Trip to Florida...Fun in the Sun!

We've been busy!  On April 1st we arrived in Florida for our first orientation/training week with a mission agency called Pioneers.  We flew on a smaller airline that only flies on Mondays and Fridays in the spring months, so we had a day before the training started to visit with our friend Angela.  She took us to the beach and we had a great time...we pretty much spent every spare minute talking our heads off!  lol

I really did not expect Miguel to actually get in the water since it was a bit of a chilly day, but he did!  He and Angela's kids had a blast braving the waves, digging in the sand and having mud fights.  I was the victim of this particular mudball! 

After the orientation, Miguel headed south for Venezuela and I spent the weekend with Angela again before flying back to Arkansas.  Of course we had to go back to the beach again...this time I was the one who hung out with Angela's kids in the waves...it was great! 

Another highlight of this trip was getting to hang out for an evening with some of my MK friends I grew up with in Colombia.

There were other highlights, too, like the visiting owl, margaritas at Mi México, the slightly dismembered lizard the cat drug in, Spanish moss, wild turkeys and sandhill cranes, lunch with a rooster and so much more...I am treasuring these memories...

Family Fun Day Part I-Morning Activities

Every year, our school for MKs holds a Family Fun Day out at the Rancho Siloé, our organization's training institute north of town. All of the kids in school are divided into four teams and compete against each other in many different events according to their grade levels. This year, Family Fun Day fell on October 30 (which was also Micah's actual birthday, which is why we had his party the day before), the day after our Big Snow (see this post)...after the 'weather event' of the day before, we were blessed with a truly perfect day for Family Fun Day! Not too hot, not too cold, clear blue skies and plenty of sun!

JD (in the red cap) participated in the mile run

for the high schoolers, the first event of the day for them.

JD was on the yellow team and earned some points

for his team by coming in third.

It was a little hard for Miguel and I to keep track

of all four kids while they participated in

different events at the same time...

but we did pretty well at getting around and watching

their main events.

Jojo was on the pink team! Members of the

pink team were also allowed to wear red

in case they didn't care to sport pink shirts!

Here he is posing with the rest of the

kindergartners and his friend Isaac.

Gracia during the ball toss. Gracia was

on the black team.

Checking in with JD during the running
long jump. He came close to breaking the school record!

Jojo won the kindergarten sprints...look at him go!

Jojo won all of the events he participated in!

Micah (in the middle with blue jeans) running his sprints...

he came in second after a run-off. Micah was on the blue

team, but wore a red sash since they didn't have

enough blue ones...it was a little confusing...

We were very proud of Gracia for coming

in second in her sprints...

After the main sports-type events, the elementary students

had some fun games and continued to try to

collect points for their teams.

Anaconda Adventure

I just got these pictures from a friend of mine whose parents used to be my parents coworkers way back when we lived "at the Lake". I am so excited because I am always telling my kids stories about when I was growing up and don't often have the pictures to go along with the stories (and to prove that they are true!).

My parents joined this tribal team in 1980 and our family spent about 5 years living at the Laguna Pavon (Bass Lake) location before moving inland. It's kind of a long story, but the reason the houses were built in the middle of the lake was that this was a contact work and the Macú-Nukak people were rather hostile at the beginning. It took several years to overcome the fear they had of the missionaries and to build their trust. Ironically, they thought the missionaries would possibly kill and eat them, whereas I'm sure the missionaries wondered the same about them!

Anyway, this first picture is an aerial view of our houses and the airstrip. Our family's house was the second from the "top". Two of the houses were on stilts and the other floated on huge blocks of styrofoam-the fourth building was a small floating storage building. Looking back now, I can see how this living situation was a HUGE challenge for my Mom, especially with a toddler (my little sister) who had a penchant for falling in the water...but for us girls it was basically an adventure! We spent many carefree days swimming, canoeing, and exploring. Lots of memories there...



This is what the houses on stilts looked like. This was our coworkers house; ours was much the same...

I am the most excited about getting this picture! This is a picture of the 18 foot anaconda that my dad killed one day (at the other end of the lake, although there did see some on our end, too, including a small one my dad found climbing up the stairs to our house...). He had seen it sunning itself on the bank in the late afternoons, so he took my oldest sister, Teresa, and the shotgun down there one day and nabbed it. I remember being pretty disgusted that he didn't take me! He was able to skin it and we took it back with us when we went home on furlough. When we would speak at churches, he would unroll it onto one of the back pews for people to get a sense of how big these things could get. One day a lady came in late to one of the services where my dad was speaking and slipped into the back pew...imagine her surprise when she realized what she was sitting on! I don't think she ever forgot about us! Anyway, left to right is my dad, me, Kimberly & Jason (our coworkers kids), sisters Kathy and Teresa. I imagine that my sister Chrissy wasn't too interested in holding a snake! LOL!

We were standing on the dock below our house. I can tell that it was dry season because the water level is so low. The lake and the area all around it flooded during rainy season because the location was close to a very large river.

Wow, what memories these photos bring back...

Scattered Thoughts

My thoughts have been so scattered lately that it's hard even to sit and write a post unless I have pictures to sort of clue me in as to what to write! Well, it's hard to sit and write, period, because I keep getting interrupted...Jkaile likes to yank on my arm every few seconds, it seems, and while I'm trying to teach him to just put his hand on my arm, he doesn't seem to be getting the picture...

Miguel is on a trip right now, he and a colleague are at the Rio Grande Bible Institute representing our organization at their mission's conference. I'm really excited that he can go and I'm sure it will be a very interesting experience for him...but I'm really missing him here at home!!! I feel really scatterbrained and afraid I'll do something silly, like lock myself out of the house (which explains why I'm wearing my keys!). I did that once and had to wait outside for over an hour until Miguel got home...yeah. I'm sure somebody has extra keys to our house, but then I'd have to admit that yes, I locked myself out and that would be embarrassing...



I have been able to spend some good time with the kids, though, and I'm grateful that I'm feeling pretty well this week. I am getting tired, yes, but it's been manageable so far. I just have to remember to take care of myself...sounds funny, but I don't always do a good job of it! For one thing, making it a priority to be receiving my strength from God by staying connected through prayer and the Word. For another, not overestimating what I can do and then regretting not having rested more later...nearly every Mom can testify that the hours between 5 and 7 p.m. or so can be quite stressful! Everyone seems to be tired, cranky, demanding, hungry, etc. So if I don't rest in the early afternoon, I crash in the late afternoon and this week I have no back-up. That's one of the times that I really miss having Miguel's help with the kids...the other time being in the mornings, getting the kids ready for school. So I've been pacing myself and so far, so good.

This afternoon Gracia and I played some card games while Jojo and Jkaile were still sleeping...sad to say, she won nearly all the games we played! And then tonight I built a fire (is it just me, or do all MKs like to build bonfires?!) and we roasted hot dogs, tortillas, plátano, potatoes, and eggs (still need to work on the egg thing, but they were pretty good). The kids loved it (Jkaile a little too much, had to work hard to keep him away from the fire!), it was something different, and we didn't really add any dirty dishes to the pile!

See...still got my keys on...

What MKs do for fun

This morning, some of the high school boys showed up at our house and asked if they could play in our yard. We were happy to oblige and I enjoyed watching the 'show' (yes, yes, I know, guns and shooting and war is kind of controversial...maybe they are future Marines?)! It kind of looks like fun, although I'll bet those little pellets can give a sting! Probably why they are in sweatshirts and sunglasses?

Living in the city like we do, there is probably not a whole lot for the kids to do...this is a whole different experience than I had! The boarding school I attended growing up was out in the country and we had lots of room to roam and play. Every day was a new adventure, climbing trees, riding horses, swimming in the creek, going to the river, eating mangos and guayabas...so much to do! When I was younger, we only had electricity from a generator from 6-10 p.m. in the evening (well, I guess they turned it on a few mornings a week so people could do laundry...oh yes, and a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon so we could watch Little House on the Prairie or other shows), so we didn't watch much t.v. or play video games--we spent most of our time outside. Watching these guys play today brought back memories of the games we used to play...capture the flag (in the dark spread across the whole property-terrifying for me when I was younger!), soccer, flag football, slaves (don't ask!), etc.

Our interests seem to come in seasons, for a time skateboards were the rage, then marbles, then match-box cars, then water-balloons (we would name them and tenderly care for them for weeks at time!), then bicycles, basketball, baseball, etc. I'm sure I drove my parents crazy begging for each new "thing". I never did get a bicycle, though, even though my little sister got one later...hmmm...