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 :)