So Long Ordinary

Yeah, that fall too (which I miss terribly living in a place with no seasons besides rainy or more rainy) but actually the fall I mean has nothing to do with the changing colors of leaves or a new crispness in the air. The fall I'm talking about has something to do with a very lucky dog and a little hike we took yesterday. Sean blogged a little about our hike yesterday and hinted at something more that had happened. So, I guess it's my turn to tell you all about it. Imagine, if you will, an idyllic setting. Waterfall. Mist. Chirping birds. Green rain forest all around. Butterflies dancing in the sun's rays. And a poor mischievous German Shepherd falling, falling, falling, falling. I heard Sean shout at Maya to stay put. As I came around the corner, I saw Sean peering off a ledge into a great abyss telling our dog to stay. Apparently, Maya had misjudged a ledge and slipped right off a 10-foot cliff to the rushing river below! Luckily, she had landed on a little ...

(I just noticed that I haven't blogged i n a week. Oh my. Sorry about that. Guess things have either been just too crazy or too boring to write much this week. With Brooklyn in school all week - the English preschool 3 days a week and Spanish school 1 to 2 days a week - you'd think I'd find more time....this motherhood stuff is just plain time consuming.) Yes, F is for First haircut! Well, first official haircut. Brooklyn has cut her own hair a few times but last night I gave her a real cut. It was hard. I've always loved her long, blonde, curly locks and, because her hair is just like mine was when I was little, I knew that once I cut those ringlets off, they'd never return. But combing out her hair had become a major battle and as I struggled to comb out the rats nest in her hair while she screamed and cried and fought me last night, I just felt it was time. Her hair was to her waist - and so pretty as long as it hadn't been dragged through last ni...

We did have a very nice vacation. Sean has been posting some fun pictures from our trip. Now it's my turn! (This way you'll all know that Sean did actually bring along the family!) As Sean said, together we took about 700 pictures - I took about 1/3 of those, so Sean still wins as the obsessed photomaniac. It is probably a very dangerous thing that we both have cameras now. It would have been very annoying to anyone traveling with us - we stopped every 100 yards or so to take pictures! Our kids are going to have some very weird ideas about what it means to travel in a car...i.e. taking every side road just to see where it leads, stopping every other yard or so to take a picture, measuring distances not by miles but by how many great photo ops were found along the way, turning a 4 hour drive into an 8 hour drive every time , getting lost just for the heck of it.... But those are the things that make a vacation truly enjoyable for us, weird as it is. And, thankfully, ou...

"D"..... I d unno. This one is kind of tough. D og. Our dog Maya is really becoming like one of the family. She's just such a sweet-natured German Shepherd and we all adore her. She's a little over a year old now and the older she gets, the more we love her and enjoy spending time with her. She isn't as hyper as she used to be and is usually very obedient. She loves playing fetch and is actually quite good at soccer, if you can believe that. She is very patient with Brooklyn and together they've dug more than a few holes in the backyard. A great pet. Maya, not Brooklyn. D rive. We're going to do some traveling and exploring of Ecuador this week. It probably means taking a few "roads less taken" and d iscovering more about Ecuador. It's going to be so much fun! Just please pray for us - that our car doesn't break down, that we'll have safe travels, and that we don't get lost! D own-time. Sean is on vacation this week...

Catie came into my life when I was in 6th grade. She was a tiny little thing with a big mop of shiny black hair. She was my niece and I was (and still am) a very proud auntie. I'll never forget the night she was born, how Dad woke me up and we drove in the dark of night to the hospital. Dad and I waited and waited in a hidden waiting room - completely unaware that the little bundle of joy had already made her entrance into the world. Mom finally found us and we hurried to the room to meet the newest addition to the family. I couldn't wait to meet her! She looked like a wrinkled monkey. And she was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen in the world. She had us all wrapped around her finger from that moment on. I took a Polaroid picture of my new niece with me to school the next day. I did nothing all day but gaze at that sweet little face with dark eyes staring back at me from the picture taped to my desk. The last school bell didn't ring soon enough, and the moment ...

Two weeks after our wedding, Sean and I filled one-third of the smallest available UHAUL trailer with all our earthly possessions, hooked that trailer up to the Ford Explorer that my parents had loaned us, and headed out for our new life together as a couple. Sean drove the Explorer pulling the UHAUL trailer at daring speeds and I drove his little black Ford Ranger, nodding off as I listened to soundtrack after instrumental soundtrack. We had no cell phones, no walkie-talkies, and no plan to follow should we get separated. We drove west out of Colorado, through Utah and Nevada, then turned north through California, Oregon and Washington. It took us about four days to reach the Canadian border. Somehow they let us through the border and with very sketchy directions we headed towards Langley, British Columbia to find our new home. After getting very lost and confused, we finally came across a very big, beautiful, white house behind a fancy iron gate on 244 th street. A few ...

Yesterday was Brooklyn's first day at Shell Christian Preschool. My pictures from yesterday turned out awful. We were in a hurry - and let's face it, I'm just not as practiced at taking pictures as somebody else we know.... *ahem* Anyway, I took my camera with me when I took Brooklyn for her second day of school. She was so excited to go back today and loves her teacher, Miss Sharon. I'm so blessed that this preschool worked out for Brooklyn this year. She really needs the social interaction (and I need the time during the day to get a few things done). There are several preschoolers in the mission community this year, and a very generous, loving woman felt led to teach our kids three mornings a week! It's perfect. A God thing, for sure. Here's the little schoolgirl waiting for class to start. The preschool is held on the HCJB compound (HCJB is another mission here in Shell that operates the hospital, among other things). There is a very nice, covere...

A couple of days ago, I was sitting at the computer working and Brooklyn came in from outside saying "Mommy look what I found!" I calmly turned around...and just about fell out of my chair. Clutched tightly against Brooklyn's chest was a little, fluffy yellow chick! Chick! As in baby chicken . Apparently the little guy just wandered into our yard and Brooklyn fearlessly scooped him up. It was love at first sight for Brooklyn and I was tickled to see her so excited over a silly little chicken. She was all set to call him Fluffy and have him be hers but, sadly, the moment was short-lived. Our neighbor came looking for her missing chick only about 15 minutes after Brooklyn had adopted it as her baby. It was heartbreaking to force Brooklyn to give that chicken back to its rightful owner. Brooklyn was devastated and I very nearly had to pry that poor chicken out of her little hands. I kinda hoped our neighbor would say "aww, just keep it" but no such luc...

Happy Birthday, Mommy! Love you bunches! Mom and I in Tiwaeno, Ecuador. I am blessed with the best mom in the whole world. Other people say this about their own mothers - but, then, they probably haven't met my mother. She is a woman after God's own heart, loves her family with all that she is, and is compassionate to the needs of strangers. When I think of who I want to be like, she is the first person to come to mind. My mom has gone through things I could never imagine and yet her smile, easy laugh, and genuine faith have not only remained, but grown even stronger. Growing up - and especially in high school - I know I didn't appreciate the love she had for me. I am ashamed of the way I treated her. But she always did love me best and she never gave up on me. I remember how as a teen I always seemed to hit an invisible brick wall whenever I had some rebellious, self-destructive plan. Try as I might, I couldn't seem to be able to get around a barricade that t...

We had a pretty good weekend, even though Maddie slept terribly on Saturday night. She didn't really go to sleep well until 9:30 on Sunday morning and I had to miss church again. I'm really missing going and am disappointed when I can't go. But on every Saturday night/Sunday morning something happens that means I have to stay home. Sean would stay home and let me go once in a while if he could but he helps out with worship and has to be there. I know this is just a "stage in life" but I'm getting pretty frustrated with it. We went on a drive on Saturday and ate at one of our favorite places, "Miremelindo." The food was great and it's always enjoyable to get out for a while (especially after my week shut in the house most of last week)! I got to talk to my Grandma and Uncle Steve along with my Mom, Dad, sister, and baby niece today. It was so great! We use Skype and it is completely free. We can use our small video cameras and see each o...

Danny and Leslie Hulls are friends of ours who work with MAF in Lesotho, Africa. We were all together for orientation at MAF headquarters for a few months (before heading out of the States to our respective fields) and had a lot of fun together. The Hulls' little girl, Evi, and Brooklyn hit it off (they are just a few months apart) and spent hours playing together on the MAF playground while their parents laughed and joked together. We really can't wait to see them again, someday - we had such a good time together. (The link to their blog is on the sidebar of this blog.) The Hulls have been through a lot since that day we said goodbye to Leslie and Evi and Danny drove us to the airport to catch our flight to Costa Rica. I'll let you read the following article about it, rather than go into the details myself but I really wanted to share these links. The article is so good and, in their honesty, our friends have reflected the Jesus that has carried them through a very p...

If you haven't figured it out yet, I love " adventure !" Now, when I use the word "adventure" I don't mean bungee jumping, para-gliding, skydiving, or anything extreme sport-ish. I mean just getting out and experiencing new things. Sean has the same addiction to adventure - why do you think we're missionaries? I can't usually go more than two weeks without going somewhere . It doesn't have to be far, fancy, new, or costly - just something different from the norm. Because of the ages of our children, drives are the perfect way to get out without totally messing up nap schedules or wearing ourselves out too much (grumpy and unhappy children can quickly ruin a perfectly good outing). We've spent a lot of Saturdays or Sundays out for drives, looking for roads we haven't been on before or new restaurants we'd like to try. We've seen and experienced a lot of Ecuador this way and found all sorts of fun places that we ended up retu...

I've seen this really fun writing project on several blogs and thought I'd give it a try. I'll post something about myself (or my family) that starts with each letter of the alphabet. It should be fun...for me anyway! And it will give me a more ideas of things to write about. I feel a teensy bit egocentric writing this much all about me. So, I'd feel a lot better about this if I got to learn some interesting tidbits about the people who read this blog :-) I would love it , if you would leave a comment on each A-Z post and tell me about something in your life that begins with that letter. Go ahead and be anonymous if you're shy...I'd just really like to hear more from you!