Race Against the Clock

Nate is always getting bigger and bigger. I guess that's just what babies do.
He's also getting more mobile all the time. He's been crawling for months, but now he's able to put it into 5th gear and crawl at super speed all over the house.
Last week we were in Vajta, and he crawled up a set of stairs! Then we brought him home to Eger, and he did the same thing on the stairs at the church. Good job buddy!
He's also gotten really good at pulling himself up onto things to stand up.
Because he's so active nowadays, whenever he's awake, one of us has to follow him around the whole time, and stop him from pulling all the wires out of the computer or pulling the fan down on himself, or grab him when he gets into the trash can or starts putting our shoes in his mouth.
Right now, Nate is sleeping. That's why I have time to write this.
What happens is that when he takes his naps (2 times a day for 1-2 hrs), its a race against the clock to get stuff done! We start writing emails as fast as we possibly can, cleaning up the house, doing things in the kitchen, the whole time glancing nervously at the baby monitor, because we know that with every second that passes we have less time to do things we need to do before he wakes up again!
It was a whole lot easier when he was smaller and slept for like 22 hrs a day!
I'm sure that all you parents out there know exactly what I'm talking about - especially if you have more than one kid. We're still new to this whole thing, but I'm already thinking about what its going to be like when #2 comes along and also gets this size.
Well, Nate just woke up, so I gotta go!

John Calvin and Chuck Smith

Here's a picture of the sanctuary at our new church building.
I took it right after the cleaning lady had been there - she always sets up the stage this way with the table, so it looks like its ready to host a talk show or maybe an arm wrestling competition.

Anyways, the reason I posted this was to show that there are 2 portraits hanging on the wall behind the stage.

The one on the right is a picture of John Calvin - reformer and father of Reformed Theology (AKA Calvinism)
So, as you can see in this second picture, John Calvin (or Jancsi bácsi, as I like to call him) looks over my shoulder every Sunday as I preach. Its almost like he's reading over my shoulder the whole time - and I don't really like it when people do that.
Another interesting thing to me about this picture, is that - I don't know when it was made, if it was made during Communism or what, but it seems to me to have a striking similarity to this picture of Hungarian Stalinist leader Rákosi Mátyás.
Having said all that - I actually do like the picture. Its cool that he's pointing to the scriptures and putting his hand on his heart, as if to say that he's touched by it.

The picture on the left is of a man named Kovács Károly, who apparently was the pastor of the Reformed church in Eger from 1889-1901.
What's interesting about him, is that translated to English, Kovács means Smith and Károly is Charles. In other words - his name is Chuck Smith!
And the most ironic thing about it all: In our Calvary Chapel, between "Chuck Smith" and John Calvin on our wall, its Chuck's picture that we take down every week so we can project on the wall!
Don't worry - there's no ideological or theological statement involved in that - just an odd coincidence.

For everything there is a season...

Solomon, inspired by God, wrote these words in the book of Ecclesiastes:
To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, And a time to die;
A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
A time to kill, And a time to heal;
A time to break down, And a time to build up;
A time to weep, And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, And a time to dance;...(Ecc.3:1-4)

Nate is apparently a very mature baby, because as you can see in this picture, he seems to already understand this.
Perhaps in his case it could be phrased: A time to be serious, And a time to be silly.
Oh, and by the way - his shirt reminds me of that Pirate movie. You know the one, right? It was rated ARGH!
Sorry.

J.C.

This blog post is in honor of 3 people whose initials are J.C., who have been on my mind a lot lately -

1. JC = Jesus Christ
Last week we were in Vajta for the annual Foundations Conference, for church leaders from Eastern Europe.
7 of us from our church went, and we had a really blessed time. For me, this conference is one of the highlights of the year - because its a great time of fellowship with like-minded people whom we don't get to see very often, and the teachings are directed at our unique situation, as missionaries and church planters.
But more than anything else, the conference was great because of the presence of Jesus Christ. The reason the teachings were good, was because they were about Jesus Christ - about living for Him and serving Him. The reason the fellowship was good, was because of our common love for and commitment to Jesus Christ, just like 1.John 1:3 says: That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.


2. JC = Joe Cady
My dad. Last Sunday was Father's Day in America. For me, this was my first Father's Day - and for my dad, it was his first as a grandfather.
Also, last Friday was his B-day. Happy Birthday dad! I love you! Thanks for being a great dad and grandpa.


3. JC = Jean Cauvin (AKA John Calvin)
The building our church meets in now is called the Kálvin Ház (Calvin House). It was built in 1711 originally as a brewery, using the water of the Eger Creek, which flows out of the nearby hills (Hungarians call them mountains - I obviously disagree with that designation!).
The building was later purchased by the local Reformed and Lutheran believers, and they lived there (there weren't all that many of them) and held their church services there. It was during this time that the upper floor was added. Later both the Reformed and Lutherans built their own separate buildings, and used the Kálvin Ház for offices and private residences.
During Communism the building was taken away from the Reformed church, and they were just able to get it back, less than 10 years ago.
We have the great blessing of using this building, which is right in the center of town, for our church.
The building is named after John Calvin (born Jean Cauvin), a French Theologian and Reformer. Calvin's "magnum opus" was Institutes of the Christian Religion, a book about Protestant Systematic Theology; originally published in 1536, and is still widely studied by theology students today.
Although I don't agree with Calvin on every theological point, I look up to him and respect him as the champion of such great doctrines as Justification by faith alone, Christian liberty, and the Sovereignty of God.
And, on top of all that, we have a great statue of JC in the courtyard of the building. Nice beard!

Photo Websites

Lately I love Flickr. I could browse it for hours - although I try to exercise some self-control.
Also, in connection with Flickr, I love this site: Big Huge Labs, which has all kinds of cool apps on it for doing quick and easy photo projects. Its designed to work best when hooked up to a flickr site, but if you don't have one, that's no problem either; you can upload any random photos you want as well.
Here are some of the things we've made on Big Huge Labs:

A River Runs Through It

As far as natural disasters go, Hungary is a pretty safe place to live. There aren't really earthquakes, there are no tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc... But, every now and then there are floods.
The Danube river overflows its banks in Budapest every couple years - sometimes every year, and even here in Eger we get our own floods from time to time.
Back some time in the 19th century there was a big flood in Eger, and many of the older buildings in town have marks on them from the high water mark of that flood.
Today there was a flash flood in Eger. I (Nick) was stuck at our church office downtown and not able to come home, because the roads were under water. After a little less than an hour it cleared up and I was able to go home. On the way the roads were all covered in silt and parts of the sidewalk on our street had been washed away!
Also on our street, a sink hole had opened up in the road, and the fire department was there trying to fix things - even now the road is still closed.
Rosemary was at the house with the baby - and had a good time with the neighbors watching the river of water flowing down the street in front of our house.
Something similar happened 3 years ago, when we first moved to Eger; we had to get to church, and I had wade through water to put all the stuff for church into the car!
Nothing near a natural disaster, but for Eger, this was pretty interesting!

Are you in Hungary? Did you have flooding where you live too?

Here are some photos and a video:
The river in front of our house


Firefighters on our street and the hole (taken w/ my phone)


Video of flooded streets downtown (taken by Shane from the window of his workplace)

Poky Little Puppy

The Poky Little Puppy is a book about a group of puppies who are naughty and always getting into things they shouldn't.
More and more lately we have been noticing that Nathaniel is a lot like a puppy.
Some examples: He likes to hold his toys in his mouth to keep his hands free while he's busy with other stuff. He has sharp little teeth, and chews on everything. He started crawling last week, and now he's double trouble! He likes to lick us to show us that he loves us (probably his imitation of our kisses). He often pants loudly when he gets excited. He also pounds on stuff when he is happy - as if he had a tail he wanted to wag.
Today, we read him the book The Poky Little Puppy. Afterwards we let him play by himself for a few minutes, and when we went back to play with him, we noticed that there was something in his mouth... So, I dug it out of there, only to find it was part of the cover of the book we had just read him - a hard-backed book, supposedly made to be baby-proof. He had bitten it off!
We are convinced: Nate is the Poky Little Puppy.

Nate's Little Knives

I (Nick) recently got a knife. I've wanted one for a long time, and a friend blessed me with it a few days ago. I really like it, and I try to use it as much as possible - to carve my name in things or to open up my yogurt, letters, etc... (pretty much anything I possible can).

But in more interesting news: Nate himself has been blessed with not one, but two little knives.
Right now he has 2 teeth that have popped out on the bottom, and the top 2 are coming any day now.
Let me tell you - those little things are sharp! I used to let him chew on my nose before he had teeth, but last night I wasn't on guard enough I guess, and he chomped down on my nose - I thought I was going to die. It was more painful than having your nose hairs pulled out! I was sure that he had drawn blood - but in the end he didn't. I think I just got a bruise.
So, Nate is getting bigger and bigger every day, and getting more and more of these razor sharp little knife/teeth.
Its so cool to watch him grow. His name means "Gift of God" and that's truly what he is!

Spring in Eger

Spring is my favorite time of year in Hungary.
When I lived in Colorado, spring was actually my least favorite time of year, because it meant the end of the ski season. But here I'm actually glad when the winter's over; for one, because ski season isn't a big deal here (although I did manage to get to Slovakia to snowboard a few times this year), but mostly because it means that I can get outside and start doing stuff that is fun to do around here, like hiking and mountain biking.

Last week some guys and from the church and I went hiking in Slovakia, to a super cool national park, where we hiked up 2 canyons, in a beautiful area. For pictures click here.

This time of year in Eger it rains a lot, but that also means that the hillsides are very green, and so when the sun shines its gorgeous.

Today we went for a bike ride in the hills, and even got to see some newborn sheep, who still had afterbirth on them and were taking their first steps! Cool stuff.

Jet Lag

Jet Lag is a physiological condition which is a consequence of alterations to the circadian rhythm. The condition is generally believed to be the result of disruption of the "light/dark" cycle that entrains the body’s circadian rhythm. (reference: Wikipedia)

It is also said that jet lag is worse for women and even harder the younger someone is. And with that, I’ll tell you that Nathaniel has really bad jet lag. He wakes up 2 times at night and is awake for 2 hours a time just as he would during the daytime with his naps. I am the one who stays up with the bubba, letting Nick sleep and take over in the morning when Bubba wakes up. This is the 3rd night now-which I know isn’t horrible, but I am so tired and hope to get Nathaniel back to sleeping well for 12 or 13 hours a night. (No, he doesn’t sleep through the night yet-he gets up to eat, then goes straight back to sleep.)

He had a very short night on the airplane with only 4 hours of sleep in a little bassinet under our legs. He’s a good boy and enjoyed the adventure of being on an airplane, and was interested in everything. So interested that he spent 1 1/2 hours looking around and saying "ooh, ooh!"
Nick and I enjoyed brief naps of maybe 30 minutes each.

They say that since jet lag is your body being out of sync with the local time-is there any way to fix this quickly???
Sleep is so valuable to me that I am getting desperate. I am also worried that the Bubba will enjoy these night time awakenings to play and be with mom for a long time!

Any advice is appreciated.

Our trip to America - pt 1.

Hey there,

We are now in San Diego area staying with my friend Jenni. She has 3 kids and her youngest is just older than Nathaniel, so our kids nap at roughly the same times.
Nate has a bit of jet lag-he got up at 5:20 this morning and finally went back to sleep a while later.
Our trip started when we left Eger at 3:30 in the morning Tuesday. The flight took off at 6:30 am and Nate slept all the way to Frankfurt, Germany. WE were SO blessed that the flight to Los Angelas wasn’t full and we were able to have a seat for Nate, and we had him take naps in the car seat. He was such a good boy on the airplane and enjoyed looking at everything and everyone, and seemed to enjoy the air turbulence and especially when the plane landed. He was laughing! SO, it seems that Nate will be a roller coaster fan in the future.
Praise the Lord, I was concerned that he would cry a lot on the plane and it would be hard for him. He did a good job on the 11 hour ride from Frankfurt.
Nick and I are tired but doing well. Our pace of visiting people is a lot slower with the baby as we don’t want to tire him out. We are enjoying our time here and my brother Tony is coming over every day to see us. Nate loves him and stares at Uncle Tony and babbles and laughs. Nick says that Uncle Tony looks like mom with a beard.
I hope you are all well. Keep in touch.

Rosemary

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Now playing: coldplay - the Hardest Part
via FoxyTunes

Milestone

On Jan. 1st, our son, Nathaniel, turned 4 months old. He's doing great - getting stronger and fatter every day. Now he laughs and is able to grab at things and play with simple toys. He loves to talk to his stuffed animals! He used to cry when we put him to bed, but nowadays he just talks to his stuffed animals for a few minutes and then goes to sleep on his own!
Today we experienced an important milestone in the life of our son. We were sitting down eating dinner together, and was holding Nate in my lap while I ate. Next thing I know, he's reaching onto my plate and grabbing handfuls of my food and throwing them!
I realized that this is truly the beginning of a new stage in our son's life - a stage in which he will be throwing food and making messes everywhere. That's ok - its worth it!
Oh, and you can click here to listen to Nate laughing.

Orrszívó Porszívó - Nose Vac

Sorry for not writing since the birth of the baby! He's beautiful and wonderful - praise the Lord!
In case you don't know yet, he was born on September 1st and his name is Nathaniel Nicholas Cady.
Well, Nate got his first cold (from his dad it seems), and today we took him to the doctor because of it. And her recommendation - buy an attachment for our vacuum cleaner that sucks out his brains, I mean mucous!
Anyways, I knew that Hungarians use this product, and I must admit that I was a bit skeptical to use it - not to mention that it didn't help when the doctor told us, "Don't be surprised if he bleeds a little from it!"
But we gave it a shot, and his brain didn't get sucked out or anything! Its still fully intact.
Anyways, I have to admit that I am totally impressed with this thing! I was totally convinced that this is some sort of torture device, but now I'm fully converted - I'm a fan. I vacuum out his nose every chance that I get, and I'm pretty sure he actually likes it, because he gets super calm and just lets me do it.
I can't wait until I have a cold, so I can use it on myself!

Oh, and I found this awesomely bad video - an official advertisement for this product. This is one of the worst commercials I've ever seen! Among the things that make this video so bad its good, my favorite parts are: 1) the horrible background music, 2) the part where the kid takes it and uses it on himself, 3) the close up of the snot fluttering as it is sucked out of the kid's nose.

Enjoy!

Birth Announcement

What I am looking forward to

Junior is due tomorrow!
I honestly thought he would come early, but it seems like Junior is going to keep us all waiting. Being at the end of the pregnancy, I can look back and say that it has gone very well for me and I have enjoyed being pregnant and have this amazing thing happen in my belly. This is really a blessing from God because no woman can know what to expect, and we have enjoyed the phenomenon of Junior growing inside and not having any problems for either of us. My life usually has difficulties and I have learned through it not to worry and know that God is One to be trusted, and this has carried into the pregnancy.

At the end of being pregnant with Junior, it has gotten more difficult these last 2 weeks. Being at the end of a waiting period, its natural to get impatient and want it to be over, and this is where Nick and I are at! Also, it's gotten uncomfortable, and I am thinking about things I miss and what I want to do once Junior is out!

This is what I have been thinking about:
1. I love sleeping on my back, and it has been painful to sleep on my side. I wake up in the middle of the night on my back, and the weight of the baby pushes down all my guts and major blood vessels, making me feel like throwing up and my feet are asleep from lack of blood.
2. I would like to get dressed without needing to lean against the wall because I cannot bend over to pull anything up or put my shoes on.
3. I remember being able to bend over at the waist and pick something up. Being pregnant, I have to carefully squat and not fall over because I don't know my center of gravity.
4. I miss being able to cuddle with Nick. The belly gets in the way-obviously. He sits on a separate chair now because we cannot cuddle on the couch and I cannot just turn any which way to get comfortable.
5. Something I never thought would be hard is to get into bed. Nick laughed really hard when he saw my procedure of having to back up into place, sit down in just the right spot so my head will land on the pillow when I lay down and far enough back on the bed so I won't fall off. Then, I fall on my side to make it to the pillow. Its so hard to roll over in bed-I have pulled muscles in the belly doing it.
6. Did you know that with all the hormones is one that relaxes the ligaments for pregnant moms? With this, I have experienced quite a few serious choking episodes as my epiglottis is too relaxed. I choke a lot anyway-but its been scary while pregnant to choke so seriously that I barf.
7. I miss being able to lay down without acid rushing into my throat.
8. Taking a shower is another experience with a big belly that I have had to learn. The first one is climbing into and out of the tub without losing my balance-and remember, bending is not easy. This means also that washing my legs and feet are a challenge.
9. My toenails have grown so long being pregnant because I feel like barfing every time I bend over and try to cut them. I have tried squatting and cutting nails, but that is very hard too, and the deed just gets neglected. The other problem is that they grow so fast with all the hormones, and I wear flip-flops since I won't bend over to put shoes on.
10. In the past 2 weeks, I have started itching a lot on my ankles and wrists and hands. Part of the reason is my teno-synovitis which causes swelling anyway, and the other reason is hormones, oh and also, yes, because I am pregnant with so much fluid everywhere anyway. I look forward to not having weird pregnant things happen to my body anymore, even though it is interesting how God made the woman's body to do all this.
11. I look forward to walking up the hill to my house without dying because now I am carrying a big belly and the baby pushes my lungs up, decreasing my breathing capacity.

There are many more things that can be added to the list, but I won't state the obvious nor make my first blog too long.
The thing we look forward to most is having Junior and holding him.

Hot, hot, hot!

Its been crazy hot here for the last two weeks. This article should give you an idea of just how hot its been:

Wednesday, July 25, 2007 12:25 AM

BUDAPEST (AFP) - The heatwave in central and southern Europe killed an estimated 500 people in Hungary last week, the country's chief medical officer announced yesterday.

Ferenc Falus said that during the week from July 15 to July 22 the heat in central Hungary "contributed to the early death of 230 people, which nationally means about 500 deaths".

The announcement of hundreds of deaths comas as heavy rain and extreme temperatures continue to batter Europe.

Britain was experiencing its worst flooding in living memory, while across the continent in the Balkans people were warned to stay indoors to avoid searing temperatures with deaths reported in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, and Romania.

Temperatures in the region were recorded at 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and above, with Greece expecting a high of 45 Celsius on Tuesday and Italy just behind at 44 Celsius, hours after Rome recorded one of its warmest nights ever on Monday at 27.1 degrees.

Bulgaria has also experienced its hottest temperatures since records began with the mercury shooting above 45 degrees Celsius in parts of the country, and more than 860 people reportedly fainting in the streets in Romania.

Magyar vagyok, nem turista!

After many months of bureaucracy, my perseverance has paid off, and I now have my settlement papers in Hungary (like the equivalent of having a Green Card in the US)! Until now I was here on a Missionary Visa, which prevented me from being able to do many things, including getting a job or signing certain contracts.
Today I got my Hungarian Identification card in the mail, so now I don't have to show people my Colorado driver's license anymore - which is always met with confusion and 5 minutes of discussing with the colleagues about whether or not that is acceptable as a form of ID.

Although things are coming together, although I still have to get 2 more important documents before I am finally finished with all the paperwork, and I am having a lot of difficulty getting these papers. For example, you can't get the TB card (National Insurance), unless you have a job; BUT you can't get a job unless you have a TB card! Lovely!
Then the office that is supposed to give the TB card told me that I need to go to the Unemployment office to get my TB card, but at the Unemployment office they told me that they can't help me with anything until I get a TB card.
Anyways, please pray that God will put it on someone's heart at one of these offices to actually help me out!

New Belly Picture

Here is the long-awaited belly picture - taken June 26th.
We have only 8 weeks to go now! That is,unless Junior gets silly and decides to come out early-which we are hoping he doesn't!

Another amusing sign

This is a street sign in Eger. We always have a good laugh when we drive by this street.

Puky = Fart. Miklós = Nicholas.

Today we were laughing and taking pictures of it, and 2 old people stopped to look at us, totally not able to comprehend why we were laughing - as if living on Puky Miklós street is the most normal thing in the world!

Picture of the baby!

Here's a picture of Rosemary's belly that we took today. I think if you look really closely you can even see an image of Junior!