Why Nicaragua?
That’s a long story.  Back in 1999, I (Kristine) came to Nicaragua with Mercy Ships to do relief work after Hurricane Mitch devastated the area.  There had been a huge mudslide on the side of the volcano Casitas that wiped out many villages, killed more than 1,000, and left thousands more homeless.  It was a life-changing experience for me, and I left after 5 months determined to come back and work here long-term.  In Sept. 2001, I returned to work with Mercy Ships  again.  This time, I worked as an admin asst for our team, discipled a group of young girls, taught English, developed a community health education course that I taught, among many other things.  We worked extensively with a group of “refugees” from the coffee crisis (when the coffee prices worldwide plummeted, many workers in the coffee plantations worked and worked for the promise of pay but never received it) who had settled on a piece of land the government had promised them called La Palmerita.  They were in desperate, miserable circumstances when we found them.  It was a long, hard process to help them go from stick coverings to plastic houses, and to get them basic things like food, water, and sanitation.  Brian came to visit me several times while we were dating, and he grew to love Nicaragua as much as I.  I loved my time in Nicaragua, and when I left in 2003 to get married, both Brian and I looked forward to when we could come back.

Where is it and what is it like?
Nicaragua is in Central America, actually due south of Alabama, between Costa Rica and Hondruas.  It’s “summer” here, which means its the dry season.  It won’t rain more than a few sparse showers for several months.  It’s hot, dry and dusty.  The landscape is dramatic, though, with a line of 9 volcanos stretching the length of the country.

Volcanos?!?  Are they active?  Aren’t you worried they will erupt?
Yes, they are actually mostly active, and you can see clouds of smoke/steam above many of them.  I’m not too worried that they’ll erupt because none did during the 2 years I was here.  If any do erupt, it would most likely be ash and smoke, and it’s more of a nuisance than a danger.

Where are you staying and what will it be like?
Our hotel, the Hotel San Juan de Leon is very comfortable.  Brian and I have one room with Josiah in a portable crib we borrowed from the Longleys.  Analise and Abigail are sharing another room.  We’ve both got a bathroom with hot water (though in the heat here, hot showers aren’t a necessity).  Interestingly, the water is heated in the shower head.  Another odd note, you can throw toilet paper in the toilet here because it could clog the systems.  It took a couple times to the bathroom to remember that!

We’ve got air conditioners (well, we do now… we just switched rooms yesterday because ours hadn’t been working) and industrial strength fans that keep us pretty cool.  There’s internet in our hotel (though there wasn’t the first couple days, and the wireless isn’t working much to our frustration.  This, though, is not surprising in Nicaragua.)

We get a nice simple breakfast of fresh fruit (watermelon, papaya, pineapple and banana), fresh juice, toast with butter and jam, coffee and milk.  Then we’re on our own for lunch.  We’ve just found a great little cafeteria with delicous Nicaragua food for about $2 a plate that will be our frequent choice.  There are other options, including Tip-Top, a fast-food chicken place, that the kids and I will do today for lunch.  There’s also a well-stocked grocery store nearby, and we can use the kitchen here, if we need to.

The streets are busy, the sidewalks are narrow and crowded with little stands selling all variety of things.  Bikes, mopeds, trucks and taxis go cruising by and fly around the corners, so you’ve got to be alert.  We’re walking nearly everywhere here in town, and we’ve learned how to navigate our little stroller over the potholes in the sidewalk, up and down the steep curbs and over the cobble stones.  If we need to take a taxi, it’s 75cents each person here in town, so that’s an easy, cheap option if we need it.

What will you be doing there?
Well, when we conceived this trip, we had lots of things we wanted to do and be a part of. But as we progressed with the planning, we really just felt God leading us to lay down our expectations and come to be used in whatever way He wanted to use us.  We’ve got to be especially flexible since we’ve got the kids with us.  We want to visit old friends, see the work of Nuevas Esperanzas, just be open to whatever might come together for us to do.  Brian’s already helping out with computers, we’re going to be visiting a well-child clinic with friends of ours who work for Food for the Hungry International, and the kids and I are looking forward to visiting Anna and Emily Longley’s preschool this next week.  It can be a little tricky to find people here, so I’m praying God would really direct our connections this next week.

Why are you taking the kids?
Honestly, we never even considered NOT taking the kids.  They are a part of who we are.  We want missions and God’s great big world to be something our kids grow up knowing firsthand.  Yes, they are young, and I’m not sure how much they’ll remember, but it is an experience we wanted them to be a part of.  Now that we’re here, it is hard at times.  Whatever the challenges of dealing with kids in your own comfortable surroundings, they are multiplied in the heat, dust, crowds, foreign language, bumpy roads, small hotel rooms, etc.  They have done really well, though, and it’s so fun to share this place with them.  Analise is learning little bits of functional spanish, and Josiah is so cute pointing things out.  “Wook!  A Mic-a-wog-wa dump truck!”  (A Nicaragua dump truck)

We actually put the tree up this past week, but the kids and I are going to get into the Christmas spirit today.  We’re going to make sugar cookies, I think from this Allrecipes.com recipe, but here’s 2 others that I’d love to try… The Pioneer Woman’s cutouts with an egg yolk glaze that looks like watercolor or stained glass and this Betty Crocker recipe that a friend reminded me I passed on.  Maybe I got it from Anna??  I haven’t actually made any of these, but we’re going to do one of them today.  I’ll come back to share the results!

While the dough is refrigerating, we’re going to pick up the house a bit and put up some more decorations.  The tree only has about 30 ornaments on it, but the kids have been taking them off and rearranging them so much that I think we may not add any more.  Is that terrible?  They’re quite happy with the ones we have, and next year it’ll be like all our other ornaments are brand new to us because we haven’t seen them.  And I’m also thinking how easy it will be to undecorate the tree with such few ornaments…

We’ve had a good busy week of celebrating, culminating in a fun evening tonight.  Analise had her school Halloween-alternative on Tuesday, a Nursery Rhyme/Fairy Tale Parade.  She was a beautiful, sweet Cinderella.

Thursday Analise’s preschool class went to a nursing home to sing their fall songs.  They were so cute!  I was happy to drop in and get them on video, and maybe someday I’ll piece them together and post them.  We had a festive dinner of jack-o-lantern pot pies (which were very cute, and Brian liked, but I didn’t think they were anything worth noting) and spider cookies (oreos with pretzel stick legs and M&M eyes).

Today, I had my weekly bible study (on Beth Moore’s Daniel study) with 2 women from church while Analise was at school.  After good long naps, we got dressed up for the evenings festivities.  Lakeside Baptist, Brian’s parents church, has a Fall Festival with lots of fun preschool oriented games, bouncy things, free food, and of course, candy.  Oh and a cake walk, at which we won some yummy treats.  We came home early enough to visit a few houses around us with actual trick-or-treating, which was a first for Analise and Josiah, and they really enjoyed it.  A fun evening all around!

Oh, and this photo below is specially so you can see Josiah’s new short haircut.  He looks so much older… and less shaggy!

What a great relaxing weekend!  It started when Brian’s mom unexpectedly took the kids Friday evening instead of early Saturday morning before we left for the bike race in South Carolina.  I hardly knew what to do with a quiet, empty house!  I should have vacuumed… but instead I packed, cleaned up and took care of loose ends before we left.  Maybe I’ll get to the vacuuming this week.  Hopefully.  Maybe…

Our trip to Greenville was heavenly.  Quiet time in the car together, just talking and catching up, listening to our own choice of music.  I had lots of things I was hoping to get to work on with the laptop this weekend, magazines to look at, and a couple books to read.  In the end, I dove into a book I’d picked up at the library, Positively False by Floyd Landis about his win and doping controversy in the 2006 Tour de France, and I finished it in less than 24 hours.  I read lots of excerpts to Brian and we had long discussions about the topic of doping.  Obviously, we can’t get away from cycling!

The bike races were good, and Brian’s got details on his blog.  It was heavenly to be kid-less though we said countless times how many times we missed them.  Greenville, SC is a beautiful town, and their “Fall into Greenville Festival” was going on, in addition to the bike races.  I got to visit a very cool store called Go Fish (where they sell local artisans’ handiwork bought through missionaries all over the world).  Last year I bought several Christmas presents, including my own 🙂 . We enjoyed dinner at a great seafood restaurant last night after the race (and I had to go back for lunch today! A yummy shrimp po’ boy with sweet potato fries).   We went to bed SUPER late (due to my reading and Brian’s 2+ episodes of Man vs Wild) and slept SUPER LATE.  We relaxed at a nice coffee shop this morning.  I got to focus on cheering for Brian and taking pictures instead of dividing my attention between the kids and the race.  We took a short side-trip through Brian’s alma mater of Clemson on his old cycling roads on the way home.  The trip back was quiet and relaxing as I finished reading our book aloud, and we listened to a good message by Frances Chan on Christ-Centered Relationships.

It was an awesome weekend that totally refreshed both of us.  I love taking trips and sharing experiences with my kids, but this weekend it was just a great change to be 2 instead of 4 and direct our attentions to each other and ourselves.  What a treat!

A few weeks ago at church, we sang a worship song with the phrase “my life is a love song to you”.   I started to think about what that would look like… if I was really living my life as a love song to the Lord.

What is a love song?  It’s sweet, poignant, tender.  The chords blend together perfectly, harmonies lifting up the melody.  A love song touches your heart, and it gives you a beautiful picture of the loving relationship it describes.

From day to day, I’m not sure I could say my life is a love song.  But over the past few weeks, I’ve been listening to the “chords” of my life, trying to turn them into beautiful melodies for my Savior.  Some days, the harmonies are off, and no one would recognize a love song in the clashing tones.  Most notably, I’ve struggled with Grumpy Mom Syndrome.  Whining kids, interrupted sleep, too much on my plate, and not prioritizing things well are all contributing factors.  I’ve spent a little more time filling up my heart with  God’s word in the morning (or in the carpool line!).  I’m thinking of expressing my love more as I deal with grumpy kids and frequent messes.  My actions to them are a love song… and it’s speaking to their hearts as well as mine.

All this to say I’m a work in progress 🙂

There have been so many things lately that I’ve wanted to write down about Josiah.  I just wish all our far off family and friends could enjoy a fun little conversation with my blonde-headed boy.

• “Um, yes.”  If you ask him something, he often answers, thoughtfully, “um, yes”.  So cute
• One of his favorite things to say is “I wuv you, Mama”, “I wuv you, Daddy” (though sometimes he accidentally says “I wuv you, Mama” to Brian, too.  Still very sweet!), and “I wuv you, Sister” (his most common name for Analise).  We hear this so many times during the day, but I promise, it doesn’t get old.  I know that eventually (probably sooner rather than later) we won’t be hearing it as often as we like.  Today at church during the kids program, he turned around to the people behind us and said, “I wuv you”.  They were charmed 🙂
• Both Josiah and Analise had a great phone call with Grandma Sandy the other day.  She was thrilled to be able to have good (ie, not rambling, comprehensive) conversations with both of them.
• “Oh, sank you!”  He’s so polite.  Whether it’s me taking him to the park or giving him a glass of water, he’ll say “Oh sank you!”, full of gratitude.  “Sank you, Mama, sank you.”  I hope he never outgrows the politeness.  And if we say, “You’re welcome”, he’ll say “yo welcome!” right back.
• He can count all the way to 14.
• I’ve caught him several times reading a book, saying “Wapon da time…” (which, I believe, translates to “Once upon a time…”).  I guess all the reading of his sister is soaking in!

This is such a fun, fun age.  I just recently realized that Analise was this age right after Josiah was born, and I feel that I missed alot of her at this stage, because I was so busy with Josiah.  She also started going to preschool at this age, and I really didn’t have a lot of one-on-one time to appreciate all the little developmental things that were happening.  It makes me sad to think I was too sleep-deprived to notice her sweet moments at this age.

But I am LOVING getting to know Josiah as a little person, watching his personality develop, and spending more one-on-one time.  We go out and about a lot more now that Analise is in school, and he’s gotten to be a very easy-going little companion… especially if I finish the running-around with a trip to the playground!

Yesterday was exactly like that.  We’d been to several stops, and he’d been great.  He even indulged me in a long (well, long with a child.  Maybe 30 minutes?) walk around Kohl’s.  He rode in the cart/stroller, munching on cereal bar and raisins.  I’m sure the Kohl’s employees were wondering about the little black “droppings” in the clearance section.  I knew it was time to go when he climbed out of the stroller in the underwear section, and climbed up onto a shelf in the wall, burying himself behind the panties 🙂  He didn’t want to leave, actually, but that’s when I mentioned the playground, and he was all ready to go.

So I swung by Starbucks so I’d have something to enjoy at the playground.  I ordered an iced caramel latte, and as we were driving to the playground, I swirled the icy drink around to cool it off and mix it up.  Josiah heard the ice in the cup and said, “It’s gone, Mama.”

“What’s gone?”

“The coffee is gone.”

I decided to play along.  “Oh no!  What am I going to do?”

“You get some more.”  Haha.  Yes, dear.  In our house, there’s always more coffee to be had 🙂

At the playground, he started running off and stopped to turn back to me.  “Come on, Mama!  Come on!”  Sweet, sweet words.  I love that the playground isn’t enticing enough to pull him away with out me.

Though he’s nearly outgrown it, we still have times where he wants to rest on my chest.  I loved those baby times of him sleeping chest-to-chest to me.  I love that he still finds quiet, comfort and rest snuggled up next to me.  No matter how tired or busy I am, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to hold my big baby boy so close.

Yipee!  Finally, a non-racing trip!  We’re so excited… Lennie & Kim had some extra space at their beach condo this weekend, and they invited us to join them!  I’m ready for a nice family weekend relaxing in the pool and on the sand.  The kids are going to have a great time playing with Lauren and Anna.  I’m looking forward to hanging out with Kim, and I know the guys will work in a ride or two.  We’re staying in a quieter beach area, right next to a long bike path, so we’re hoping to use our practically-new (but 2 years old!) bike trailer for some family riding.

We’ll check in Monday!

You give the girl a watch, and all of a sudden she can tell time!  Analise has had a watch for a while, but she’s never worn it.  This morning, she found it in the drawer and wanted to put it on.  Immediately, she was saying, “I don’t think we have time for this” and “It’s thirty o’clock” and “I think it’s time to go, Mama!”  (an hour before we have to leave).   She did amazingly tell us it was 8:00 when it actually was.  But she’s definitely decided she’s going to keep us on time!  I, on the other hand, am trying to figure out if her teacher will appreciate being kept “on time” if she wears it to school today!

We had a fabulous weekend at home.  Brian’s race on Saturday evening was just 10 minutes from our house, so we had a leisurely Saturday morning, took the kids to their bike race (see pics on Brian’s cycling blog), came back for naps, and then Brian and I headed off to the evening races by ourselves while his parents babysat.  Yipee!!  I love having my kids at the races, but I do really enjoy getting to focus on the race without the distraction of keeping my kids from dashing into the street 🙂

The evening was very fun.  Brian’s race didn’t finish quite as he’d hoped, but his team got 3rd and 4th.  He hasn’t had teammates in his race very often, so this was a big plus!  Again, the wrap-up is on his blog. We were out SUPER LATE, and then we had a hard time unwinding after the race so Sunday morning came EARLY, even though the kids slept until 7!

Pretty quiet Sunday, which was nice.  Today we’re headed to the zoo, Analise and I are going to a movie this evening, and I’ve got a meeting.  Hm.  Lots on the agenda.  Somewhere in there I should figure out what we’re going to eat for dinner…  Happy Monday!

I very nearly got a new haricut this morning, thanks to Thomas the Train.  I was changing J’s diaper and getting him dressed.  Sometimes he likes to hold a car or a train while we get him dressed, and sometimes he pretends to run the car over you.  “Vroom… da car go over da head!”  Very cute.  This morning he was holding battery-operated Thomas, who was whirring away.  He was laying on the ground, and said, “Thomas go on your head!”, holding Thomas out towards me.

“No”, I said sharply, “Thomas can’t go on anyone’s head, because his wheels could get caught in their hair.  No, Josiah.”

I stood him up to finish getting him dressed, and he wrapped his arms around my neck… with Thomas still whirring away in his hand… and the wheels spun themselves right into the hair behind my ear!

I’d like to say I handled it calmly, but I didn’t.  I freaked out, and it’s a good thing Brian was here.  I screamed for him, and he came running up, thinking something terrible had just happened (which it had, in my mind).  I’d gotten Thomas turned off, and it was hanging from my hair.

“Do you want me to get the scissors?” Brian asked, as I was sobbing.  “NO!” I cried!  It would have been a serious chunk out of my hair.  Brian wasn’t sure what to do, but then he said, “I’ll put Thomas in reverse.”

Whatever, I thought.  Thomas doesn’t go in reverse, and I wasn’t pleased with his joking at a time like this.  I kept sobbing like someone had died.

But Brian was serious, and he wound Thomas’ wheels in reverse and my hair pulled right out, without a single piece damaged.  Amazing.  Brian is my hero.  And we’ve all learned a valuable lesson that battery-operated Thomas’ and hair don’t mix.  And I’d be happy if all Thomas’ stayed away from my head, just to be safe!