Sex Change

Well now that I have your attention I have an announcement to make:

I went to have one more ultrasound today before I head back to the States in order to make sure my little guy was still a little guy. You guessed it. He's not a he. It's a girl! WOW!

My dad always tells my boys that if they kiss their elbow they will turn into girls and he tells the girls that if they kiss their elbow they will become a boy. So, Benjamin said he guesses the baby kissed his elbow. Sounds reasonable to me. I just hope she doesn't do it again.

I've just spent the last two days registering at walmart.com and target.com because my sweet friend Geni wants to give me a baby shower when I'm back in Virginia next week. Now I'm going through and changing all the blue to pink.

Good thing we double checked!! I would write longer but I need to get my registeries changed before you all start running out and buying her sailor and race car outfits and airplane stuff. :>)

I Got A Monkey On My Back!

The following took place in the rainforest of Bolivia. We spent the night on a trip in a town called Villa Tunari. Near this town is a place where monkeys are abundant. Many of the monkeys have been brought in to be treated medically, or relocated for some other reason. The monkeys are used to humans, and have no fear. Therefore, they will come check you out, and try to steal from you.

One monkey took a sucker out of Joshua's hands and climbed above our heads and ate it. Another jumped down on Jacob's shoulders and tried to steal his glasses. Jacob slapped it, and IT SLAPPED HIM BACK!! Jacob's claim to faim is that he has been slapped by a wild monkey.

The monkeys would come down and walk beside us, hold our hands, wrap their tails around us, etc. It was fun.

Look at these photos....and remember that these are wild monkeys in the jungle. A cool day!

A Few of My New Favorite Things

...in no particular order....

• Popcorn, candy, and Coke at the movie (a treat I couldn't afford in the US)
• Once a month cooking (yesterday we finished a month's worth of meals and put them in the freezer...thanks MJ for some yummy recipes)
• Seeing new emails from old friends in my inbox
• Being better able to communicate in Spanish....even though I have a long way to go
• My bi-weekly (more or less) coffee times with new friends
• Being pregnant....in spite of all the accompanying maladies
• Snuggling with my honey on cool Bolivian nights
• Being 40-something
• Seeing new emails from new friends in my inbox
• Our Vontage phone
• Being a missionary
• Pomegranates
• Hearing Joe study the Bible with the teens
• Making lesson plans
• Getting packages in the mail
• Spending more time with my hubby
• Having 'grown up' conversations with my teenaged boys
• Long pant PJs
• Giving to those who ask
• Teaching Hope to read
• Hearing my kids speak in Spanish
• Reading friends' blogs
• Building relationships with new friends
• Listening to contemporary Christian music while cooking
• Colored pens
• Seeing my kids make new friends

Investing

Lately we've been seriously thinking about putting our house in Virginia on the market. As you all know the real estate market right now stinks so it's a bad time to sell. All this has me thinking about investing. Our house has been an investment. One that hopefully will make money. We invested an amount of money a few years back with hopes of a future payoff. That money will be our retirement (although Joe says our children are our retirement policy) since as a full time minister Joe opted out of Social Security a few years back so we won't receive any benefits even if it is still around by then.

The simple mathematical facts are that for a big return you need either a long amount of time or a high interest rate. (I=R x T....interest=rate x time). Thinking on this makes me realize that the best investments we've ever made are the ones that were invested for eternity....now that's a long period of time. Think about that. The money that we've invested in the Kingdom of God will continue to grow and reap rewards long after we've passed from this life. And on top of that think of the rate that God says that He gives. In Matthew 19:29 Jesus says "And everyone who has forsaken (left/given up/sacrificed) houses, or brothers, or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for My name's sake shall receive 100 times as much, and shall inherit eternal life." God gives a great interest rate (100 times is 10,000 percent interest) compounded over the longest period of time (eternity). You just can't beat that! In Malachi God tells us to test Him and see that He will open the windows of heaven and pour out more blessings than we can hold. In Luke we are told that when we give God it will be given back to us....but more....good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. But, it's a limited time offer. We can only invest while we live here on earth. That's all we're promised. Once we die our opportunity to invest in the Kingdom of God is over. John Wesley said "I judge all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity."


Let me tell you a quick story that not too many people know (until now). A few years back we felt led by God to invest a large sum of money in the kingdom of God through work of a missionary in Africa. God provided the money through the sale of our house in Colorado (we had moved to Virginia only a few weeks before). We sat our kiddos down and told them that we were going to use the money we made on the sale of our house to put down on another house (in Virginia) and to buy a new desperately needed van. However, God had laid it on our hearts to invest the money a different way...in something that would pay bigger dividends. So, what that meant to them was that we wouldn't get a house right then (instead, we lived in a townhouse with 7 kids sharing one bedroom) and that they would have to go on sharing seatbelts in our old van. Our sweet little 9 year old at the time Jake said something I'll never forget. He said "So what? We have to share a room or keep our old van, but hundreds of Muslims will have a chance to hear about how much God loves them and they can become Christians and live in heaven forever!" Now that's perspective. I'm teary eyed just remembering it.

I love the verse in 2 Corinthians 9 that when speaking about our investments in God's kingdom says "God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance" but the best part is the ending....the reason He gives us an abundance...."for every good deed". He gives us more so that we can invest more.

God has been good to us and blessed so many of our earthly investments. But I can tell you that the investments that are our best ones are the ones that we've made in the kingdom of God. Those are the ones I think on with the most fondness. Those are the ones I'm the most proud of. Those are the ones I want my children to mimic. Those are the only investments I've ever made that have absolutely no risk. I hope to spend the rest of the time I have left investing in the Kingdom of God.

What a Day!!

Last Tuesday started out so calmly. I've begun taking Tuesdays off language school to give me more time to help the kiddos with their home-schooling not to mention that I'm forty-something and pregnant and don't have the same amount of energy that I once enjoyed. So, I'm was reveling in my first Tuesday off language school and getting my 'stuff' done. I was sitting at my desk working on long overdue correspondence and lesson plans. Hope and Patience were right behind me in the little cubby where my desk is. All of a sudden Patience banged her head on one of the various weird-angled alcoves that stick out of the walls at our house. (Remember all the strange angles?) Anyway, Hope was one foot closer than me and so she saw the damage first and started streaming bloody murder. Patience was pouring blood from her forehead. It was the deepest wound I've seen on one of my children....and unfortunately I've seen plenty....too many.

I tried to lay her back to access the damage but she was bleeding so badly that her eye sockets were filling with blood causing her to scream even more. I yelled down to Joe to come up and bring some towels. Thankfully he had just walked in the door from school. He took one look at her and got on the phone. He asked our friends to meet us at the hospital to help with translation if we needed it. We took her directly to the ER. While I was changing my blood-soaked shirt for another one and Joe was loading her into the car he sent Benjamin to fetch the camera and took the above pic. As we left Hope was still screaming certain that her sister was going to die.

At the hospital they saw the severity of her wound and ushered us straight back to a bed in the ER where they cleaned the wound and ordered x-rays to see if her skull was fractured. (Thankfully it wasn't.) The doc on call said because of the seriousness of the wound he wanted a plastic surgeon to sew her up. However both of the plastic surgeons at that hospital were in surgery. So they sent us to yet another hospital.

When we arrived at the ER at the second hospital there was no one there. I don't mean no patients, I mean no one. No nurse. No doc. No administrator. Nada. We knocked three different times, then our friend went to find someone. The nurse he found said knock again. We did. She watched. Sure enough, she said, there was no one there. (Duh!) An ER with no personnel. The nurse finally tracked down someone and Patience was seen. The plastic surgeon was wonderful and did a great job on Patience's stitches which are in the middle of her forehead. She had to put in 3 layers of stitches since the wound was so deep (I told you it was!). She got a total of 25 stitches....19 on the inside and 6 on the outside. YIKES!!

Through it all Paish was a trooper. They didn't even have to knock her out! We took her out for an ice cream when it all began to sink in to me what had happened. God was good and gave us all strength throughout the entire ordeal, but I'm so glad that this Tuesday has been much quieter....so far.....of course the day's not over yet! :>)

P.S. After we left for the hospital Jake took Hope aside and calmed her down by showing her all his stitch scars as well as those of his brothers and sister. Hope then realized that Patience would be okay. What a good brother!!

P.P.S. This incident put us over the 50% mark. Now, 6 out of our 10 children have had stitches....60%!

To Clear Things Up

I'm not sure I was clear about the travel to the US and the baby stuff. Here's what I was asking for:

I'm going to the US in May for a short visit. While I'm there I hope to pick up some baby things that we just can't get here. (There are lots of things we can get here, but some that we can't.) So, I was asking what sorts of things do you all consider "can't-live-without-baby-items". If the items are things that I can't get here, I hope to find them when I'm there in the States and pack them in a suitcase to bring back to Coch with me. I hope this is a bit more clear.

Thanks to all of you who have replied. I'm still working on my list, so if you haven't responded or if you have already responded, but think of something else, please let me know.

A Question for You All

I'm planning a trip back to the States before mid-June if possible. I have a dilemma and need your help. Here's a question that is not theoretical...If you were going to have a baby and you had only one suitcase in which to put baby 'stuff' what would you put in it? What are the items that you used the most/can't live without with your babies (from in utero until about 10 months old)? Remember I have limited space.