As always, I am late writing this letter and sending cards, but better late than never! We have had a very busy year (as it always seems to be.) Jack keeps us busy, but there have been other things that have kept us busy as well!
From January through June we were still in Honduras. We had Jack’s first birthday party on March 12th with about 80 people and Mike’s mom who came to Honduras to visit. The party was great and Jack has been in love with Elmo and Cookie monster ever since!
We were able to go on a student retreat in May with 7th and 8th grade students! Jack loved being with the students and they loved on him. We were able to spend some time with our good friends the Priests during the weekend too. What a great time!
We spent June packing and unpacking. We left Honduras on June 20th and slowly moved things back into the house that we lived in before on Irving Street in Winston-Salem. Two years goes by so fast. I still can’t believe that we have returned and life will definitely never be the same! We became good friends with this family from our church. We were not able to communicate with each other very well, but we had a bond with them and their children. We loved walking to their house to visit and taking the kids to the playground at school. This picture was taken the day before we left. They were so giving to us though they had little.
We gained so many good friends while in Honduras…some are still there and others have gone other places or returned home. The friends that we have that are still there definitely need prayer. The country is so unstable right now and I am sure that is why the Lord brought us back here. We have had some of our closest friends robbed at gun point. In the most recent robbery the Kolmodin’s were robbed in their home (which was two houses down from ours.) They have prayed for those that robbed them, but the experience was certainly a frightening one. We are glad to be in the United States where it is safer than most places.
Though we are glad to be where it is safer, it has been a difficult transition to be here. I never knew how difficult it is for missionaries to go back and forth, adjusting and readjusting. I learned that life is all about what you are used to. It was an adjustment to get used to being in Honduras, but more so being in the United States again. There were things about Honduras that were difficult like…the lack of clean water, power outages, safety, and the dry season when people would burn anything and everything. Some things that were great were…the community where we lived, being able to walk and exercise outside almost anytime, windows open most of the time, being able to visit anyone almost anytime, seeing Mike at school almost anytime, and our church family at El Hatillo Baptist who were so kind to us.
Since we have returned we have been attending TwinCityBaptistChurch. We have enjoyed the preaching and teaching there and have learned so much in the just the small amount of time that we have been there. The church is about a 10 minute walk from our house which has allowed us to walk to it on occasion. It is a small church of about 125 and is a little bigger than the church we were attending in Honduras. Our good friends Mark and Kathy Sanger invited us there. Jack has enjoyed the nursery there and playing with the Sanger’s son nicknamed Woowoo. Jack loves saying “Woowoo!”
I have been staying home with Jack and Mike is working as an accountant. He is glad to not be teaching right now, which is much harder than sitting at a computer all day like he is doing now. He was a good teacher who cared about the kids, but didn’t enjoy the discipline part of the job. The kids we worked with in Honduras needed a great amount of discipline. I had helped coach track last year at Pinares and stayed home with Jack. I have enjoyed being home with Jack, but life in the states is so much busier and that takes so adjusting. Life was so simple in Honduras because we didn’t have very much to do. No car to take care of, no lawn to mow, less stuff to maintain and no house to do maintenance on. What did we do…socialized and played with Jack!!!
Since we have been back we have been working on getting Mike’s mom a house. She was living in our house while we were gone and she now has a house in Rural Hall that she should move into within the next few weeks. We have spend many hours working on it and Jack has enjoyed the big tree out in the front yard! We have also enjoyed some things here this fall that we didn’t get to in Honduras. We took Jack to the fair, a corn maize, a fall festival, and Christmas tree hunting. Of course, today we are enjoying the snow~which is definitely not in Honduras!!!
Jack has also enjoyed visiting his grandparents, uncles, aunt, and cousin. He loves his cousin Christopher and they have a good time together. We are glad that Jack gets to see his family in person rather than on the computer all the time. Jack has also enjoyed playing with our dog Annie.
We are blessed to have had the time that we did in Honduras and blessed to have brought back with us our biggest blessing…Jack!! We are also thankful for the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. John 1:16…From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.
May God bless you with one blessing after another…
Last year when we went to Amapala we saw pigs on the beach...and now we have seen cows right outside of our house gate! I know I was raised on a cattle farm and I should be used to seeing cows right outside our door, but it still took me by surprise and Jack enjoyed it! Only in Honduras would the cattle run free...if they were out in the states someone would be calling my daddy to come get them back into the fence!
I teach Jack words...Mike teaches Jack sounds! For example...Jack's first sound was that sound you get when you put your lips together and blow..which his daddy taught him, but his first word was Mama, which, of course, I taught him! Attached is an example of the latest sound that Mike taught him. Mike says that he is teaching him to express himself.
I can't believe...as of 6:20 PM on March 12th, 2009...Jack is 1 Year old!! The time has just flew by and it has been a wonderful year. I would have come to Honduras 100 times if that is what it took to have a child! He has been the biggest blessing.
We had a great party tonight with so many people...our rough count is 70...we did this M&M guessing game and 70 people wrote their names down...I don't know how many more people were there, but it was incredible! I made enough cake for 60 people and it disappeared almost immediately! We have lots of video and pictures...we will have to download the video later, but there are pictures below...We even got to do Skype with my parents and Mike's Dad. Mike's mom actually came here for the occasion, so she got to see him in person.
Over the weekend we went to a Baptist camp here in Honduras on a teacher retreat. It was about a 4 hour drive to the retreat, but it was probably only 2 hours away. There are pictures below of Mike participating in some group bonding and we went to visit a waterfall. The waterfall is only 8 meters shorter than Niagra Falls and Mike went in behind it. There is also a picture of the group that he was with that went behind the waterfall. He loved it! He also went to the top of waterfall and looked over the edge! I didn't do either of those things...some things are better left to the imagination. The retreat was good. We actually got to hear our pastor preach for the first time in English and that was great!
We had been wanting to make some naked pictures of Jack for his future girlfriend/wife and here they are! He was so hyper after we took the pictures he would hardly go to sleep!!!
You know when the garbage man comes to get the trash there is always this loud beeping noise...well there is not that here, but there are other things that seem to have an alarm and go off just when you don't want to wake up. We just got a dog on February 3rd that we are taking care of for another couple that can't have a dog in the apartments. He is actually a puppy named Gideon and he is 8 weeks old tomorrow! I thought that babies were tiring, but this puppy has a thousand times more energy than Jack! He has been howling at all hours and the first night we had him really kept us up, but he has gotten better since. There are pictures of him and Jack below. Also, I thought that woodpeckers were called that because they peck on wood, not cement block houses!!! Anyway, at 6AM almost every morning we are greeted with a sound that is similar to a jackhammer on the outside of our bedroom wall! Does anyone know how to get rid of them besides shooting them??? Actually, they are very beautiful birds, apparently they are all good looks with no sense!
It is very important for Jack to get outside...2 reasons...he needs Vitamin D from the sun and our place is so small he needs to get out (and so does his mommy). It is nice being so close to school and a good place to walk. We also live close to some friends. I have a friend named Patti that has a 5 month old (Alejandro), a little boy that just turned 2 (Diego), and a daughter that is 9 (Marjorie). Diego loves to run and play and wear his sister out! The pictures below are from a visit to the playground. Jack mainly watched, but seemed to be content doing that! Marjorie did take him down the slide, which he seemed to like. Patti enjoyed her break and was very grateful!
