Grandparents

Audrey misses her Maryland and Hawaii grandparents very much and they miss her like crazy too!  Here are some pictures for you, hal mu nees and ha rah buh jees!

Audrey with Maryland Grandma



And her Hawaii Grandparents



She can't wait to hang ten in Hawaii with her first bathing suit!



Audrey in her bath robe



Close your eyes, boys!



She's really smiling a lot recently.  Especially right after Mommy and Daddy give her a big smooch on the lips.



She's already showing her depravity.  Audrey, it's not nice to make fun of people.



Here, she is either posing like her friend Mr. Ty, or she is trying to be intimidating.  You choose.



On a side note, Mike's really been enjoying grilling up steaks on Joan and Dale's little grill (thanks for letting us borrow it, Shims!).  He makes a mean rib eye.

Attack of the Lizard Part 1

What a strange day! (this is quite long...if you don't want to read, just ask me about it later.)

My parents came from Hawaii Sunday night, the same night that Mike left for Denver on a business trip.  All was going well Monday morning.  My parents got to play with Audrey, they made me a wonderful breakfast, and we were enjoying each other's company.  But once they left to run some errands, my stomach started to feel queezy.  It turns out that I got the stomach flu that's been going around at church.

After a few hours of battling the nausea, I finally felt a little better.  Let's just say the breakfast didn't stay in too long.  Then, I took Audrey downstairs to feed her.  As I was feeding her, I was thankful that I was feeling better and praying that she wouldn't get sick from me.  All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving.  I was almost scared to look because I had a feeling that it didn't belong inside our house.  Well, I did look and my heart skipped a beat when I realized that there was a LIZARD in my living room, right next to the couch where I was sitting with my baby in my arms!  My gut reaction was to panic and repeat, "O my goodness, O my goodness."  What was I to do?  Why was there an 8-inch lizard in my house? Let me tell you that I did NOT have a gentle and quiet spirit at this time.

I was glad to see the phone right in front of me and called my dad.  I sobbed and screamed while I told him my predicament and demanded that he and my mom come home right away.  However, they were stuck in traffic and it would be another 20 minutes before they got home.  Aaah!  After we hung up, I realized that something had to be done.  Since the lizard slithered behind the piano, I thought it would be safe for me to leave Audrey on the couch while I got our bottle of Raid Max (as if that would have killed it).  I sprayed and it started to come back out.  I then ran to grab a bowl from the kitchen so that I could trap him underneath until my parents came home.  But, I was grappled by intense fear that it would be too fast for me to trap him, so I gave up and grabbed Audrey so we could go upstairs.

I called my dad again while approaching the stairs and saw that the lizard was following me!!  I was screaming uncontrollably on the phone and my mom tried to give me some comfort:

me:  AAAAHHH!  Please come home quickly!  It's moving!  It's on the baby's blanket now!  AAAAHHH!

mom:  Sue, it's okay.  It is part of God's creation.

Obviously, this did not comfort me AT ALL.  She later told me that she was totally scared too and just tried to remain calm for my sake.  However, the whole time, she was thinking of calling Animal Control Services to come and rescue me.

Audrey and I finally found shelter upstairs in her room and I decided to call Mike in Denver.

me: (trying to remain calm so as not to panic him) Hi honey.  How are you?

mike:  Good!  How are you?

me: Uh, I'm upstairs right now...and there's a reason why I'm here.

mike: Why?

me: BECAUSE THERE'S A LIZARD IN OUR LIVING ROOM!  (I proceeded to tell him the story.)

mike:  Ha ha ha ha ha!  Well, you know the lizard can go upstairs too, right?

me:  Well then, I'll close the doors.

mike: You know it can go under the doors too, right?

me: Well then, I'll put towels underneath.

By this time, I was exasperated, but I knew that Mike was probably using his sense of humor to try to comfort me.  Besides, what could he do from Denver?

My parents finally came home and I stayed upstairs, feeling quite nauseous again and trying to catch my breath from almost hyperventilating.  At the same time, I was happy that my dad was here to catch our unwelcome house-guest.  I heard him shuffling things around to find him when all of sudden, I heard someone play the piano.

mom:  Honey, don't play right now, Audrey's sleeping.

dad:  Okay.

me: MOM!

mom:  Yeah?

me: WHY IS DAD PLAYING THE PIANO!  TELL HIM TO CATCH THE LIZARD!  O MY GOODNESS!

mom:  Okay.

My dad has been working part-time as an apprentice to a piano tuner for the past few months.  I guess since he didn't see the lizard behind the piano, he kind of gave up and decided to start tuning our piano instead.  So I came downstairs and begged him to re-start his search for the creature and confessed that I wouldn't be able to come back downstairs until I knew it was gone.  Since I was almost crying, I think he understood how desperate I was and started looking for it again.

mom:  (while putting groceries away in the kitchen)  Oh, here it is!

me:  AAAAAHHHHHH!

Fortunately, my dad had a large wooden stick in his hand and cleverly killed it by smashing its neck.  After he picked it up and threw it out, I finally felt like I could breathe normally again.  The day ended with another episode of the stomach virus and battling a fever in bed, but I was SO thankful to the Lord.  He brought my parents to visit from Hawaii at just the right time...so they could catch the lizard and take care of me while Mike was gone.  The Lord is good!

Some pics to end this long entry:

Our first real picture together as a family



Proud papa



Audrey with her friend Jack, who was born on the same day, at the same hospital.  His parents are friends of ours, whom we met during our lamaze classes.



Audrey has just started to learn how to soothe herself to sleep.  She found her thumb!



She's also been very fascinated by her own hands.



Hello everyone!

One Month Old

Audrey's one month old!

This month has really flown by and we are so thankful for having her in our family.  It's been a huge learning curve for us as parents, but every week seems to get better and mommy is getting a little more sleep at night now.  An added blessing is being able to get back to church, which I missed SO much.

It's amazing how a baby's bodily functions can cause adults to run to the Lord.  Many times, I've prayed for help and for God to calm my anxious heart and now I see that diaper rashes and sleepless nights and eye discharge and fussy spells are blessings in disguise because they remind me to run to the Lord and depend on Him for all things.  And He is truly gracious for inclining His ear to our prayers.

I've uploaded some pictures especially for Audrey's grandparents and a few aunties and uncles who are out of the country so that they can see her grow!

Mike and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary on July 27th at Tommy's Sushi.  It was the first time that we were both away from Audrey, but she was in Maryland Grandma's loving hands, so we weren't worried at all.  It was really nice to spend some alone time together and we're looking forward to many more dates.  Anyone up for babysitting?



When Mike gets home from work, Audrey has some play time with Daddy.  Well, she doesn't play much yet, so Daddy and I have fun playing with her while we're trying to wake her up for her next meal.  One night, Mike was being really creative...

Here's Audrey's impersonation of George Washington...



And Aunt Jemima



And Napoleon



She is really precious when she's asleep.



When her tummy's full, she doesn't mind getting her diaper changed.  She's really really relaxed...



She loves getting kisses from Mommy and Daddy!



She also loves listening to Pastor James' sermons on Auntie Jane's ipod.



"Mommy, are you taking pictures of me while I'm trying to sleep?"



"Please, please let me sleep...please?"

Audrey LOVES  taking baths and her grandma gives her the best baths a baby could ask for.  Here, she's thinking..."Oooh...I can't wait to get in the water!"



"Aaah, this feels gooooood."



"I could stay in here forever!"



"All done...now it's time for me to go night night..."

Audrey Is Here!

Introducing the 3rd member of the Lee family...Audrey Rebecca Lee !

Thank you, everyone, for all your prayers and encouragement during the pregnancy and now as we are the grateful parents of our sweet baby girl.  We are enjoying much blessing having her in our home and everyday, we're just so in awe of God's handiwork in bringing her to us.  She is 11 days old as of today.  It's definitely been a huge learning curve for us as brand new parents, but we're getting to know her and she's getting to know us more and more each day.  The sleepless nights and the "what do we do now?" moments are causing us to depend on the Lord in ways we've never had to before.  And He's so faithful in answering our prayers because it's getting better and better as days go by.  Please join us in praying for her salvation, that He would draw her to Himself as a worshiper of Christ and that He would cause Mike and I to faithful teachers of His Word as we live it out ourselves.

Now, for the pictures! Here's one of the last pictures Mike and I took together before Audrey arrived.  I think we took this either before the Pitocin (labor-inducing drug) kicked in, or after the miraculous epidural.  That's probably why I was smiling on the bed.  Hee hee.



Audrey entered the world on July 4th, 2005 at 7:53 AM.  She measured 19 inches and weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces.  The Lord definitely gave us much grace during the labor to be able to push her out.  Mike was the best coach ever and helped me through every contraction.  It was an experience the two of us will never forget.  Here he is, cutting her umbilical cord!



We got to bring her home after spending two nights at the hospital.  Here she is, getting ready for her first car ride!



Here is a Mommy's view of our little girl while nursing.  Although breastfeeding is not the easiest thing to learn, I'm really enjoying the time to cuddle with her and feed her.  She's a great eater!



Mike has the magic daddy touch on Audrey.  When she's fussy, he holds her and calms her down in an instant.  She's already Daddy's little girl and Daddy LOVES cuddling with her!



Audrey had a bit of jaundice when she came home and so the doctor had her go through some phototherapy using special bililight blanket pads that she had to wear for 24 hours each day for a week.  She was such a trooper!  Here's a picture of our little gloworm.



Because of her jaundice, the nurse came by every morning to draw her blood.  Here is a picture of her little tiny foot.  We think she has Mike's feet.  Can't you tell from looking at her vienna sausage toes?



Audrey would like to invite you all to her toga party!



Daddy gave Audrey her very first sponge bath.  He did a great job and she was a good sport, although it was a bit shocking to her.  We're looking forward to putting her in the bathtub for next time, since her umbilical cord has fallen off now.  More pictures of naked wet baby coming soon.



She was happy that the bath was over.  Here she is, cuddling with Daddy while drying off.



Looking at these pictures, Mike and I can tell that our girl is growing up so fast because she already looks a little different.  It brings me to tears thinking about her growing up! I think we're going to be enjoying and capturing every little moment with her.  Praise God for this precious gift!  Again, please pray with us, that her heart would be soft to His Word and that we would be faithful parents and followers of Christ.

Car Accident

An interesting day...

Mike and I had a pretty eventful day yesterday.  I was on my way to my Dr.'s appointment, when I was rear-ended on the freeway during traffic.  We're SO thankful because the damage was minimal and nobody was hurt.  Praise the Lord for His protection!  I was sent over by my midwife to the hospital to be monitored because of the accident, since it's standard procedure for any pregnant woman past her 20th week to undergo such an exam.  I thought it would be simple exam, but it was a little more involved.  I had to change into a gown, get settled into a hospital bed and have 2 straps over my belly to monitor Baby's heartbeat and my contractions.  It was to take about 4 hours to monitor me and get back results from different blood tests.

The cool thing was that the Dr. did an ultrasound to make sure my placenta was not injured...and we got to see Baby!  The last time we had un ultrasound was at 19 weeks, so it was so neat to see how much he/she had grown since then.  We saw him/her moving around and saw a profile of his/her face, too!  The Dr. asked if we wanted to see if Baby was a girl or boy and it was SO tempting to find out, but we thought..."We've waited this long...what's another 2 or 3 weeks?"  So we declined (with much hesitation), but we're glad we decided to wait.

It turns out I was having a lot of contractions...every 1 to 6 minutes and I was 2 cm. dilated.  I could feel the pressure, but the contractions were not painful.  Because of that, the Dr. decided to keep me overnight to monitor me just in case I was to go into labor.  So Mike went all the way home, got our "labor suitcase", and came back (thanks to Miriam for driving him!)  He slept next to me in a recliner chair and we had our first hospital overnight experience together.  They discharged me this morning because I did not dilate any further and now we're waiting for God's timing in the arrival of our little one.

The whole time, I was wondering...what does God want us to learn from this?  Why would He sovereignly have allowed this to happen?  I have to admit that when I was hit, I was upset because I knew it would mean that the rest of the day wouldn't go as planned, and that we would have to take the time to get our car repaired.  But I'm glad that the Lord reminded us that we need to have a thankful heart no matter what comes our way...planned or unplanned.  He is surely in control and all things for His heavenly purposes.  So, it was good to try to exercise a worshipful and thankful heart, rather than complaining about little inconveniences.

Another thing we are learning is to trust in Him in every circumstance and humbly rely on Him.  We know that this is just the beginning...we'll have plenty more opportunities while raising our child, to rely on Christ and not on ourselves, to trust in Him during trials or unexpected events.  So we're thankful for this little lesson that we've learned!

Changing careers

Changing careers

Hi everyone!  The bell has just rung here at school and that means that I just finished teaching my last French class!  The next two days are minimum days for final exams (i love scantrons!) and then I turn in my keys on Friday morning.  It's a little surreal.  I'm so thankful for so many things.  Here are a few things that I thank the Lord for:

1. I'm thankful that God has placed me in such a wonderful working environment these past 4 years.  I couldn't have asked for a better place to work.  They kids were SO respectful, courteous, and fun to be around everyday!  And God really didn't overlook any detail in sovereignly providing this job for me.  For example, one year, Mike and I had to carpool everyday and He made it so that my job was only 7 minutes from Mike's work.  Isn't the Lord so good even in the little things?  Oh, and then there's summer vacation. Who wouldn't thank God for summer vacation?

2. I'm thankful for His patience.  I know I've shared in the "Sunday blues" with many of you, thinking about yet another draining work week.  Yet despite my many complaints, the Lord was so gracious to me.  Every time I asked the Lord for strength to get through the day, He provided abundantly.

3. I'm thankful for the chance to develop relationships with the lost. Some people think that as a teacher, it's hard to share the Gospel with students.  But really, so many young people are going through so much trouble in their lives and when they know you're a Christian, they come to you for help.  I know I could have been SO much more bold and faithful, but I'm thankful for those times He's allowed me to share Christ with these young ones who need Him so desperately.  I pray that my relationships with some of them will continue to develop even when I'm home.

4. I'm thankful for the opportunities God has given me to learn that although I was working, my real job was being a wife.  I remember times when I gave myself pep-talks throughout the day saying, "Hey, save up some energy...your real job starts when you get home!"  I wasn't perfect at it, but it was a good lesson to learn.

5. Now, I'm thankful for the chance to prepare for my new career...being a stay-at-home wife and mom.  I know that it will be much more difficult than being a teacher...but I know that parenthood has a whole different set of blessings that I'm really looking forward to.

Soon to come...pictures of Jeanne and Andrew (so cute!) and Jane's upcoming graduation from UCLA!

Andrew and Jane's Graduation

Our friends, Jeanne & Hyunmin are back in the States for a while this summer.  Their son, Andrew, has grown SO much...he is a little man now!

And Jeanne is such a great mommy...I'm learning so much from her already.

This past weekend was Jane's graduation from UCLA.  Our parents from Hawaii were able to come out to California for a few days to spend time with us before the big day.  Here we are after the ceremony. We're all so proud of her!

A lot of our Cornerstone friends were able to come too.  Thanks for coming, everyone!

After the graduation, we had a little party at Jane's apartment and then some of our friends helped her move to her new place in Cerritos.  Thanks to Daniel and Reuben for lending us their time and their muscles!  They decided to make the move into the house a little more fun than usual, so instead of moving everything the traditional way, they decided to move EVERYTHING via the balcony.  It was fun to watch!