It's about time... :)

There are no excuses for taking this long to write a new post! We are all well and Izak is almost done with his third last semester, before completing his MDIV! To state it more plainly, he has one year left of his MDIV after May. Lord, willing, we would love to stay for an additional year and a half and have him complete his THM. It sounds like a long time, but if you think about it in small 'bite size' pieces, we will only have one year left, and then an additional year and a half... Lord willing. :)

Our little family with Bean at the Griffith Park Observatory when Emily visited us...

For those of you who are not aware, we are also expecting our little number 2, 'Bean'! We are very excited and Bean is one of the reasons for my lack of energy displayed on the blogging scene. But, Lord willing, I am back!

Jonathan is getting so big! He is trying to communicate with us and it is so sweet. He will look you right in the eye and babble earnestly, expecting you to understand and respond accordingly! It is such a blessed adventure to be a parent and that is for sure!

There are so many things to be thankful for! I literally feel overwhelmed to begin to try and list them (overwhelmed in a good way...). But, I would say that His faithfulness to change us to be more like His beautifully perfect Son, is my favourite thought of all. What a privilege to see the Lord of the universe working in our lives to bring this change and to bring Himself due glory!

Izak has had his preaching classes in full force this semester and has been enjoying it far more than he expected! It has been such a blessing to witness the Lord enable him to write amazing sermons (biased wifely perspective?!? hehe) that he is truly passionate about and only the Lord is able to equip us like He does. 

One other thing has been on my heart. We are not able to travel home any time soon with the little one on the way and the trickiness of a visa situation and it was so hard for me to be away especially with certain trials and my one little sister having her first baby and the other getting married... I just wished that I could be closer. But after a recent EWG (Every Woman's Grace) study, I was encouraged by a discourse between David and Jonathan where they knew that they wouldn't see each other soon and in 1 Samuel 20:23 it says, "And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever.” It really helped me so much to think that the Lord is with our family and friends while we can't be. He is with us both simultaneously and He is a better Help than we could ever be to each other! What a precious truth to meditate on. :)

Well, my plan is to do far more short posts and this is the first of them. A wise lady helped me come up with this plan and I like it!

Family pictures and the tree-lighting in Montrose...

I began this post in November and then I came across an issue with storing pics on my blog- we have no space left, so that is why I have not updated the blog in what feels like ages. I have so much to share and will see what I can do to be creative! 

We had some family pictures taken by our dear friend Megan Pinker and I LOVE them! It is such a treat to have some 'up-to-date' pics where we are all in them for once! These are a few of my favourites:

Before Christmas, we walked down to Honolulu street, which is a beautiful little street not too far from where we live, and enjoyed an evening with beautiful lights and a tree-lighting! It is so fun to be experiencing a winter Christmas for a change! Songs that incorporate 'Chestnuts roasting' suddenly make so much more sense in the chilly, chilly Northern Hemisphere Christmas weather!

 And lastly, Blue's first ever Santa picture! (I remember my dad and Jayne taking us for Santa pics and it just felt so 'parent-like' to do it! hehe.

Well, I hope to manage to do something soon about our blog. We spent Christmas with our dear Gillies and it was such a treat to get away! We have some pics from our time which i hope to share with you soon! I miss hearing from you! Please feel free to leave a comment. :)

I'll end by quoting this beautiful portion from Isaiah 40:29-31,
"He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
³⁰ Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint."

2012 SUMMER VACATION PART 2: Sequoia National Park and the Monterey Bay Aquarium with the Gillies!

Well, it has taken me far longer than I hoped to write this post... It is a lovely overcast day in LA and Blue is taking a nap. I thought that I would go ahead and seize the moment!

We are officially past the half way mark for this semester. It is hard to believe! Izak is working harder than hard and Blue and I are trying to keep up! In all this craziness, the Lord continually proves to be faithful. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if I would have grown to know Him like I have over the last while without the mounting stress and discomfort. 

I was just reflecting on after Blue's birth, where I was at the hospital alone (Izak had gone home to grab a shower and some fresh clothes) and Blue managed a 'wonderfully meconium-like' poop (those unsure of the term and brave enough to investigate ... click on this wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meconium). Surprised by the fact that I was in fact responsible for diaper changes as a new mom, I managed to get the extremely pliable poop EVERYwhere! When a nurse finally burst into the room, I admitted defeat and melted into tears. I felt sooo alone. Where was our family? Our closest friends? (A sad reality- our loved ones would have LOVED to be there but it just was not possible with the distance etc.) The truth is that He was there. So close by and in reflection, it eases my apprehension about what may lie ahead because I know that His nearness is sufficient. He is enough- more than enough. It reminds me of that precious truth from Psalm 121:5, "The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand." 

All that to say, I have experienced His grace and would not trade it for anything. His beauty astounds me- even during the times that are not easy and this semester is another tough semester which simply brings us to our knees again in dependence of the One who is able to sustain us!

Now, let us reflect on part 2 of our wonderful vacation! I want to share some snip bits of our time in the Sequoia National Park and some pics that we have from when we visited the Gillies!

Here are some of us enjoying the beauty of Sequoia National Park:

Blue on his daddy's shoulders! He LOVES it up there:

 Join us on the Sherman Tree trail: (with some brightly clad monks!) Plus, everyone kept commenting on our sturdy our little Blue looked- not sure if it had to do with my huffing and puffing on the inclines, but everyone appeared to be impressed with how solid our little guy was! hehe)

This is us on top of Moro Rock: (Quite a climb to the top!)

 These are some of us at the Crescent Meadows:

 And some of the beauty surrounding us as we drove around the park:

We had such a wonderful time with the Gillies again! Blue was absolutely mesmerized with Mary and it made for successful car trips since he just stared and contemplated! So sweet.

We went to check out Mavericks one day: We spotted these little pink sea holly flowers - I had them in my wedding bouquet - only they were a grey-blue! :)

 And... Mavericks- unfortunately not sporting the waves we would have liked to see!

 Just to prove that it was indeed Mavericks!

And finally, we had an incredible time at the Monterey Bay Aquarium! Click here to check out their site: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/ My favourites were the LARGE variety of seahorse and also this incredible tank, which has several FLOORS so that you can spectate the aquatic life at the various levels! I really enjoyed the huge lazy sea turtles!

 Varieties of seahorse:

 These seahorses look like plants! Amazing!

Well, I am sure that you can see that we had a wonderful time away and I think that I will make Izak look at these pictures to remind him of the break with how busy things have been! We hope that you will leave a comment or send an email and let us know how you have been!

Lots of love!
Your LA Bakkes'

2012 SUMMER VACATION PART 1: The Log House Lodge and Silver city adventures

We spent a week away just in time for the new semester to start- it was such a  wonderful time to relax and enjoy our little family and for visiting our darling Dave and Mary Gillies...

This post will just feature our first days, we spent the first couple of days in Three Rivers, which is  a little town close to the Sequoia National Park. There is a couple (Tim and Mauriene Landry) who own a bed and breakfast and allow seminary couples to enjoy two nights there for free every year! What a blessing! Typically children can't really stay there (in the upstairs rooms because there isn't really space for them to play and there are steps etc but Jonathan was just small enough to make the cut since he isn't mobile yet! We were so thankful.)

Here are some pictures of our road trip up to Three Rivers- such beautiful areas and our lovely car!

Here are a few pictures of the Log House Lodge: (well of the room we stayed in...AND the rocking horse is the actual horse from the Mary Poppins movie!!! The husband (Tim Landry) works for Walt Disney company as an Imagineer and that is how they got the prop!) and a link to their site for more of their pictures: http://www.loghouselodge.com/

Each morning before heading out to explore the Sequoia National Park, Mauriene served up a delicious homemade breakfast and we got to share breakfast with other couples who were staying there at the same time. 

On the first morning that we set out to explore Sequoia, we took a 'slight' detour! hehe- actually we ended up all the way up the side of this mountain which was in fact in the park, but it was a side of it that had no roads that joined to the other parts of the park and it was verrry 'out of the way' and for the serious campers.

(There are major bear warnings in Sequoia- you are not allowed to leave any food in your car- or even scented things because bears will literally rip your car open looking for food! Eeeek- give me lions any day!) Anyway, so this side detour looked like BEAR territory to my over-active imagination!

After following this very windy, steep (Taryn=carsick) road, we finally discovered that we were in fact on the wrong road but enjoyed this little campsite called 'Silver City' pretty high up the mountain, where we had a coke, which helped to ease my intense feelings of motion sickness and took in the sights!

The entire road up was beautiful, but very steep and there were several parts which only one car could drive on at a time. I am glad that we went off the beaten path and discovered a different part of Sequoia that we would never otherwise have found! Here are some pictures from our time:

 I'll do part two of our trip in the next post, but it was such a blessing to get away and I wanted to share some of it with you in the meantime. Before we left I honestly had no idea how we would manage to start a new semester after such a busy summer, but by the time we got back, both Izak and I felt recharged and ready to get the show on the road! Praise the Lord for His grace. He knows our frame and provides for our needs- Matt 6:8b, "...your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." I am truly relieved by this truth.

Well, I hope to write part two soon! Leave a comment and please pray for us to have a productive and less stressful semester!

Lots of love,
Your Bakkes trio!