Monday, May 30, 2011

Trying to stay Cool

Well, the second thing that has been a little challenging :o) is the heat. Ooh la la!~the heat! Now, I'm a Florida girl, and it does get pretty hot there. You would think I'd be used to a little bit of the heat. But, the difference is that in Florida when it's hot, we just go inside! Ahhh, I love nice Air Conditioning! When we were on deputation we tried preparing our minds for the heat. We really thought we wouldn't have a house with AC. But, the Lord has truly blessed us! We have an AC unit in each of the bedrooms. It's so nice at night to go to bed in the coolness. On super-duper hot days we turn on both units, open both bedroom doors, put a fan in front of the door, and close all the windows. The house actually cools down quite nicely that way. Not exactly a nice 75 degrees, but it is more comfy. We're trying not to do that too much so we can keep our electric bill down.Another thing we didn't realize that they have here are wells. And we have one on our property! It's not a freshwater well, it's more brackish water. The landlord said we can water the plants with it. (We live off of rainwater here, so water is very precious!) So, one day we decided we HAD TO cool off! So, we went out for a little time to play in the water from our well. We turned on the hose. Hosed each other off. Let Silas and Callie play in their tub. And we had a wonderful afternoon! Ahhh, relief!

Although Silas become a little bit of a stinker with the hose!


I love this picture of our yard. I know it looks like we've left poor Callie out in the middle of nowhere. Where did everyone go!? She definitely was not ready to come in!






So, the mosquitos and the heat...two pretty tough things. But, everything else is going great and we are settling in quickly. The Lord is blessing and working and giving us oppurtunities to serve. We really do love the place that God has called us to and are so excited to see Him work! What a mighty God we serve!


Friday, May 27, 2011

Settling in with the Mosquitos

When we arrived in St. Barths, Patrick and Josh had everything set up very well. There were still some boxes to unpack, but not many. He arranged things in the kitchen, but told me, to move everything where I wanted. How sweet! I love setting up my own home, although, every few months I end up rearranging things just for fun. We seemed to get used to everthing pretty quick and settle in very well, except for two areas. One is the mosquitos! Oh Wow! For some reason these guys just love us! Patrick, Josh, and I don't seem to get bit very bad, but Elisabeth, Brenna, Silas, and Callie get it the worse. They must be the sweet ones! I brought reppellant and anti-itch cream, but they didn't work very well. Then, we've tried many things from the pharmacy. We've found that the natural Citronella seems to be working pretty well....for now!

Elisabeth counted over 40 bites on one leg! She's been so sweet to help put cream on Callie and Silas.



So, the first few days (and actually still) have been spent trying not to scratch. Such a hard thing to do!


The second thing we had to really adjust to? You'll have to wait for the next post! :o)





Saturday, May 14, 2011

~Happy 1st Birthday Callie~

Two days after we arrived here, we celebrated little Miss Callie's birthday. Can you believe she's already one years old! I have had fun taking pictures of her every month of her life. She's changed and grown so much! Patrick's family has been so sweet to us! His Aunt Mariane, Aunt Romea, and his Grandma (Mama) bought a cake for Callie. It had raisins and nuts and was decorated so cute with Hello Kitty.

She loves to play peek-a-boo and patty-cake. And loves to play on our front porch. (Just don't look at her hands! :o)









I hope you had a wonderful birthday, my Callie Grace. You sure are a special, sweet baby. You brighten our day and our lives. I love you!


(I put a label on this post of all of Callie's first year with a sign pictures)


Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Hello From Sunny St. Barths


We've made it! We're here! We still don't have internet or home phone...hopefully that will happen soon! (I'm soooo ready to keep in touch with my family again!) Patrick dropped off me and the kids at Mariane's (his aunt) while he went to get the car inspected. (Yay! It finally arrived today!)




But, I think I should rewind to last Tuesday, May 3rd.

It was hard to say good-bye to my sweet family. We all woke up at 4 am to be ready to leave by 5am. My Dad was up, (Of course, he's always up way before the sun!) and said good-bye to me at home. I miss my Dad already. :o( Then, me, my girls, Silas, my Mom, three sisters, and four of my nieces piled into the Edman's Van. Thank you to the Edmans! We finally managed to fit everyone and everything in the van and headed out to drive to the Miami airport. It was actually a very nice ride over. I was worried it would be hard for me the whole way over, but we talked and laughed and just enjoyed a great trip together. I love my family! Then, came the time to part. Of course, I boo-hooed with my nieces (they're going to grow up way to much without me!) then I boo-hooed even more with my 3 sisters (they're the best) then, it was time to say good-bye to my Mom. I always cry the worst with her. But, it was actually amazing. She'd been talking with our missionary to Honduras, Lois Howells' Mom. Lois's Mom has been such a blessing to my Mom. She said it's going to be hard, but God will give you peace. And it's so true! It was hard to say good-bye to Mom, but God does give peace. And she was trying so hard to be strong for me.




Then, the girls, Silas and I made our way through security and back to our gate. We were so excited! We tried our hardest to find some mini reeses cups that Beth wanted, but there weren't any to be found! Instead, we ordered a few slices of pizza for the plane, and some coke of course! (The coke that Silas spilled right before time to get on the plane, then, he got on his hands and knees and tried to lap it up like a dog! Talk about embarrassing!) Then, we boarded the plane. We kept heading further and further back to the very last row of the plane! Wow! I've never sat in the back. I turned around and glanced to see if the girls were behind me. Brenna was carrying Silas's carseat and was hitting every shoulder along the way! It was sort of funny, but I guess not very funny to each and every passenger being hit!

It was a good flight to St. Martin. Callie fussed a little then her and Silas took a nap. I was able to witness to a sweet lady next to me... Ms. Charlene. She listened to the whole plan of salvation and I was able to share so much her. She said she's really going to take time to think on this. She was coming on this vacation for that exact purpose, for some answers! Please pray for her!


It was interesting trying to go through customs and get all of our baggage. (4 large duffels, 3 backpacks, 2 strollers, 2 babies, and 2 carseats...all of this for 3 of us to carry! interesting to say the least) Once we finally arrived at our gate we learned out flight "no longer existed" (the words of the Winair employee) So, we waited an extra hour, took the bus to the runway, and boarded the teeny, hot plane. It was a little scary, and I think I'm more of a ferry-type girl, now! It was funny, though, Once we got in the air, I said, "Brenna, look that's St. Barths!" She had a very scary look on her face! Then, I realized she wasn't looking at St. Barths, but a small deserted island, that's more just like a big rock sticking out of the ocean. When, I showed her where St. Barths really is, she calmed down a little. She said, "I know it's small, but that really scared me!" We landed, with a little sweat on our brow. It was good to see my Josh and Patrick. I'd missed them so much! They were so proud to show us our home, and our island. But, I'll post more on all of that later.

Thank you for all of your prayers! Please keep praying for us! Hopefully we'll have internet soon....

Monday, May 2, 2011

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the day we have been aiming for for five years...Five!! Wow! Tomorrow Elisabeth, Brenna, Silas, Callie and I will board a plane in Miami, have a layover in St. Maarten, then arrive in St. Barthelemy in the afternoon. Yay!!
It has been a flurry of activity here in Fort Myers preparing everything and everyone to leave. I'm exhausted. I've created many memories with my family this past week, they sure are the greatest! Patrick and Josh have been busy preparing things at our new home for me and the girls, and Silas. I think they're ready for us to be there, though. So, please be praying for us. Pray for safety, and easy adjustment, and pray for my family that is here. I don't think parents are ever really prepared for their children to move so far away.

Our cell phone number will be the same (we're switching to vonage), but won't be up and running until the middle of May. Same thing with our internet...the middle of May. So, this could be my last post for a while.

Thanks, everyone, for your encouraging words and prayers for our family during deputation and language school. Now, it's of to the field God has called us to! :o)