December 11, 2017
What a joyous and much anticipated airport run this was! We are very thankful that Ryan could come home
for the holidays. As soon as he came
into the lobby Josiah ran up to him, hugged him and said, “Where have you been
all this time?”
Back at the SIM guest house we had a strawberry birthday
celebration for Makayla who turned ONE (Her birthday was the previous day, but
we wanted to wait for Ryan).
Makayla has a big smile and loves to show off her 7 teeth (she
has more teeth than any of my other kids had at this age).
She loves music and will lift her hands or clap to songs.
She wakes up only once at nigh (a recent HUGE improvement)
and sometimes she even sleeps all night long.
Micah decided that he wanted her to sleep with him in the boys’
room. He has been a huge help and pats
her back to sleep when she wakes up crying.
She stands on her own and has contemplated taken a step or
two.
She loves to snuggle, loves her mama, and loves to give hugs
and kisses.
She loves terere, isn’t a picky eater, and travels well.
Makayla LOVED the birthday song’s attention on her. She LOVED her strawberry cake and ate 2 big
pieces. And she LOVE the horses and wooden stable birthday gift.
And
we had a final surprise for EVERYONE….we are expecting baby #10 in July.
That evening, with celebration in our hearts (Makayla’s
birthday, Ryan’s arrival, Ryan loving his first college semester and finishing with
all As, and our baby announcement), we went out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant.
We are all loving having Ryan around! The littles were especially excited to see
him again and were hanging all over him.
Terere with our SIM family.
Mission
life is full of hellos and goodbyes.
This is Ginny and her best friend, Romy saying goodbye to each other
until????? And that is also the case
with mission life, you never really know when you will see each other
again. Romy’s family is going to the US
for a 15-month furlough but after that, they aren’t sure if God is calling them
back to Paraguay. So with tears in our eyes,
we saw say goodbye to team mates and friends and a family that feels very much
like family.
The
day after Ryan’s arrival, we headed home to the countryside. It’s a 6-hour drive if you can make it
without stopping for gas and a meal and a bathroom break and to drop things off
with missionaries along the way. We always
stop at the biggest grocery store closest to our town which is still 2 hours
from our house. We load up on groceries
for the month. Our carts are overflowing! The kids know the routine….who helps in the
store, who helps at the register to bag and who helps load at the truck.
Have I ever mentioned that I hate coming home after being a
few days? I like being home, it’s just
stressful to me, coming home. After
being on the road all day long (sometimes with car troubles along the way),
everyone is hot, tired, bored and a bit irritable. We are usually met with some crisis – a break
in, a dead animal, an infestation of flees inside the house and out, no water
or electricity, a porch full of poop from cows that have broken our fence (and,
of course, someone has stepped in it). After
the crisis is dealt with, we start unloading and unpacking (we do not travel light). We live in a tiny house and there’s just not
room for suitcases to be left siting around.
They need to be unpacked and contents put away. Plus, we have the months’ worth of groceries to
put up.
So this time, when we reached home, we were immediately greet
with a rotten smell emanating from our house and the detached laundry
room. Blood was oozing onto our porch. The electricity had been out for days
(someone had switched off the breaker in our yard we later found out) and our refrigerator
and both freezers had completely defrosted.
Foaming, rotten meat juice was everywhere. Everything had to be thrown out which made me
super sad. To make December a bit
easier, in November, I had cooked a bunch of meals and frozen them – cookies,
pulled pork, lasagna, breakfast burritos, breakfast breads, spaghetti sauce,
de-boned chicken, mbeju, etc. Gone. All of it gone. Before unpacking, we spent an hour dealing
wit this crisis. Cleaning and bleaching
and hauling food to the burn pile.
