Extreme Makeover-Anna edition

You need to understand something about me.

I am not afraid of changing my hair color. My mom let me start coloring my hair before she let me get my ears pierced. She changed hair color like you're supposed to change your oil (and still does), so my siblings and I did the same.

That said, one color I had never tried was blonde. I'd done blonde streaks, blonde highlights, but never all-out blonde. For the past several years, I've stayed with pretty much the same brown color because of military regulations. Then I was pregnant and couldn't do much. Since then, I guess I've been waiting until the right moment.

That moment came a few weeks ago when I was visiting family in Tulsa and had the chance to get my hair done by Gail. Gail has been doing my mom's hair since before I was born. She did my hair for all my formals in high school and college and was the first person ever to show me how to straighten it.

When she asked me what I wanted done, I said "I want it short and blonde."

I showed her this picture as inspiration for the cut:

My brother, Tim, says I look like Natalie Portman, so in my dreams, I do.

I started out like this:

Four hours later, I went home looking like this:

Now, obviously, she wasn't done. But my previous color was being very stubborn to come out, and my scalp had so many burns on it from the bleach so we had to take a break. Never fear, I went back the next day and finished:

This was the longest I have ever or will ever spend getting my hair done. It took eight hours total and my hair and scalp were shot. But, I like it. I love the cut and I'm getting used to the color. I don't know how long I'll keep it blonde, but I'm glad I could try it out. I think Gail did a fantastic job with it!

Here's what it looks like curly (in its natural state):

(bonus image of cute husband and baby are free this week)

I also got a new tattoo, courtesy of same brother:

Check out Tim's tattoo shop, Southtown Tats

In case you're new to my blog, my daughter's name, Ayla, means oak tree in Hebrew. So this little oak tree has an Aleph (Hebrew letter A) for branches and a little red Yud (there's no J in Hebrew, so this is the letter most often translated into J for English). It's red because Ayla's birth stone is garnet and it symbolizes a little Jewel (her middle name), though people can think it's a bird, an apple, a butterfly or whatever, because what's a jewel doing in a tree? It's on the inside of my right ankle. 

I love it and think it was worth every bit of the pain. Actually compared to pre-epidural, pitocin-induced labor and having my scalp on fire for 8 hours, I barely could consider it pain at all!

(PS. John loves both changes. He pretty much just loves me and is happy when I'm happy!)

(PPS. Coincidentally, Natalie Portman just named her baby boy Aleph. Hmmm...)

A Letter from Daddy (Part 2)

(Read the first part here)

...

First, the comfortable, easy and safe road is not always the right one. To choose a path based on what feels best is to serve oneself – which is not how we are designed to live. If you serve only your needs, you’ll never grow, you’ll never experience God’s best for you, and you’ll miss out on many of life’s most precious rewards. This is as true for an individual as it is for a family. The rain is sweetest when you are parched. Being with those you love is more delightful when you’ve missed them dearly. 

Another twist on the same truth is to see the difference between peace and safety. This German guy I’ll teach you a lot about said this: “There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture. It can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means to give oneself altogether to the law of God, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience, laying the destiny….in the hand of the Almighty God, not trying to direct it for selfish purposes.” 

The second thing is this: I am not your ultimate Provider. It is true that I am a primary conduit of provision for you, for now. It is a magnificent and humbling privilege to be entrusted with your life. But I do not have within me all that you need. Though I will want to, I will not always be there when you need me. I will not always say or do the right things. But your heavenly Father will never fail you. He is your True Source and He is always enough. As long as you abide in Him, you will lack nothing. In fact, all that I have comes from Him, and so everything I give to you, I give from what He has given to me. (The same is true, as it turns out, between your mom and me.)

 This doesn’t absolve me of the responsibility to care for you, to be with you, and to teach you the ropes – and I pledge my life to do this with all that I am. But as we embark on this year on opposite sides of the world, I do so with the certainty that God will provide all that you need, and more. I even pray that out of our sacrifice, we will be blessed in ways that we cannot now imagine. 

You are such a precious gift. I cherish you and adore you and am so thankful for you. I hope you will understand, one day, all that I am saying. I ask you to forgive me where I fall short, and for the costly time we are apart. I pray a Father’s blessing over you. I pray your days, especially over this next year, are filled with the greatest joys and that you have all that you need. I pray that your body grows and develops as it should, that you are healthy and safe from all harm.  I know that you will do a great job taking care of mommy.

Don’t stop laughing and smiling, and bringing joy to everyone you meet. 

I love you more than you can now know.  I miss you and can’t wait to see you soon. 

Your Daddy

Embracing Grandma, Pho, ice-cream and a really cute nephew!

Well, I was going to link up with someone for Embrace the Camera, since it's Thursday and I got some cute photos, but nobody seems to be hosting it.

Oh well, here are the photos anyway!

{Clockwise from the top left: Ayla with her Grandma C; Grandma C and Jaden experiencing Pho and Pad Thai for the first time (check out that Texas sized bowl! I actually saw someone eating it by themselves!); Ayla staring down my yummy ice cream (center); Ayla and her cousin Jaden; me and my bug; and finally, me and the two cutest bugs in Texas}

I think we have entered the phase of not being able to take a picture of Ayla without her fingers in her mouth. She's still pretty cute, though!

{Embracing} Another AJ's AJ

Today is Thursday (I think), so I'm linking up with Emily over at The Anderson Crew for 

"Embrace the Camera."

So, here's the picture:

and here's the story:

This is not my daughter, though she is also an AJ and her mom is an AJ. (And she is very edibly cute!) 

We met her mom and dad about a year and a half ago at the church we used to attend. The very day we met them, we invited them to go camping with us. That night. Crazy people that they were, they showed up. And brought Alaskan salmon. That they caught.

Needless to say, we bonded real quickly! 

Though we changed churches a few months later, we kept our friendship going. We had something very close to our hearts in common. We AJs were both older than our husbands by a few years. (that's not it, though!) 

We were on the same seemingly endless journey of desiring for a baby. 

Well, you know the end of the story already, but the middle is where the prayers and tears and frustration and heartbreak-filled e-mails were. So, it was and is with much rejoicing that we celebrate this little beauty.

I want for our Ayla Jewel to always know her story, how precious and wanted she is. And part of her story is that we waited. And waited. And it wasn't easy, because waiting for good things rarely is. But we were not alone, as she will never be. So we cry with others in their seasons of "not" and we rejoice when their lights turn green.

And that is why, today, I'm embracing another AJ's AJ.

How about you? Want to join the Embracing party?

Here are the rules:

1.  take a picture with you and your kids/spouse/family member/friend/whatever.

2.  blog about that picture and include a link to our blog, or grab our button.

3.  link your blog post up on mr. linky below.

4.  visit the other embracers...give each other lots of compliments about how good we look with our greasy hair andsweatpants velour jogging suits on.  cause yah, we need a little boost when it's been days since our last shower.

5.  have fun!

She makes it so easy!

{Embrace} the sweat

I went for a run today. A whopping .84 miles. 'Bout burst my lungs, but I did it.

Let me give you some context. I've run a marathon. Three marathons to be exact. I can't even count all the half-marathons and 10-milers and 5Ks I've done. I think that qualifies me to be a little confident in my running abilities.

Ya know what? Those hills, my legs and that wimpy .84 miles didn't care about my running resume! And, wow, running with a jogging stroller is a whole new world.

But I did it.

And I'm gonna do it again.

So for today's Embrace the Camera, I'm embracing the sweat and the hard work it's going to take to get back in shape. I'm never going to get my pre-baby body back exactly the way it was. But with a running buddy as cute as this, who would want to go back?

(We had a little fun with the Photo Booth app on the iMac!)

{Embrace} Seven Years and Cherry Blossoms

Dear Ayla,

The meaning of this moment is probably lost on you for right now, especially since you slept through most of it. But just as my participating in the Embrace movement is a way to record for you what your mommy looked and lived like when you were a baby, I want you to know your whole story, going back to how Mommy and Daddy fell in love.

Seven years ago this week, I was visiting friends in Washington, D.C. Two people I usually spent time with while here were Michael and John. This particular weekend Michael was busy, so John and I found things to do. (Now, I was not one of those girls you will meet who has more guy friends than girl friends, I just happened to get along well - in a strictly platonic sense mind you - with these two guys.)

One of the things your dad, (oops, getting ahead of myself here) John and I did was go for a motorcycle ride. That night we met up with a group of friends for dinner. After dinner, John said goodnight to me with a "holy half hug" (I'll tell you all about this later) and told me, "You're such a blessing."

(Yeah. Exactly!)

The next day, a beautiful spring Sunday, during church I noticed what an amazing smile John had.

(Anyway)

Since Michael was still busy that afternoon, John and I decided to go for a run around the National Mall.

Now, here's where it gets good. I had just trained for and run a half-marathon, so I was in pretty awesome shape. John, on the other hand, hadn't been running so much. Let's just say, I kicked his butt!

That, and the beauty of the in-full-bloom cherry blossoms surrounding this city's beautiful monuments and memorials, made this one of my favorite runs in my entire life. Afterwards, John and I rested under one of the trees and told each other our life stories, neither of us having any idea that soon and forever after this day our life stories would be intertwined.

(Photo taken March 28, 2004)

I told John on our way home that this was the kind of day to fall in love. I meant fall in love with Washington, D.C., of course, but we have to watch our words, baby girl!

Young John in his old Jeep Wrangler (Photo taken March 28, 2004)

Two weeks later we started dating, 16 months later we got married, and nearly 7 years later we were blessed with you.

So you see, my precious jewel, this is why your mommy and daddy will always try to take you to see the cherry blossoms. You never know, maybe you'll meet your own love there someday!

{Embrace} My luck

I decided to join my sister in the {Embrace the Camera} thing she does on Thursdays. I don't know if I'll do it every week, but I got a cute picture of me and my lucky charm today, so I'm jumping in!