Back Home?

Well, We are back in Guatemala. But we are in a town called Comitancillo (Comi) while we live in Xela! We were in our apartment for 5 nights before heading out to Comi to work for a week. We are having a good time though, and we are speaking Spanish a lot which is very good.

It has been so long since I last blogged because I hardly have any extra time with all of the travel. It's good to be back.

We have fantastic news! We have a house to rent! It is strange because we could never have a house like this in the states. We are sending a fantastic thank you to all of you who have prayed for us and supported us. God's provision is so complete! I want to tell you all about our house, and as you read it, please do a couple of things.


1: Please Thank God for it. Praise Him for it.

2: Please pray that God would help us to store up treasures only in Heaven, and that we would not become attached to the "things" that we have.







Ok. Our house is right next door to the Coreanos (the other missionary couple here with us with a 14 month old girl). This in itself is such an answer to prayer. It has a 2 car garage, which will fit our truck even with the topper on it. It is 3 stories with no yard. On the top floor is a divided balcony.










The first floor has the garage, a 1/2 bath, two living areas (later a homeschool room) and a large kitchen. The second floor has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths with built in closets in 2 of the rooms and the hallway. The third floor is the roof top patio with another bedroom and bathroom (designed for live in help). We will be putting movies of the house on youtube very soon and will post the links on my next blog.
















Anyway, this is more house than we know what to do with for $50 less per month than we are paying now for a 3 room guest house apartment with rat droppings! We are only going to pay the equivalent of $333.00 and there really is not another house that is this new and clean (even much, much smaller ones) for less. Praise God!

All that to say, we have plenty of room for you to come and visit! We start traditional language school next week, so we will each be in school for 5 hours a day as well as trying to look for and purchase some appliances and furniture for the new house. We are going to try and move into the house by the beginning of April. :)

Getting Better!

Well, I am home from the hospital after my surgery. I feel pretty much ok, so thank you all so much for your prayers! The really crummy thing is not being able to nurse Deacon for the day because of the anesthesia. At first, they were telling me that I couldn't nurse at all for 24 hours after the surgery...weaning Deacon in one 30 hour period is not ideal! I did some research and talked to the anesthesiologist once I was educated on the topic and I got the OK to pump and discard twice and then I could nurse. It was quite a battle with the doctors though! They just didn't want to take the time to do the research! It was just easier for them to say "no nursing!"

There is another thing that you could pray for. I am starting my 3rd day of only clear liquids and it is getting a little old. I won't complain because saints throughout history have fasted and prayed for various things. Now, I am in a forced fast, so I might as well make it spiritual! I want to use this time to pray and get refocused on the love and Christ and my purpose of serving Him.

A real rant

I will say upfront that I am sorry if this offends anyone.

I have a couple of pet peeves that I wanted to rant about.

The first is home births vs. hospital births. With Deacon, I had natural (meaning no medical intervention including drugs) childbirth in a hospital. It was wonderful. I had a blessed experience and would not have changed anything.
That was perfect for me. My issue is when other people have an issue with how people birth their babies. When I was pregnant, I experienced basically two kinds of women. Those who would say "you aren't going to get an epidural are you? You know that can hurt your baby!" and those who said "Natural child birth? What? Well I said that too with my first baby...ha...just wait! Would you go to the dentist and say 'don't want the anesthetic doc...i want this tooth pulled naturally'..." Now, those are the extremes and there were plenty of women who just kept their opinions to themselves, but when the opinion was given, it was like that person knew exactly what was best for me and Deacon.

What happened to grace? What happened to letting people be? Is not the important thing that babies are healthy and secondly that the parents have a good birth experience? I had several women tell me how awful hospitals were and how they would force things on me and how dangerous hospitals really are...Bologna! At least not at every hospital with every doctor. I was not forced into anything, and every one was wonderful and respected my wishes! I also had women tell me horror stories of friends who lost or almost lost their babies because they weren't in a hospital. Fine!

What ever happened to allowing a mom and dad to pray and ask the Lord for guidance and make choices that are right for their family with the applause from others for what ever decision they make. HOME OR HOSPITAL BIRTH IS NOT A MORAL OR BIBLICAL ISSUE...LET PEOPLE BE! augh. This has been building up for a while...and for the record, we will probably have our next baby at home.

The other issue is the home school/private /public school issue. Basically, it is the same as above. For some families and children, home school is the best option! It does not make them socially inept or "weirdos" unless they were already! It helps some children excel in ways that they would or could not otherwise! Think of the child prodigy at the violin, who gets to practice as much as they desire because math class only takes 1/2 hour because the teacher isn't having to pause to make sure every student understands. Or the person with learning disabilities who feels more stupid every day they are at school because they can't learn the way the other students do.

For other families, public or private school is better! There are single moms and other financial circumstances where it is just not possible for a mom to stay at home and school their children when public school is readily available. There are also children who thrive in a more public environment. I would have gone stir crazy in my house with my mom all day, and I can't imagine my life with out the high school choir that taught me so much about team work and discipline and friendship. If every Christian kid was home schooled, who would be the light in the classrooms!

All that to say...what do you care how Mr. and Mrs. Soandso decide to educate their children? Is not the important thing that they get an education to begin with? Let people trust God to lead them to what is best for their family, and let's all let the Holy Spirit be the Holt Spirit and stop trying to take over His job! By the way... we will most likely be homeschooling Deacon for a while at least.

Ok, bravo if you made it all the way through this. :) I needed to get that off my chest.

God Bless!
P.S. For all of you who have given me your opinions over the years concerning various things...please continue to give them. I will! And I know that beliefs of what is "best" stem from love and respect. My issue is more with criticism than with advice. Thin line I guess.

Plans Change

(Deacon and Pa-Pa in Lubbock)

Plans change. Well, we are staying in the states longer than we anticipated. I am having a minor outpatient surgery on Friday and so will stay in Lubbock for an extra week. Don't worry, everything is just fine, it is just a little thing that needs to get done...so we're doing it.

Any way, I still have mixed feelings. The longer that we are here, the more that I get "used" to American things that make life a little more comfortable. I don't want to get used to it. But, I am not going to complain about an extra week with my parents and other family. This will also give us some time to visit a few people while we are here.

Please pray for me. Please pray that I can be diligent to use this extra week to study spanish. Please pray that my little "procedure" goes well. Please pray that God will keep Guatemala "home" in our minds so that we can continue our transition there so that we don't start all over when we do return. 7 weeks in Guatemala...almost 4 in the states. WE NEED TO GET BACK. It will be a while before we come back again.