A whole bunch of firsts

This week brought a whole bunch of firsts for our house:

First Subway Ride for Brynn 

Technically, this happened a few weeks ago, but I just found the picture on Ed’s phone 🙂 She did great, and its crazy to think this will be what she knows as she grows up, compared to riding in a car.

Side note – do you see how dirty Kinsley’s jacket is?  We have washed that thing 2-3 times since we have been here (and she has other jackets she alternates between too!) and it still gets so dirty so quick. Wanna know why New Yorkers wear so much black? There’s your answer!

First Lost Tooth (Kinsley) –

No kidding, her tooth has been loose for probably two months.  She would wiggle it a little here and there, just enough to play with it but not enough that it would hurt, and then she would break for a while. My sweet, cautious first born.  She doesn’t like pain, and just the thought of it potentially hurting when it came out overruled any excitement she may have for the tooth fairy visiting.  So, it stayed in her mouth loose for quite a while – actually, it stayed until her adult tooth came through the back and we told her that it HAD to come out to make room for the adult tooth. Once we got it out, she was ecstatic and said it only hurt for a second. But, notice it didn’t give her enough incentive to wiggle the other bottom front tooth that is loose…why? Because it hurts if she wiggles it too hard.  Oh, my drama-loving child.

Funny side note, when she put the tooth under her pillow that night, we switched it out for money and went to bed. She came running into our room early the next morning saying there was a lizard under her pillow (she isn’t super fond of lizards). Apparently, she felt for the tooth (or whatever the tooth fairy had left) and when she felt the dollar bill, she thought it was a lizard.  Again, no lack of drama.

First picture of our kids loving each other (not fighting) on their own accord – 

Okay, so this isn’t really the first time, and they don’t fight all the time, but these moments can sometimes feel like they are few and far between.  So this week, we celebrate it!

One Month Birthday for Brynn – 

Sweet little girl has survived one whole month in our crazy house.  She loves to be held, is 8 lbs 14 oz, and is loved immensely by her family (including her siblings!). She also LOVES her ergo – good thing since this city baby will be in it LOTS! We are so thankful she is happy and that everyone is transitioning pretty well.

So, this isn’t a first, but check out this beautiful picture Ed took on his way home from the city last night:

For three weeks (beginning this past week), we have three different groups of college students from around the country traveling to NYC for their Spring Break to do ministry here on campus.  They have visited (and will visit) campuses all throughout Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, engaging in spiritual conversations with students, doing surveys, holding informational meetings on campus, and getting trained on doing cross-cultural ministry and how to share the Gospel more effectively. Here is a picture of a training being held and part of the group of students that came this week.

Because Ed is helping to lead the summer project here in NYC, they spent last night recruiting these students to come spend the summer here in the city doing what they have been doing all week.  The impact they could have could be great! I heard this quote this week and was reminded even more of the impact of this city – “There are over 100 billionaires in the city and over 400,000 millionaires.”

As he was traveling home, he got to see this view.  This is one of the many reasons while we love NYC.  It really is a beautiful city – both in landscape and people.

This week has been a great one for ministry. Not only have we seen 7 people trust Christ on campuses all throughout the city, we have almost reached our goal for the number of spiritual conversations we want to have this semester (and it is only halfway through the semester), but Ed heard from a guy yesterday that he has been mentoring who is passionate about discipleship and evangelism and wants to be a leader at St. Johns University and start a Bible Study there. Its a guy that we would love to see lead, so the fact that the Lord lead him to take this step is HUGE!  We also launched our first Bible study this week in the dorm at Queens College through a girl who just recently became a believer (mentioned in our latest prayer letter) and are excited to see how the Lord uses this group to reach that dorm! And, 3 of those decisions for Christ were from right here in Queens (2 at Queens College and 1 at St. Johns).

Even beyond campus, the lady who mentored me in Raleigh connected me with a friend of hers from NC who knew a Chinese girl moving to the city. She knew the Chinese girl because her daughter had met her while involved with Cru at UNC and doing outreach to international students and they became good friends. This Chinese girl was moving to NYC to get a job and she was looking for housing and community.  After connecting us, the Chinese girl (who we are not sure is a believer and has parents high up in the Communist party in China) came to church with us this week and will hopefully be joining us for dinner soon.  I am excited to get to know her better and even see where she is in her spiritual journey.

As you can see, the Lord is doing fun things throughout this city and we are excited to see how He continues to move.

Thank you for your prayers over the last few months…this week is the first week in a long time that I have started to see glimmers of feeling like I have community here, just enjoying the city, and seeing how the Lord is using or can use us here. Your prayers, support, and encouragement is a huge part of this!

That being said, one huge way you can pray for us this week is this – they placed our girls in two different elementary schools for next year (long story and speaks to how screwed up some things are in this city). For quite a number of reasons, this would be really difficult and almost impossible to have them in two different places. We are working on getting it resolved quickly, but have been told we may have to wait until this summer to find out if they can be together.  Pray that we would find out something quickly and they would move Emerson to be in Kinsley’s school so Kinsley doesn’t have to move schools again.  Thanks for your prayers!

 

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