Thursday, July 7, 2011
Benjamin's big plunge!
Benjamin will do whatever he sees Brandon doing, so after he saw daddy jump in over the waterfall at Papa and Gigi's house it was all over with! He got out of the pool and walked with Brandon waving bye to everyone ready to do this! He had no fear! He came up, caught his breath, and gave Brandon a hi five! He continued to do it a few times until we cut him off! He's so adventurous!
Welcome back Uncle Kev!
We had dinner over at Gigi and Papa's house to welcome "Caca" as Benjamin now calls Uncle Kev. We swam and had a great dinner! The kids were a little apprehensive at first but warmed up quickly to him.
Our Neighborhood Pool
We have been so excited about our neighborhood pool this summer! It's perfect for the kids with sprayers, a zero depth entry pool, and a regular pool. Of course, they are mostly wanting to swim in the big pool. We come here at least once a week and eat lunch and swim a little before nap.
Bella loves her swim goggles. She saw some other big girls using them when they were swimming so we got some for her. Of course she doesn't like wearing them on her eyes, but as an accessory on her head! Who does she get that from?
Bella loves her swim goggles. She saw some other big girls using them when they were swimming so we got some for her. Of course she doesn't like wearing them on her eyes, but as an accessory on her head! Who does she get that from?
Crown Center
We were so excited to squeeze in one more play date with Sophie and Porter before they went to Colorado. We met at Crown Center and went to Kaleidoscope where the girls had a hay day making puzzles, painting, coloring, and creating. Benjamin tagged along like usual and enjoyed cruising around with Porter. Then we visited a rainforest exhibit where the highlight was pulling themselves up a tree. We ended the morning with a picnic lunch and running through the awesome fountains. Bella loved it this year. Benjamin was still unsure, but I bet next year all four of them will be racing through!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Our Honduras Mission Trip
Brandon and I got to go with a team of 25 other people from church to Honduras as our first of hopefully many mission trips together. We were up 21 hours straight with maybe a few little cat naps just getting there. We flew from KC to Miami, Miami to Honduras, followed by a 4-5 hour van ride on mountainous, muddy, pot hole filled "rodes" to the Mercy International farm where we'd be staying the next week. Brandon got a great surprise at the airport and got to have lunch with Pablo and some of the guys that came and worked at Builders Stone last year.
Along the way we got to stop a few times. One stop was a long line of fruit stands. Everything had to be soaked and washed in bleach water before we could eat it, but the pineapple was amazing when we finally got to eat that the next day!
Another stop was for dinner in town just about 7 miles or 20-30 minutes from the farm. We had meat including their version of BBQ chicken, pork chops, and steak. Of course it was accompanied by fries. THe pork chops were actually really good!
The first day we got to work! I went to the medical clinic and Brandon went to The Invasion where construction was taking place. This is the lice station where we washed and braided hair. I painted hundreds of nails and they loved it! There was a dentist, a doctor, and a pharmacy where we handed out medicine that was prescribed for all the people that came.
This is what Brandon helped do the first day of construction. They dug a trench, filled it with large rocks, and poured hand mixed cement over it. You can see the house the family is currently living in just behind where we are about to pour the foundation. It's a shack with dirt floors and scrap metal for walls.
Here is a view down the "road" in the invasion of the houses the people live in. The invasion in a squaters camp. This group of people were moved around and around and ended up on this farmers field that he sold to the government. Each family had to apply and sign up to get a house built for them. Mercy International has been building houses here for 4 years and they have about a year and half left. They took the most needy families first to begin building for.
This is the family we built the house for. Alise is the mother's name. I painted her nails and both her daughters'. She had a son and a husband too which is very rare.
I am screening or leveling the foundation with Alissa. The requirements for the job were flexibility and upper body strength. I'm glad I've been working out! We were literally in that position all day, squating and hopping sideways. This was my favorite day, I love hands on projects like this and there was still a lot of interaction with people there.
I also got choosen to smooth the foundation out after we leveled. The requirement for this job was the ability to ice a cake. So since I'd taken a cake baking class I thought I qualified well enough! :) It's harder than it looks!
Here we are in front of our finished product for the day! It's just got to dry and some local mason guys will come and lay the cement blocks.
A big storm was coming in over the mountains. This lady was grabbing all her laundry off the line.
These are some kids from the Invasion. They lock onto you for the week literally! I think the day when I just played with the kids I was the most worn out!
This was such a precious little girl. Some other girls had given me a flower and I put it in her hair. She's so beautiful!
Here is Brandon with Cynthia and Kaylie. They were our girls for the week! They brought me to there house and held tight to our hands. Cynthia wanted to be carried all day!
At lunch we would have our sandwiches, chips, and cookies. We would be sitting there eating and all the kids would just be sitting there watching us. Talk about gut wrenching. After we ate we had some left over food so Brandon had all the kids come over and sit in a row. He passed out fourths of the sandwiches and cookies to all the kids we could.
This was the most precious moment for me this week. I was busy doing crafts with some kids and I turned around to see that Brandon had found one of my bottles of nail polish. He was kneeling down by this little girl painting her tiny little nails! They were all just staring at him, because men are never around and also because men would never show affection like that to their kids. I think that was a favorite moment for a lot of people!
We found some random craft stuff and the kids loved it! They made puppets and were really creative and took their time! I was impressed!
On Sunday, we went in to town where we had eaten the first night to go to their little market. It was extremely crowded, dirty, and smelly. I couldn't wait to get out of there and have some personal space again.
After the market, we made one last stop at the Invasion to say goodbye to the kids. There are most of the guys that worked on the houses. They built the eaves for the roof but didn't get a chance to put the metal roof on because it started raining. The team next week will get to finish it though. Then, they'll put on pine doors and windows. The houses measure 21X24 ft.
After our goodbyes we went back to the farm where they have youth group for the kids who are being sponsored for school. The government only pays up until 6th grade. Currently they have 50 kids being sponsored. They are required to come to youth group each week. When it was over we brought drinks and cookies to share with the kids.
This is Mundo. He was one of the interpreters this week at the construction sight. He was the first student that Mercy International sponsored and he is currently in college with two years left to go. That's quite an accomplishment! He and Brandon really hit it off!
This is the whole team. We're facing directly into the bright morning sun, so we probably have our eyes closed.
Monday we made the long drive back towards the airport and had a couple hours at the beach.
This was our last dinner before flying home Tuesday morning. Honestly, I was about to pass out from exhaustion! We slept so good that night!
It was an amazing trip! We met people we won't ever forget and got to contribute towards a ministry that we know is furthering God's kingdom and being a huge blessing to the people of Honduras.
Along the way we got to stop a few times. One stop was a long line of fruit stands. Everything had to be soaked and washed in bleach water before we could eat it, but the pineapple was amazing when we finally got to eat that the next day!
Another stop was for dinner in town just about 7 miles or 20-30 minutes from the farm. We had meat including their version of BBQ chicken, pork chops, and steak. Of course it was accompanied by fries. THe pork chops were actually really good!
The first day we got to work! I went to the medical clinic and Brandon went to The Invasion where construction was taking place. This is the lice station where we washed and braided hair. I painted hundreds of nails and they loved it! There was a dentist, a doctor, and a pharmacy where we handed out medicine that was prescribed for all the people that came.
This is what Brandon helped do the first day of construction. They dug a trench, filled it with large rocks, and poured hand mixed cement over it. You can see the house the family is currently living in just behind where we are about to pour the foundation. It's a shack with dirt floors and scrap metal for walls.
Here is a view down the "road" in the invasion of the houses the people live in. The invasion in a squaters camp. This group of people were moved around and around and ended up on this farmers field that he sold to the government. Each family had to apply and sign up to get a house built for them. Mercy International has been building houses here for 4 years and they have about a year and half left. They took the most needy families first to begin building for.
This is the family we built the house for. Alise is the mother's name. I painted her nails and both her daughters'. She had a son and a husband too which is very rare.
I am screening or leveling the foundation with Alissa. The requirements for the job were flexibility and upper body strength. I'm glad I've been working out! We were literally in that position all day, squating and hopping sideways. This was my favorite day, I love hands on projects like this and there was still a lot of interaction with people there.
I also got choosen to smooth the foundation out after we leveled. The requirement for this job was the ability to ice a cake. So since I'd taken a cake baking class I thought I qualified well enough! :) It's harder than it looks!
Here we are in front of our finished product for the day! It's just got to dry and some local mason guys will come and lay the cement blocks.
A big storm was coming in over the mountains. This lady was grabbing all her laundry off the line.
These are some kids from the Invasion. They lock onto you for the week literally! I think the day when I just played with the kids I was the most worn out!
This was such a precious little girl. Some other girls had given me a flower and I put it in her hair. She's so beautiful!
Here is Brandon with Cynthia and Kaylie. They were our girls for the week! They brought me to there house and held tight to our hands. Cynthia wanted to be carried all day!
At lunch we would have our sandwiches, chips, and cookies. We would be sitting there eating and all the kids would just be sitting there watching us. Talk about gut wrenching. After we ate we had some left over food so Brandon had all the kids come over and sit in a row. He passed out fourths of the sandwiches and cookies to all the kids we could.
This was the most precious moment for me this week. I was busy doing crafts with some kids and I turned around to see that Brandon had found one of my bottles of nail polish. He was kneeling down by this little girl painting her tiny little nails! They were all just staring at him, because men are never around and also because men would never show affection like that to their kids. I think that was a favorite moment for a lot of people!
We found some random craft stuff and the kids loved it! They made puppets and were really creative and took their time! I was impressed!
On Sunday, we went in to town where we had eaten the first night to go to their little market. It was extremely crowded, dirty, and smelly. I couldn't wait to get out of there and have some personal space again.
After the market, we made one last stop at the Invasion to say goodbye to the kids. There are most of the guys that worked on the houses. They built the eaves for the roof but didn't get a chance to put the metal roof on because it started raining. The team next week will get to finish it though. Then, they'll put on pine doors and windows. The houses measure 21X24 ft.
After our goodbyes we went back to the farm where they have youth group for the kids who are being sponsored for school. The government only pays up until 6th grade. Currently they have 50 kids being sponsored. They are required to come to youth group each week. When it was over we brought drinks and cookies to share with the kids.
This is Mundo. He was one of the interpreters this week at the construction sight. He was the first student that Mercy International sponsored and he is currently in college with two years left to go. That's quite an accomplishment! He and Brandon really hit it off!
This is the whole team. We're facing directly into the bright morning sun, so we probably have our eyes closed.
Monday we made the long drive back towards the airport and had a couple hours at the beach.
This was our last dinner before flying home Tuesday morning. Honestly, I was about to pass out from exhaustion! We slept so good that night!
It was an amazing trip! We met people we won't ever forget and got to contribute towards a ministry that we know is furthering God's kingdom and being a huge blessing to the people of Honduras.
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