graduation pictures

tim graduating!!

tim's parents came for the weekend! we loved having them with us!!

and my family came up too - we felt so loved.

sam and a balloon

one of samantha's favorite nursery workers sent these pictures to me from easter - i thought they were cute and wanted to share. :)

five years in the making

denver seminary graduation - 2006 - a journey ended and another began. during that graduation ceremony which marked the accomplishment of my masters degree God began something only He could orchestrate - a winding, crazy, around the world adventure.

a few weeks ago Tim graduated with his Masters in Divinity from Regent College! a five year journey come to an end. and for those of you who know us and have been following this blog for the last 3 years know - Regent College wasn't our only stop along the way. Tim took courses at Denver Seminary while we lived in Aurora, and more significantly we had the chance to study again in Jerusalem as a part of his degree. Finishing up in Vancouver was the perfect ending. Regent was the perfect place.

so as I sat in the graduation ceremony I felt a wave of emotions. thankfulness - wow God thank you for where we have had the opportunity to be, the things we have been able to learn and the people who have significantly impacted our lives. thank you for the gifts along the way - for the growth in our relationship, for the opportunity to live with the mosers, for kurtis and erin - friends to have in Israel and to live three blocks away from in Vancouver, for provision, for healing - for tim's heart and for ken (tim's dad), for our famlies and the tremendous, abundant way they have supported us, for the gift of samantha jean and for rich community in Vancouver (Joyce, Calum, Finley, moms group, tenth church). i feel like i could go on and on but my heart was and continues to be full of thankfulness.

i also felt proud. proud to be tim's wife. tim is an amazing man. God has given him unique gifts, and so to see him learn and develop his gifts in these last 5 years has given me great joy. and i feel proud. (proud also because he was awarded the Preaching Prize - recognizing his gift in preaching!).

i also felt sad - this journey is over. some how, in some way life will change. we don't know what that will look like yet, but change is on the horizon.

this post wouldn't be complete without thanking you - thank you for reading the blog and writing comments but more significantly - thank you for praying and loving us. thank you. having this space to share and reflect has been another great gift that God has given. you are a blessing to me!!

so what's next?- great question. we have no idea. well that's not exactly true, but that is how it feels right now. we are praying and searching and talking and thinking. and waiting. and when we know - i will let you know. in the mean time prayers for wisdom, clarity, unity and patience are greatly appreciated!

thanks again! kristi

ps

tim's graduation was this last weekend (yeah tim!)- i have a whole post that i am writing in my mind. it feels a bit too much to share now. but it will be coming soon.

:)

from one extreme to another

some would say in my family that i can go from one strong mood to another. i think this was more pronounced in my younger years... but if it is true - i passed it along to my daughter (although i think tim may have some of this in him too...)

this morning i woke up to the sound of sammy singing at the top of her lungs. she was clapping and walking and talking and singing!! it was loud.

now she is quietly reading books in her room - not making a single peep.

in a matter of 15 min.

that's my girl.

also - on another note - my quote of the day yesterday for myself, "why do i feel so overwhelmed by tasks i have given myself to do?..." these days with my energy on the rise i want to deal with all the stuff that got forgotten while i was sick (like a good scrub of my shower and pulling the weeds growing in our yard). now that i am beginning to feel better i have moments when i think i should do all of these tasks in one day - all the while doing laundry, playing with sam, buying groceries and making meals. thankfully i gave myself a bit of a talking to - and i took a nap. tim is also especially helpful in these moments - speaking truth and sanity into my desire to be over-productive beyond my means.

thankfully today it is raining - and i don't pull weeds in the rain. one less thing to worry about :) we will see about the tub.

egg hunt

sammy experienced her first egg hunt easter weekend. i wasn't really sure how she was going to do, but she really liked it. i encouraged tim to be generous with his placement of the eggs and afterwards we decided we can ramp up the challenge next year.

very excited to find an egg!
"look mama there is another one over there!"
focused.

samantha was very pleased to find plastic jewelry in her eggs, as the easter bunny knew jewelry would bring greater joy to her heart than candy. and she was very excited! :)

easter pictures

sam loves puzzles
sweet girl

fun in the bathroom sink

Samantha loves the bathroom sink. She can get into the sink by herself. (She loves to climb and explore - don't know where she got that from...) Don't worry - she is almost always monitored when she is in the sink (and gets a time out if we find her in the sink by herself). Enjoy the good times tim captured of Sam in the sink!

Untitled from Kristi Knipp on Vimeo.

ps - can you tell i am beginning to feel better- two posts in one day! :)

crazy hair

sometimes when you have this much hair - it can be crazy in the morning...

a sight for sore eyes

yesterday evening tim and i traveled, with expectant hearts, to an ultrasound appointment. and it is with humble and grateful hearts that we announce to you that we are pregnant.

the weeks leading up to last night have been full of all kinds of emotion. initial thrill to be pregnant again after months of waiting and wondering. this was quickly followed by fear - wondering if we would make it past week 5 (the number of weeks i was along when we lost the baby in july). this was followed by a sense of confirmation as my body struggled to be fully present - often distracted by extreme fatigue, constant nausea, regular spells of sickness.

most significantly these feelings were followed by deep sorrow. for a few days after we told our families we were pregnant - gabe and brooke told us they too were expecting. and our babies were due a week apart. about a month later gabe and brooke found out their baby had died. our hearts were broken. our hearts continue to be broken. (gabe wrote a beautiful post about their loss on his blog).

about a week ago we had a disappointing appointment with the midwife. i was hoping to hear the heartbeat, but for whatever reason they were unable to pick it up on the doppler. (they don't have ultrasound machines in doctors/midwife offices in canada like they do in the states). the midwife offered for me to have an ultrasound. she wasn't worried. i thought i would like the reassurance that everything was ok.

last night all questions were answered. the baby is healthy. i am 12 weeks along. the baby is due october 27. we are incredibly thankful.

the Lord has certainly been present to us throughout this entire process. our dream for another child is being realized after months of ups and downs. granted we have a long way to go but i have to tell you all that the Lord has answered my prayers for him to reveal himself to me in this process. in small and big ways he has reminded me of his faithful love and constant presence.

thank you for your prayers in this journey! we are so grateful!

rit it DOWn!

Last friday morning Tim and I were having a chat about his sermon. He had it all in his head (and some in the computer) and just needed to type. I encouraged him with the words, "Tim - it is all in your head - you just have to write it down."

Immediately Samantha began to exclaim, "WRITE IT DOWN!! DADA WRITE IT DOWN!!"

Of course it sounded more like, "rit it DOWn! rit it DOWn!"

We could not stop laughing, which only encouraged further repetition of the phrase. Since then she still from time to time tells us to write it down.

Tim is more or less thankful that he now has two ladies telling him what to do :)

brushing teeth

we try to fulfill the requests of our readers - brooke, these are for you :)

sammy loves to brush. we are thankful for these good firsts steps in oral hygiene. my mom tried to help sam floss yesterday and she wanted nothing to do with it. i can't say i blame her. i floss out of guilt.

NO!!

Sweet Samantha Jean found her voice long ago. Recently she has found she can scream the word, "NO!" Saying no is fine in our house, but screaming no in close range in a fit of anger - not so much. Tim and I have been parenting the fine line of desiring Sam to know expressing anger is allowed, and yet there is a line (which she crosses) between simply expressing anger and being rude, mean and disrespectful.

It is hard for us because her vocabulary is very limited, but again she must learn there is a difference between healthy anger and unhealthy anger. (poor girl - even as i write that i am thinking i need to start saving money for her therapy bills).

Needless to say - we have started putting her in time out for yelling "NO!" in a way that isn't acceptable. At the end of a day full of such time outs I was sharing my frustration with Tim. We were talking about our strategy and then he said something that brought me to tears.

Kristi we must pray and believe the Lord can use this for good. Someday Sam may be screaming NO! with a person without power, without a voice behind her and a perpetrator of injustice in front of her.

Lord - please I pray - use Samantha's strong NO for your good. May she use this voice to advocate for those who, for whatever reason, have none. May you grow her heart for the poor, oppressed, and lonely. And please give us your wisdom to shape her into a woman who loves the things you love and hates the things you hate. amen.

jelly bean - cont...

Before I left for work sammy spotted the jelly bean bag and asked for one. She already had her breakfast and so Tim allowed her to eat another jelly bean. He put her in her seat - as to minimize any damage. She didn't mess around this time - knowing full well now that jelly beans are good. After a few moments the whole thing was in her mouth and she was asking for more. Tim told her one was enough. :)

If her jelly bean interest continues we are going to have to take her teeth brushing to a whole new level.

jelly bean

sammy ate a jelly bean for the first time tonight. she saw the bag we were given from my mom and after dinner asked for one. she then sat at the kitchen table in a "big girl" chair. after 10 min of wiggling in the chair and licking the jelly bean, she finally got up the courage to take a bite. she must have liked it because moments later she popped in the rest. she didn't ask for another, but it probably helped that after 5 min of waiting i hid the bag.

samantha - you wont try apples or grapes, but given a jelly bean you are one adventurous little girl.

ps - she was so sticky i had to wipe down everything!! oh well.