Trip Whirlwind

  What a wonderful, refreshing whirlwind the past weeks have been!
First we went on a retreat as a base to Venezuela.

Our team, minus 1 couple and 2 kids

The hotel we stayed in was so cute and had a game area right outside the rooms so we could put the kids to bed and still relax together.  The devotions were encouraging, conversations were refreshing, the cooler mountain weather was greatly appreciated, and we also found out that pizza in Venezuela is much more like the kind in the States...yum!  

I loved the hotel's quaint style and the exchange rate being so favorable to us in Venezuela made it SUPER cheap!

Devotional time...no special speakers, but that gave several of the team members a chance to share

 One day we went to a waterfall that pours into a jasper rock area.  Just beautiful! The rest of the time, we just relaxed.  It was the first time in several years that the whole team has just gotten away to spend time together, and I'm so glad we were able to be part of this spur of the moment get-away.

 Two days after returning from Venezuela, Elijah and I took a trip to AZ to spend some time with my family.  There were so many reasons for the trip, and I'm SO glad I took the opportunity to go.  Elijah was a lap child on the plane, and he did amazingly!!!  We even wound up with an extra seat (or 2!) next to us on 4 of the 7 plane rides that we took in the process of going and coming.  I'm so proud of my little international travel buddy who has now taken off and landed 24 times in his 23 months and I only remember 1 of those flights being really horrible.

Anyway, time with family was what it was all about.  We were able to go visit with Joe about 5 times, including going to parks and out to eat.

And now that my parents are in AZ, I get the added fun of visiting my college room mate, Bekah.  We got together twice, and one of the times it was without kids and we had the most fabulous dinner and side splitting laughs. Truly therapeutic :) 

 Then there was fun with my sister, Jamie, and nephew, Noah.  They came up to Gilbert for a few days and we went down to Tucson overnight.

Playing with G-ma's bowls

The boys fought over toys constantly!  At one point we had to set up separate "slides" for them to send things down and my dad had to act as the dividing line to keep them away from each other!

 Also, my grandma came out from NJ for a visit for a few of the days we were there.  It was very nice to get to see her.

Time to tuck in after a long day of fighting...I mean playing :)  This set up was just for story time since they would never have lasted all night like this!

Also, once of the most exciting parts of the trip was seeing Elijah take off talking!  It seriously was night to day.  When we first got there, Elijah wouldn't say anything.  For example, even though he KNEW the word ball and had said it many times, he wouldn't say it even though he wanted a ball desperately.  He just wouldn't talk on anyone's terms but his.  But during the time there, he suddenly decided it was time and is now repeating almost anything and talking to request things too.  Cup, door, shoes, milk, more, thank you, etc.  It's so fun to see and Jeyson especially noticed the change when we got back.  Oh and he also got his ears checked in the US and is hearing perfectly now.  There definitely could be a connection as well as only hearing English for a few weeks.  We're hoping the ears stay that way and don't clog up again now that he's off meds again.

Anyway, all in all, it was an excellent time.  Refreshing, renewing, meaningful, etc.  I'm so glad I went.  And now, I'm SO glad to be back home and getting myself organized and in a routine again.  With no guests or trips on the horizon, it's time to settle in.

Busy Days

The past week and the coming weeks have been busy for us as a family.  As I blogged about, we just had Jeyson's parents here and now this weekend (Thurs-Sun) we have a rather spontaneous little retreat with our mission base in Venezuela.  One of the perks of being a small team is this retreat could be planned so easily and last minute since it happened to work with the flight calendar and everyone was available.  It was only officially decided on 2 days ago!  We'll be staying in a hotel across the boarder and just spending quality time together as a team.  There isn't a formal speaker, just one person sharing each day and lots of time down time together.  Hopefully it will be a truly restful retreat.

Then, on Tuesday Elijah and I will be headed for a trip to visit my family in Arizona.  We normally don't travel nearly this much to the US, but this year has been rather unusual.  First Christa's wedding and now a trip to Arizona.  Some of you may know about the health issues going on in my extended family, and that is a big part of the reason for the trip.  Please be praying for a meaningful time with family during this trip and for smooth traveling with a wiggly almost 2 year old...4 flights there and 3 flights back!  Oh the poor people who will sit next to us!

While I'm in the US, Jeyson will be working with the other mechanics on the first time through a very involved new mandatory inspection process.  I don't know all of the details, but it seems it's really big and involved and new for everyone.  There is a lot of thinking and planning going into it and it will probably be at least a week from what I'm gathering.

Ears have continued to be on our radar as Elijah still has fluid in his ears after another round of antibiotics.  The doctor who can put tubes in his ears is on vacation for another month so we're treating with antibiotics until we can get in with him again.  This whole thing makes me feel like sitting in waiting rooms is my new full-time job.  Between waiting for to get a hearing test done, then an x-ray for the sinuses, then a follow-up with the doctor, Elijah and I have spent 7 hours in the waiting room just in the past week.  Not to mention actually having to physically GO to our insurance company office to get every test and procedure approved (more waiting) and then returning to pick it up once approval is given.  Sigh.  Good thing God created us to automatically love and want to sacrifice for our kids.

I just got a neat email from a lady who is interested in getting together with me for birth classes.  She is really interested and pursing the idea even though she is not expecting yet.  But she had such a discouraging experience with her last pregnancy/birth that she's really looking into being more proactive this time.  It's neat to see how God is opening doors just through word of mouth.  I am working on creating a little space in our office that can be a nice place to meet with women.

Well time to pack some bags for our trip to Venezuela.  Such a spontaneous trip makes it really not seem real, so I'm having to force myself to take it seriously and get packing!

Oma and Opa's Visit Wrap-Up

We had a great week with Jeyson's parents.  During the week, Jeyson worked at the hangar,

Lots more things to work on than just airplanes around here!

 But then on the weekend we went over to Venezuela.  We stayed with missionary friends who live about 5 minutes from the boarder, so we went over 3 times to do some shopping, sightseeing, and eating.

We really enjoyed lunch, which was traditional Venezuelan arepas, a corn pancake type bread that is stuffed with cheese, meat, etc.  Yum!   

 And my special cabinet at home reserved for special foreign (American) treats is now filled to the brim.   And products are SO cheap there...or maybe they are just NOT cheap here in Brazil, but either way we stocked up.  Tortilla chips, thai sauces, cranberry apple juice, all bran cereal, and large pantene pro-v hair products that were only $1!  Very fun!  But definitely the best part was having extra, loving grandparent hands to help with the little squirt.

As soon as we got home, he started showing signs of yet another ear infection :(  Tomorrow we go back to the ENT to get some antibiotics, but it sure looks like tubes will be on the horizon, and a welcome relief!  

Thanks Jonas and Iria (aka Oma and Opa) for coming up to have a great week with us!

Our First Boa Vista Visitors!

We have Jeyson's parents here for 10 days and have really been enjoying taking them around.  On the weekend we hopped over to Guyana and on Sunday we went to a little aquatic park near a mountain.  During the week Jeyson has been working so we've been more low key during the days, and having fun together in the evenings.

We popped by the hangar one day

 And one evening grilled a fresh fish and last night we went to the central plaza to eat this typical soup, tacaca.  It's a really strange soup and you eat it with this long, pointy stick.  You use the stick to stab/pick up to eat the shrimp and to eat the green leaves.  You drink the soup from this typical bowl that is made out of a gourd.  And if all of that weren't interesting enough, the leaves make your mouth/tongue numb!  So, it makes conversation around the table pretty fun :)

With Jeyson's parents here, I have even gotten the chance to leave Elijah for a bit to go do a few things I haven't been able to.  Like get to this market which is a pretty intense farmer's market.  Tons of stands - a whole one of these covered areas just for people selling bananas, another for people selling watermelons, etc.  

 And there was this guy who was selling fresh coconuts and cell phone credit for prepaid cell phones.  What a combo deal :)  

Iria made us some typical Ecuadorian soup today for lunch, which they don't have the ingredients for in central Brazil but they do here.  It is made using green bananas and it was amazing!  Tonight our mission team is coming over for dinner made my Iria.  Then, this weekend we're planning to go to Venezuela, though we'll see how that works out since we hear that a group of native Brazilians closed down the road between Brazil and Venezuela so no one can get through :(  We'll see!  

It's so nice to have family around. 

All Ears

For those of you who don't know, here's a little update on what's going on with this boy.

Old picture, I really need to take the time to pull out my real camera more often!

Back in April I blogged about how Elijah was pretty behind on talking.  You can see that post here.  At the time, we knew he was behind because he is learning multiple languages, but we also think it's his personality, since he's more of a reserved/analytical type rather than a dare devil....usually :)

Anyway, he is now going on 2 and still hasn't made much progress speaking.  He says has about 7 words in his dailly vocabulary, but some of those include "woah" and "oh-uh" etc. and words only we understand.  We do think his personality is a major factor, since there are many words that he has said (ball, car, moo, quack, etc) multiple times but chooses not to use daily....only very randomly when he wants.  And I've even tried unsuccessfully to bribe him with chocolate to get him to say them, but nope...only when he's in the mood.

So, at his most recent doctor's appointment we brought up our concern about whether he might also have trouble hearing.  We brought him to get tested and found out that he has what is probably chronic fluid/inflammation in his ears.  So, he has not been hearing well on top of the whole multiple languages and personality issues.  Poor guy, the cards are really stacked against him on this one!

We are currently trying one more round of antibiotics (he has recently had several) to clear out his ears, and if not, he will likely have tubes put in.  What a medical year it has been for all of us!!!  But we don't mind the idea of tubes.  At this point, I"m almost hoping for them since it will rule out the possibility of the cycle repeating itself.  But we'll see.  Next week he will go for another hearing test and and we'll take it from there!

10 Random Catch Ups

So how about a totally random catch up today of things going on here?

1.  We're making some friends!  We met a Brazilian family who also JUST moved here and are from Goiania (really close to where we used to live).  They're lots of fun and we have tons in common.  We just had pizza together last night.  Fun and yum!

2.  I am LOVING living on the border of Venezuela and British Guyana!  It's so fun to be able to hop over and enjoy the culture and products there or even when we can't go, there's always someone going.  We can ask them to pick up things for us.  Much nicer than in the middle of Brazil, where we used to live.

3. This kid LOVES acai berry smoothies.  Acai is seen as a special "super food" in the US, but this kid just thinks it's super delicious, which is surprising since it has such an earthy taste.

  4.  Speaking of food, here there are ALWAYS trucks/cars driving down the street announcing deals of things you can buy from their car.  You can hear it really loud from inside your house.  There is even a car that announces you can buy fish from their car....must smell in there!  Anyway, I usually ignore it, but the other day there was a truck selling pineapples...3 for $2!  I ran outside and grabbed some.  The guys on the truck bed were wearing cowboy hats and throwing pineapples at people lined up outside their homes to buy some.  Wish I could have gotten a picture of the truck!

 5.  We feel very loved by our family and friends (supporters back home).  We are so encouraged by notes in the mail and email, people who pray for us, those who give faithfully, and as the icing on the cake, we got this amazing care package from a friend int he mail the other day.  Loaded with so many things we don't have here.  I can't imagine doing ministry without such an amazing team of people cheering us on!

 6.  I know I say it a lot, but we really are feeling very fulfilled in the ministry we are doing here.  Jeyson has SO much to do at the hangar, and it's wonderful to have a job that when he comes home he is thinking about his job in a positive way, planning out what to tackle next and the best way to solve maintenance problems.

7. We think we settled on a church, and it's nice to get  to know people, knowing we'll be back next Sunday.  They even have a ministry for reaching out to pregnant women in the community.  I'm looking into seeing if my new skills can be useful to them.

8.  Speaking of birth classes, the pregnant mom I was helping had a great birth!  I was supposed to be her doula, but sadly it didn't work out logistically at the last minute.  But it was really nice to still be able to visit her after and help her with nursing questions, and I know the relationship is a long term investment...so much more than just having to do with her birth.  I was so encouraged just today to hear from one of the moms I helped in the Spring.  She told me what an impact the classes had on her birth, but also marriage.  What an encouragement to hear!

9. Around here cooking is a lot of work!  The other day I made burritos...and wow!  I had to make my own tortillas, cook beans from scratch, make rice and meat, grate cheese, make my own salsa and guacamole, etc.  Makes you really cherish each bite....but totally worth it!

10. There are some SERIOUS rainstorms around here.  There usually isn't even a drop of rain to warn you either.  It usually just starts with a gust of wind and BAM!  Down comes some of the heaviest rain you can imagine.  And, in 5-10 minutes, it's gone as fast as it came!  But dry season is coming now.  Thankfully that means there will be less mosquitos, but it also means HEAT!  They say soon we'll really find out what hot is....i'm sweating just thinking of it!  :)

Have a great weekend!

Radio Classes

The past few days I've been getting training on how to use Asas's radio system.  Here we use it to communicate with the planes while they are in route (since they are out of reach of towers) and to communicate with the missionaries in each of the villages each morning.  Once Jeyson starts flying, I will eventually be responsible to follow his flights and communicate with him on the radio.  I will warn him of weather problems and track his progress to make sure he is safe.  Each wife follows their own husband...what a huge responsibility!  But flight following is much more advanced and Jeyson isn't on his own in the plane yet, so for now I just am getting trained in checking in on the villages.

Here's how it's done.  At 6:45 am each day you simply turn on the radio and call out to each one of the village posts.  We tell them about any flights that will be happening that day, and check in to see if they have any messages or anything urgent happening and they also relay back how the weather is there, just in case an emergency landing is needed by chance.

It's really pretty easy....in theory!  The major problem is that it's VERY VERY hard to hear!  Lots of static and weird screechy noises blast through at random.  Not to mention I'm doing this in Portuguese! But the ladies who have been doing it for a while say that your ear adjusts over time and soon I'll be able to understand.  I was amazed at how our "teacher" could understand so much!  So hopefully soon I"ll be proficient in yet another language....radio-static-ese!

Aside from ear training and it being an early morning duty,  it really is a neat job.  The missionaries are very isolated and the radio call is often a big moment of encouragement from the outside world that they look forward to.  My friend Rose, left who is also being trained, lived in a village for 6 months.  She said that she and the missionary she lived with really looked forward to the radio contact.  So it's neat to have this long distance ministry with the missionaries we admire and serve.  It's also fun to already know a few of them so it's a special way to get to say hi to new friends we are made but haven't seen since they went to their villages.  After all, it's not like they can say hi to us on facebook :)