Happy New Year, friends! I want to share a pretty big life update for our family coming into 2020.
Brandon has been offered a position with the amazing organization, 1MILLIONHOME. They are doing incredible work worldwide by helping orphanages to transition their services away from residential care to reintegrating children back into their families. We are very excited for Brandon to be joining their team, and have been so impressed by the ways they have already cared so well for our family leading up to his starting.
And so with this new position comes a new season of life for us as this summer we will be moving from California to Seattle, Washington. 1MillionHome has graciously allowed Brandon to start his new position (January 2) while we are still in CA, but then will move the 6 of us up to the PNW once our kids have finished this current school year. Again, the care they have shown us has been huge. And after experiencing so much transition the last couple years, it blesses my heart to see our kids considered in this way.
With all of these new things and with the opportunity for (another) fresh start, after January 1st I will be removing myself from social media. With so much life change happening, my heart and intention is to be fully present for whatever God brings our way, and for me that means breaking from social.
If you ever need to get ahold of me, you can always email me at thestiversintanzania@gmail.com. (Yes, we still use that email.) Or FB Messenger, though honestly I won't check it very often.
We so look forward to what God has in store for our family and truly are excited for the ways He will use Brandon at 1MH. Thank you for your prayers for us! We are so thankful that the Lord would continue to consider us to seek justice for the orphaned and the oppressed. It's a call we don't take lightly, but one that we are fully committed to. ❤️ Melissa
We’ve had quite the journey lately. Since moving back to America, I have turned a bit inward. I’m less active on social media and rarely post. So I wasn’t sure I would post this, but since IG is like a virtual baby book for me (I have yet to make any real baby books for my kids😂), I thought I would give an update (and add a bonus prayer request as well). Our sweet Bishop was hospitalized last week for a gnarly staph infection—on his face of all places. What started off looking like baby acne, quickly escalated to picture2 within 2 days. So boyfriend and I had a mini vacay in the children’s unit for a few days while they did IV antibiotics. Poor thing had a pretty bad flair up at one point and broke out in hives all around his body. I’m very thankful for my husband who still is working full time, in grad school full time, and took care of the 3 big kids while we were away. Also very thankful that my mom dropped everything to help and was able to have our little ones spend the night and do school pickups while Brandon was at work. Thank you @clearwatercolornursery!! Bishop is doing so much better and is pretty much back to normal. But it was a rough week that followed as he recovered at home (the antibiotics were hard on his little body), but just made for lots more cuddles and attention from me. 💙 We have experienced some pretty intense times in this last year of being stateside, but thankfully Brandon will be graduating from grad school in 3 weeks! It will be such a relief. Would you pray for us as he (we) finish this grad school race well? Brandon has done so incredibly well and is ready to be done. Brandon, Bishop and I fly up to Portland for his graduation and are so excited/ready for a little trip up to the PNW to celebrate everything he has accomplished. Pray for protection, good health, and for ENERGY. We’re tired, haha. Thanks friends! 💛
What did we ever do without this butterball?? He is such a source of joy in our lives.
At Bishop’s last well checkup, he measured 98% for height, 97% for head circumference, and has doubled his birth weight. 😳 This rolly polly is looking to become one big guy! Here’s the highlights from this past month: rolling over, grabbing for things and putting them in his mouth, discovering his feet! 👣, teeth are literally about to pop out any second 🤤 (send prayers for my Mama heart....he’s pretty miserable), laughing 😍, loving being held, being a flexible sleeper and can fall asleep on his own without crying 🙌🏻 BUT is also really good at instinctively knowing just when I am sitting down to work or eat lunch and wakes up from his nap 🙃, celebrating big sis turning 7 🎀, wearing 6month clothing and starting to wear 9month stuff too, being my sidekick all throughout the day and bringing joy to so many. We love you Mountain-Man! And from the looks of it, you’ll grow to be the size of a mountain too. I love being your mom, Bishop. You’re such a gift to our family!
Saturday is for holding a teething 3 month old who refuses to sleep anywhere else besides my arms. All my babies teeth early and get their little chompers by 5 months. But this poor guy looks like they will pop out any day—swollen, purple and blue gums, non stop drooling, chewing on fingers, painful cries, biting during nursing 😵. Dang, it’s hard to be a baby! But these cuddles are so, so welcomed and I cherish these moments to serve this little guy in the ways that I can. Very thankful for our Mountain Man. He is the sweetest gift! #3months
Early mornings with this guy are so sweet. ☀️ He does half-day TK in the afternoons which means I’ve got just Shepherd and Bishop for the first part of the day. This season of motherhood is so sweet; maybe even my favorite thus far. I love having 4 kids!! They are such a joy! And I’m not joking when I say that having 4 kiddos, I feel the most relaxed and settled as a mom.... believe me, it’s not because my days are always so chill. My calendar app runs my life as I’m almost always doing something. But some days my ‘something’ looks like staying in jammies for as long as possible and hanging out with my boys before school—doing chores, reading books, playing on the floor, changing diapers, breast feeding, cleaning up spit up. What a gift! So thankful.
