Oh Babies!

After we got home from New York, we looked forward to the birth of two  new grand babies. Grandchild # 14, Andy and KayLynn's first baby, was born in Utah on Jan. 8, 2014. We would have to wait until his blessing date to meet Emmett Andrew Ellis in person. In the meantime, we kept up with this little cutie via Facetime. Lots more photos of him from our Utah trip are coming up on the blog.

(The baby you see in the upper right hand corner is new born baby Rae. We were face-timing from Jeremy's house.)

We are geographically closer (an hour away) to Jeremy and Nicole ,who anticipated the birth of their first baby. Nicole's new friends in Tomball hosted a lovely baby shower.

On February 22, 2014, Ray Rochelle Ellis, grandchild #15, was born in north Houston. Jeremy was so funny as a brand new father,telling us in the hospital that he didn't know if the baby liked him, because she cried every time he held her. He worried that his arms were too skinny for her to rest comfortably in. It didn't take him long, however, to get the hang of being a Dad. He fell completely head over heels in love with his new little girl. Nicole was a very relaxed new mom -- a natural, as is baby Emmett's mom, Kaylynn. Both babies are very blessed to have such great parents.

We visited the new little family when Rae came home from the hospital, bringing them dinner. Other than being a little sleep deprived, they were doing great.

Three weeks after she was born, sweet baby Rae had her first photo shoot, with Auntie Lauren taking precious newborn photos.

These new babies are precious gifts from a loving Heavenly Father. We are now eagerly looking forward to the birth of grand baby #16, Mark and Courtney's third child, in October.

Some random post-mission moments during January, February, and March 2014

We celebrated a few birthdays during our first  months home, including Carl's 68th. Here he is surrounded by the grandchildren who have been living with us (with their parents, of course). At the start of our mission, they sold the home they had outgrown in Pearland, and moved into our home. It was a blessing having them here to take care of  our home, and a blessing for them, since they got to save up money needed to buy a much larger home. (They are closing on a home now, and will be moving out in August.) 

 The Zalit grandkids (minus baby Ben) celebrating Grandpa's birthday on March 27

Dan celebrated his 40th birthday in January. We love teasing him about being on "old" man.

 Lauren celebrated another 30-something birthday in March.

Uncle Ta (Carl Benjamin) and Avery celebrate their shared birthdays of March 2.

Evan celebrated his 5th birthday on Feb . 23.

In March, we enjoyed a visit from our New York Rochester Mission senior missionary friends, the Woods. They flew in from Utah to visit a son who lives in north Houston. We enjoyed sharing mission memories and some good Tex-Mex food.

With six of our grandchildren temporarily living with us, we get to enjoy many moments of random  cuteness. Lorelei was just 3 months old when we left on our mission, and is now a funny two year older who loves to "dress up".

Baby Ben eats his first solid food and doesn't know what to think about it.

In February, we got to go to Madeline Rippstein's homecoming talk. Unlike most of the missionaries, who live in Utah, Arizona, or Idaho, Sister Rippstein lives just 20 minutes away from us, in Clear Lake City. She served in the Rochester New York Mission during the time we were there. Our senior missionary friends who live in Utah get to go to tons of homecoming talks -- at least we got to go to one.

Spring fever hit Carl like a tsunami (Spring starts early in Texas), resulting in him buying a chain saw and taking down a good portion of the trees in our backyard. The grass is sure to grow greener now.

Carl got a break from all the chainsawing, by going on a Father/Son camp-out.

Elayna presented this cake at the cake auction the Young Women were having for summer camp.

In conclusion, post mission life has been good. Never a dull moment! (I'll be doing a separate post on the most exciting evens of the first three months home -- the births of two new grandbabies!)

Ringing in the New Year 2014 with all the grandchildren

Right after Christmas, Mark and Courtney and their children Coby and Saige, drove all the way from Minnesota to spend a week with us.  Our joy was complete with all 13 grandchildren in our home.

 It was impossible to get a photo with every kid attentive and smiling.

 We had fun taking day trips to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Houston Zoo.

 Colby's Grandfather posed as a boy at this same lion water fountain at the Houston zoo.

 Look at this tough Minnesota granddaughter enjoying the chilly December ocean in Galveston!

Saige enjoyed being around her girl cousins. It was so sad to see Colby and Saige go back to Minnesota. I think our Minnesota bunch enjoyed a little respite from the Arctic cold.

Our first Christmas back in Texas

About a week and a half after we got home from the mission, we were surrounded by family as we celebrated Christmas back in Texas. 

 For Family Home evening, we made Gingerbread houses.

It was great to experience Christmas morning with little ones again. 

Looking back to the first week we got home from the mission -- Dec. 2013

Our oldest granddaughter,Elayna, became a teenager while we were in New York. We got home in time to attend her final 8th grade cross country meet.

Evan was so thrilled to have his Grandpa back home.

Yes, it was nice to be back in Texas again, back to home and family.  Our Satsuma orange tree celebrated our home coming by producing a bumper crop.

Looking back -- a few post mission thoughts!

We've been home from our mission for 6 months. Coming back, nothing quite seems the same. We love and appreciate our family even more. The grandchildren have grown so much.  Houston heat and humidity don't bother me as much as before. Houston traffic has gotten worse -- everyone is moving here due to the booming economy. I long for the quiet, scenic roads and rolling hills in upstate New York. The countryside we traveled through daily was wildly beautiful.

 Something else is different. I feel different. My heart has been changed forever.  Packing up our belongings and driving across the country to upstate New York to serve for 23 months was a leap of faith, a jumping off a cliff and out of our comfort zone. Am I glad we did it?  Yes! My heart has been filled to the brim-- with love and gratitude for our Savior, love for all the wonderful missionaries we served with, and for the wonderful new friends we have made.

To me, our assignment was difficult and very stressful at times, but the Lord has always been there for us. I am grateful for the many blessings he has given us -- that he has kept our families safe and well while we were gone, and that he has blessed us with the health and strength to do what we needed to do.

I found joy in forgetting all about myself and thinking of others.

  I will always be grateful for the opportunity my husband and I had to work intensively together, even though we often didn't see eye to eye. We both sure learned a lot about each other, and hopefully all this has made our marriage even stronger. 

Towards the end of our mission, Elder Perkins of the Seventy spoke to a few of us senior missionaries, saying, "We leave home to learn how to get back home." I am continuing to learn from our mission. Because of the things I have learned from serving a mission, my focus is sharper on the things I need to be doing during the last few decades of my life.

Taken in the Sacred Grove, Palmyra, N.Y., exactly a year ago.

Leaving our mission

Yes, I have been a blog slacker, thanks to Instagram and Facebook. But I've repented and am  back into the world of blogging. I've got a lot of catching up to do, starting with  Dec. 10,  2013, the day we left our missionary apartment in Brockport, N.Y. and traveled back home to Texas.

We left the NY Rochester Mission a week earlier than planned, due to predicted bad weather. On Dec. 10, we loaded the car on what would be the last sunny day in many weeks. The following day was icy and very snowy. So, we left just in time. 

 While Carl was hauling all our belongings to the car, I was finishing cleaning our missionary apartment. As we were getting ready to leave, the senior couple replacing us showed up on our doorstep. They helped haul out the last of our bags and Elder Ray took this photo of us.

Looking at this photo, I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. We felt like the Beverly Hillbillies going on a long road trip. How Carl managed to cram everything in is a major miracle -- looks like a pile of junk to me. It took my aging body a long time to recover from that car trip. I was so crammed in; there was little room to move. When we got to Houston, I was hurting and feeling like an old lady.

As we passed through Buffalo, NY that afternoon on Dec. 10, snow was starting to fall. We were a day ahead of  the Arctic Vortex which held upstate New York in a tight grip for most of the winter. The previous two winters of our mission were unseasonably mild .  I warned everyone that when we leave, we would be taking the mild weather back to Texas with us.

A huge  feeling of  relief engulfed me as we headed back home. Our missionary assignment was quite strenuous and demanding, and after 23 months of working very hard, it was good to be heading home. We would miss our associations with dear friends and missionaries, being close to the sacred sites, and the wild beauty of upstate New York. But we were more than ready to 

 hand our assignment over to the capable hands of Elder and Sister Ray. 

We drove through just a small amount of  falling snow on our way home, the last snow we will see for a long time. This part of the country was soon to be above its neck in snow and ice.

Our smiles were as big as the Texas sky as we crossed the Louisiana border and entered the Lone Star State.

The first thing we did, once we entered Texas, was to visit the grandchildren in Vidor, which was on our route back to Friendswood. (Dario is missing from this photo.)

It was especially joyful to be reunited with little Dahlia, who was blessed with the gift of a heart transplant while we were serving our mission. She was in our prayers everyday and we feel she has been blessed by the Lord to be doing so well.