Is it really August already?

Posted by Wes on August 8th, 2010 @ 11:10 pm under Everything Derek, Everything Jakob, Life and Culture, Mission South America, Peru, The Newest News

So… Seeing as how it’s been precisely forever since we’ve posted anything around here, we’ve got a lot to catch up on.

Maybe the most noteworthy news item of late is that we had our first of hopefully many medical campaigns this July.

This deserves and will get it’s own post in the next day or two. But the short version of the story is that we had a group of thirty some odd visitors from all over Texas and Tennessee… Among them we had five doctors and five nurses. Those health care professionals plus all the other amazing visitors we had really made our first stab at a medical campaign go about as smoothly as it could have possibly gone… way smoother than I ever expected.

The other big news of late is that we’ve had family visit! First, Stacy’s brother, aka Uncle Ben, is a doctor and came as part of the aforementioned medical campaign.

And then, this week we’ve had Stacy’s parents visiting. The boys have just been beside themselves with Gran and Grandad here in the flesh and not just a picture on the computer via Skype. Unfortunately, grandad had to leave already, but we’ve still got gran here until Wednesday night. Our days have been full of going to the parks around town, visiting the zoo, etc., etc.

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Of course our car broke down the day before they got here. So, we rented a car for a couple of days while it was in the shop… we got the tiniest little Fiat you’ll ever see. It didn’t even have power steering; but it was the cheapest thing they had and it got the job done. I also promise more details from the Gran and Granddad visit coming soon.

Oh yeah, one more thing… We’re moving… Again. Of course. If you know us well enough to be reading this, then you probably didn’t just fall out of your chair in shock. But, this isn’t what we expected to be doing when we moved in to our current house almost a year ago. Anyways, this certainly deserves its own post too. So, more to come later in the week.

Yeah, yeah, I know you don’t believe me about all the updates I’ve been promising… But really it’s going to happen. Really.

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Podcasts

Posted by Stacy on July 11th, 2010 @ 10:55 pm under Mission South America, Spiritual Thoughts

I just wanted to share that I have been really encouraged today by a podcast by Gregg Matte that I subscribed to for free on itunes.  Gregg Matte did Breakaway while we were at A&M and now he is a pastor at a church in Houston.  I am going to start listening to sermons on a regular basis (hopefully one a week at least), because they are really uplifting and I learn a lot, too.  I realized this morning how much I have been missing just being able to sit and be fed the Word.  I even fought against the urge to do something while listening to it, because I needed to allow myself to just rest in Him for 30-45 minutes like I would if I was sitting in a pew hearing it live.

One of the lessons I listened to was on parenting.  Here are a few of the things I gleaned that boosted my day:

1. I am a better Mom when I spend time everyday with God.

2. My kids need to see me put that time with God at the top of my priority list.

3. Our top goal in parenting is to raise kids who love the Lord and hate sin.

The enemy is hard at work over here to destroy our spirit and keep us down!  Please pray for God’s Light to shine bright in our dark areas of weakness, struggle, and hardship so that as His word says, “everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light” (Eph. 5: 13).

Only God can turn what was once dark into a light that reflects His glory.

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Derek is 2 and July 4th in Peru!

Posted by Stacy on July 6th, 2010 @ 11:36 pm under Everything Derek, Life and Culture, Parenting, Peru, The Newest News

Derek turned 2 on Saturday and we had a great celebration with friends here!  Along with his birthday we celebrated July 4th and tried to make it feel like summer as much as possible.  Derek woke up pretty unhappy from his nap and cried the first hour or so of the party and wouldn’t stop crying unless I was holding him.

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UNTIL…he got to eat some cupcakes and open his presents!  Then he decided this whole party thing was worth it and perked up like normal.  Thanks to all of our friends here that made his jungle birthday special!  He loves every single one of his new toys (and so does Jake).

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***Sorry for the lesser quality photos in this post.  Wes’ camera wasn’t working right and then mine wasn’t either until the last minute.  Thanks again, JM for taking pictures for us.  You did a great job with our little point and shoot camera that finally started to work.

The lion CupCake and monkey cupcakes, too.  (I did eventually find that food coloring since Jake’s party.)

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Jake helped me with the monkeys.  He insisted that one of them have arms.

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Wes made a monkey to play pin the tail on the monkey, but then we ran out of time and forgot to play.

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Family from Texas at the party via skype.

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After cupcakes and presents we all paraded over to the park to kick off our 4th of July celebration with our first annual Home Run Derby!  Pretty sure that was the first home run derby that park has seen.

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We all had a blast and can’t wait to play again next year.  Although Wes wants to play everyday and I’m sure would take anybody up on it who’s willing.  After the derby Wes grilled burgers for us.  And thanks to our teammate Stephanie, we had 2 half gallon tubs of Blue Bell ice cream for us all (that she scored from the Embassy)!

How could it be a complete 4th of July celebration without fireworks??  We didn’t think it would be too hard to find them.  They were homemade and a little sketchy (as in when Wes went to buy them the guy said wait here, and came back with bundles in his and hand and starting wrapping them up in masking tape–NO JOKE).  So, Wes took them to the roof to set them off instead of our backyard where they might have taken out a kid or two.  All was well and they were LOUD.  Our neighbors thought so too, since they called the police and Wes had to have a little visit with them.  REALLY??!  This is Peru, remember??!  All in all it was totally worth it.  Even though one of the last ones went off in our neighbors yard.  It’s probably a good thing we are moving in a couple of months.  :)

Click here for more pics from the party.  And for pictures of the fireworks check out the Fletcher’s blog, because Stephanie got some good ones.

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Father’s Day

Posted by Stacy on June 21st, 2010 @ 11:36 pm under Everything Derek, Everything Jakob, Life and Culture, Parenting, The Newest News

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I’m glad that Peru has a lot of the same nationally recognized holidays as you do in the States.  Mother’s Day and Father’s Day being the most recent ones.  We had a great Father’s Day weekend and even started celebrating how great of a Daddy we have around here a little early.  Like last Thursday.  I asked Jake what he wanted to make Daddy for Father’s Day.  He said, “A paper tree.”  Okaaay.  I’m thinking, How am I going to either get around this one or figure out how to make this doable?  Well, we found an idea in a craft book (borrowed from Alison just in time) and we made it happen.  We made a paper palm tree!  Daddy loves palm trees.  I think they are his favorite kind of tree.  For the trunk we used a Pringles can, and for the palm leaves we traced Jake and Derek’s hands on green paper and cut them out.  Inside the trunk/can we put candy, because Daddy loves candy.  Jakob helped write a note for him and he signed his name!  He’s so big, it’s hard to believe he can already write his name!  And Derek left his mark, too.  :)

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Jake LOVES to make things and had so much fun with this project that he couldn’t hold it in.  So Daddy got his present on Thursday before the big day.  We love you, Daddy!

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Yesterday we went out to eat for our Father’s Day lunch.  Mark went with us and we had a good time and ate some amazingly yummy food at Benihana.  Yes, there is one here and we are very thankful!

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