Family Fun at the Beach

We drove to the coast the other weekend. Isabella doesn't remember ever being there, so she had alot of fun. It was pretty windy, but a good family time.
After we left the beach we went to a little aquarium. It was quite small, but we got to feel sea-stars, and pet sharks, watch a sea lion show and cool stuff like that. So here are some pictures of our family time!

Isabella getting quite comfortable with the whole sand in the clothes thing!

Lady Bug!!!

One of the sharks.

The ones that you could pet. Isabella didn't grab at them so the stayed by her side of the pool for along time.

Surfing California girl!

The Family.

Isabella and her Sea-star!

Baby Phlaum

Well, we had another doctor visit today. Just a check on how our little one is doing. Talk about an emotional roller coaster. Sometimes I am certain that our baby will not make it, and other days I am just as convinced that everything will be just fine.
Today the doctor was encouraged to see how much our little one has grown in the last two weeks. The waist is still a little on the small side, but everything seems to be growing...
Can we get excited? Maybe, but we are still too scared to. We have another ultra-sound scheduled for June 20th. About a month away, and then a week after that we are planning on heading to Baker City to get ready for the birth of our little one.
Until then we will be here and wondering what is going on with the life of our baby.
Interesting times...

Another profile

Some more feet.

A pic of the spine...

The Plans of Mice and Men...

...all go astray.
I know it isn't scripture, but it is true nevertheless! Jen and I have been making plans for our life since before we were married and it is amazing how many of our plans have fallen through. But that's ok, something always seems to come up to fill up our time!
We got here in Oregon in December planning on staying until the beginning of March ad then we were going to be on the road again...yet here it is the middle of May...and we are still here.
In the middle of January I got a job as a line cook at a restaurant planning on being there for only 6 weeks. Again here we are in the middle of May and I am now the General Manager of the place in charge of about 17 employees.
What the world?
We went to college to learn how to communicate with people in different countries with the focus of trying to preach to them the Gospel...and we are here in suburbia America.
But it is interesting how much I am using my schooling in the work place. All of our classes focusing on communication with people has helped me so much when it comes to dealing with people in the workplace! Not what I thought I would be using it for...but God knew!
So we are planning, (Again) to be here in Oregon for at least another year. In the fall I am going to start some writing classes and I am pretty excited about that. Our baby is due on 7-11, (or July 11th) so we will have our hands full for the year with baby as well. Throw a full time job as a manager into the mix and it is shaping up to be a crazy year!
Well, it is Saturday and I have a day off and Isabella is about to physically tear me away from the screen so we can go play together...so I will leave you with a few pictures of the ladies.

April 23rd was Jennifers 25th and little Blossoms 1st birthday so we had a party for them both. It is crazy that a year ago Jen was at Blossoms birth, and here we are able to celebrate with her.

Three generations of ladies on mother's day.

Isabella talking to the little one. She is so excited about the baby, please continue praying that everything goes ok...

More in the life of the Phlaum family

Well folks...
It has been a while hasn't it? Does anyone read this any more! You can only go so long without updating before even the hard core readers stop checking!
Well, we have internet for the next few weeks. We are house-sitting for some friends and they have both...
Wait for it...
Cell phone coverage AND internet access!!!
Will wonders never cease???
I will try to write as much as possible in the next few weeks to get everyone up to speed on what has been going on in our life.

First, here are some pictures of our little one.
The first one is a somewhat of a profile...so they say.
The second is a 3D picture of the feet. Pretty sweet.
They were trying to get a 3D of the face but the baby wasn't cooperating.




A prayer request. The baby's head is growing...which is a good sign, but the waist is just below the normal range. Which could be a bad sign. So they want us to come in every two weeks right now to moniter that. They might not be able to tell anything definite before the baby is born, but they can try to give us as much info as possible.
So we are trying not to worry. We won't be able to change it anyway...but the suspence is killing us.


We went to the coast for Jennifer's 25th birthday. It was the first time since we have had Isabella that we had been away on our own. Pretty crazy. And with the new one coming we knew that we had better do it while we could! We had a really nice time at the beach. As you can tell it wasn't a warm day...but that was ok.

A quick picture of our midwife. She was the one that delivered Isabella, so it will be special to have her deliver this one as well! It is crazy how big Isabella has gotten in 4 years!!!

Well, I'll update as many times as I can while we are here...

It's been a long time...

...since I have been able to write on this. Sorry about that! I know that there are several people that have been asking me about it. We are currently living out in the "boonies" and it will cost us almost 100 dollars a month to get internet to us!!!
So until we move we will have to update this only when I can steal a signal somewhere!!!
We had another ultrasound today and as far as they can tell they believe that everything is fine with our baby's brain.
Praise the Lord.
They say that the baby itself is on the smaller end of the scale so they want to monitor that, but otherwise everything looks fine.
It is a really hard time for us! We are so happy to hear that kind of news, yet we are afraid to get our hopes up. It is a constant battle to give our thoughts to the Lord and just relax with this pregnancy.
It looks like we will be moving to Baker City to have our baby. The same midwife that delivered Isabella will be this baby's midwife.
I'll update when I can...

Baby Pics

Here is an ultra-sound picture of our little one. Please keep us in prayer. The specialist can't tell too much at this point, but we are schedualed to have another ultrasound in about 4 weeks. They can then compare and see if our little one is growing at all. Just thought we would let everyone know what is going on!
We are trying to solve our internet problem... Hopefully we can get something working here pretty soon then we can update more often!

More Pictures

Jen showing off the little belly she has now. We all are so excited... Everything is going good as far as we can tell. Please keep us in your prayers!

Another Birthday picture. Jen has been using her time well with sewing and baking. Both the dress and the cake here were made by her!

I had more pictures, but I left them on the camera, so I will have to get them posted at a later date!

Pictures

Isabella and her friend Lena when we went to "Snow Park". I think this is the first time that Isabella has been sledding.

Isabella and I made a blanket "tent". It has been soooooooo long since I did that as a kid. Brought me back to my childhood again!

At Isabella's 4th Birthday party we didn't play anything tame like "pin the tail on the donkey". We got out our air soft gun and shot at balloons. Much more lady like!

A family picture at the birthday party.

Here I am at my new job. Chef coat and everything! The guy next to me is one of my bosses, oh and he is also my twin, Jeremy!

Life as we know it...

I think this has been the longest time between posts...ever. Pretty crazy our life is right now. Every plan that we have seems to end at a door gently, yet firmly shut on us.
We are official members of NTM but at this point we don't believe that writing for them is what we are supposed to do. We love NTM, yet we have always wanted to be involved in helping missionaries in a support role. Writing for NTM wouldn't be that. They need writers, but the writing there is more focused on "awareness" of the mission, and we want to be more involved in missionaries lives.
That plus other things has made us look into joining another mission as a writer there. We were SO close, to the point of looking for tickets for orientation the first two weeks of March when some things that caused "red flags" in our and our pastors hearts put a halt to that as well.
So it is back to square...zero.
At the moment we are living in Jen's parents house...the place we left 6 1/2 years ago. Has time reversed itself? I am older, and have a family but everything else seems to be the same!
We know, we know, we know that God is in control, but at the same time we are at a loss as to what the next step will be.
Last April we were told be NTM leadership that we should take some time off and figure out what we want to do. "Get some life experience" as they said. Since then we feel like we have been reacting to what has come our way.
We know that we want to be in ministry. We know that we would like to be in a support role in some mission organization. I know I would love to write.
So how to fit all those together?
Right now we are praying about taking some time off.
From everything.
Having our baby in July.
I could pick up a few writing classes.
I am starting to work in the "real world" and seeing what that is like again. Sometimes we are so involved in the Christian "bubble" that we forget that there is a whole world right outside of our doors that we have no contact with. Jen and I have been in NTM for over 6 years and during that time I have had jobs, but never ones where I have worked with co-workers. This is almost like a culture shock for me. A definite missions field to be sure!
How long would that time "out" be? I have no idea. We're not even positive if that is what we are going to even do...
So alot of prayer is needed. What to do, where to go, what mission board to look into...all that. We have alot of cool pictures, so I will put them on as soon as possible.
I will try to post sooner rather then later...we'll see! I currently live in a technological black hole so I do what I can.

Waiting and Plans

Well, the holidays are over and we are trying to figure out what the next several months are going to look like. Do we stay here in So. Oregon for awhile? And if so, what is awhile?
We are waiting for a call from back east-ways that will tell us an exact date for an interview.
(If I am seeming vague at the moment it is because I want to be sure of what is going on before I tell everyone something...only to have it change again!)
On a more for sure note...
We had our first visit with the mid-wife and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat. That is always exciting. Isabella was so happy to be able to hear it as well.
OH...oh, yeah...
We're expecting again!
The due date is July 11th.
So that adds quite a bit of "wondering" to the plans as well.
Where do we have the little one? What state will we be in come July? Will the baby be healthy? Lots of prayer requests at the moment.
We'll keep everyone updated on what is going on with this pregnancy. Or we'll try to at least!