Meeting Our Miracle: Airdrie's Birth Story Part 1

This post first appeared on our blog November 10, 2013, just a few weeks after the birth of our fourth child, Airdrie. At the time we were missionaries living in northeastern Scotland.


 It's been a while...Mark and I have lived several months in the past few weeks!
This post will be extensive, but full of pictures for those who enjoy the break in my ramblings! Also, I'm including birth details using words like "cervix, dilation" and "birth canal." If this doesn't suit your taste exit while you still can and visit our FaceBook page for the benign details of the past weeks. :)

Monday, and Tuesday October 14-15 my parents along with my sisters, Jillian and Catlin flew in to Aberdeen, Scotland so they could be a part of what we thought was birth week! I was scheduled to be induced at 4pm on Wednesday, October 16th.
*I was to be induced at 38 weeks gestation because at this point we knew our baby girl had Dandy-Walker Malformation in her cerebellum. When there are deformities present the risk of stillbirth in a infant left to go 40 weeks gestation or beyond significantly increases. We needed to get this baby here soon!

There was general shenanigans and fun as the aunts and grandma and papa revealed they had all packed in their carry-on luggage and all other suitcases were FILLED with presents from America! We had cake mixes, candy, Pumpkin spice---everything, maple syrup, Italian and Ranch dressing packets, and Halloween goodies.

Grandma also brought over a tin filled with buttons for the girls. They love this and love to scatter buttons ALL over the house!

Doing the County Fair

I've shared a lot of what our life was like in Scotland, and rest assured I've taken a ridiculous amount of photos there to continue to share with y'all.

But I thought I'd swap things around and share with our friends in the UK a taste of the USA.

This may come as a shock to y'all, but we aren't big city people. 

I lived for 4 years of my life in Dallas and 8 months in Houston, Texas and those experiences fulfilled any small desire I had to live in a densely populated area. 

Sure, you have your pros, like a Hobby Lobby every 10 miles, Chick-fil-a, Chipotle, Pei Wei, Starbucks, Gigi's Cupcakes, Firehouse Subs, Whole Foods 

(Ok, well, I haven't ever been in a Whole Foods, but I have been gouged for groceries before, does that count?) 

but y'all not only does my wallet and waistline hate this, 

but there's just something about the country that appeals to me.

Here in USA it's the most wonderful time of the year--county fair time!

Bear in mind y'all a county fair tends to be small.

Each state in the USA has a LOT of counties. After the county fairs the winners go on to the state fair.

But county fair time is a super fun where my husband especially travels back his roots. 

Let's start this show off with a bang and focus on the little girl in the background instead of my boys closely examining the sheep.

Foodie: UK Style Part 3

Guys!
I just found this post buried in my drafts unedited, undone, un-posted.
This is much the way I process my laundry.

We lived in Scotland for 2 years and I took pictures of a lot of the different things we ate while there.
It is highly important to note that this and the previous posts are an accumulation of the past 730 days of meals.
Wow, sure hope I did that math right. 
If not, I'll go ahead and offer an explanation: 
my ACT math score was lower than the legal US driving age.
Don't judge me. 
I just bared my soul to you.

Follow the links to see Part 1 and Part 2;
but without further delay I present to you the final of Foodie: UK Style, Part 3.

Here we have a lovely plate of scallops and some kind of salad.

This was on the island of Orkney where we took our 10th anniversary trip.

Holiday Bible Camp

A million years later I finish our series on ALL we did in our last 2 weeks in Scotland.

I'm sorry, guys, OK? I'm sorry. 

But the History Channel isn't going to watch itself after the kids are in bed, you know.

Our last few days in Scotland were filled with Holiday Bible Camp. This is our version of church camp for the Scottish high schoolers. 

We had a great group of high schoolers who met weekly in our home the past year and a half whom we studied the Bible with, had cookie-making parties with, and ingested copious amounts of Kool-Aid with. We love those guys.

Each summer there is the Holiday Bible Club, which is a great outreach to primary (elementary) age children. Holiday Bible Camp is a direct result of wanting to give our high schoolers something as well.

This summer we had a super awesome thing called 2 groups of American high schoolers raised support to come and not only help with Holiday Bible Club but then attend Holiday Bible Camp WITH our Scottish students! 

We had so much fun.

Meet our teams:

Our Floridians, Kaylin, Mickenzie, and Danielle.

They also came with Christie and Pam, 

but do you think I got a picture of those lovely ladies?

Nope. 

Sorry, I've got issues.

Playing with a Canon

Guys, if you've been reading our blog for a while you know I have high aspirations of being a photographer.

Actually, I said that wrong;

I'd just like to be able to take decent pictures. 

I fancy myself somewhat of a creative soul. 

In reality I'm half decent at copying *some* artistic mediums but I haven't been blessed with a boatload of original creativity.

So it really torques me when I pick up a camera and the photos I take are...fair to middlin', at best, and ding-dang awful at worst.

I WANT to be able to be gifted.

I also feel like this when I get a notion and pick up Mark's guitar to start playing through my guitar songs repertoire. 

Including and limited to:

- Lord I Lift Your Name on High

- One of These Days by FFH

- Wipe Out

- the base line to Mission Impossible theme song

And then my finger tips start throbbing, I cry and moan and get frustrated that my guitar playing is just NOT progressing, and I put Mark's guitar up in the case until the next time I get it out...in November.

So I'm trying.

I'm. Trying.

To be better at photography.

Y'all are just my audience so we can reflect on my journey.

And it had better be a journey, dang it.

Foodie: UK Style Part 2

Last week I offered y'all a taste (pun totally intended) of the food offering here in Scotland. 

That post is here.

I'll reiterate again: these are a collection of photos from our many years association with Scotland. Ain't nobody got enough Weight Watchers* points for a post like this to happen in a few days span.

*We aren't associated with Weight Watchers (shocker), they don't even know I'm advertising for them.

Please note: I am aware of my usage of contractions of auxiliary verbs as well as the occasional double negative and would ask that the general public just sit back and enjoy the colloquialisms I employ on this blog, not using them as a standard of my socio-economic or education level.

What did I just say?

If y'all would like to continue on the delightful, delicious, and sometimes strange foodie journey, read on.

To start the lineup we have the Scottish specialty: white pudding.

This is oatmeal, fat, and seasoning all stuffed into a casing to be cooked and eaten as a side dish.

My family ADORES this.

I, again, have trouble with beef lurking in foods I think it has no business in.

It's different for everyone,

It's just how you're raised.

Or perhaps your geographical ubiquity.

Foodie: UK Style Part 1

Lest you be confused:

I am NOT a foodie.

To me a foodie lives for exotic and gourmet foods, loves sushi, and can pronounce foie gras correctly.

For obvious reasons I don't appear becoming a foodie anytime soon as I:

- Can't stand the taste of kale 

- Still eat mac and cheese from a box. Living those blue box blues, for reals.

- Shudder at quinoa with the eensy "worms" that are suddenly produced by cooking it

(by the way I feel ridiculous with the "KEEN-wah" pronunciation. 

I'm a rebel and call it like I see it (read: the hillbilly way) "quinn-no-uh")

I live in the UK. 

I eat food in the UK.

I sometimes take pictures of food in the UK.

I've had the rare, the outlandish, the delicious, and the classics.

Would you like to see some?

These are a candy.

They taste just like those orange Circus Peanuts candy you get in the USA.

I liked these until I read the back of the package...

BEEF GELATIN

Janu'ry In a Few Pictures

My husband got me a new (to me) camera for Christmas.

I thought I'd share a photographic journal of January (Janu'ry, if you're Scottish) with y'all.

I think I've mentioned I want to be a photographer just take a decent picture.

I also want to be a musician. 

My husband is a musician, a gifted one. 

So I'm slightly perturbed when I pick up his fiddle and attempt to play Ashoken Farewell and it sounds like a dang racoon scratching his grabby little claws on a chalkboard.

Now that I've painted that word picture for you I want you apply that to me and photography.

Some of these photos were taken with a Canon 400D with a Sigma 28-70mm lens and some were with an old school iPhone.

I'm not telling which are which.

Y'all I'm basically a nocturnal animal carrying around a fancy camera, hoping for the best.

January in Scotland gives you a whopping 7 hours of daylight. 

So we tried to finish school at breakneck speed to get out and enjoy the day, no matter the weather.

Driving Scotland

If you ever wanted to drive in Scotland (and by "drive" I mean look at pictures.

And by "you" drive I mean Mark Anderson behind the wheel),

well, boy howdy you've come to the right place. 

I take a lot of pictures while here in Scotland. 

For one, I'm trying to be a better photographer, 

and for two, I'm a horrible photographer.

We tend to do a lot of adventuring and we do it in the car, because any other form of transportation with 4 kids tends to be pricey.

So most pictures were taken from within our vehicle.

Also, when the car stops the Anderson circus [children] think they all should abandon ship. And so we refrain from stopping the vehicle as much as possible to avoid an uprising by the natives.

Want to see what it would be like to drive in Scotland?

Our mode of transportation:

The French-made (don't get Mark started) Citroen C8, 

it's a "people carrier" and not a minivan.

And don't you forget it.

Christmas in Scotland

This post was meant for early December but alas December got in the way.
So like most Anderson things we're a leetle bit late.

While this is by no means all-inclusive, I thought I'd show y'all some of the unique (to us Americans) ways of Christmas in Scotland.

Things kicked off in November round these parts, 

although the city had the decorations on the light posts in October. 

So quit yer bellyaching about Christmas jumpin' the gun on Thanksgiving, 

they did it to Halloween here!

Also, please note Mark took this photo at 8:30 in the MORNING in December. 

Fellowship in Scotland

Fellowship dinner, potluck, linger-longer...they're all very similar and if you've ever attended church you've probably been to one.

Mark and I have been in church for all of our lives (a total of 71 years--don't you dare do the math) so we've been to quite a few.

Some dinners are laden with "salads" that have more calories than a steak dinner.
Some are teeming with desserts,
and then you have the yay-hoo who brings a butterscotch pie with RAISINS in it (shudder).

Yay-hoo, if you're reading: sorry to cause offence, 

I'm sure you accidentally bumped the raisin box and they all fell into that perfectly good pie.

In short, all fellowship dinners are different. Throw in a different country and a different culture and there's an entirely new dimension.

Today we're going to visit a fellowship dinner in Scotland--
with nary a broccoli salad in sight.

LMK Bae

LMK bae!

What the heck did I just say?
I promise you I spend half my time decoding this foreign language that is so common on social media.

I'll start with "LMK"
While I'm reading my super lightning fast mind goes ahead and fills in the blank for me:

Lick My Kat

Which we all know is ridiculous because cat is obviously spelled with a "c".

Messages Part Dos

Once upon a time I took y'all to a grocery store here in Scotland.
We laughed, we cried, we wondered, but most of all we liked the experience of looking into an everyday part of another culture.

Since that time I've been collecting photos from a few different stores to show y'all more messages (messages being slang for groceries here).

Come, laugh, cry, and wonder with me...

Outside a a chain of the large grocery stores is this lovely little place.

Because fast food joints are a rarity here this is a great thing to us Americans. 

However, they close just before 5 p.m. making the nearest fast food 17 miles away.

Sheesh.

Venture To Edinburgh

Early this month we had to make a trip to Scotland's capitol city, Edinburgh. 

Pronounce it like "Ed-in-bur-a" so you don't sound ridiculous. 

Ask me how I know.

We were obligated to go because that is where the closest American embassy is and we had to go there in order for Miss Airdrie to become a US citizen, get her report of birth abroad, passport, and Social Security Number. 

We were too worried about that last one, just the first 3; ______ insert political comment here.

While Edinburgh is just under 200 miles away, in Scotland that means a good 4 hour drive. In order to make our appointment at the embassy without hauling 4 children out of bed at 4 a.m. we went a day early and stayed the night at a hotel. This was a super awesome decision on my husband's part because it made for a nearly stress-free trip!

Here are some of the fun sights for you to enjoy a glimpse of Scotland!

On the way down we choose to take the route through the Cairngorm Mountains.

Christmas in Scotland

I thought I'd post about our Scottish Christmas and fill y'all in on the last week and a half of December. It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Each day of December began by opening our advent calendar(s). We had our traditional candy-filled calendar and a fun winter scene PlayMobile toy calendar 

(I saved it from the Christmas sale at Kroger last year--90% off BOOM baby!)

Meeting Sally-Pink *Airdrie Abileen Anderson* Part 2

 If you're just now joining us and love a good 'ol birth story scroll down to the previous post and start there. If you just came to see pictures of our sweet girl and would rather avoid all the birth terminology and details then stay right where you are because we have pictures galore of our Airdrie-girl!

Airdrie Abileen Anderson came in to the world a bit reluctantly on Thursday 24 October. She was delivered by c-section and had some immediate troubles. We didn't know it at the time but when they rushed her over to the other side of the room they were "giving her a little help" meaning emptying her lungs and giving her oxygen. We later saw that her 1 minute Apgar score was a "5" and her 10 minute score was a "9."

Meeting Sally-Pink *Airdrie Abileen Anderson* Part 1

 It's been a while...Mark and I have lived several months in the past few weeks!
This post will be extensive, but full of pictures for those who enjoy the break in my ramblings! Also, I'm including birth details using words like "cervix, dilation" and "birth canal." If this doesn't suit your taste exit while you still can and visit our FaceBook page for the benign details of the past weeks. :)

Monday, and Tuesday October 14-15 my parents along with my sisters, Jillian and Catlin flew in to Aberdeen so they could be a part of what we thought was birth week! I was scheduled to be induced at 4pm on Wednesday, October 16th.

There was general shenanigans and fun as the aunts and grandma and papa revealed they had all packed in their carry-on luggage and all other suitcases were FILLED with presents from America! We had cake mixes, candy, Pumpkin spice---everything, maple syrup, Italian and Ranch dressing packets, and Halloween goodies.

Grandma also brought over a tin filled with buttons for the girls. They love this and love to scatter buttons ALL over the house!