A Place To Call Their Own

It has been almost a month now since we transitioned the boys into their own shared room.  For the most part it was a very easy transition.  It is pretty hot where we live and we only have one air conditioner.  It is in our bedroom.  We run it at night and just use ceiling fans during the day in the other rooms.  It is not a perfect situation, but we manage.  Because of that the boys had been sleeping in our room because it is cooler.  They each had their own pack 'n play.  It was a little crowded, but we were only in there just to sleep so it worked okay.  Since moving them out we took Cruz's pack 'n play down, but left Ben's up.  I still bring him in our room some in the early mornings and he naps in there some during the day.  We use a baby monitor so I still hear their every move during the night, but I am learning to sleep through some of it. 

Cruz loves having his own bed and was over the moon the first night he got to sleep in it.   He has slept in there every night since.  He goes to bed relatively easy which is nice.  If you follow us much you know he wakes up very early.  To offset that we started setting an alarm for him.  My cell phone has a talking alarm clock.  When it goes off it says "It's time to get up.  The time is..."  It keeps repeating until we turn it off.  He took right to the idea of waiting for the clock to tell him to get up.  We set it for 6:30.  It's not to wake him up but to keep him in bed until then.  A few days when he has woke up before 5:30 we had to slip in and adjust it to 6:00 because we know that is just too long to make him wait there.  When he falls asleep we put several books by his bed and when he gets up in the morning he stays in bed and "reads" until the clock goes off.  It is a pretty simple idea, and it is working well for now.  The only problem is he "reads" out loud and can be a little noisy with it.  We are trying to teach him to not be so loud so he will not wake his brother up.

Here are a few photos-

This was our bedroom when the boys slept in there.  Ben's bed is beside ours and Cruz's was at the foot.  He loved crawling into our bed when he woke up in the mornings.  I miss that.  My next home improvement project is to paint our room.  I am not crazy about the green.  I wanted it painted before we moved in but David convinced me to wait.  Well, 8 months later I am still waiting!  I have not hung anything on the walls or bought curtains either because I want to paint the room first.  We'll get around to it... one day.

This is the boys room as you enter from the door.  

Ben is using Cruz's crib bedding.  We moved Cruz in a twin bed from our guest room.  I still need to buy him some new sheets and a bed cover.  It is just so hot here though a bed cover would only be for decoration.  When trying to decide how to decorate Cruz really wanted to hang the quilt over his bed.  He loves looking at the animals.  I also need to get him a table to go beside the bed.  Right now we are using a cardboard box.

Ben's corner

The back of the room from Cruz's bed

another view

Each bedroom here has this storage space in it.  I love having a place to hang clothes.  Overall it is a little messy looking but it works.

We often find Cruz sitting here playing or looking at books.  When I stop nursing Ben we will move the glider out to give them some more play room.

I like the way their room is coming together.  They both seem to like it as well.  We look forward to watching them grow and playing in there together.

Fun Foto Friday

Here are just a few of the photos I have taken over the past few weeks.  I love taking photos of my kids and most always have a camera close by. 

Multitasking maybe? 

having fun before bedtime

I love his sweet smile!

This one is a little blurry but I love how he is laughing out loud at his brother.  Cruz can make him laugh like nobody else.

bedtime story time

 (David looks a little worn out here, haha)

He loves his swing David made him.

We colored leaves and a pumkin to hang in his window for fall.

Naptime is my favorite time of the day.  Most days he will take a 3 hour afternoon nap.  It is like heaven on earth. haha 

He had a playdate with our neighbor Kimberly.  They made fall trees together. 

Cowboy Cruz

so cute it's scary

playing in his crib

he loves looking at himself in the mirror

more play time

finally both boys smiling at the same time.

Have a great weekend everyone!  We'll spend ours packing for our trip to the States.  We cannot believe that this time next week we'll be in the presence of family and friends.  We are beyond excited!

Visiting The Village Of Chanco

On Monday and Tuesday of this week David got to spend a little time with our missionary friends David and Glynis Miller.  They were hosting a vision team from First Baptist Church, Mt. Pleasant, SC.  That church is partnering with two churches/ pastors in our area- Bro. Rolando at Iglesia Bautista Shalom in Zacapa and Bro. Elfidio at Iglesia Bautista Shalom in Chiquimula.  Together they are looking to start a work in the village of Chanco.  David helped them out with transportation.  They were limited in space so Ben and I stayed home, and David took Cruz with him.  It is always sad for me when I miss getting to go out into the villages.  I love being able to go when I can. 

They have a contact in the village and she took them around to many houses to meet the people and pray for them.  They also got to be in a school and share with the kids.  Please pray for this partnership that is forming between these three churches.  Pray also for the village of Chanco and the many there who need to know Christ.

David was a little busy (as you can imagine) chasing around after Cruz and did not take any photos for me.  Instead we were able to copy a few from some of the team members.  Here are a couple of them-

the group minus Cruz who was already in his car seat

sharing in the school

beautiful kids

I love this turkey peeking out of the door to see the white people.

too cute! 

  

playing on the see saw at the school

He loves going to work with his daddy.

 A few more faces from the village of Chanco.

Would you pray for them?

This and That

I am finding that photos might be what motivates me to blog.  When I have pictures to share I am more apt to blog that when I do not.  With that said, I have taken very few photos over the last few days. 

Our weekend was quiet and laid back.  The highlight for me was going into Chiquimula on Saturday and getting to walk around the Megapaca.  Paca's are used clothing/ goods stores that are very common in many parts of Guatemala.  A few years ago they started opening mega paca's in Guatemala City and have now branched out into other areas.  This is our first time to live with one close by (if you consider 40 minutes close by).  Megapaca's are huge warehouse size stores with almost everything imaginable in them.  The majority of the things seem to be clothes, but you can find many, many other things as well.  Much of it is used but from time to time you can also find nice things new and still in the box.  I have stumbled across several great finds there.  I LOVE going and looking around.  I am obsessed with looking at the kids clothes and get so excited when I find them something "new".  If you drop things off at the "drop boxes" in the States, thank you!  A lot of it ends up down here and we get to purchase it for good prices. 

Afterwards we met new friends, Josh and Jessica Byrd, for lunch at McDonald's.  They are missionaries that live in Chiquimula.  We enjoyed having some fellowship time with them.  Josh is always so eager to pick Cruz up and play with him.  It makes us happy that he always takes up time with Cruz.  I think all parents like when someone spends fun time with their kids.  I forgot to get a picture of us.  Maybe I'll do it when we get together again.  They are from Alabama so it was fun being around others that speak our language (Southern). haha

We had plans to attend our Bibles studies on Sunday in the village of Nearar but after talking with the family on Saturday morning they thought it might be best if we took a week off and let things continue to die down a bit.  If you'll remember the last time we were there a man was killed while David was there teaching.  We still do not know a motive or more details (at least I don't).  Well, since then the brother of the man killed has become angry at the man where we have our study.  He feels that the man has brought a curse on the village by allowing the evangelicals to come in.  He feels it is his fault that his brother had to die.  He made some threats to him, but to our knowledge nothing else has taken place.  Hopefully some time to cool down is all that is needed.  We really need to go this week and meet.  It will be our last Sunday before we take a month off to go to the States.  Pray for peace to come to this area.  Pray for the family of the one killed.  Pray for the believers to stay strong in their faith.  Pray for us as we continue to go and be a witness there.

David spent Monday and part of Tuesday with our friends David and Glynis Miller visiting two areas where they are looking to partner an American church with a Guatemalan church.  He did not take any photos but some of the others did.  I'll try to share that tomorrow. 

Ben has turned into the worst sleeper/ eater ever and has just about completely exhausted me by lack of sleep.  I am trying to make a few changes to our routine and praying it works.  Lack of sleep- another reason I haven't blogged much lately.  I'm tired y'all.  Tired! 

There's A Song In His Heart

Wednesday night after eating supper Cruz decided to entertain us in song.  He loves music and singing!   Usually when I get my camera he stops singing, but for some reason this night he seemed to enjoy it.  He also usually does better when we sing along with him, but I spared you having to hear my voice.  Because of that he gets hung up a few times, but he's still cute trying.  He sure made us smile.  Maybe he will brighten your day as well.

Here he is singing the ABC's.  I think we should just call it the EFG's though, because he got stuck there, haha.  The ending is my favorite!

Here he is singing "God Made Me".  The words say: God made me, God made me, I'm so glad that God made me.  We sing it often and let Cruz insert different names.  He loves it!

He loves singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider

Row Row Row Your Boat

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Have a great weekend everyone!

Prepare Their Hearts, Lord

We spent Tuesday morning of this week in the village of Lagunetas.  Dan Watson drove over from Honduras to join us.

Cruz, me, David, Ben, and Dan

David and Dan discussing the corn

King of the Mountain

David and Ben

Our purpose was to meet with the village leaders and present to them our plans to have a group of young adults from their village be trained at the Chorti Baptist Development Project in Honduras. 

Dan began the meeting by reading some scripture and sharing a bit.

He then began proposing to them our plans.  He shared with them the purpose and requirements for the program.  He has decided to do a modified six week course for them which will be spread out over six weekends.  We are limiting it to 12 people.  Both male and female can attend.  The village leaders will choose which 12 from their village are to be trained.

We have decided to begin the training the first weekend in November.  They will meet the first three weekends in November, break for us to celebrate Thanksgiving, and then finish out the first three weekends in December.  The training will take place in Honduras.  David and I will miss the first weekend because we will be returning from the States during that time.  We will join them on the other weeks and incorporate Bible storying into their sessions.  We are not sure how we are going to balance that out with our current Bible studies we having going on in the village of Nearar on Sundays, but we are praying about it. 

We left them with 12 applications for the students to fill out.  Dan made plans to return on Oct. 8 to meet with the leaders again and also the 12 whom they will select to be trained.  We'll be in the States and will miss that meeting, but will update when we hear about it from Dan.  It was a very positive meeting and the leaders were very happy with this idea.

David closed our meeting in prayer.

Pray for these leaders as they seek to select these twelve young people.  We are praying that they will be twelve with hearts ready to hear and accept the gospel.  We do hope that this training will eventually help meet many of their physical needs.  But mostly, we hope that it will be a time for them to be set apart from their normal lives, and that God could begin to work in them.  We would love for when the training is over for them to have a desire to continue to study God's Word and invite us into their homes to continue sharing.  Would you pray for that also?

I love this picture!

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" 

 Isaiah 52:7

Never A Dull Moment

The village of Nearar where we are teaching Bible studies on Sunday is an outreach project of a Baptist church in the town of Chimaltenango.  That is about five hours from here.  There is also a Baptist church in Chattanooga, Tennessee that is partnering with them to help reach this village.  They are led by fellow IMB missionaries David and Glynis Miller.  They are committed to being in the village a couple times a year.  We are helping do follow-up and discipleship with the evangelism they do while here.

There is a guy from the church in Chimaltenango that volunteered to come to the village for two weeks.  He is staying in the house where we meet on Sunday's.  He felt the Lord call him to come over and do some door to door visits and help be a witness in the village.  All of last week he and Reyes made visits in several homes.  On Friday they were visiting in a particular home and a man supposedly accepted Christ. 

Sunday morning David decided it would be best if the kids and I stayed home during the first study and then join him in the afternoon for the second study. 

Well, while he was teaching, Reyes (the man of the house) got a phone call.  He interrupted the study to tell David that he had to go up to the top of the mountain because someone had just been killed.  Turns out it was the man who they had witnessed to on Friday and who prayed to receive Christ.  We do not know any motive or details about the murder at this time.  

David stayed and finished the lesson.  The man who was killed had several small kids. Some of them were at the Bible study with David. The murder took place right behind where our car was parked so you can imagine the crowds that had gathered.  I was very thankful the kids and I were not there that morning!

We are very saddened by this latest death in that village.  It is not a very friendly area and the people can be hard and cold.  There is definitely a spirit of evil that rests heavy there and the people have little value for life.  When they have a dispute their main way of dealing with it is by killing one another.  It is really sad, but reality.  Please pray for them.  Pray for salvation to come to that area and that many would come to know the Prince of Peace that could put a spirit of peace in their hearts. 

We are going to try to visit with the wife and kids sometime in the coming days.  Pray that God would give us just the right words to encourage them.

We were certain that by the afternoon things would be calmed down and we could return for our second study.  It was.  We arrived mid-afternoon, parked our car, and began the hike to the house.

Most of this hike is flat.  There is just one area where it is steep and you have to climb down to get to the house.  Overall, it is a lot easier to get to than the house we go to in the mornings.

I might not always enjoy climbing the mountains, but I always enjoy looking at them.

This is the steep area.  You hike down through a corn patch.

As we were arriving we were greeted by many smiling faces that were happy to see us.

This is a side view of the house we meet in.  It is right on the side of the mountain.  Right beyond where those kids are standing it just drops off.  There is very little room for the kids to play and run around.

The men were all gone to find work so it was just the ladies and children this week.  One of the ladies (not pictured) was holding Ben during the Bible study time.  He got a little fussy.  I turned to check on him and just as I did the lady was just seconds from nursing him.  Yes, that's right, feeding my baby!!!  In their culture they think nothing about feeding each others kids.  But, this mama almost came unglued, haha.  I screamed, "NO, NO, NO".  I am certain I scared everyone there.  I ran over and grabbed him up.  The lady just did not seem to understand my reaction, nor did anyone else there.  Before we left we apologized and explained to them that in our culture only the mama nurses her children.  I pray we did not offend them and that they understood the cultural differences.  He will definitely not be getting out of my sight from now on, haha.

Everyone there wants to hold him, especially the kids.  He is just not very friendly with them and almost always cries for me to get him.  I think they overwhelm him, and it makes him nervous.

Cruz loves getting to play with all of the kids.  I think he overwhelms them and makes them nervous, haha.

                      

Cruz hiking back to the car. 

He loves going to the villages or "to work with Daddy" as he calls it.

It was a crazy day and the stress of it all just wore us out.  We left the village and decided to drive into Chiquimula and eat supper at Pollo Campero.  Cruz enjoyed getting to play on the playland and we enjoyed getting to sit, talk, and debrief the day.  Please continue to keep this village in your prayers.  There are many there who need to know Christ.