Patience

I have been thinking a lot about being patient lately. Why? Well, in reflecting back on what life was like in the States and then having lived here a year, I’ve realized that I have gained a new view of time and being patient. Does that make it easier? Not all the time, but it has helped! So I wanted to share with you ways from which I have learned (and am still learning) patience. (I’m kind of curious to see how long of a list it is….. 😉 ).

It takes patience….

1. To do laundry.
We do not have a dryer and therefore rely on the sun to dry all of our clothes. So you can’t do laundry if it looks like rain or is raining or if it’s too late for the sun to dry the clothes (say, after 2pm). Or sometimes you have to wait because the line is full with yours (and other friends’) clothes that won’t be dry before that 2pm mark. Another scenario that happens is that you hang up all the clothes and then it rains before you even notice it looks like rain! You gotta run out, grab everything off the line and wait for the next day. (Or sometimes, I just leave it on the line overnight… but then you run the risk of clothes thieves…) It also takes patience to hang up all that laundry and then take it all down again. I’ve used that time as a prayer time because it’s not just a 10 minute job.
2. To cook or bake.
I’ve thought about how I used Minute Rice in the States and thinking about cooking REAL rice seemed like it took FOREVER! 🙂 I laugh at that now. Cooking the rice here is often the quickest part of making the meal. I think, “Oh, it will only take a half hour, no worries!” 🙂 Ha ha ha. You also have to make a lot of things from scratch because either you can’t find them in the store, or they are too expensive. A good example of this is making granola. It usually takes me two to three days to make granola. First, you have to get a coconut, get it open and all the meat cut out, shredded and then dried in an oven that won’t stay on lower than 150 degrees Celsius (or 300 degrees Fahrenheit). You gotta prop the door open with a wooden spoon, but only during nap time so that Micah doesn’t play with it. So that takes a day. Then you have to bake the peanuts the same way as the coconut because you can’t find unsalted peanuts in the store… only raw. After you bake the peanuts, you have to take off that reddish, papery whatever it’s called covering the raw peanut. That can take up to an hour. Then you are ready to make it! 🙂 Whew! But it does taste delicious!
3. To go to a ‘fast food’ restaurant.
Are you thinking of McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendys or the like? The only way you’ll get one of those (well, your choice of Burger King, KFC, and Wendys) is if you go to a larger city, which is about an hour away or more. So we choose the local ones. ‘Fast food’ here means waiting an average of 15 minutes. Ya mon! That’s fast!
4. To shop.
There is no Wal-Mart or the like anywhere close to where we live. To do all of our shopping, we usually have to end up going to a minimum of 6 different places. That does not include looking for items for the house, clothes, bus, Rodney’s projects, or gas.
5. To find a working and usable toilet.
If you are in town, you can usually find a decent one close… but not necessarily clean. Often times they are so dirty, have no toilet seat, or not working that I have taught Maya to squat to pee out of necessity. And if you’re traveling anywhere, you can’t count on a toilet being anywhere near, so you just have to use the side of the road.
6. To start a meeting, party… really any sort of gathering.
And that pretty much speaks for itself. Rarely does anything start at the time that you say it will start. Sometimes, it won’t start until 2 hours after the start time!!!
7. To post a blog, pictures, download anything, or use the internet period.
The internet is not reliable at all. I’ve tried to upload videos to facebook and it says it will take 30+ hours. There has never been a time that the internet stays on for that long. It’s forever going in and out. We’ve found that if you call the company, though, sometimes that makes it work. We have that number memorized now.
8. To use our computer!
🙂 Often times there are other people needing to use the computer, whether it be for homework, to check email, skype with friends, etc. So often times we have to wait until late evening/night to even get on our computer. And then will the internet work?
9. To foster two boys with behavior problems.
We are foster parents for two boys from Maranatha who are orphaned and have no place to go. They are in the process of being adopted, but until then, we are their foster parents. Maya and Micah are picking up on the behaviors that they see the boys exhibit which can be even more frustrating. But, Praise the Lord, we are seeing improvements in the boys’ behaviors! That can only be the hand of God working!!!
10. To see things implemented.
Just like meetings or gatherings never start on time, things don’t often happen on time. It’s hard to get projects accomplished on time; it’s hard to get people to do what they say they will do, when they say they will do it by. (Did you understand all that? 🙂 )
11.To get packages or mail.
We LOVE packages and mail (that’s not bills). It is very exciting to get them because they are few and far between…. far between because it can take 2 or more months to get mail. So when someone tells us they sent a package and to keep an eye out for it… we don’t start looking for it until a month and a half or so. Sometimes we’re surprised, though, and it will show up after 2 or 3 weeks. And sometimes, people don’t tell us and we are so surprised to find a letter for us! We are so blessed by those. Thank you, for those who have done that for us!!!

So that’s the list. At least the list I can think of now. I’m sure that I’m missing some things… maybe I should add patience for a mind that forgets… ;). Blessings to you on this beautiful day!

Ms. Wece

Ms. Wece (pronounced Weezy) was a woman in the community who went to our church, was an amazing cook, and a good friend to many. She is the one whose fried chicken got Maya to start eating meat! I got to know her better through cooking with her for our physical therapist friends’ Stroke Camp. (It’s when a team of physio-therapists and graduate students come down for a week to do intensive work with stroke vicitims.) Ms. Wece was a spunky woman who could be hard to understand when she got going in her stories. 🙂 We loved Ms. Wece. She had been starting to have severe pain in her abdomen in November. The doctors never told her what was wrong and just gave her some medication to take. It ends up she had cancer. She had become a Christian and wanted to be baptized, so one Sunday morning in February, a large group headed over to her house to participate and celebrate in her baptism! It was pretty obvious that she was sick by how maga (thin) she was. But she was sitting up, and looking more energetic than we had seen her in a long time. The time started with singing songs while we waited for everyone to be ready.

From left to right: Ms. Wece, Toots, and Brooke

Ms. Wece then moved outside to the porch to be baptized. After confirming her desire to be baptized and answering all the questions, the pastor started to pray. During the prayer, there was some commotion. When I opened my eyes, Ms. Wece looked like she had passed out with her eyes open. People were trying to revive her by putting rubbing alcohol up to her nose, but it didn’t work. All of a sudden, she went totally limp and her eyes closed. Her husband was called and he whisked her into her bedroom, lying her down on her bed and trying to get her warm. It was pretty scary to watch. I think the thought going through most of our minds was, “Is it happening right now?!” Her daughter got her some medicine and it wasn’t long after that she revived again. So we did her baptism in her bed, because that’s what she wanted to do.

Afterwards, she was praising the Lord, and testifying how God has been so good to her. It was powerful to see her passion and fire when she was so sick and weak.

After we took communion, she asked me to sing a song for her, so I sang the only thing that came to mind: It’s all about you, Jesus.
We all were crying by the end. Ms. Wece was there, with her eyes closed, her face lifted to the ceiling looking so peaceful; I don’t think it was my singing that she was focused on. I think she was praising God and seeing His angels or His glory.

Four weeks after she was baptized, she passed away. During those last four weeks, she was very confidant in speaking about her faith and her Lord. We are praising God that she is with Him in heaven and that we will get to see her again someday!

Two weeks after Ms. Wece passed, we had a funeral. It’s very typical to wait that long here in Jamaica we’ve been told. Something with having to get the body ready, having to get all the paperwork complete… it can take a while. In the days leading up to her funeral, there was a candle lighting march and then a set up. The candle lighting march started at Ms. Wece’s home, led by her family. We marched up to the church, sang some songs, listened to some of her daughters wail loudly, with full inhibition, and then everyone turned around and marched back down. We didn’t even enter the church. That was the first time I thought, “Wow! We really don’t see such inhibition in mourning in the states at things like these. We see the grieving, but not so emphatically. At least not from my experience in the States!” That was the first of quite a few times that I thought something along those lines. It is culturally acceptable to wail loudly at these type of events.

The next event was the set-up. Set-ups happen the night before the funeral. They usually start around 10pm with LOUD music, dancing, food, drinks, and hanging out. It’s basically a party that lasts until dawn breaks, with random wailings.  You will see people walk away from the dancing, hanging onto someone else as they are sobbing, and wailing. It’s a jolt back to reality that, oh, we are here because a friend of ours has passed away. It was such a strange mix for me… this party/night club scene with Christian music and mourning. I’ve been told that it is to keep evil spirits away. I did not stay until daybreak. I left just as the party was getting started because I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle a full day of church, kids, funeral, etc. on no sleep.

The funeral only lasted for about two hours, but the church was absolutely PACKED. People were standing in the aisles, in the doorways, and there were probably as many people outside as inside. It was incredible. I was asked to sing so I was able to be inside, standing at my keyboard the whole time. I was thankful I wasn’t wearing heels! At one point, during a song, one of the daughters got up, stomped up to the casket (which was closed) and started wailing, yelling, sobbing, draping herself on the casket, hitting the casket, and flailing her arms and legs. It was shocking. I looked around to see other people’s reactions and it didn’t seem to faze anyone else. After a while, some women came up and gathered around the daughter and were able to usher her outside. Another daughter fainted twice, which caused quite a commotion, but the songs and tributes just kept on like nothing was happening. If I had been singing then, I think I would have stopped just because of not knowing WHAT to do.

After the funeral, most everyone made their way to Ms. Wece’s home where the family has a private cemetery. The casket was lowered into the ground, the pastor said his comments, and then there was singing. All the while, there were men mixing cement, getting ready to pour it over  the grave while everyone is there.

Quite a few people got sprayed by the cement, but I think Rodney got the worst of it.

It’s been strange for me at both Jamaican funerals I’ve attended, to see them cover the casket with cement while everyone is still there. I can’t really put it into more words than that. It’s just been strange. People were standing all over the other graves, too, which didn’t seem to matter.

It was just an interesting experience, all around.

Now, I will apologize to those of you who find my pictures from the graveside strange or offensive. My friend said it’s strange to take pictures at funerals. I’ve never not seen people taking pictures at funerals or gravesides! So if you don’t like them, I guess you can just try to skip over them and ignore them. 🙂 Maybe I should have said that at the beginning….

Drunk Driver

It’s a big, long story (of course, Rodney would say that all my stories are that way) that I thought deemed a spot on the blog. Why? Because I think it shows God’ protection. Maybe that should be our theme down here: God’s faithful protection.
Anyway, let me move on.

It all started on May 17th. We had traded our bus with our friends’ bus because I was going to be driving 12 women to Ochio Rios for a women’s church convention the coming Saturday. Their bus holds more and they were leaving for the rest of the weekend, so we switched! It just so happens, though, that the only seat belts in the bus are in the front seats. That’s pretty typical here. Micah had to go get some immunizations in Junction and since I am not a fan of the pediatrician there, I let Rodney take him. As I went to put Micah in his car seat, I found that it was in the FRONT seat! I told Rodney, “This is not safe!!! We need to move him to the back!” “How, Eve?! There aren’t seat belts back there.” Shoot. I looked for airbags and found there weren’t any, but still. I didn’t like it. What if they got in an accident?!?! So I started praying and told God, “God, I’m giving them to you to keep safe because that’s all I can do! And please help me not to worry.” So they left, and I didn’t worry.
About 6:30, as I was finishing up supper and starting to wonder where Rodney and Micah were, I got a call. Dun dun dun.
No. It wasn’t from the police (I wonder if they would call here if your husband is seriously injured in an accident. I don’t want to find out….). It was Rodney. “Eve, go get Mr. Forrester and tell him to bring you down towards Junction. I got hit. Micah’s fine.” WHAT?!?!?!? ” Are YOU fine?!” “Oh… yeah!” So I turned off the burners on the stove, got Maya ready with some food, asked our friend Kevon to stay at the house because I didn’t have keys to get back in, and ran down to ask Mr. Forrester to take us down…. somewhere on the way to Junction.
It was pretty easy to spot him. The police were already there with their lights flashing and the bus was pulled off on the side. At first glance, it looked like nothing was wrong! We hung out there, waiting for Rodney to be done with being interviewed by the police, waiting for him to move the bus and change the tire, waiting for everyone to assess the damage. It wasn’t until later until I heard the full story.
Rodney was driving back home (remember, left side) and was coming up a hill. There was a big semi-truck coming towards him and an SUV behind the truck, driving in the middle of the road. Now, that’s not at all abnormal. In actuality, it’s abnormal to NOT have a car coming at you in the middle of the road, or on your side, but they always weave back into their lane right before they reach you (or you reach them- however you want to look at it). This one, though, did not. As Rodney realized what was happening, he tried to get the bus over even more, but it was too late. The other car’s mirror hit Rodney’s, scraped down his arm that was being pulled in the window, and the body of the SUV continued to scrape down the rest of the bus, ending with bending the rear tire rim backwards. As Rodney tells it, they were an inch and a half away from being in a head on collision. Aie. It turns out that the guy couldn’t walk a straight line. They all went to the police station and they both did a breathalizer test. Rodney scored 0. The other dude scored 46 when the legal limit is 35. And I guess he didn’t even blow in it right. But the guy refuses to say it was his fault or that he was drinking. So it has to go to court. We are thankful that the police are supporting Rodney, although they weren’t until Mr. Forrester got there. I guess the other guys was trying to give ’em a little extra, extra, if you know what I mean.

So, that’s the story. Micah came away unscathed and Rodney was just a bit scraped on the forearm. We are praising God for His protective angels, yet again! They were also with me on the trip to Ochio Rios. That’s when the differential oil started leaking onto the back tire and brake pad… and I had to drive 8+ hours! We are thankful that on those mountain-y, windy roads that everything worked right, the axle didn’t freeze up, and the brakes didn’t slip! Yep, yep. Pretty thankful.

Sounds of Life

‘OJAY!!!! OJAY!!!!OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!”
“Me a-come!!!!”

This is often heard while I am hanging up clothes at my house. Venise calls to her son from her house in the commmunity which is a good distance away. I don’t know how many times I have hung up my laundry, hearing all the sounds of life happening: the cows mooing, the goats maaa-ing, people hollering to each other, birds happily chirping, dogs barking, cars with speakers perched on their roofs sending the deafening ‘town cry’, and I think, ‘This is absolutely wonderful (even if it does wake up my child….).’

This is a comunity that is not self-absorbed, self-enclosed, self-dependent. This community is made of people who are actively involved in each others lives; one where you know who lives in every single house, the shortcuts to get to the houses, and that if you take fruit from a tree on a person’s property, it’s no problem. It’s a community where it is rare to NOT have people drop by at any hour of the day. It’s a community where people usually share readily from their crops, where money isn’t always used to pay someone for something, where you can just sit on the porch with someone and enjoy the day, whether you have a whole heap to say or not. I love it.

Now on a side note, I have to say, there’s something incredibly freeing about being able to holler at the top of your lungs to someone who is a ways away and it be totally appropriate! Finally! I have found a purpose for this loud voice God has blessed me with! 🙂  

I have already told Rodney, “Whenever we end up going back, I know that I will really miss this. I will miss being able to holler to people who are far away. I will miss having people come to my house without asking first (but not coming in the house looking for me if I don’t answer the door or the call…. 😉 ). I will miss having friends for dinner for the majority of the nights in a week. I will miss hearing all these sounds of Jamaican life.” I’m not dwelling on knowing that I will miss it, though. I’m just thoroughly enjoying it while I live in it! 🙂
And that’s all I have to say about that.

Taking Advantage

I’ve decided to take advantage of the wonderful wireless internet that is so quick at the hotel while we await our dear friend Abby to reach! 🙂 Yay for hotel internet!!! 🙂 Anyway, I thought since I have some time and since the internet is so quick, I would upload some pics for your viewing pleasure! 🙂

Micah enjoys hanging out with Shasta, our dog. ‘Shasta’ was one of his first words, along with ‘dog’. And she’s just yawning in this picture. Really.

Maya and Micah enjoy helping washing the bus and the dorm students LOVE to wash it whenever we let them! I say, “Yah mon!”

Micah’s first haircut. 🙂 Ha ha ha ha. He was a little wiggle worm! But we figured out once he sat on my lap, he sat nice and still! Hopefully that works next time too.

Maya decided to help me make her a skirt by cutting. I had just told her she could cut her paper and that was it and if she wanted to cut something, she needed to ask first. I looked up a few minutes later and saw this. She said, “But Mama! I had to help cut for my skirt!” (Rodney’s in the background giving Micah some lovin’.)

Chapel every morning. Micah’s new favorite thing is to run up to the front and wave his arms. Maya stands in the front row with the younger girls.

At Jamaica Mennonite Conference. And yes, that is Galen you see up front! 🙂 I was so energized by the worship!

Some of the Maranatha students during the lunch break. They signed the song, “Lifesong” by Casting Crowns during the morning service. Maya stood next to me as I led and danced and signed the whole time. There were many comments afterwards about her! 🙂

Maya found playmates and they loved dancing together during the worship of the afternoon service.

After a rain, the ridiculous amount of ants and bugs I swept up. And this was from only half of the room!

I love this picture of M&M. We were at a friend’s beach house and they were playing with the tub. We are blessed that they play this well together most of the time… even when Micah’s tackling Maya! 🙂

At da beach… and Micah doing his thing: climbing on anything that is higher than ground level. I realize that there aren’t many pics of Maya. She’s going through an anti-picture taking phase right now. (Reminds me of one of my brothers when we were younger… 😉 )

Here’s one, although blurry! She LOVES to help Papa with the chickens. These are the chicks he got for broilers and Maya loves to visit them and take care of them.

Last but not least, this is the Pelican Bar. You can only get to it by boat because it’s out in the middle of the water. They have a little souvenir shop and you can get drinks. It’s on a sandbar, so you can get down and swim too. We have gotten to go a few times with our friends Brooke and Jennie when they have a team come down.

Alright. It’s time to leave. Hope you enjoyed the pics! Until next time, Shalom! (Nothing missing, nothing broken, complete)

Hospitals and the like

This month has been quite interesting with having new experiences. Micah had a HUGE lump on his neck (which I didn’t think to take a picture of) so after freaking out a bit and calling a few people, we were set up to go see a doctor at a clinic in Mandeville which is about 45 minutes away. Have I ever told you why I won’t go to see the pediatrician in Junction? No? Long story short: He called me a ‘dumb white woman’ to my face. Boo. I took it gracefully, I felt, but that doesn’t mean I want to go back and hear it again! Right?! Anyway. Back to my story.

So I didn’t realize that this clinic was a free clinic which meant a LONG time to wait in a dirty place. We were told where to go and after standing in front of a window, watching people talk to each other for about 5 minutes, someone finally came and said, “You need to go to a different window.” So we walked around a courtyard to the pediatric area and stood at that window. After a few minutes, someone asked us what we needed, gave us a piece of paper and directed us back to the first window. Alright. After waiting again for someone to pay attention, they hand wrote a file for us. They were handwriting everything down in that little office… when they weren’t chatting. But it made me think of how different things were at the pediatrician’s office before we left the States. Everything was in computers; even the doctors were bringing their little computers in to the room. We have moved to a totally different way of doing some things… anyway.

So we were then sent back to the pediatric area to wait, and wait, and then wait some more. I was glad that there were a couple of girls Maya’s age for her to play with. It’s funny that we have to go to a free clinic 45 minutes away for Maya to have age appropriate playmates! So they kept her busy for the 2.5+ hours we were sitting and waiting.
At one point, Maya had to go to the bathroom. Oh. My. Word. Rodney had left to do some errands so we wouldn’t have those to do after we were done at the clinic, so I had the two kids, my purse and the diaper bag. Not too bad sounding right? Mmmm hmmm. Well, if you would add 6 to 8 inches to each side of me, that’s how wide the stall was. With both kids, a diaper bag, and a purse. There were no hooks, the floor was SO dirty, there was no toilet seat (yes, seat… or cover or toilet paper for that matter), but! Praise the Lord! the door did reach all the way to the floor so Micah couldn’t crawl out. I keep a roll of travel toilet paper in my purse for moments like these. After holding Maya over the seat, pinning Micah against the wall with a leg so he wouldn’t play in the toilet, I thought we were on the down slope; but then Micah knocked the travel toilet paper into the toilet while I was putting Maya down and promptly tried to dive after it. My word. So Maya just had to shake it off, I had to fish the plastic TP cover out of the toilet (NASTY!!!!), and we finagled our way out the door and washed our hands with water and soap. Just kidding! The water wasn’t working! I was thanking God that I had hand sanitizer with me. I wiped both the kids down while others were watching me with strange looks. At that point, I could have cared less.

Thankfully, the rest of the wait was fairly uneventful. Anytime I have to keep Micah in one place for over an hour, it can be at least a BIT eventful. I have to say, though, that once we saw the doctor, I was very happy. She was SO good with Micah, understanding, and she listened to and answered my questions with great patience. I told Rodney it is totally worth a 45 minute drive to see her again if we need to. (Is it bad if I go to see her at her actual doctor’s office next time and not the free clinic?!) So 10 days of antibiotics got rid of Micah’s 4cm swollen lymph node and we got to experience a free clinic.

A week later, I got to experience the public hospital. A deaf friend of ours, Lavern, was have a really hard time breathing. We didn’t find out until 6 pm when we were loading up in the bus to head into town for supper. Someone came and told us she was having shortness of breath. I ran down to see what was going on, then picked something up from the pharmacy. It didn’t work. After I called one of her nurse friends, we were on the road to Mandeville again a bit before 9 pm. The emergency room door doesn’t open until the main door of the hospital shuts (except for true emergencies I think) so we walked around the front and went in. We also took Brenda, who’s very fluent in sign, because I didn’t want to screw anything up and misinterpret. So I sat in a main seating area while they went into an enclosed area. I don’t know how long I sat there until Brenda came and got me. Only one person is supposed to be with the patient, but they allowed me to go back with Lavern too. I was a bit surprised when I reached Lavern. It was a room that all the patients were in, all in different stages of being treated. Quite a few had IVs in already. Some had the IV bags on a pole, others were just holding them. Lavern was sitting doing a breathing treatment. There were no individual chairs, just long wooden benches. After glancing around the floor, I decided to stop looking too hard at it for noticing how dirty it was. There were huge signs that said “NO CELLPHONES ALLOWED,” “ONLY ONE PERSON CAN ACCOMPANY THE PATIENT” and “NO EATING” but when I looked around, most people were using their cell phones, there was definitely more than one person per patient for almost everyone, and more than half were eating food. So much for those signs! 🙂

There was one nurse walking around, helping the 25+ patients at the beginning. After watching her for a while, the word that came to mind was ‘grace’. She was so calm, patient, gentle, and helpful with everyone. Even when many people were vying for her attention, she would respond gracefully and they all listened and quieted down. She was a joy to watch. The next nurse, on the other hand, was totally opposite. I was saddened to see the first one leave and see the difference of attitude in the second one. Lavern had to do 3 breathing treatments, waiting 20 minutes between each one. After waiting over an hour for the last treatment, Brenda finally got the second nurse to come and set her up with another treatment. The nurse promptly started to scold me (why me?!) about turning the oxygen off after the treatments were finished. She couldn’t BELIEVE that I would let oxygen run like that and didn’t I know that it is expensive and here I am, just sitting and letting it run like it’s nothing. At this point, it was 1 am. I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before. I was tired. I told her that I’m sorry, but I didn’t know that I was responsible for turning the oxygen off. Well, I should have heard it running and turned it off. I decided to bite my tongue as the retort came to mind, “If it is so expensive and important to turn off, you would think someone would make sure the patients and their supporters know what their responsibilities are in turning it off!!!” Did she ever show me what to do? No. After Lavern was finished with her treatment, I walked around the wall, found some tubing, rose my voice to speak across the wall to ask if this was Lavern’s oxygen (and if it was oxygen at all), and found a nob that I started turning! My word. SO different.

Finally at 1:35 am, Lavern was called to the doctor. The doctor was sitting at the end of a long desk, had Lavern sit in a chair, listened to her chest, then gave her a prescription. It took 3 minutes with the doctor and almost 4 hours of waiting to see the doctor while doing 3 breathing treatments. Again, so different.

Also during this waiting time, people would call me over to help them. Why me? Because I was white? It wasn’t because I was close enough to help them! The room was full of people closer to them, but they singled me out and called me over. Strange. There was also a woman in street clothes, helping people. I could tell she was a nurse, but at one point she came over to me and explained that she was here with someone but saw that they were shorthanded, so she was helping out. She wanted me to know because she saw that I was observing her. Alright. I was observing everyone because that’s all there really was to do… but thanks for the explanation. Again, I thought it a bit strange.

Phew! What a long post! But I really was struck by how different things can be here this month. Just when I had been having thoughts of, “This isn’t SO different from the States!” 🙂 Maybe I’m just getting used to SOME things that I can think that. 🙂 Until next time….

There were angels hovering ’round…

Micah’s favorite thing here lately is to climb up on the step stool that Maya uses in the kitchen to ‘help’ wash dishes, knead dough, whatever. Micah has started to maneuver his way up to the top, about 18 inches off the ground, grabbing whatever he can find to help hoist himself up (sometimes that means he’s pulling on Maya’s dress, panties, hair… anything). He’s fallen off a couple of times already but, thank God, none have been from too far up. Yesterday had been the worst fall he’d taken from the stool. I don’t know if Maya elbowed him or what, but even with me standing right next to him, he spun and fell, landing on his side and side of his face. I grabbed him, got an ice pack that he promptly tried to eat then checked his eyes for a concussion. He was fine; just a little bruise on the cheek, the crying stopping as soon as he could cuddle and suck on the ice pack. (He refuses to let me put it on him where he NEEDS it to be. He just wants it in his mouth. I sometimes wonder if he will ever try to lick it and then get his tongue stuck. 🙂 )

Anyway, I’ve told Rodney we need to make sides or something for this step stool because we cannot keep Micah from it and Maya ‘has’ to have it for helping. So today, I had just finished kneading out my bread dough when Maya and Micah both climbed up on the stool. I was making sure that I stayed right next to Micah, putting my leg behind him so I could pin him in to keep him from falling if he would start. I realized I needed to go to the other end of the kitchen to grab something so I told Maya to watch Micah and to grab him if he would start to fall. I had just gotten to the other end of the kitchen when I turned around. As soon as I turned around, I saw Micah fling something across the counter and start to fall backwards off the stool. But he didn’t just fall; he kind of floated and fell at the same time. It was enough ‘floating’ that I had time to run and catch him before any part of him touched the floor.

Now you tell me. How is it that when I was standing right next to him and watching him, I couldn’t catch him, but when I was across the kitchen, at the opposite end, I could run and catch him before ANY part of him touched the ground?! I give God the credit. I think Micah had an angel with him today, who caught him as he fell and allowed me time to run and grab him. Micah should have ended up on the floor, hitting the back of his head on the hard tile floor from 18 inches off the ground. Who knows how bad it could have been. I am thanking God for his protective angels that were ‘hovering’ round and I am giving Him all the credit. Thank you, God, for watching over us and protecting us today.

Note: Micah will not be getting up on that stool again while in my care for a LONG time. So let it be said, so let it be heard, so let it be done. (You hear that little man?! That means YOU! )

My lands!

I know it’s been a ridiculously long time since I’ve posted anything on here… it gives you a glimpse of what my journals are like. 🙂 I’ve often thought about blogging and had quite a few good posts thought up in my head already, but time seems to be an issue. When those thoughts come to me, I’m always busy doing something else- usually housework, cooking, baking, something that hinders me from being able to sit down at the computer and type. If I do have (or make) the time to sit down to type, it’s usually for the monthly newsletter, an asked for article, or something else. I even thought that since I gave up Facebook for Lent, I would be able to do more blogging. Guess again! I’ve spent more time reading my Bible (which is good, please don’t get me wrong!). Rodney and I are reading through the Bible in a year and we have a certain number of chapters we are supposed to read every day but often times, the story is so intriguing that I have to read more and finish it. Sometimes it’s like reading a soap opera! My word! But going back to blogging, it seems like after the kiddos are in bed is the only time for this to get done and by that time, I’m exhausted, the internet isn’t working the greatest, and if it is, Rodney’s usually on the computer. So I just say, well, alright.

I’ve also struggled with what to use this blog exactly for. At first I felt like it needed to be a place where I reported what we were doing so people could see… we’re not just down here on vacation, using other people’s money. And I thought it needed to have lots of pictures (just in case people don’t REALLY believe 😉 ) but my view has changed. We still aren’t down here on vacation, but I’ve decided it’s just gonna be a place where I’m real with my thoughts, struggles, and joys. Maybe you’re wondering… so… was she not before? Oh yes, I was. I find it hard to be someone I’m not… especially when writing about life. I mean, Chinese toothpicks? Really? I’ll just continue being myself I guess and let some people shake their heads. 🙂

So being honest… the only reason I’m writing  a post tonight is because I’m waiting on pictures to upload so I can send them to someone who needs them by tomorrow. I really wish I was in my bed, sleeping, but the internet is working, albeit very slowly, and it needs to get done, so here I sit. When the internet works slowly like this, I realize that it gives me time to ponder and re-evaluate things. Our director’s wife told me when they were down here last, “I wondered why you are doing this (she was talking about the sewing that I’ve started to do… skirts, handbags, etc.) and I realized you need a creative outlet! So by all means, keep it up!” I hadn’t thought about it before, really. I mean, in the states, I always broke the sewing machine. I HATED to sew and could find much better use of my time. Now, I’m excited about the next project, even if it is covering oatmeal containers or making a cushion for a chair. I realized that she was right. In the states, I always used music as my creative outlet and that was mostly enough. Down here… what I do musically just isn’t enough, so I sew. And I tell you what, I haven’t broken the sewing machine yet! 🙂 Maybe I should knock on wood.

Well, before I get so tired that I’m delusional and typing nonsense (some may say I’m already there….), I will sign off. Hopefully the next post will not be so long in coming and will include pictures. There’s a lot to say but not for tonight. I’m just hoping the music that is blasting through the community and our dog’s barking will be able to keep me awake long enough to send this email. Here’s to high expectations! 🙂

Shalom-nothing missing, nothing broken, complete

Content

This will be a quick post because I need to go and make some pumpkin bread while the kiddos are asleep, but I wanted to share something with you. Last night, we took the dorm kids to Black River for a program that a church was doing there. They were to perform a song and Maranatha would receive some funds from their offering. Well the speaker, who was a visiting pastor from IN, was talking about the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and that God is calling us to make disciples of all nations. Anyways, at the end he asked us if we are truly where God wants us to be. He asked us to seek God’s calling for our own lives. And I tell you what. For the first time when someone has talked about going overseas as a missionary…. for the first time, I felt content in my spirit with where I was. I didn’t feel a pulling to go somewhere else. I didn’t feel a yearning to be overseas, doing what God had for me. For the first time, I was actually here, feeling content that we are walking in God’s will. Now, please don’t get me wrong. I know that God doesn’t call everyone to leave and go overseas. That’s not the point of what I’m saying. I’m not trying to compare myself to anyone else. I’m not trying to say that when I was in the States, I was out of God’s will. I’m saying: When we were in the States, we felt a call on our lives to go overseas.. and as you can see, here to Jamaica. Even when I knew that it wasn’t our time to go, I still felt that yearning and calling. So it was refreshing (and kind of shocking to be honest) to not feel that when someone talked about overseas mission work. Refreshingly content. Kind of like the cucumber-melon drink they served after the program. 🙂 Refreshingly content.

Pictures paint a thousand words…. hopefully!

Micah is now crawling around quite a bit. His favorite thing to do at the beach is eat sand, and crawl straight into the water. He doesn’t care if it’s in his face or not. He just goes. He loves the water… and apparently the sand too. Blech.

Maya is not like her brother when it comes to the sea. She is very cautious about going in the water and it took her a long while to be ok with just sitting in the water with the waves coming up around her. Don’t know why, but the waves scared her at first. I’m happy to say that she will now come in the water, just not very far by herself. If someone’s holding her, she’s good to go. Sigh. Getting her to learn to swim might take a while….

Our house… is a very, very, very fine house. You know that song? Yeah, that’s about all I know of it. But this is our house. No one uses the front door on the left because it has a gate inside that’s always locked; that and you have to walk around the steps, through the grass, and up the steps. Much easier to just come to the side. The bush in front is a guava bush that we are waiting for the fruit to ripen. Some people (ahem… kids) like to pick the fruit while they are still green. We are trying to keep the fruit on the tree to even get to the ripe stage!!! Such hardships we endure. 😉

Kevon has become a member of the family basically. Micah loves him and will pretty much go to him anytime… except when he’s wanting Mama. But anyways, Kevon is teaching us more sign language, keeping us entertained with funny stories, and helping my sometimes failing attempts at Jamaican cooking. He has a good nose on him, too, so that he tends to show up right as I’m finishing fixing supper. We enjoy him immensely, though, and are so glad that he has seemed to enjoy our company too.

We’ve been walking almost every day with our friends, Brooke and Jennie. Usually I’m am the one wearing Micah and Rodney’s in charge of Maya, but for the picture’s sake, he got the best of both worlds. 🙂 We are training to do a 10k in Negril on December 3rd. I’m going to be in it while Rodney gets  to stay in the hotel and sleep with the kiddos (what am I thinking?!?!). So my training is basically walking up and down a bunch of unpaved, rocky, steep hills with an extra 20 lbs. strapped to me. I’ve tried to run… nay, lop along… with Micah, but it doesn’t work so well. So here’s hoping that I’m working my muscles up enough so that I can run for a while on the paved, flat road in Negril. Rodney has graciously said that he can keep the kids while I go out and train by myself (maybe once or twice 😉 ). We’ll see because it’s one of the things Maya looks forward to… walking with her Aunties Brooke and Jennie.

This is Rodney’s posse. They like to help him with whatever he does. They also like to play hide and seek with Maya where they hide (and kind of show her where they are going) then when she gets there, they run away to a new spot. We’ve had some talks about Maya only being 2 and not just always running. Sigh. She’s learning some things from these boys that I would prefer her to not learn quite yet…. like shoving, and saying, “I’m dead.” Luckily she didn’t hear them saying, “I’m Jesus Christ! I’m God!” (Yeah, we had a good long talk about that one too.)

So Micah loves that he can get around well in his walker (and quickly too!). This picture was taken when I was making supper. Micah had been quiet for a while so I asked Maya to go see what he was doing. Mmmm hmmm. A Micah mess. And do you see how innocent he’s looking at the camera? Aie yie yie. He loves pulling anything he can reach off of whatever it is on. He’s also just started to walk with whatever he can stand up against and that will move. He loves using chairs, his walker (with him on the outside), Maya’s stool… anything, really. And he’d much rather be down walking than in your arms. I don’t know if I’m ready for him to be walking around yet. I was still enjoying sitting him down in a place and knowing that he couldn’t get too far. My little man’s growing up! (And happily making messes… with his sister. 🙂 ) Maya also loves to make sure that her ‘little brudder’ is ok and not getting into anything. When they first see each other in the morning and after they wake up from naps, they have smiles and laughs for each other. I love it.

So as part of our training, we had decided to do an hour long Zumba DVD one Wednesday. Others heard about it and it has now become a weekly thing. We have young, old, hearing, deaf, all dancing together to Zumba. It is SO much fun (and a great workout too!)! Everyone looks forward to doing it the next week. Here’s to getting in shape, Jamaica, Zumba style!!!

This is one of my favorite pictures… mainly because I’m not the one doing the dishes 🙂 but also because it’s showing that it takes four guys to do them! I love it. Rodney will testify, though, that they got a whole heap of dishes done in a short amount of time, so props to the guys! You can see Lavern in the background. We were busy making something… banana bread I believe. So her boys (on left) and Omar (in orange) were helping out. These people, too, have become our Jamaican family. We enjoy having them over… or just show up at random times… and spending time with them, eating with them, singing/signing with them, everything.

Ok, so this was found hopping around in our front room. A harmless grasshopper… well, I’m assuming it was harmless. But do you see the SIZE of that thing?!?!?!! It could have swallowed my big toe if it wanted to! My word. And talk about the air that it got when it jumped. I was happy to leave the room and have Rodney kill it with his shoe. But that’s my shoe in the picture… just so you know. Yuck. Big bugs.