Month 7 Update

7 Months

8.6 kilograms (19 lbs.)

 71.1 centimeters (28 in.)

Likes:

being near Mama

stroller walks outside

playing on the keyboard

laughing at Daddy

carrots and sweet potatoes

his favorite songs

Month 7 was a tiring, fast, exciting, hard, fun month! Everyone warns mamas-to-be of how fast the time will seem to fly when her little bundle of joy arrives, but man, it's so true! I can't believe this boy has been here for 7 months already. Can I just freeze time and take it all in for a bit?!

Isaiah is such a joy to Josh and I. He is our greatest treasure on this earth and brings us smiles each and every day. He became particularly attached to me this month and wants to be near me at all times. While it's exhausting, it's so sweet. There's not many things that make me feel better than how just my voice or touch can dry the tears in a second. While he loves to be in my arms, he loooves to laugh at his Daddy. He thinks Josh is so funny and just cackles at him when they play. Sometimes I catch Isaiah just watching his daddy doing something; he has the cutest grin on his face as he watches him. I bet he wants to be just like him some day :)

We took our first visit to a pediatrician in America this month. Some of you may know that we were concerned about his anterior soft spot closing very early. However, his head is growing at a normal rate and the doctor said everything looked fine. While the soft spot may look closed from the outside, as long as his head is growing, it isn't completely fused yet. Praise the Lord! He came in at the 80th percentile on height and 76% on weight. His head was in the 60th percentile. He's a growing, healthy boy!

While he had a good check-up at the pediatrician, he also had his first cold this month. It was so sad! He had a stuffy nose and red eyes. But after a few nights of sleeping with him on our chests in the recliner so he could breathe, sucking all the yucky stuff out of his nose, diffusing oils, and drinking chamomile tea, he was all better. It was a nasty cold, but we're thankful it didn't last long.

Isaiah is sitting up so well by himself, he scoots all around on his tummy, and he's trying so hard to crawl! He has amazing upper body strength, but he just can't figure out how to use those knees ha! He is babbling all the time, especially when he wakes in the mornings. He loves to get loud and high-pitched! He's still teething, but we still have no teeth!! He spends the day chewing on anything he can get his hands on. Some days are worse than others, but we're hoping they cut through soon.

He is still breastfeeding on demand, which is about every 2-3 hours. He's also eating pureed or mashed foods every now and then. He had no appetite when he got the cold so we're easing back into foods other than milk. He loves loves loves sweet potatoes, winter squash, and carrots. He's a pretty big fan of zucchini. He's neutral about avocado. He sort of likes applesauce, but he absolutely detests banana! He literally shivered and gagged both times he tried banana. He licked some raspberry juice off my finger and probably would've taken down the whole bowl if I'd let him. He basically just eats whatever fruits or veggies we're having, but mashed up or pureed. He ate too much avocado one evening and puked later during the night, so that was scary! (A mother's love runs deep...holding-and-kissing-your-baby-while-puke-runs-down-your-arms kind of deep!) It's been fun watching him try new things but we're taking it pretty slowly. He does love drinking water out of our cups and also a straw sippy cup. Not much makes it in his mouth, but he has a good time!

I usually update on food and then on sleep. But wait, what is sleep?! Ha. This month has been pretty rough. Isaiah wakes almost every hour some nights. Sometimes he's awake for 3 minutes. Sometimes it's more like 20. But I'm surviving on coffee and naps. I definitely didn't envision myself still waking this much with a 7 month old. Maybe that's naive. But lately I have been trying to thank God for each breath he takes when I wake with him during the night (I started doing this after my husband made a comment about me saying, "again? this is the fifth time tonight!" ha). He's sleeping in a pack-n-play in our room right now- I realize this could be contributing to poor sleep, but while we're transitioning between homes, there's not much choice. He usually ends up in the bed with us sometime through the night where he rests a little better. It's a full size bed though, so the three of us are pretty tight! His naps during the day have also been a struggle as he fights sleep more days than not. He usually naps once or twice in the morning (both just 30 minute cat naps) and then takes a longer nap in the early afternoon and another short nap in the late afternoon. Because of my own lack of sleep, we spend many of those naps in the recliner with him on my chest, which I must say are some of my favorite moments. It also makes me wonder how anyone with more than one child has any sanity :)

A few random fun things from the month are: Isaiah has started to be annoyed by his car seat and hates riding in the car. He enjoys a little 'play pen' I made him out of a laundry basket. It keeps his toys close to him and he likes to sit in it while I cook. He went swimming for the first time in a pool with his papaw and he's a little fish! It took a few minutes for him to familiarize himself, but once he got comfortable, he was kicking and splashing like crazy! He rode in the grocery store buggy for the first time and really enjoyed sitting up and checking out the place. He's been to a few Burmese Bible studies with us and I love watching him be so comfortable with other cultures. They're all crazy about him. He has a few favorite songs, including The Little Green Frog and a song from the Philippines, and he lights up when we start to sing them. So cute. Bath time has enhanced by 3 little rubber duckies. He still loves bathtime and hates to get out of the water. He still sucks his thumb, especially when he's sleepy. So many people have made comments about how I'll regret letting him do it, but it's pretty adorable right now and we'll work on stopping it when he's a bit older. Right now, it soothes and comforts him and I'm thankful for that. He's also started pulling his hair when he's sleepy. I know what you're thinking....what hair?! Believe it or not, he's got a little peach fuzz and he loves to try to get his hands on it. Our boy is so adorable and we love watching him grow and learn.

Dear Isaiah, 

Since February 21, time has flown at a faster rate than any other season in my life. It's funny because sometimes the days seem to never end, yet the month is over before I can catch my breath. Isaiah, I'm sorry for the times when I just wish you'd sleep so that I can have some time to myself. Alone time isn't bad- it's needed!- but I forget to treasure my time with you. You won't be in this sweet cuddly stage for long and I don't want to miss a bit of it. I too often forget how blessed I am to be your mama. My days really couldn't be filled with anything better than your squeaky noises, mid-day snuggles, and laugh that melts me every single time I hear it.

You are loved, Isaiah Luke. You are treasured. 

Love, Mama

O, and the way you're comforted by pretty much no one but me- it makes me feel like the most special woman on the planet. I'm honored to be your favorite for the moment :) 

Dear Isaiah,

You are such a blessing.  We've been transitioning from life in the Philippines to life in the USA.  I believe you've transitioned better than your parents.  There's a lot to learn from watching you.  I imagine you'll teach us a lot more throughout these coming years.  I hope you do.  We've been trying to get to know people and think Nashville is the place for us.  The local church we've joined has been super hospitable to us.  We've tried to be intentional in forming relationships, and we've met a few couples this week that we really like a lot.  I'm not sure how long we'll be in Nashville, but I'm thankful God has us here for now.  I love you Isaiah.  Praise God for protecting you throughout the transition.  By the way, we're taking a month to go visit family.  I'm thankful for the opportunity and don't want to take it for granted.  I know they'll be so excited to have you there.

Love, Dad

"You got me a surf board? Cool!" 

And ripping the calendar brings a quick end to the photo shoot :) 

The Next Chapter

Well, I wrote a few weeks ago about how we'd be taking time to pray and ask the Lord to guide us into this next chapter of our life. This season of transition is proving to be a bit more daunting than I anticipated. Some days we miss the Philippines. Some days we're thrilled to be in the U.S. Most days we don't have a clue what we're doing or where to step next. However, our God has been faithful and we believe He's given us direction. While the following plan is not my deepest heart-desire (because I long to be settled), it's what we trust is best in this season and I'm happy to be following what we feel God has spoken to us, because that is my heart-desire. (Is heart-desire even a word or did I just make that up? I think you get the drift). 

So what does the near future for the Borens look like?
Entering into September we set a list of goals for ourselves, mostly a list of questions that needed to be answered. A few of them have been determined while some of them are still in the making.

Will we remain in Nashville?  

Yes, we believe God has led us here for a reason. We love this city and the diversity of people that are here. We plan to stay here until God tells us otherwise. 

We wanted to find a church; a body of believers that we could do life with.
We've found that and are so thankful that we've been warmly welcomed at The Church at Antioch. 

It's a beautiful, multi-ethnic, multi-generational, Gospel-centered church who desires to share Jesus with this community. 

We need a home. 
This has been an adventure, to put it kindly :) Nashville has a huge influx of people, therefore available homes or apartments are hard to come by. And are far above our budget, too. We think that we want to live among the people to whom we plan to minister (refugees and immigrants from  nations where Christ is not known). Because of that we're searching particularly in southeast Nashville, where said people live. We've looked into several places and have (almost) settled on an apartment complex. We had lunch today with another family who lives there and heard more about life in that neighborhood- sounds like it might be a good fit! We plan to take out a lease somewhere by the end of this month. Please pray we'll find the right place and not act in haste. 

Speaking of haste...  
Our current lease ends September 30th, so we've gotta go somewhere and gotta go soon. This past week we spent some time at a park thinking and praying and the idea came to us that we have two very open homes in Mississippi where we could stay until our new home is available (our parents). So, instead of rushing into a place just because we need a home by October 1st we're going to spend the month of October with family and return to Nashville when an apartment becomes available (which looks like the end of October or early November). I have been loooonging to be settled somewhere so this was at first very unsettling to me, ha! But I'm so grateful that we have the ability to do this and I look forward to being with our families. We were already intending to speak to a few churches about our time in the Philippines so this gives us the chance to do all of that before settling in Nashville. We feel like this will give us a good deal of closure to our time overseas. So, Mississippi, here we come! 

And the ever-present question of how we will support ourselves financially.   

This is still coming to fruition. We've had the options of 1. continuing to raise our support and do 

full-time ministry or 2. for Josh to work during the day and we do ministry in our spare time. Or technically we could do both- he work part-time and we raise the rest of our needed budget so that we can have more time to spend among the refugees. I'll be busy being mommy at home with Isaiah, which will include time during the day to build relationships with the refugee women who are also home with their children. But, we've decided since most of the refugee men will be working during the day (that's the goal for them at least) that it makes sense for Josh to work, also. So please pray for Josh as he decides what will be the best job for him as the "breadwinner" for our family. We're trusting that God has a plan and a purpose and we know that He will lead and provide.

So in a nutshell, we'll be in Nashville for a week and a half more, go to Mississippi (plus a Boren family vaca!) in October, move to Nashville 'for good' in November and set the goal of Josh having a job by January.

This first-world life is aggressive. I do miss the simplicity of the Philippines. But, we're praising God for new opportunities and for this next chapter in the book of life. If you'd like to learn more about the refugees/immigrants in America and how the Church can stand in the gap, a good resource to visit is www.worldrelief.org. Or just email us at theborens@mobilizingstudents.com. We'd love to share with you!

Prayer Update

Hey everyone,
I want to give you all a little update on our current status. I know many of you are wondering what's next for the Borens. As are we ha!

We're officially debriefed. Trek-X was so gracious to help us transition back to America. We spent 2 weeks meeting with various people involved in missions. We discussed positive things that happened in our 2 years overseas, negative things, expectations about moving back to the States and how to guard ourselves from those and communicate openly about them, and future plans and goals. It was a lot to process but the discussions were very helpful for us.
At the end of our debriefing, we attended the Trek-X Launch ceremony. All phases of Trek-X were present: graduates, 2nd year overseas, 1st year overseas, 2nd year in Nashville, and newcomer! It was a very exciting time. We thoroughly enjoyed worshiping together with this group of people and commissioning the next set of missionaries. We're thankful to be part of such a great organization- it's like our second family.

 

We're taking the first couple weeks of September to intentionally pray about our near future. I sense a great deal of urgency seeing that we have to be out of the temporary apartment we are in by September 30 (at the latest), however we really don't want to rush into anything. A lot of things look good and seem really cool, but good & cool isn't exactly what we're aiming for. We want to actively wait on God to tell us what to do. We expect that He will.  

So I'm asking you to join us these next 2 weeks in praying over our future. Here are a few specific things you can pray for:

• Do we raise our support full-time and work among unreached people groups in Nashville, or raise half our support and Josh get a part-time job, or Josh finds a typical 8-5 and we work among the refugees in our spare time?? (We are certain that we want to work and live among refugees coming from countries with little access to the Gospel- there are lots of these in Nashville) 
• Does God want us to move somewhere else entirely? We don't foresee this, but want to be open to anything. 
• We need a home by October. 

In addition to prayers about our future plans, please pray for practical things that come with living in America, such as getting insurance on everything, taking Isaiah to the pediatrician for a well-baby check-up, seeing a dentist- because we haven't been in about 2 years and we both think we have cavities :(.

In addition to the above we're trying to reconnect with old friends as well as build a community of new friends here in Nashville (given that we end up here). We've attended a wonderful Gospel-centered church that has welcomed us so warmly and met some other young couples with small children there. God has been gracious. We plan, also, to speak to a couple churches once we get settled. If your church would like to hear about the ministry going on in Maria Aurora, Philippines, please let us know!

Thanks for reading!