What is Going On?

And the answer to that question is NOTHING! Wow, we have just come off of the most relaxing weekend and it looks like it will be more of the same this week. I love summer! I have to brag on my kids for a minute! They have been doing so good this summer, getting along and playing! We have been at home today doing not much of anything. I straightened up the house and did some laundry. This afternoon Kayla and I made cards. All different shapes, sizes, and occasions of cards. I'm going on a girls scrapbook weekend in a few weeks and I have been cleaning out my stuff and trying to decide what I need before I go, so we took a bunch of that stuff that I wanted to get rid of and used it to make cards. We had a big time!
Tyler is still doing great with the pottying. Craig and I are wondering when the amazement will wear off for us. I mean, he comes in the house or stops whatever he's doing and says, "mom, I'm going to the bathroom, I have to go poop", and THEN, HE DOES IT!!! It is the coolest thing! I mean, seriously, if he was old enough, I would buy him a sportscar or something! He has had two play dates with Logan this past week, so he thinks he is quite the big boy!
We had a great 4th of July. We went over and spent the evening with the Hyders, chowing tacos and playing dominoes. It was a lot of fun. If you read this and you happen to know James, ask him how he liked his gift from Mexico! James and I have a running competition of who can get the worst gift for the other. Suffice it to say that I'm winning! We went to the Fredericks for lunch on Sunday and Holly was kind enough to send Gertrude back home with me. I think lunch was a ploy to get me to take the machine home! Graceful Designs is hosting an online "Christmas in July" sale. I will be posting details soon!
Craig has gone to Lowe's tonight to order our countertops. Yikes! We have spent weeks now going back and forth over countertops and tile for the backsplash. We finally came to a decision this weekend, only to change our mind again. Now we have really made a decision and once these countertops are ordered there is no changing our minds!
Well, I think that is all that is going on around here for now. Goodness, I hope I don't have to start making up stuff to blog about. All of the sudden our life has gotten boring... How did that happen?

The Last of Mexico

After the last day of clinic it was probably close to 8:30 when we got back to the hotel. We had tables reserved for us out in the dining room where they do this Mexican fiesta thing and have "Old Men Dancing" and a mariachi band. It was pretty cool. The food was good and was the closest thing to authentic Mexican food that we had all week. I think we all hit our local Mexican restaurants as soon as we got home! I have to post a video of the Old Men Dancing. I still haven't decided for sure if they were really strange or if it was okay. Mostly I think it was pretty strange. It was kind of like Mexican tap dancing. See for yourself and let me know what you think. I will warn you though - it is loud...


On Friday, we had our finally day of devotions. Wow, what a great fellowship time we all had this week. Bro. Terry talked about the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus told the lame man to rise, pick up his bed, and walk. Bro. Terry's interpretation is "get up, get over it, and get on with it". How true is that? It has made me think about so many petty things that I get wrapped up in and just wallow in when really - shouldn't I just get over it? Anyway, we finished up devotions and then began our tour to some different areas around Patzcuaro. We saw how masks are made. That was a freaky visit. The Mexican people are big into this "Day of the Dead" thing, so there are lots of skulls and scary looking things like that. I will post a picture below. We left there and went to see how they make sombreroes. That was kind of cool. We had to walk for a little ways to get there and some of my traveling companions were sweet enough to enlighten me that I was walking through sewerage! Yep, it pretty much just runs right through the middle of the streets. That was nice. We left there and ended up going back into Patzcuaro to shop around this little square in the middle of town. That was neat. So many cool things to see. They make a lot of potholders and blouses and we even saw the room where they make much of their own fabric. They also do a lot of stuff with cornhusks and that was kind of neat. I brought Kayla back a straw purse and Tyler got a Mexican guitar. After shopping all day and an unending ride on the bus we ate dinner at this little pizza place in downtown Patzcuaro. Yep, pizza in Mexico - how funny is that? It had hot dogs on it. I could've done without that, but, otherwise, it wasn't too bad. The best part was that they had cold Diet Coke. You can't use the ice over there and so most of what we drank was room temperature so when you found something cold you snatched it up quick!

On Saturday, Sadonna and I were up at 1a.m. to be ready to load the bus at 2:30. We left our hotel at 2:50 a.m. and drove the 1 1/2 hours to Morelia and then began the journey back home. When we hit Houston it was about 10:00 a.m. We all converged on the Wendy's in our gate area begging for huge Diet Cokes, hamburgers, and french fries. You have never tasted anything so good, except for maybe the cheese dip we had at Monterrey on Sunday night! When we got to Atlanta, the kids and Craig were waiting for me with signs and big smiles. I was so excited to see them. We had a great ride home from Atlanta just talking about our week, until I completely crashed. I was so tired that I could barely hold my head up!!! It has taken a few days for me to catch up on my rest and get back into the swing of things, but I think I'm there. Now I'm wondering what in the world I will blog about - Mexico is over and I think Tyler is poopy trained - he is doing so good! What adventure will we find ourselves on next???


The mask man! He was creating a mask out of that big stump of wood that you see.

These are some of the weird masks that we saw. I didn't buy anything at this shop!

Sadonna and I with one of the old men.
Okay, everyone wanted to know why in the world I was taking pictures of PVC, but with all of the renovating that we have been doing in the kitchen I had to take these pictures to show to Craig. This was a tool store on the square where we ate lunch on Friday. We got to Home Depot and Lowes and they go here!

Mexico - Post 3

I think this will probably conclude my Mexico posts - thanks for sharing this me. So many of you have told me how you prayed for us and I just want you to know that the prayers were felt by all of us.

Last day of Clinic - 6/26/08

This was a crazy day. We saw over 40 children. The morning was pretty calm and most of these 40 kids came through after lunch. We worked at seeing patients until after 6:00 that night. We had two patients come through that were having some issues with their anatomy - that's all I'm gonna say about that. I have to tell you though, we are so spoiled. You know we are used to private examination rooms for even the most basic health problems. In Mexico, if you have a clothed body part that has to be looked at you have about three people come over and hold a sheet up around you. Yea, pretty crazy, huh? We had one little boy come through that was around 4 years old. He got pulled off the line out front because Holly thought he had Spinobifida. His mother was holding him because he could not stand or walk by himself. Dr. T, bless his heart, he is such a gentle soul. He took that little boy by the hand and walked with him around the sanctuary. The little boy let go of his hand and walked several steps by himself. Everyone in the pediatric area cheered. The smile on that little boy's face was a look that I pray God never lets me forget. He was so proud of himself. The pastor's wife was trying to get some sort of therapy worked out for him. If only their parents knew what kind of exercises to do with them and then actually did them, so many of these kids would be better off. The other patients that stood out from this day were this sweet brother and sister that came in - I don't even remember what they came for now, but the grandmother told us that their father beats them and only feeds them twice a day and it is the same food over and over again. Wow. That will make you stop and think. Can I tell you all how many times last week I considered what would happen if I tried to bring some of those kids home with me? In all seriousness, when you spend a week in that you just want to love on those children and on your own children. It also makes you want to try to make your own children understand what good lives they have. One of our children, who will remain unnamed, is in this stage where nothing is good enough. That has been really hard to deal with this week. I pray that one day we will be able to do a mission trip like this as a family and that it will impact my children like it impacted me. I have always considered myself as being pretty content. I haven't always been that way, but the last several years I've felt like I was content. After this week, I just walked away with a new perception of contentment for so many different areas of my life. You find yourself asking, "do I really need that?". I don't know if this is making any sense, but I guess when you see how little these people have you just realize that you could do without so much frivolous stuff. Okay, I realize as I'm typing this that I still haven't sorted through all of my thoughts on that subject and that is why I'm rambling so let me move on.
After we ended clinic on Thursday, the church did a farewell service for us. Our group sang, " I Will Never Be the Same Again", and then the choir members that we had with us sang, "Lord, I Believe." It was incredible. Before the service began I had a chance to talk with Pastor David about the week and how much it had meant to me. Imagine my surprise when during the service he asked for people to give testimonies. When nobody from our group volunteered, he called me by name to come up front. If you know me at all, you know that I do NOT do this. I feel like I'm going to vomit if I even think I might have to speak in front of a crowd. I get nervous when I'm meeting with a couple of clients at work by myself. Well, the thing about this is is that I knew God had worked on me that week and I knew I could give a testimony, but God knew that I never would on my own, so He pushed me. I wish I could remember what I said, but I don't and by the time I got back to my seat I thought I was going to have to excuse myself to go to the bathroom and be sick. Sadonna was even shaking for me!
There was so much love in that sanctuary Thursday night. I had one girl come up to me and just grab my neck and hug me and say, "I love you, I love you" over and over again. Talk about humbling.

Journal Entry from Today--
"...I wish I could put into words everything that this week has meant to me, but I'm not sure I can. Things I have prayed over for months have been answered this week. Struggles over situations that I realized this week that I am growing a root of bitterness over - "get up, get over it, and get on with it" - thank You Lord for Bro. Terry who doesn't mince words and always hits me right between the eyes. I have prayed that God would bring back the joy of the crucifixion in my life and yesterday, He really brought it home. Jesus left the unexplicable joy of walking with His Father on the streets of Heaven to come to this earth and take on the sins of a nation who rejects Him continually. Wow! There are no words for that. I've prayed repeatedly that God would help me not to come home the same as how I left. He has answered. Our theme for the week has been, "I will never be the same again". Lord, You orchestrated all of this long before we left. You have heard my prayers and answered and I will never be the same again. I'm hooked on missions..."

Okay, I thought I could get all of this in one entry, but there is no way. I'm going to have to break it up because I have a couple more things to tell you about! Here are just a few pictures of some of the kids that we saw. The first one is the little boy that I told you about. Sadonna and Janna, I hope you don't mind me borrowing your faces! The little girl that Sadonna is holding was so precious. The pastor's wife was carrying her around because she couldn't find her mother. So we all passed her back and forth. They finally did find her mother! She is one of the ones I really would have liked to have brought home!

Home Improvement Update

First of all, Happy 4th to everyone! I hope everyone has a great day of appreciating the freedom that we have and those who have given of their lives and many who have given their life to allow us that freedom.

We are spending most of our 4th doing stuff in the kitchen. It has been awhile since I've mentioned this project, because we haven't done much on it lately. Between trying to decide on countertops and tile for the backsplash, we have had a bit of a stand still! But, I think we have finally found what we want. I'm having some of the people from Tile Center over for dinner next week, but....:)It is so hard trying to judge what something will look like from a little 2x2 square!
However, we are making progress and I wanted to post some before and after pictures.
As you can see from the picture below, this is how our oven area used to look as well as a picture of when we were just beginning to strip the wallpaper...



Okay, so we have gone from that to this...



The new microwave and shelf are done. Notice my pots - I bought those in Mexico! Arent' they cute? My walls are all pink at the moment, but it really has helped to bring out the holes in the drywall that still need more mud. So I think that more mudding and sanding is next on the agenda. All I know is that when this is all done I am going to enjoy giving my home a major spring cleaning. I keep noticing things that need to be deep cleaned, but I just can't bring myself to do it when I know it is just going to get covered in drywall dust again. Oh, well - I'm sure it will wait for me!

Mexico - Post 2

I think I left off on Day Three in the last post, so let's move on to day four. This is where things began to get interesting. The dentist showed up on this day. He was a young guy from Mexico City. He came in the sanctuary where all of the doctors were set up and began rearranging things on the platform. I thought to myself, "no way is he going to be pulling teeth right here in the sanctuary where I can hear everything and see everything." Guess what? He set up right in the sanctuary where I could see and hear everything. This is one of those cases where you know you don't want to look, but you can't help yourself! You know those chairs on every platform in every church that are the designated pastor's chairs? That is what he used for his dentist chair. Talk about primitive. As if that was not bad enough the people who were waiting to be seen sat on a bench just to one side of the stage where they could watch every person having their teeth pulled. Can I tell ya'll that I would have been laid out in the floor if I had to watch all of that knowing I was next. Ugh, it gives me the heebeegeebees just thinking about it! I watched him put one lady in a headlock trying to get her tooth out. I'm not kidding - her head was in his armpit - here are some pictures to prove it --- Our saddest patient today was a little two year girl that came in just before the day ended. I missed the first couple of minutes of the exam and when I came back Dr. T asked me to take this little girl over to one of the benches and remove the bottom half of her clothes so he could examine her. As soon as I picked her up she started screaming and kicking and fighting with me. Once we got her undressed I understood why. She had the worst diaper rash I have ever seen. It was horrid - probably the worst thing that I saw all week. It was so deep into her skin that there were no topical creams that were going to help; Dr. T gave her an oral antibiotic to fight the infection. The funny thing about all this is that first thing that morning somebody had come over and brought us several packets of diaper rash cream. I don't remember who it was or where they found them, but I am convinced that God provided those that day just for that little girl.
The highlight of this day was after dinner me and Dr. S won at Spades, and yes, on Friday morning we WERE crowned King and Queen of Spades. I guess when you got it, you got it!:)
Day Five-- Today was our busiest day yet. We saw between 30-35 children; most of them were so poor looking and the stenches from some of them were overwhelming. We had some children come in with complaints of foot fungus, but when you try to look at their feet you can't tell fungus from dirt. This was the day when you could really begin to see the appreciativeness of the people though. Dr. T examined one little girl and then gave her a piece of candy. She hugged and kissed him and then came over to me to hug and kiss me. We had several kids do this today and it will truly melt your heart - they just want to be loved on! There were so many kids today that it just seemed like we couldn't give them the help that they needed. That broke my heart. We had one little boy who was 4 years old that couldn't hear. His mother said that he needed hearing aids but they couldn't afford them. I wanted to give her all the money that I had and tell her to go and get the hearing aids so that her son could hear. By the time we got back to the hotel I was exhausted and could hardly hold my head up through dinner. I went back to the room to just kind of check out for a few minutes before our next Spades challenge. On my way back out to play Spades I passed the room where we have our devotions. I'm not sure if I can explain this well, but here goes nothing - The hotel that we stayed at has several courtyard areas. The room that we had devotions in every morning had two windows in it that opened up into one of these courtyard areas. There are rooms all around the courtyard. Well, every morning we started off by singing a couple of songs and the windows were always open. On my way back out to play Spades I passed by this room and our "praise team" and some others were practicing for the end of the week service that would take place at the church on Thursday night. The sounds of their praise literally filled the halls of that hotel and I wondered how many people had woke up that week to our singing. I tried to upload a video of our devotions, but it is not working so we will have to make do with a few pictures. The window by the bird cage is the room where we met every morning and the court yard picture is the area that the window opened up to.

Journal Entry from today: "...one thing I cannot forget today is the smells. The smells of poverty. It is very distinct and unable to be put into words. These are things that I rarely, if ever, smell at home..."

The last day of clinic and the final church service definitely deserve a post all their own, so there is more to come...

Stinky Praise

Well, I hate to post this, but I hate not to also. Do you think God likes to talk about poop? I'm sure he must since He created our digestive systems. And, after hearing my cries and prayers over the last two years, I'm sure He would now want me to offer up praise, although it is stinky. My boy, you know the one who wouldn't poop in the potty? Yep, he is potty trained. I sent him to Grandpa and Grandma's and he came back potty trained. My mother-in-law said she didn't know if she could take the credit, but I told her all I cared about was the fact that it was done. And I pray that it is DONE. He has done great since he has been home! Yeah!!!!!!!

Mexico - Post One

I'm going to start posting on my trip. It was my greatest desire to take tons of pictures and videos so that my family could feel like they were somewhat there with me. You all know I am a person of detail, but I will try not to bore you with too many details but some of them are pertinent! My house is quiet right now with Kayla gone swimming with a friend and Tyler taking a nap so we will see how far I get!

Travel Day - June 21, 2008

From my journal -- "... I can definitely feel the prayers today. I left this morning with no tears and have not been nervous at all. Thank You Jesus!..."

The trip went well. A two hour bus ride to Atlanta went by pretty quick as I talked Sadonna's ears off. Our flight from Atlanta to Houston was pretty bumpy, but I think everyone made it unharmed and with all of the contents of their stomach still intact! We saw two rainbows on the flights. What an incredible sight to see a rainbow from up above! We arrived in Morelia, Mexico at about 8:00 p.m. By this time we had been traveling for about 12 hours and we still had an hour and a half bus ride ahead of us. We were missing 12 bags when we got to Morelia. Not good. We managed without them for about three days I think and then the customs folks finally released them and praise God, did not charge us either. They wanted to charge tax on the eyeglasses, but God said, "um, no."! Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the time we got there. I tried to rearrange my suitcases so that all of my meds and stuff were in one suitcase. Then we hit the sack.

Day 2, June 22, 2008

This was Craig and I's 12th Anniversary. It is the first anniversary we have ever spent apart. I feel so bad to admit this, but the day was so crazy that I actually forgot it was our anniversary. Yes, I am now nominated for the wife of the year award! Anyway.. The day started with an awesome breakfast at the hotel - thank You Lord for mexican omelets - it was one of the best things I ate all week. We started out after breakfast to have devotions. After that, we spent about 2 hours packing to get ready to go to the church. Six months worth of work, rearranged and repacked in two hours. Absolutely amazing. Off to church we went. We arrived in the middle of Sunday School. As soon as we got there my bladder reminded me that it was still working and Dr. R was sweet enough to direct me to el bano. What a pleasant experience. Everyone said it wasn't that bad, but I'm here to tell you it wasn't that good either. That's all I will say about that subject. I'm going to attempt to post a video clip from the church service. I hope it works. I want you to understand that the entire service was in Spanish, but I'm telling you - God was there. You could feel the Holy Spirit descend on that congregation. It was an awesome blessing to be a part of that service.


From my journal--"...At the end of the church service, Pastor David thanked us for coming and explained that people are coming from far away to have our doctors look at them. He told us they have prayed for us for many months. After explaining this and telling us that, already, people were waiting to be seen, they brought several disabled children down front for Kiki, Max, and Terri to lay hands on and pray for. The tears flowed once again as I listed to this spanish prayer and heard the man pray for their physical and "loco problemos". Oh my dear God, praise You that my children are healthy. Our first patient was one of those precious special needs children. Bro. Terry brought him over from eye glasses because they couldn't get a good read on his eyes. He was either blind or very nearly blind - there was nothing we could do for him. His mother looked so sad the whole time she sat there..."

Day Three, Monday, June 23, 2008...

We saw only about 20-30 children on this day. The Catholic priest across the street from the church decided he needed to try to get into God's way. Apparently he was out in the street in his priestly robes banging his gong and throwing holy water at the church trying to warn people to stay away. Even with this, there were about 250 patients who came through the clinic that day. We saw a few babies today and one of them would giggle out loud every time Dr. T touched his belly with his hand or his stethoscope. I will post his picture along with a few others in a minute.

Journal Entry from today:

"...One of the most precious moments of this day was being able to listen in on the last few moments of Max's salvation presentation. Although in another language, it was clear what he was teaching. My eyes filled with tears as he prayed a salvation prayer and you could hear the soft voices of several of the people repeating the prayer, and all of Heaven rejoiced as lost souls were found. Most heartbreaking moment of the day was watching a 19 year old girl find out she was pregnant. she had just aborted a baby three months ago...Janna gave her a gift for the baby. We pray that she will not abort this child.


Our eyeglass team. Way to go guys!


Triage - The patients come in from the street and the triage nurses take their vitals and direct them where to go next as well as trying to narrow down their physical problems.


Cute baby #1! The people in Mexico bundle their children up in multiple layers of clothing. It is amazing that they can even breathe.


This was our giggly boy! Isn't he a cutie!