Stuffed to the Brim!

Brion and I just sent out this e-mail update. If you would like to be added to our e-mail list, please shoot us an e-mail at thekendzoras@gmail.com. ~ 

One down, two to go! Or is it two down, one to go? Well, actually… it’s both. We just finished our first semester of school and have just 2 more to go before we complete our training. And next week marks the beginning of Annette’s 3^rd trimester. Time sure does fly!

Two Down one to go

Our baby boy is already the size of a head of lettuce. That’s right, it’s a boy! We are very excited for this new chapter of our life to begin. We are already starting to accumulate a lot of baby essentials.

When we were driving back from our Christmas break in the states, our car was so full of baby stuff that we didn’t have any room for grocery’s, which are much cheaper in the states. Even though our car was full, we couldn’t resist those low prices! So we were left shoving the items we bought into any nook or crevice we could find. Some things got a bit squished, but still tasted great! We are so grateful to everyone who has blessed us in preparing for our little man’s arrival, which should be around May 2^nd.

One down two to go

We are three weeks into our second semester and are diving into the language-learning portion of our training here in Canada. We are starting off with phonetics in our sounds and symbols class. So far we are learning how to listen to someone speak and detect where and how they are producing the sound they are making (Brion is finally putting all his strange noises to good use!).  This will help us in the future when we are hearing a new language for the first time to truly understand what we are hearing. 

As we continue with our training we have grown even more passionate for the salvation of the lost. We are confident that this is where the Lord has put us. Ultimately our goal is to reach tribal people living in remote areas of the world, but before we get there, our ministry starts right here. There is so much God wants to do through us before we head off to some foreign land and we don’t want to miss out on that.

Having our brothers and sisters in Christ behind us is a huge encouragement to us.  Please continue to pray for the health of the baby and Annette as well. Also, as our schooling becomes more challenging, that our focus and dependence would remain on God. We sincerely want to thank you for your prayers and support. Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments.

                                    In Christ,

                                             Brion and Annette Kendzora

Growing, growing, growing!

Well, here we are at week 26. Some call him Mario, some call him Hank, but either way he is getting huge! I think he should be about 2 pounds now (so say the books) and his lungs are now capable of breathing air. He gets the hiccups at night sometimes now. We thought that maybe if we scared him his hiccups would go away.... we may be awful parents already..... Either way, it scared me more than the baby and his hiccups remained. Maybe the fact that we tried counts as something :) I still find it absolutely crazy that I have a baby inside me. And that the baby is going to come out eventually and then that means that we are parents. Life is just nuts. I love it, but man it is nuts! 

Heavenly Blessings

What a crazy 3 weeks we had on Christmas break! So many blessing I can't even begin to count them all. Brion and I had an awesome time visiting our home church in Arlington Heights. It was so great to be back in our church and feel all the love! We wished we could have had more time to hang out with tons more people, but surprisingly getting together with people to eat is very tiring.

We then had a week to spend at my parents house which was absolutely wonderful. My sisters and mom threw us baby shower which was so great. It was so wonderful to spend that time with family and my awesome friends who traveled a long ways just to celebrate with us. Our baby is a lucky one :) After a week of fun there, we went up to Brion's families place. We had such a great, relaxing time with them, but of course the week went by in a flash.

We have been back in Canada for 2 weeks now. It's good to be back in the swing of things. We are already learning tons this semester! Our first week back we had 2 guest speakers/teachers come and train us in how to approach the huge task of partnership development (support raising) and 1 tech helper to teach us how to use nifty computer stuff. You can tell Brion's the computer dude in this relationship... It was a crazy week filled with a massive amount of information, but we are so thankful for it! This week was our first week back in normal classes and we have been having a lot of fun with phonetics! I was very intimidated at first and wondered how on earth we were ever going to learn anything, but so far, it's been awesome. Yes it's challenging and no I don't understand everything, but it is super cool. :)

We have had so much homework, which is new for us here, and we have been so busy that today, I just don't know what to do with myself! Brion just went off to play ping pong with some guys. I would love to play but one girl intruding on guy time is always a bit awkward. Maybe I'll try to make some bread.....

Happy Weekend!

Baby Kendo

Baby Kendo at 24 Weeks! I kind of want to name this baby Mighty Mover, but I guess we might get weird looks if we did that. 

Strange Obsession

I am so obsessed with this website
www.nickisdiapers.com

I blame it all on my dear friend Katie. Anyone who is thinking about cloth diapers should really look into it. I thought at first that I was doing it out of necessity (cost of diapers and all) but really I am so excited to have this baby and start putting cloth diapers on it! I am so surprised that more people don't do it by how easy it seems. It saves money and lots of space in landfills! You don't even need pins these days. They make them so cute that you actually get oddly obsessed with looking at them. Let's just say I am very excited for the day that we get all our cloth diapers and I can wash them all and get ready for our baby. I know I have half of my pregnancy left, but the one aspect that I thought I would dread now seems more exciting than setting up the nursery.

So whoever reads this, who doesn't have grown children and plans on having children some day, you should really look into this. I think Brion my even be growing on the idea.... not entirely sure about that one, but for how much I talk about it, I think he has to be :)

week 18

Baby Kendo has been moving around and kicking! Brion was able to feel the baby kick for the first time this week and I am feeling the baby more consistently. We are getting very excited for our christmas break and see all our friends and family! Oh and eating some deep dish pizza!!! 

Thankful

I know last week was thanksgiving, but I just have so much to be thankful for today. For the past 3 months I have been very sick. It was really hard for me to have a good outlook on things and be really excited to have this baby when I couldn't keep any food down. BUT God is so good and His mercies are new every morning. I have been able to go to almost all my classes, I was able to help out with work program in the afternoon and I have been able to go to more social events! I was so energized the other day. I had made it to all my classes and work program and I found out one of our friends on campus is expecting a baby 3 weeks after me. I was going crazy that night! (You can ask Brion and he'll tell you how nuts I really am)

Anyway, whether we are throwing up everything we eat or waking up feeling full of energy, God is working in us regardless. We can learn so much in our down times if we just listen. It's hard to be thankful when things aren't going as we planned them, but it helps remind us that we are not in control. Our plans are not always the best thing for us. I would not wish morning (or all day) sickness on anyone, but I had to depend on God for absolutely everything and I think it was a good lesson for me. It was also awesome to see Brion's willingness to do everything around the house and I am even more thankful that God put such an awesome, godly man in my life.

I am thankful for God and how wonderful He truly is to us. I am thankful for my amazing, diligent, hard-working, loving, husband. I am thankful for the little sweat pea growing inside me and the privilege Brion and I have of soon becoming parents. I am thankful for the wonderful family that I have and the family that I married into. I am thankful for the friends that I have had for ages and for the new ones that we have just made in the past few months.

It is hard being away from family, especially because I am growing into this huge person and none of them get to see it, but I am so glad that God brought us to Canada. Even though it is really hard going through some of this stuff without them, this is where God wants us and I have never been more sure of anything in my life.

God is good all the time. I am so happy that I finally feel like a human being again. I am also happy that I was able to snag some free maternity pants from our mission barrel, because I can't even try to rubber band my pants shut anymore! God is always faithful to us and He knows exactly what we need, when we need it. We serve a Mighty God!