So Long Ordinary

Every afternoon at around 3 or so, a ruckus begins at our gate.   " Brooklyn!" They call over and over again.  " Broooookleeeeeennnn!" And,without fail, my little girl runs out to the front gate to let in the majority of the kids from our neighborhood.  She doesn't realize that these are kids who have very few toys or that they seldom get to play in a space that isn't a street or that their parents are struggling to feed them. She isn't bothered by the fact they speak a different language, have skin a different color, and come from a different background and culture.  She doesn't even know how to pronounce all of their names yet. All she knows is that they are friends  and for my little girl who loves having friends  that is enough.  I worried before we came back here about our daughters' socialization.  That's a concern for homeschoolers in the States, let alone homeschoolers who happen to be some of only a handful of Westerners in a large c...

It feels so good to be back home in Palangka Raya.  We arrived back home late on Friday night and I'm just now having the opportunity to blog.  This will have to be a short and sweet one, though, because this morning happens to be our first day of homeschool.  Brooklyn was up early this morning - she was so excited!  She's already nearly half done with her work and it isn't even 8 a.m. yet.  Madison, on the other hand, is still fast asleep! We've spent the past couple of days unpacking and settling in.  Sean and I were both feeling pretty sickly yesterday and so we took it slow and easy. Thankfully, today we're both much better - maybe we just needed to rest for once!  I have to say, it was a nice Sunday just puttering around our own house, taking naps whenever we felt like it. It's so nice to come back to an already set up house and we were all pretty excited to see our own stuff again.  We keep having to pinch ourselves that we're really here fo...

Well, believe it or not (and I don't so much), we're finally done with language school!  It wasn't an easy year - in fact, probably one of the hardest in my life - but we leave with great memories and full hearts.  We're grateful for our time here and our really very good experience in learning our third language.  (We have no plans to return to a language school at any time.  Ever.  Thank you.) Our ever-so-patient teachers at the language school.  Such gracious and kind people! This last week has been a whirlwind of saying our goodbyes to friends here in Salatiga. As excited as we've been to get back to Palangka Raya and our life and ministry there, we are also really sad to leave friends here behind.  I feel like all we ever do is say good-bye and it just stinks.  With our friend/teacher Pak Adi and his wife Ika.  He's been such a great teacher.  But he also has an amazing testimony that could make for a bestselling book.    ...

We celebrated Maddie's fifth birthday yesterday...here's what she had to say about herself.  So cute! (I think Sean has been a little over-zealous in indoctrinating these kids in future career choices.  It's time for me to step up my game, apparently....) What is your favorite activity? Getting presents for my birthday.  Play with my other toys that are special. What is your favorite color? Purple. What is your favorite toy? My unicorn. Who are your best friends? Caleb, Reece, and Abby What do you want to be when you grow up? Pilot! Why? Because it's awesome. What does Daddy do all day? Go fly airplanes. What does Mommy do all day? Take care of kids. What do you do all day? Play. What are your favorite books? Puplicious and my Bible and my card that has two pages What are your favorite movies? Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, Dumbo, Nemo, Pinnochio and Tinkerbell What are your favorite foods? Umm...healthy food?  Watermelon, grapes, blueberries, cherries, strawbe...

If you guessed that Sean and I went skiing in the Alps today, you would be wrong.  But if you guessed that we "ordered" ourselves a new puppy to be sent to us in Palangka Raya from a pet store here in Salatiga...you would be right!  Isn't she cute?   A friend of mine here pointed out that it's somewhat odd to "order" a dog and have it mailed to you.  Why yes, I guess some might think so!  We have been looking around for quite some time for just the right dog for our family. We need a guard dog but we also want a good family dog. We weren't sure we wanted a regular "kampung" dog as they are called (a mixed-breed dog available anywhere) because we'd heard all sorts of stories of weird and wacky kampung dogs that weren't trustworthy around kids.  Plus, okay, we are suckers for Golden Retrievers or German Shepherds.  We came close to buying a dog in Palangka Raya that was full grown, but that ended up falling through and the timing just was...

Sean and I teetered along, coaxing the small borrowed scooter up a steep hill.  We were getting farther and farther from the areas of Salatiga that we know. Making our way out of the hubbub of city into Central Java village life.  We'd stop, ask some questions and continue on our way.  Up, up, up we went on the pockmarked street..past a cemetery, past a huge tree that must be several hundred years old, past tiny, dilapidated houses next to bigger, newer ones. Suddenly, we were there - a huge and ornate church rising from the rubble and jungle of the hillside.  It seemed completely out of place and part of me wondered if we could be in the right place.  Churches here don't look like that.  Here, it's the other religion's houses of worship that are big and ornate and inviting. But after asking more questions, we discovered we were in the right place and we were shown to the office we were looking for.  A room full of desks and field workers - some w...

The sweet, smokey fragrance of incense wafts through the house... The incense was bought this morning in a desperate attempt to cover up the stench of rats living (or are they already dead?) in our attic space.  I seem to be the one who smells that death-stench most often - it appears to be concentrated right above my side of the bed.  Of course.  I'm not going to lie.  It's rank.  And because it is so rank, I am grumpy.  And I always feel somehow infected and creepy whenever I get a whiff of it - what is up with that?  It's just air, right?  Even if it is air that stinks.  It can't actually infect me with something can it? Something had to be done.  I'm not going up there to remove the dead rat or the live ones if they are there... and I think they are because we hear them at night...shiver.  Sean is not going up there to remove the dead or alive rats or any combination thereof.  We can't bring ourselves to ask a friend to do ...

Oh, goodness, where has the time gone?  The stories in my head are beginning to get backed up again, which means it must be time to write. Ah, if only I had more time....more "this is my life" posts coming soon, okay? We have two more weeks at language school! After we finish up here, we're heading to Tarakan - our other MAF base in Kalimantan - before going home to Palangka Raya.  We're excited for the time to visit with old and new friends there and for the chance to see where our teammates are living and working! (Sean has been there, the rest of us haven't.) After a week in Tarakan, we'll head back to Palangka Raya where we can settle   at last! Please keep praying for rainy season to begin in earnest - the smoke is back and there has been very little rain again . I want to leave you with a few links: Rebecca Hopkins lives in Tarakan - her husband is also an MAF pilot.  We all joined MAF at around the same time several years ago.  She's doing a serie...