A (late) Mother's Day post.

I thought it would be fitting this Mother's Day to fill in everyone on why my job is the best job in the world. (I'm going to make up for lost time with a few extra photos of BabyK)

I have a 3 month old son BabyK. He is so precious! He is a very smiley,laughy baby. He really only fusses if he gets over tired. He was sleeping 9 hours a night, but didn't gain enough weight last month so I am having to wake him up in the night to feed him. Sometimes he stops nursing just to look up in my eyes and smile and giggle! And once I start to smile back (who could help it?), meal time is over and I have to try again in a couple of minutes.

He is officially a thumb sucker! He only uses his pacifier at night when he is falling asleep because his arms are tucked by his side in his swaddle blanket!

I also have a 2 year old GirlM. She is a drama queen! We are in the battle of the whine right now. She is also VERY attached to me. At meal times, she wants to be touching me while we eat. If I go upstairs, she wants to "go wit-u." In the kitchen, she will just come and stand between my legs. She is still tiny, but eats enough to keep her alive! :)

She loves to play with her princesses. (A little people castle set) And she has them talk to each other..."where daddy is?...I don know...I go to sleep...Don wake me up!," etc. It cracks me up. And she is learning from her brother. She says everything he says.

She is also very sensitive. She accidentally popped BoyD's balloon while he was napping, and when I said "oh, GirlM!" in just a surprised voice, she started with "i sorry, I sorry, I SORRY" and continued that way crying, grieving and apologizing. It took a good 3 minutes to get her to calm down so that I could tell her not to worry, that we have other balloons.

(There is supposed to be a video here of GirlM...I can't get it to load...so I will post it in a separate blog in a little bit.)

I have another boy, BoyD who is 4 years old. He talks non stop. All the time. And he uses very mature phrases like "This is just so frustrating!" and "Actually." He cracks me up. He makes up stories about every toy, and makes up songs. He even makes up songs in Spanish!

And, he is reading! Just short vowel words now, but he really wants to learn. He is taking piano lessons, and I think that the material is too easy for him so he gets bored. Not sure. He is a very funny and a very sweet kid. He told Brandon the other day that he wanted to go to a little devotional (we were visiting a friend on a mission trip here) because he wanted to learn how to love Jesus more. And every time we read the resurrection story, he gets so excited and says, "He conquered death!" "He rose again!" or "He didn't stay dead!" It just makes my heart happy!

All the Baby Mamas: why babywearing is so much fun!

Easter Weekend in photos

Here's a glimpse of Easter weekend at the Scott house:

Our nightly devotional became a retelling of the Easter week stories. Here is Brandon telling the story of the last supper on our magnet book. The kids are eating some bread and drinking some juice for an object lesson.

On Friday there are these processionals from all of the Catholic churches here. They last around 5 hours and they walk over these "carpets" made by hand out of colored sawdust. Here we are getting loaded up to go and look at the carpets and maybe catch a processional. (Not all of one.)

These carpets are even cooler in person. This guy and his friends had been working on this one since about midnight. The photos were taken around 8:30 in the morning and he was putting on the finishing touches.

This is the beginning of one of the processionals.


Random picture, but this is BoyD in his first night in his big boy bunk bed. That is a story for another post.


We dyed Easter eggs and had a lot of fun!

The Easter bunny brought some interesting things. They don't sell ANY kind of Easter candy here, so we only had like 9 plastic eggs left over from last year. The bunny was very sensible this year. This paragraph is underlined and I can't figure out how to change it!

We got all dressed up for some family photos. Are they cuties or what? Ok that's it.

Raves and Rants

Yeah! Time to blog! Just for the record, I have all kinds of time to sit and blog. I just choose to do other things like sleep, bathe, etc. I have 24 hours in everyday just like the rest of you.

One thing about not blogging very much, and not having time to read all of the blogs that I love, is that I feel much more disconnected. I just have some things to talk about. I have some rants, and a couple of raves.

Rant: Doctors in Guatemala don't care at all about child development. They don't ask questions about it. They also prescribe medicine for the slightest ailment with what seems like little regard for what Mom and Dad think. Parents aren't really part of the process, but more like an appendage to the patient that needs to be "treated."

Rave: I live in a country that has very good medical care. If my kid gets sick, I don't have to travel to some filthy, open air clinic with circuit doctors. I don't have to have medicine (except for the occasional children's Claratin) brought in from the states. I don't have to be care-flighted to another country for emergencies. I can get ultrasounds, x-rays, antibiotics, doctor advice, and all kinds of care for my family with relative ease, just maybe some long wait times and long lines.

Rant: Errand running in Guatemala. To go get cash, pay the electric bill, pay rent, and visit a carpenter, I will most likely need 3+ hours. Maybe more if the lines are long.

Rave: I have a wonderful muchacha that works for us and keeps me sane. She cleans my house, irons my clothes, and has started doing most of the cooking. (you may be wondering why I'm ranting about anything if this is one of my raves)

Rant: The bed that I wanted for BoyD's room is the coolest boat-shaped bunk bed, but will cost $950 to make here, and we can't afford that...because that's almost a thousand dollars for a bed.

Rave: We found a very simple wooden bunk bed for half the price, mattresses included.

Rant: Foolish people. Proverbs 12:15: "The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice."

Rant: My own judgmental heart. Like for some reason, I am that person who knows what those foolish people need to do.

Rave: Prayers for healing. God our Father heals. How cool that we can petition Him when we are sick, and that He is faithful! Does he always say "yes?" No, but He does say "yes" a lot. A lot more when we ask Him more. He has healed BabyK's upset tummy, Brandon's ear ache, and He's working on GirlM's cold, and that is just this last week.

Rave: Godly people who love you. I have a woman who lives here in Xela (a missionary) and every time I talk to her, she blesses my spirit.

Rant: Not sleeping through the night. I know people who get a lot less sleep than I do, and they are doing great (well...they are managing), but I need a lot of sleep. I really need 9 hours a night to "feel" rested. Maybe I can get that when my kids are out of the house. For now, I am dealing with waking 1 or 2 times every night to feed my beautiful baby.

Rave: (Update: Last night he slept for almost 7 hours...and I did too!!!!)

Rave and Rant: Homeschooling. I love that I get to be the one to most influence my children, that I get to teach them what I feel is important, and that I am not going to miss out on important moments. I really don't like fighting BoyD to finish cutting out the number 3. I don't like that it takes him over an hour to color a tree trunk because he just doesn't want to do it and can't find the "right" color brown.

Rave: Disney World

Rave:

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Back in the Saddle Again!

I have really high hopes of eventually having time to regularly blog again. I think at this point that they might be a little...well, unrealistic. But for the moment, I am taking some time to put down some thoughts, events, photos, etc.

Just in case you have any desire to know what is going on in our lives! :)


BabyK is now 5 1/2 weeks old. He is starting to smile. He was (at one point) sleeping 6 hours straight at night, but is now back to waking every 3 hours at night to eat. Sigh. I'm tired, but I know it won't last forever.



Both BoyD and GirlM are adjusting well to the new baby. GirlM is very interested in the baby, but also wants to be in my arms a lot. She is a lot fussier. But, she is eating better and hopefully gaining a little weight.


(The kiddos in a "roller coaster" inside their "house")

The coolest thing I have noticed with the new baby coming and moving back to Guatemala is how well the other two are getting along. They play together all the time. BoyD looks out for his sister and sees her as a friend. They bicker and whine, but overall, they are good buds.

We are trying to unpack. It is really hard to do with 3 kids underfoot making messes as we area cleaning them up. Poco a poco. (Little by little)

BabyK gets way too few baths. He got is first in the tub bath this morning. He was getting a little rank and crusty.



After bath was time for his first cloth diaper! Yeah! Finally! We have been battling a diaper rash b/c the kid poops all the time. Now that the rash is better, I put him in cloth.


The above pictured diaper is one that I made for him. I made it out of Brandon's old t-shirts and it is super soft! I am pretty proud of it, although he is about to grow out of it because it took us 5 weeks to get rid of his diaper rash.

Ok...on to a little more personal note.
I'm very homesick. I miss my mom. I miss clean water and ATM machines and reasonably priced baby equipment. I miss English TV shows. I don't yet feel at home here even though it feels like home because we still aren't unpacked. I feel a little like a stranger again here. The states feel like home but we didn't really feel at home entirely there either because we never had our own space. (Although we were so blessed to have people to stay with that made us feel welcome and gave us as much space as their houses would allow!)

My life feels very out of sorts. I am not used to this as I am a little anal about organization and routine and structure.

• I still can't wear my clothes (and we are going to Disney World in 1 week!). I have 15 more pounds to lose. (with my other kids, I was at pre-preggo weight by 6 weeks...I am getting older, I guess)
• I don't have my closet or my kids' closets organized yet so I don't know wear my socks are or the 3 pair of sweat pants that I can wear.
  
• My kids have not watched TV (thankfully), but have received no education in a long time.
• I don't have any kind of routine as I am getting out of bed at around 9am every morning.
  
• I haven't read my Bible in I don't know how long.

Ok..enough complaining. My life is so blessed by a wonderful husband who gets the older kids up, makes them breakfast so that I can sleep in, and watches the baby so that I can blog. I have 3 wonderful children who make all of the craziness worth it.

Back to work, I guess.

He arrived!

Ok - It is now Monday...I actually wrote this last Thursday (when BabyK was 1 day old) but then things got a little crazy and I didn't have time to post it. Anyway...here you go for anyone who is interested.






Hey everyone! I haven't blogged in a LONG time, but this is too cool not to share.

I am sitting in the hospital holding my new baby boy: BabyK

At around 9am on Wed. morning, my water broke. I had a Dr. appointment already scheduled for 9:50am, so I went to the office instead of straight to the hospital. The doctor gave me the OK to go and walk around or do something until my contractions got super painful, very close, or 4pm. We got to the hospital at 4pm because my contractions were like 8-11 minutes apart and totally bearable. I was still only dilated to a 3 when I got there. So basically, I had not changed since my morning appointment.

By 7pm, I was dilated to a 6 and my contractions were very hard and all around 2.5-3 minutes apart. I was still handling the pain alright, but between contractions I was so tired that I felt as though I was drugged.

By 8:15pm my contractions were feeling like transition contractions (really, really painful), but they weren't getting any closer together. I was not quite dilated to a 7 yet, and was so exhausted that I just couldn't see straight. With my last two babies, by the time the pain got this bad, they were right on top of each other and I knew that I was almost done. I was very frustrated because it didn't seem like I was progressing even though my contractions were so very bad. They even started to spread apart a little bit!

So, out of exhaustion, I received a saddle block at 8:45pm (sort of like an epidural, but just a shot instead of constant medicine and it doesn't last very long). I felt like a weenie because I had already had 2 natural deliveries w/o even wanting pain medicine. But, because my contractions were still so far apart, no one knew how much longer that was going to go on. I was just in tears from being so tired.

Well...40 minutes later it was time to push! Augh! Crazy, right? I mean, had I known that I only had 45 minutes more, I could have handled the contractions!

So...for anyone who might be considering whether or not to take pain medication for childbirth, let me outline my experience and the pros and cons from my perspective.

Positives: 1. I got to rest a little before he came...not sleep, but the contractions were making me so tired. Although he was born so late at night and we were so tired anyway, I am not sure how big of a difference that made.
2. I could still feel to push, but not the "ring of fire" so that was good. His exit wasn't painful, so I was less concerned with my pain and so much more concerned with him coming out. That was cool.
3. The pain stopped. That was huge. Although is was only for 45 minutes, that is at least 15 contractions that I didn't have to endure.
4. Many of the reasons that I didn't want to have any pain medication (Slowing progress of labor, additional complications, medical risks, difficulty pushing, fetal distress, etc) didn't apply/happen because it was so late in the process.
5. It is possible (no one can say for sure) that I progresses so fast after the shot because I was pain free and able to relax. It could still have been hours had I chosen to go au-natural.

Negatives: 1. I couldn't feel my legs. I mean...it was like I was paralized because I felt like I could feel my legs, but there was a disconnect. I had the sensation that my toes were uncomfortable and I wanted to wiggle them and couldn't. I almost panicked then and had to tell myself to get a grip. I can't stress how awful of a feeling that was for me. Seeing my legs move w/o me feeling it was really freaky and actually a distraction from the birth.
2. The feeling to my abdomen returned pretty quickly (w/in an hour) so I felt the contractions that accompanied nursing, etc, but I couldn't feel my legs/feet for several hours. I couldn't stand or transfer from bed to chair or anything. The nurses had to roll me over and carry me out of the bed. That was sucky. I am pretty independent and I really hated that part.
3. Catheters suck.
4. I couldn't get comfy (again b/c I couldn't feel my legs) to nurse or really even sit up very much to hold my baby. I put pillows behind my back, but my rear was numb so if I tried to lean forward, I would fall.


I think if I have anymore children, I don't want the spinal, although I am very thankful that I had it for this birth. I guess I will leave that decision to the moment. It was stressful trying to decide if I wanted it or not, but now I have the memory of each to compare. The birth was better, the after effects were worse. It is a trade off.

Hope that wasn't too much info! :)

BabyK update

Just to keep you informed, we are going to the hospital on Tuesday (not sure when, yet) to try a procedure called external cephalic version. Basically, I get hooked up to an IV, some monitors, and an ultrasound. They will then lube up my belly and try to actually move the baby into a head down position. It works about 50-60% of the time, although there is some small risk of tearing the placenta or distressing the baby. (Hence the IV...just in case an emergency c-section is necessary)

On Monday, I am going to try to see an acupuncturist. I read about a technique where they burn some herb to warm your little toes. That seems to work about the same percentage of the time. Its a little weird, but I'm willing to try just about anything! :)

That is less expensive than the hospital version. I am also spending time with my hips in the air, both on my back and my hands and knees. With light and music near my pelvic bone.

Most importantly, we are praying. Please continue to pray with us! This baby has been fashioned by His hands, and He is in control of where BabyK's head is!

Thanks for praying! I have 2.5 weeks before my due date. We're getting close! :)

Back in the blog world....for the moment.

Well...my routines are totally gone. I am going to bed late and waking up late. I have not read e-mails or blogs. I have not spoken in Spanish.

I have been to the doctor a couple of times, had a kid with a cold, had brithday parties, had a sonogram, watched some recorded "so you think you can dance, and played the Wii that we got for Christmas.

But now it is time to get back to work! Brandon will be teaching through James for my mom's Sunday school class for this month. I will be assisting in that (when he isn't available) so we will be prepping the study together. That will be fun. One of our responsibilities with CAM is that we are "member care" for our team. I have totally neglected that, so I will be getting in touch with our team members this week and caring for them! :) We have to make several appointments with individuals and churches coming up. Plus, I will still be trying to take care of my kiddos. :)

Oh, and I have a HUGE prayer request:
BabyK was measuring a little small, so I went in for a sonogram to check position of the baby and to check measurements. Turns out that the reason that I was measuring small, was because he is breech and his rear end is sunk way down in my pelvis.

I will be calling my doctor here in a minute to talk to her about options. From talking to the specialist (the one who did the sonogram) and from reading on-line, most doctors will not attempt to deliver a breech baby. Although breech babies can be born vaginally, most doctors won't do it. They just don't have the experience doing it nowadays to have the skills necessary. It is a much more complicated birth.

Anyway, there are all kinds of methods to get the baby to turn over. One of those, one of the more successful, is a chiropractic method, but there are no chiros certified in this method in Lubbock. I am also trying to get in all kids of bizarre positions to try to coerce him to roll over. We will be trying light and sound to try to get him to move.

Finally, there is a method that OBs use. I would go to the hospital and they would monitor all kinds of things, and the doctor tries to manually make the baby somersault. Worst case scenario, something tears or the baby gets too distressed, and they have to do an emergency c-section.

Not sure yet what my doctor is willing and able to do.

We are beseeching the Lord to do this for us. Please pray with us. With our time line to get back to Guatemala, me having a c-section is really not the best option.

All that to say, we want to do what is safest for BabyK, and we know that God knows what is best. Please just pray with us. Please ask Him to turn that baby. I will be doing what I can to get him to move.

I'll keep you posted!

A Year in Review: the Kiddos 2009

What a day!

Ok! Another post about life in Guatemala.

Today we had an appointment in Guatemala City at 10am, and it is normally a 3 1/2 hour drive with no traffic. We were all loaded and in the car at 5am. By 5:10, we were driving away from the house. So far so good! We had planned on encountering some traffic entering the city during the morning rush hour. GirlM has the croup, but is hanging in so far.

About 50 minutes into the trip (the kids had not gone back to sleep) GirlM gets car sick and throws up. Luckily, she had not yet eaten breakfast, so it wasn't too nasty.

We have to stop so the pregnant lady can go to the bathroom. This particular potty consisted of a very small toilet with no seat and no way to flush. It cost the equivalent of 12 cents to use it. It was totally dark. The good thing was that the door locked, so at least I felt a measure of safety. And there was a rooster crowing right outside of the door to keep me company. The floor was wet with I don't want to know what, so I rolled my pant legs up over my knees before pulling my pants down so that they didn't drag on the ground.

I guess I paid the money so that someone could come after me and flush. Pretty gross, but is was better than trying to go on the side of the road. I just am very thankful that we had our own TP so that I could cover the seat before sitting down, and very, very thankful that we had hand sanitizer in the car.

On our way again we drive another 1 1/2 hours to find ourselves at a road block. Now, here in this beautiful country, there are VERY few alternate routes. There are basically two ways to get to the City from Xela: The coast road, and the mountain road. They both branch off at Xela, and the only road that connects them is filled with bandits and the US embassy has discouraged its use. The road block was because of a demonstration and had rocks in the road, a little violence, and burning tires. We waited there for over an hour, and then after some prayer and fasting (we didn't really fast) decided to try to find an alternate route through the mountains to a town farther down on the same highway. But not before giving GirlM some medicine for her climbing fever and apparently sore throat.

We had to backtrack for about 20 minutes and then ended up on a really, really curvy mountain road covered in pot holes. Ok...we drive for another 30 minutes before BoyD gets carsick and vomits. He had eaten breakfast. So I am turned around in the car "catching" the vomit in his blankie getting a little splattered in the process. No problem, except that I start feeling very motion sick from having to be turned around until Brandon found a safe place to pull over.

We get the boy cleaned up and give him a chance to empty his bladder on the side of the road. I get peed on as I am trying to help him. Sigh.

Back on the road, but pretty soon I have to start driving because I can't shake the nausea. We drive on road that consists of series after series of hairpin turns, bridges wide enough for one and a half cars, and pot holes, until we come to another road block. These demonstrators know what they are doing, and are effective at keeping honest folks from traveling in their country. We wait there long enough for Brandon to talk to some cops. We find out that the blockade is indefinite. There were no plans to open it up. By this time, it is around 11:30 in the morning, we have missed our appointment and the immigration lawyer is trying to find us another appointment.

So...we turn back around. We go back through the curvy road to get back on the highway. We finally eat lunch at about 12:30, and make it home by 3:30. GirlM slept a little in the car after she threw up, and BoyD had been awake the whole time.

We all took a nap when we got home. So we are going to try this again on Friday. Pray for us! :)

I'm going to bed.

A little note about giftedness:

I really don't have time to blog right now. I am cramming as much in my day as I can and still be a wife and mother. But, I ran across this in my preparations for the Bible study that I am teaching and I really wanted to share it. So, I will take 15 minutes "off" and write this out. Not that anyone is reading this anymore since I only post every once in a while, but here it goes anyway.

This is a quote from Howard Hendricks from his book Living by the Book regarding application of Scripture, and more specifically, the Great Commission. (If you have never read this book, please go out and buy it and read it. It is amazing.

"So when it comes to "making disciples," some people will do that by teaching, because that's what they do best. Some will do it by modeling and mentoring, because that's what they do best. Some have a giftedness for influencing people, so they will focus on proclaiming the gospel in very straightforward, impactful ways, because that's how they are most effective. Some will come alongside unbelievers and build relationships and live out the gospel, so that over time they stimulate curiosity about what makes them different. Some will take the approach that Andrew took with his brother, Simon Peter (John 1:40-42): they will bring their friends to people who have the ability to explain the gospel much more effectively than they can. Some will participate in teams that go into the world and do specific projects aimed at drawing people to Jesus. Some who have a talent for telling a story will write books in which they relate their own journeys of faith in ways that are very compelling to an unsaved reader."

This is my question: What am I doing? How am I applying the Great Commission? How are you applying it? What are you doing? Not being an "evangelist" or a "pastor" or a "missionary" is no excuse. (For me, either)

Be encouraged that no matter what you are gifted in, the Lord Jesus created you to do specific good works, and we are commissioned to "go" and "make disciples." We are not called to be something that we are not, just to do something because of who we are.

The Great Experiment - (can you do it?)

I have unintentionally been conducting an experiment. I mean, my life has been very different over the past couple weeks than it was previously. I want to explain, share, and invite you to try this with me.

Those of you who have been active at our Flower Mound, TX church will be very familiar with this analogy. It is not one that I came up with, but is one that I have found to be INCREDIBLY true to life.

We each have two creatures living in us. (Well...those of us who have the Spirit of God dwelling in us.)

These two creatures are constantly fighting for control of our thoughts, emotions, will, etc. One of these creatures, I will say, wants us to be "of the world." That is, worldly in our thoughts, actions, responses, etc. The other creature wants us to be holy in all that we do. The stronger creature will win in any given battle. The battle over how to react to a screaming toddler. The battle over how to react in really bad traffic. The battle over whether or not we take the time to pray when we see an immediate need. The battle over finding time to be in the Word of God. The battle over whether or not to share that little nugget of interesting "information" about our neighbor with someone. I could go on and on.

Now, what determines which creature is stronger? How come we just can't seem to keep our thoughts away from criticizing that other person at the grocery store?

The creature that is fed the most, will be the strongest.

I have experienced much frustration over wanting to think more holy, act more holy, be more like Christ, but just finding my mind during the day thinking of other things. Not necessarily "bad"things (although that can certainly be an issue as well), but just things that are not beneficial. I will have some wonderful time in the the morning in prayer with every intention and desire to have my thoughts on God all day. To be experiencing His presence. And then, at the end of the day, I look back, and I was as self absorbed and distracted as always. (What I mean by self absorbed is that I am concerned with my life primarily...my to-do list, my issues, my schedule, my kids schedules, etc)

Now, to the experiment. Over the past few weeks I have been insanely busy. I get up at 5am and go to bed around 9:30. I don't have time for TV (we lost they only channels that I watch anyway, so I'm not even tempted), reading fiction, surfing the internet, exercising, or really any extra curricular activities. I have been making gifts, making bread, cooking, keeping the house picked up, but mostly it has been the following.
1. I am preparing, translating, and teaching a class on "how to study the Bible" for women from our church.
2. I have been doing all of the homework that I assign them for the class (which is a lot of time in the Bible).
3. I have been spending a lot of time in prayer for this study and for the women in it.
4. Before going to bed at night, to settle down my mind, I read 1-2 pages in a book called Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.

All of my "spare" time is doing numbers 1-3. I am even taking some time off from those things to write this blog because it has been on my mind to do it for quite a while and the desire + opportunity will go away if I put it off any longer.

Ever since all of this began, I have noticed that my mind is more focused on the Lord. I turn to God more rapidly when a question arises, when someone is hurt/sick/suffering. I pray more throughout my day. I am more aware of the presence of God! I realized that I have been feeding one creature (the Spirit) and starving the other (the flesh)! I mean, I have always believed that that was true, and hence the value in a devotional time, but I don't know that I had really experienced before the effects of really starving the flesh creature!

So...I am going to continue along these lines for a while. (I am forced to by all of the things I need to do, including preparing a lesson and a sermon for a church this coming weekend) I am even choosing to read more Bible stories to my children instead of just fiction.

Will you join with me? For a week, maybe two? Will you try my experiment? Will you stop watching TV (just for a week!) and stop listening to secular radio, and stop reading anything other than the scripture (or devotional books, or Christian non-fiction, etc)? Will you use that extra time (most likely you will have some) to read the Bible, pray, listen to Christian music?

I would love for you to do this with me, if you aren't already. Then we could compare notes.

Disclaimer: I am in no way opposed to any of the things that I mentioned that we sacrifice for a week! I am not saying that they are sinful, or inherently bad, or un-holy, or anything!!!! Please don't read it that way. It is just that those things don't feed the creature that we want to be the strongest. (Normally, they don't) We as believers should not be so removed from the world that we are ignorant of what is going on around us. We should not isolate ourselves from everything "worldly" and move out to a monastery (although there is nothing wrong with that!). This is just a short term experiment to watch how this truth plays out in our lives.

Will I stop watching all TV after this busy time is over? Most likely not. Will I stop reading fiction all together? Probably not, but I do believe that I will be making some changes after this time. What those permanent changes will be are still yet to be determined.

Let me know if you will participate with me.