El Salvador

Last week at this time, Mike was miles and miles away from his biological family here. He was still in the "Americas", but he had left the Northern continent.

We (our church) has partnered in a Church-to-Church relationship through Compassion International with a congregation in a suburb (slum?) of San Salvador, El Salvador. Last week's trip for Mike was the beginning of what promises to be an amazing relationship for both congregations - Hope's and Koinonia's.

An added treat for our family was that he was able to meet both our newly sponsored Herson, who is from the Child Development Center run by the Koinonia Congregation (Compassion International's Child Development Centers - schools - are always run through the local churches and staffed by locals) and our little Keily, who I've been a correspondent sponsor for since August (that means that her financial sponsor cannot or does not want to have a corresponding relationship with her - it could be that she's sponsored by a corporation or some organization that cannot really form the relationship aspect of sponsorship with her.....so that gets to be our treat!)! Keily does not attend Koinonia's Center (she attends one about 2.8 miles away), but Compassion made sure she and her Mom were transported to meet Mike and spend time getting to know him. Very, very cool! Through the mail, we cannot send "real gifts" to our sponsored children; everything we send has to be flat and fit in an 8X11 envelope. Books, clothes, etc. cannot be sent even if they can be flattened because it would just waste far too much of Compassion's money (and they are very, VERY guarded with making sure their finances go to finance the projects they are meant for!) paying customs' officials and then probably ending up having their couriers mugged/robbed anyway. It's seriously difficult for me to think of someone here attacking the mailman to steal some little girls' bracelets or a children's book. Anyway, because Mike was actually visiting these children, we were able to send gifts with him for them. The girls and I had so much fun picking out what to send each child!

This first picture has been turned black-and-white for the protection of your eyesight. Not only is my hubby able to run 1/2 marathons, successfully hunt large (sometimes omnivorous) animals, co-author published Bible studies....He also glows. Really, truly. See for yourself in the unedited version that I've included after this one.

Are you ready for it? Maybe you should get some sunglasses first. Ready? Okay, here we go!

In all seriousness, I love that picture of Mike with Herson. Herson lives with his Mom and his Grandma; there is no Daddy around. I can hardly stop looking at that little guy - he'll be eight this month - cuddled up to my girls' Daddy.

Herson, Mike found, is a small-group leader for his church. Yep. Mike said that anytime he hears someone say, "Oh, a small group leader? I could never do that", he's going to whip out a picture of little Herson and say, "Really? He can!". When Mike told me about Herson's leadership, as a seven-year-old, I was so proud of the little guy! The next thought that struck me, though, was incredible humility - that we are able to be his sponsors. I have a feeling we can and will learn just as much, if not more, from him than he from us.
Mike told me that he looooooved the bubbles. I'm also told they had a great time with the soccer ball we sent, though they did almost hit one of the chickens with it, which I'm sure would have thrilled his poor grandmother!!!

The gal on the right of the picture is their translator. I got to watch a video of her explaining why she loves her job with Compassion. She and a couple others gave impromptu monologues on it when Mike asked them to, and it's heartwarming to see them express their excitement and love for their work and for these children and families, especially as they are doing it in their second language.

I can ask where the bathroom is in Spanish. Ahem.


Herson and Cornelius. Mike told me that Herson is one of the more "well-off" children who attend the school. If you notice in the picture with the bubbles, his house has concrete walls - real walls. It also has a real floor. The doorways between the two rooms are made of sheets, but having real walls and a real floor is a big deal. His mom has a job sewing clothes for a company that contracts with The Gap; her daily quota of sewn garments boggled my mind. I'm still not sure Mike must not have misheard.....Suffice it to say, it's a lot, and I know some good seamstresses. I don't know anyone who could make that quota. But she has money each month that can go to the rent of their apartment-type house, and they have the couple of chickens.

Mike told me their house is roughly the size of our kitchen and living room. I can't give you exact dimensions on that, but our entire house is 1002 sq. ft., and most of that is bedroom space (they definitely squished our kitchen to get our bedroom space). I'm not sure how others feel about that, but it's been incredibly humbling to me to think that a nice apartment - the kind many of Herson's neighbors wish they could have - is the size of my tiny little kitchen and living room. I surely appreciated, as I put away a kitchen-full of groceries yesterday and washed up all the fruit and veggies, the running water I flipped on, the space I had in the basement for the extra groceries....Appreciate, rather than expect more and chafe over what I don't have....that's been the lesson for me over and over and over again in the past years and months I've been involved with Compassion.

*Note: I am not saying that Herson's family is truly well-off, that he doesn't need to be in the Child Development Center he attends, or that he does not live in poverty. Compassion does not allow children in their centers whose families are well-off enough to not need those centers. What I am saying is that it amazes me how little one can have in a developing country and be considered "better off" than others in that same area. Herson lives in poverty, lives a difficult life, goes without many, MANY things we feel are our "rights", and yet, because he has an apartment with cement walls and a floor, he is better off than the kids down the street whose walls are held up with sticks. It amazes me.

As I mentioned, Mike was also able to meet Keily and her mom. I'm told it took quite some time to get to the point of this picture. Poor little Keily (pronounced Kay-lee....we'd been saying it wrong!) was so nervous about meeting Mike that she burst into tears at first.

He kept telling her and her mom through the interpreter that he knew all about little girls who get nervous because he had two of them back at home. I knew he'd be good with her because of how good he is with his own two little sometimes-nervous girls. This man who hunts those large animals can also play dolls like nobody's business.

Keily's mom with the bag of gifts we sent. I love this picture of her because she looks so proud of her little girl and so hopeful. Her smile, in my opinion, is as bright as that sunshine.

I love this picture of Keily because she has warmed up to Mike by this point and has sort of an "I'm thinking about this" look on her face similar to one Sunny often gets. Mike said she did remind him an awful lot of Sunny.

She's about Sunny's size, too, though she's over a year older. You can see that she is slightly bigger, thank goodness, than the doll we chose to send her.

And this picture, too, just melts my heart. She had to have been sweltering in that fancy little dress, but I know she was wearing it because it is her best outfit for such an important day as meeting her sponsor (at this age, she would only know of Mike and I as her "sponsors"....as she gets older Compassion will explain our relationship). I just think she looks so huggable and lovable, and I'm so honored that we get to be her correspondent sponsors! She has five older siblings, from what I understand, and it's likely that none of them were sponsored children. She, a four-year-old, holds the hope for this family to be lifted out of poverty. To have any part in that is just an amazing gift for us.

Thinkin' Hard

Our little Sunny has been thinking hard lately.

It's my fault. After finding small toys in her mouth four times in two days, I went a little hard core on the "talking to". We were both in tears by the time I was done, and, though I felt a little guilty at the time, I'm thinking it was for the best in the long run.

We talked about choking, not breathing, death, visiting her grave at a cemetery....Like I said, I was pretty hard core on it by this time. This toy-in-the-mouth issue's been going on a long time, and I just dissolved over these last episodes.

It's hard to get Sunny to be serious. That's one of the things I love about her. It's also one of the things that makes us have to think so incredibly hard as we're parenting her!

She's a cheery little thing, and when embarrassed or sad or confused or uncertain, she'll often just get cheerier and goofier.

Exhibit A: My Winter Chipmunk
Aaaahhh.....There's our relaxed Sunny.

Anyway, I got confirmation last night that what I had said last week had actually sunk in. You see, we had a sump pump issue. Of course it occurred during the last two hours of Daddy's trip home from El Salvador.

Thankfully, our neighbor was home and is not afraid of water spouts....in basements. Nor is he inexperienced with such occurrences, which also served to our advantage. No one could convince me that it is easy to find neighbors like we have. While Ken was helping disconnect the outside hose from the sump pump, I ran to trip the pump....and was deluged with water spouting at me from said pump. Up the stairs I ran again, this time shouting, "Help, Ken! Help!". With no hesitation, other than to perhaps question the sanity of his own screaming neighbor, he followed me down to the sump pump room and fixed what was wrong (a clamp had blown off allowing water to escape....all.over.the. spare.bedroom.). Then he came over and sucked it all up in a shop-vac. In my defense, I did use our furniture movers to pull a cabinet and a large desk out of the way. Other than that, I was pretty much superfluous in the whole ordeal.

The "but" comes in that we needed to leave the door to the sump pump room open for the floor to dry out. Now, soon after we moved here, I had my Dad install a lock on that door way high up, just barely low enough for me to reach. It scares me to pieces to think of the girls opening that room and drowning in a hole full of water. Sooooo....now the room is hanging open, and we have a five-year-old who can open door to the basement despite (or perhaps with the assistance of!) the child lock on it. In my mind, that necessitated another discussion with the Mice.

I explained that the pump room is open for awhile, that we are not to go in the basement, that if they were to go in the basement, they could fall in the hole and drown. Die. Two sets of huge eyes stared at me. Two heads nodded in understanding.

Two hours later, Miss Mouse wanted to see how the fan was working on drying out the floor.

Sure, I said. We can go down and look.

Sunny went ballistic. "Noooo! You can't go down there (You tan't dough down dair!)! You will die!". Ahem. Apparently my lecturing has been taken to heart.

I felt a little guilty. I don't want to create overly-anxious kids, just ones that are respectful, aware, and alert of possible dangers instead of oblivious to them. We all went together to look at the drying process, and I have my fingers crossed that this bodes well for Sunny's small-toy issues (and peas-in-the-nose propensities, as well, though I don't get quite as worked up about those!). In the meantime, the toys are up, and the basement door is as secure as possible.

Because this is one superior goofball!!!

Three

We recently added a three-year-old to our household. She was so, so excited to be "big"!

Sunny did get two of those candles out on her own. She "blew really hard" and got the third one out, too, though I may or may not have added a little wind to the endeavor.

Our birthday girl with her pink butterfly cake. Unfortunately, I forgot that Sunny doesn't care for sweets if they aren't chocolate. Oops. Poor thing took one bite of the cake, looked at me with tears in her eyes, and said, "But Mommy, I don't wike it!". She had frozen yogurt instead. Thankfully she likes all flavors of that since all I had in the freezer was vanilla!
This is her expression where I think she looks so much like my Grandma and her family. It always makes me smile.

Sunny has wanted a robe in the worst way for months. It was so great that Miss Mouse and Daddy found this one at the mall so that she can have the best of both worlds - a robe that isn't overly-warm! All winter I've had trouble keeping pants on this child because she gets so hot (and after our new oven gift arrived, we no longer have an 80+ degree house; it's stayed at 70 all winter, telling me that Sunny's thermostat is just set "hot"), so I couldn't see getting her a warm, fluffy, long-sleeved robe like the one Miss Mouse curls up in. After doing some research online, I found a store that had these lighter robes; what a relief for Daddy and Miss Mouse to find that the store had them in stock (especially since they were shopping on Sunny's birthDAY.....they HAD to come home with something!). Sunny also got a rainbow-colored pair of goggles from her big sister.

For Sunny's birthday dinner, she wanted to go to Ruby Tuesday's. She loves their salad bar. *Yes, we're raising odd children. Yes, we know most kids want to go to Space Aliens or Chucky Cheese. And, we're so totally okay with it!* Anyway, by the time we got down there, she was asleep in the car. She's struggling to give up her naps, which I'd rather have her keep, and car rides are just too much for her to fight off sleep. I carried her in; we got settled at our table; the poor gal slept through half of her birthday meal. I tried flicking water at her nose; I tried standing her up by the table (while still holding onto her, of course); Daddy suggested shoving her hand in cold water (this was quickly vetoed by myself and Miss Mouse when Miss Mouse was told what could happen to her poor sister....good thing Daddy wasn't serious in the first place!). Nothing worked to wake her up, so she and I ate our dinners after Daddy ate his. Miss Mouse, true to form, was still munching even after Sunny and I had finished. I think we were sort of irritating to the waitress, having taken so long, but it was Sunny's birthday meal! It turned out to be really fun, but there were a few moments where we wondered if we'd just have to box up her hamburger and skip the salad bar for Sleeping Beauty!

This three-year-old is such a blessing to us. She's so sweet, kind, sensitive, caring.....yet she also has a funky sense of humor, knows how to be the "irritating" little sister already, acts out by being even goofier than usual, thrives on attention and will get it however she can, and has a terrible habit of putting small toys in her mouth! Because of these more, hmmm, "wild" habits, I think it's easy to overlook her sensitive side, but that has been showing through more and more lately in so many ways.

For example, we were out to eat a few weeks ago. In true Sunny style, she had fallen asleep on the way to the restaurant, so I held her through the first part of the meal. When she woke up, the adults' food was not at the table yet, so she ate her food on my lap. I had prepared the high chair complete with the sanitary high chair cover right next to me for her to move to when my food arrived. However, when my food came, there was no way she was going off my lap. First came the whine, then the little screams, then a nearly all-out tantrum. Off to the bathroom we ran to calm down. I could sense something was out of kilter with her. Once we got to the bathroom, and I got her calmed down, she was able to tell me that she did not WANT to sit in a HIGH CHAIR like a BABY! She was absolutely horrified to think of having to sit in a high chair. Here I thought she'd prefer it since she tumbled out of a chair during my own birthday meal in November (since then we've mainly sat at booths, but we were at a table this night in question). Apparently that was not her preference. So, out we went, took off the high chair cover, exchanged the high chair for a regular "big" chair, and had no more tears. Several times since that evening she has said, "Mommy thought I was a BABY at the westauwant!" She had been so terribly embarrassed. It came out like a naughty little fit, but when it came down to it, she was embarrassed. For me, it's a rather sweet memory and was a good reminder of what a sensitive little girl she is. Her personality is different than her sister's, but they share sweetness.

Welcome to the world of big girls, Sunny!

Five

Someone in our house turned five about three weeks ago. Can you tell someone else is excited about that fact?

I may have posted that picture before, but it's just so funny that I had to include it with the birthday pictures. Miss Mouse is holding her green caterpillar balloon, quickly dubbed "Happy", while she is letting Sunny hold a happy birthday balloon from one of her friends. Sunny's free grocery store balloon that I brought home with "Happy" popped on the ceiling about 15 minutes into playing with it. Miss Mouse didn't even let Sunny think about being sad, rushing in with, "You can share my balloon!" right away.

That's our sweet five year old.

Miss Mouse made out with a haul of balloons this year, an absolute haul of them! Dora came from Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Dick (along with the purple one for Sunny....that one lasted two days before Sunny decided to pop it herself with a pen....); the white happy birthday one came from a friend; and this is just a bit better view of "Happy". Miss Mouse is somewhere under them.

I have a lot of cute pictures from Miss Mouse's party, but I love this one of our friends who are getting ready to move westward. We've babysat little K since she was just a few months old, and the girls spent time with K and her mom every other week for that same time period. It's been such fun to see her grow up and turn into a 2-year old! I love how she is smiling so silly! That's what makes 2-year-olds so fun, I think; they get senses of humor! Anyway, the girls are very sad their little friend is moving, but they're also pretty excited to go see her someday at her home in "the mountains".

This was how we began the birthday. No. Actually, the birthday began by Miss Mouse singing at the top of her lungs, "It's my birthday day today! It's my birthday day!". Thankfully, Sunny was already up. No doubt Miss Mouse checked on that before she broke out into song. She's just like that.

I have to say this birthday was the most fun so far because of how long it was anticipated and how enthusiastically it was welcomed by both girls. Sunny was as excited to have her sis turn five as Miss Mouse was to be five. It's lovely to see what good friends they are turning out to be. It's really hard work to teach them how to maintain that day after day after day, but seeing the two of them breakfasting in bed.....it's one of the things that reminds me why I do what I do.

The biggest excitement of the day for Miss Mouse was the beginning of her nailpolish-wearing-days. Look at those plain, naked, little girl hands. It honestly does seem like just yesterday they were so teeny-tiny that I didn't know how to clip the nails on them! Daddy did it because I was too nervous! It didn't take long, but how they've grown into such big girl hands.....so quickly.....

And as quickly as nailpolish can dry, those naked little girl hands turned into polished, big girl hands. The green nailpolish was her gift from Mommy and Daddy; she knew it was coming; she just didn't know for sure what color she would get.

The girls skyped with Grammy and Grandpa Bob. Miss Mouse was most concerned about showing off her new nailpolish. Sunny wanted to show how she matched Big Sister.

Our little Miss Mouse....small still....yet if the next five years go as quickly as the last five, and then if the five after that go just as quickly, followed by the five after that.....Whew. It just makes me all the more determined to slow down and appreciate each moment of each day. I had to put the left picture in because I can't even count how often that exact expression has been on her Daddy's face.

One of the favorite "party games" was the girls' bowling game. I find it difficult to set up, crazy to get to stay up, and generally a really great mess-maker and ankle-breaking-risk (sorry Grammy and Grandpa Bob who got it for them for Halloween a year ago!). It takes a lot of patience for me usually when we break it out. This day, though, wow, it had A., A., and Miss Mouse enthralled! They couldn't hardly get enough of bowling. That is, until the hula hoops were discovered, at which point throwing the party favor mini-beach balls through the hula hoops became a new favorite game.

I loved it because there was no parent-preparation-fancy-made-up-games necessary. These kiddos just made up their own which were far more awesome and kept their attention longer than anything I could have dreamed up. Just a plug - most of these kiddos have parents who go pretty light on the television - and I have some fairly strong opinions about that having a definite effect on their creativity in play when they get together.....It was just fun to see the payoff, I guess.

One of our goddaughters, who happened to be "the" big girl at the party, helped the two smaller girls build this block contraption. When I asked if it was a castle, which our goddaughter has often built at our house in the past, I was told that, "No. It's a pen for the little girls". Um, okay? Both little ones seemed determined that it was for Gertie the Goat. Yes, I know she looks like a giraffe. Just trust me, she morphed into a goat long ago and even wins most of the goat shows into which she is entered.
That Mr. A will soon be five amazes me no less than the fact that we have a five-year-old at our house. He and Miss Mouse were together nearly every week through their babyhood, really until their mommies added their siblings to the equation. He's still one of her sweetest friends around.

Grandpa Dick made a good friend at the party. Little Miss H doesn't even usually like men, but she cuddled up to Grandpa Dick like they'd been best buds for years (well, okay, she's only two, so best buds for months might be more appropo).

I'll finish the picture montage with one of Miss Mouse and her much-anticipated dirt cake. With three February birthdays, I needed to mix things up a bit in the cake arena, so I explained dirt cake to Miss Mouse and was, of course, given the go ahead. She carried the gummy worms around the house for days, showing them to any visitors we had, the neighbors, everyone. The real thing did not disappoint her, either. I made two batches and had far too much left over in my opinion but not in hers! We ate it until I thought I'd puke if I ate another serving. She would quite possibly eat it everyday for the rest of her life happily. I think we've found "her" cake. Of course, she's such a self-controlled little thing that she'd leave any for which she was too full which reassured me that it was fine to have all those leftovers around!

A few final words about our five-year-old Miss Mouse......Every year I think that I can't love her anymore than I do. Every year that passes, though, I love her more.

I love how her hair smells slightly of chlorine most days now.

I love how she throws herself into the pool with gusto.

I love her confidence as she swims her long body through the pool in a backstroke, or a front crawl, or a whip kick.

I love her sweetness when she refers to her little sister as "Oh, Honey", even though it irritates the heck out of Sunny.

I love how she can sound out any word with a short vowel sound, with just some help with words containing digraphs.

I love to hear her read.

I love to see her sprawled on her bed reading the latest book I've written on construction paper for her to illustrate and read.

I love how she has a constant need to work on "projects".

I love how I can tell almost instantaneously when something bothers her....a twitch of the lip, a sideways glance of the eyes, a flick of the tongue.....to know her well enough to read her signals.....it's an incredibly huge privilege and responsibility.

I love how, even though we're working toward being able to read classic stories like "The Three Little Pigs" that might be a little scary, she is so sensitive to others' feelings that she would rather not watch most tv shows since most of them involve someone getting either physically or emotionally injured.

I love how, even though she won't watch it on television, she can communicate when her feelings are hurt, can understand when she's hurt others, and knows how to deal with it - apologizing & forgiving.

I love how she prays before her meal even if I'm not at the table yet; she won't eat without praying, even if she has to just say it by herself.

I love how simple it is to her that we are to love God and serve Him by loving others.

I love her.

Happy Birthday, Miss Mouse. Thank you for an incredible five years.

Hats, Hats, & More Hats

Great Auntie Linda is visiting for a few days, and she brought with her HATS! Actually, she brought hats, hats, & more hats along with some beautiful, delicate little teacups and saucers, two stuffed cats, and three books about cats! One of Auntie Linda's friends decided to share some of her treasures with the Mice, but Auntie Linda got the enjoyment of hearing the squeals and seeing the smiles.

I'm posting these pictures in hopes that her friend who sent the treats will have a chance to see how very much the Mice are enjoying them.

We think Miss Mouse is pretty cool in a brimless cap.

Sunny, on the other hand, radiates sunshine in her sunhat. Everytime I capture a picture of these pretty little toothy grins, I just love it. The Mice (and I) worked so darn hard to get those pretty little pearly whites that it's just ridiculously fun to admire them now! Sort of ironic, too, though that Miss Mouse already has a couple that are a bit loose....after we worked so hard only four-five years ago....

This one isn't quite as happy-go-lucky as the rest, but her confused little face just cracks me up. I had to include it. I think she's horrified and confused that her cat's leash fell off (or something of the sort - whatever it was, it was easily remedied).

What fun treats for a snowy winter day!

Thankfulness

For those who may think there are days in which there is nothing to be thankful for......

http://sermonspice.com/product/42047/thankful

Check it out. Then read on. Really, check it out first and take the seconds needed to watch the video. The rest of this will make much more sense if you do.

Often, I think we fall into a trap of believing that the small things we have, the things we take for granted, are our "rights" or that we are entitled to them. Small things that seem so insignificant and silly to us to stop and be thankful for. Over the past year I've come to see what a terrible trap that is. What it leads to is discontent, unhappiness with what we have, a sense of deserving household items that work and work well, a sense of 'life is unfair' or 'I deserve better' when the gadgets that are designed to be tools for us to make life easier don't work exactly the way they are designed, a tendency to anger when we see places in our lives where we perceive we are 'shorted' or are not given the respect, the money, the time, the love, the attention, etc. that we believe we deserve.

It's not a pretty place, and it certainly is not God who sets that trap for us.

It wasn't until God was able to lift me, pull me, slipping and sliding and continually falling backwards, out of that trap that I was able to see how full our lives are....even when we are not on a mountaintop, even when what is asked of us is difficult, tiring, heartbreaking. He used many ways to do it - Compassion International and the relationships we have with our sponsored children, blogs of women who were far ahead of me in their journey of thankfulness, friends who help their children deal with challenges that affect every area of their families' lives everyday, friends who prayed with me and squirmed their own way out of their own traps, friends whose "leaps of faith" change their children's lives forever, even my Mom's "thankfulness game" which I've always poked fun at, and especially my husband who found his own answers in, of all places, the book of Ezekiel (Seriously, have you read it? It's weird!!! No blasphemy intended. It's evidence that God can and will use absolutely anything for His purposes.)

After all my rambling, I hope that you at least watched the video and that the link worked the way it was supposed to. Without that, I think this is all rambling!!

Winter

In reverse order, here are some pictures of what we've been up to this non-winter. Non-winter though it has been, we've still mostly been stuck inside needing to create our own busy-ness and fun.

Valentine's Day with two girls in the house. Miss Mouse made her Daddy a turkey complete with feathers that she found fallen from her boa. The glitter was a birthday gift and has already disappeared completely in one big exciting, glittery event!

This is so funny to me because Miss Mouse "smiled" the same way Sunny is at the same age. We've made lots of our own fun with the prairie dress for Miss Mouse and random pairs of shorts for Sunny.
Notice the concentration. It's almost visible just in her hand control (that's Miss Mouse working on a lego "garden").

This was serious business for Sunny, too. She was making a pontoon.

Working very hard at making a pontoon.

Neither girl quite appreciated Daddy's bomber plane. He actually attached little lego "bombs" with which he bombed their garden and pontoon. Of course, he repaired all damage, but neither girl was amused. Personally, most of my pictures of this are blurry because I was so very amused that I could hardly stop shaking with laughter. Give the Mice's little boy cousin (due in June) a few years, and he'll be fairly enthralled with the lego bomber plane, too, I'm thinking. Hmmmm.....it shall be interesting to see what the little guy comes up with for the girls' new set of dog-show-pink-and-purple legos that they got for their birthdays!

I guess we could just let Daddy take a go at the dog show pink legos; then we'd have a pretty good idea at what that little cousin/nephew of ours will be scheming up. I had to include this blurry picture just because I love Mike's expression so much!

Sunny does indeed love sunny weather....even when it is only the fluorescent kitchen lights.....

My smallest fancy girl.

And my blonde Dorothy looking so grown up!