Adventures With Mark!

Well, it has began… daddy of a beautiful little baby girl. She has already won her daddy’s heart and I am preparing to keep a close eye on the boys eighteen (sixteen?) years from now. She is a great addition to our family and I can’t believe how fortunate I am to have a fabulous wife like Sarah, a great little boy and now a girl.

Over the past few weeks I have been spending lots of time with Seth as Sarah has had to focus more on Jodie. Seth and I are sharing a room and Sarah is down the hall with Jodie as she continues to want to be up a little bit during the night. Not sure why as the hockey scores are over and done with and she is not into reading many novels yet.

On a more serious note I have missed the staff and students in Uganda, but have greatly valued the time I could spend with my family back in North America. Unfortunately, I will be leaving my family at the end of October until the second week of December to return to Uganda to finish the school year. I will be excited to get back and see how things are going at the school, but it will be extremely difficult to say goodbye to my three best friends – Sarah, Seth and Jodie. Please remember me as I say my goodbyes and fly across the waters to Africa on the 30th of October. Also keep Seth in mind as he’s been enjoying time with his daddy and will struggle when I leave. Thanks for the love and support that many of you have blessed us with upon the arrival of Jodie. We appreciate the sharing of our joy and generosity that has been shown the Williams Four.

Adventures With Sarah!

I can think of only three dates in my lifetime that equal each other even though they are each remarkably different and hold individual significance. August 21, 2004…. My wedding day……the happiest day of my life to that point. April 11, 2007…. My first baby, Seth was born….. ‘another happiest day of my life’ if you can have more than one. October 4, 2008……My second baby, Jodie was born and the two incredible men in my life have to share their titles with her as she defined the ‘third happiest day of my life’. When I think about all of them at one time it’s just too much happiness!!!!!!!! I could make a list of challenges and could compile plenty of prayer requests for God’s grace and help for very specific things.…..but I think I won’t! I’ll just make this long enough to let you know that I have been so blessed and am so thankful to God for His faithfulness and goodness to me when I have done nothing to deserve it. (Maybe next month I’ll give you that list of prayer requests!) Thanks everybody for your prayers! (By the way, labor and delivery was so much easier this time… still a challenge but definitely easier!) Thanks to so many of you who have communicated your joy and celebration with us! Love you all lots! Sarah

Adventures With Seth!

Guess what? I’m a big brother!!!! Remember I was starting to wonder about that bump in mom’s tummy? Then she started saying it was baby. Then I would pat my tummy and say ‘baby’. But there really was a baby in mom’s tummy and she is here now and I get to hug and kiss her! And I really like her. When she cries I don’t really mind. I just look at her and carry on with what I’m doing. I think she does it for attention…. I’ll have to teach her about that… you get more attention if you do cute stuff… not so much crying. But she’s really nice most of the time. Anyway… I better get going. I have been growing up lots and am more busy than ever in my life and am starting to say my own stuff. (Like ‘I found it!’ and ‘There it is!’ and ‘Play with you.’) So I gotta go and play some more. Oh, one more thing….. I’ve been hearing mom and dad talk to other people about dad leaving pretty soon. It’s making me nervous and sometimes I start looking for daddy if he’s not in the room and when I wake up I ask for him. Please pray for me so when he leaves (Oct 30) I will be okay. I know he will come back but I will miss him. Bye everybody! I hope you’re having as much fun as me! Seth

Adventures With Jodie!

Hello to everybody! I’m so excited to be a baby! You know what’s the hardest thing? Staying awake in the day and sleeping in the night! In the night sometimes I just don’t feel sleepy so I just open my eyes and stay awake. Usually I need to eat and poop and I get a little tummy ache too sometimes. So then in the day I feel kind of sleepy. And it’s so nice because everyone likes to snuggle me so after my bath (do you have baths? I really like them so much!) after my bath I snuggle in my blanket and I smell all pretty too, and I fall to sleep. I like my mom and my dad and my brother and Grandpa Bob and Grandma Dori and so many other people! But I need to tell my brother that I don’t really like when he pokes all over my face and my head talking about all the pieces of my face and stuff…. My eyes and ears and nose and all that…. He even says ‘eyebrows’. Or maybe if he would just not do it when I’m sleeping. Hey, did you see the pictures of me? When I was first born I sure had some nasty bruises on my face, huh? I really didn’t like that because I didn’t feel very pretty but I was so happy to be out of that tight space in mommy’s tummy I just enjoyed having a good stretch! I better go… I can’t keep my eyes open anymore. I will be happy to come and visit you if you want me to. Maybe you could give me a snuggle if I come because I really like that. Good bye. Jodie

Birth Announcement: Jodie Mae Williams

I’m here everybody! I am a pretty girl and my name is Jodie Mae….. don’t you think that’s nice? I have been resting at the hospital with mom for a few days. I decided to be born on October 4th at 7:14 in the evening. I was supposed to be born on Oct. 3rd but I just needed one extra day of growing first. Mom’s tummy started working on getting me out at 5:30 in the morning and I thought it was a good idea. In the afternoon I thought about changing my mind but then mom and dad were already at the hospital so I quickly decided to get it over with and everybody started rushing around. That was pretty exciting for me. When I came out I could tell that mom worked very hard and her and dad were both there to give me hugs and kisses. Mommy was very tired, but very happy along with dad to finally see me. My face is a little bruised because after lots of hard work then I came out really fast, but I am just happy to be with my family. I also met my big brother Seth and he seems to like me. I can’t believe that I weighed 9 pounds, 11 ounces and am 20 inches long! That’s one more ounce bigger than my brother and one half inch longer. He seems so big and always wants to touch my eyes, mouth, nose and even my thick black hair. Sometimes he doesn’t remember that I am a little lady, so he plays with me like I’m all grown up like him but I know he loves me lots because he always tries to give me kisses. I think I am going home tomorrow, on Tuesday to be at my great grandma and grandpa’s house for a little bit. Dad is excited I came on time because he says something about going for a long drive soon to try and get me a passport. They keep talking about getting ready for flying for a long time in a plane and Seth says it is too long. Well, I should say goodbye because I want to snuggle with mom and I’m getting hungry again and I hear Seth coming down the hallway with dad. I want to see many of you soon!

A very happy Williams family with the newest addition, Jodie!

Miss America and baby Jodie!

A very proud and excited mom!

A very happy dad and big brother, Seth!

Daddy loves his new little girl!

Seth giving his new sister her first kiss with great grandma Dori!

Jodie, Seth, Mom and Dad 30 minutes after the new arrival!

Seth meets his new sister for the first time minutes after her birth!

A very happy, but tired new mom!