The Saga Continues

Posted by Wes on August 19th, 2008 @ 1:40 pm under Mission South America, The Newest News

Seriously. What does it take to get out of this country?

Well… Stacy and the boys finally made it up to College Station. Stacy is well and the boys are surviving just fine. We got to sleep late last night and got up bright and early to try to leave the house by 6:30 this morning. We made it here to the airport just fine for our 11:26 flight. That’s right, I’m still here. In the airport.

Yes, it’s well past 11:26.

No, our flight wasn’t delayed.

Fine, I’ll tell you what happened… but I don’t really want to talk about it right now. So, here’s the gist. We unpacked our 16 bags, met up with Mark, made our way to the luggage check in, and then couldn’t find my passport. Then we freaked out. Then we found it. Apparently, in the craziness of getting ready last night, we were making copies of our passports and mine got left on the copier at my mom’s office. Then I cried.

So here I sit. At the airport. Mark and the Davidsons are well on their way to San Jose, Stacy and the boys left with Mark’s parents so they could all go down for naps. My mom is on her way back from getting my passport from College Station… and I’m sitting here by myself keeping an eye on our mountain of luggage trying really hard to not jab sharp things in my eyeballs… because even that would be an improvement.

So, we’re on the next flight… departing at 6:07 and arriving in Costa Rica at 8:47 PM.

That’s all I’ve got the energy for right now.

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On The Brink of Insanity… Or Maybe Just Past It

Posted by Wes on August 15th, 2008 @ 2:32 pm under Mission South America, The Newest News

Sorry, not many new pictures right now. You might have noticed though, last week I did get to take some 1 year pictures of little Blake Stringer (along with Jake and Seth)… check them out here.

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I’m having a really hard time thinking of a way of putting into words our experiences over the last week or so.

The craziness of our roadtrip is almost over. We made it from Kaufman to Terrell to Ft. Worth to Georgetown to New Braunfels to Portland to College Station. Well not exactly like planned… did I mention that I drove the 4 1/2 hours from San Antonio back to Kaufman to get 3 cavities filled and turned around and drove back one day last week? Oh, and we decided to cancel the trip to Houston. Oh, and did I mention that Stacy is still in Portland and I’ve already come to College Station?

Let me explain. Apparently, having to move 4 times and a major family crisis this year, having major surgery and having a baby 6 weeks before moving to a foreign country and learning a new language and new culture, being homeless for a month with a toddler and a new born, dealing with regular recovery from surgery and battling two different bladder infections wasn’t quite enough. On Wednesday night Stacy wasn’t feeling too good, so she was going to shower and try to get in bed a little early. But instead of feeling refreshed after her shower, she was just feeling a lot worse and started having chills and achy joints. So, she took her temperature and, sure enough, 102 fever. So, a call to the on-call doctor, and a 30 minute drive to the nearest 24 hour pharmacy at 12:30 in the morning and Stacy was quickly on antibiotics. The doc said she should be recovered by Sunday or Monday… you know, plenty of time for moving to Costa Rica on Tuesday. Good grief. Well, that’s why Stacy’s not with me. She’s at her parent’s home recovering.

I had to leave because this weekend the A&M Church of Christ has organized a big weekend for our team to spend with our family and supporters. We’re having festivities this evening, all day tomorrow and more on Sunday. I really needed to be here, so I packed all of our stuff back in the Jeep (still not completely packed) and headed off to College Station.

Also, some of our best friends in the world had planned a get together for us last night. We were supposed to get there around 6 o’clock to share some good food and get to say some last goodbyes. Well, we decided yesterday that Stacy wasn’t going to be able to make it, but I would still go. But, because of the insanity of this life, I didn’t get out of Portland until late and didn’t get to College Station until everybody had to leave. That’s right, I missed it completely. I was really pretty hacked, it really meant a lot to me for them to do something like that for us… thanks guys… we love ya’ll… sorry we couldn’t be there.

Seriously, just rehashing all of this just to write it down is stressing me out. I don’t think we could be any more ready to just get a little settled again. Just a few more days… almost there. I hope we make it.

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Packing, Unpacking, Repacking, Reunpacking, Rerepacking…

Posted by Wes on August 10th, 2008 @ 8:30 pm under Mission South America, The Newest News

When we left our house in Kaufman we had tried to slim down our possessions as much as possible. Even with our best efforts though, we still ended up with a Jeep loaded to the gills and Stacy’s mom’s car just about as full. So… at Ben and Crystal’s house we unpacked everything and purged some more. Still way too much.

I guess, you may be wondering, “How much is too much?” Well, let me tell you the current Continental Airlines requirements for our flight to Costa Rica. We have 3 full fare tickets, one each for me, Stacy and Jake. Then we also have a “lap” ticket for Derek. For each of the kids we are allowed to “gate check” a stroller or a car seat… we’ll be checking one stroller and one car seat. Each of us is allowed one carry-on bag and one personal item, like a purse or a camera bag, etc. Each full fare ticket is allowed one free checked bag, one additional bag for an additional $25 and a second additional bag for another $100. It seems pretty likely that at this point we will be using every bag we are allowed. That’s right, picture this… us walking through Intercontinental with this packing list in tow:

  • 1 Double Stroller
  • 1 Car Seat
  • 1 Diaper Bag
  • 2 Back Packs
  • 3 Carry-Ons
  • 9 Checked Bags

But, before we can get to that point, we have to do some more sorting… figuring out what we really need to take with us, what we really want to take with us, what we can do without, what we can buy when we get there, etc.

The last couple of weeks have really been tough. It feels like we’ve just been bouncing from place to place, not being able to find anything we need, leaving a path of destruction in our wake with everyone we’ve stayed with. We finally have made it down to Portland where we can feel at least in some ways a little bit more at home.

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… like a band of gypsies we go down the highway

Posted by Wes on August 5th, 2008 @ 8:48 am under Everything Derek, Mission South America, Parenting, The Newest News

Good gravy it’s been a hectic couple of days. Well, really, weeks. For that matter, make that “months.” So, if we’re every going to get caught up to the present here, we’re going to have to gloss over some of the details.

First things first… a recent shot of the recently balding increasingly chunky new kid.

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So, let’s bring everybody up to speed real quick like. So, since January we’ve been living in Kaufman, TX getting to know our supporting church, the Kaufman Church of Christ. Fast forward a little and just a month and two days ago we had Derek. That’s right, he’s already over a month old! Next, two weeks from today we fly to Costa Rica to go to language school to learn Spanish. We’ll be there until the end of April. We fly back from San Jose on April 28, spend a few weeks here in the states and finally go on down to Lima, Perú in May.

So, over the last few months we’ve been slowly paring down and sorting our belongings into categories… stuff going with us to Costa Rica, stuff going to Peru and stuff to get rid of. Well, last week we packed up all the stuff in the Peru pile and hauled it off to Abilene where the good people at Global Samaritan will be loading it into a container and shipping it down to Lima for us. It’ll all stay in storage until next year when they’ll load it up onto a truck or train that’ll take it down to Houston where it’ll load onto a boat that’ll take it down, through the Panama Canal on it’s way to Lima.

As for now, we’re nomads. We moved out of our house about a week ago and since then we’ve been living with Stacy’s brother Ben and his family in Terrell.

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The life of our little vagabonds… relegated to sleeping on changing pads on tops of dressers and the like.

At this very moment we’re in Ft. Worth visiting my grandparents, tomorrow Stacy’s grandparents in Georgetown, then her dad in New Braunfels, then friends in San Antonio, then Stacy’s mom in Portland, then friends in Houston, then my family in College Station.

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We’ve got to be in College Station by next Thursday at the latest. So, all of this 800 miles has to happen before then. We must be crazy.

After that craziness is done, we’ve got a great weekend planned with family and supporters in College Station (more on that later). Then, we fly out from IAH in Houston on Tuesday, August 19th.

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2 weeks old and Kate’s wedding

Posted by Stacy on July 23rd, 2008 @ 12:01 am under Everything Derek, Everything Jakob, Mindless Meanderings, Mission South America, The Newest News, Website stuff

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Derek turned two weeks old on Thursday. At his doctor appointment he weighed 8lbs 12oz, which falls in the 50th percentile. He is doing great, because when we left the hospital he weighed 6lbs 15oz! Something worth mentioning–a huge praise of thanksgiving–is that when Derek was born the doctor said the cord was wrapped around his neck. He said we made the best decision to go ahead with the scheduled surgery, because most likely that cord would have kept Derek from dropping low enough for a successful VBAC. Thank you, Lord, for taking care of us! He really has been an easy and quiet baby.

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He had his days and nights mixed up a bit the first couple of nights home, but since then he’s been sleeping pretty well at night. Jake is doing great with him, too. He loves to sit and hold him (will easily sit with him for 20-30 minutes and not want to let him go) and he loves to give him kisses! He’s already such a great big brother and says, “That’s my baby Derek.”

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I am still recovering. Have been slowed down a bit by a UTI that won’t seem to go away. And I’m still sore from surgery, but I am moving around much better. I’m anxious to be able to lift Jakob up again and play with him like normal. I miss him so much. He is in College Station this week, because we are sorting and packing up the last of our stuff. We move out of our house this weekend. I decided yesterday that Derek and I will join Jake in CS tomorrow. It’s true, I’m running away! My only responsibilities right now are to write this post and sort out my clothes to pack my bag for Costa Rica. Everything else I’m leaving behind for Wes to pack up. It’s way too overwhelming for me to handle right now.

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One last thing. On Saturday, Derek made his first road trip. Kate got married! So, $85 in dress alterations later, we packed up and went to Hamilton. I was sad to miss out on the rehearsal and all the pre-wedding fun, but in order for me to not pass out as they made their vows to each other, I figured I should take it as easy as possible. We didn’t get many pictures at the wedding, but it was really great to see some friends one last time before we head out. Congratulations Kate and Lane! Your wedding was beautiful. We love you and are very happy for you.

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