Pregnant in Petén

   Our internet has been pretty bad for about 4 months. It is too slow for skype and my patience is too short to wait to upload photos for a blog post. I love photos, without them, how do you tell a story?! Anyway, today the internet isn't that bad, so I'm going to upload as many as I can. 

    In September, we found out that we were pregnant... bahaha! After Eden we tried for 2.5 years. Then we thought that since God hadn't given us another, maybe He just wanted us to have 3. We were VERY grateful for our 3 and decided not to even think about it anymore and just celebrate and enjoy our family of 5. I know they tell people who have dealt with/dealing with infertility that all they have to do is relax and stop stressing and then they'll get pregnant. That's a bunch of hooey and could be pretty hurtful if they are in the middle of it. In this instance, I think God must have a specific plan for this 4th little one, and that plan starts in 2016. Who would have thought that after all our journeys, we would get to experience a surprise baby. Seriously, are we now people who make babies "on accident"?! I never understood how that could happen.

    I remember one of my friends telling me that once you are 35+ and pregnant they call it "advanced maternal age". Yeah, it feels like it! I'm kind of embarrassed to describe how hard this has been for me, I sound pretty lame. I had horrible all day long morning sickness with my other pregnancies, but this is the first time drugs were needed. I take them every night or else I wouldn't be able to eat and I would get dehydrated. Besides stomach cramps, I can smell everything and it all makes me gag. The worst is probably the calcium in our water. I have started using plastic cups and bottled water because I can't get the smell off our dishes. (Can you imagine having to live with me, poor Jimmy!) Our shower makes me gag, but there is no way around it. Sweaty little boy hair... wow! My kids are going to have a complex. And my gift from Petén, something crawled behind my oven and died. Sometimes big dead lizards can stink, but I've already given it a week, so it's something larger... who wants to go find it? My oven is a wall oven mounted in concrete, so it is going to be an ordeal to get it out. 

   Jimmy has been the biggest sweetheart. He is working non-stop at the farm, teaching, welding, finishing up construction projects, and fixing different problems. For about 2 months he fed us too. The staples that I could eat were homemade carrot soup,

homemade cornbread croutons (minus the chicken, but with lots of avocado),

tons of baked sweet potatoes, and taco salad. Jimmy made sure the baby got lots of healthy stuff. He is such a good husband and daddy! These past 2 months have been really hard on us. I'm not complaining, I'm acknowledging how much my family has been through to help me. I felt like a worthless burden. The worst is over now, the stomach cramps are better. I'm in my 14th week and really praying that by week 16 the nausea will be completely gone too!

I had 2 sweet missionary friends make us some yummy food and bring it over. We had meatballs, sugar cookies, and then cinnamon buns for days! SO good!

 Another beautiful friend brought chicken and dumplings with apple pie. Those are Silas' favorite foods! He might go live with her.

 I think another reason I have really struggled with this pregnancy is that our first appointment was in Petén and it was a train wreck. I was spotting and worried. I kept saying, "I see the baby's heart beat" and the doctor said probably 4 times, "well, that's the good news" and then just had this silent smirk on his face. That made me so frustrated. Are you a sicko... don't stand silent for 5 minutes when an emotional pregnant lady is in your office! I could see the pockets of blood in my uterus too, which I've had before, but he finally explained it like it could be the placenta detaching itself and starting to miscarry. That upset me even though I didn't believe him. He wanted to give me an injection of progesterone, without checking my levels and then immediately start me on tablets and then have me stop 2 weeks later. WELL, I'm not a doctor, but after the mountain of doctors we have seen over the years, I'm pretty sure that drop in progesterone would have insured a miscarriage. My good doctor is 7 hours away. I just wanted to see him!!!! 

Another thing that was difficult for me is that while this was happening I couldn't share it with anyone in our ministry. In Kekchi culture, it is vulgar to talk about being pregnant. I wanted to know people were praying for our baby, but not a mention was made. Sometimes I would miss important things like birthdays or services because I was sick. I couldn't explain why, it's rude. Jonah told one of the parents of the students who was visiting the farm that I wasn't there that day because there was a baby in my belly. The parent was horrified and couldn't believe that we speak of such things with our children. All cultures are different, but that is one difference that I really struggle with. Finally, last Wednesday one of the Spanish girls that come to our youth group patted my belly and said, "You have a bump! How many months are you?!" That made me so happy! I had a little moment of sharing my pregnancy and someone to celebrate with.

Traveling to the capital takes up time we don't have, it's expensive, and there have been lots of protests blocking the roads anyway. Thankfully about a month after our first appointment we decided to try a new doctor here in Petén. He looks about 18. I'm assuming he was a child prodigy.

No, he was really nice and so much more knowledgeable. His office in located in the middle of the "red light district". Jimmy always wants to be with me when I get news about the baby, so we all loaded up and went. We get out of the car and literally had to step over this drunk man laying cross-ways on the sidewalk. At that point I was still trying to be optimistic. But then a couple minutes later I got to see my baby! I cried! 

 

Everything looked perfect! No more pockets of blood. The baby waved their arm and then did this cute little bounce. (I think we might have another little Jonah personality in there!) The doctor gave us an excellent report and the due date of May 15th. 

This next Monday we got an appointment with my OB in Guate who will deliver this baby. We found a baby sitter for our kids and Jimmy and I are flying up and back in one day. I cannot wait! I hope we will get to find out the sex, he has 4D on his machine. Eden really wants a baby sister and of course the boys want another brother. I am thrilled whatever they are!

    God, the Author of life, has given our family this wonderful blessing! If my kids had been any younger, they wouldn't be sharing this experience with us. Each night they pray that God will protect our baby and help it grow! Eden keeps asking me when the baby is gonna come out. "It taken SO long, Mama!" I am making her a little baby wrap for Christmas because I know she will be right next to me all the time with her baby doll strapped to her like mommy! This is one lucky baby to have 3 siblings that are so excited about loving on them. Silas told me today, "Mama, I'm really happy God put a baby in your tummy. I will love it forever and ever."

 CUTE ITEM OF THE DAY: We were all discussing names the other day. Jonah really wants us to name the baby Honey. We told him that we probably wouldn't pick that name. He said that he didn't care, that would be what he calls the baby!

Handmade Home #14

A while back I had asked Jimmy to make me a laundry cart when he had time. I had an old one of which I really liked the design, but it was too small and kept falling apart. I asked Jimmy for a sturdier version with 4 bins instead of 3. He decided that was what he would make me for Christmas.  

Our laundry room is pretty open to the rest of our house, so I was excited about getting rid of my other junky cart. Besides that I don't really find any other household chores relaxing, but I love doing laundry. It is a big stress reliever for me. I hang a load of laundry on the line every morning. It is part of my routine. I'm just saying this was the perfect gift and affects my life on a daily basis. 

With the metal he had on hand, he only spent about $12 to buy wheels and some hooks. I used some old sheets to make the bags. Pretty good price for a custom heavy duty laundry bin! The top lifts up when needed and I can even roll it around the house if I want, haha! I love it!

We thought we had Eden's present taken care of back in the first of November. It is really hard to find decent toys in Petén. They are super expensive and don't usually last very long because of the quality. So you have to plan ahead and try and buy presents for Christmas and birthdays on furlough unless you plan to make them. This year when we were in the capital we found a good quality play kitchen we could order for E. They said it would make it in plenty of time for Christmas, so we did. Well less than 2 weeks before Christmas after WE called them, they said, "Nope, middle of January." So there we was no present and no refund any time soon. 

I had picked up her birthday present in the States, it was a couple pieces of doll house furniture. We were planing on building her a bookshelf style doll house (but not in a week). 

Anyway, Jimmy got on that too! Again, we had some wood on hand, so all he had to buy was the plywood for the back piece. My mom and I had picked up some pretty paper from Michael's for the wallpaper while on furlough.

  

Here it is, ready to be painted. 

We hid it in the guest room while we painted it and told Eden we were making her a baby Spiderman for Christmas.  I don't even know how that got started, but she was excited and it kept her from getting mad at us for not letting her in that room.

I spent a couple nap times working on the accessories. All the light fixtures can be moved around and the wall art is velcroed on, so it can be swapped out too. I'm sure one day, E will want to make her own stuff.

I really wanted to make the walls magnetic, but they don't sell magnetic paint in Guatemala that I have ever found. But seriously, that would have been awesome. The furniture that looks homemade is, haha! The rest is Hape and Plan brand pieces that I am really happy with. An almost 3 year old cannot destroy them. MaG brought her down some pieces too and lots of dolls to go with it... even 2 twin brothers! 

 Eden's favorite color is pink, so I really tried to embrace pink! The pieces came pretty gender neutral, but I don't think they look like that now.

 I knew the nursery would be the most important room to her so I spent the most time on it. The first thing she grabbed was the shelf of baby toys. Yay! The little baby gets played with the most.

{I want ikat pillows on my couches!}

 

So at the last minute, Eden ended up with a pretty spectacular Christmas! It has room to add to it over the years. The empty room on top is supposed to be an open balcony, so maybe some patio furniture next year. The other room will be a kids room. Fun fun fun! Nice to be around some girl toys after years of superheros and weapons!

 

Eden loves it! We leave it in the living room for now so that she is with us when she's playing. 

SWEET ITEM OF THE DAY:

My lovely friend Bonnie brought me these a couple days before Christmas. I love entertaining and I have already used them several times. I love handmade things and these are beautiful!

Agency Change and a Pound of Flesh

The next semester at the institute begins Monday. It is a new school year too, so Jimmy has been accepting applications. He has received 10 and another pastor called and asked if he would accept 2 more. We will see how many show up this weekend. Please pray like always, that God will bring the men He wants to the institute. 

R stayed throughout the Christmas break and worked at the farm, finishing classrooms (he is a mason), building outhouses, and taking care of the animals. Unfortunately Sparky, our hog took a chomp out of his arm 2 days ago!!! It was really bad. 

 Jimmy took him to the clinic in our town, but last night at our youth meeting, Jimmy's mom who is in the medical field and visiting (yes, isn't it wonderful!) tended his arm. She redressed it and got him some better pain killers and antibiotics. He only had it wrapped with a dirty t-shirt. He said that he was praying for a nice bandage and God sent him her to help him (I thought that was sweet).

{The face is his reaction to me taking his picture, not his pain!}

 We tried to tell him to take time off and rest, but he preached the midweek service and was helping Jimmy with the school store, building shelves. He will be a faithful pastor one day!

We are very thankful for the help Global Faith Mission Agency (GFMA) has been to our ministry over the past 9 and a half years. When we first started raising support, their commitment to low fees and accountability to our supporters instead of to a board were exactly what we needed and have helped us get to where we are today. 

Our ministry has now grown to the point where the most important thing concerning your support for our ministry is to get as much of that support to our work as possible. Recently Global Faith has removed the flat fee for handling our funds and moved to a percentage of all donations. For that reason we have been searching for a less expensive, yet reliable option. After speaking with both of our sending church Pastors we have been approved to have the Central Missionary Clearinghouse handle your support.

If you are a financial supporter of our ministry, we ask that you make your checks out to Central Missionary Clearinghouse and mail them to:

CENTRAL MISSIONARY CLEARINGHOUSE

PO BOX 219228     

HOUSTON TX 77218-9228

It is very important per IRS guidelines that you not make out the check to our names nor put our names in the Memo line. Please use a separate piece of paper the first time you send your support. After you send your first donation, CMC will mail you a receipt for your donation, a pre-addressed envelope and a new form for your next donation.

If you have any questions, please email us and we will get back with you right away. For our individual donors, Online Giving will be available through CMC for our ministry in February.

PAINFUL ITEM OF THE DAY:

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth...etc.  since Sparky bit R, he was castrated the next day! He went from a stud to a meat pig. I guess he will serve as an example to the rest of the animals at the farm, haha! Soon we will cook him up and celebrate all the new students arriving.

Busy Season

So this has been a pretty busy season in our life, somewhere right behind the first couple months with preemie twins. 

 We celebrated several milestones this month, like 10 years of marriage and 8 years in Guatemala. We had lots of visitors and our church and youth group is growing, along with projects at the institute! The best news though is those two precious twins put their faith in Jesus this month! (Post coming soon.)

 We made new missionary friends this past month or so too. It is really great for missionary kids to get to be around other missionary kids once in a while!  

{Celebrating July 4th}

 We also had interns with us for 3 weeks, 

followed by an awesome youth team... the next day, haha! 

 

Then after that team flew out we had a sweet family fly in that will be staying with us for about a week and a half. 

{Working on hymnals}

We are really blessed to have so many people wanting to make an investment into the work here in Guatemala!

So there are lost of stories and victories to share. And since my power just came back on, also lots of laundry to do! 

There have been some sad moments too. We said goodbye to my beautiful Labrador, Fijese, who has been with us since we got here. An irreplaceable, gift from God. Jimmy already picked us out another puppy, guard dog in the making... I think he was sad too. I really want to dislike her, but she's ok, no Fije, but ok.

{Skyping with Kiki and Papa right after she was delivered.}

 ITEM OF THE DAY: 

Another milestone - 

Our garage door that has been broken for the past 14 months finally got fixed! I can't open it myself when the opener is broken, so it is a big deal for me and the kiddos getting around. Jimmy called the welder several times a week for the last year... that's just how things work somtimes. He is a really good welder!

A Whole House Full!

We are really excited about our discipleship group. Sometimes it's tough because you know all the things they are struggling with… more than you want to know maybe. Seeing God work in their lives though, makes me pay closer attention to my own. I want that to be a constant thing in my life too - growth. Nothing like a discipleship class or having your own kids that makes you constantly have to be honest about where you are at and where God wants to take you!

Another person in our discipleship class (2nd time this has happened Yay!), brought someone who needed Christ to church. The guard at the institute (who trusted Christ last year) called Jimmy one Sunday morning and said that there was a man in the village next door who really wanted to put his faith in Christ. The guard had been talking with him over the course of a couple weeks. (Very cool!) He wanted to know if he could bring him to our discipleship class. Well sure!

After class Jimmy went and visited the man's house. Jimmy wanted to council with him and see if he had any questions. The Holy Spirit had obviously been working in his heart. He wanted to put his faith in Christ and the only thing that was holding him back was that he wanted to make sure that everyone in his family wanted to as well. He didn't want to leave anyone behind. That is very Kekchi, to discuss something like this with your family for hours/days/weeks and then make the decision together. Well he and his wife, 3 daughters and 2 sons were ready to take that step of faith, putting their confidence in Christ for their eternity and beginning their new lives as children of God.

 

They are just the sweetest thing ever! They are smiling in the photo above because Jimmy told them to in Kekchi and they thought it was funny! The mother doesn't speak Spanish (which is pretty common in Kekchi villages), so P (one of the institute students) went with Jimmy to translate. A, the oldest daughter does speak Spanish and I just love her!

 

Domingo (white shirt) happened to be passing through town that night and came to our church service! He is a national missionary we work with very often to help plant churches in unreached villages. He is the president of the institute too. Jimmy presented the family to our church and then Domingo and several of the men prayed over them.

The village this family is from has no church. They ride the truck that brings the students to ours. That truck is packed usually, so very soon we will be sharing news of a new church plant for that village! So thankful for our God and how He does work in our lives! 

CULTURAL ITEM OF THE DAY:

A couple Sundays back we found this when we arrived for our discipleship class that morning.

 That is our church building on the left. The whole street was blocked off and there were about a dozen large speakers behind that stack of tables. In Guatemala you take whatever number of speakers would suffice and then multiply that number by 10 and that's how many speakers you need.

 The neighbors across the street are very nice. Jimmy went to ask them what hours their party would be, just so we could make other plans for our evening service. The man said that the party would start at 1:00 and last for about 2 hours. He said, "We don't want to hinder anything the Lord is doing, so we will be done before your church service starts."

I know we are the crazy ones here. Have we learned nothing after 8 years. Did we really believe that a street party in Guatemala would last for 2 hours... seriously I am embarrassed.

Well when we got there at 6:00 that evening to set up for church, it wasn't even close to wrapping up. I'm surprised we couldn't hear the party from our house.

 

 It was pouring rain. Inside our building you couldn't hear what the person was shouting next to you. You don't know loud music until you come to Guatemala! Their party tent was tied to our gate. The party could not have been any closer. Well... we couldn't do anything but laugh.

 

We had to cancel church, there was no other place we could go to in the rain. But they did give us all cake as we were leaving. I love the sense of community here!

Family Traditions #26: A Double Dose

My family spoils me good in May since it's my birthday month AND Mother's Day falls in there too. This year though, I felt extra spoiled all month long.

Mother's Day morning (Saturday here) I got to sleep in and then wake up to this:

Jonah bent down and looked right in my face and said with a big smile, "Mama, today is YOUR day, today is all about you!" Sweetie-pie!

Jimmy had been building the day up ahead of time and the boys were excited to participate. They helped Jimmy make waffles with pecans in them and then brought me breakfast in bed! 

They brought their little kiddy table to eat with me too! 

It's kind of a tradition for my kids to give me plants for Mother's Day. This year they did even more than that. This is a spot right in front of our front porch. We laid the stone path a month or two ago but hadn't landscaped yet, waiting for the rains to start. They fixed up our wheel barrow and moved some dirt to fill in a spot around our Fishtail tree and then we transplanted some mint!

 Mint makes a beautiful ground cover and since it spreads so fast and overtakes other things, this is a perfect spot for it. Plus it is a natural fly repellant (tried to type that without laughing... we have flies everywhere).

 

Our path is really beautiful, even more so before our dogs muddied it all up. Some opossums trashed our mini power washer, so until that's repaired it's keeping its green tinted charm. 

The kiddos went with Jimmy to the nursery to pick out their own flowers. Jonah said that he wanted to get me a red flower since he "looked around and I didn't have any red ones already." Red is Jonah's favorite color.

 

I love that Jonah and Silas both got me daisies, but different colored one. Twins, but different... kind of perfect! Silas said he wanted to find a yellow flower because "that is Mama's favorite color."

 

Eden picked out a purple lily which I planted next to our front gate. 

Guatemalan Mother's Day fell on a Saturday which is our Family Fun Day, so we had the whole day with no schedule. We played games together and just relaxed.

Jimmy made a delicious supper that evening. It was sausage stuffed vegetables from our garden.Yum!

 

And I didn't have to wash a single dish all day. Woot woot! 

The boys made me cards, which I'll keep forever! 

 

Closer to the end of the month was my birthday. Another day of no dishes!!! Jimmy made breakfast again too!

{Birthday morning. My 34th}

Jimmy got my Mom's Frozen Coconut Cake recipe and he and the kiddos whipped one up. (That is one ingredient I always pick up on furlough, sweetened coconut!)

 They had to substitute some of the other ingredients, but it still tasted just like my mom's!

The institute had a short break between semesters and Jimmy used 2 of those afternoons to build my present. The boys love being in the wood shop with Dada!

 

At the end of the second day there was a huge storm, so Jimmy didn't get to finish pollying everything yet. Eden was out in the shop with him and they both got stuck in the storm! 

 Here is my present! It is for our back porch! I love it! The backs of the chairs have a nice slant to them, so they are super comfy. It is hard wood, so the bugs won't eat it.

 It's perfect for watching the kids play in the backyard. I see many mornings in those chairs with some coffee... before the kids wake up!

My parents and Jimmy's parents always skype with us on our birthdays and send us cards and presents. Seriously, we are in our 30's and they still go out of their way to make us feel special from far away on our birthdays. It is SO sweet. My parents gave me money which I'm saving till our October furlough. Nice to know I have that set aside to pick up all kinds of things we can't find here. My Mother-in-law spent a lot of time putting together several really thoughtful bubble mailers full of all kinds of goodies she knew I would appreciate and enjoy and got them here on my birthday. It's not the things, but the way our parents intentionally stay connected in our lives and make us feel loved.

My family made me feel extra special this past month. I love them So much! Ordinary days with them are pretty fabulous too!

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY:

For some reason we keep having the same argument. How big is too big to just let the reptile roam free in the house? No one wants to take the time to catch them or chase them out.