Wednesday, February 5, 2014

30+ DAYS

I can not believe that we have been here over 30 days.  We have gotten settled in and have made our house a HOME.  We still need to purchase a few more items like a bed and side table for our guest room,  side tables for our room, office desk, and two student desk.  We are planning on getting the guest room ready since we will have a young lady from the states staying with us from February 10 - April 7.  Her name is Sarah Howell.  She is from Tupelo, MS.  Sarah will be attending language school with us each day.  She plans to assist with some medical teams and visit with other missionaries to see into the life of a missionary.  We look forward to having her with us!  I know Sydney and Noah are looking forward to having someone visit.  It will be just like when we lived back in the states.

Little did I know how much God was preparing me for the mission field over the last few years.  I know these are little things and we take them for granted at home but when we moved into our home in MS our ice maker on our refrigerator was broken so we had ice trays.  Well it is too expensive to have your ice maker make the ice here so guess what ice trays it is, which is not  big deal unless someone does not empty the ice into the container, not naming any names. Then back in April 2013 our dishwasher broke and that was the last thing on the list to fix so from April-December we hand washed dishes (even when Bethany, our MK(missionary kid) lived with us from May-August)).  Well only the families who have money have dishwashers so we hand wash our dishes. I think the thing I enjoy the most is washing and drying our clothes.  Really drying more than washing....I get to hang the laundry on the line to dry.  This is such a peaceful time.  To be outside in God's creation.  There are nights when I go outside to get the laundry off the line that I find myself singing my favorite song, "My Redeemer Lives".  I just love this song and feel so close to God when I am outside and of all things doing the laundry.

There were many days in the beginning where the time has flown by but since starting language school not so much.  I am just exhausted!  Not physically but mentally, well let me take that back I am physically exhausted as well.  Bailey, our Corgi, feels the need to bark during the night at every thing that moves.  And, I mean everything from leaves to dogs and cats walking by.  She does not care what time it is, just that she feels the need to bark.  Since we do not have a fenced in yard for the dogs to stay inside we have to walk them every morning.  So after a good (semi-good) nights rest I awake at 6:15 to take Buster and Bailey on a 1-mile walk.  I enjoy this time because I am getting my exercise in for the day as well.  If I waited to do it after all our schooling I would be good for nothing.    We were told that we would be tired but words can not prepare you for this kind of exhaustion.

We leave for language school at 9 a.m. and return home at 11:30 a.m. Once we get home it is time to prepare lunches and then the dreaded thing to Sydney and Noah....HOMESCHOOLING!  This has been a HUGE adjustment for all of us but we are realizing that we need to scale back the amount of work that we do because of already having 1 1/2 hours of Spanish classes each day.  So we look forward to Wednesdays....NO HOMESCHOOL!  WE all need a break so we picked the middle of the week.  But a normal day is homeschool from 1-3.  I have spoken to several moms here and trying to have more that 2 hours of homeschool on top of language school is hard on the kids.  So we are focusing on Math, Language Arts and Reading.

Once we have completed homeschool, this gives me about an hour to hour and a half to relax, fold clothes, answer emails, write thank you notes,  etc.  then off to begin dinner preparations.  We got to talk to Mimi and Pop (Josh's parents) last night and Mimi asked if the bowls she saw via FaceTime were ours.  I replied no.  The bowls were the Crabtree's, the plates and cups were the Brassfield's  but the silverware and place mats were ours.  You work with what you have but I will say that I will be glad to have our second shipment.  Unfortunately, that will not be until April or May.  So until then we will use what we have and continue to borrow from our friends.

I have to admit that I am missing my family and friends!  I miss being able to just hop in the car and drive somewhere by myself.  I miss being able to call up a friend from home and say do you want to get lunch or a coffee.... I am grateful that I have become friends with Beth Brassfield.  I look forward to us having time to be able to call each other and say do you want to go get a coffee or lunch today just to have some girl time.  I am reminded each day of what God has called me to here in Nicaragua and am thankful for the new relationships I am making everyday.  I pray that I can be a light of God's love to those who I meet, whether I can speak the language yet or not.

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