Monday, October 29, 2007

Only 3, make that 2 left.


It's been fun to have three new babies at church and with three more expected to arrive soon it should be exciting. I thought I would share the last picture of the expectant mothers. Elida (left) is due the end of November. I am due on the 11th. This morning Rebecca is having her baby via c-section.

Nuestra oracion

This junior choir was formed just a a few weeks ago, it was exciting to hear them sing for the first time in last nights Melody Night at church. Kaitlin and Bethany are on the far right in the front. We are looking forward to hearing more from them on future melody nights.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Please pray for the Smith Family.

Throughout deputation the Lord bestowed many blessing upon us including giving us special friends along the way. The Lord knit our hearts together with Pastor Shawn and Sandy Smith and their family and it is with heavy hearts that we share the following prayer request with you. We ask that you not only pray for this family yourself but that you request prayer for them in your churches and among your friends. You all have been so faithful to pray for us and we know that it will be a blessing to the Smiths to know you are praying for them. This is an email we received last night from a friend in regards to the Smith family, for reference Sandy was just this week diagnosed with Breast cancer and Andrew is their youngest child:

“Sandy had her consultation this morning with her medical team and the prognosis is promising. They will do a lumpectomy, followed by Chemo and radiation. They are hopeful that this will be all that is necessary for her treatment.

During the same time period that she was receiving the news regarding her treatment, however, Andrew was in the pediatric intensive care unit with Pastor Smith and my husband receiving a more grave report. For about a month Andrew has had trouble with his balance. He had a viral infection and so it was thought that he had an inner ear infection causing him to be unbalanced. Wednesday morning, they took him to his primary care doctor and the doctor sent them to the emergency room. A CAT scan showed fluid and a mass in his brain. He was placed in PICU until an MRI could be performed. The results were explained this morning and throughout the day. The final diagnosis is painful to even write: Andrew has an inoperable brain tumor in his brain stem with the tumor being about the size of a golf ball. At first, they had said that there would be surgery to reduce the pressure causing his difficulty with balance. They have concluded that surgery is not an option and that he will receive radiation treatment only. They have given him two months to two years to live.”

Is it really THAT big???


As Silas has grown, and as a result my belly, the statement "que pancita" has changed to "que panza". Not only has the statement changed but the inflection has gone from a sweet sing songy sound to more of a statement with a WOW inflection. I'm certainly thankful that my delivery date is on the near horizon. Thanks to all who are praying for a safe delivery. I ask that you please add an ability for me to understand the delivery (childbirth) technical Spanish as well as all that will be entailed during my stay in the hospital.

Monday, October 22, 2007

It's about time

I needed to have a worthy subject for my premier post and I think that I may have found it. I must begin by telling you that I have not changed my doctrinal position in any way. I did however find some things that I have said lately rather amusing, at least to me. The first is something that I taught in Sunday School - I must clarify that this lesson was in Spanish. The words for Gospel and Evangelical are very similar in Spanish. Instead of saying that we have a command from God to spread the Gospel I told the class that God has commanded us to spread Evangelicalism. Needless to say there is a difference between the two and thankfully they knew what I was trying to say.

The second thing that struck me as odd is in a conversation with a supporting church I asked them to pray that God would loosen my tongue. After making the statement I thought I wonder if they understood this as I intended?

It is evident that in good communication you not only need to be clear but specific. The difficulty here is that communicating in Spanish is still slow and requires much work, but it also seems that my ability to communicate in English is not as good as it used to be. I am left wondering - in another year will I be able to communicate in any language?

All fun aside I can see progress in our Spanish and trust that one day we will be able to communicate our hearts with relative ease.

Almost done

Today is my last full day of bed rest, at least it should be. With less than three weeks until my due date I am almost done and definitely ready to meet Silas. I have my OB appointment tomorrow and should be released from the bed rest restriction. Speaking of appointments let me explain how the appointment schedule works here, it is actually rather different.

If one wants to see a doctor the appointment is usually set for the time the doctor arrives that day to see patients. From there it's a first come, first serve idea where they basically just fill in the slots. If you are the 5th person to request an appointment you are number 5. Since I'm number 18 it is entirely possible I could be there all morning. With some doctors you can estimate when you should show up, but others will go through their list of appointments when they arrive, if you aren't there when they are you're bumped off the list.

As for lab, x-ray, and ultrasound appointment the appointment time is the time you are seen. Unless the techinician running the test is running behind. If that's the case who knows how long you'll be there. Once nice thing about this system is they actually call you by name and you don't have to keep up with which number they just called.

Since I'm number 18 for a 9 0'clock appointment Ruth and I should have plenty of time for catching up. Plus she usually makes opportunities to witness to those around us while I supply the tracts, team effort all the way.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Yep, another one of those.


Today Scott and I celebrate our 16th anniversary of the day we were married, and we certainly praise the LORD for His sustaining grace!!! For the past few years we've been unable to celebrate our anniversary on the 19th of October. Well at least not in very romantic ways, after all it's not too romantic to share an anniversary with dozens of other Baptist World Missionaries during annual meeting. Now this year I'm stuck here on bedrest. Oh well, at least we are together! And it will be memorable at least for the fact that it's our first one in Uruguay.




Monday, October 15, 2007

An Update on Madi


At the end of September I received an update about Madi saying her latest MRI came back with good results, praise the Lord! It was exciting for me to hear a couple days ago from, Valerie, my cousin, that Madi has started school and is doing very well. She is even memorizing Bible verses. When she began her radiation treatments they were told that she could be left with minor or major brain damage. At this point it appears that God spared her from any of those side effects.

Valerie is expecting twin boys who are both doing well, she has 16 weeks left of her pregnancy and I'm sure she would appreciate your prayers.

Friday, October 12, 2007

The comforts of home...


Here in Uruguay cookies have a different texture and taste. At this point I've not seen a real chocolate chip cookie for sale in a bakery or grocery store. For some reason (hmmm, pregnancy...maybe) these past few days I've had a sweet tooth. Yesterday Scott asked what I wanted and I told him I'd love a chocolate chip cookie but would have to do without because they have to be made at home and I'm on bedrest. His reply was an easy, "Which recipe do you use? I'll make some." To be willing to make chocolate chip cookies after he's already pulling his normal load and now mine too makes him the husband of the year! The cookies were absolutely delicious way better than my best cookies. I'll just close by saying I'm definitely not going to lose weight while I'm on bed rest Scott is a terrific cook.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Down in history...


Today our girls received their American Girl catalog and on the front cover is the new historical doll, Julie Albright. Little Julie just happens to be from the 7o's complete with bell bottoms and long straight hair. I knew this day would come but I didn't think it would be when I was only thirty-something. I had hoped to be in my 70's before I was considered...historical!

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

A new stage of parenting...a.k.a. braces.


A new stage in parenting began when Brandon and Kaitlin had spacers placed between their molars in preparation for braces. Kaitlin will need to have three teeth pulled. One was already pulled and it was not a good experience as she was only numb for a few minutes and felt everything. The last two extractions should be better as we'll make sure to ask for more anesthetic.


Soon we will have both of them setting off the metal detectors at the grocery stores. Just kidding, Brandon and Kaitlin! I guess since they read the blog I need to refrain from any more jokes and I definitely should not go into all the various names for people with braces. I'll just leave it to your imagination.