What do you think-sleepin' or prayin'?Friday, February 29, 2008
Our time so far
This sums up our time here so far
Well, we thought we’d tell you about our time,
In a creative way, like this rhyme.
Our lives here sure have changed
In many ways we’re not the same.
There’s mosquitoes that can bring disease
Drivers that do as they please.
Moths the size of dinner plates.
No one’s in a hurry, sit and wait.
Buying for everyone takes all day
9 carts full, now how to pay!?!
Lots of food we need to buy
Always something new to try.
Buying fish from someone’s bike
Eating foods-not sure we like.
Pork from a motorcycle, hoof still on
Power’s off-life goes on.
Now no water, not that too!
Catch the raindrops-that will do.
Still no visas, we can’t drive
And yet we’ll find we can survive.
Pembantu’s leave with work not done
I can cook for 18-fun!
On the upside-beautiful view
So many things the kids can do.
The gyms, library, big playground
Kids to play with all around.
Our own clinic and computer lab
12 new kids to call you Dad.
The trees here so green and tall
Out our window a waterfall.
Visas, license - can it be?
Come on, let’s go, so much to see!
They love to touch and feel the skin
Of the strangers here that don’t fit in.
The dorm kids all are really great
Getting to know them-we can’t wait!
Staff infection, a hurting back
Malaria, diarrhea, appendix attack!
Chechucks, chechucks everywhere
My arm, his leg, they don’t belong there.
“A rat in the kitchen!” I hear them shout
Do what you must, just get it out!!
Great big cockroaches and centipedes
Are two things that I don’t need.
I do need you I know that much
To pray and always keep in touch.
God is helping our heart’s to turn
Through each hard time and lesson learned.
Well, we thought we’d tell you about our time,
In a creative way, like this rhyme.
Our lives here sure have changed
In many ways we’re not the same.
There’s mosquitoes that can bring disease
Drivers that do as they please.
Moths the size of dinner plates.
No one’s in a hurry, sit and wait.
Buying for everyone takes all day
9 carts full, now how to pay!?!
Lots of food we need to buy
Always something new to try.
Buying fish from someone’s bike
Eating foods-not sure we like.
Pork from a motorcycle, hoof still on
Power’s off-life goes on.
Now no water, not that too!
Catch the raindrops-that will do.
Still no visas, we can’t drive
And yet we’ll find we can survive.
Pembantu’s leave with work not done
I can cook for 18-fun!
On the upside-beautiful view
So many things the kids can do.
The gyms, library, big playground
Kids to play with all around.
Our own clinic and computer lab
12 new kids to call you Dad.
The trees here so green and tall
Out our window a waterfall.
Visas, license - can it be?
Come on, let’s go, so much to see!
They love to touch and feel the skin
Of the strangers here that don’t fit in.
The dorm kids all are really great
Getting to know them-we can’t wait!
Staff infection, a hurting back
Malaria, diarrhea, appendix attack!
Chechucks, chechucks everywhere
My arm, his leg, they don’t belong there.
“A rat in the kitchen!” I hear them shout
Do what you must, just get it out!!
Great big cockroaches and centipedes
Are two things that I don’t need.
I do need you I know that much
To pray and always keep in touch.
God is helping our heart’s to turn
Through each hard time and lesson learned.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
February 26, 2008 - Stuff
Cale and I had a great walk downtown today. He loves swinging on the poles by the bus stops. Of course he thinks they are there just for him. There is one house with lots of chickens running around the yard. So we stop to watch them. And one store that always gives him a free piece of candy. So of course we went there. What 2 year old doesn’t need sugar at 9:00 in the morning?!? We had a few things to get so I flagged down an ojek driver to take me. Cale loved being on a motorcycle again. I think he really misses his daily rides with Daddy. It will be awhile before Garth is up to that.
Garth is getting a bit better. Today was his last day of antibiotics and his last pain pill, so we will see how tomorrow goes. Our nurse will be here in the morning for a meeting we are having, so if there are any problems she will take care of it. There is quite a bit of bruising on the outside and on the inside, but otherwise the incision looks great. The doctor did a surprisingly good job of suturing him up.
The girls had a wonderful time exploring in our yard today. They found a horseshoe. There are no horses on the hill, but they are thrilled that maybe a horse came up during the night, so tomorrow they are going to go look for it. (That takes care of show-n-tell tomorrow.) Sophie asked if she could bring in Daddy’s appendix some time, since they are studying the human body. I told her I would have to ask her teacher first. Wyatt has a new “hobby” - frying insects with a magnifying glass. Which is totally fine with me. Less insects here sounds great! He did, however, find out that it will make his hand smoke if you do it to bare skin. Emma’s class is studying taxes, buying and selling goods, producers and consumers etc. and the class is in the midst of designing their own community out of small boxes. She is enjoying that whole project.
I have good news and bad news (for some)-the good news is that the rat that was running around in our rafters is sitting outside on our window sill dying. This is bad news if you are a rat lover. He must have eaten some of the poison that is up there and now he is on his way to Swiss Cheese Land. Yippee! Now that we no longer have a cat, we have been hearing clumping around. Neither of us were sure what it was, until tonight. And hopefully the problem has been taken care of. Tidak tikus-no rats.
Well, it is far too late for me to still be up, so I will say “Good Night!”
I will drift off to Dream Land-(not Swiss Cheese Land).
Love,
Rachel
Garth is getting a bit better. Today was his last day of antibiotics and his last pain pill, so we will see how tomorrow goes. Our nurse will be here in the morning for a meeting we are having, so if there are any problems she will take care of it. There is quite a bit of bruising on the outside and on the inside, but otherwise the incision looks great. The doctor did a surprisingly good job of suturing him up.
The girls had a wonderful time exploring in our yard today. They found a horseshoe. There are no horses on the hill, but they are thrilled that maybe a horse came up during the night, so tomorrow they are going to go look for it. (That takes care of show-n-tell tomorrow.) Sophie asked if she could bring in Daddy’s appendix some time, since they are studying the human body. I told her I would have to ask her teacher first. Wyatt has a new “hobby” - frying insects with a magnifying glass. Which is totally fine with me. Less insects here sounds great! He did, however, find out that it will make his hand smoke if you do it to bare skin. Emma’s class is studying taxes, buying and selling goods, producers and consumers etc. and the class is in the midst of designing their own community out of small boxes. She is enjoying that whole project.
I have good news and bad news (for some)-the good news is that the rat that was running around in our rafters is sitting outside on our window sill dying. This is bad news if you are a rat lover. He must have eaten some of the poison that is up there and now he is on his way to Swiss Cheese Land. Yippee! Now that we no longer have a cat, we have been hearing clumping around. Neither of us were sure what it was, until tonight. And hopefully the problem has been taken care of. Tidak tikus-no rats.
Well, it is far too late for me to still be up, so I will say “Good Night!”
I will drift off to Dream Land-(not Swiss Cheese Land).
Love,
Rachel
February 25, 2008 - More About Garth
Garth is slowly making a recovery. He has been in pain and very sore today. Walking around is good for healing so he has been trying to do that. I checked his incision today and it is healing well. So far so good. It is real easy to get infections here so keep praying. It is interesting being in a foreign country and going through this. There were no post-op papers, or recovery suggestions. The nurse brought Garth in some meat when he was recovering that was as hard as a rock and food that he should not be eating right after surgery. The sanitation is so different. The nurses were taking blood and doing blood tests without gloves. Even after we told them that Garth had Hepatitis C (a blood disease) they still didn’t always put gloves on. A lady that we know told us that when she was at that hospital for an ultrasound she saw a drying rack out in the sun with all of the surgical gloves on it. I sure hope they don’t wash the doctors’ gloves and reuse them! But you never know. The cleaning lady came in to “clean” the bathroom without any cleaning supplies. She just used water. I won’t even tell you about the bloody handprint on the wall in Garth’s room…Garth said when he was on the operating table before they put him under, he looked up at the big light overhead and saw blood splattered on it. I could go on, but it is a bit gross to think about. We are thankful with how things have gone so far. It could have been a lot worse.
I am wishing now that I had learned how to drive here. I have my license, but have never driven here. So…I have been walking to the store for groceries. On Monday, someone is taking me out shopping so I don’t have to walk with a big load. That will be nice. The kids are healthy at the moment. I got a call while I was at the hospital that Emma was throwing up at school. Then she got on the phone, crying, “Mommy, I want you here…”. So, I took an ojek, a motorcycle taxi, from the hospital home. She is better today though so that is good. I seem to handle things better if we have one sick person at a time.
I can’t wait to show the hospital pictures to my doctor back home. I want to hear his opinion. Thirteen weeks and we will be there. YEAH!
Love you all-
Garth is hungry so I am going to go make him some eggs.
Rachel
I am wishing now that I had learned how to drive here. I have my license, but have never driven here. So…I have been walking to the store for groceries. On Monday, someone is taking me out shopping so I don’t have to walk with a big load. That will be nice. The kids are healthy at the moment. I got a call while I was at the hospital that Emma was throwing up at school. Then she got on the phone, crying, “Mommy, I want you here…”. So, I took an ojek, a motorcycle taxi, from the hospital home. She is better today though so that is good. I seem to handle things better if we have one sick person at a time.
I can’t wait to show the hospital pictures to my doctor back home. I want to hear his opinion. Thirteen weeks and we will be there. YEAH!
Love you all-
Garth is hungry so I am going to go make him some eggs.
Rachel
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Playing in the rain-how fun!Surgery photos
Nurse Peggy checking Garth out
Garth's doctor is on the right and our friend Phil on the left
Garth had a blood test done on his earlobe
Waiting
Still waiting
The ultrasound
Garth's room-doesn't it look inviting?
Garth's bathroom-we paid extra for one of these
Doesn't he look cute in his gown?
Nurse Peggy and I getting ready for the surgeryfebruary 23, 2008 The surgery
The surgery details:
Three a.m. on Wednesday morning, Garth woke up with really bad stomach pains. I asked him what he ate and he said he had 2 of my cinnamon rolls with frosting right before bed. So at first I thought it might have something to do with that. He tried Tums and Mylanta and laid back down, but just tossed and turned and moaned the rest of the night. At 9 am I called our nurse. She said to give him some tea and wait a bit. I started looking stuff up online and then got a hold of my Mom to call our nurses back home. We both began to feel like this was something that required our attention and not something that should just wait. So, at 10:30 I called our other nurse here, Peggy, and she came right over. After examining Garth she decided it looked like an appendix issue and Garth should get to the hospital. A man named Phil, husband of the nurse that examined Garth, came over and drove us to the hospital (Dian Harapan). It was a series of tests (one on his ear lobe), and blood work, and exams and then the hospital confirmed what we thought about the appendix. The only problem was that the anesthesiologist was in a meeting with the military and wouldn’t be available until 8 p.m. So we sat and waited. They had Phil walk across the street and buy all of the medicines that Garth would need for the surgery. Then the nurse came in and asked if I wanted to shave Garth’s stomach or if they should do it. So we had to go back across the street to buy a razor and shaving cream.
Finally things got moving at 8:30 and at 9:05 p.m. Garth was in surgery. Nurse Peggy and I asked if we could watch the surgery and were allowed to go in. We had to put a cap on over our hair, wear a mask and a gown. They made us fold up our shorts a half inch so they were not showing out the bottom of the gown, but never made us wash our hands or wear gloves. (We were standing right by all of the sterile instruments.) The surgery was amazingly cool! The only problem arose when the doctor couldn’t find the appendix. That made it take a lot longer. He wound up pulling Garth’s intestines out and laying them on his stomach so he could have a better look. Ironically, the doctor had his MP3 player going during the surgery and at the exact moment he was cutting Garth’s appendix the song “Another One Bites the Dust” came on, and when he was stitching him up the song “We are the Champions” was playing-both in English and he was singing along. By 11 p.m. Garth was back in his room recovering. He was so funny come out of the anesthetic. He grabbed the male nurses’ hand and said, “Franz, you and I are like best friends. Do you want to juggle? We should play cards some time.” He was asking about Johhny Cash. He said he was going to flash Phil. When he got to his room, he said, “Oh, my rooooooooooooooooom, oh…my roooooooooom.” He kept asking, “Who’s that? Who’s that?” And at one point when he was blabbering about stuff, he looked at me and said, “Am I being rude?” It was hilarious. It took 5 Indonesians to move him from the operating bed to the recovery bed. The doctor said that Garth’s appendix had been inflamed for awhile and that there were adhesions on it. I am thankful we got it when we did.
Some cool things about how this all worked out:
I was supposed to teach an art class that day,, and at the last minute it got cancelled.
Garth was thinking about going interior to a village with his friend Jason and it would have been awful if he did and this happened
I invited Emma’s new teacher over for lunch the day all this happened and so she was there when the nurse came and said she would be able to stay and help with the dorm so I could go with Garth
Jodi came over to watch the kids and took them for the night
Phil had just finished all of his work at the office so he was able to drive us in and stay to translate
Peggy was able to come right over to check Garth
Garth and I had just the day before run to Abeh and stocked up on meat for the dorm
On the way to the hospital we spotted a guy that said he would take Garth’s P.E. class that he was supposed to teach that day
When we got to the hospital the only room available had 3 other people in it and Garth was going to have to share it with them. But then a room opened up so Garth could be by himself.
MAF sent a guy over to pay the bill so I didn’t have to try to figure all that out
We were able to get the same doctor that Jason had when he got his appendix out
Phil went home and brought us sheets for Garth’s bed (you have to supply your own sheets) he brought a fan, some food, bug spray for the room and a pillow.
Thanks
It was definitely an experience that we will always remember. I am so glad it is over, and Garth is home. He is very sore today, and moving slowly. But hopefully the worst is behind us. We are so appreciative of all of your concerns and prayers. Thanks you for thinking about us and sending your regards. I was calm and didn’t feel anxious during the whole procedure, and I know it was because all of you were praying. The human body just blows me away. God did a great job designing it.
Oh, by the way, I asked for the appendix and they gave it to me, so it is in my freezer if anyone is interested in seeing it. I am not putting pictures of the actual surgery on the blog, but I have them. So if you want to see them let me know.
Well, Garth just got up so I am going to check on him.
Love to all,
Rachel
Three a.m. on Wednesday morning, Garth woke up with really bad stomach pains. I asked him what he ate and he said he had 2 of my cinnamon rolls with frosting right before bed. So at first I thought it might have something to do with that. He tried Tums and Mylanta and laid back down, but just tossed and turned and moaned the rest of the night. At 9 am I called our nurse. She said to give him some tea and wait a bit. I started looking stuff up online and then got a hold of my Mom to call our nurses back home. We both began to feel like this was something that required our attention and not something that should just wait. So, at 10:30 I called our other nurse here, Peggy, and she came right over. After examining Garth she decided it looked like an appendix issue and Garth should get to the hospital. A man named Phil, husband of the nurse that examined Garth, came over and drove us to the hospital (Dian Harapan). It was a series of tests (one on his ear lobe), and blood work, and exams and then the hospital confirmed what we thought about the appendix. The only problem was that the anesthesiologist was in a meeting with the military and wouldn’t be available until 8 p.m. So we sat and waited. They had Phil walk across the street and buy all of the medicines that Garth would need for the surgery. Then the nurse came in and asked if I wanted to shave Garth’s stomach or if they should do it. So we had to go back across the street to buy a razor and shaving cream.
Finally things got moving at 8:30 and at 9:05 p.m. Garth was in surgery. Nurse Peggy and I asked if we could watch the surgery and were allowed to go in. We had to put a cap on over our hair, wear a mask and a gown. They made us fold up our shorts a half inch so they were not showing out the bottom of the gown, but never made us wash our hands or wear gloves. (We were standing right by all of the sterile instruments.) The surgery was amazingly cool! The only problem arose when the doctor couldn’t find the appendix. That made it take a lot longer. He wound up pulling Garth’s intestines out and laying them on his stomach so he could have a better look. Ironically, the doctor had his MP3 player going during the surgery and at the exact moment he was cutting Garth’s appendix the song “Another One Bites the Dust” came on, and when he was stitching him up the song “We are the Champions” was playing-both in English and he was singing along. By 11 p.m. Garth was back in his room recovering. He was so funny come out of the anesthetic. He grabbed the male nurses’ hand and said, “Franz, you and I are like best friends. Do you want to juggle? We should play cards some time.” He was asking about Johhny Cash. He said he was going to flash Phil. When he got to his room, he said, “Oh, my rooooooooooooooooom, oh…my roooooooooom.” He kept asking, “Who’s that? Who’s that?” And at one point when he was blabbering about stuff, he looked at me and said, “Am I being rude?” It was hilarious. It took 5 Indonesians to move him from the operating bed to the recovery bed. The doctor said that Garth’s appendix had been inflamed for awhile and that there were adhesions on it. I am thankful we got it when we did.
Some cool things about how this all worked out:
I was supposed to teach an art class that day,, and at the last minute it got cancelled.
Garth was thinking about going interior to a village with his friend Jason and it would have been awful if he did and this happened
I invited Emma’s new teacher over for lunch the day all this happened and so she was there when the nurse came and said she would be able to stay and help with the dorm so I could go with Garth
Jodi came over to watch the kids and took them for the night
Phil had just finished all of his work at the office so he was able to drive us in and stay to translate
Peggy was able to come right over to check Garth
Garth and I had just the day before run to Abeh and stocked up on meat for the dorm
On the way to the hospital we spotted a guy that said he would take Garth’s P.E. class that he was supposed to teach that day
When we got to the hospital the only room available had 3 other people in it and Garth was going to have to share it with them. But then a room opened up so Garth could be by himself.
MAF sent a guy over to pay the bill so I didn’t have to try to figure all that out
We were able to get the same doctor that Jason had when he got his appendix out
Phil went home and brought us sheets for Garth’s bed (you have to supply your own sheets) he brought a fan, some food, bug spray for the room and a pillow.
Thanks
It was definitely an experience that we will always remember. I am so glad it is over, and Garth is home. He is very sore today, and moving slowly. But hopefully the worst is behind us. We are so appreciative of all of your concerns and prayers. Thanks you for thinking about us and sending your regards. I was calm and didn’t feel anxious during the whole procedure, and I know it was because all of you were praying. The human body just blows me away. God did a great job designing it.
Oh, by the way, I asked for the appendix and they gave it to me, so it is in my freezer if anyone is interested in seeing it. I am not putting pictures of the actual surgery on the blog, but I have them. So if you want to see them let me know.
Well, Garth just got up so I am going to check on him.
Love to all,
Rachel
February 21, 2008 - Bikes and shoes
I forgot to send out this email with all that was going on with Garth in the hospital-but here it is.
Today is National Bike Day! Well, not really. Just here in the Erickson household. Wyatt and Cale got bikes. Wyatts’ is the bigger one. Ha ha! Garth’s Dad and Priscilla gave the kids money at Christmas - fun money. We were saving it for just the right thing. (Until today. Then we blew it on bikes, and shoes.) I am so thankful that there is even a store here that sells bikes. Wyatt has two friends that live right by us and they both have bikes. They go biking here a lot and Wyatt always has that look of longing in his eye when he sees them whizz past. He has been content to try to keep up with his skateboard, but will have more fun now joining the group. I mentioned shoes before because Emma and Sophie each got a pair of “grown-up” shoes. As soon as they got home, they cleaned the shoes – most things here have quite the layer of dust on them-and then they played dress-up. They were practicing how to walk with heels. My two little supermodels.
Our road was closed off today so we went down to see why. There were people setting up a tent in the street with at least 100 chairs. It was a memorial service for a man that died in January. Apparently here, they have a funeral when someone dies and then 40 days after they have a memorial service, and 60 days after and 100 days after. It is interesting to learn the culture here. Some things are so different and some things are the same.
I often think about that when I watch the kids playing. Running around, kicking a ball, full of laughter, holding hands, hugging… We look so different, yet we are so much the same. I told Garth today, I wish I could just drive around all day taking pictures of the kids, and the Moms with their babies. There are so many beautiful people here. I love their eyes.
Well, I should go for now. Cale needs help with his bike.
Love you
Rachel
Today is National Bike Day! Well, not really. Just here in the Erickson household. Wyatt and Cale got bikes. Wyatts’ is the bigger one. Ha ha! Garth’s Dad and Priscilla gave the kids money at Christmas - fun money. We were saving it for just the right thing. (Until today. Then we blew it on bikes, and shoes.) I am so thankful that there is even a store here that sells bikes. Wyatt has two friends that live right by us and they both have bikes. They go biking here a lot and Wyatt always has that look of longing in his eye when he sees them whizz past. He has been content to try to keep up with his skateboard, but will have more fun now joining the group. I mentioned shoes before because Emma and Sophie each got a pair of “grown-up” shoes. As soon as they got home, they cleaned the shoes – most things here have quite the layer of dust on them-and then they played dress-up. They were practicing how to walk with heels. My two little supermodels.
Our road was closed off today so we went down to see why. There were people setting up a tent in the street with at least 100 chairs. It was a memorial service for a man that died in January. Apparently here, they have a funeral when someone dies and then 40 days after they have a memorial service, and 60 days after and 100 days after. It is interesting to learn the culture here. Some things are so different and some things are the same.
I often think about that when I watch the kids playing. Running around, kicking a ball, full of laughter, holding hands, hugging… We look so different, yet we are so much the same. I told Garth today, I wish I could just drive around all day taking pictures of the kids, and the Moms with their babies. There are so many beautiful people here. I love their eyes.
Well, I should go for now. Cale needs help with his bike.
Love you
Rachel
Friday, February 22, 2008
Anybody need to cook a cat?
Wyatt got a new bike.
One of the many beautiful views of our lake.
Winkin', blinkin'...where's nod?
Hypermarket has Cale-sized carts now. He loves it.
Cale was helping package eggs.
This is a photo booth in the video arcade. Zoom in if you can and read the words.
Adlib of wind...anybody want to adlib of wind?
We had a great Valentines dinner while Jason and Jodi were at a banquet.
One of our rides.February 21, 2008 - Garth
I am sending a quick update on Garth. You will have to wait till later to get all of the gory details. At 3 am on Wed. morning Garth woke up with stomach pains. We tried a bunch of things but by 9 I called our nurse and she gave me some suggestions. I spent some time looking it up online and felt like I needed to do something besides waiting. So I called our other nurse and she came right over and checked Garth. She felt like it might be an appendicitis so we took Garth to the hospital. He went in for surgery at 9 pm and was back in his room recovering by 11. I spent the night with him at the hospital. He is doing well. Hopefully he will be able to come home by Friday. Pray for a quick recovery and no complications. He need to be able to move his bowels and pass gas before he can leave. Thanks for your prayers. I was able to watch the whole surgery (which was fascinating) and I asked for the appendix so I could see it so it is here in my backpack. (Crazy, I know.) Emma came home from school today at 9 throwing up. It might have been nerves about her Daddy. Hopefully she is not sick…I just took an ojek (Motorcycle taxi) home from the hospital to be with Emma and shower etc. then I am going back. I will write more later.
Thanks for your concern.
Love
Rachel
Thanks for your concern.
Love
Rachel
February 18, 2008 - Let me tell you what's been going on
RAIN AND CAKE
Would you believe it? It is raining here-go figure?!? Ha ha. It can pour and pour all night but by midmorning it is all dried up, swallowed up by the ground. We have had very few full days of rain, but many, many full nights of rain.
We celebrated Beernt’s birthday today and at his request, we had barbecue chicken-a hostel favorite. Finger lickin’ good. And, we actually had 2 cakes because I was mortified by how the first one turned out (and a little embarrassed) so I quickly made another. I tried to make a Boston cream pie. Everything is different here: the pans, the oven, the ingredients…yada yada yada. Anyways, they ate it, but the chocolate one I made was the favorite.
UPDATE ON THE LEG GUY:
The other day while Jason was changing Yanis’ bandage he had a seizure on the table. Good thing his friends were there to hold him or he may have fallen right off. He had quite a hard time breathing afterwards for about 20 minutes. Jodi called our nurse and she rushed over to keep an eye on him and check him out. Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do here regarding seizures and medicine, so it may not be treatable. His leg however, is looking great. Yahoo!
UPDATE ON ME
And speaking of things getting better, I am feeling wonderful! I was quite sick for awhile with strep. I thought I was better and then got another attack. I had a real hard time getting rid of the fevers, and had to be in bed a lot. But, that is behind me now. (Let’s have a party!) Garth is so great in times like that. He just takes over and helps out so much with the kids, especially Cale. I was a bit frustrated on Saturday when I was laying in bed. I was thinking about how sick we all have been. And I thought, “Lord, since we decided to stay another year, Sophie has gotten malaria, Cale had strep and now I have strep. All within about 2 weeks. Garth asked me if it made me question our decision, and I said “No, it didn’t. “ But it does make me wonder what we are supposed to be learning through all of this. So I thought about that while I laid in bed. Am I supposed to learn more patience, endurance, flexibility? Is it to help me realize how thankful I should be for health, or to see how great Garth is in these times? Is it to give me a needed rest, help me spend more time reading to the kids or watching movies with them while I am here in bed? What? And I said, out of my frustration, “What are you trying to show me?” And in the complete stillness, I heard, softly in the quietness of my head, “My power.” Your power? How are you going to show me your power? And I heard, “Just wait.” So I laid there, pondering this. I realized that, He has a plan. And somewhere in His plan, He plans on showing me His power in a way I haven’t seen yet. That is pretty cool. I’m o.k. with that. It is fffffiiiiinnnnnneeeee with me.
VALENTINE’S DAY
Another thing that is fine with me is Valentine’s Day. I love it! We had a great party here with the kids friends. We had a candlelit dinner with heart shaped pancakes, fruit, bacon, and a special punch and flowers that Cale and I picked on the table. Later, we watched a movie. The girls all made movies while Wyatt videoed. Fun, fun, fun.
Speaking of fun, I had a dream the other night that I was shopping in our Super Walmart back home. I was going up and down each aisle in my mind looking at all the things I miss-lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, granola bars…Garth thinks it is crazy that I was shopping in my dream. Oh, well, us women, we are a little crazy!!!!! Aren’t we?
O.k. time to go to bed and dream of …Target Greatland.
Love-Rachel
Would you believe it? It is raining here-go figure?!? Ha ha. It can pour and pour all night but by midmorning it is all dried up, swallowed up by the ground. We have had very few full days of rain, but many, many full nights of rain.
We celebrated Beernt’s birthday today and at his request, we had barbecue chicken-a hostel favorite. Finger lickin’ good. And, we actually had 2 cakes because I was mortified by how the first one turned out (and a little embarrassed) so I quickly made another. I tried to make a Boston cream pie. Everything is different here: the pans, the oven, the ingredients…yada yada yada. Anyways, they ate it, but the chocolate one I made was the favorite.
UPDATE ON THE LEG GUY:
The other day while Jason was changing Yanis’ bandage he had a seizure on the table. Good thing his friends were there to hold him or he may have fallen right off. He had quite a hard time breathing afterwards for about 20 minutes. Jodi called our nurse and she rushed over to keep an eye on him and check him out. Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do here regarding seizures and medicine, so it may not be treatable. His leg however, is looking great. Yahoo!
UPDATE ON ME
And speaking of things getting better, I am feeling wonderful! I was quite sick for awhile with strep. I thought I was better and then got another attack. I had a real hard time getting rid of the fevers, and had to be in bed a lot. But, that is behind me now. (Let’s have a party!) Garth is so great in times like that. He just takes over and helps out so much with the kids, especially Cale. I was a bit frustrated on Saturday when I was laying in bed. I was thinking about how sick we all have been. And I thought, “Lord, since we decided to stay another year, Sophie has gotten malaria, Cale had strep and now I have strep. All within about 2 weeks. Garth asked me if it made me question our decision, and I said “No, it didn’t. “ But it does make me wonder what we are supposed to be learning through all of this. So I thought about that while I laid in bed. Am I supposed to learn more patience, endurance, flexibility? Is it to help me realize how thankful I should be for health, or to see how great Garth is in these times? Is it to give me a needed rest, help me spend more time reading to the kids or watching movies with them while I am here in bed? What? And I said, out of my frustration, “What are you trying to show me?” And in the complete stillness, I heard, softly in the quietness of my head, “My power.” Your power? How are you going to show me your power? And I heard, “Just wait.” So I laid there, pondering this. I realized that, He has a plan. And somewhere in His plan, He plans on showing me His power in a way I haven’t seen yet. That is pretty cool. I’m o.k. with that. It is fffffiiiiinnnnnneeeee with me.
VALENTINE’S DAY
Another thing that is fine with me is Valentine’s Day. I love it! We had a great party here with the kids friends. We had a candlelit dinner with heart shaped pancakes, fruit, bacon, and a special punch and flowers that Cale and I picked on the table. Later, we watched a movie. The girls all made movies while Wyatt videoed. Fun, fun, fun.
Speaking of fun, I had a dream the other night that I was shopping in our Super Walmart back home. I was going up and down each aisle in my mind looking at all the things I miss-lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, granola bars…Garth thinks it is crazy that I was shopping in my dream. Oh, well, us women, we are a little crazy!!!!! Aren’t we?
O.k. time to go to bed and dream of …Target Greatland.
Love-Rachel
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Emma is such a great big sister.
Wyatt with Caleb, Darryl, and Richard on International Day at school.
One of the many beautiful creeks that run off the mountain behind our house.
Cale took his baby shopping.
A daddy and Sophie moment.
Pouring the driveway for the new dorm. The kids will be moving in this weekend.
Decorating Valentine's Day cookies.
Maya and Sophie at International Day.
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