Ellenor is a little more than 2 months old now. She has better control over her head and likes to look around (but also prefers to be snuggled). She tolerates her swing every now and then and isn’t too fond of the vibrating chair. She loves to be held or carried! When she gets angry we joke that she “puts on her angry eyes” (Toy Story, anyone?) because all the blood rushes to her eyebrows when she screams. She has a very loud cry for such a tiny person. She laughs and smiles and coos every time her diaper is changed. Miriam has given her the nickname “Oh-nor”, but she also goes by “Little Mama Oh-nor” and “Lil’ Sis” (because Miriam is “Bub Rub”…). Ellenor also likes to cuddle in bed with Mommy and Daddy and even if she’s sweating, she will still curl up as close to you as possible. She weighs 11.5 lbs now and is 23 inches long. She looks thinner because she is on the taller side. She loves her paci to go to sleep and also likes rubbing the side of her head for comfort (besides snuggling).
Nina and Papa came to visit us when Ellenor was a few days old. My Mimi passed away when she was 10 days old so she went to her funeral. She has been to cookouts at the Tetrevs. She has been to the James Island County Park to watch her sister play at the playground and splash pad. She has been to a pool and likes being worn when Mommy goes walking. She has been to Rock Hill to meet her grandma and aunts. She has been to the beach this past weekend when her aunt, uncle and cousins came down for a few days (sidenote: when you can avoid it, avoid taking an infant to the beach…just don’t do it.) She will tolerate riding in the “spaceship” so long as Mommy makes an appearance in the backseat and didn’t “fully disappear.” She is such a growing girl and we all love her so much!
For six months give or take, our family had seriously been looking for another vehicle. My trusty 2001 Dodge Neon had surprised us all and has gotten me through ten years of awesomeness. We knew that eventually we would outgrow this car, but we really wanted to hear God in buying a newer car. Two weekends ago, we were driving up to Rock Hill to see family and on the way David and I both thought (but didn’t say it out loud to either of us) “Hmmm, this car is almost at 150K miles….I wonder if this can be it’s last leg?” We even drove around the dealerships, “just to look.” Then we felt totally called out on the whole thing and we were declaring all of the good things about my car because it is/was a great car. When we would look around for our new car, the timing (and money) never seemed to match up, so we kept patiently waiting. God was telling us “when you need a car, you will get a car.”
Ironically, coming home from Rock Hill, we did get in a wreck. Praise God that everyone was ok. Our girls slept through the whole thing and we had air-conditioning for the whole hour we waited for a ride and the tow-truck! (Later, the technician told us that the car’s AC was not working at all…hooray for supernatural AC in the Columbia heat!). The guy that we hit, who thankfully was ok as well (just some fender damage) was on his way to Ft. Jackson and he stayed with us until help arrived. His fatigues displayed his last name, “Blair.” David’s sister wonderfully gave us a ride to the rental car place and we were so grateful! We were thinking: “Ok God, we guess we REALLY need a car now….so you are going to have to show us one much sooner.”
We got a rental car through insurance to get us home, and my parents generously lent us one of their cars for the past two weeks. Then God creatively stepped in and we received an unexpected inheritance from my recently deceased grandmother that was totally unexpected. I really hope that God was able to tell her before she left to be with him (or else she is hearing about it now) that she was able to bless our family so much with what we had been needing and praying for! So the problem of not having a down payment for the car was solved in less than 48 hours after the accident! Wow, thanks Mimi!! We also had a generous gift given to us from family members to contribute to our future car (little did they know that we would use it in a few weeks) oh wait, it gets better:
So I am depositing that check into our account and I was doubting what it should be used for. I’ve never been given a check that big before and I was contemplating what else it could be used for, or stored up. Then the verse from Matthew 13:44 came to mind: “the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field that a man found. In his excitement, he buried it again and sold everything he had and bought that field.” Remember how the guy we hit, his name was “Blair”? I looked up what that name means and it means “field”. That was my confirmation that that money was specifically for our car! (cue my happy dance).
We prayed about what kind of car to get and David and I agreed we wanted a newer model. It didn’t have to be “brand new”, just newer than say 2008 (which is the year that VHS tapes officially died, y’all.) I kept hearing “white Honda Odyssey”. There are many Honda Odysseys for sale all over the internet webs, but we were “to wait for the one.” So we kept waiting and frustrating things were happening all around us. We had so much opposition this last week, it was CRAZY. But then we received a call that the 2014 white Honda Odyssey that we looked at online was available for us to look at, at Carmax (which was our first experience with them and it was awe-some!). We knew it was ours when we test-drove it. We named her “Pearl” because this van is a long-awaited treasure for us! (and Miriam thinks the van is a spaceship…)
This car was a huge lesson for us in patiently waiting and stewarding well what we had. It is repayment for things we had previously lost or given up. It is proof that God fights for us and truly wants to give us his best! I was listening to a podcast by Eric Johnson about “Kings Give to Kings” on the Bethel app and in it he was talking about living in abundance. “We give our best to God, so why don’t we expect the best from him? Abundance teaches us about the very heart of God and we don’t get to tell God when or how to stop blessing us…but we do have permission to ask for more.” (Seriously, so much good stuff in that podcast, I highly recommend it for a listen.) We contemplated just getting “a cheaper car that we could pay off instantly.” Perhaps that makes more “logical sense”, but instead He challenged us to not want just ANY car, but the most expensive brand out there! And we thought, “how can we afford the most expensive one?” but then he said it was a “future investment.” And we knew when we drove it, that it isn’t just what we needed, it’s everything we needed and everything we WANTED! Because He is like that friends! He really does want what is BEST for you! Be patient for it, but do what He says and it will be given to you!
**Update from 2023: We still LOVE this van! It is now named “Odysseus” because it has taken us on many an Odyssey! We’ve been across the Carolinas, up and down mountains and to the Grand Canyon and back in this thing and it has given us no complaints! **
The birth of my 2nd daughter was so different than my 1st. That’s what I felt God say to me about this go around: “it will be different.” In case you missed Miriam’s birth story, I’ll briefly recap: 22-hour labor, lots of interventions, she still wasn’t coming and resulted in an unplanned c-section. This is scary to admit but the whispering voice of the Holy Spirit told me that morning, 5/1/14 through a feeling”you will have a c-section” to which my inner-dialogue said “hell no.” (Call it pride, call it wanting to give it a “good ol’ try” as a 1st time mom, call it whatever), but had I walked into that hospital fully trusting what God had told me and changed “my birth plan” it would have saved us/me (who am I kidding, ME) about 11 hours. To say that was a crazy day would be an understatement. But she and I were both kept safe. The Lord’s presence was all over our room and the OR and we were blessed with the sweetest of nurses. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t “have the magical birth experience I wanted” and spent way too much time grieving it and beating myself up about it and feeling so ashamed. Thank God that’s over! I’ve healed a lot from that experience. I’ve turned trauma and sadness and confusion and “why me?” into joy and thankfulness (I’ve had lots of inner-healing prayer, or SOZO to help with that) 🙂
So this time around: new location, new hospital, new OB. My hospital and OB do not practice or advocate VBACS, so with that option off the table (because home-births are also out of the question for our family…not knocking it, but not for our family), both David and I agreed beforehand that we would like a scheduled repeat c-section. Fast-forward through a fairly easy and wonderful pregnancy and at 39 weeks, we were ready to meet our Ellenor! It’s funny that with Miriam she was almost 2 weeks late and I prayed “please come today, please come already”, ate whole pineapples and spicy foods and tried every freaking trick in the book to kickstart labor and NADA, but with Ellenor I prayed, “please stay in there, please” and felt way more relaxed and less anxious (for knowing exactly when she was coming) 🙂
The night before surgery, on May 2nd, David and I treated ourselves to a date night consisting of coffee, Barnes and Noble, Papa Johns and the Marriott (right across the street from East Cooper Medical). It was awesome! Then we woke up at 4:30 to cruise into the hospital at 5am for paperwork (all those questions!) and getting hooked up and prepped. The hardest part was waiting the 2 hours to get started. Our friend, Alicia is in training to be a midwife and doula so she came to the hospital to “doula-nate” (our word, not hers) and to watch my c-section. She was amazing and I can fully advocate for c-section mamas (unplanned or elective) to hire a doula! At her initial suggestion, I wasn’t sure about how much she could “do”, but was I wrong. She met us at the hospital early (she’s got 2 babies of her own), prayed with us beforehand, kept our excited-nervous jitters down, got David coffee and offered to take pictures while we were in the O.R.. She also offered to stay with me at all times if David needed to leave with the baby so that I would never be alone. (um, yes, please!) Afterwards, she stayed with us in recovery, offered support with breastfeeding, offered to get us anything we needed and was always there as a calming presence and as a friend. Thanks Alicia! You already are an amazing doula!
7:15am hits and after talking with the anesthesiologist, I make a last minute decision (well, made the night before) that I wanted to watch my c-section. Not the whole “slice and dice” bit, just the part where my daughter is born. And I wanted skin-to-skin as soon as possible. Easily enough, the doctors were ok with that. Done. Then, I find out that I have to walk alone to the OR…wait, what? David and Alicia had to stay behind until I was fully prepped. You don’t know how surreal it is to walk into an OR as the patient, until you have to (last time I was wheeled in on so many drugs, I don’t recall it because I was fighting sleep) so this time I’m fully alert and the nurses are like, “ok, let’s go.” But this sweet, amazing nurse, Ms. Connie, comes and embraces me and prays over me while I’m getting my spinal inserted and that calmed me down a lot. Fun fact: a spinal is instant numbness as opposed to an epidural gradually kicks in. Didn’t know that, but I felt SO relaxed and told my nurse, Susan “wow, I feel so at peace and relaxed. I bet all moms say that coming in here.” She said, “um, no, they don’t.” Did you know that there is a countdown on the wall of the OR counting backwards from 35 minutes? Not sure what happens if it hits 0:00 but we didn’t have to find out.
Ms. Connie called roll and David and Alicia came back to stand next to me. When they were ready (which unbeknownst to me they had started the surgery) and they lowered the sheet so that I could see (keep in mind, from my vantage point, I have a bowling ball on my stomach, so I’m spared seeing my own blood and guts) and I saw them pull her out of me. It was the most surreal, wonderful, amazing moment. I was crying happy tears before they even lowered the sheet and I lost it when she came out screaming. I think I said “hey baby.”Miss Ellenor Beverly was born at 7:44am and she was perfect at 7 lbs, 5 oz, 20 in. long. I got to hold her skin-to-skin after a few minutes while they checked her over. She laid on my chest for 20 minutes or so then they were going to take her out of the room with David to do the APGAR tests and all that jazz. I was SO thankful that Alicia stayed with me while I was getting stitched up. Then I was wheeled into recovery where David handed me back Ellenor and Ms. Connie helped me with breastfeeding (cue nausea), but Ellenor latched on immediately like a champ and that’s been an easy road for us.
Now she’s a little over a week old and we are so in love! Miriam is adjusting well and loves her baby sister! While I wouldn’t say that recovering from a c-section is “fun”, maybe because it’s my second time and not my first, it IS easier the second time around. Miriam’s birth was a testimony to the Lord’s goodness and GRACE. Ellenor’s birth was a testimony of REDEMPTION and healing. Everything went so smoothly and wonderfully! In Blake Healy’s book, The Veil, he describes the scenes of watching his children being born. Because Blake sees angels, he describes that at each birth, “there is an angel in the room…who can hardly contain his excitement; with anticipation that as soon as the baby is born, he or she is assigned for life to that angel.” So I envisioned with Ellenor’s birth (and can envision with Miriam’s too) that there was an angel in that OR that was dancing and trembling and jumping up and down with joy in the moments leading up to her birth. Dar la luz–to bring to light!
Things have been moving quickly at the Carter household as we received some amazing news just a few weeks before Christmas. It all started with the Christmas tree. We hadn’t bought one yet and my grandparents called to say that they were coming over to our house with one as a gift (one of those cute plastic ones). So they come over, we set it up, they brought lights and the angel topper that they used at their house for years, and we had a great time catching up for a few hours. Then, Pops pulls out a stack of papers and says “ok, so the real reason we came over tonight was because we want you and David to think about something. We would like to offer you (if you want it) to rent the Parkway house. It’s just sitting there, not being used, and we want you to consider renting from us. Think about it.”
We slept on it, (although God was saying “take it. it’s a great opportunity. take it!” while Pops was talking). So we did! We are only paying the taxes on the house, so we will be able to pay off some more debt and be able to save some money too! What an amazing Christmas gift that we were given!! January has been so fast, trying to pack and getting the house ready to be lived in again/cleaned, ect.
(Miracles upon miracles): The weekend before we moved, we so needed a family vacation to get away from all of the stress and the chaos. For years, we had always wanted two things to happen: 1. to go on a vacation in the mountains WHILE it’s snowing and stay in a cabin, and 2. to go on vacation with the Tetrevs. There was some definite resistance to getting both of our families ready to go on this trip (from finances, to work, to cars breaking down, to the park rangers calling us and asking if we were still crazy enough to come because of the ice and snow predictions…general life craziness) but “come hell or high water, we are going!” (as they say). We finally made it to Lake Joccassee, in Salem, SC. We stayed 4 days/3 nights in a beautiful cabin (that we were able to book half-off with a winter promotion) and split between our 2 families. AND we got snowed in! We were the only people there and had the whole campground to ourselves…in the snow! It was so restful and peaceful just to get away and literally do nothing (if you count hiking in the snow, having snowball fights, building snowmen, and watching the snow fall while sitting on a plush couch in front of a roaring fire; “nothing”.)
at 26 weeks! (not to be fair, I am wearing about 4 layers of clothes here)
hiking on the trails
Miri’s word of the weekend: “COLD”
We came back from that trip so excited and re-energized to move! We moved into the house behind Grammy and Pops (the same house they built in 1960 where my dad and his brothers grew up) on January 29th. We seriously could not have done it without the help of my dad, uncle, brothers, Pops, and our dear friends, the Tetrevs. THANK YOU! Immediately, upon moving in, we felt such sweet peace and rest.
Did I mention that it is in “the trending” neighborhood on the island at the moment, too? Did I also mention that there are lots of families around and it’s on a quiet street where Miriam can safely play in the yard without cars going by at 50 mph? There is even a sweet playground down the street! We are a block away from the water. Also, this house is a surviving time-capsule straight out of the 1960s/1970s–plenty of character and charm all over the place (definitely not a “burger house”). Here’s the thing: by ourselves, we never could have NEVER afforded a place in this neighborhood. (oh trust me, we looked, before we moved here…and it wasn’t in the budget to rent, and buying–shoot, you must be crazy!) But not crazy enough for God. Not crazy enough for Him to align all of this in a matter of 2 months. 2 MONTHS, people! We may never know how many circumstances that God set up to move us when and where we did on Johns Island, or how He has now moved us to James Island, but all we can say is that HE IS REALLY, REALLY GOOD!
Earlier this week we found out how to hook up the old speakers that Pops had put in the living room and wired them from the front dining room to blast some worship music to celebrate. This house was made for worship! It is amazing to me, not only that we get to steward this opportunity for our family well, but also that before the idea of this old house came to be (back when it was an old lot of nothing in the back of Grandana Jantzen’s backyard), God had imagined it as a place of worship, a house for community. Once the moving craziness has subsided, we would love to host and have people over! We can’t wait to see how God breathes life into this old house again! It’s going to be beautiful! We are so thankful to be a part of that, for as long as God has us living here!
WE ARE HAVING A GIRL!! WE WILL BE WELCOMING BABY ELLENOR ON MAY 3, 2016!
Her name means “bright and shining light” (family name) and she is also named after one of her great-grandmothers (Beverly)
We had a small gender-reveal party to announce if we were having a boy or girl (cupcakes or stud-muffins/hair-bows or mustaches?) and we celebrated with family and friends the same day we found out who Ellenor was. It was the hardest secret to keep for David and I!
Hooray! Miriam has a “forever friend” and her favorite new book to read at night is “I’m a Big Sister.”
This fall we had Miriam’s first camping trip at Keowee-Toxaway State Park in Pickens. She loved the woods and hiking. Overall she did great (she got a little cold at night but slept the rest in Jen’s hammock with her). We were able to spend some time with our dear friends, the Haldemans. We would definitely go camping again with small children! A few things we learned: 1. it is probably better to sleep together in a tent for warmth (she didn’t like being confined in a sleeping bag). Next time, we will do an air-mattress in the tent together. 2. We are very glad we came over-prepared. Meals were already prepared and frozen so all we had to do was heat them (which equals more hands to wrangle Miriam). 3. Fires scare me with a toddler who is prone to trip over her own two feet. (they should invent a child-proof ring around the fire ring), but the pack-n-play did help… All in all, go camping as a group (more hands to help with kids) and bring tons of baby-wipes and they will be fine. We loved it!
We went to my parents church for their annual Trunk-or-Treat and we took home second place as the cast from “Bob’s Burgers”.
Miriam loves the pumpkin patch and trick-or-treating. She was a little confused we didn’t stay and go inside people’s houses but she got a good haul of candy. Her overall opinion of chocolate is “just ok. a bit overrated”, but she can down a lollipop no problem.
She has 10 teeth and at her last check up she weighed 21.5 lbs. When we went back later this month for her check-up she immediately started crying (she knew the shots were coming…poor kid). She now weighs 23.3 lbs and is average for all of her head circumference, weight and height. She is more and more independent everyday. She can run. She says “yes, bite, beads,hungry,dirty,baby,go-go (car), yogi (yogurt), eggies (eggs), Gogee (Goldfish), wa-wa (water) along with the others she knows. Altogether she probably knows about 50 words, and can say about 35-40. This week she likes to say “cars” and “stars.” We’ve been giving her more choices (ex. for her to pick out her own clothes or between snacks) She is definitely a girly girl with clothes and usually will pick out pink socks or a shirt with her beads and pink shoes. She really likes her yellow boots (which she affectionately calls, “butts”).
She weaned this month (which Jen says she has officially graduated from baby to toddler). We have no idea if she actually understands that there is “a baby in Mommy’s belly”, but we try. She will then point to her belly, or she will go grab one of her baby dolls. She is incredibly smart and very affectionate. She will hug friends goodbye and blow kisses to most people when we leave and if we arrive she will wave and say “hey!”. We have put up pictures of family and friends on the refrigerator and she can easily recognize people.
We absolutely love our growing girl! She really is growing up way too fast!
Team Carter is having a great summer so far. We moved back to Johns Island (our third time being here…but you know what they say…”third time is the charm”) and we feel settled into the house we are renting. We are enjoying getting to spend lots of time with Jen’s family and they love getting to see Miriam. The new grandparents are getting really good at spoiling their granddaughter with a wagon, a swing and a kiddie pool. What more could a 14 month old want?
Miriam has been recently walking more. Some of her favorite words are “no”,”uh-oh”, “Oh-Ah” (Miri for “Cousin Noah”) , “yeah”, “what”, “look” ,”that” , “mama”, “dada”, “oh”, and “wow”. She babbles a lot. If we say “Miriam, where’s your belly?” She can find it. And she will proceed to pull up your shirt to point out that you too have a belly button. She calls dogs “woo woo”. If we say “night night Miriam” she says “no night night”. She now has 7 teeth. She still loves reading books and musical toys (including an interactive purse she slings over one shoulder when we go out). She likes to make loud shouts with sounds and bend over to be upside-down. Nothing in the pantry doors is safe any longer. She’s the absolute best!
It’s been really cool to see in this new season how things really do just line up so well and fall into your hands when you (as Danny Silk puts it) “follow your favor.” We were able to acquire a rental on this beautiful island for what was in our budget (at a time when rentals are very hard to come by/so expensive). We are surrounded by a unique “neighborhood” of very diverse people, but we all get along. We had a potluck/welcome home party the first weekend we moved and even though our neighbors and friends were meeting for the first time, it was really nice! We actually had to kick guests out after a few hours so Miriam could sleep. Excited to see relationships form with our neighbors. Also we are blessed with really nice landlords (which is a tremendous help when you are renting) and they live behind us. Small world, our landlord’s wife and I (Jen) realized that we have met before during a brief overlap of work at a fast-food restaurant, so we had that humorous commonality of “this person looks so familiar….how do I know them?”
It’s also been a amazing to see the Lord furnish (yet again) another house for us. Before we moved, family was so generous to give us the essentials we needed to get started. Then my parents (unbeknownst to us) had kept all our wedding stuff (that was 5 years ago) and brought over 3 truckloads of stuff that we had forgotten about during our past five years of moving around/abroad! Then we needed a new jogging stroller for Miriam to get around our dirt road and grassy yard/neighborhood and the Lord highlited one for us at Once Upon a Child (it wasn’t there when we came in and at some point in the 30 min. we were shopping, when we left it was on sale outside the door. And it’s orange. And better than the old one we had that broke). We also needed a sleeper sofa for guests to stay over and we found one (almost new) for next to nothing at a second-hand store!
David has been receiving much favor at work, especially being a transfer. He has a normal schedule with more hours than he needs. Now he has off weekends which is what we prayed for! We are continuing to pay off our debt (which after “being a family” is why we are here). Sunday’s have really been a blessing for us too. We have been eating breakfast and doing life with our long-time friends, the Tetrevs. I suppose you could call it “house church” but we really just love encouraging one another and hanging out. Sometimes this looks like playing worship music or listening to a Bethel podcast and other times it looks like eating a meal and swimming in the creek. It’s a really sweet and simple time.
We are now “open” for guests at our house so please feel free to come and stay and rest on the beach when you visit us. We are 15 minutes from Kiawah beach and 30 min.from Folly. We have already hosted David’s parents and David’s sister and her family. You are next. Let’s make it happen!
These are late, but Miriam is 1 year old! We celebrated in style with a tea party. At her check-up she is 21 lb. 2 oz. (but grew 3 inches since her 9-month appointment). She likes to crawl and can stand-up and balance herself. She was hesitant about her birthday cupcake and in the end, prefered a cookie. But she loved her presents and she knew that everyone there was present to celebrate her (smart girl!). Mommy and Daddy love you so much Miriam! You are growing up into quite the little girl! We wrote down our predictions, blessings, and life-advice and our hopes for Miriam for when she turns 18 (in 2032!) and put them in a time-capsule envelope that she can open on 5/1/2032.
We have been so grateful to have been able to “rebuild” in this past year in Rock Hill. We have been able to grow in number and to live with David’s family. The past year has been a beautiful season for us! Long story, short: we were all set to “put down roots” here in Rock Hill. We had been house shopping and even put an offer in for the cutest 1940s bungalow. Two weeks before closing, the offer fell through and God said “not now”. (We are SO grateful for the best realtor on the block, Connie Brooks, with Century21. That woman knows her stuff. We highly recommend her!) We “mourned” that house-loss for two weeks.
Then, several confirmations through people, situations, prophetic words and dreams happened that God was planning to move us to Charleston. This will be our third time moving there! Crazy!! We feel like God given purpose for moving is to do family well and seek wisdom because there’s something there we haven’t seen yet. So we will! David is getting transferred with his job at SPATCO (a huge blessing!!) and we will be moving at the end of May. This weekend, through the connections of amazing friends in Charleston, we secured a cute house on Johns Island to rent (within our budget) for the next year! Now we are excited to watch how God furnishes it and to meet our new landlord 🙂 In the words of friends already down there, “this just feels right. There is so much peace.”
It is bittersweet to leave this Rock Hill though. This city (and including the surrounding areas of Charlotte) is (as one of our dear friends put it) “a city of refuge–a city you can run to, and be sheltered away for awhile.” That’s exactly what we’ve been doing. We are seeing the Holy Spirit send us out yet again (and not just our family, but other families as well) to be equipped for the more that is out there. It’s so encouraging!
A huge thank you to our family that has let us “do life” with them in the same house/nearby. We thank you for accepting and loving us despite our flaws in a crazy time of transition that led to a beautiful transformation of our little family. We will miss cooking with you, sharing everyday musings and people “just popping over.” But we promise to visit often and the invitation is also extended to Johns Island. (you guys just need a farm/compound to hold us all…) 😉 We really can’t express in words how much we love you and will miss y’all.
Another huge thank you to the sweet friends we have made. God put you in our lives because he knew we needed people to love on us and speak wisdom and truth into us. Thank you for your friendship and encouragement to us, although brief. The same offer above stands for you too!
We can’t believe that in a month or so that we will be “turning another page” in our wonderful life adventure that we’re on! We are ready. We will keep you posted. We will be obedient.
Team Carter's Big Adventure 