Changes, changes and more changes!

It has been a crazy month and a half since I last blogged! I've had posts going through my mind on many different occasions but haven't taken the limited time I have and sat down to blog =)

Much has happened since May 6th.....we returned home to Winnipeg, my brother got married, we packed up our apartment of 8+ years, we moved in with my in-laws, Noah got dedicated at church, we drove back down to KC with my sister, my in-laws and a u-haul trailer and our DTS started, amongst many other things. Now we are already finished week 2 of our lecture phase! So, I've got to do a little catching up! My hopes are to blog an overview each week but we'll see what happens!

Here's a few things that happened between May 6 and June 10 (before our lectures began on the 11th)!

My first Mother's Day!

Noah's first walk in St.Vital Park!

Noah's first sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa Reimer's and a bath in their sink the morning of Shaun and Laurissa's wedding!

My baby brother got married! (Here's a pic of the sibs)

Our little family at the wedding!

Saying good-bye to our home =(

Trying the Jolly Jumper for the first time!

 Living at Grandma and Grandpa Farrow's for the week and having a bath in the sink the morning of Noah's dedication!

Noah's Baby Dedication!

Noah's Baby Dedication at Bethel Community Church!

Our little family at Noah's Dedication!

All of Noah's grandparents! He is so loved!

Noah turned 6 months old! And got his first tooth the week before!

Noah learnt how to sit! And we took our first family road trip!

Auntie Stephanie was the best traveling companion for Noah =)

Diaper changes on the road trip!

Noah's first swimming experience!

Noah's first night in a hotel!

Moving, moving, moving!

This kiddo was awake 14 out of 17 hours of travel! But such a happy traveler! PTL!

Noah tried solids for the first time! (We've mostly been doing other foods but we tried a little rice cereal the first few days). He likes eating!

We moved in to our new little home in Kansas City!

We enjoyed some time with Grandma and Grandpa Farrow at their hotel!

We unpacked and spent time with Stephanie (who was such a huge blessing with all the moving and unpacking! Thank you!)

It has been a CRAZY few weeks! God has been so gracious and carried us through. He has given us the strength and grace for each new day and without Him, there is no way we could have pulled off the last month and a half. We are doing well and adjusting to our new place, pace and life in KC!

Staff Training Week 2

Another week is under our belt for our time in KC for staff training and this was a great week! It had a completely different feel than the previous week because everyone was on base for the training!

Monday through Friday this week we did a bunch of things here on base and it was such a blessing because Noah and I could participate in a lot of it. We were given a monitor by a generous acquaintance back home and I'm soooo glad I brought it with us! I am able to put Noah down for a nap in our apartment and the reception reaches the lounge, the classroom and the student services office! All the places that I may want to go and participate when my baby is napping! Praise the Lord! What an incredible blessing since my baby likes to take many short naps in a day!

Some of the things we did as a staff this week are worship and prayer in the mornings for an hour, student service/mobilization for the June DTS, prayer room time as a staff at IHOP (I even got to go by myself once this week!), a meeting with Mark Anderson to review the vision of Call2All, the campus, etc and spent a number of hours sharing our testimonies to get to know one another better. I've especially been enjoying the testimony time and I love having worship together each morning. I feel so blessed to be living in a community of believers and that worship and prayer are something we do together frequently and steps away from my front door =) These YWAMers really value hearing the voice of God and I'm constantly reminded to make decisions based on prayer. We also had a community potluck with all Call2All/YWAM staff on base, supper at our neighbors and a BBQ with the Starks. What a full and great week!

My easily overstimulated baby is adjusting really well this week. I'm so grateful! He gets overstimulated really easily and even at family gatherings and such at home, I really have to watch him. Often that night, he has a harder time going to sleep, cries more and needs a day at home to recuperate. There are many opportunities for him to get overstimulated here and I'm keeping a close eye on him. I feel that the Lord is really providing grace for Noah to adjust to community living. He is a joy to all those he comes in contact with and everybody loves "Baby Noah" =) He's been held by so many different people from so many nations already and I'm proud of myself by being as relaxed as I am handing my baby to people I don't know very well yet =) Everyone wants to hold him =) He has been able to nap in the prayer room and during our meeting with Mark Anderson but otherwise, I really try to give him his naps at home. He is also really easily distracted when feeding and doesn't want to miss anything so I try to do all his feeds at home and then we go back and join the team. It really is working well! He is feeling better this week and has gotten extremely active and mobile almost overnight. He is rolling like crazy now and spends the majority of his awake hours on his tummy, moving and rolling. He's going to be crawling before we know it!

The adjustment for me this week has been a lot better. The noisy neighbors above us moved out and that has made evenings/nights so much better. Noah is still getting up more than he usually does at home in Winnipeg but oh well. The insomnia I was really struggling with back home and in the first few days here has been significantly better and I'm so grateful! I'm feeling more sleep-deprived than I have in months but hopefully we'll all continue to adjust with time. I have cried much less this week =) I have enjoyed being with people and feel the blessing of community. I can see that life will be full and busy here and I need to figure out how to have quiet time with Jesus on my own in the midst of the buzz of ministry/campus life. Looking back, I'm really grateful for the first week here and though it was hard, it was great to start my time here leaning in to Jesus in such a big way.

On Tuesday we fly home to Winnipeg for the month. And now that the staff training adventure is coming to a close, I realize that the next chapter ahead awaits me with TONS for me to do. We have a number of plans with friends and family, my bro's wedding, doctors appointments and lots of errands and packing to do before moving out of our apartment we've had for the last 8 years by the end of the month. Wow. I just need to take it one day at a time so it doesn't seem too crazy!

I really am blessed. God is leading us well!

Week 1 and I'm a survivor!

I survived! Shane has been off base for long hours each day doing the Immerse program through the International House of Prayer with the rest of our team here in Kansas City (except myself and another mom). It was pretty crazy to jump right into transition and have my husband gone all day, when that is very different than our normal has been.

It has been such a blessing to have Shane at home with me for the last number of months. Though sometimes it was a little awkward to figure out working from home, having his presence with us, was awesome. I think of the many daddies out there who leave early in the morning, work all day and come home to briefly see their kids before they go to sleep. The quality time pretty much happens on the weekends. Shane has been soooo lucky to have been a part of the day-to-day, behind the scenes parts of Noah’s first few months. Not many dads get that honor and privilege and I think it has made Shane an even better dad and an even better man to parent with.

Thinking again of the amount we’ve been apart this week…..Shane has never been away from Noah this much and he sure missed him this week. I don’t remember when Shane and I have been a part this many hours in a week. Sometime prior to our time in Kona back in 2010! I missed him and I appreciate the last few months even more =)

So, I survived! Yay! Thankfully, when the Discipleship Training School schedule is busy, he will be still around home on the base so Noah and I can be a part of things or come and go as needed. This week was a special circumstance but wow….what a way to hit the ground running!

I cried a lot this week. I prayed a lot. I rocked my baby a lot. I checked my ipod for texts from Shane a lot. I thought a lot. And I had to lean on the Lord a lot.

My emotions were all over the place this week, with the yo-yo effect. I felt overwhelmed. Then I felt perspective and grace. I felt despair. Then I felt hope. I felt frustrated and angry. Then I felt peace and tenderness.

There were hard parts and there were really good parts about this week. Sadly, my cutie pie has not been feeling well since we arrived. Teething to coughing to a runny nose to fussiness has made for trying times for this mama. But, those smiles, laughs and coos, melt my heart and I love so many things about that little guy. We’ve never had so much time alone, just the two of us come to think of it. We got to settle down in our new home, figure out many different attempts at what works best in our new sleeping/napping arrangements and explore the campus.

Noah discovered trees and loves watching the leaves. We saw a turtle on the road. We sat on the grass (until I discovered chiggers!). We played on the blanket a lot every day. Noah chewed on toys. Noah started rolling like crazy. We went to the prayer room. We got to see a few friends too =)

I did a whole bunch of things that I’ve worked so hard not to do over the last 4.5 months. And that’s ok. I’ve rocked my boy to sleep. A lot. I’ve fed him to sleep. I’ve napped with him.

And the Lord is meeting me. He is sustaining me. I’m in need of a little refreshment after such a crazy 8 days and I’m looking forward to soaking in all that I can in the church service tomorrow morning. I have probably prayed and leaned into the Lord more than I have in a long time because it’s just me, Him and Noah for many hours. And since there have been challenges, I’ve had to cry out to Him. He has been with me. He is teaching me and I think He has special things in store for me.

I don’t think this next chapter of my life is going to be boring. My prayer this week has been that the Lord would speak to me about my purpose and vision in this next season. Not as a wife. Not as a mother. But as me. Kristi. And what He has in store for my heart. He’s already whispering and I’m getting little inklings. I’m looking forward to what He has to say…

Seasons of change...

Much has been happening for our little family in the last few weeks! Shane and I are excited to have some open doors in going south for an indefinite amount of time to help out with Call2All! We are presently down in Kansas City for 19 days of training, returning home for a month and then heading back down here to participate in the June Intimacy 2 Impact Discipleship Training School!

If time allows, I think getting back into blogging would be a great outlet for me! Becoming a mom has been quite the adjustment and now figuring out how to be a mom, wife, woman, lover of Jesus, and so much more in a new environment, far from my friends, family and my “normal” is a big adjustment! The reality of the hugeness of this jump is becoming more and more real over the last 5 days since we got here. There are parts I’m excited about and parts where the sacrifice feels very real.

The new environment, home, noises and schedule have been a bit daunting. We have a 2-bedroom apartment back home, where we’ve lived since Shane and I got married almost 8 years ago. I always hoped that the next step would be a house of our own! Well, I had a little cry when I found out not long ago that we were coming to a 1-bedroom apartment. In my head I worked it out by figuring we’d give Noah the bedroom and we’d sleep in the living room. Now that we’re here, putting our bed in the living room just isn’t practical for enjoying our living space, so we are adjusting to living in a bedroom with all 3 of us.

I’m getting a taste of missionary living with children. My little one naps and begins the night on a little bed that I’ve made for him with a blanket laid out on the floor of the walk-in closet, with his lion, Leo, from home whom he likes to talk to when going to sleep. It’s taking a little getting used to crawling into bed at night, knowing that my baby is sleeping in the same room as us. We haven’t done that since he moved to his crib at 1 month old. When he wakes to feed in the middle of the night, I take him to the living room and feed him on the love seat before transferring him into the pack and play, which is set up in the living room. It doesn’t fit in the closet. There he sleeps until morning. It was a little tender to my mommy heart the first few days putting my beautiful baby to sleep on the floor of a closet. The ache of the sacrifice felt real for me in that moment.

Thinking that this is a longer arrangement then just 19 days has been a little overwhelming at moments. How do we all live and sleep in the same room as a family? I think of all the families during our DTS that did it and wonder how they did. Our school leader, Debbie, has comforted me, telling me that it will only get easier. They’ve done it with their 2 kids in many different housing situations.

Then today, I got a touch of encouragement and perspective. Noah and I were “shopping” down the hall from our place in the newly forming boutique (the place where you can take stuff that other’s drop off…like a free Good Will store). On our way back, I said hi to a guy washing the walls in the hallway. I’m glad I did =) I went on to learn that he and his wife are hoping to move to the base and I believe they are the ones that the other 2-bedroom apartment is being saved for. I sure have wanted that 2 bedroom. They have been living in a 1-bedroom apartment for the last 1.5 years. And get this. They have 4 children between the ages of 9 months and 5 years. That is some serious perspective. I confessed that I’ve been having a tough time thinking of living in a 1-bedroom with 1 child and asked him how they do it with 4 children and 2 adults in one bedroom. He gave me some practical tips and shared the joys that have come as a family from the experience. He said that he is actually going to miss it when they aren’t together in the same room.

My heart left encouraged. This isn’t impossible. God will make a way. Not only will we survive but we’ll flourish. Noah and I pray for our day and invite Jesus into it every morning. As part of our prayer, we ask that the Lord would cause love to abound in our home and hearts with one another. This may be an opportunity that will cause just that.

The Eighth Week of Life with Noah!

Well, my baby is 8 weeks old already (as of January 29th when I originally wrote this post)! It's hard to believe it's been that long since I gave birth to him and yet it feels like he's been here a lot longer at the same time! I still want to journal his birth story and hope that the details/feelings aren't too forgotten yet. I've been meaning to journal it for the past 8 weeks! (I'm finally doing it now...in week 11!)

Things we did in week 8!

- Our first trip to Steinbach just mommy and Noah to visit friends/family other than Christmas gatherings! Our first afternoon relaxing on Grandma Helen's couch =)
(Noah found his finger for the second time in Grandma Helen's arms! So cute!)

- Normal life stuff....Auntie Stephanie's visits/sleepovers, stroller fitness class, date night (has turned into date afternoon when Noah naps), naps, etc....




- Got Noah's passport picture done!

- Supper out and visits in with friends!


- My brother got engaged! Auntie Laurissa is becoming an official auntie for Noah! The wedding is set for May!


Happy 8 weeks to my wonderful son! I'm so thankful for you!

The Seventh Week of Life with Noah!

In case you are wondering, I'm going to conclude these summaries of life with Noah at the 8 week mark (which is today when I originally wrote this post!). Happy 8 weeks my boy!

Things we did in week 7!

- Had our last appointment with the midwives =( The care we have received by them has been INCREDIBLE! These lovely ladies have walked with us for the past 9 months and I am so blessed by their care. I first saw my midwife at 6 weeks pregnant and now had our last appointment at 6 weeks postpartum. What an incredible experience! I'd definitely get a midwife next time too!


- Started a stroller fitness class with other moms and babies! Noah had a huge, explosive, change-the-clothes, poop in the first few minutes of the class =)

- Spent a few days at home!

(Watching hockey with Daddy! He loves to stare at the screen!)

- Auntie Stephanie and Grandma Helen came by...visitors are now slowing down


- Lunch date with my beautiful friend Bonnie! Noah did great and slept through most of it!

- Lunch with Grandpa and Grandma Reimer!





- Noah started sleeping 8+ hour stretches at night! Yippee! And napping in his crib during the day!


- Our 1st shower since Noah has been born (4th overall!)! The Doerksens put on a nice shower for us and it was great to see the family! We have been so blessed by the generosity of the people who love us! Thank you!





Happy 7 weeks my boy!

The Sixth Week of Life with Noah!

So, have you been wondering when the Christmas season would finally end for us? This is the week! Our last Christmas gathering was January 14th, concluding gatherings every weekend since December 18th! Yikes!

Things we did in week 6!

- Coffee dates and suppers with friends!

- Normal life stuff...days at home, walks, finances, cooking, cleaning, loving, snuggling, feeding, changing...






- Our first date night out since Noah was born! Bowling and dessert at Moxie's! Noah's first time away from mommy and daddy...babysat by Auntie Stephanie at 5 weeks old!


- Another photo shoot!











- Stephanie spent a few nights at our place! I love having her here!

- The last Christmas gathering of the season! Noah met Daddy's extended family!

- Noah's first experience of Sunday morning church at 6 weeks!

- My first time singing a set at Sanctuary since Noah was born! I love worshiping and I love singing! Noah did great being babysat by Auntie Stephanie!

Happy 6 weeks my beautiful boy!