Immigration and more pics

Today we needed to go into Immigration to get Katrina's picture taken. I think this means that her paperwork is almost done! We left the other 3 kids with friends and just took Katrina.

A trip to immigration is always a "trip". We're such a spectacle no matter how we dress or how quietly we try to slip in! Every eye was on her infant carrier when we walked through the room. I guess it didn't help that a 6'7" blond guy was carrying her. Then in the room where we were to wait everyone sat and stared until it became apparent that I wasn't going to take off the blanket covering her. (She'd just fallen asleep and I didn't want her disturbed!) Once the girls in the office heard we were there, they came out into the waiting room to see Katrina. They pulled the blanket back and would have woken her up right then and there, but I explained that she was on a schedule and I'd rather she stay sleeping until "picture time". That interested them and they asked me all about her schedule. They were amazed that she was sleeping through the night! Then there were questions about what/how I feed her ("exclusif susu dari mama" - or exclusively breast fed?) and exclamations on how big she was for 8 weeks old.

Eventually they got back to their jobs and we were called in for the photo and fingerprinting. (So strange to me that they're fingerprinting an 8 week old but guess it's necessary.) As the lady and I were working on the fingerprints, suddenly people were DYING laughing behind us. I turned to look - there was a teen girl standing beside Josh and she literally came to just above his waist. She looked embarrassed but all of the others were laughing their heads off! This is a common occurrence - people even do it standing behind him in line at the cash register or walking behind him on the street. They measure how high they come on him with their hands.

There were many exclamations about how cute Katrina was and how big her eyes were. She treated them to a number of smiles which resulted in amazement all around. They just love all things North American/western - the white skin and blue eyes especially. (One lady commented on my mom's nose while they were here - she said she'd love to have a nose like my mom's! That was the first time in Mom's LIFE that anyone has complimented her nose! They notice and comment on things about westerners, like "wow, she's a fat lady" but generally they mean it in a complimentary way!)

Just as we were about to leave, one lady (who earlier had asked about how I fed my baby - she bottle fed hers, she informed me, cause she didn't have any milk) asked, in a very concerned way, about where Katrina's socks were. I've overheard a number of times where people would say, "poor baby - she doesn't have any socks on". I guess that's a must for a national baby even in 90+ degree heat. I explained that in our culture we don't wear socks on our babies in the heat, only when it's cold. She asked, "Aren't you afraid she'll get sick?" I said I wasn't and that this was the 4th child I had done this with and we'd never had a problem with it. She was amazed.

Needless to say, we were glad to be done there in the office. The whole thing took only 20 minutes start to finish!

One thing I'm so thankful for (and have noticed this when we travel as well) is that we know enough of the language to understand in general what is going on. When we first got here, including the first time at immigration, we didn't understand more than the very basic of greetings and it's hard to function when you don't understand what's going on. It is inconvenient but also can be somewhat scary. I still struggle with understanding the language at times. Just Wednesday I was hanging out with the helpers at the Mission Home and chatting. One of the girls asked me a question that I totally didn't understand. I think I asked her to repeat it 3 times and I was totally blank on what she was asking. Usually they can restate what they want to know in a way that I can understand but, poor girl - this time I totally didn't know. I sure do enjoy sitting and chatting with them though. There's so much to learn about them, how they think, how they do life.

Anyway, here are some more recent pics of Katrina and the kids. Enjoy!

6 weeks old already!

Katrina will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. She's doing really well, as am I. We both are sleeping 6+ hours every night, so that's a treat! This morning she smiled at our helper when she said Hi to her! She's awake more and more and it's a lot of fun to have her around!

I still haven't gotten behind the wheel of a vehicle - can't wait to do that - but all of the vehicles I have access to here don't have power steering and killer to steer with a healing incision... so I'll wait a little longer if needed. Josh said I could try it as soon as I was ready.

I've got a to-do list a mile long of all of the things I need to catch up on from the past 10 months of stuff falling by the wayside. I'll take it easy but it's time to get going on stuff.

Here are some recent pics of Katrina - enjoy!

A few more pics

Welcome Katrina!

We are so excited to announce the arrival of our daughter, Katrina Jane Dyck. She was born on Tuesday night, July 15th by emergency C-section.

We'd gone in for a routine "overdue" checkup and the Doc was immediately concerned when he did the ultrasound. I could tell right away something was wrong - he didn't answer my questions and the screen wasn't looking right to me. After the ultrasound he met with Josh and me in his office and told us what he'd seen: There was almost no amniotic fluid, reduced fetal movement, and he saw calcification of the placenta. He recommended immediate c-section. This was all communicated in the local language. I thought I understood what he said, but I wanted to hear it in English to make sure I knew what I was getting into. C-section and a spinal block here in this country was not on my list of things to do (whose list is it on??). We got in touch with an American doctor from the Baptist Hospital in our region. He and my local doc have known each other for years, and we thought it would be helpful to have him hear what our doc was saying and give us his recommendation. After conferring, our doctor friend agreed that an immediate c-section was the best plan.

From 8 pm when we agreed to do it, things went really fast. They prepped me and wheeled me into the ER, but though they had said Josh could be with me for the surgery, they didn't actually mean it and kept him out. He kept trying to come in, and I kept asking for him, but he was encouraged to wait and pray (really) and they told me he was behind the observation window (a lie). Katrina was born at 9:25 PM, healthy and hollering. I heard my doc say "Suction" and then a very healthy cry! She had the umbilical cord around her throat twice - so we're so glad we ended up doing the c-section. She weighed 4.19 kg and was 54 cm long (9 lbs 3.6oz and 21.3 inches). Her apgar score was 10! My spinal block and the incision all went well, seem to be healing well.

We stayed in the recovery section for 2 hours and then were released to our recovery room just after midnight. By the 17th (Thursday) they let me go home. They actually were planning for me to stay one more day but since I'd already been up, I didn't see any reason to stay longer. We definitely ran into some cultural differences in the way they do things, but generally we were firm about the things we definitely didn't want to do and quiet about the ones that didn't make that much of a difference. The nurses were really nice and helpful.

My short hospital stay went well but I'm glad to be home. Still in pain but Tylenol helps. Katrina is a happy baby, smiles often (REALLY, not joking, not just gas...) she giggled in her sleep a bit ago, got on a schedule right away, and has been sleeping long blocks of time at night already, so that is a total blessing. We're so thankful that my folks were here to help out - it's been great to have Mom here to help me remember how to do this stuff!!

Thanks for praying -please continue to pray for adjustment for the family and for healing for me!

PS - A fun fact about Katrina's birth is that she was born on her Great-Grandma Esther Dyck's birthday - we're pretty excited about that! :)

Mangosteen!

Called manggis (mahn-geese) here. It's in season again and we're excited, though somewhat cautious! I LOVE this fruit - the reason for the caution - it STAINS and WON'T come out. Josh dropped a piece on a pair of khakis last year when it was in season - has been wearing those pants for a YEAR since then and it still hasn't come out or really faded (not even with all the stain treatments I'd tried). If you can get a hold of some to try - DO IT! You'll love it! But be careful...

Prayer Requests

Here's an updated list of things you can pray with us.


PERSONAL:
-For a safe delivery and a healthy baby
-For health and stamina for me (Josie) while I'm waiting (including good sleeping at night)
-For a clean hand-off of my guest facility duties this coming week
-For the boys as they finish the last of their homeschool before the baby is born (for persistence and understanding)
-Typically at the end of pregnancy there's a "down" feeling as part of the waiting - maybe in part because of my size, level of exhaustion, as well as the anticipation and no way of knowing WHEN it's going to happen. Please pray for ENCOURAGEMENT for me - it's easy to get discouraged with all the waiting. Also pray for FOCUS - as I focus on my SOURCE, getting discouraged will be less common.

LOGISTICAL:
-We're using a vehicle right now owned by some coworkers on home assignment (which they want to have sold but we don't want to buy)but need to think about possibly purchasing a car of our own. This would have to be a minor miracle financially as we just are paying for the home renovations. The challenge is the fact that I (Josie) do a lot of my own driving and the vehicles we have access to don't have seatbelts to be able to buckle a car seat. We don't prefer to pay to install seatbelts into the two mission owned vehicles that we have access to as there's no guarantee that they would be available for our use at any given time (they are shared by the guest facility keeper and all of the guests at the mission home as well), but that may be the best option for us. Please pray for wisdom for us as well as that the Lord would provided the needed finances for the purchase if He directs us in that way.
-We also have to take a trip to the US Consulate to get our baby's paperwork started pretty soon after her birth - including birth abroad records, passport and ultimately a visa to live here and re-enter the country if we were to need to leave. Pray for wisdom again to know when a good time for this is, as well as all the details and finances involved with another trip.
-Vaccinations for baby - at home this is not a big deal but here we've been encouraged by our doctor friend to not consider vaccines offered in-country to be safe for our child due to the inconsistent power supplies and the fact that vaccines need to be kept cold for them to stay "alive". We are considering the viability of us going to another Asian country at some point soon after the baby gets her paperwork to get those vaccinations from a more viable source. Again, we need wisdom in this decision - coworkers here have gotten their kids vaccinated here - but how do we know they "took"? Guess at the root it's about trusting the Lord with this...

Thanks for caring for us in this way. I've often said we couldn't do this without you - it's still true. We need you all in the ways God has called you to partner with us. Thanks again!

Crazy Wednesday!

LENGTH WARNING!! Grab a cup of coffee - it's story time!

Last week Wednesday was a pretty crazy day for me. I don’t get out much these days since most of the rest of my world is not A/C’d and the heat makes me feel quite sick. BUT, circumstances being what they were, I ended up “out” almost all day.

Background first: Tuesday night we had a doctor friend stay with us. She observed some symptoms in our helpers’ child that alarmed her, and with permission from her mother, did an exam. After talking more about her daily activities, etc., our friend recommended we get her in to see a doctor as she suspected that Melania possibly has TB. As her parents’ employers, we have responsibility for at least part if not all of her medical bills. Her mom was saying that she was going to have to wait until she got her next months’ wages to take her in to a doctor but on our friends’ recommendation, we decided to take her in first thing Wednesday and try to get treatment started right away if it indeed was TB. We hoped that she would then be referred to a specialist and hopefully be able to get on the (excellent) government program which provides the meds free of charge (the meds are from the WHO and our friend said they were better than what we could get otherwise for her).

Well, we left home at 9 AM to go to the government clinic. We registered her and were told that she needed to bring Melania in every single Saturday to monitor her until she could prove that she had had all of her immunizations (she had had them, just not at a public clinic.) Ros said THAT was not going to happen!! I don’t blame her…

Then, long story short, the nurse was surprised at how underweight Melania was (7.3 kg –or 16 lbs- at 2 years 1 week old). She’s a peanut, but a little livewire, so since her parents are small too, and she’s never sick, we had not really seen this as an alarming thing. It is, though, a possible symptom of TB (among other ones she also exhibited).

Ros, her mother, got a bizarre 15 minute lecture from a young-looking (read: probably not a mother herself) lady, finger shaking and all, about how to feed her child (not like Ros doesn’t feed her multiple times a day – she’s very capable). (Can you picture me sitting there trying to understand what she was saying? I don't think I've concentrated as hard in a long time as I did that day.) She recommended that Ros add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and 1 teaspoon of sugar to each bottle of milk that Melania drinks, among other recommendations. Then we were sent to the Doctor’s waiting room. (That was when Ros said she was never coming back to this clinic again! I agreed with her – as long as we could get the meds for her for free elsewhere.) The doctor, on the other hand, did a short exam and immediately referred her to a specialist (whose office didn’t open until late afternoon on the other side of town). Ros and I agreed to leave at 4 to go to the specialist.

I went home, and a friend called to see if she and the kids could stop in for a bit to see the house. They had helped us move in but hadn’t been over in the 3 weeks since to see it without boxes everywhere. We had a nice chat and the kids were playing when Spencer showed up, saying, “Mom, look at this – my eye was wet so I wiped it with my shirt.” Brown stains on his shirt. I looked at his eye and noticed that the growth on his eye (see photo) was bleeding. (Background on growth – we sent photos to 3 docs and got 2 different diagnoses – hemangioma from 2, and granuloma from the 3rd who actually saw it in person. The 3rd doc said we could just remove it ourselves but we hadn’t done it yet.) Below are the shots we sent the doctors via email.




I immediately tried to call our doctor friend who was still staying with us, but couldn’t get through – she was on another call so Josh sterilized the scissors and tweezers and cut the growth off. (Our friend later said we shouldn’t have done that – to call her first but we’d tried. Just moved too fast…) Once it was removed, we couldn’t get the bleeding to stop. (Turns out it WAS a hemangioma and not a granluoma.) I continued to try to reach her, and when we finally got her, she came right away. She tried for an additional 30-45 minutes to get the bleeding to stop, but couldn’t. Then we started looking for silver nitrate which she said could help her to stop the bleeding but we couldn’t locate any. Her clinic/hospital is several hours away from here so she didn’t have any of her equipment to help us. We decided to take him into a local clinic. I was so thankful that she could accompany me as medical terminology is something I have not picked up much of yet. Since she practices in-country, she knows not only what’s best procedurally but also can communicate with the doctors!

We arrived at the clinic and were seen as soon as the paperwork was done. Ultimately they called in a surgeon and they decided to stitch the wound (was about 2 hours of trying to get the bleeding to stop). Spencer got 2 stitches on his eyelid. He was a real trouper! No crying or fear, and NO anesthetic! He stayed calm and conversed with his new friend (the doctor). They were making up stories of what he could say to impress the girls a little later in life when they ask about the scar on his eye! :)
Laying on the stretcher in the Operating room.
His beautiful stitches - it's healing well!

We arrived home after 2:00 and I had a bit of time to put my feet up before our 4:00 departure for the specialist. We left at 4 and ended up sitting in a traffic jam for probably 20 minutes just a few short meters from the doctor’s office. We went to the WRONG office first, waited a while to talk to the receptionist, and then were directed to another office that was to open at 5:00 –in 15 minutes. We were the first patients of the day so that was encouraging. We had a seat in the waiting room and waited. And waited. And waited. (No surprise there...) At 6:00 the doctor finally arrived. In the mean time the waiting room had filled up, the power had gone off for about 20 minutes and come back on again, and we’d almost exhausted ways to keep Melania occupied! The doctor did a short exam, then prescribed a vitamin syrup and said if nothing had changed (meaning if she hadn’t gained weight) in 1 week, to bring her back for a chest x-ray. Personally, I think he was putting us off because the waiting room was full and he didn’t have a lot of time for us. Guess we’ll be going back this week again.

I arrived home at 6:30, an hour and a half after my 5:00 PM meeting had started (Josh attended too so that was not a huge problem). I knew I'd be late but didn't think I'd miss the whole thing! We had dinner all together with our team after the meeting and then went home.

Long, hot day, but full of God’s grace and strength to get through it. I enjoyed conversations with both our doctor friend and our helper Ros as we sat in waiting rooms. I was blessed to see how the Lord provided the help of our friend when maneuvering that situation with Spencer would have been infinitely more stressful had I had to do it myself. What a provision from the Lord!! And my teammates were very gracious about my not showing at the meeting that I usually end up hosting! I was very tired, my ankles were swollen, but I was carried along by the Grace of God. Praise Him!!

Followup on Our New Home

In response to questions from the comments:

The little (and it is very little) red door in the backyard goes into the neighbor's backyard. It's padlocked for security reasons.

I could line the walls with potted plants - that would be very like the locals do - but would be more likely done in the FRONT yard where visitors and passers-by could see them. We're hoping the vines that are growing on the wall grow down lower - Josh is trying to train them that way. I also have access to some morning-glory like plants with purple flowers and a vine that grows with nice coverage - so I may put some in pots and train them to go up those walls as well.

A down-side to this house is that there is no "good view". All of the views are less than desirable (unless you don't look out the windows)! :) That's part of why I put the curtains up. The windows are tinted and you can only see IN from outside when the light is just right, but everything looks better through a gauzy curtain! :)

Do you remember your first time?

The occasion for this picture was that the boys had saved enough allowance money and for the FIRST TIME EVER bought something ALL BY THEMSELVES with their OWN MONEY!! Spencer chose an army set complete with a hard hat and AK-47 and Mitchell chose a bow & arrow/sword set. It was fun and interesting to watch them choose - there was not a lot of indecision, nor did they just grab the first thing they saw. They also kind of decided together. As I expected, the bow has already broken but that's what you get when you spend what they did!! Good experience!

One of the joys of moving - playing with the boxes! The kids planted the flag - claiming part of our back yard (specifically the fridge box) for their "homeland" of Wisconsin!!
Saying goodbye - Julia and Afa have become close friends this past year. Afa's mom is a widow from one of the tribes that we work in. When we needed a helper for our time filling in at the mission guest facility, we hired her. She had not often been out from interior and it was quite the experience for her. She was very homesick though and is glad to be going home this weekend. It has been a joy to watch Julia and Afa playing together, communicating in both English and the local language as they taught each other. Afa learned to count to 20 in English and learned other various phrases. Julia learned songs and phrases in the local language from Afa as well. Afa is actually twice Julia's age but they're the same height. :)

Our New Home

Good morning! Many of you have been asking and now I finally have pictures to share of our new home. It's amazing what some kitchen cupboards, a paint job and curtains can accomplish! It was a long haul sewing all the curtains as the windows are all tall and the fabric slippery but it was worth it! It's probably good that it took almost 8 weeks to complete things - it kind of grossed me out at first to think about moving in here - but now it's "ours" and feels just fine!! (I think I felt that way before moving into the home we owned in West Allis too...) Best of all - all of the doorframes are now higher and Josh can walk through them all without hitting his head!!

Here's the tour: let's start at the heart of our home - the kitchen (and dining room)! The pretty lattices on the windows are actually security bars. All the windows have them. (They were previously pink, blue and copper with touches of gold - we had them painted plain white.) You saw photos in a previous blog of the kitchen before, here's the after! This room was previously 2 very small, very dark rooms. We had them knock down the walls to open it up. I chose the yellow paint and light colors of wood and tile to brighten it up cause it only has one partially covered window. During the day the door (which is to the right of the stove) is mostly open as well, letting in light. The door goes to the back yard.
Here are Josh and Julia enjoying our back yard - against the wall to the left are the clothes lines. To the right the windows are Josh's office (which is 2 meters wide and 6 meters long but perfect for what he needs!). We have NO lawn - just a cement courtyard and backyard.
This is the other view of the backyard - the washer is in the back (I got an automatic this time - it's backbreaking to use the 2-tub washers, lifting wet laundry in and out of the tub and spinner). The movable drying rack is nice for rainy days. The orange thing is a rainwater reservoir - we use rainwater to supplement city water as sometimes water can be salty or unavailable. We don't drink city/rain water but use it for everything else.
Here's Mitchell in the boy's room. They love their new bunk beds!

This is the bathroom (shower and toilet to the left) that we moved the door from the kitchen to the dining room. It previously only had a "squattie" toilet and a "bok mandi". The floors in the bathroom were replaced with light-colored rough surface tile to minimize slipping (to my huge relief as they were previously really dark and made the tiny rooms even darker and harder to see if they were clean!).

The 2 previous shots are from one of the other (VERY TINY) bathrooms - the sink is 12"x 17" - but it FITS!! We had to search long and hard to find sinks small enough! The shower drains into the drain under the sink. The toilet is up on the "pedestal" where the squattie was previously. Bathrooms here are generally "wet bathrooms" as they flush the squatties with buckets of water and it goes everywhere - same with bathing with a bok mandi - you pour dippers of water over your head and it all drains into a central drain. So no bath mats! They'd be soaked all the time. The bath mats go OUTSIDE the bathroom door so you can dry your feet and not slip on the tile floors OUTSIDE the bathroom.

And this is the "ruang tamu" or sitting room that is traditional in local homes. We ended up putting toys in that room as well as it is the biggest room in the whole house. The front door was my "thing" with this house - previously it was the same color as the pink mat you see in the bottom left corner of the picture - now a beautiful shade of red. I always wanted a red door! (The bonus was that the neighbors offered unsolicited approval - they said it was the perfect shade of red - a brighter color would have been, in their opinion, "too Chinese". Whatever...but glad they approve!) We bought the furniture in this room (and a number of the other rooms) from a couple that had to leave the field for health reasons. The other furniture we had locally built from photos I got off the internet. Most of it is nice and sturdy but unfortunately our dining room chairs ended up uncomfortable! So if you come for dinner - sorry! We don't mean to rush you off with bad seating!

Anyway, that's our new place. We're thankful to have a place to call home for the next year or two - and it's finally "ours" as the homes we've lived in the past 2 years have been someone else's. Location-wise it's great, too. You may notice I didn't post photos of the front of our home - that's for security purposes - but if you want to see it, just let me know and I'll send you a shot.

Thanks for your prayers for us in getting this all figured out, and for continuing to pray as we now begin to prepare for the arrival of our daughter. Last night I was able to get some more information about the hospital I am to give birth at - helps me know how to pack the "go bag". Also we have the additional challenge of figuring out paperwork needed to get a US birth certificate, passport and visa for the little one. The down side (which is a little humorous) is that last night we also watched an episode of Mythbusters with the kids so last night when I was SUPPOSED to be sleeping, I ended up dreaming about having the baby in a hospital with the Mythbusters there testing stuff or doing experiments or something... a little disturbing!!

Today is 4 weeks left until my due date. The ladies in my life here say that it looks like the baby has dropped, which explains the additional discomfort. I'm depending greatly on the Lord for stamina for each day. Thanks again for praying!

"Cutie" Mark?

The other day Spencer was looking at the beauty mark on the side of Julia's neck, trying to get a rise out of her by telling her she had a "zit". I overheard him and reprimanded him for it - so he changed his tune - and told her it wasn't a zit, it was a "cutie mark". I couldn't help but laugh! She sure IS a cutie!

Julia and Mitchell enjoying storytime with "Miss Judy" - a guest who was with us this month.

New Brothers and Sisters!

We recently enjoyed this humorous (but true) list written by coworkers who recently taught through the Bible chronologically. What was really exciting to us was the fact that a number of people from this tribe BELIEVED as a result of hearing the teaching! THIS is the reason we're here, doing what we do day in and day out - supporting our coworkers living interior, serving with great personal sacrifice so that those people who have not heard about Christ's sacrifice on the cross have the opportunity to do so - and believe! We have new brothers and sisters - and are rejoicing with the angels in heaven!

“You Know You Are Preaching to the ____ People When…”

…you need a bow and arrow rack in the meeting place instead of a hat rack.

…you have to make an announcement that there will be no sorcery taking place during the meeting.

…in spite of your announcement, one of the men sit with a frying pan in front of his face the whole meeting to ward off sorcery.

…they ask if those are bamboo smoking pipes that the Israelites have in their mouths when marching around Jericho (ram's horns)

…they ask if they can have a sleep over in the meeting house and listen to recordings of the teaching all night.

…in a society where no one is the leader, even toddlers yell out before the meeting, 'Everyone sit down and be quiet!"

…one of your most prominent men, interrupts the meeting by asking all three of his wives if they have any mao bark for his beetle nut. It's just not gummy enough with out!

…our believers from the previous evangelistic outreach don't understand it's ok to laugh at funny illustrations from the teacher, and yell at the eager listening 'heathen', "Stop laughing! This is important talk! Satan is blinding your eyes!"

…you have to explain which one is Mary and which one is the angel in the picture.

…asked if even missionaries have sin, they respond confidently, "yep, your sin is disgusting as pig poop." Brutally honest.

Moving! And baby thoughts....

After 7+ weeks of renovations, we have FINALLY moved to the new house, though we're not ALL THE WAY over yet. Fortunately we don't have to be out of the house until the end of June so we have time. Actually, we hope to be MOSTLY COMPLETELY out by Wednesday sometime. I'm taking things a bit easy after 2 crazy moving days, as well as catching up on paperwork and preparations for the "next big thing".

Actually what prompted me to blog today was something Spencer said: After lunch today I was going to put on a movie for the boys while Josh and I work and Julia naps. Spencer suggested "That Toy Story Movie on the big tape thing" (VHS tape). I couldn't help laughing! We don't own a VHS player anymore since moving here since it wasn't worth bringing and we didn't know how the tapes would hold up with the humidity, etc, but the Mission Facility has a VHS player and people have donated tapes for general use. Anyway, as I write this, my kids are enjoying a movie from "the big tape thing". :)

I'm down to 7 weeks until this baby arrives - can't wait! Sometimes I don't know how I'll last that much longer - she's already SO heavy, but that could just be my age and the heat!! She's moving less, getting cramped in there, I guess. We still don't have a name choice from Spencer (he said, why bother getting my input since you already have a name chosen?) but Julia's sticking with naming the baby "Strawberry girl" and Mitchell likes "Jane".

Last night I did some (more) reading up on labor & delivery and I'm realizing how much the L&D nurses at Froedtert did for me - I won't have that here - at least not in a language I understand well enough! Please pray with me for a nurse/midwife (guess they all are both at my chosen hospital) that I connect with well. I do plan to have a friend who grew up here and is better at the local language around, but she won't be able to be in the room. (You can pray that they let her in too!!) Josh doesn't have a lot of time for reading these days with his big projects in process, but he needs to refresh a lot too, so pray that I'll be able to give him in a nutshell the things I need him to remember during that time frame. It's possible that I'll go really quickly as I did with Julia (1 push total after a really quick labor) but there are no guarantees. Hopefully there are no complications. I realize this is not a disease but a natural process but I've always had Froedtert/Childrens 6 minutes away - and my OBGYN a phone call away - and it was a comfort to know that they could take care of almost any situation! (Not that I wasn't trusting the LORD too - but now He's almost all I've got!) Giving birth in this culture is a lot different than at home, even some basics, so there's a lot to think about!

Please pray with us about our power situation - we arranged for increased power coming into our home as it was extremely minimal and we use more appliances than the average national (including A/C's, fridge, freezer, computers). It was done (so we thought) over a month ago, but now that we're in, it seems like maybe it wasn't done at all (we already paid the guy). We've had breakers go about 10 times in 2 days, and that was with 1 high efficiency A/C, the fridge and lights. Not much, but still too much! Please pray that we can get this taken care of soon - even that it's POSSIBLE - we're not sure if it is. My feeling of well-being health-wise depends on being able to stay cool (90 degrees from 8 AM to 7 PM is not uncommon), and the kids rooms are so hot at night - NO airflow. Wind is uncommon here so moving air is a big necessity.

Once we're more settled in the new house I'll post some "house finished" pictures. We don't have internet there yet but hopefully this week...

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your prayers for us during this difficult and busy time. We appreciate each one of you (and miss you - but we won't go there...)! :)

Incredible Near-Death Experience

It's a rainy day here. I love the rain. Josh and the boys went outside to watch the clouds roll in before the rain started falling. The breeze was cool and felt wonderful!! My kids are coloring and doing homework, Josh is working in the office and I'm answering all sorts of random questions. ("Is it Easter at America, mommy?" "Which picture do you think I should color?")
We had a couple who just came out of the tribe in for lunch today - we served a big salad as well as "Ayam Cabe Hijau", Chicken seasoned with green chili peppers served with rice. It was just mildly spicy so that the kids could eat it too.
Our friends did some story-telling while we ate together. They work interior and were travelling down a river between villages when (they're not sure why - could have been several factors) the boat tipped and they and 2 tribal guys were thrown out. They're just a bit older then my folks (so middle-aged), and have been here for 20+ years, traversing the river between the villages many times. This time was pretty scary as the wife almost drowned. There are many rapids and the river was pretty high, so it was a miracle that her husband was able to pull her out (she kept coming up under the boat and there wasn't much air under there.) Finally she came up away from the boat and was able to hold onto a log, very weak. Her husband was able to lift her up so her head was above water, and then the force of the water washed him down the river further. She wasn't able to hold on much longer so a tribal guy (who had trapped the boat against some logs to keep it from going down to the next set of rapids) let the boat go, crossed the river to her and helped her up onto the log. The amazing thing (besides the fact that they survived) was that they had packed the boat so well that they didn't lose anything besides their hats! The boat did go down the chute towards the next set of rapids, but somehow ended up getting redirected just before the big rapids and was tangled in some vines, floating upside down. When the boat was righted again, everything was in it. They lost their hats from their heads. They did end up having to wait for a couple of hours on some logs in the middle of the water while they were waiting to be rescued (one of the tribal guys made a raft out of vines and logs and floated down the river looking for the boat). She ended up with heatstroke, and was sick for 2 days throwing up and very weak (probably a combination of both the near-drowning and subsequent heat stroke) in the village they were visiting. Thankfully she did recover her strength to take the return trip (yes, on the same river in the same boat) the 3rd day. No one heard about the accident until they were safely back home. (A good reason to pray for missionaries even if you don't hear from them - you never know what's going on, sometimes don't hear until it's over.)

We are incredibly thankful that the Lord chose to spare our friends last week. They both have been an incredible encouragement to us in the time that we've been here. They head home to the US for their son's graduation from medical school and their daughter's wedding in the coming weeks so pray that in the next few days before they leave that she would regain her strength. She's still experiencing weakness in her arms.

Thanks for praying with us!

Everyday Lfe

Wow - again it's been over a month since I've posted - need to get back in the habit...

Life goes on here.

In early March we had all of our colleagues in this region in (literally into our home) for some meetings. This required rearranging much furniture for about a week. I co-lead the kids meetings using a terrific Biblical Peacemaking program. We all ate together, fellowshipped together, prayed together and were refreshed together. It was a very busy time and as it was at our house (and the Mission Home facility), I overdid it a bit, and by the last 2 days had to take it easy for health reasons. I'm doing better now, still taking it easier than I'd like to, but would rather be safe than sorry. We turned our dining/living room into the meeting place, and moved our living room furniture into a grouping in the kids toy area for fellowship between and after meetings.

Here's a shot of the whole group - including a number of our national counterparts. Almost 50% of our number were kids!

Easter was not that traditional in our home this year - at least not traditional to ME! We did the Resurrection Eggs with the kids as normal, but since the heat prohibits me from attending services at church these days, we did a service at home with the kids. Spencer remembered that last year we taught him the "He Arose" Easter Hymn (...UP from the grave He arose...), so at his request we sang it again, also teaching it to Mitchell and Julia. I made scalloped potatoes using the last of our "Farmer Sausage" and we had another couple over once they were done with services at church. We did take time that weekend to color eggs and decorate sugar cookies.

A few weeks ago we got a package in the mail from Women2Day at Elmbrook. It was an exciting event and we had such fun introducing our kids to Chef Boyardee! They'd never heard of it before! Mitchell is holding a cool Crayola product I'VE never heard of that he was particularly excited about. They enjoyed cereal for breakfast the next day (all we can get here - if we're lucky - is Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies). Thanks, ladies! What a bright spot!

Another exciting event at our house lately was Julia getting a new bike - her FIRST! We had borrowed a bike owned by the people whose house we're living in when we first got here and it fit her perfectly, but in the last year Julia has shot up incredibly and 2 weeks ago, when we took the kids to a development that's coming up (nice paved roads, no traffic) to ride bikes, it became very apparent that she was WAY too big for the borrowed bike. We took a trip as a family to the bike shop downtown and chose a pink strawberry bike for our dear daughter. It's an 18 inch, but won't be that big for her too much longer! Mitchell's 18 inch is getting too small for him, so we'll have to upsize his soon too!

Some of you may have heard that we've found a house to rent. We will have to move out of the house we're currently living by mid-June at the latest. We're glad to have found a house in the same neighborhood - 2 doors down, in fact. Here you come to an agreement on your "contract" up front - in our case we agreed to rent the place for 3 years (partially to get a better price, partially because though some of that time we're hoping to spend at home in the US, hopefully there will be another family who needs housing during that time and will house sit for us). Then usually you pay all of your rent up front (the entire 3 years), and then you are responsible for any and all remodelling, painting and whatever else needs to be done to the house to make it livable - you get it "as is". We have a big job going on in our "new house" - we have to raise the kitchen counters to make them usable - the old ones were just a bit higher than knee-level on me. Here's a shot of the kitchen - we weren't quick enough to get a good "before" shot.

We also have to switch out the facilities in the bathrooms to make the "squatty potties" and "bak mandis" into toilets and showers. The one shown here is basically the entire room - so even with the renovations, it's going to be TIGHT!!! No huge vanity in here! (In case you didn't know - the bak mandi holds water and the dipper you see floating in it is used both to pour water over your head to "shower" as well as to flush the "toilet". This one obviously hasn't been cleaned in a while as you see sediment on the bottom.)

THIS bathroom will be our "family bathroom" and is bigger - we will be able to fit a vanity in here, thankfully. The shower will be a bit long and narrow but will be fine. A little bit of trivia - a toilet costs 10X what a squatty potty does. I was shocked when I realized that but not shocked enough to change my preferences!!

So our time is taken up with not only our "normal" work plus home schooling and so on - we're also running back and forth between home and the new place facilitating the renovation of the new place. No Home Depot here! (I miss it!! - Shopping for stuff here is just incredibly HOT and dirty and you have to go to many places just to find something as "simple" as a basic hot/cold kitchen faucet!)

And last but not least - some of you have been asking for a prego tummy shot - this was taken just a few days ago. I don't feel that big for 6 months along, but it sure is exhausting to carry this baby-belly around all day long! :) I'm sure finding out why prenatal care in the US costs so much - it's because they DO so much of the thinking for you!! Here I'm ordering all of my own blood tests, urine tests, ultrasounds, taking my blood pressure, monitoring my weight and so on. I'm glad I'm not doing this for the first time!! Thankfully, my results are all coming back normal and within reasonable ranges. I'm right on track and hoping that the baby comes "early" or close to my July 11th due date. (I also have July 7 and July 4 due date predictions from earlier in my pregnancy.) Ultrasound measurements of both head and femur say that the baby is EXACTLY the size it should be for the projected July 11th delivery. Not that that means anything (except that this time I won't be delivering an 11 pound baby like with Mitchell!!).

Please be praying with us for:

• health for the rest of my pregnancy
• a safe and healthy (uneventful) delivery
• good progress on our "new" home and quick completion so that we can move in before it's too much of a struggle to pack and move (because of my pregnancy)
• that we will be a light to our contractor and his workers as we seek to serve them in little ways while they work on our home (refreshments, etc.)
• we will be losing one of our helpers as she is going back to her village in the coming months - please pray as we look for a suitable replacement for her!
• Thank the Lord with us for His provision of so much that we have to be thankful for!

Thanks so much for praying with and for us!