Catch Up - Me

Next, time to catch up on me!

The biggest thing going on here is I'm adjusting to being a mom of two.  I can't help but feel like a huge wimp when I mention that.  I mean, most moms of one go on to be moms of two eventually so it's should be no big deal, right?  But on the other hand, day to day it has felt like a huge step into deeper waters of parenting.  Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful and I wouldn't change it for anything!  But it's definitely more challenging.  It is nonstop, taking a ton more of my mental and emotional and physical energy.  Or maybe it's just having a 3 year old that's challenging???  Either way, one thing that definitely makes me feel better is a friend of mine who has 8 grown children.  She told me that she thought that the hardest parenting phase at all was when she had two young children…what I have now.  So, yeah…I'm 3 months in and still feel like I'm figuring things out a bit.

Over the last few months I've felt a huge need to finally get settled into our house.  Right around 18 months after we moved to Boa Vista, we started to really feel settled but we still weren't physically settled into our house.  Confession: there were still unpacked boxes and pictures to hang on the walls "one day".  So, I've finally worked on that over the past few weeks and we're just about done!

Going along with feeling settled into our house, lately I've felt very settled into relationships in the community.  Of course we're always looking for more friends and people to minister to, but I mean that we have a good solid group of friends and also a list of people we are "owing" an invite to.  That may not sound like a big deal or even sound stressful to you, but I mean it in a very positive way.  When we first moved here I hated that it felt like we had no one outside of our mission that we knew well enough to have over for dinner.  Now, we've gotten to know tons of people and I can see that proof in the fact that we have more people than time to invite them over.  To me that's a great feeling.  I love hosting people for meals so it is just such a "settled" feeling.

I'm very excited about a connection I made with an OBGYN in town.  She was interested in my work as a childbirth educator and referred a couple to me.  I was able to meet with the couple to prepare them for birth and even attend their birth as a doula.  Right now, with having a newborn and Jeyson's random flight schedule, it's more certain that I can teach scheduled classes than for sure be at a birth.  That's fine by me as really the class times are when I can spend more time talking with and ministering to a couple.  But in this case, I was able to do both and the birth went great.  I'm excited about the ongoing relationships I have been able to create and excited about future referrals from this doctor as a source for meeting people.

Btw, I was recently asked about how my own birth and how the birth went for the couple I was assisting a few months ago.  The couple I was assisting wound up having an emergency medical situation but were still very glad to have had the course I taught them and we continue on as good friends as we raise our newborns.  Also, I have been meaning to post about Audrey's birth and plan to do that soon after catching up on everyone.

Life as a missionary pilot's wife has it's challenges.  It means every week looks different, depending on the flight calendar.  It also means your husband leaving early in the morning and bringing a bag of clothes and a hammock, never knowing if a day trip could turn into an overnight due to bad weather.  Technology makes the job more fun though.  Elijah and I can watch a site online to see where the plane is and when it is headed home to us in Boa Vista.  The schedule also has it's perks as well.  Sometimes a flight is canceled last minute by the missionaries in the village or person who was going to be flown in.  And we wind up with an unexpected family day.  Growing up people used to called me "Stable Stephanie" since I loved stability.  Well "Stable Stephanie" is a friend I haven't heard from in years.  I've learned to relax and go for the ride.  It's more fun that way!

Christmastime always makes me miss family especially.  We had a nice Christmas, and I even somehow found the energy to bake 5 kinds of cookies to give out to people, but I definitely miss being around family at this time of the year.  I'm VERY excited though about my parents coming down to see Audrey and Elijah our family in just a few weeks.  :)

Today we have been married for 7 years!  What?!?  Where is the time going?  7 years feels very official…out of that newlywed couple stage but happier and more committed together than ever.  We look forward to going out to dinner tomorrow night when a friend can watch the kids.

Catch Up - Jeyson

Continuing in catch-up mode, here's a little update on this guy.

Audrey was only about 5 days old in this pic…already learning the art of drinking Brazilian tea from Jeyson

- Jeyson's has been flying as a co-pilot to villages a lot these days.  He's wrapping up the hours required by our mission before he can fly on his own in this region.  He's also getting advanced training on runways so he can be authorized to land on them one by one starting from easiest to most difficult.  (I could write a whole post on the landing strips and what makes each one difficult - mountains, rivers, animals, mud, etc)  

- Right now Jeyson is awaiting news about whether he will be helping to ferry two different planes down to central Brazil.  One could happen any day and other other probably in March-ish.  These will be trips of about 12 hours of flying and very tiring, but great experiences and helpful for the mission.

- Jeyson is really enjoyed spending time in the villages and with the missionaries there whenever he goes for a flight.  He brings home encouraging stories of what's going on and fruit from the jungle too.

- Back on the ground, Jeyson continues as the head mechanic/shop manager.  And he's really good at the job too.  Not that I know personally since I'm so UNmechanical, but all of the other mechanics always speak very highly of his abilities, and especially his ability to diagnose problems.  This is especially important when flying in such difficult areas, where there is no room for mechanical problems.

- Jeyson's a great husband and dad.  Even though he works long hours at work, he is great at balancing time with us at home too.  He also is wonderful at being calm and patient with the kids when I'm at my whits end at moments :)  And he's definitely into dates and not above diaper changes…couldn't ask for more.

Catch Up - Our Base

It's been a long blog-cation!  And after 7 years writing here almost weekly, it turned out to be really nice to have a break.  I'm not sure yet how often I'll be blogging going forward, but I thought I'd take a little time to catch up about what's new in a few posts.  To start off, here's what going on in our base:

- Looks like our base will wrap up the year flying close to 800 hours!  That's a lot of hours in the air to bring missionaries and supplies to villages!  But for each hour in the air, there are many more on the ground in maintenance, loading cargo, refueling, paperwork, communication via radio, and more.  

- Our team of five families (pictured above) are all really dedicated and passionate about the ministry here.  We have our differences in personality, but are committed to being united and focused.  It's a joy to serve alongside these other four families.

- We are all feeling a bit stretched thin with all of the work there is to keep the flight program running.  This is especially true of our pilots/mechanics (above) who often are gone for looong days on flights and even overnights or weeklong trips to villages.  We are looking forward to the possibility of another family joining us here next year.

- We recently had two of the "big cheeses" from Anapolis make their annual trip to our base.  It was great to be able to hear from them in person and get to share with them our mission's experiences, questions, etc.

- Those of us who can make it are looking forward to a mission-wide retreat near the mission headquarters in March.  We're really looking forward to seeing friends who serve at other bases, some of whom we haven't seen since the last retreat 3 years ago!  Should be fun and refreshing!