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This year has brought joy, adventure, surprises, and more than anything has continually opened our eyes to God’s grace in our lives. The biggest and brightest blessing was the birth of Micah Daniel on Saint Patricks Day! He truly is such a happy baby who is full of life and joy. His smiles are contagious and people notice wherever we are. Whether we are standing in an immigration line in another country, at the grocery store, or strolling through Disney World, people smile right back at him. This year was also marked by the beginnings of Eli’s speech journey. It’s a journey that few have to take but we have seen how Eli’s resilience, perseverance, and personality are already helping him make great strides. Another theme of the year was wrapped up in the privilege to be able to travel for important events like giving birth and renewing visas but at the same time brought many challenges due to what felt like constant transition and travel. Another important milestone and educational journey for me was trusting my mom gut when I noticed my newborn was developing plagiocephaly (head flatness). Both of our boys have been so tight on one side of their body from the womb that they had torticollis. Micah’s resulted in slight flattening which I was able to help resolve through Baby Begin’s remote coaching. It was absolutely worth the investment. I realized there are many misconceptions and incorrect information even passed through health care providers. Feel free to reach out to me if you want to hear more of our story about this too. As I reflected on the past year, there were about a dozen specific people who stuck out the most as life-giving people who helped me through certain seasons, sharpened me, or spurred me on. I praise God for my husband who is always by my side ready to walk through each and every season hand-in-hand together. Some of the others were dear expat friends, a national friend, my doctor, extended family, and our speech therapist who we love and respect so much that she already feels more like family too.

total flights: 20

international trips: 3

animals we saw in South Asia:
-an elephant near the road
-monkey in our neighborhood
-a leopard cat in our neighborhood
–orange oakleaf butterfly (looks exactly like a dead leaf when wings are closed)

symbols: reflections specific to…

🤰Pregnancy in South Asia and transitions 👶🏼postpartum and transitions 🗣️Eli’s speech journey

🧢Micah’s Plagiocephaly journey ✈️ flights 🚙 road trips

January

🤰In January, I was 7 months pregnant. We started the year off with Saturday Sabbath hikes and outdoor garden play with Eli. My dear friend hosted a mothers blessing shower for another friend and I. It was simply perfect!

Eli got sick 🤢 on the way home and then on an international trip ✈️ ✈️ ✈️ ✈️ at the end of the month I got a bug and followed suit during a travel day. A friend who needed a place to stay came to live with us for a few weeks before we temporarily moved to another city in February to wait for baby boy to arrive.

Flights taken: 4

February

In February, I made a Big Brother Book to prepare Eli for the upcoming transition. We took 1.5 mile morning walks to get fresh produce, passing the little shops at the top of our road and donkeys beginning a days work of hauling sand and bricks for construction.

🤰We packed everything we would need for the next few months into several bags and on the 13th, moved 🚙 ✈️ to the opposite end of our host country to a city we had never been to. I researched where I wanted to give birth and found a place that we felt comfortable with. The care we received ended up being wonderful but the nearly complete isolation and lack of community support around us for two months took a huge mental, spiritual, and emotional toll on our family.

Our dear friends took some maternity photos of us before we left our city and the amazing photographer we hired in the birth city did a free photo shoot at our little airbnb to capture our journey. Our photographer also has a little boy and let us borrow a big bag of books and cars since we couldn’t bring many toys with us. This was a huge blessing and ended up being the beginning of his car phase (which he is still in).

Flights taken: 1

March

🤰As we waited for baby to come, we filled our days with an abundance of family time that was truly unique– walks to the park and mall and rickshaw rides to a local lake and walking trail. We watched all the Cars movies, sipped fresh mint sodas, and ordered flavored coconut water to stay hydrated. I loved my doctor and felt good about where our baby would be born. I set up sensory play activities to keep Eli busy in our tiny apartment– sand and water play, play dough, and tin foil surprise. We had almost no natural light in our apartment and each window looked out at another sliver of the brick buildings next to us. We couldn’t see any civilization which was a little difficult for all of us. My due date came and went and I got an ultrasound at my 41 week appointment, thanking God everything was looking good. I curb walked, practiced spinning babies, and listened to affirmations in the Christian hypnobirthing app. I was trying to trust my baby and body but was getting antsy and ready for baby to come. On the 16th, we finally figured out what was causing bites all over my husbands body (and a few on me)– a bedbug infestation. Thankfully, the landlord bought us a new couch (where most of them were) within three hours. On March 17th, at 12:15 pm, Micah Daniel arrived. We were overjoyed and the medical staff was outstanding! We went home two days later and I held both boys, one on each lap, in a taxi on the ride home. Eli was having a hard time and wouldn’t have it any other way. Eleven days after birth, we did a photo shoot in the city with our photographer that resulted in the most beautiful family photos.

👶🏼The next day, we moved out of our airbnb since we only booked it until the end of the month. We had to predict how long we would need it months before giving birth.

Eli: 20 months

April

👶🏼The guest house we moved to had the sweetest housekeeper who cleaned up after us. She spoke a different language than we know so we couldn’t communicate a lot but we both laughed and smiled a lot. This was also a really difficult time as I was still recovering from a complicated situation and infection. Eli was not only getting used to the fact that there was a baby in the house but was going through an unusual amount of transition due to all our moves.

🗣️Things were compounded by the fact that he was still only saying mama and dada, leading to even more emotional outbursts and dysregulation that is expected at his age. Much later in the year, we had answers but it was very difficult in the moment.

👶🏼When Micah was exactly 3 weeks old, we finally had his birth certificate from the hospital in hand and flew ✈️ north. We stayed the night at a friend’s house and drove 5 🚙hours back home the next day, the day before Easter Sunday. We couldn’t have been more happy to be home and in our own space, surrounded by our “village” (both literally and figuratively 😉).

My housekeeper, who is my closest local friend, and her children showed up at our doorstep on Easter morning and welcomed us back. We had a gathering with other expats in the afternoon on a rooftop overlooking green fields below and mountain peaks above.

👶🏼Two days later, Tuesday, we flew ✈️ to the big city to go to the US Embassy and apply for Micah’s passport. We flew ✈️ back home on Thursday and I clicked the photo of precious Micah on my lap, Eli’s hand touching his baby brother’s face, Robby right next to me and two pacifiers clipped to my shirt. What a wild ride and we were finally going home to be back for a little while.

We gave Eli medication for a parasite cleanse after having “loose motions” (that’s what it’s called in South Asia) for weeks. We think it probably was parasites because two weeks later, everything cleared up. Eli enjoyed his first cup of chai, which would have happened nearly a year prior if he was a local babe. Chai generally has so much sugar that I held off as long as I could.

Flights taken: 3

May

At the very beginning of May, my parents landed in our city to meet their 4th grandchild. We had a wonderful three weeks together spent cooking, adventuring outdoors, seeing a few local sites, organizing our flat, and visiting friends. My parents played with Eli and rocked Micah to sleep. Among other things, my parents brought over a Baby K’Tan wrap which was a life saver since other baby carriers weren’t working well for me. We made fresh mango slushies nearly every day.

🧢I started to notice Micahs head shape and that he preferred turning to the right. I increased tummy time and started some stretches that a PT friend recommended. I also reached out to some speech pathology contacts regarding the fact that Eli wasn’t mimicking any words or saying many words besides “baby,” “mama,” and “dada.” I started to try some strategies that a few SLPs mentioned.

June

Eli loved Micah from the start but it continued to get sweeter. One day he even kissed the baby monitor when he saw Micah sleeping.

🗣️Eli said a few new words as I continued to work with him: “owee,” a version of “more” and “water”, “bapa (what we call my dad), and “daddy.”

Robby went out of town on a few short trips. I took the boys down four flights of stairs to play in the garden several times a week where we read books, had Bible time, and Eli played in his makeshift mud kitchen. We went on a short Saturday hike by a nearby stream. Our friends took care of Eli so we could go hammocking for our 6th anniversary date. We continued rhythms of family worship each night after dinner. Our housekeeper and friend were a huge help when I put both kids down for afternoon naps at the same time and Micah was fussy. She rocked him to sleep the South Asian way while I stayed with Eli. She sat cross-legged, laid Micah across her lap, covered him up with her dupata (scarf), bounced him and patted his belly until he drifted off to dreamland.

July

July was one of the most difficult months of the year and included probably one of the worst weeks of our entire time overseas. We flew✈️ to the big city, and stayed in a guest house for five days (over the 4th of July) while Robby went back and forth to a government office begging them to give us the correct documents so we could leave the country to get Micah’s visa. From there, we left the country in the nick of time to go on another trip ✈️to get Micah’s visa. It was complicated, stressful, and difficult, resulting in anxiety attacks, multiple bouts of extreme dysregulation for Eli, and we all ended up in tears at one time or another. International travel while three months postpartum with two under two was quite a feat to say the least. ✈️✈️

July happenings in our city: We saw an Elephant on our drive home one day. We had a simple mud kitchen birthday party for Eli’s 2nd birthday with two friends of his.

🧢I kept noticing Micah’s tight red neck and that his right turn preference wasn’t getting any better. We scheduled an online appointment with Baby Begin to address his tightness from the womb and head shape (Plagiocephaly). It ended up being the best decision and I learned to not “wait it out” like many health care providers told me.

I went on nature walks with the boys during church and one day we even spotted an orange oakleaf butterfly, a creature that instantly evoked wonder and awe for the Creator.

🗣️Eli had more frustration and dysregulation as he tried to communicate and couldn’t.

Flights taken: 4

August

Eli made Micah belly laugh! They are so happy together as brothers. We celebrated Robby’s birthday with a date out and family dinner at a local friend’s house. We all devoured our favorite chicken curry dish and Eli shoveled the rice and curry in his mouth with his hands, like a true South Asian. Micah’s head shape and tightness was making improvement through Baby Begin’s coaching.

We packed our bags minimally for a one month trip to the States to renew our five year business visas (can’t believe it had been that long already). It was monsoon and we woke up to fog on the morning of our flight. It was postponed but we quickly realized that the flight most likely wouldn’t leave that day from our city due to the weather. We had an international flight at midnight from the big city so we decided to throw everything in the car, drive 6.5 hours🚙, and catch a flight from another city, praying we would make it for our flight that night. We drove straight to the airport and someone met us there to take our car. We flew ✈️to the big city, visited some friends and took a taxi back to the airport at 10pm. We had a 9 hour flight✈️ to Paris with a 2 hr 30 min layover, then a 1 hr 45 min flight ✈️to Scotland with a 2 hr 45 min layover, and an 8 hr 40 min flight✈️ to Orlando. We went through some terrible moments trying to calm Eli down on one flight in particular. It was truly awful and we did everything we could to soothe him and help him calm down but mostly just had to wait out the rollercoaster of his emotions and exhaustion! On one particular flight, Micah cried really hard for 20 minutes and then went to sleep the rest of the flight because, by that time it was night in South Asia. We finally arrived in Orlando, made it through immigration and picked up our luggage. As I looked down at one of our 50-pound bags with a broken wheel that Robby was dragging through the airport, I realized that was exactly how we all felt at that very moment–making it by the skin of our teeth and barely awake after 48 hours of travel from our doorstep to my in-laws house.

After we got over jetlag, we loved time with family in sunny Florida. Eli even got to hug Mickey Mouse at Disney. His little heart was so full of excitement and seeing the joy in his face made the Disney magic come alive for us too. Micah turned five months.

Flights taken: 4

September

We Started September off with a quick stop to see my sister, her kids, my grandparents, and other family in Birmingham. ✈️✈️✈️✈️

🗣️After Micah was born and Eli was approaching 2 years old, I began looking up speech milestones and realized he wasn’t meeting them. My mom gut was concerned but assumed he had a normal speech delay and nothing would require too much time in the States. While I was still overseas, my mom helped set up a hearing and speech evaluation for Eli while we were planning to be Missouri for two weeks. We made it to Kansas City by the 4th for a hearing test for Eli which was passed with no issues. The next day, he had a speech evaluation at a major hospital in the area. He had under 10 words and many were un-intelligible. After talking with us and observing him, the speech pathologist said he had a severe expressive language delay. The word severe was pretty alarming to us and about a week later, we received news that we would be staying longer in the States, a decision we were happy about since Eli could get help. We quickly found an amazing speech therapist and she began working with Eli twice a week. Eli said more words including “uh oh” and “pop.”

We got plugged into church. We loved seeing my twin sister and her husband and my grandma who lives locally. Micah started solids.

Flights taken: 4

October

We put both boys in swimming lessons which was really fun and helpful! A house unexpectedly became available for us to move in to which allowed us to move out of my parents house. Micah loved trying new food. I shopped for warm clothes. People loaned us toys for the boys to play with. We soaked up fall and went to the pumpkin patch.

🗣️Eli said “go” and started putting two words together –“more, go” “more, mama.” Our speech therapist began testing for Eli which took several weeks. By the end of the month, she concluded that Eli has a rare speech sound disorder called Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). I watched all the therapy sessions and was researching Apraxia as well. I was coming to terms with this reality as well. I cried, grieved, and sent voice messages to my close friends 8,000 miles away across the world. Our world was turned upside down. I realized our one month trip had probably turned into a year or more in the States. But during this time, we praised God for his perfect timing in it all– us needing to come to the States at exactly this time, getting an evaluation done, finding an amazing SLP who was trained in treating Apraxia, and that we had an answer so quickly about his difficulty with communication and mimicking words.

November

We went on lots of walks to the park nearby. Eli loved walks with Robby and my dad downtown to the little train station. We went out for my birthday. The boys got more used to church nursery, something they had rarely been to in their life since separate childcare during church isn’t provided where we live overseas.

🗣️We started therapy specific to apraxia in mid November (DTTC). I watched 6 hours of free seminars about Apraxia from Dr. Strand on YouTube. We loved our Songs and Stories membership from Wee Talkers, led by two speech pathologists.

The boys took baths together and had lots of fun playing and dumping water. They also loved family worship with the guitar. Micah bangs on it like a drum and Eli strums it. We went to a live walk-through of the Christmas story and a local Christmas tree lighting event. I found a $6 bread machine at a thrift store and got back into making homemade bread, something I have missed. Eli’s first snow he could play in. We went to the zoo and touched stingrays. We enjoyed Thanksgiving with my parents and grandma.

December

We took a trip to Branson with my parents and met the most authentic Santa and Mrs. Clause you could ever imagine at the hotel. They even gave the kids handmade toys.

🗣️Eli said “open” for the first time–a word we have been modeling for months. Eli said his name for the first time during speech therapy and I screamed with joy from the other room.

We went to Yaya’s Alpaca Farm and fed adorable alpacas. We went to buy a vehicle from a local car dealer and when we asked how much it was, he said, “nothing. I’m giving this to you.” We were stunned. It is a perfect vehicle for our family and such a blessing. My dad made a train set for Eli! We were packed and ready to visit Robby’s family but the car wouldn’t start. The kind car dealer put a new battery in our vehicle for free. We drove South, 🚙 visiting family and friends along the way. We had a great time in Florida–went to Disney, picked out a Christmas tree, spotted alligators, and went on walks in the neighborhood.