Abby Birthday

If you haven't already guessed, September has been a busy month already, and with birthdays coming up there is no calm on the horizon!  I am learning to embrace the chaos.  It's been a slow realization that I don't want to live my life searching for a "peace" that comes from having nothing to do.  There is a certain amount of healthy tension that comes from having a busy schedule and limited resources.  It's helping me to rely on God, and not sweat the small stuff!

The kind of peace I am searching for is one that I have experienced at the craziest and hardest times of my life.  It's not circumstantial, it's spiritual.  I'm asking God to give me that inner peace on a daily basis, that helps me look for the joy in trials and the lessons in failing. 

One place is great for bringing about tension and that's the beach!  That is where we were last weekend for Abby's birthday party.  The kids were looking forward to it for weeks, especially as we don't get to see her family often.  The kids had so much fun when they came to visit us on vacation at the beach in July.

The weather forecast was volatile, but sun won out, with a healthy measure of strong winds (which claimed the life of our awesome tent!)

The kids had fun, and I got to relax while Scott was the perfect Dad, helping [all] the kids build stuff in the sand!

We got to fly kites for the first time, and they even brought a Doc McStuffins cake to the beach!!

After all of that, we had some dinner with Abby's family before heading home.

Real People, Real Miracles

This is an extract from the blog of one of the missionary families Scott worked with in Ecuador.  I encourage you to visit the link at the bottom to hear how this incredible, true story ended...

The Machete Incident - Pt. I

The Monday morning of September 19th started out fairly normal except for the fact that it was our first day of doing homeschool with Sophia & Zak. If you told me I’d be in the “dog house” by nightfall, I’d be the first to say, “yah, I probably deserve that”! But a night in jail? – that was definitely not on my radar! Here’s how it all unfolded: 

After visiting our local clinic, a young Shuar man knocked on our gate hoping I could help he and his wife get back to their village, Untunkus Norte. She had given birth two weeks prior and was not ready for the two hour trek up hill. For $5, a taxi truck can make it in about 20 minutes, so I called for one, we piled in and I put my bike in the back for the downhill ride home. It was a perfect opportunity to visit with several families who live there, most of them are related to Pastor Eduardo who is an integral part of our ministry team. I enjoyed playing with the kids, checked on Camilo’s new baby boy, shucked some of Umberto’s corn, then had a delicious lunch of cow intestines, corn & yucca prepared by Umberto’s wife, Georgina. We said goodbye then I headed home down the mountain with one short side visit to a neighboring village, San Jose Sur, to pray with a family whose father had just died.

Between the two villages, I rode up on a teenage boy who took one look at me and started running. I didn’t get to say anything to him since he ran off so abruptly. I arrived at Carmela’s house a few minutes later and we had a great 30 minute visit as they shared stories of their father. As I chugged along the beautiful mountain road towards home, I was grinning ear to ear with joy, overwhelmed that I get to be here doing what I’m doing. This peace helped prepare me for what was waiting for me just over the next knoll.

A group of about 20 people gathered in the road/path about 50 yards ahead, machetes are normal to see here, but this time was different. As I approached, it quickly became obvious that I was the subject of their interest. At first I thought they were just upset that I was in Shuar territory so I quickly explained that I was there by invitation of several Shuar who they also knew. That did not matter as it became apparent that a deeper issue was at hand. The teen age boy had run home telling his mother that I had threatened to cut off his head and that I had offered money for heads. This is a line often used to stir up trouble in the jungle because it plays on their long history of fear, superstition, and murderous ways. The boy also had mental issues and I’m sure the adults put him up to much of it. They forced him to stand face to face with me and retell his story. When I heard the phrase, “this Gringo tried to cut my head off”, I knew there was no explaining my way out of it, they were bent on revenge. The boy’s mother was completely wild in my face screaming, “cut off his head, cut off his ears, cut this gringo”! They wanted to see my sword or knife.  Miracle #1 – I always carry a knife but did not this day. I called Ashley on my cell, which happened to have signal (Wouldn’t that make for a great commercial?!) I told her that some people were upset with me and that I needed to get a number of a Shuar pastor who could explain to them who I was. While she was giving me the number someone grabbed the phone as the situation intensified. I never saw the phone again.

Visit richardsonmission.com for the rest of the story.

Stay at home, Mom

Just in case you were interested, I thought I'd let you know what the kids and I got up to while Scott was away!

When Scott was preparing for Ecuador I was not worried about his leaving (love insurance!!) - I was worried about my staying!  He left early Friday morning, and that day we took it easy, went to see The Lorax at church in the evening.  Love family movie night!  But Emma napped and on Friday night, Emma refused to sleep until very late.  

Saturday we had a birthday party at church which lead to no nap and early bedtime!  (Unfortunately that meant Toby was "up" in the night for 3 hours  After letting him watch tv in my room until 5am I put him back in his bed.)

So Sunday, I was a mess and I was doing my very best not to lose my mind!  Thankfully some friends asked us over for dinner, so I was not stuck at home with the kids and nothing much to do. On Sunday afternoon we headed over to Nate's house, and Scott's cousin brought Lainey and Paige for a mega playdate...

Toby is all about the guitar and listening to Garrett, Nate's dad play...

While the girls did their own thing on the giant beanbag...

 Monday I worked.  It was nice to be independent for a few hours, but I knew it would not be fun after being a single parent all week, so I had taken the rest of the week off work!

Tuesday Emma had an audiology test and a pulmonary follow-up.  Her hearing is perfect - the tubes are working!!

In pulmonary the kids got the better of the student doctor and she handed over her stethescope - rookie!

Emma's pulmonologist almost came to tears when he came in and saw (well, heard) how well Emma is doing, especially speech.  He remembered our little blob in the NICU and was speechless, except to tell me there is no reason for him to see her again!  I was quite choked up - it's like saying goodbye to a friend - and crutch!!  

It was great that Scott had free wifi in his hotel down in Ecuador, so I could send him pictures of the kids during the week and keep in touch.

He did call most days, from a payphone or his mobile - there's no escaping technology!  There's no question the kids missed him, and when he would send them a video message, they would watch it over and over.  However, often when he called, they were playing and they either couldn't be bothered to speak to him or just for a moment.  Emma is notorious now for ending a call with "I'm gonna let you go now!"

On Tuesday evening I got the kids to bed early and a couple of my friends came over for the evening.  We watched TV and ate junk food - AWESOME!!

On the days I would normally work, Scott's parents took the kids as normal, allowing me time to run errands, or in this case, head to the Thompson's pool for a swim!!

On the Wednesday night, Scott's cousin, Bevin brought Lainey and Paige over for a sleepover.  The plan: Let the kids play and sleep while we hang out and indulge our Pinterest habit online.  We even made sure everyone could sleep in Emma's room:

The reality was much different! After running ragged, the kids (mainly Toby and Paige, the youngest) refused to sleep and my kids ended up in my bed (where they slept every night thereafter) and Bevin stayed with her girls in Emma's room. 

On Thursday we went to the indoor playground for one of their friends birthdays, and they had a lot of fun...

And then Chick Fil A for lunch!

I was really very nervous about this week, because I know that I find it difficult to sleep when Scott's not here.  Much of that is the safety issue, and we made a decision ahead of time to get a security system installed - for long-term, not just this week!

However, it seems to do deeper than that. I really don't like to be alone, which is odd because for a long time I lived alone and was very independent.  When I started to think about how I handeled that, I realized I had a lot of coping mechanisms.

One thing I still do all the time, is have the TV on.  I like the noise level and distraction it provides.  Music doesn't offer the same thing because there is no visual.

I find myself quite sad, so I look for things to make me happy.  Some people use drugs or alcohol, and I'm not about to go there.  Instead I shop andif I'm home and the kids are in bed there's the internet. Scott did tell me to do whatever I needed to to survive!!

Seriously though, when we're all in bed, every noise or movement drives me crazy.  In the end, it was for my sanity that we resorted to this...

Scott got home the following Saturday evening, with a shirt for Toby, pan pipes and a wooden knife!  (Yes, I took the knife and Toby can have it back when he's older!)

Emma also got pan pipes, and a new dress (not pictured!)

I probably would have discouraged the wind instrument for Emma, if I hadn't already made the mistake of bringing whistles home for both the kids recently.  At first it was apprent Emma would not be able to make it work.  But she was determined and so I showed her how to do it...

Despite the lack of sleep and missing Scott, the week was good for me and the kids.  It was great to be off work again, and there was so much to do that we did not get bored or spend too much time in front of the TV.    And who wouldn't have a great time with these little monkeys...

First Day of School

It is Emma's first day back at school today.  This year she is in pre-Kindergarten, where she will turn 5.  In our school district you have to already be 5 to join Kindergarten, so she will start proper school next September.  This year she has three half days, Kindergarten will be 5 half days.

Emma loves learning, and school of any kind is a favorite of hers.  Today though I really debated whether she should go.  The kids and I got up at 9am - late, but they didn't go to bed until 10pm!  It was much later than I planned, but they were both behaving when we ran errands after work, and then I said we'd get dinner at Chick-Fil-A (Scott was doing sidework, and we haven't been grocery shopping, so there was little choice!).

When we got there, a lady was doing free face/hand painting.  Although it was almost 8pm and her time to clock off, she agreed to do Emma.  

While Toby and I ate we could hear the laughter from the painting table.  Emma was on rare form (which is not so rare for her!) and when the lady was done she looked over to me and said "She has such a wonderful personality."  I just smiled and nodded!  Emma was thrilled...

It was gone 8 and Toby had accepted he wouldn't get a turn, but she offered to paint him too.  Unfortunately she could not do dinosaurs, so he went with a baseball!  He did really well and sat very still, surprisingly since he'd been bouncing around our booth!

By the time I got them home and ready for bed it was 10pm!  So I let them sleep in today so Emma would have energy for school.  However, not long after she dragged me out of bed, she was complaining about her neck hurting.  Not surprising when she was laying on her belly, chin propped up to watch TV.  

She was a little lethargic and didn't eat her breakfast waffle, the latter a red flag!  I took her temp, which wasn't bad, but resolved to keep an eye on it.  About an hour before school I gave her ibuprofen.  When I took her temp it was up again, but she was adamant about going to school, crying when I said she'd better not.

Any other day I would not hesistate to keep her home.  But it's the first day!  There are new girls in her class, and Christina's son Aaron is going to.  I so want Emma to make friends this year, with fewer kids that knew each other previously,  So I made the [potentially bad] decision of sending her.  I don't think she's really sick.

Once I said she needed to get dressed and eat her sandwich if she wanted to go she complied, and seemed to perk up a lot.  

I'm nervous about this year.  I discussed it with the teacher, and I'm going to go in and talk to her class about Moebius.  They are doing a section on "God made you" in the fall, which is the perfect time, and I will use lots of scripture about how God made each one of us special.  I think it's a good idea, kids are starting to point out strange things.

Two examples:

At Target last night, a young woman in the checkout line behind us had pink hair.  Emma looks at me and says "Mom, look, that girl has pink hair.  It looks kinda different!"  "Yes she does" I said, "Not wrong, just different."

This is what we've been stressing with the kids - different is not necessarily wrong.  And weird is a bad word - we say "different".

The second example happened when I took Emma to school.  There are 3 new girls in her class and I encouraged her to introduce herself to them as we waited outside to go in.  One little girl, called Abby, has a brown mole about the size of a penny on the side of her nose.  After taking her hand to lead her inside, Emma says "What's that on her face?"  

"It's a mark," I said "remember everyone's face is different."  Abby's mom just smiled and shrugged it off saying that kids point stuff out at this age.  I let her know that Emma has Moebius, but only seems to notice how other people are different!

Once everyone got inside, all kids were equals, sitting down and playing play-doh...

Emma and Aaron

School for Emma is more about the social interaction than academics at this point.  But we are trying to meet her thirst for knowledge outside school too, and signed up on ABCMouse.com...

She's learning how to use a computer and other lessons at her level, while she thinks she's playing games. 

And poor Toby, he so wants to go to school with Emma, but he's not starting until next September!

Fun on a Sun[day]

This weekend was flipped!  Saturday Scott had to work, but Monday was a holiday.  Usually church is the last day of the weekend - and means an early start and busy day.  So it was really nice to have Monday to chill.

We spent most of Sunday afternoon over at our friends, Garrett and Ruth's house.  (Garrett is PB's son and Nate's dad - you know, Nate the little boy who gets his picture with Emma every Easter?  Keep up!!)

Anyway, the kids (including Nate's cousins) had a blast...


Emma singing one of her VBS songs:


Scott entertaining the kids:


Toby jamming with Garrett:


Emma also surprised me Sunday with quite the feat:

Ecuador

It was with a mixture of fatigue and sadness that we said goodbye to Scott at 5am on a recent Friday morning.  He was off to Ecuador.

I say we, referring to me and Emma.  Toby, who was in bed with the rest of us refused to wake-up.  Literally - I shook him and said "Do you want to say goodbye to Daddy?" to which he responded "No."

It's always tough to say goodbye to someone you love, especially when they're the one going on the adventure!!  We are so thankful that we received enough financial support to cover his trip, and God provided enough overtime to cover the other costs

Scott drove with 7 others to Newark airport, for a flight to Houston, on to Panama, and then to Ecuador around 11.30pm that night.  

The next morning the team drove 8 hours to Sucua. 

They took a stop off on the way...

 

 

They got to Sucua, and were staying in a modest hotel, and the task at hand was to put a roof on the new addition for the Hope House, accomodation for 6 more girls.

This is the how it looked when they started:

 The team will gladly tell you that Scott was crucial in this work.  They first laid tongue and groove wood on the beams, for the ceiling.  Added plywood on top, to be covered by metal...

The missionaries had 5 days scheduled for the work - but they knew not who they were dealing with!!  The guys had it done in two days, and the rest of the metal they needed was not delivered in time!

Not to worry, they found some other projects, including Scott using the tiling skills he developed in Africa...

The team also helped daily with a vacation bible school in a local village...

And of course, there were some giant bugs...

Here's the team from the church, including Pastor Bob (front left).  It's truly great to have such an inspiring leader.  PB will always be the first person to volunteer and get his hands dirty, because his heart is to serve. 

On their way back to the capital and the flight home, they stopped off and saw an active volcano...

...and Scott "high-fived" baby Jesus!

Scott came home a new man.  He has new energy for serving God and reaching people who have not yet understood God's gift of forgiveness and new life.

He has shared many of the missionaries stories.  For example, the Hope House was born when a local woman brought her 8 year old daughter to the missionaries home unexpectedly, with the news that they could either take her in or she would be sold at the market.  Another girl came to them with nothing after her father made it clear she was to have sex with him and her brother or leave.

It's so easy to dimiss these kinds of stories as things that happen in uncivilized countries, but you'd have to live in a cave to not realize this is happening everywhere.  If you see a young girl in a nail salon during school hours, chances are she's not there by choice.

Yes, I wish there was something I could do for the millions of people living like this worldwide.  Maybe I can do a little.  I am recommitting my life (time, energy, money) to spreading the gospel, even right here in my suburban town.

As much as it would be nice to change people's circumstances, that's often not possible.  And at the root of the gospel, it may not be the most important thing.  This life is short, and we are not going to experience "heaven" on earth.  Instead our purpose on earth is to prepare for eternity.

We all have our cross to bear on earth, whether it's physical, relational, financial or emotional.  The question is how will we respond to it, and how will we respond to God's offer of a hope and future, with Him, in Heaven...

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:4

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Revelation 22: 1-5 

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Phillipians 3: 20-21

 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6 

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:12