Forever House #7

...our journey to rent free living, all the entertainment minus the headaches.

I think my two favorite things about our forever house will be no rats and the plumbing. I will post about the no rats thing later and all that we are doing to insure that. For now the first part of the plumbing is finished! 

I think my boys build better structures out of their mega blocks than our current rental home was built. The people who built this thing had no idea what they were doing. Everything was done wrong and unfortunately you pay for it every day. I really feel sorry for the owners. I think they are going to be very disappointed when they move in. 

The plumbing is probably the worse part of it. It something that is harder to fix. For example our toilet still flushes into our shower. That shouldn't be possible. The drain isn't the lowest point either, so before you shower you get to sweep all the water out and then clean it. We have come to the conclusion that an avocado must have fallen into the vent pipe from the septic tank. Also there are no air traps on anything, so our kitchen sink, and shower reek. Being pregnant I can smell it now more than ever. I hold my nose most of the time walking through my house and pray for rain. Both doors open when it rains is the only thing that seems to freshen things up. 

The sewer lines are installed... by a plumber. One who knew what he was doing! These will be in our floors. Jimmy is going this week to check everything one last time before the floors are poured. This photo is of our kids' bathroom. It is a jack and jill style one behind our 2 kids' rooms. The boys will probably always share a room, but we might have girls one day! This is the bathroom that will have a bathtub for the boys... yay! 

The masons have been focusing on the other side of the house, so its walls are lower. We hope to finish one side with the roof and floor so that Jimmy can start working on shelves in our pantry and the carpenters can put the drawers in our kitchen before the skeleton of our entire house is finished. We hope to be starting on the roof for that side in 2 weeks! 

This is the gravel that will fill in the floors before the concrete is poured. 

The sad part is the gravel is where our okra plants used to be. I miss them! We have a gardener coming with a tractor to level our our land before we do more landscaping. He was suppose to come 2 weeks ago. That's the way things work here. We really like him though when he shows up. 

This is our finished leach field! Soon it will be covered with green grass for our boys to run and play on. You know the grass is always greener... over the leach field!

As far as landscaping Jimmy has planted a couple things. He put 3 palms in the back corner of the yard for us to hang hammocks on to sit and watch the boys play! They were just replanted, so they will perk up soon.

He also planted a couple of palms in the front yard. You can see the taller walls in this picture and it was taken about 2 weeks ago. Our yard is a mess right now. 

Unfortunately we decided to cut down several trees that were along our front wall. We were thinking we would save them. When we first bought the property they were covered in light pink flowers. For the majority of the year, they just look like naked scrawny trees. 

Old picture, but you can see some of the trees
They are used as fence posts to tree off properties here. You can just stick a branch in the ground and they grow really fast. I hate cutting down trees, but they were ugly. We have twice as many plants and trees that will go in their place. 

Without the trees blocking the sun our ivy is finally starting to grow!

The conduit is in place for our wiring.

Here is an update on our creepy hallway. As the walls get taller, it gets creepier!
Since the floors aren't filled in yet, it is hard to get photos of the taller side of the house. You have to climb up and down makeshift wooden ladders to get in and out of rooms right now. This is one room I got to though. It is the little mudroom off of our carport entry. It will have a little half bath in it for guests. Before we even mentioned it to the plumber he suggested that we should put a drain in the floor for friends who are not used to using a flushable toilet. We have learned that from experience. We had our entire office flood and had to throw away our rug. That is the whole point for this bathroom.

A salesman stopped by our land the other day (which happens a lot since there is construction going on) and asked if he could leave some stucco samples. We wanted to have white stucco, but were concerned that once you mix the white chalk into the sand it would make it weaker and wouldn't be even throughout all the batches. Well this stuff comes already white in premixed bags, so the ratio is always the same. Each part of the wall won't look different depending on who mixed that batch of stucco. The one in the photo above is a textured finish that we have chosen for the outside of our house.

The one on the far left in the photo above is chalkboard smooth and for now this will be the walls inside our house. I think the textured would look beautiful inside, but I might appreciate the smooth walls more over time. Now when we run into our walls it can really scratch you up. The nice part is we don't have to paint right away or ever if we decide we like the simplicity of the white walls. If they get chipped a little they are white underneath. Also if we need to patch a hole, the consistency will be the same since it is already premixed. We were thrilled about this product. 

CUTE ITEM OF THE DAY: On one of our trips to our forever house Silas saw a pile of wet concrete and a shovel and knew exactly what to do! He went to work mixing it. He must have been watching Lico and the other workers all the other times we have been there. Lico thought it was great! 

Another Peek At Our Baby

We made another trip to Guate last week for another appointment. It is a long winding 7.5 hour trip, but the boys are very sweet. They love their VeggieTale sing-a-longs and we pack all kinds of fun snacks. There aren't any good places to stop and eat, so we always have PB&J sandwiches for lunch.

By the time we get to the hotel, it's dark and we are all ready for something more substantial to eat. Jimmy drops us off at the hotel. Two sleepy boys suddenly become wide awake when presented with a new hotel room to play in. They love the radio and I unplug the phone for them to talk on. They are very serious about their phone calls. They raid all the little complimentary toiletries too. Jimmy takes a taxi to either Chili's or Applebee's which is close to our hotel and brings us back something warm and yummy and we have a picnic on the bed!

Our second appointment went great. Our little baby looks beautiful! You can see their eyes in the image below.

11w2d

He/She had their hands in front of their face for awhile, so we had to wait to get this view. 11 weeks is very early, too early really, to find out the sex, but Dr. Najarro volunteered that he thinks it's another boy. I took that as we still don't know yet, but Jimmy has declared it a boy. I'm happy either way, but Jimmy would be happy about not having to buy any more baby stuff since we have so many boy things. We don't know anything about little girls, so that territory is a little scary too.

I posted part of our ultrasound for the grandparents. At the end was when he was telling us he thought it was a boy... but it still could be a girl! I love how that in Guatemala you get to see your baby at every visit and your doctor is the one giving you the ultrasound and talks you all the way through it. I missed that when we went to the States to have the twins. I didn't realize how spoiled I was!

I am in my 13th week now and am still nauseous all day. Please pray that it leaves soon. Jimmy has been on double duty the last 8 weeks taking care of all 3 of us. I feel bad for him and want things to get back to normal soon.

We almost always go to Pricemart which is similar to a Sam's in the States. They have 2 seater carts there which the boys get a kick out of... hugs!

We found out that Silas is a big fan of Chili's chips and salsa... like his mommy! He thinks everything needs to be dipped in something before you eat it, so that makes sense.

We usually make one stop going and coming to stretch the boys' legs. This time we bought some cold drinks. Jonah was determined to carry them himself!

On the way home we also passed a military check point where they had just made a big Zeta bust on the side of the road. You can read about it here in the paper. They found lots of grenades, ammunition, anti aircraft weapons and other lovelies.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: When we eat at restaurants now Jimmy usually leaves a larger tip than when it was just the 2 of us. These boys can be sort of messy, not ridiculous, but it looks like 2 little boys ate at our table. At this point we had not even gotten food yet. We were just trying to keep crayons and straw papers off the floor when we notice the waiter had already put up a caution sign warning people about our table!

Alleluias Rose From the Banks

If you don't know Lico's story, it is here. Since New Horizon would not allow baptisms or for us to be called a church, not to mention kicking us out, we weren't sure how Lico would ever be baptized. He has been meeting with Jimmy every Saturday for months now for their discipleship class.

He has a strong desire for his new relationship with God to grow. We mentioned that when we got back from furlough we found out that he and his family had been walking 45 minutes to a church in the next town down from New Horizon. There aren't many churches around here with the truth, but we really liked this one. A couple weeks ago the pastor of that church contacted us and said that Lico wanted to be baptized and wanted Jimmy to be the one to do it. So he invited us to attend the baptismal service this past Sunday.

{Jimmy & Lico with his pastor}

So early Sunday morning we met them for a worship service on the banks of a river. We had been out late the night before in a Kekchi village, so our boys were exhausted!

This is the group who had put their faith in Christ and were desiring to take this first step of obedience.

Jimmy prayed with Lico first before he baptized him.

Here is a video too if you want to watch. I was standing on the edge of a 3 foot drop off into the river, holding one boy, trying to keep the other one from falling in the river, and taking photos and video. Everyone was asking me for photos. And we're keeping it real because half way through Jonah starts to cry. Poor little missionary boys, we had worn them out.

This is Lico with his wife Elda, daughter Paula, and son Luis.

Please pray for Lico as he continues to grow in Christ and lead his family. We are so thankful for this opportunity. God opened a path for obedience. He made a way! We are so thankful for this day and everything it means to Lico and our family! It was Jimmy's first baptism in Guatemala and it just so happened to be our first convert from over 3 years ago.

An Irresistible Invitation

Radio Berea received a call from a new village the other day. By new I mean it is only 3 months old. 140 Kekchi families found some land to rent and started the village of La Bendición. A handful of them are Christians, and since there are no churches or works of any kind in this village yet, they called the Baptist radio station and asked them to send someone to start one! Who would turn that down?! Last week we and Domingo went for the very first outreach.

The village was pretty easy to find, but then we had to find who had invited us. This little girl jumped into the back of Domingo's pickup and led the way.

She ended up staying for the film!

This is the home where we showed the film, "Hope".

Before we did though, another family invited us for lunch.

Silas LOVES corn tortillas dipped in Kekchi caldo. He will eat 3 or 4 of them. The Kekchi people think it's a hoot to see a little gringo scarfing down their food.

He's our little Chapin. Jonah looks at us like we're crazy when we hand him a corn tortilla. He'd rather chase the chickens roaming inside the house than eat.

I have always been a little worried about how Jonah would do in these settings when we go to new places because he is shy.

Our boys get a lot of attention, and Jonah doesn't really like people looking at him.

Silly Mommy, he found a new friend right away.

They played up and down this bench while Daddy was setting up the film.

People from all over the village started showing up!

We ended up having a great turnout!

There were no more seats inside, so people listened from outside.

It was really hot. You can probably see that in my little boys' red faces. Since there weren't any seats left and I was nauseous thanks to our new little Dinsmore, I took the boys down to the quaint pavilion we had parked by.

It had stumps to sit on and was full of dirt to play in!

We had 2 gardening shovels in the car, so that entertained the boys for the next hour!

I felt bad for leaving and then a couple minutes later Jimmy and Domingo showed up to wait in the shade with us too... ha!

Please pray for the village of La Bendición. Please pray as we work with Domingo to try and start a church there. Pray that it will reach out to the other people in this new village who have not yet heard about Jesus Christ.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: To get to the village we had to cross the ferry in Sayaxché. Sadly I had to witness one of my biggest fears... the ferry had sunk. Thankfully no one was hurt... and we weren't on it! If we are traveling with a team we usually make them get out of the car when we are crossing, just to be safe. If it's just us, we roll the windows down and talk about which boy each is responsible for grabbing. It would be horrible to lose a vehicle this way.

Our friends the Whites are currently living in Sayaxché, you should check out their post here for much better photos and the whole story. Thankfully they had brought in a smaller ferry from somewhere else for everyone to use while they were working on getting the big ferry and a tanker truck out of the river.

An Arm for Marcelino

Marcelino is a Kekchi national missionary. We have known him for a while, but since he works on the other side of Petén and in the northern part of Alta Verapaz, we have never worked with him before.

{He is on the left talking with Pastor Mateo (from La Ceiba) and Domingo}

Jimmy knows him from the KBI modules and pastors' meetings. He has been a missionary for 11 years and before that he was a pastor for 17 years. He accepted Christ in '72 and was ordained in '86. He has 3 kids and 8 grandkids. In '97 he was traveling in a vehicle and had his right arm hanging out the window when the driver side-swiped another truck. This caused him to lose his right arm from his shoulder down. He was 50 years old when this happened.

{Marcelino is on the far right pictured with Pastor Grover for a KBI module back in '09}

A few months back Pastor Mateo (pictured above), the current legal representative of the pastors' association, asked Jimmy if he knew of a way they could get Marcelino an arm. Marcelino doesn't speak much Spanish and didn't have a way to find out about a prosthetic arm when it happened 14 years ago. He and his family were also very scared that it would involve another painful surgery and that he would lose more bone. There aren't any doctors who work in prosthetics around Petén, but through some other missionaries Jimmy was able to get in contact with a doctor in Guatemala City who would provide a prosthetic arm at cost. Still we had to get Marcelino to go to Guatemala City. Guatemala City is a scary sounding place to people who don't live there. It is spoken of around here like you are really taking your life in your hands by going to that violent place! I understand... I prefer Petén too!

Well it worked out that we were due to go back this past week for another appointment to check on our baby. Marcelino's kids did not want him traveling there by himself, so one of his brothers traveled with him. They both rode a bus and met us there.

Jimmy got an appointment for him on Wednesday. Anything Marcelino didn't understand from the doctor's Spanish he would tell Jimmy, "Just make the decision, I trust you." I thought that was really sweet. I cannot imagine all that was going through Marcelino's mind. His last experience with doctors had to have been very traumatic and painful, so he must have been experiencing a lot of anxiety walking into this office.

The doctor was very nice. He explained everything and even showed Marcelino a video of how his new arm would work. Marcelino was relieved that it would just strap on rather than involve another surgery.

The doctor measured Marcelino for an arm and took a mold of his shoulder. The arm will be made specifically for him.

This is what it will look like:

It will also have a glove that fits over the hand piece that will look like an actual hand. Among other things, he will be able to open and close the hand in order to pick things up using different movements from his other shoulder. It will take some time to get used to, but it will change his life.

Marcelino seemed very surprised after the whole experience. I think the prosthetic offers him much more than what he was expecting. Jimmy said he walked out of the office and thanked him with tears in his eyes.

The new arm at the doctor's cost is $3,000. Jimmy will be presenting this need at the Kekchi pastor's meeting this Wednesday to see if their churches can help raise part of the money. If any of you would like to give money towards Marcelino's new arm, we have set up this Paypal account specifically for this need. Just click on the link below. (Note: This donation is not tax deductible, but ALL of the money we receive will go directly to pay for Marcelino's arm.)

Update: As of Monday the 6th, 20% of the $3,000 has been raised.

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: The other day Silas had done something super naughty and messy. He knew he was in trouble. I had left their room to start cleaning it up. He knew he was going to get in trouble when I got back. We are at a point now where he thinks he can charm his way out of anything. It doesn't work, but he always tries it... he's good at it too. This is how I found him when I came back in. He was sitting real still...

He knew he wasn't completely hidden, but he knew he was cute! He is a little bit rotten.