Settling in…

Well, we’re about to begin our 5th day back in Lima (tomorrow), and we’ve officially named it “Finish Unpacking/Organize it/Buy the bin you need for it/De-clutter” Day.  Justin and I hit the ground running when it came to unpacking, and that is almost all we did Friday and Saturday.  Well…at least that’s all we did in between the times we were making sure the kids weren’t being ignored.   But, we still just have a few (well, a few plus some) more things to accomplish.  Therefore, Justin is taking a personal day (THANK YOU!!!) instead of going out with the guys tomorrow for work.  I SO appreciate a husband who can see my need and is willing to do what he can to fulfill it!  I feel like my days are sort of a half-hearted mess.  I can only give so much to the kids because there are piles to step over and things I must get done, and yet I can’t quite get those piles cleared and to-do lists finished because the kids need me.  That’s always sort of how it is when we have to pack to go to the States or unpack after returning, although this time we have 4 months worth of stuff to organize.  Plus, the kids closets are full of winter clothes from when we left, but it’s blazing hot here now.  Oh…and they’ve both grown a size.  So, not only am I unpacking their things, but I have to go through everything in their closets to make sure we’ve got the right season and size going on.  I-’-m.A-l-m-o-s-t.D-o-n-e. (that’s about how slow it feels)

Tomorrow.  That’s my day!

On another note.  We were welcomed home by a leaky kitchen sink (there was water all over the kitchen floor Saturday morning), a house phone that would receive calls but not make them (why is it that the phone company can’t quite figure out how to merge themselves with someone else without messing everyone’s phone up for a good 24hours?),  some more leaking in our car…on the inside…maybe from the AC??, and TERRIBLE cracking/peeling/puffing up spots ALL over our house where the concrete has just gotten wet somehow (probably bad pipe jobs in the house) and caused our house paint to peel/puff up/grow fuzzy stuff on it.  That whole last thing has happened since we’ve lived here, but it looks absolutely horrible now…oh, joy.  Add to list:  #25: call landlord and ask about them paying for someone to come and fix our walls since justin can’t afford to spend another 3 weeks in personal days so that he can peel, scrape, lather on some goop to help the walls, and re-paint…in.every.room. of the house.

Honestly, all of this doesn’t surprise me.  I am sort of laughing about it.

In other news.  One of our 4 interns had a spill at the beach, and he broke his collar bone.  Sad times for Kyle Westbrook for sure.  He had to have surgery to do all sorts of plating and screwing in there, and now it looks like he might just have to recover at home in Texas for quite a while.  Please, please pray for him.  I know he’s in pain, but I’m sure it’s also emotionally difficult to let go of the expectations he had for his time here in Peru.  Pray for all of us that we can be supportive for him as well as Kyle G., Taylor, and Jenny who will be left here without their good friend…at least for a while.

The kids are LOVING our yard these days.  Today they basically got dirty and had to be hosed down about 4 different times due to how dusty and dirty it is when they play outside.  They loved it, though.  And I love that they can both sit at our kid table on our back patio for lunch in between waterhose/pool time.  Lovin’ this summer thing!

Did I mention that we’re so glad to be back?!

Here are a few “first days back” photos.

Chillin’ outside in his yard…

dirty face…

Corban’s ball pit missed us…

Our great teammates, the Davidsons, welcomed us in many ways (one being that they hired a mariachi band to greet us in song at the airport!)…these brownies they brought us, that might or might not almost be all gone, are TO.DIE.FOR!

our taste testers approved!…

another month down…

OH MY GOODNESS!  I am having trouble keeping this blog thing going.  Why?  I have no idea.  I mean, it’s not like I don’t have grandparents around who play with my kids all the time now!   Anyway, I just decided to suck it up and WRITE!

We are in College Station now for Thanksgiving.  We’ve been here since this past Friday evening.  It’s been great so far!  We got in town at like 7pm, and by 8pm we were at Muldoon’s…this coffee shop in CS…AND…WE…WERE…SEEING THE DAVIDSONS!!!!

I know.  Lots of exclamation points.

BUT…that’s how I felt!  It was like I could take a deep breath again.  We were seeing our teammates!  It felt like they made some of our worry die for a bit.  It was refreshing, fun, we laughed, we shared stories, and we totally loved being together.  AND…thanks to grandparents, all of our kids were home either sleeping or enjoying grandparent time!  It was heaven.

I cannot forget to mention why we were at Muldoon’s, though!  January 6th is an important day for our team in Lima.  There are 4 AFC students that will be flying to Lima for a 6 month internship with us beginning then!  This is the first set of interns we will have, so it’s a very exciting time.  God orchestrated it to be that the 4 of them planned a night of music and coffee at Muldoon’s as a fundraiser in order to finalize all of their funds for Peru on a night that TWO of our team families were in TEXAS!  How cool is that?!  So, we went to grab ourselves a Peru Latte and listen to the 2 guy interns play it up (with a few others as well) in an effort to make it to Peru!  It was great fun, and it was also the first time that I had met all 4 of them.  It was a special moment, and if you want to check out pictures from that as well as a breakfast we all attended the next morning together, check out their blog!  Also, feel free to follow their blog as they spend their 6 months with our team this next year.  Once again, that’s… http://www.thelima4.blogspot.com/.

FUNDRAISING UPDATE:  (just because we gotta have one, right?)

We are still in search of a church that can be our main support beginning in 2012!  PLEASE, if you know anyone or any church that is searching for a family to support in Peru…connect us!

We have a couple of churches that we are hopeful and praying about, and we ask that you join us in prayer that God will quickly open a door for us to go back to Peru.

As far as 2011 goes, we are still piecing the year together.  We have received enough money so far for a little over 7 months, and we have about 5 more months to go!  If you are interested in helping us out, please contact us or feel free to send your gift to the Hope Church of Christ in Abilene, TX.

Hope Church of Christ

Attn: Thompson mission fund

P.O. Box 3775

Abilene, Texas 79604

ON TO OTHER THINGS:

Basically I haven’t posted about any of our Halloween fun.  I won’t be doing that, though…haha.  Feel free to check out our pictures on facebook.

Also, we traveled to North Dakota and back to Texas.   I will post about our time there in a few days, but if you want to see car pictures from our 18 hour drive there, they are on facebook as well.

As far as our future plans.  Only God knows.  We are hesitant to plan much at this point, and we are at a point that we MUST fully rely on God to make things happen.  That’s good for us, though.  We have learned quite a bit about waiting on the Lord even through frustration and eagerness.

In the meantime…here are a few LEaF PilE pIcTUrES!

Getting the pile ready…

On your mark, get set, . . .

Now brother’s trying to find his way out of the pile…

Cailyn…clearly thinking up her next move on brother…

…”yes, I do believe I’ll lean back here…”

“…hmmmmm…nice and comfortable.  is that screaming i hear coming from somewhere??”

Things weren’t the same for him from there on out…

Well…at least until a bit later.

Car trips

Well, tomorrow marks a month since we left to come back to the States.  Part of me feels like I will be saying that again next month…there goes 2 months.  But…who knows.  There are moments when it feels like yesterday that we came, and in other moments I feel like we’ve been here forever.  Yeah, the slice-and-bake cookies, trips to Wal-Mart, great restaurants, and rootbeers are totally welcome in many respects, but I am definitely beginning to pack on some extra weight that is most definitely NOT welcome!  I’m missing my intense latin-ish Full Body workout classes at Peru’s Gold’s Gym right about now…not just for my weight, but for my insanity, too!

All in all, we are good.  The last two weekends consisted of lots of traveling.  We went to the DFW area two weekends ago for 4 nights, and we were in Austin/Bastrop this past weekend for 2 nights.  We have it on the calendar to head to Lubbock this next weekend for a couple of nights, but thanks to my parents, the kids get to stay behind for that trip.  The traveling is just hard with them.  They do well, but sleeping in a new bed every few nights is just hard.  We spent the night with my grandparents this past Sunday night, and the next day, after her nap, as I was telling Cailyn we needed to get our things together since we were leaving to go back to Honey and Daddy-O’s house that night, she asks me,

“Is this not going to be our bedroom anymore?”

Hmm.  I sort of wanted to cry.

Today in the Dr.’s office (yes, we’ve been to the Dr. like 3 times in the past 2 weeks), we were talking about dogs and their names, and Cailyn pointed out that we had met several new dogs recently.  That is a sign that you’ve been in too many different people’s homes…haha.  I sat there and thought about it, and I came up with 5 new doggie friends we’d made in the last 2 weeks.  Too. Many.

And, just to share one last thing about Cailyn.  She’s been talking a lot about her team friends in Peru, and we’ve talked a lot about “when we see them…this” or “when we see them…that”.  So, finally, a week or so ago, she just came out and asked the BIG question.

“Are we even going back to Peru?”

It’s hard to know how to explain all of this to her, but it has presented a good opportunity for us to talk about waiting on the Lord, listening for his leading, and provision.  She accepts those explanations, thankfully.

SOOOOO…not to make this a downer post.  Here are some of the things that I LOOOOVE about being here!!

• Corban has learned how to say “puppy” and use it till he’s B.L.U.E.IN.THE FACE.  (or, maybe just till we’re blue in the face!)
• We get to trick-or-treat here…so fun!
• We’ve enjoyed the public library several times, and they have an adorable Tot Time on Tuesdays
• I have 2 extra sets of hands for the kids!
• I have gotten to spend time with some LONG time girlfriends since being here…so refreshing!
• I am learning just how much I love my teammates since being gone from them so long!
• I am also learning just how great Peru is in many ways…I can walk into my pediatrician’s office there and be seen within 5-10 min. EVERY time!
• Dad and Mom have introduced us to the board game Settlers of Catan (well, we had played like once before), and we LOVE it!
• Oh…and so much more.

Just a short and tiny update on what we’re doing in the way of FUN-raising (as our teammate, Wes calls it)

God seems to have revealed to us in the past few weeks that we will most likely be piecing together our salary and working fund for 2011.  We feel good about this, and God has already used many of you to help make that amount of money seem more manageable.  We are currently seeking one-time gifts in order to help us make it through the end of next year.  If any of you desire to help us do this, or if you know someone or a group of someones that would like to help, please let us know!  Aside from this, we are in the process of having conversations with some churches about the possibility of them being our main supporting church for the year 2012.  In the same way, if you attend a church or know of a church that might be a good fit for us and our work in Peru, contact us!  We welcome any ideas or leads!

We would very much appreciate your prayers as we continue to work through what our future support might look like.  God has used SO many of you out there to abundantly bless our lives already.  We cannot say thank you enough, honestly.

And, just so I don’t stop without any pictures…

Notice the small yellow tube in Cailyn’s hands…it’s holding Mini M&M’s.  The perfect car trip treat, right?

Well, perfect for a 3 year old…not a 1 year old with chubby hands and an inability to keep from dumping his snack all down in his carseat…that would be a mess, right?  Chocolate all melted down there.  Not happening.  So, we bought him one, too, but we left the plastic seal on it.  He thought shaking it was all the fun there was to be had…oh, until he realized that Sister’s had something coming out of it!

Don’t worry, she shared.   Well, all of about 3 of those mini M&M’s.  We didn’t show him how many were actually in there…

It takes some skill on both of their parts to pass one of those tiny things between the two of them.  I was proud…we had NO chocolate residue on either chair.  We’ve got 2 VERY talented kids! (haha)

Has it really been that long?

It is hard to imagine that it’s been since Corban’s birthday that I have posted anything here.  As more time goes by, it makes it harder and harder to think about catching up…SO…here it goes.  I would just start from where life is now, but there is just way too much in our life that has changed for me to ignore writing about it…well, updating those of you that actually read this.

Because there’s no other way to really introduce this, I figure it’s just as well I go ahead and say it.  Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago, the church that we were nearly fully supported by chose to immediately cut off all financial support that they gave us.  Seeing as it was a few days into September and October 1st would come quickly, we were not really given much choice but to immediately come back to the States in order to try and secure something new so that our bills could be paid when the 1st hit.  So, here we are.  In Abilene, Texas.

The story doesn’t end there, though.  Just a couple of days upon hearing the news that we didn’t have the support of our former church, the A&M Church of Christ, in College Station, Texas (where I grew up) came to us saying they desired to step in and allow God to use them to bless our family.  We are proud to say that our family is being supported for up to 6 months if we need it by the A&M CofC.  Not only this, but the members there have truly showered us with blessings.  We have borrowed car seats and high chairs, been given goodie buckets for the kids, had groceries bought for us, been picked up and transported from the airport, been given a car to use while we are in the States, been invited into homes for encouragement, and the list goes on.  We have also had people give us the gift of traveling cash…so helpful!  We have LOVED being loved on, and it has been a humbling experience.  This help made it possible for us to nearly forget the stress we felt in those first hours of receiving the news of losing our support.  Definitely a blessing from God.

On September 14th, we boarded a plane (or two) for Houston, TX.  I packed about a week’s worth of clothes for both of the kids, because I knew I would be able to make that last 2-4 weeks if I had to.  Justin and I sort of agreed that we would stay in the States for 2-3 weeks, because I have a plane ticket (even as I write this) from Peru to Brazil for October 2nd.  There is a Missionary Women’s Conference in Brazil that I have been planning on attending.  God has just shown us over the past week and a half that our time here is in his hands.  His timing is perfect.  While it hurts to think about not being home in Peru for an indefinite amount of time, we have put our emotions in God’s hands.  I reminded God the other morning (haha) that I have looked forward to this conference for a while.  He seems to be reminding me that he always has the best plan.  Therefore, we will stay here until we feel God has secured something new for us.

Some people have asked us if we plan to return to Peru.  Without sounding rude, my first thought is…”DUH!” haha.  Ok, that’s rude.  No, honestly, that is a fair question, but it just hasn’t been one we’ve asked ourselves.  Our home is there.  Literally…our furniture is just as if we left for the weekend.  Yenny, who helps us around the house, is expecting us back.  Our landlords have a contract with us.  MORE IMPORTANTLY, Luis JUST got baptized and is hopefully expecting Justin to return so that they can continue studying the book of Mark when he shows up to work outside of our house each evening.  Jose and Maribel just told us they want to participate in a Bible study with us on a weekly basis.  I meet with Stacy and Anna each week to encourage one another and study Scripture.  The kids’ friends are there.  Our pediatrician is expecting us to drop by for Corban’s 13m shots soon.  Get the picture?  Our life is there.  We haven’t felt God saying in any way that we are done with our work there.

At this point, we have been in Abilene since last Thursday.  It has been an amazing blessing to be here, because Abilene Christian University just ended their annual Lectureships, called Summit.  Justin and I were able to connect with so many people, and God provided a place for us to be where tons of church leaders were all at once.  What a gas saver!

This past week has been one that we needed.  We have been reaffirmed by loved ones and close friends, and it has been a reminder of how blessed we are to have such influential and encouraging people in our lives.  It wasn’t a week full of only fundraising and connecting with churches, but it was a week full of seeing old friends.  So great!

At this point, God has put numerous possibilities in our path.  We (well, Justin, really) are working hard to do our part, and while that is draining in moments, we are learning more about ourselves and the God we serve.  Thanks to all who have cared for us, jumped in to say, “WE WANT TO GIVE TO YOU!”, connected us with the right people, encouraged us with your words, prayed for us, put hands on us and prayed over us, helped us put things into perspective, allowed us to borrow things, sent money without even letting us know, continued to support us, and so much more.  We are beyond blessed.

Here are a few pictures that have come out of our time here.

pretty sure she’s calling some spirits in this next one…

this is just kind of a norm for corban…it all goes in the mouth

my attempt at a group photo…no such luck.

cailyn loves her some sprinkler!

corban: not so sure…

he had more fun doing this…

It’s Just Not Right

Recently I bought some Chips Ahoy! cookies here.  There are just a couple of Nabisco brand cookies here that we can get that are the same as what you see in most grocery stores in the States, and Chips Ahoy! are one of them.  I honestly NEVER bought these before when living in the States, because if I was going to buy a store bought cookies, there were others I enjoyed more than Chips Ahoy!.  But…you know, life has changed, and I had a craving the other day for some store bought cookies that were “from home”.  So..Chips Ahoy! it was.

Well, that package was pretty good, and we finished them off.  I was a little disappointed, though, because I had happened to grab a package that looked like it’s cookies had stayed in the oven just 30 seconds too long.  Oh well.

So, I was at Metro, one of our grocery stores, yesterday, and I decided to buy some more.  When I got home, this is what I found…

Let’s just be honest.  That cookie was in the oven like 5 min. too long!  What is wrong with the Chips Ahoy! here?!

I thought I would take a picture of the package as well just to remind us all of what Nabisco claims their cookies look like…

Uh…MY cookie did NOT look like that, and it really did taste burnt.

Thus, my rant to Justin began…Seriously, Nabisco. If you’re going to send your stuff here, send it NOT BURNT.  I mean, I honestly can imagine that the cookies that are just slightly too burnt to actually sell are huddled in a corner and sent down a different conveyer belt to be packaged for Peru (and whatever other country besides the US).  I’m not like all researched up on this or anything, but come on, if Chips Ahoy! cookies were that burnt in the States…NO ONE would buy them.  So, is it that they think some other country whose people “have no clue” about their REAL product will buy these?  Are they just trying to make a buck on the cookies they would otherwise throw away?  I’m here to say…don’t bother, Nabisco.  {It was at this point that Justin told me to write them a letter…haha…I probably won’t, although I can sort of hear the voice of one of my Social Work professors from ACU, Brenda Van Dunk, saying…”WRITE IT!”…she was ALL FOR making things JUST in a world where things are just not so.}

Honestly, though, it might seem like I am being way too picky about my cookies, or that I’m just wanting to complain about the fact that I don’t get “what I’m used to”, and I don’t at all mean to make Brenda Van Dunk seem like the type of person who didn’t really take injustice seriously.  She did.  But…I have started to see some things in a different light since I’ve been away from the States.  No longer is it just ME that isn’t getting the “good stuff”, but I have realized that there are a lot of companies who send their products down here to South America, and they DO NOT send the same quality of product as I have seen in the States (remember my post about diapers?).  It’s the Peruvians (and whoever else) that are being cheated.  Yeah, maybe they don’t have any clue about the fact that their Chips Ahoy! are totally not the same quality as the Chips Ahoy! in Texas, USA, but should that matter?  IF a company is in fact sending lesser quality products to one country than they are to another because they know it will still sell because of the brand name on the package (and for an equal or higher price at that), I honestly think they should be questioned.  {I say “if” because, again…I have done NO research on this except for comparing Chips Ahoy! cookies I’ve eaten in the States to the ones I’ve eaten here…:) }

Yeah, I might sound so incredibly silly.  And…I realize there are WAY more important matters of injustice going on than packages of burnt Chips Ahoy! cookies or “brick” Huggies diapers being sent to South America and NOT the the USA, but I do think (if that is in fact what is going on) it reflects a bit on how we sometimes label one another and allow ourselves to judge what one person deserves over another.  Obviously this issue isn’t my top priority…getting better cookies sent to my country of residence now…but it has made me think more about how our world works.  Maybe I’m just making all of this up, and if there happens to be a Nabisco representative that reads my blog…you can tell me if I’m right or not…haha.

For now…I guess we’ll just end up finishing off those burnt cookies, but I probably won’t be buying more in the near future.

And…to leave on a lighter note.  Justin snapped some pics of me and Corban yesterday…I thought they turned out cute.

I could do this all day…