Miriam at 18 months

On November 7, 2015July 9, 2023 By David CarterIn Family Life, KidsLeave a comment

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!

Our Johns Island Adventure (Round 3)

On July 20, 2015July 9, 2023 By David CarterIn Family LifeLeave a comment

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!

Happy 1st Birthday Miriam!

On June 10, 2015July 9, 2023 By David CarterIn KidsLeave a comment

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.

“Tea Time!”

“Um, is this it? Do I eat this?”

“Ma, get it off me!”

Playing “Pass the Parcel”

Granny J won! (it was a tiara)

Team Carter is Moving Again!

On April 26, 2015July 9, 2023 By David CarterIn Family LifeLeave a comment

Can you guess where?

Charleston, SC!

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.

Miriam: Months 10 and 11

On April 2, 2015 By David CarterIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Standing up by myself: I can bend down and pick up blocks too 🙂

Miri loves her bike seat!

at Cousin Noah’s birthday party

She ripped up the original “what I love” paper. It read “I love to wave. I like to play “pattycake” and to clap. I love playing with my cousins (and can’t wait to meet Aminah Rezzai). I like being outside. I like to drop food on the floor and watch others pick it up. I love being 11 months!”

Miriam is so close to eating birthday cake! Not too much longer….Mommy has been planning her birthday party for like 3 months now. Geez. The little girl is so active and wants to do right in the middle of everything. She’s moved to two naps during the day. She sleeps better at night (Mommy is going to credit that to the Lord, and to Miri’s new comforter from Ikea). Before she goes to sleep, she decides to be really sweet and laugh and engage in conversation, as if to say “there’s so much to do! I can’t go to sleep….” She will roll back and forth on the bed and think she’s hilarious. In Daddy’s words, “she’s the sweetest bear of all.”

She likes to try out her walking shoes. She is confident to balance herself, but still wants help walking. We make a big deal in this house whenever she does something and she will look at us like “is this ok?” and then start clapping. She trembles with joy at the sight of family, but especially her cousins. They love her too. The best thing is for Mommy and Daddy to watch her eyes when she experiences something new. She soaks it all up like a sponge and there is such wonder in her eyes. Yesterday, she sat in the shade while we gardened for 2-3 hours. She held an earthworm and talked to her blocks, and the grass, and the dog next door…

Miri has always been a little ball of joy, but it’s so fun to see her continue to develop her little personality. She loves to wave at everyone and it’s awesome to see complete strangers stop in their day and wave back. If you want your baby to recieve a lot of attention, go to any BabiesRUs. She’s becoming a little girl now, and although she will always be my baby, she’s not such a little baby anymore. Le sigh. (insert Mommy warm-fuzzy feelings here). Watch out world! Miri’s got places to see and things to do! In a month, she will be a year old and may be walking 🙂

Miriam: 8 & 9 Months

On February 1, 2015February 11, 2015 By David CarterIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Christmas season was very eventful for Team Carter. Earlier this month, we visited Jen’s grandfather’s family gathering in Eastover, SC. We stayed in Rock Hill and Christmas Eve-Eve we celebrated with David’s mom’s family. Christmas Eve we went to Ikea to look around just for fun and we went to church with Emily’s family. Christmas Day included the family coming over for Christmas dinner; however it was unfortunate that Miriam was sick. Nothing serious, just the dreaded cold virus going around. Then I caught it and for four to five days felt like death and then it disappeared. Luckily, Miriam isn’t old enough to care about Santa Claus and such things, so she was happy to just be held/cuddled for a few days. We are doing much better now and David and I were able to spend a day in Asheville, NC at the Biltmore estate. (Thanks Santa for our tickets…it was great!) We really would like to go back and check out the other stuff to do there, but after the house tour, you become a bit overwhelmed by all the lavish details of the place. We ate at Tupelo Honey Cafe (thanks for the recommendation Plavnicks and Bates’) and had the best chicken and gravy biscuits ever! We also met up with Nicole and Nate Plavnick and lost ourselves in a glorious double date amidst books and obscure nooks in Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne. Probably the biggest Christmas present we could give ourselves was paying off one of our student loans!! Hooray God for allowing us to steward what we have so we can avoid a monthly payment on that!! Also, many thanks to David’s parents for allowing us to live with them for a year so that this could be possible. (We joked that if we lived with them for another 3 years, we could pay off the other loan too….to which everyone laughs because we won’t put them out for 3 more years…) Sure, we’ve made lots of sacrifices this year to not spend so that we could pay off that loan, and it feels SO GOOD to not have it on our plate anymore 🙂 Praise God. Perseverance pays off. In other news, we rang in the New Year’s Celebration at 9:30pm (funny how that works with a kid…) complete with sparkly hats and steak. Miriam liked her steak, but mostly she held it in her mouth, not swallowing it. She does the same thing with pasta. She is really developing her personality. If you leave the room and she didn’t give you permission to leave, she curls her hands up and throws a fit until you come back…then she’s perfectly fine. She was given a lot of new friends (stuffed animals) by family members for Christmas and she holds long conversations with them. She has finally decideed that it’s time to roll over and she usually will do so after reaching for an object while sitting. She loves to practice standing up and holding onto things. Yesterday, she stood alone, while holding onto my leg for about 30 seconds. She also throws herself backwards to be upside down. She also loves to flirt with herself in a mirror = making silly faces, sticking her tongue out and waving. She still has no desire to crawl (just raises her arms and legs off the floor as if Superman, and hopes that will scoot her around) so we are anticipating her to skip the whole crawling milestone and go straight to walking. She wants to be mobile SO bad 🙂 Month 9: Miriam is such a joy! She continues to improve her vocabulary: “bwee”, “ooooo”, “wow”, “woo-dee”, ect. She has her night time routine down and likes to be in bed by 9pm. Her favorite book is “Pat the Bunny”. She is beginning to understand some basic signs and knows “milk”, “more”, “all done” and “good”. She cut her 1st tooth and tooth #2 is also about to come in! (she hasn’t bitten Mommy yet and this is a very good thing). She has mastered the sippy cup. She can almost pull herself up to stand and is getting better at moving herself from a sitting position to crawling stance. She would much rather eat what we’re eating than pureed food. Thus her palette ranges from Indian, Mexican, Chinese, American, ect. Her breakfast go-to is scrambled eggs and sausage and or grits. Miriam went on her first missions trip to Elberton, GA and took part in worship (our girl loves to sing!) and showered lots of people with baby love. She also tried BBQ and loved it! On Saturdays, she likes to putter around the house with Daddy and watch movies and have wrestling matches with him. It’s the cutest!

What I Want My Daughter to Know About Having a Baby

On January 23, 2015January 23, 2015 By David CarterIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

My dearest Miriam,

You are almost 9 months old. You are supposed to be taking a nap, but you’re not. You are in our room chatting up a storm. I know that you will not have a baby of your own for many years to come, but this is a topic of discussion that has come up numerous times this week (specifically mommies and their birth stories/experiences). Mommy can’t speak for every mother out there. I’m no expert. Her one experience with you is just one of many stories out there. So I’m directing this to you, sweet girl, because one day you will think that what I have to say is golden. (After you are through the “eye-rolling, too-cool-to-listen, mom-you-don’t-even-know” phase). This is a list of things that I hope to remind you of when it’s your turn to be a Mommy (when I’m old & grey and trying to pick out my cool grandma name and can’t remember these things )…

1. You are a miracle. Your child is a miracle. God wonderfully made you both. You both are so special. He wants your baby to come now. Not earlier or later…in the present time. You are a great mom already. God has chosen you over all the other (insert half of the world’s population here) mothers to have this baby; no one else. You make good choices. You are strong and brave.

2. You are not in control. In the same way you can’t choose your child’s personality or eye color. Yes, you have a right to have a birth plan and a right to choose where you will have your baby and how you would like to have that baby in perfect circumstances. You can have your back-up plans too. I hope and pray it goes just like you want it to. Just know that in expectation and planning, you may have to surrender your rights to control what happens. No one will know what will happen to you, until it happens to you. Know that even though you don’t know, it’s ok. God will be with you every step of the way (giving you more wisdom and peace about whatever is happening in every month, trimester, in labor and delivery and in recovery/postpartum).

3. Be careful of the advice you seek. You are pregnant. Everyone wants to talk about it, offer advice, offer their story (whether you want to hear it or not), even if they do or do not have kids. The “suddenly everyone is an expert mommy” syndrome will try to take over your life. People will come out of the woodworks to tell you horror stories. Be careful what you read/watch on the Internet (if that’s still a thing). Glean from the advice you are given, but stay true to who you are and what you believe.

4. I love you and will support you in any way that you need me. If you want me in the delivery room with you, I’d love to be. If you don’t want me present to watch you deliver your baby in zero-gravity-space-like conditions (that could be a thing, right?) then know that I’m not offended. I’ll be there to bake you a casserole or to offer you a shoulder to cry on or to babysit my adorable grandchild while you sleep. I’ll want to visit you all the time, but will respect your wishes if you need some space.

5. Talk to someone if you need it. It doesn’t have to be me. Your feelings are important. You are not alone. Your experience matters. Speak it out to someone you trust. Cry it out in the shower. Over and over. You do not need to “have it together” in a set amount of time. Every mom is different and every child is different. You and your feelings are valued.

6. Do not feel ashamed. You are an amazing person who carried a person into this world. You sacrificed your body for another. It is easy to compare yourself to other moms (their postpartum bodies, parenting methods, choices, ect.) You can honor every mom by listening to her and respecting her decisions for her family while still doing something different for yourself and your family. You can’t change the past, but you can remind yourself of the truths about who you are. You don’t need to be defensive when you are confident that you know best for your baby.

7. If you want all the gory details, we can talk about it. Just ask.

8. Give your man a hug. (As your mother I’m going to assume your husband…) Talk to him. Include him in your decisions and discuss your feelings. He values them because he values you, the mother of his child. Even though he didn’t push a watermelon out between his legs or have his stomach muscles filleted, he has been through a lot too. He has invested himself emotionally. He has stepped up to be the father you knew he would be. You are his hero for going what you went through to have the one who looks up to him as a hero. And he is a walking zombie, just like you. Love him well.

9. The end result is joy. You will remember the good times and the bad days seem to fade over time. You will remember so many good memories. There are so many good things in store for your family. You will want more kids in the future, I promise.

10. Take some time for yourself. You deserve it and don’t feel guilty about it. Your child is not a burden. Get outside. Join some friends. Have a beer (now that you can again). Enjoy it. And enjoy coming back to your little love. Watch her eyes light up when you walk into the room! It’s the best!

To your greatest adventure! Love, Mom

#weloveelberton

On January 20, 2015July 9, 2023 By David CarterIn TestimoniesLeave a comment

Elberton, Georgia that is. We journeyed to see our good friend, Eric, (who was our neighbor when we lived in Cusco) in his hometown. We had been praying that God would give us an opportunity to be bold and step out in faith and in that same week, Eric presented the idea of us coming down to love on his city. So the three of us traveled, expecting David to lead some worship and that God would show up.

When we arrived, Eric (with the help of some awesome friends) had acquired an unused store-front to stage nightly worship and prayer over the city. A prophetic team of his friends from Maryland came down to join in the fun. (Kevan,Sarah and Reese–you guys are awesome!) The point was simply to invite people to encounter God’s love and presence. And encounter people He did!

A woman was reminded of God’s love for her and her daughter. A man was healed of back pain. A woman was healed of cataracts. Another man gained a deeper revelation of God’s love and he got up and led spontaneous worship for the first time–and later he and his son played worship music together in their house and then later he prayed for someone in his music store. People were encouraged at WalMart. A woman who had ALS and hadn’t been able to speak in years, said her husband’s name. Another woman was healed of arthritis (she saw the swelling leave her hand). Eric’s mom was healed of a migraine. Others received encouragement just being a part of something new.

The point is this can happen anywhere. God can use anyone, anywhere! In Elberton, in Charleston, in Rock Hill…everywhere! God wants us to made more aware of his love and presence. Once we know who we are — beloved sons and daughters; children of God, equipped to walk in power and authority by the Holy Spirit, then we can love others around us. God wants us to know who we are. He wants families to be reconciled. He wants to us to love our neighbors. He wants us to move from glory to glory all because He loves us. We owe people an encounter with the one who loves us. Be encouraged!

A very big thank you to Eric’s amazing parents, Ed and Annette—and y’all,they are amazing people! We really enjoyed their generous hospitality, their yummy food and their stories 🙂 (nothing too embarrassing Eric). If you find yourself in the Elberton area, you really must go visit them! And to Eric, for his invitation to come and the encouragement he showed us on how to love his hometown so well! We are inspired and encouraged from this weekend!

#spiritledexp #seekandyouwillfind #carpettime

Re-creating Team Carter

On January 8, 2015July 9, 2023 By David CarterIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Who does God say that you are? Who am I? What are the promises spoken over your life? You see, we forgot ours.

In the craziness that was 2014 with an international move, becoming parents, living and reconnecting with family, transitioning back to life in the States and dealing with our own personal relationships with God…it was a tough year. I just listened to a wonderful podcast from Paul Manwaring (listen to the whole thing: http://www.paulmanwaring.com/podcasts/rest-recreating-the-i-am-in-me) who was talking about rest–the recreating of ‘I Am’ in you. In it, he’s talking about rest not being a place or a destination or “doing nothing” , but coming back to seeking God to remember who He says you are. When God tells Moses “tell them ‘I Am’ the one who sent you.” Who is the ‘I Am’ in us? What are the promises that God has spoken over our life and who He says we are? Sadly, we forgot. It’s taken a lot of time, reflection, healing (an ongoing process at times) and remembering. We want to remember who God says we are, remember what we have seen Him do in our lives, and remember the promises He has for our future to move forward.

“The supernatural in the wilderness was to sustain us. The supernatural in the promised land is to advance us.” -Bill Johnson-

We believe and we are declaring that 2015 is the year we are re-creating Team Carter. The year Team Carter got their groove back. The year of seeking more of God in worship (in the little things–like how cleaning Miriam’s dirty diapers is worship), rediscovering more of the “I Am” in us–the piece of God that he put in us, restoring beauty, recreation and peace in our family to move forward. The next leg of the journey will be different. It’s a New Year and we are so looking forward to it!

Happy 2015! We hope you have an amazing year, filled with miracles and good things that come from the Father! Much love, Team Carter