One Thousand Gifts - Post #10

Ah, another Monday. It is already a beautiful day here in Madrid. I've got all our windows open and am ready for the heat. Actually, I'm not ready for it but it's coming anyways. :) We'll have to break down and buy an air conditioner soon.

We had a great weekend, and I'm excited about the week ahead. Nothing exciting planned but Brendan has the day off on Thursday, and I'm just really content right now with the time I have to be at home with my daughter and to make our flat a "home"....I'm really just learning how grateful I am to be given time to take care of my family. Thank you, Lord! Also, on Thursday, we hope to make it down to Retiro for a big book fair...oh, I am soooo excited about this! Just hoping to find some books in English. :) Brendan said that he and Charlotte will be taking a nap under a shade tree while I walk around the hundreds of stalls of books. To be fair, I asked him if he wanted to spend his day off at home or going to this book fair, and he said the book fair sounded good.

The gratitude list continues....

220. taco seasoning packets that made it with us to Madrid
221. my little girl rolling over to sleep as soon as I lay her in her crib
222. Brendan calling on Skype to say "good night" to his little girl
223. taking a nap when Charlotte does
224. my husband encouraging me to go to bed by my "bedtime"
225. my wedding band fits again!
226. catching Charlotte sleeping with her legs stuck out of her crib

227. Charlotte's one leg balancing pose - her learning to crawl

228. Little Girl's "bitter baby" face

229. Charlotte is becoming more social - loves the camera now!

230. Charlotte's Skype call during bathtime with her Papa & Popo

231. my husband making wonderful tuna salad baguettes

232. experiencing a Spanish soccer match - sort of :)

233. how sports unifies people in all cultures

234. sitting around a church membership class with people from 5 different countries

235. BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, & sweet tea! Yummy Southern meal!

236. mopping the floors!

237. learning a new housekeeping skill :)

Tickle Me Charlotte

Here is a fun little video of CG and her growing personality. Her laugh is starting to develop a little more than the scream that it used to be. We are trying to post more video for all of the CG fans out there, so stay tuned for more.

Brendan

My Second Chance at Having a Mother

I'm so excited to share some happenings in my personal life...so personal that I had quite forgotten to mention it to my husband until this weekend. God blessed me and my brother with a wonderful mother. We had an incredible childhood...we were loved, taken care of, and provided for. And I had a great relationship with my mother. It wasn't perfect, we had disagreements, but we had an open and close relationship. Then when I was in college, my mother's alcoholism resurfaced again. It was something she had kept hidden, substituting prescription medication, for many years. The woman she was the last few years of her life was not really the mother I knew. Our relationship grew strained...to the point of me believing I did not love her anymore. She passed away almost 5 years ago. The year after she passed away was a huge time of growth in my faith. Even though she is gone, I've reconciled with her and the pain and hurt I experienced due to her actions. Her death taught me about GRACE.

But...I was 23 when I lost my mommy. She wasn't there for my wedding day or just a few months ago when my own daughter, Charlotte Grace, was born. If you've ever lost a parent, you know this feeling. Time passes but you go through some situations or celebrations, and you miss that parent. I completely expected that this past Mother's Day. I expected to be sad or reflective about my mother. And while I was in a way, God completely showered me with a desire (and an answer to a desire) that I had not expected.

When things go wrong, as they often do in this world, I love to hold onto these two words, "but God". I lost my mother, BUT GOD is an incredible provider and so graciously gave me another one!

In December of 2005, my dad remarried. I've always loved and appreciated my "stepmother", Lisa. (And I've never liked using the word stepmother as I don't view her that way.) I know that many, if not most, people experience challenges to some degree when a parent remarries. I can't say that for me there were any challenges...my relationship with Lisa has always been a good one. For one, she loves my father and they encourage and challenge eachother's faith. I also believe she's helped our family grow closer together...instead of feeling like my dad was "taken away" from me after he remarried, I've actually grown closer to him since then. But I never had a desire to call her "Mom". It never really crossed my mind except when I would hear my brother say it...and I would think, "Huh, he called her 'Mom'." It was like a casual fact that I noted but did nothing about.

So I was quite surprised this past Mother's Day that instead of feeling loss for my mother, I was overwhelmed by a desire to have a deeper mother-daughter relationship with Lisa AND to begin calling her "Mom". I don't feel that Lisa is replacing my mother but instead that she is my "second mother". If I believe that God loves me and ultimately knows what is best for me (and I do), then I have to believe He will provide for me everything I need. Not everything I think I need...just everything I actually need. (Thanks to my friend, Anna, for sharing this with me last fall.) Over the past 5 years, I've had times where I just broke down crying because I wanted to have my mother back. I thought I needed my mother. What I needed to do was trust that God was giving me everything I needed. And that He had already provided in my life a woman who wanted to be a mother to me. On Mother's Day (cheesy, I know, but that's really when it happened :)), I fully embraced that Lisa is my mom now. And I'm excited about building a relationship with her...so I ask for her grace as I learn to call her "Mom" instead of "Lisa". :) Old habits are hard to break!

One Thousand Gifts - Post #9

We had a beautiful weekend. The weather is finally warmer here in Madrid, though I'm sure I'll be tired of the heat here in a month (or less). :) We open up all the windows in our flat and enjoyed the noises of the city. And I love when I wake in the middle of the night and realize the noises have stopped and all is still with sleep. Charlotte turned 7 months old last week, and she is growing so fast! This weekend we picked up a new bathtub for her because we don't have a tub in our flat. We got one that also doubles as a pool! Although we don't have any outdoor space to use it in, I'm excited about setting it up in the kitchen some this summer to let her splash around in. Our kitchen is big by Madrid standards and has a great window that opens up and lets in lots of sun & air...in other words, a great place to play in a pool!

So this weekend, we also did a lot of relaxing which right now includes playing Super Mario Bros. on our Wii....a gift Brendan received from Dad & Mom for his birthday. He's finally in world 8...thank goodness that means he's almost done! But he's now convinced me to play with him, so we're Mario & Luigi playing through all the worlds together. Silly, but bringing back some oh-so-fun memories of playing Mario Bros. with my brother and parents when I was a pre-teen...and we're making some wonderful memories ourselves. :) We also went to a picnic at Retiro with our church. It was a nice, relaxing time getting to talk to some new friends.

In addition to Charlotte getting her "big girl" bathtub, we also cleaned up and put away some of her baby stuff that she has outgrown. So crazy to me that our little baby girl is outgrowing things! We put away her bouncy chair which she's been sitting in since Day 1 (well, at least since the first day she was home), her play mat/gym, and her bathing chair. I realized her days in the bouncy chair were over last week when she leaned forward in it and nearly did a front flip! Oh! That would have been bad!

I'm so thankful for the life God has given me now. I don't always embrace where I am but I'm learning to. I think I've finally (after 7 months) realized that I'm not going to be able to do the same things as before Charlotte was born...and that's okay. I want to enjoy this time in my life because I know it won't be here forever. It may be more time at home, going home early from outings because a child needs to get in bed, less time for myself and more time taking care of my child. But I realized yesterday that I don't have to miss our days before Charlotte anymore. God gave us wonderful times then, but we are in a different stage now and there are beautiful things about this stage that I want to fully enjoy! So, I keep counting my blessings....

197. lunch with Brendan outside on the terraza in front of his office

198. Charlotte NOT making a big mess of her carrots during lunch with Brendan

199. playing on the floor with my daughter

200. allegory of the cross in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

201. doing chores in the kitchen together in the evening

202. God releasing the pressures I put on myself...resting in Him and enjoying the life He's given me

203. watching my baby girl sit and play on her own

204. the high-pitched "geeeee" that is Charlotte's giggle

205. a second mother who understands the complications of having a second mother

206. being able to welcome Brendan home with a smile and hug rather than frustation when he was late

207. hearing Brendan go check on Charlotte when he got home from work, just because he wanted to see her :)

208. a grocery store that is literally right downstairs (and across the street) - so cool!

209. storm clouds & rain seen from our flat

210. what an incredibly easy-going baby Charlotte is!

211. Charlotte's blond hair growing in

212. baby girl's new bathtub/"swimming" pool

213. sleeping with the windows open on cool, summer nights

214. taking a shower right before bed and sleeping with wet hair

215. tuna noodle salad - and being brave enough to finally purchase canned tuna at the store

216. the Madrid bus system

217. limon granizado at Retiro

218. writing a journal to my daughter

219. learning teamwork with my husband by playing Mario Bros. with him :)

Video of CG in Action

We bought a video camera when Charlotte was first born and have actually recorded some great things; however, due to some inconsistency between our camera and editing software (not user error) we never get the final result that we would like. If we take small clips of her, YouTube will let us load directly without breaking down the file size.

Today we captured the following of CG enjoying her Activity Bouncer:

Touring Spain with Papa & Popo

During the first week of May my parents, Brad & Lisa Palmer, came to visit us in Madrid. They were our first family to visit us here! We're pretty sure they mainly came to see their grandbaby but we enjoyed our time with them as well.

The weather was unseasonably cool which I think we all enjoyed. We picked them up from the airport and brought them back to our flat on the Metro. We had a relaxed first day, but they were able to attend church with us. The following day we had a nice afternoon in Retiro Park.

The first few days of their visit we just hung out around the flat and our neighborhood. They got to visit our mercados (grocery stores) and our park (Parque Berlin). I locked us out of the flat :) so we took a stroll down to Brendan's office to get his keys. Thankfully his office is only about 15 minutes away. That day was actually pretty chilly & windy so we stopped in Starbucks where Dad said he got the best coffee of the trip...good ol' Starbucks!

In the middle of the week we took a trip down to Toledo. We took a high-speed train out of Atocha train station in Madrid. The trip was only 30 minutes. We planned on taking a morning train but by the time we arrived at the train station and figured out what we were doing we missed the train we had hoped to take. It worked out well though...we had time to walk around the station and have lunch at Burger King. :)

{Charlotte LOVED Papa's glasses}

{Charlotte's first train ride}

Toledo was beautiful! We stayed overnight at a great hotel I found online (those online finds are hit or miss)...but this one was a hit! Two days gave us plenty of time to roam around the narrow, cobblestoned streets soaking in the hundreds of years of history that surrounded us. The Toledo cathedral is one of the greatest Medieval cathedrals in Europe. I am always awed at the ability of builders to build such amazing structures without modern equipment. I spent the whole time in the cathedral staring at the ceiling...my neck hurt so bad! Charlotte enjoyed the cathedral too....actually I think she slept pretty much the whole time. :)

{In front of the cathedral}

In Toledo, I also overcame my fear of heights to climb to the top of a church's towers for some amazing views of the city. My dad had offered to stay below with Charlotte while Brendan, Mom, and I climbed up. When I saw the stairs I realized why he had offered to stay below! He's about as fond of heights as I am. Brendan and Mom continued encouraging me to keep going to the top and I'm glad I did. The city was beautiful from that viewpoint. As a side note, Brendan doesn't quite understand why I'll fly planes if I'm afraid of heights...it's hard to explain but its just not the same in my mind.

For Dad and Mom's last two days in Madrid, we set out to tour the city. While Brendan finished up the work week on Friday, we took a double-decker bus tour of historic Madrid. We caught all the major sites...the Palace, Gran Via, Plaza Major, and the Prado Museum. On Saturday, we went back down to Puerte del Sol and Gran Via for some shopping and sight-seeing. Charlotte finally got her own sunglasses....

We stopped in for breakfast at the McDonald's on Gran Via. This location was once a jewelry store and McDonald's was not allowed to alter the interior when they put up shop there, so needless to say it is a very nice McDonald's. Lisa even had tiramisu...can't get that at McDonald's in the U.S! We walked around the rest of the day and ended at Hard Rock Cafe for a nice American dinner. We had to wait for a hour but the burgers were great!

We were sad taking them to the airport. Charlotte loved having her Papa & Popo around. And we loved the games of Five Crowns and laughs while watching Brendan play Super Mario Bros! We were so blessed by their time with us. I can't thank God enough for the incredible parents He blessed me with!

*Check out more pictures from their visit by clicking the "Kinne Photos" on the right.

One Thousand Gifts - Post #8

And I keep counting God's blessings...

171. Brendan waking at 7am to get Charlotte out of bed
172. peaceful morningtime rituals
173. joy in the midst of sadness...and joy driving the sadness away
174. planning baby "meals" for Charlotte
175. strawberries & Nutella on toast
176. recognizing my sin for what it is, when its happening
177. I don't know how, but I'll sin today...God has already forgiven those sins...Hallelujah!!
178. excitement about sharing my passions with my daughter
179. being that awkward English-speaker who isn't a tourist but isn't Spanish either
180. roaming around a street book fair
181. San Isidro Festival that has transformed our neighborhood plaza
182. little girls in traditional festival outfits
183. Charlotte's sleepy look when we wake her up after community group to go home
184. ...she stays wide awake for the trip home but then goes right back to sleep when she gets in her crib
185. kind Spanish people who helped me with Charlotte's stroller on the Metro
186. tree-lined boulevards in the spring
187. Charlotte sleeping with her bum in the air
188. finding new stores with fun tea things :)
189. hearing my daughter say "da-da" even though she doesn't know what she's saying yet
190. yellow cake mix & a borrowed cupcake pan (thanks, Heather!)
191. spending time in the kitchen making cupcakes for my husband's birthday
192. beautiful rose bushes
193. a warmer day
194. really yummy chicken @ Pollo Alcala!
195. patience with the guy who cut in front of me in line at McDonald's
196. Brendan's life...his parents giving birth to him & raising him...a day to celebrate!

Hope you have a wonderful week! Check back later this week as I have a major post to get up about the grandparent's big visit to Spain!

One Thousand Gifts - Post #7

Last night before going to bed, I spent some time with my gratitude journal recapping the past week. Since my parents were visiting it was hard to keep up with the journal, but was worth it to reflect back on what we enjoyed together and all the ways God blessed me during their stay here. I was overflowing with gratitude! Really, I felt like the blessings just kept coming to mind.

That was interesting because earlier in the day after we had taken my parents to the airport, I was in a sad mood. I was mainly sad because my parents had left, and I missed them. But part of that was because I felt like I was left here in Madrid...alone. I'm not of course. Not only do I have my husband and daughter but we're making new friends...God is providing community. But I think now that I have a child, I am more prone to missing my family. I wish Charlotte could spend more time with her grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc. I wish I could be near them while I'm raising a child so that they could enjoy watching her grow with Brendan and I. For the first time in a long time, I miss my home (the place where I grew up). But I know that God has brought Brendan, Charlotte, and myself here to Madrid...this is where He wants us NOW. Maybe not forever, but maybe so. I don't know about the future, but I know that we are in the midst of God's will for us. And it is not easy or comfortable or convenient. So, yesterday, before the joyful blessings easily flowed out, I tearfully thanked God for anything and everything I could think of...even if I repeated myself. And there was joy in that tearful thanks too.

This week's blessings....

132. having a "sleepover" in Charlotte's bedroom while my parents are in town...sleeping on a trundle bed makes me feel like a kid!
133. grandparents helping with Little One when our landlady popped by and I tried to communicate with her in Spanish
134. cooking and catching up on life with my stepmom
135. Super Mario Bros....also makes me feel like a kid!
136. 4 adults being silly while playing video games
137. listening to my dad read books to my daughter
138. Charlotte's little head peeking up over the crib bumper & spying her parents in her room with her this morning
139. my first Mother's Day...as a mother
140. the love God has given me for Charlotte
141. forgiveness from my husband
142. riding the Metro now being as familiar as driving a car
143. friendly Spanish people who love to talk to babies
144. Charlotte's attempts to entertain people...with smiles, giggles, and coos
145. exploring an old city

146. awe-inspiring cathedrals
147. new foods and old favorites
148. free drink refills at TWO restaurants this week
149. Charlotte snuggling in my lap on the train back from Toledo...laying her head on my chest and closing her eyes to sleep
150. foam puzzle mats to create a softer playspace for baby girl

151. a beautiful new teapot from my husband and daughter for Mother's Day
152. another Sunday afternoon in Retiro...this time with my parents and a great new picnic blanket!

153. laughing about locking myself, my parents, and my daughter out of our flat

154. Charlotte's "magic closet" - what her Papa calls the elevator at our apartment

155. my mother and all the mother-figures in my life

156. musicians playing music on street corners, in the Metro, at open-air cafes, and at strategic tourist locations :)

157. Charlotte's cute new sound - "ta-ta"

158. Lisa (my stepmom) having a great camera and loving to take pictures

159. no blisters after a week of much walking

160. 60 degree weather in May

161. Brendan and I reminiscing about our first trip to Spain 7 years ago - when we first met

162. Lisa cooking dinner for us in our own home...yummy chicken spaghetti!!

163. overcoming my fear of heights to climb a church's towers to see amazing views of Toledo

164. Brendan and Lisa encouraging me to keep climbing the stairs to the top

165. narrow, cobblestone streets

166. my parents were able to visit us in our new home/city

167. Brendan and Dad discussing Mario Bros. strategy :)

168. my Dad's quiet demeanor and encouragement of me as a wife & mom

169. talking to my Mommie Mop (grandmother) on Skype on Mother's Day

170. how God is transforming my heart, soul, and spirit with intentional thanks

One Thousand Gifts - Post #6

I'm so grateful for another week. My parents are visiting us here in Madrid this week and it is so nice to have familiar faces around. We picked them up at the airport Saturday morning. Charlotte is sooooo excited to have her Papa and Popo around! She's being VERY silly for them.

My list of blessings continues....

113. hearing my baby girl playing in her crib when she wakes up from a nap
114. English-speaking pediatrician for Charlotte in Madrid
115. smiles & giggles from my baby girl just minutes after her shots
116. open air cafes
117. our neighborhood in Madrid
118. an English-speaking neighbor
119. bright green pea mush all over little one's mouth
120. the sound of birds chirping in the city
121. watching Charlotte do the "wiggle-worm" in her attempt at forward movement - feet push the butt up then push forward
122. a friend's sincere, raw honesty about first-time motherhood
123. tiny baby clothes hanging out on the clothesline
124. baby's mouth open wide for another bite of food
125. anticipating my parents' visit to Madrid
126. Charlotte recognizing her daddy when he comes home & giving him big smiles
127. hearing futbol (soccer) fans celebrate their team's victory...from our flat...at 10:30pm...sounds of the city :)
128. the "doo-dee-doo-dee" sound of European sirens
129. 70 degree days
130. my parents safely arriving in Madrid
131. acting as tour guide for my parents as we go around Madrid

Hope you're able to stop this week and thank the Lord for the unique ways He blesses you!