June, July and August

Wow, I didn't realize that I hadn't posted since June.  I was sure that I had but maybe I started to and had issues.  Anyways...I should put a counter on here to see how many people actually look at the blog.  Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it with facebook but I know there are those who don't use facebook. 

Well the summer is somewhat of a blur now.  At the time it surely wasn't.  For nearly 2 weeks in July Elianna was really sick.  I think she threw up for 10 days and for at least 6 of those kept very little food down.  In the end we think it was amoeba or something like that.  She lost a lot of weight but has gained it back and is doing fine.

During that time we found out that school would be delayed a month due to various reasons.  It was a relief to us since we had been so preoccupied with Elianna.  Another big thing that Pete was busy with in July/August was some theft here at our mission center.  It involved some of our guards.  It was a sad situation.  In the end several guards lost their jobs since no one would confess but we knew it was one of them stealing.  Our 'normal' logic and reasoning don't always work here with the culture.  That was finished at the end of August.

Now it's already mid September.  School started on the 1st.  We have 6 dormers.  Three girls and three guys.  All teenagers.  It's going pretty well but is busy and intense.  I forgot how much energy it takes at the start.  Getting to know new dormers etc.  For me it's an increase in meal/food prep.  With a couple kids that commute into school  and our family/dorm there are 13 every day for lunch and 11 for all other meals.  We have 3 very hungry teenage boys among those numbers.  Anyways it's busy... with a 20 month old and homeschooling a kindergartner and the dorm.  Pete is a huge help but there are times he's not around during busy times.  Aidan is in 3rd grade now, it doesn't seem possible.  Ian is a fun, lovable 20 month old.  He is talking quite a bit and starting to put 2 words together.  In the last month he's really gotten into reading books and will come to you with a book and say 'book.'  Even thought we read 2 or 3 times a day he would love more!:)

Well that's a brief catchup and I"ll attach some pictures with this.

 

Pictures:

Faith eating with friends in the village

celebrating the 4th of July with sparklers on a rainy night

Ian pulling a wagon

Pete working on replacing a counter top in the dorm

Our coworker in the village teaching children, both the Word of God and french and math

loving brothers

Propane bottles (used to fuel our stoves) going to get refilled in a taxi ( there were 23 in total) not just for us but all our fellow missionaries as well.

Our kids in long pj's - we went to a hotel for a few days with A/C, we always bring our warm clothes for it.

rainy day fun making playdough

First day of school Aidan 3rd and Elianna Kindergarten

Full tables at lunch  with the dorm

family self portrait

Our little guy

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May and early June

Right now my pattern seems to be posting about once a month.  I'll try to do better this summer!:)  For those of you on facebook, I do post pictures there a little more regularly.

We finished up school and dorm at the end of 2nd week of May.  We were pretty tired at the end and the tiredness hasn't dissapeared over night but we are feeling more refreshed.  Aidan finished 2nd grade really well.  He had a great year and loves school.  He's become quite a reader and has read 6 or 7 chapter books of about 100 pages each since school let out.  Of course he loves playing the wii when he gets to.

 

After the end of school we decided to take a break away to the capital city.  For the first few days we stayed at another mission's guest house.  We invited one of our school teachers to come with us for a few days.  It was fun shopping and eating out!  She came back mid week and we moved to a nice hotel with a pool for the remainder of the week.  The kids loved the pool and Aidan has really taken off swimming, we loved the A/C although we froze at first, and eating out and not cooking was a real treat.  The bummer of the week was that Pete got pretty sick with amoeba, the blessing was that we were close to a Dr. and he got tested and treated right away.  Ian was prety fussy but it was a nice break from ministry and routine. 

 

We came back home to regroup and prepare for the summer.  We're covering a few extra things for people who are on home assignment until school starts and we have returning coworkers.  We're helping with the guest house and guards.  We've done these ministries before so they're not completely new.  Pete is getting involved in working in a couple of fields.  I hope to go work for a day or 2.  I think we've been reminded of just how hard our village friends work to just live.  Everything is done by hand, clearing the field, burning the field, turning/tilling the field, weeding, harvesting.  Pray that the extra time Pete has with these guys will show them the difference of Christ in His life.

 

We haven't gotten a french teacher but are just working on our own.  Aidan's picking up a few more phrases just playing with kids.  I'm just doing some extra studying/review on my own and the kids and I have been going through rosetta stone.

 

Aidan celebrated his 8th birthday.  It really doesn't seem possible.  He and Elianna are really enjoying their time together but they're quickly learning the fine art of bugging each other.  Overall they're great friends.  Ian is always running along behind them hoping to keep up.  He runs nearly everywhere he goes.  He's starting to copy more words and we anticipate him starting to talk more soon.  He loves playing outside.  I'm going to include a picture of Elianna with a little baby whose mom died, probably of AIDS.  He was given to on of our coworkers in the village here, he's 3 months and was 3 kilos when she got him.  He has now tested positive for the same disease and is in the hospital.  Pray for him, his name is Alseny.  Other pictures are from Conakry and Aidan's birthday.

 

I'll try to add some pictures from the last month.  Some of the things we've been involved in.  Pete helped regrass several roofs.  Our houseworker built a 'kitchen', an outdoor building to cook in during rainy season.  Oh year, we're into rainy season now and the rains are increasing.  Pete took some neat picture of the clouds before a storm one night.  Views from the field he worked in.  Other pictures are from Conakry and Aidan's birthday. How could I have forgotten, at the beginnig of May Pete and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. I made a special desert and set up a table in our backyard and we had a candlelight desert after the kids went to bed.

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April

I had great intentions of updating the blog at least weekly but it looks like it's more like monthly! I also wish that I was a motivational writer but I'm not, that may be why I don't update this often! As I sit here and reflect back on the past month many things have happenend. Rainy season is almost upon us.  We've had 2 small rains which is pretty surprising since it's not even May yet.  They do bring relief from the intense heat.  Over the past month the temps have soared into the hundreds F.  The highest our thermometer has read was 110F but others have seen as high as 115F.  The humidity is high now to so some days are just rough.

 

In mid march we had our school break for a week.  We went to the capital city for a week.  It was the first time we had been back since our arrival last June.  It was a nice, enjoyable break.  We enjoyed eating out and shopping.  We also realized again that we really enjoy living in the more of the village setting but do enjoy our visits to the city.  Here it's much easier for the kids, they have room to roam, run and play.  We're into our last quarter of school, actually we're down to our last 2.5 weeks of the year.  In many ways it's really hard to imagine that we're almost done with the school year.  It has had ups and downs but we have seen God's faithfulness all along the way.  I think this past month has had a lot of down times.  Discouragement among our coworkers, lack of personnel for our school for next year, hard times in pressing on in what God has called us to.  I'm sure that you all go through those times as well.  We do see God working in the midst of these times.  Aidan has had a great year of school, he loves school.  He also loves climbing trees and can climb really high!  The kids love picking whatever fruit is in season.  Elianna is holding her own on climbing trees as well.  We've been doing preschool this year and she is really getting ready to read.  She doing it more on her own than from what I've taught.  Aidan and Eli are both great helpers with Ian.  Aidan will get up with Ian in the mornings and help him until he needs a diaper change or he can't contain him anymore.  Ian is a really fun active little guy.  This past month some of our coworkers took us to a nearby river.  It's about a 20 min bike ride away.  It's a great place to play and swim and play.  A couple weeks ago all the dorm kids stayed at the dorm for the weekend and they planned what they would like to do.  It was a packed out weekend with such things as sports, pizza, games, staying up late, shopping, eating out, going to the pool, movie, making bagels, going to the river and swimming and boating (we borrowed a dugout canoe), our bagels, bag and keys getting stolen....It was a great weekend with tons of fun.  We were exhausted afterwards.  Things keep coming to mind.  We also enjoyed a beautiful easter sunrise service at a local river with our coworkers.  Pete had the privelage of joining in the baptism of several of our coworkers boys.  Right now we're working on drying a bunch of mangoes to enjoy when mangoes aren't fresh anymore.

 

We've had a great year with the dorm kids.  Pray for them as 2 of them are going back to their home countries for home assignment.  This can be a big unknown for them.  We're really excited and know this will be a time that God will use in their lives. 

 

We're hopeful as we look forward to the summer.  It will be a break from having kids in the dorm and our 'main' ministry.  We'll be filling in some gaps as other coworkers go on furlough etc.  We'll be helping with our mission guest home and some other odds and ends.  We also have some plans and ideas that we're really excited to see how God uses them.  Aidan, Elianna and Faith are planning to work on French.  Pray that God will lead us to the right person to be our teacher for the summer, possibly someone from the local church in town.   Pete is planning to plant a field in the village with a friend.  We're also developing a plan for planting a field to benefit the village as a project.  We also hope to be spending more time in the village developing relationships, during the school year we're more bound by a schedule in regards to being in the village.  We also have plans to do some projects in the dorm and renovations.  Hopefully soon we'll be able to share how God is working through these ideas we have. 

 Ok, now I'll attach some pictures of the last month.  Most of them are self expanatory. 

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March

It never ceases to amaze me how one month just flows into another.  I mean it's already the middle of March.  I can remember exactly what we were doing a year ago at this time but it seems like an eternity since then also! 

This past week has been Spring break for us.  We took a few days and went to the capital city.  Got some work done on our car, specifically the AC fixed.  It was nice to drive home with the AC.  We went out to eat and to a pool.  The big hit was getting fresh fruits and veggies though.  We brought back as much as we could.  Now our fridge is jammed full of carrots, apples, pineapples, mangoes, green peppers...  We can't get some of those things here where we live unless they're in season so we stock up when we can.  This is the first time we've had mangoes this year, they'll start to ripen up this way in a month or so.  I can't explain the feeling of eating some delicious fruit with yogurt and granola!  Anyways, I think you get the idea.  Right now we don't have any supply buyers on the field due to some medical issues.  We have to do all our shopping and stocking up on supplies.  We or rather Pete tries to go once a month and buys meat and other things in a town about an hour away.  He went this past week and they had gotten an new shipment of things from the states.  There are several expat mining companies here so several stores stock things from the states.  We were able to get a few special treats in time for my birthday!  This morning we enjoyed fresh blueberry muffins (with frozen blueberries) there was also cheese that  we got.  Anyways, lest you think all we do is buy, stock and think about food, that's not the case.  This just happened to be a bumper week for enjoying special things.  We've had a great week as a family.  We were able to attach a child seat to my bike for Ian and yesterday we all took a nice bike ride to the river.  This afternoon the dorm kids will return and we will begin our last quarter of the year.

 

Please pray specifically for our mission school next year.  We are in (desperate) need of high school teachers.  If you are interested or know of anyone who might be send us an email.  I'll attach some recent pictures as well. 

 

A summary of the pictures: 

Ian with his Guinean soccer shoes, he's on his 2nd pair already!

Valentine cookies

Aidan is now burning the trash and enjoying making fires!

A tea set Eli got from one of our dorm daughters for her birthday.

Making pizza pockets...we had all of our dormers families over for a pizza night...there were 22 adults and 3 babies.

A sword fighter already at the age of 14 months.

Our veggies.

Our climber...he can climb into his booster seat and wants to climb on anything he can.  We're not so into it:)

Working on a puzzle ball Eli got from Grammie and Grandpa for her birthday.

Cute Ian.

 

 

 

 

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