Merry Christmas!

I know it is the 25th of December, but it fees nothing like Christmas today. 

Everything that I remember about Christmas as a child, or even as a parent, is so different from the Christmas we are experiencing this year.  We are happy, together, and enjoying Christmas for what it is, but without all the expensive decorations and fancy parties.  We are sad to be away from all our family back home, but glad to be with the family here as well.  I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful Christmas, for those in St.Louis, a white Christmas, and taking a day to relax and spend with family and friends. 

I was able to spend some time in the garden this morning. How strange! The tomatoes are green, the sweet potatoes are blooming, and the peas are climbing like crazy.  We had our first few green beans today, and there should be plenty more to come. 

This is our little tree. It really makes our home feel merrier.

 It might give Charlie Brown a run for his money.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Three, going on an on....

Things have been hectic around here. After thanksgiving, we have st started our Agriculture project full force, and keeping everything else under control.  Jacob is now potty trained, and doing an amazing job.  The first day he went with dry pants all day long, we took him into town to celebrate, and had a party, complete with  chips, soda, yogurt and candy.  All of his favorite things.  Jacob is getting so big, and today is turning Three! I can't believe it!

 It has been a while since we have posted, and I wanted to get you all up to speed, but it seems impossible to write everything that happens.  The boys are doing fine, and enjoying the busyness of the season. Jacob's request for his birthday was a bonfire with hot dogs and marsh mellows, and a green cake.  I will have to post more pictures again soon. 

Joshua is definitely growing and getting into more trouble each day.  He is now crawling and saying mama and dada.  It is so funny how they boys seem to push each other along.  Now that Joshua is pulling himself up in his crib, he has gotten himself stuck between the slats.

Last week there was a Motorcycle race in Canilla, where we live. David and Joseph both raced and placed int he top three. It was a good time for the whole family, as we were all involved and helped hold things together.

You can see a video of the race on YouTube at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht7zLOYxjnY

 
Ryan has been busy planting his fields, and hopes to finish today. After a week of watering, we had a few days before Ryan would be able to get into the ground to work it, and went to Guatemala city to renew our visas, and take some time off. We stayed at the Tikal Futura hotel which has a pool, and it's own mall.  We really enjoyed the time away, and posted a small video of our trip onto youtube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkm4dwmQpjk

The video is short, and only viewable through the link.
 
 
 
 
 
This is a quick look at what Ryan has been up to with the property he is renting. 


Water the first piece of ground with sprinklers before planting.



Jacob testing the sprinkler radius.



Jacob helping haul away the water tubing.




Manually applying the fertilizer and lime.



Soaking the black bean seeds in milk as a natural inoculate.



Planting bean seeds on piece two.




Overlapped rows, to use the planter that is designed for corn, to plant the beans witch need closer spacing.



Sweet.....Potatoes!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!! Or here as we call it,

 'Dia de Gracias'.  We are getting all the lunch preparations under way and the Turkey is in the oven, thanks to Leslie.  We will be having sweet potatoes with our turkey today thanks to whoever planted a starter in my garden. I was so excited yesterday, when it was time to harvest, we only planted one plant, but we got about 10 pounds of potatoes out of it. I have a dozen more growing, and they should be ready in about four months.

Thelma's puppies are doing well. They are eating food, and lots of it.  The boys enjoy playing with all of them, and the puppies like to lick and chase the boys around.

Joshua is trying desperately to crawl, but can't seem to get his stomach off of the ground. He ends up sliding across the floor to get into whatever he wants.   

 

 Jacob is enjoying the weather, and playing outside. He enjoys playing in water and mud.  Jacob is just learning to count. We hear him counting to  himself...'1, 2, 5, 9, 14, 3, 10.'  He always ends on ten. It is so funny listening to him. He is enjoying watching the sesame street Christmas eve show, and seems to be completely oblivious to any holiday today, or anytime in the future.

Ryan is continuing to work with his rental property, and with the John Deere planter ready and adjusted for the beans here, we are awaiting one more trip to the city for fertilizer, and hopefully the beans will be in the ground. 

Clinics were consistently busy this week with children who had respiratory infections, were dehydrated, and miserable. 

This little girl cam in sick, but we were shocked by her size. She is three years old, and only weighs about 20 pounds. We added her to our nutrition program, and will continue to monitor her growth and health for the next few years.

We hope everyone has a happy thanksgiving. We wish we could spend it with everyone, but we are thankful for our time here, and looking forward to seeing everyone again soon. 

rel qk

I just wanted to update you:  the 'verry sick child' that came last week to our clinic in Chiminisujaun on Tuesday, returned this week.  We were so excited to see him doing much better.  The week before we spent several hours with him, and he barely cried or whimpered. He was too tired to even blink.  This week he was squirming and squawking, and giving his mama a run for her money.  We are so glad to see that he is feeling better, and I wanted you to know that your prayers and support came through for this little boy.  Thanks again.

We have enjoyed a few quite days to re plan and rethink our goals and strategies.  Last week Ryan began plowing and dicing a three acre piece of property that he will be leasing. The hope is to plant beans on the property to either sell or use for our own feeding program.  The boys have enjoyed the extra time with their dad on the tractor, and I know Ryan hasn't minded it either.

Our dog Thelma had her pups as well last week.  She had nine puppies, 5 males, 4 females, and all healthy. 

We are thankful to have the month of October behind us as it always bring a very depressing mood over our valley and the rest of the country, especially during the local "Day of the Dead" festivities.  We retreated to Chiminisujuan again on Tuesday as normal, just as the parties were getting under way, and due to a very sick child needing IV fluids, we weren't able to return home again until latter in the afternoon. Coincidentally, after all the holiday traffic and hoopla had died down. 

Full of Hot Air

Our friend Ivan from St.Louis, came to visit this week. He has been coming along to clinics and making balloon animals for all the kids, and sometimes the adults.                

We are seeing a change in the welfare of our communities, continuing on from past weeks.  It always seems such a struggle to decide who is really in need.  As the harvest season here comes to an end, some of the families we have been helping with food and corn are able to support themselves again and no longer need our help.  We are so glad each time one on these families has had a fruitful season and can make do with what they have. For each family who achieves this, we meet another new family who is in dire need of help with food for all and supplemental nutrition for the children. We met one woman in our San Andreas clinic today who came in asking for milk for her 2 year old. When we asked her why she didn't have an adequate supply of breast milk, she explained that she had an infant at home  in addition to her other 8 children, giving her 10 all together. On top off all of her complicating circumstances, we also learned that she is now pregnant with her 11th.  It always amazes me that the children, even though they may be struggling with hunger or a medical illness, always respond to a gesture of love and kindness. As important as  medicine or food, or as seemingly insignificant as a balloon animal, it is all little reminders that God has not forgotten them, that we have not forgotten them, and that you have not forgotten them either.  Thanks for checking in! 

To Teach

Tuesday we had clinic in Chiminisujuan. The road was clear enough to enable us to drive the entire way there. We were able to bring several workers to help keep up the building and do some maintenance. We saw around 65 patients and families on our nutrition program. Many children with colds and some with Pneumonia. One girl in particular came seeking formula for her son. When we asked her why she wanted formula she just explained that she had been buying it for her 4 month old, and would rather have us give it to her. We were all frustrated with her mentality. She explained that she did not breast feed her baby, and couldn't, just because. We explained to her that she would not be getting formula for her son on our nutrition program, but we would be willing to teach her to breast feed again and coach her along the way. My heart was broken for this young mother as I watched her try to nurse her baby again. At just 16, watching her eyes well with tears, we tried to encourage her to not give up, and that she would be able to nurse her baby just fine if she could only make the commitment to work at it. I have thought of her often this week, and wonder if she has stuck with it or not. I wish we could spend more time with young mothers, teaching them and showing them the options that they have, and that their old ways and mentality are not exactly accurate and sensible.  I am very fortunate for the education that I received in school, but the people here do not have the same opportunities.

On our way down the mountain, we passed the young mother walking back to her home, up a steep hill, likely heading to another hard trail, and I am praying that she can make it through the next few weeks, and can find some sense in what we have taught her, that she may return to our clinic, trusting us a little more each time, until she can trust us about Jesus.