THEY'RE BACK.....

Hi everyone. Sorry for being such a bad blog updater. There really is no excuse other than power outages and internet being down. We had a quite a few power outages recently (5-6 hours at a time) so I finally broke down and bought a lantern on Tuesday because you can't do a whole lot by candle light. We'll since I bought the lantern I haven't been able to use it. You can bet that we've had power outages, but they've been during the daytime instead. I guess I'm saving on lantern oil though.

View of Tegucigalpa from Picacho

So, what else have we been up to? It's really been a great month. Our last team was blessed to stay a few extra days because of Hurricane Ike. We really enjoyed the extra time with them getting to know them better. Reed and Ella really befriended a nice woman, Marie. Reed still asks when she is coming back. He had a lot of fun bringing Marie on his secret trails around the mission grounds. One Sunday we went to Picacho National Park here on El Hatillo. The park has a great big statue of Jesus which overlooks the city. It's kind of nice to have Jesus looking over us from the mountain. I see it as a reminder that he is always watching over us, but we often use him as our guide to get back home when we are lost in the city. Our streets here do not have signs, so as long as we head toward Jesus we know we'll make it home.

The park also has Mayan Ruins, a zoo, and lots of beautiful nature. Everyone climbed the stairs to the ruins, even Reed. Ella was carried by Ryan in a fast dash up the stairs. I think I had only made it 1/4 of the way and they were at the top. I made it up okay, but coming down was a little nerve racking with my decreased sense of balance. I took the steps down sideways only to find out that there was a back way which was not quite so steep and went by a nice little water fall. We had to skip the zoo the day we went as we were running out of time. We will definatly be going back to explore more in the future.Reed is still enjoying school and likes making new friends at the playground. Ella also has made a few new friends and looks forward to seeing them at church, ladies bible study, and on couple of playdates. Ella is often found talking on her cell phone to her friends. Having social interaction for them is such a blessing.

On September 20 Ryan and I started teaching 6-8th grade Sunday School. We are really enjoying the kids in our class and hopefully they are too. Reed decided to ask his teachers if Ella could join in on his class. She is loving having anything to do with school. Their class is held in the nursery room so when I asked her how she liked it she told me "I like Sunday School, but it's really the nursery. Actually!" Now she tells us it's nursery school. They get smart so fast.

We were blessed to have a mini vacation recently as well. Denny and Donna McKendrick were back in their home state, Wisconson, for their son's wedding, so they asked us to do some house sitting for them. I didn't realize how much I would like it. Ryan and I were so excited to have a living room to relax in, watch movies, read and then go to bed in a whole different room. It was also a big treat to put the kids to bed in separate bedrooms. Although it was sweet because one night we found that Reed had snuck into the room Ella was sleeping in and fell asleep next to her. They really get used to that comfort fast! The McKendrick's guard/gardener, Antonio, and his family (Anna, Christopher, and Scooby) live in the basement of the house so we enjoyed trying to communicate with them. Ella really liked playing with Christopher, 6 months, while Reed spent his spare time playing outside with Scooby and Jojo (the pups). We picked up Denny and Donna at the airport on Wednesday. Reed and Ella were pretty happy to have them back, however, they were a little disappointed we had to move back home. Reed said he wanted us to move into their house and they can move into our house.

We've had a few weeks of offtime from brigade, but we've managed to stay busy. Ryan has been treating missionaries and their families, he also started treating teachers and staff at Pinares (Reed's school) Wednesday evenings. They are all very appreciative of his hands. Ryan also went away to an overnight mens retreat on the SW coast of Honduras. It's a good thing Antonio was with me and the kids, otherwise I don't think I would've been to okay with it. Ryan got to sleep outside on a cot and eat grilled fish. I've still been spending time in the pharmacy and with the kids. The next 5 weeks should be pretty busy with teams so, that will help to make the baby countdown go a little faster. We only have 7weeks to our due date. SCARY!! We are currently planning to have the baby here in Honduras, so we've got lots to get ready.

Oh, the title of today's blog, "They're Back!" Well if you hadn't already guessed, yes it's the scabies. After a few weeks itch free they've decided to make a return. We've all been treated again and disinfected our home. We feel pretty confident the culprit this time may be a little pup named, Scooby. Denny broke out around his ankles a few days after his return and the kids have them at chest level. Those silly scabaroonies!! Hopefully we've got 'em this time.

And now some pics and a video of the kiddo's!

Update on the Kids

At the request of several people we will be trying to give more updates on the kids and their daily activities as well. Monday, August 25 Reed started his first day of school at Academia Los Pinares. The Christian school started in the mid 1970's as a school for missionary children. Currently it functions primarily as a school for Honduran children, with a few missionary children mixed in. We hadn't worked school into our budget, but we made a few adjustments to try and make it work. We also prayed that the school board would understand our financial situation as missionaries here and help us out a little. There is a $1000 onetime enrollment fee that is charged, that we could not afford. God answered our prayers and we found out yesterday that the board would wave our admission fee. We are so thankful as Reed loves school so much and really craves the social interaction with other kids his age.

Reed joins one other North American boy, Samuel, and lots of spanish speaking Honduran children in Pre-Kinder about 2 miles from our house. We were quite suprized to find out that the Pre-K kids go to school from 7:30am-2:30pm Monday through Friday. It seems like a lot for 4 year olds, but Reed is a huge fan (minus nap time in the afternoons). Reed's favorite parts about school are wearing a uniform (like Grandpa does at work), recess (big time favorite), and bringing his own snack ("First Lunch") and lunch ("Second Lunch").

Our first week of getting up and ready at 6:30 was a little bit rough on both Reed and Mommy, however, this week Reed was waking us up between 5:30 and 6:15. We're pretty sure he's adjusted! Ryan is used to it from getting up for brigades. I, however, am still getting used to my new wake up time. It's not so fun with having to get up to use the bathroom 3 times every night. What will we do when the baby comes? I have a feeling the mommy zombie will be returning. Beware!

So, you may be wondering how Ella feels about her playmate and best friend being in school all day. At first she insisted, "I'm four," so she could go to school as well, but she seems to be enjoying a little more one on one time with mommy and daddy. We have been enjoying art projects and workbooks, games, working in the pharmacy, running errands in town (with the occasional stop for doughnuts), and playing catch. This week Ella has some fun events planned. On Monday we have a playdate with another 2 1/2 year old little girl who lives here on El Hatillo and on Tuesday Ella will be joining me for Women's Bible Study and she's very excited to be able to spend some extra time in the nursery, her favorite Sunday morning hang-out.
Ella became very disappointed last Friday as we said goodbye to WGO's Government Liason, Armondo (aka "Mondo"), who is Ella and Reed's lollipop supplier. Ella still has her favorite mission house cooks (Magda, Alba, and Diana) who she charms into giving her "Sula," a brand of orange juice and Ella's favorite thing in Honduras.

And Baby #3, he or she is growing just fine, 29 weeks gestation Monday. My ribs have now become Baby's favorite hot spot! My belly must be growing well because Reed said to me, "Mommy, I think one day your belly is just going to POP!" I sure hope not. Ella loves to give the baby raspberries and Reed likes to see if the baby will kick his hands. The poor babe had hiccups a lot one day and Reed and Ella tried to cure them by putting coins all over my belly. It didn't work. My favorite chiropractor has been doing a great job taking care of the back pain daily. I'm very blessed to have that kind of care and such sweet kids.

Medical Alert: Scabies in Remission!

It appears that our little friends have left us and we hope for good! We still have red bumps on our body that may take a while to completely heal, but we think that we got them. At least no more itchies!

End of Summer Brigade Season

Pictures from our last Brigade in August

The summer brigade season finished up August 23rd. That week we were in one of our favorite areas to visit, Nueve Capital. It is one of the poorer areas in Teguz. In the pictures above you see the church we were at. It's a work in progress with 8 members. It's sister church, also in Nueve, was there to help out with the brigade where many were seen. One woman who came to my medical station, with her 5 year old and 10month old, mentioned that she gets nausea when she eats. When I asked her if certain foods caused it she told me that they have no food at home and they usually only eat every 3 days or so. What could we do but give her our lunch and pray that she would be receptive to Christ's love. We pray that WGO's presence there helped the church to grow.

Our second church of the week was in Comayagua where Ryan enjoyed one of the two days there doing Evangelism. He found this to be a very powerful experience noting that those who rejected the Gospel affected him very much. Of the rejections the most common reason seemed to be that the people felt unworthy of Christ sacrifice for them. If only they understood that this was His gift to us. We are all unworthy, that is why it is such a gift, we cannot earn his salvation. Ryan has kept these people in his prayers and hopefully the seed that was planted will grow.