My parents are here...

...so there has not been much time for blogging lately.

But it has been wonderful...

It has felt like the holidays for sure...as we haven't had Christmas yet, but already were blessed with a suitcase plus of special snacks, books, games, don't know what else.  Lots of cooking, but lots of eating out too!!!  That has been nice.  Lots of Memaw and Pawpaw taking care of Erika...what a dream and nice break for me.  Lots of games being played with all the kids.  Dad has even taught Erika some new games.  We are busy planning Erika's party for Saturday...I am pretty excited how that all goes.  We are expecting 7 little princesses dressed up and ready for fun...

Mom and Dad arrived safely on Saturday night...and we came home and just had a relaxing evening of eating dinner and catching up.  Sunday, they got to experience LifeNet and one of our local eating spots.  Unfortunately, it was not the best experience because the owner had just advertised on the radio that week and was overun with business.  But my parents were understanding and the food was still good even though we had to wait a little longer than usual.

Monday started our busy as normal week.  We went to Spanish Lookout and they really enjoyed that.  Our van needed some work so we have had to stick close to home, but still have had fun.  Today, we all went to the Art Box, which is just a cool Christian store/souvenir shop...had lots of fun.  The kids said even going to the bathroom there was fun.  We enjoyed coke floats and all were happy.

People have asked what we are doing with my parents.  It is hard to do a lot of sightseeing because we have to stay close to home with Wini in school, and simply the fact that Lee still has a lot of work to do.  But it is nice to just take my parents where we run our errands, and enjoy relaxing with them at the house, taking them to our discipleship meetings...just living life with them here in Belize.  It actually seems a little surreal that they are really here!!!  Mom has gone and prayed over a lady with me who just had a baby...and she enjoyed seeing the hospital and meeting all the nice people in our church here.

Tori happily modeling one of her bday presents sent from Lee's mom:)  She had to wait but it was worth it to her...

Can you tell how happy Erika is that her grandparents have arrived???

First stop Monday morning...Pizza and Ice cream in Spanish Lookout...MMM...

Erika keeping close to Papaw

Dad teaching Erika Chicken Foot...this is a serious moment...

Enjoying coke floats at Art Box...nice...

Even the bathroom is super cool here...

And now, we have just returned from the Blue Hole.  We didnt take swim suits and should have.   Josh and Erika swam anyway:)  Mom is enjoying the beautiful scenery and her grandbabies...

Now to rest a little before a busy evening.

My to do list

It seems that everyday I have this to-do list...that never gets done...

Really, I should not be blogging, because I have a million things to do...

But, remember the lady whose water broke?  The next morning, she delivered a healthy 3 lb baby girl.  Tori and I just took her banana muffins.  I haven't got to see the baby yet, but she showed me a video.  That girl is fiery and strong.

As I was waiting to see her today, I reflected on how different it is to have a baby here.  You bring all your own pampers, wipes, supplies from home to the hospital.  You are only allowed to nurse...it is non-negotiable...there are signs everywhere...and I have  heard they take your baby to the orphanage if you don't nurse!!!  Can you imagine?  There are about 10 beds lined in the recovery room and you share with all the other moms...no privacy.  I was so spoiled when I had my babies!!!  I had my own room and bathroom...and it was a beautiful room...  Of course, it cost us dearly, but still.

Also, we went and visited the girl who had a stroke.  It is her eighth stroke and she is only 16 years old.  Lee had a vision while praying of her to speaking to a group.  Josh had a dream of her walking and fully healed.  We are believing  both are from the Lord.  That night, knowing she cannot see, and was headed to Mexico, we ran and bought an MP3 player, came home and loaded it with Worship and the Word and went back and gave it to her.  If she is confined to a bed, then let God minister to her during that time.  She texted us the next day that she had already listened to it all!!  Oh, and I had just had the privelege of praying with her for Salvation about a week and a half before her stroke.

We are dealing with many more prayer needs...probably just because there are more people in our lives now.  But we are also seeing God intervene and we have to trust Him more here!!

Tomorrow my parents come.  I woke up so excited this morning.  So much to do to get ready for them...tomorrow will be busy for us.  I cannot wait for them to see our home, etc.  Just to get to catch up with them...and they are going to watch the kids for us to get away one night...that will be good too.

Well, I must chip away at my list...

Tonight

Life has been busy, tonight has slowed down a little...

I'm enjoying doing some crafts with the girls, watching a movie, listening to the rain...

Praying...

I prayed with a girl to receive Christ two weeks ago...after we watched "To Save a Life".  She then came to church and I also met her mom at a funeral last week.  Then Lee told me she had MS.  Now, this weekend, she had a stroke and lays in a bed in a hospital in Belize City with half her body paralyzed.  My heart breaks for her.

Last night I went to a shower.  Today, the mom's water broke...way too early.  She is 27-29 weeks.  We are covering this little girl in prayer.  It is not like the states here...technology/medically wise...but God is here and in both these situations, He can heal.  He can bring this baby into the world healthy and ready to live strongly.

I am enjoying my night with my family, but still my heart is heavy.  But there is nothing I can do...but all that HE can do....so I have to trust in Him on behalf of these three lives....

I thought I would post some of the crafts the girls have been doing...just in case you wanted some simple, cheap ideas to do with your children...

Thanksgiving Family Day

Friday night, we had a larger gathering for Thanksgiving dinner with fellow missionaries and some Belizeans...the food was all so delicious and the fellowship was sweet.

We had a great time and were thankful to be invited.  When you don't get American food all the time, you really appreciate it when you do:)

Then, Saturday, people began dropping off cookies.  At 3, a couple of families came to help assemble the mix of cookies we would pass out on Sunday.  It took us a good two hours, so I was thankful for the help we had.

this is Belizean fudge...no words...MMMMM
we had two little girls that also brought some later.  This morning, she told me that she saved her own money that she gets from cleaning to buy the ingredients for the fudge.   Seriously, I almost cried.  They come alone, but live in a tiny house with 11 people.

This morning, we had a willing crew join us at the church building nice and early to set up, then some that stayed after to tear down.  We had 76 people.  The cookies were a true blessing and stretching of our people (those who baked).  God is doing neat things and we are really seeing servants within the body emerging.

We had fun blessing people with the cookies, had a nice lunch out with one of the families in our church, and now are relaxing this afternoon.  What a busy weekend.  Next weekend will be too.  We need our weeks to rest!!!

I'll end with some cuteness...Baby Tristan...and happy Erika getting ice cream.

Culture

Its been a non-stop series of long, never ending days...and I need to go to bed...but wanted to get this out, or I will lose it.

I have many pictures that I will put up in the next couple of days, but tonight, you just get my words.

We went to two Thanksgiving feasts the past two evenings.  And it was delightful.  It was so amazing to enjoy the familiar foods from the states that we love so much.  And to enjoy fellowship with other Americans, who are also called to this nation.  All different callings, but callings none-the-less.  It helped the being far from family, just a little.

Then, last night, the girls and I decorated for Christmas.  It helped me to feel in the holiday spirit a little more.  With temps still warm in the day, it can be a challenge.  And a Christmas that is not as normal.  But different can be good.  Just figuring out what it exactly looks like here.

Then, today, we spent collecting cookies, and packaging them for Thanksgiving Family Day tomorrow.  Tonight, Tori and I attended a shower for a lady in church, whose baby seems that she may come early.

I want to share about culture.   I was so fully immersed in Belizean culture tonight.  As they spoke in Creole, very quickly, they would look at me and say we need to slow down so Robyn can understand.  But you know what?  I understood about 85 percent of what they were saying.  I cannot speak Creole.  But if I listen, I can understand much of it.  So many things about today reminded me, or showed me, that I understand Belize culture more and more.  It has become my way of life, in a sense.  Or should I say, these things do not shock me anymore.  They are just the way things are here.  One mother at the shower, a very good mother, gave her chicken bone to her six month old to chew on.  I drove this same woman home with her baby on her lap...in my front seat.  This is culture.  This is how it is here.  It is different.  The ladies at the shower told that you have to pay in full before your baby is born at a certain hospital.  That a lady came in, and had not paid in full, but was in full blown labor.  Her baby died.  They shook their heads.  But this is life here.  In the States, we would be outraged, sue.  Here, it is maybe in the newspaper.

People parent differently here.  In so many ways.  But why is our way the only right way?  I have learned, not to compromise, but just to be open...a little more.  I am still much the same mother I was in the States.  Well, kind of.  My house is a little dirtier.  Not because I am lazy.  I clean more here than there.  But dirt coming in the house...more often here.  In the States, Erika would not have left the house with stains on her clothes.  I cannot get many stains out here...so, she leaves the house dressed, hopefully matching.  But I do not compromise on safety.  Although most of Erika's friends may stand up in the seat between their parents, Erika is always in a seatbelt, hopefully in a car seat.  This is hard for Erika to understand.  Although many children, even toddlers, may wander down my street without a parent, Erika does not even go out to the yard without a sibling or parent.  We are so mean.:)

God, help me to understand this culture, not so I can change it.  But so I can impact it for YOU.  

This week, a UB student, and sibling of someone who attends our church, shared with me a very vivid dream she had about our church.  Her father is a pastor, so she attends there.  She said she saw very clearly several Street Kids...meaning not just unbelievers, but people that she would never expect in church...attending our service.  She said Belize needs a church to reach these young people, because they will not go to the existing churches...they are geared more towards adults.

Like I have said before, I never imagined myself as a youth pastor...but our home and church services are full of youth...hungry for discipleship.

What does 45 people in a home look like?  A lot of kids piled on couches and chairs...and lining the floor of my dining room area.  God is good.

Ok, just one picture...

This really gives you just a glimpse...there are about 20 people sitting on the floor BEHIND the couch, simply because we ran out of chairs...  Lee had no chair and had to move around as he talked, to try to let everyone be a part.  Then we broke into five small groups.

Thanksgiving in a Foreign Land

This year Thanksgiving feels really different.  We ended up being invited to lunch at someone’s home last night for today.  This meant I had some extra things to do this morning, so I cancelled school for the next two days.  All the older kids needed to do was some catching up in a couple of subjects, not too bad.  We also have an incredibly busy weekend coming up and lots of things I have to do for that...so thankfully, we are at a place, we can miss a couple of days.

Reading everyone’s facebook statuses definitely made me homesick for that feeling of Thanksgiving in America.  I can’t really explain it.  I am in a very content and happy place in our calling to live here and love the people of Belize so much, especially those in our church.  But the holidays are hard for me.  It is when I really feel like we are in a foreign land.  I took Tori to her piano lesson.  Her teacher is a missionary from Canada.  But to her, today was just ordinary too…because she doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving.  But knowing all my family was gathering and we were not there…

Anyway, we rushed through the things we needed to do this morning, because we are still meeting with 35+ kids tonight, so needed to leave the house in order.  As we got ready, Josh was like, do you even know these people?  I said…we know a couple of them.

But it was awesome.  There was just this neat spirit of all of us not really knowing each other, but all somehow connected.  There were people there who minister at the Kings Children’s home.  It was neat to get to know them.  And the hosts were so welcoming and friendly.  Erika found a new friend in their five year old daughter.  We had some friends from our church there.  So that was fun.  The food was all super yummy.  It was so nice to get to enjoy American food.  I didn’t realize how much I missed it.  Lee either.

to be continued...more American food tomorrow...MMMM

REALLY, could life get any BUSIER?

I feel like I have neglected this blog lately...but seriously have not even thought about it for one minute...til last night, I was like, when was the last time I blogged?

We had a visitor from the US over the weekend, the older kids went to Legacy at YWAM, an intense youth retreat, and Tori finally got her bunny.

We had looked everywhere and could not find one...everywhere.  And this poor girl, we had made her wait and then now could not find one...

We were driving the lady around from the States...when we passed the SNAKE HOUSE!!!!  UGH.  And they had this huge cage full of rabbits.  Tori begged Lee to stop and ask if we could buy one.

The lady was so kind and this is the girl that came back to the van...

all smiles...the perfect coloring she wanted...and still a tiny bunny...

she wraps it up and carries it like a baby and takes such good care of it...

I must admit, Skyler is pretty cute and a very well behaved bunny.  She sleeps outside, but spends much of her day in with the family.  Promise is doing good with her...lots of smelling.  And no more leftover veggies in the trash now...she loves them.

Oh, and our friends found some Dr. Pepper in Belize City and delivered it to us Sunday.  So, Lee is happy too...he is enjoying every sip.

So, life has been good.  Literally, every day, we have unexpected guests, sometimes for hours, trying to manage homeschool, getting ready for Thanksgiving, and Erika's soon coming party, and I haven't even started Christmas shopping yet.  But we have made some homemade cards and decorations.

Hoping to decorate this weekend, amidst our first outreach as a church.  Our people are baking around 800 cookies, that they will bring here, and we will package to pass out on Sunday.  One for them, one to give away...you know, same thing we did at Life, but  no pies to be bought here...way too expensive:)

My parents come in a little over a week.  I am so excited to see them.  Then, we just found out one of the families from our church in Katy is coming right after them. So, we will be busy til Christmas.

We literally just got invited to a Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and another on Friday. I'm excited.  The holidays are the hardest time to be away.  Reading on Facebook of everyone seeing their families...and we are not.  But God gives us other blessings...and it helps us cherish the time we do have with our family all the more now.

Well, we are about to have the Leadership Training here at our house...yep, been preparing for that, while visiting with people all day.  One thing is for sure...I sleep good at night...

Oh, and one prayer request:  the first girl that I prayed for salvation here, months ago...her step-dad, the man who raised her, died suddenly of a heart attack last Thursday.  It was a very sad funeral...he was born two months to the day after Lee...so it hit home.  Praying for this girl and her mom as they grieve and praying for oppurtunities to continue to minister to her mom especially.