I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord."

Lamations 3:22-26
Posted by Picasa

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Our God is so Big

M45: The Pleiades Star Cluster
Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler

The Pleiades contains over 3000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across. (1 light year=5.87849981 × 1012 miles)

"Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?
From whose womb comes the ice?
WHo gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?
Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?
Can you loose the cords of Orion?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?....
Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
Do you count the months till they bear?
Do you know the time they give birth?
The crouch down and bring forth their young;
their labor pains are ended.
Their young thrive and grow strong in the wilds;
they leave and do not return."

Job 38: 28-33; 39:1-4


I am being reminded and shown in a new light how huge our God really is. Our pastor at church is doing a series on God's perspective. If He is so big, and yet so loving to each of us, then nothing is IMPOSSIBLE with Him. He can do anything. and He can use us for any reason if we will let him and trust Him.

Friday, January 11, 2008


PIGTAIL GIRLS!

(They never actually remain in their hair for more than 5 minutes.
So we have to capture the cuteness on camera when we can!)

Posted by Picasa
They were having so much fun smiling at the camera
with Daddy!



Posted by Picasa
These are some of my favorite pictures of the girls that
Pete took when we lived in Culver City, CA. I didn't have them
up on our blog, so I thought I'd share :-) Avery is 9 months old and
Kyla is a little over 3 years old. It was a beautiful sunny day and the
girls got matching white dresses as a gift!





Posted by Picasa


Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Yummy! These pancakes were a big hit with the whole family. We reduced the sugar to 1/3 cup.
Breakfast for Dinner tonight!

So, I thought we'd have some fun and eat breakfast for dinner tonight! Pancakes! Eggs! Yummm!! Uh-oh. Wait. Let's modify this for Avery. I found this recipe online for egg-less pancakes and it looks yummy...i'll let you know how it turns out!

Banana-apple pancakes
1 and 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup milk of your choice
1/2 cup water
1 mashed banana
1 apple, cored and finely chopped
>mix dry ingredients in a bowl, make a well then add other ingredients and mix gently until combined. heat a little oil in frypan and spoon in mixture, spreading flat and thin with a spoon (pancake will puff up a bit when cooking), cook on both sides and serve with your favourite pancake toppings

Monday, January 07, 2008

New Year's Letter

I thought it would be nice to post our New Year's letter on our blog...so here it is!

Happy New Year, friends! We hope this letter finds you well and we hope you all had a special Christmas with friends and family. We celebrated our first New Year’s Eve last night in Charlotte, North Carolina…our new home. The Friday before Christmas, the girls woke up and came downstairs to find their presents under our beautifully lit, miniature palm tree. Yep, that’s right—no Christmas tree. After having a beautiful Frasier Fir in our house for a few days we realized that Avery was allergic to the tree (and I was a little too)! Then, on Saturday we drove to Richmond, VA to spend Christmas with our families. It was a special trip and a beautiful Christmas spent with the people we love.

Overall, 2007 has been quite a challenging year for our family. It was complete with saying goodbye to dear friends and neighbors in Los Angeles, buying a house in North Carolina, a cross-country move, adjusting to a new area, and Pete having difficulty transferring his teaching license from CA to NC. Most of the challenges, however, have been due to Avery’s health problems. In case you didn’t know, Avery has food allergies to eggs, cow dairy, and nuts. She has suffered from severe eczema from the time she was about 12 months old (which is right when we moved to Charlotte, NC) until just recently. She would cry most of the day and scratch her skin miserably. On top of that, she was not gaining weight and was having some digestive issues. We have taken her to several pediatricians, a naturopath physician, and an allergist. She has been showing major improvement for about a month now and is so much happier, which makes us all happy, of course (especially Kyla who hates seeing her little sister so upset)!! She still
has food allergies, but her eczema is mild and doesn’t bother her as much. She is becoming an incredibly sweet little girl with a tremendous love of learning. Many of you have been praying for her and we thankyou so much because the Lord has heard your prayers!

We love our new townhouse and neighborhood here in Charlotte! We are living close to our dear friends from college and God has blessed us with a very spirit-filled church family. We have definitely felt very encouraged and challenged in our walks with God since we started attending Carmel Baptist Church. Living just outside of Charlotte is also a breath of fresh air away from the hustle and bustle of city life. We are thankful for the quiet evenings and the beautiful sunsets we can see from our front porch. I think more than anything we are learning to be content wherever God has us for the present time.

On the flip side, however, we certainly do miss many things about life in Los Angeles. We’ve had to get used to not being able to walk anywhere (we used to walk to parks, coffee shops, grocery stores, post offices, the library, etc). We also feel the need for two vehicles here, but can only afford one, and we really miss our friends and church family in California. And we obviously miss the weather!

Since our move to Charlotte, Pete started teaching 6th graders at Porter Ridge Middle School. He was very nervous about the switch from high school, but really loves teaching 6th graders! He teaches English and Math to students with learning disabilities and children with attention and emotional challenges. He is also continuing to build his photography business (www.peterdavisphotography.com). He photographed a wedding in Charlotte in October, he has taken some children’s portraits, and we were also blessed to be flown back to Los Angeles without the kids to photograph a friend’s wedding over Thanksgiving weekend. Pete is also enjoying our detached garage where he can get some time alone and pursue his woodworking
hobby! He built a bookshelf recently and also a beautiful jewelry box for my Christmas present. I will always treasure it because it was handmade by him.

I stay home with Kyla and Avery and love living about 200 yards away from my close friend and college roommate, Megan, who stays home with her two boys. I also had the opportunity to go to Atlanta, GA in October for training to become a childbirth educator. Lord willing, I will begin teaching natural childbirth classes this month on my provisional license. In addition to teaching natural childbirth classes, the Lord has been laying it on my heart for a long time now to pursue becoming a midwife. At first, I kind of ignored the “call,” because I didn’t understand how I would study and apprentice under a midwife while staying home with two little girls. However, the Lord just recently opened up an opportunity for our family to possibly move to Davao City, Philippines for 2 years as missionaries where I would train to become a licensed midwife at New Life International School of Midwifery (www.midwifeschool.org )!

We realize that this might come as a shock to many of you, especially since we just moved 3000 miles and bought a house, but we are extremely excited about the possibility! We are currently in the final phases of the application process which includes several phone interviews. We have never felt, as a family, a call to something as strong as our call to New Life. The four years we
spent in Los Angeles have prepared us for this possible move and I do not believe we would even be considering New Life if it were not for living among so many different cultures and people in Los Angeles. We have received many confirmations through God’s Word, friends, family members, and pastors that this fits our family’s mission and the way we are shaped. We are confident that if the Lord wants us to go to the Philippines, He will open up the doors for my acceptance into the program and also provide financially for our living expenses. If those two things do not happen, then maybe he has another route for me to take to become a midwife. So, for now, we are resting in His peace, knowing He has the perfect plan for all of this. We would appreciate your prayers for us during this time of decision-making. Thank you! If you’d like to read more about this, or if you just want to keep more up to date on what’s happening with
us, check out our blog (www.davisfamily2.blogspot.com )! We try our best to keep that updated with stories and pictures.

To finish wrapping up the year, Kyla loves her new friend, Ella who is just a few months younger than her. They play together several times a week because she lives right behind us. Megan and Patrick’s little boy, Joshua and Kyla have hit it off as well and love to play together. Kyla’s favorite things to do are sculpt things from Playdough and clay, color, and play house with her baby dolls. Kyla will be turning 4 in February!

Avery is quite our little conversationalist. Just this morning I gave her a snack, and she said very clearly, “Thank you, Mommy!” She has an impressive vocabulary now and will pretty much say whatever you ask her to say. Kyla’s favorite game to play is to say, “Avery, can you say elephant?” and Avery says “Ephant.” Then Kyla says, “Avery can you say apple?” and Avery says it. This can go on for quite sometime and it’s really cute. Avery will be 18 months old in just a few more days!

We hope 2008 is a year full of adventure and joy for you and your family! Happy New Year!