Our Busy, Busy Life

A few days after my last post Réka and Owen (Word of Life BI graduates) came to visit us. We haven't seen them for so many years, and were very glad to have the chance to see them again. Since Timi and Randall (also WOL BI graduates) were in Indy that time, and they decided to come, too. Karen and Becky came as well, so we had a little WOL Hungary reunion.

Timi and Randall have 2 children, Gracie (2 years old) and David (7 months old). Amy and Gracie had a good time playing together, last time they did that was back in Hungary right before we left for the States. Timi and Randall invited us over to their place and Amy was the exact same age David is now. Time flies by so fast! I honestly can't believe it has been a year since we left Hungary.

Playing with Gracie

Although they couldn't stay for long, it was awesome to be able to talk to them again. We love all of them very much. I was reminded once more how I would love to live in a huge house with other families. I love having people over and am just so thankful for the opportunity we had.

We started to go to Cornerstone Bible Church here in Terre Haute (http://www.cbcth.org/). It is a very small church with a lot of kids (about 35-40 adults attend church each Sunday). We love it there! They have a new pastor, and we really like him and his wife. Their first child was born a week ago. Cornerstone Bible Church supports the Weavers, Dave preached there before, the church's previous pastor taught at Word of Life Hungary, and I could go on with the list of connections we have to that church.

Although it was a very tough decision to leave our church in Paris, IL, we believe that it was the right choice. Paris is too far away to meet with the members of the church on a daily basis. So even though we love our church in Paris, we wanted to be more involved with our church. That's why we decided to find a church in our town.

An interesting fact about Cornerstone is that their worship band has drum, electric guitar, bass guitar, and 3 brass instruments. It is quite an experience to listen to them. They are very good! Also, most (if not all) of the  younger kids are girls.

They have a lot of girls under the age of 6. Amy loves to play with them, she fit in right away. We cannot wait to get to know the church members better. They are all so friendly and caring.

I had the opportunity to meet Dave's parents for the first time. Dave's sister came to visit us as well. We had a great time together! Although I communicated with them through the phone and via e-mail before, I was very happy that I could finally meet them in person. We love them so much! : )

I have been cooking everyday since we moved into our new home. I cook at least once a day. I couldn't believe how much cheaper it is if I cook. I was convinced that it is much more expansive, but I was totally wrong. I love cooking, and since Chris is home by 12:10pm everyday, he eats with us, too.

Finally the weather got cooler, so we were able to go out with Amy everyday. There is a playground very close to our house, and Amy loves the slide and the swing there. Chris had his vacation this week, so we spent all day together everyday this week. It was so much fun! He took us to "National Night Out," and we really enjoyed it. He took me to Long John Silver's the other day (I have never been to one before). We had a great week!

Amy had her first dental check-up (she didn't really enjoy it) but the dentist said that she is doing good, and has all the teeth she should. We also had a doctor's appointment the other day and she is 34 inches (according to them, I think she is only 32 inches) and 22.9 lbs. She is developing well, and does everything she should at this age. She started to learn new words everyday, so she knows more than 40 words now. I love to see how fast she is learning. It is amazing! Her favorite body part is her bellybutton, but she also knows where her legs are, arms are, belly is, head is, eyes are, ears are, mouth is, and nose is. I am not sure anymore if she knows more English words or Hungarian, and if she understands English better or Hungarian.

Another big news is that Dave's new book is available now! If you would like to check it out (or read about it) click here.  Click here if you are interested in buying the book, or here if you would like to buy the kindle version. Berean Call published it, and I can promise you, you will not regret having it. Chris and I had the privilege to follow the process of the book being written and then being published, and I must say, God put everything in place so that this book could be published in record time. I am sure He will use this book in the lives of many.

We are really thankful for you and for your friendship. We cannot emphasize enough that we would love to hear from you! We are always so encouraged by those who update us on their lives.

 God bless you all!

House #3 or House #5

Hi there,

Wow. I guess that says it all. We moved into our new house 3 weeks ago, and we cannot be more happy. 

I finished this semester last Friday (July 13), and I never before wished to be done with school this much. It was the hardest semester so far, and I was/am ready for a break. : )

For my Astronomy class, I had to look through a good telescope. Uncle Kevin was kind enough to let me use his awesome 8" telescope. I took quite a few pictures through his telescope, if anyone is interested, you can click here to save the folder to your computer. I love Saturn, but the Moon that night was truly amazing. Thank you again, Kevin, for letting me use your telescope!

So back to the house. We love it! The moving didn't take us longer than 3-4 hours (including loading the truck and unloading it). A friend of Chris' from the TV channel, Matt, helped us move. I unpacked everything the same day except the clothes. Those needed to wait until the next day.

Chris has his own office (in the basement), Amy her own room and new bed, and she has a whole big "playroom" as well. We are so grateful for this house!

This is our 3rd house we live in by ourselves (we rented 2 in Hungary and now we bought this one), but it is the 5th house we had to unpack our stuff in and pack our stuff again when we left (we lived at my parents house for a little bit before we left for the States, and we lived at Chris' parents' house before we moved into this house). So we are not doing bad!

In 2 years, we got married, had a baby, lived in 3 or 5 (whichever you want to count) houses, bought a car and a house. Chris also got a job meanwhile. Yep, life is happening. : )

This year was the first time Amy or I had the chance to celebrate July 4th. We went to Dave's and Karen's place and had a great meal with Ken (Karen's brother) and Becky. It was a privilege to be able to celebrate July 4th with my family. Thank you, Karen, for inviting us and for the awesome food!

We also had the chance to go pick up Monca, a dear missionary friend from Word of Life Hungary, in Indy and she stayed with us for a week. We were very happy to have her at our place (she was our very first guest). Amy thought they were best friends, so she followed Monca wherever she went (and I mean  WHEREVER...). Since both Monca and I had school work to do, we both studied most of the time she was here, so we didn't get to hang out that much, but I was just so glad that she is here. You know you are poor when a missionary is feeding you... Well, as it turned out, Monca came to feed us : ). She brought a lot of food with her and never took it, she also bought several things while she was here that she never took with herself when she left. So now we have plenty of food : ). Thank you Monca!

She also spent almost all her nights at our church's VBS. She loved it, and each night when she came home at around 11pm, she would tell me how awesome it was. She is on furlough now, if you are interested in supporting her or you just want to see more of what she is doing, click here to see her blog. You will find pictures of Amy and Chris in one of her blog post. 

Amy knows over 20 words (she loves to learn new ones and would repeat almost anything I say). She knows 10 animal sounds (dog, cat, mouse, lion, bird, duck, sheep, owl, cow, fish), and she knows more than 15 signs!

She is truly an amazing baby! We are so happy to have her. She cracks me up so many times. Her favorite thing is to hide now, so she honestly can hide behind objects and stay quiet for so long that I am worried. She is a good hider : ). I think I couldn't find her 3 times so far. But then she has the hiccups and all is solved : ).

Here are some pictures of the house:

The yard... well, we need rain. The garage is in the back.

Bathroom #1. This one has a bath, the other one only has a shower.

Amy's room

Kitchen

Living Room #1

Fireplace in the Living Room

Amy's "play room" (Living room #2)

This room has a humongous window. 

Front

Side

Back

Car, House, and Very Many Blessings

Dear friends,

We started this blog 2 years ago. Yup, that means that we came back from our honeymoon 2 years ago. It seems like it was yesterday. Since then, you could read about what is going on in our lives every month. We would ask you to update us, too! We really want to hear from you!

This months we bought our very first car (yes, we own a vehicle now), and moved into our house (yes, we bought a house). But lets take it up where we left off... that is, Hungary.

Regi, Noi, and Amy

I was able to meet Kelly Davidson for the first time (I heard so much about her, she worked at Word of Life Hungary before I went there), who was the speaker of this year's Women Conference. I was also able to see many of my dear friends, and some of the babies who were born when we left for the States (9 months ago). I was so happy to have the opportunity to go to some of the staff people's houses and just talk with them. Timi and Monca were kind enough to let me and Amy stay with them for almost a week. To my surprise quite a few recent graduate of the Bible Institute came to the graduation, so I could see them, too. It was so good to hear how passionate they all are about God. The graduation ceremony was absolutely amazing! I was so glad to be there on Becky's graduation.

with great grandmother

Once I left Word of Life, I had one more day at "home" (at my parent's house) before we left for the States. I packed, realized that I still cannot take all the things I would want to with me, spent time with my family and  friends, and eventually went to bed. Dave, Karen, Amy, and I had the same flights on the way back (we were able to switch one of our flights so that we could go all the way together). It was a lot easier trip than the one to Hungary. Amy didn't sleep more than 3 hours altogether, but she was a lot happier this time. : ) I cannot tell you how awesome it was to be able to hug and be hugged by my husband! I missed him so very much!

Since we are back we bought a car. Actually it was the first day we went to look for cars, and we only looked at one other before this one. God blessed us with a 2002 Pontiac Grand Am, and since then we have all the paperwork (registration, license plate, insurance, etc.) done. This car is really good! I loved to drive before, but now it is even more fun! : )

House #3

So we just (as in today!) bought a house! This is the first house we actually own, the last two houses we rented (not counting Dave's and Karen's house). So this is house #3 in 2 years. Not bad! : )
It is about 2200 square feet, 3 bedroom, 2 bathrooms. Nice yard, and garage. They left quite a few furniture in the house (3 beds, 2 recliner, 2 sofa chair, couch, crib, and other) and the kitchen is fully equipped.
We will post pictures of the inside in our next blog post. We are moving in either this weekend or the beginning of next week. Exciting!

There is a park with a nice playground 2 minutes from the house. How cool! God is good!

Pics of the graduation:

Pics of our last day:

   

Visiting Hungary

Hi,

So now I can tell you all about our surprise visit. In February, we decided that Amy and I would like to go to Hungary with Dave (my father-in-law), who was planning on being in Hungary for 3 weeks. He goes to Hungary every year; he is one of the guest teachers at Word of Life Hungary. Chris could not plan on coming because he does not have any vacation days yet at his full-time job (he only worked there for 6 months).

So when we bought our tickets, I thought it would be awesome if we just showed up in Hungary and not let anyone know that we are going. So I didn't tell anyone :). I had to make sure that BBC is fine with me being in Hungary for almost a month (I have 2 classes starting on May 21), I also had to make sure that the doctor is fine with Amy getting her shots in Hungary (she needed to get 4 shots in May), there were some other minor issues I had to deal with before we left, and finally I had my driver's skill test.

with Grandma and Great-grandma

April 18

Chris and Amy took me to the BMV in Terre Haute and although I love driving, parallel parking is not my favorite thing (especially because I never had to do it for real, so it wasn't something I was comfortable with).  We did go practice parallel parking a few times, but I definitely didn't feel that I could do it anytime.

So I got in the car, did what the instructor asked me to do, and by God's grace I could parallel park without any problems! So I did pass! My driver's license came in the mail a week later. I am so very thankful for it! I cannot emphasize enough how much I love driving!

May 3-4

Flowers from my dad for Mother's Day

We started our 26-hour journey on May 3rd. We had 3 flights and arrived May 4th. Amy did not want to sit and only slept 2 and a half hour on the long flight and another hour on the last flight. I wasn't able to sleep at all, and right after we arrived, we went to see my niece graduate from High School. We had time to take a shower and change our cloths and we were off to see her graduation. 

When we arrived at my parents house (right after we landed), only my grandma was at home, and my dad came a few minutes later. Both of them were shocked to see us and first didn't believe their eyes. We called my mom at school who came home running to see us. Then we went to see the rest of my family at the graduation (who had no idea we are coming), so I met my siblings and their families and some other relatives the same day we got to Hungary.

With Zsombor (he was born 4 days after Amy)

May 5-12

Amy let me go to sleep at 3am (for the first time since we left America) on Saturday. I was up for 39 hours straight. Amy was gracious enough to sleep 4 hours and then she was up for the day. That meant that by the end of Saturday I was up for 60 hours with only 4 hours of sleep. She didn't take any naps the first week at all, but she did sleep at night (for 6-8 hours). It was a huge change from what I was used to, she normally sleeps 12 hours at night and takes several naps during the day.

Many of our friends came to visit us, we had Mother's Day on May 6 (it is always the first Sunday of May in Hungary), my dad's birthday on the 9th, and we went to have Amy's 15 months check-up. She is 20.5 pounds and 31.5 inches (almost exactly half my height).

May 13-18

with Grandpa

We had the "American" Mother's Day on May 13 (it pays off to be multicultural) : ). Amy got her shots and we had more people over! She seems to be sleeping more (even taking naps!) and feels more comfortable around my parents. She loves being outside, and enjoys our beautiful garden every time we take her out.

I also started working on my school papers and assignments, I will start my Summer classes May 21. The two courses I have are Astronomy and Understanding Science. I know almost nothing about either, so it will be a huge challenge. I love how Chris knows everything about everything, so I just need to call him and ask him about the different subjects and he explains it right away. I cannot wait to be with him again and study with him. On that note, I would have never thought it will be this hard not to be with my hubby. I hate it!!! I was crying almost every night before I would go to sleep. It's awful being without him.

I am so thankful to all the people who could come and see us and all the people who invited us to their homes. I am so blessed! We are going to visit Word of Life Hungary for a few days and cannot wait to see all the people there! Please pray for our flight back, Amy didn't like the "fun" on the way here and I would love for her to cry at least a little less. : ) Also, please pray that we would fit in our suitcases. When we left for the States 8 months ago, we left many things here (we didn't have space for them) and I will try to bring as many things back as possible.

Have an awesome day! Thank you for reading our blog!

Watch Out, I Have a Driver's License Now!

Dear friends,

We are getting closer and closer to have our own house. The reason we moved to the States was (and still is) to study, finish school and move on to serve as missionaries in a closed country, or wherever the Lord wants us to be. We were looking for houses to rent for the past 6 months, but since mortgage is so much cheaper on a monthly basis, we decided to go with buying a house instead, due to our financial situation. So we made an offer on a house and first we were rejected, so we made another offer on the same house and we will see what happens. We know that God has a plan for us and we cannot wait to see what it is and where it is : ).

I was also able to finally go and do the driver's skill test (I did it the first day I could, after the required 180 days). It was 71 degrees outside and a 110 inside the car (at least it felt like it), but nonetheless I passed! : ) So now I have my very own driver's license! Here we come Terre Haute, you better watch out! I love driving, if gas was free, I would be driving almost all the time. Of course in Hungary they would say, "You are not really driving... You are driving an automatic car... Let me emphasize it, "automatic!" When you use stick shift, that's when you are driving." : ) But I enjoy this "fake" driving a lot!

As far as school goes, I love that, too! So far I got very good grades (I only had 4 classes), and I enjoy it a lot! I am very excited to learn more and I love the discussion forums. My classmates are awesome and my Professors are great! I couldn't ask for any better! I also have time for Amy, which is the most important right now.

Amy is growing and learning very fast. She understands English, Hungarian, and Sign Language. She says "hi," and "please;" she signs "ball," "sleep," "please," "eat," and she can clap her hands when asked to. She doesn't say any Hungarian words yet, but she understands a whole bunch of stuff in Hungarian as well, as that is the main language I use while talking to her. She knows what the dog, cat, owl, and cow say. She loves to spin, walk backwards, climb up the recliner and then rock it, and she loves to give hugs and kisses when she is in the mood. She is a very active little girl. She is non-stop. I sure lost weight just watching her go. We cannot wait for Becky (Chris' sister) to come back to the States so that we can have some fun with her.

Chris is still working at WTHI Channel 10, and he likes it there. When he comes home, he has to work some more from home to help us financially. He loves playing with Amy and Amy loves playing with him. We are able to go our more, so we do! : ) Now that I don't need any more hours for my driver's license (I needed to drive 50 hours before I could get it), he can finally drive with us in the car. Although I enjoy driving a lot, it is very nice to just sit next to my hubby and enjoy the ride : ).

We are very grateful for our family, church family, friends, and everyone else who reads our blog. We are encouraged by your e-mails, so please keep them coming! : )

Have a wonderful day!

The James family