Furlough 2014-15: Nashville, TN

Two days after Christmas, we loaded up the car again, said goodbye to my parents, and headed south. Destination: Nashville, TN, the location of one of our main supporting congregations, the Hillsboro Church of Christ. We spent about ten days there, reconnecting with supporters and friends. We were also able to hit McKay's, a favorite used bookstore and a highlight of any visit to Nashville.

Unfortunately, we all managed to get sick while we were in Nashville, a combination of run-down immune systems after over two months on the road, and a nasty cold virus that was going around that time of year. It started with Rusty, who completely lost his voice, not a great thing to happen to a missionary trying to report on his work! Then, Ben and Elizabeth got sick, and finally, the older two boys and me. Elizabeth got it the worst, and actually spent several hours at the hospital for steroids and breathing treatments one afternoon. We are so thankful for the compassion and understanding of our church family, both at Hillsboro and globally, during this time (see my post about this here).

Here are a few highlights of our time in Nashville (before the sickies consumed us!):

The Hillsboro Church of Christ

Catching up with my childhood friend, Rebekah

Catching up with friends from our Thyatira, Mississippi days, Jeff and Angie Stacks

Family Mission Trip reunion at the Hall's house -- such a fun evening!

Isn't this Ecuadorian flag cake beautiful?!

Month by Month: 11

In Elizabeth's eleventh month, she celebrated her first Christmas. (Side note: all four of our children have celebrated their first Christmas with their Nyanya and Babu! I think that's pretty special.) Doesn't she make the cutest little Santa Baby?

Also, she made her first trip to the ER, thanks to contracting a really nasty virus while in Nashville that made her super congested. She was having trouble breathing, so Rusty took her in to an urgent-care clinic. The people at the clinic decided she needed to be seen at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and insisted that she go in an ambulance. I was not super happy about that, mostly because the 20-minute ambulance ride alone ended up costing us over $800! Still, I'm thankful that we were able to access care for her so quickly and easily. In the picture below, the left-hand side is in the ambulance, and the right-hand side is at the hospital.

We are 1 month away from Elizabeth's first birthday, which we actually celebrated back in Ecuador. So, the next few posts will be a recap of Furlough 2014/15.

Catching Up: June

Rusty was gone to the jungle with 2 different short-term groups for about half of June, so the boys and I spent a couple of quiet weeks at home. Alex finished up the school year at Hansei. Ecuadorian schools let out at the beginning of July, but Alex's last day was June 27. There were a couple of special events at Hansei that we attended during his last month. We also continued with "English school" at home two days a week.

English Open House -- each grade performed a few songs or a play in English.

Parents' Breakfast -- breakfast was served to the parents while each class performed a song or a skit

Alex was invited to the birthday party of a little girl in his class at school at the beginning of June, so we got to experience our first Ecuadorian birthday party. It was a huge deal -- lots of food, a lady who came and did a puppet show and face-painting for all the kids, a piñata, fancy party dresses, the works! The kids had a blast, but I was completely worn out by the experience!

Captain America x2!

Benjamin was so fascinated by the puppets.

While Rusty was gone to Kumanii with the second group, Stephen fell (he was pushed by his older brother) and cracked his head open on the fireplace. I took him to the hospital where he was seen immediately and received 3 stitches, and the whole thing ended up costing about $60. (Compare that to the more than $2,000 we paid out of pocket WITH INSURANCE when Alex had a similar injury -- he got 10 stitches -- while we were in the States in 2012. Kinda makes you wonder. But, I digress.) I was very thankful to have our second car when this happened. Using public transportation or even calling a cab would have made the whole situation that much more stressful.

Brave little boy, just before getting his stitches.

About mid-June was when I began to suspect I was pregnant. I waited until I was 5 weeks before taking a pregnancy test, which was most definitely positive, and then spent the remainder of my first trimester fighting the nausea and the tiredness and trying to get over the shock of it all. I had decided I was ready to be done having babies, but neither of us had done anything "permanent" yet. We were actually discussing adoption and the possibility of adopting an older child, which is apparently easier for foreigners to do in Ecuador than adopting a baby. I guess I can be thankful that we got pregnant when we were still only in the talking stages and before we were in the adoption process because that would have made things much more complicated and stressful!

And finally, a few pictures of Rusty's time in the jungle:

Sunday worship in the new meeting hall at Kumanii

I think the baby has the most comfortable seat in the canoe!

The Kumanii fleet is loaded and ready to head downriver.

What We've Been Up To (Road-Trip Edition)

Sometimes, it feels like the last three months have been one giant road-trip. It hasn't, of course. We have been traveling a lot, but it's been more like several shorter trips interspersed with time in Michigan. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have my parents' house as our haven during this in-between time! We walk in the door after being on the road for awhile, and I just breathe a big sigh of relief. I know it's not always easy on my parents to have 5 extra people around cluttering up their home, especially right now while my mom is going through her cancer treatments, but they are so gracious and they never complain.

As a way of catching up, then, I thought I would just do one huge post about all the places we've been. I should probably mention that we haven't been the greatest about taking pictures during our travels. We take pictures of the "fun" things we do, but we forget to take pictures of people and other activities. I plan to intersperse pictures with commentary here, lest you get the wrong idea about us and think that we've just been gallivanting around the country and playing the whole time. Actually, all of our traveling has been "work-related" -- we just try to do fun things with the kids every once in awhile, otherwise they would drive both of us completely bonkers!

Kids asleep in the car

And there's the other one!

Our first trip was in mid-December. We traveled to Nashville to meet with the missions committee at Hillsboro, our sponsoring church. We also went to Huntsville for a couple of days to see some of Rusty's family -- his uncle and aunt, and his cousin and her family, who are dear friends and also personal supporters. Rick and Marinda Trull, team coaches for the Angola Team, drove up to Huntsville for the day and we spent a morning having coffee and a very good visit with them. On the way back to Michigan, we stopped in Cave City, KY and took the boys to the big dinosaur park there. It was really fun -- if you have a kid who's totally into dinosaurs as Alex is right now, I highly recommend it!

Dinosaur World -- Cave City, KY

In mid-January, we began a three-week long trip. First stop: Somerset, Pennsylvania, to visit the church there that supports us, as well as our friends the Hintons (Jimmy is the preacher at the church). We were there over a Sunday, so Rusty did a presentation during Bible Class and also preached.

Sunday lunch at the Eat 'n Park in Somerset, PA

From Pennsylvania, we began the long drive to Manson, Manitoba. We stopped along the way in Hudson, Wisconsin (just across the river from Minneapolis St. Paul) and stayed two nights with Dale and Vicki Hawley. Dale is a missionary counselor who did some work with the Angola Team in the past when we were doing our training with Missions Resource Network. We really enjoyed our time with the Hawleys. On the day we left, we took the boys to the Mall of America. We played a round of mini-golf, ate lunch in the food court, went to the Lego store, and rode a couple of rides at the indoor amusement park.

Mini-golf at the Mall of America -- Bloomington, MN

We left Hudson and drove to Fargo, North Dakota, where we stayed the night with some friends of the Hawleys, who graciously opened their home to complete strangers! What a gift it is to be a part of God's family and to have brothers and sisters literally everywhere in the world! Then, it was on to Manson, Manitoba to visit Rusty's Uncle Ken and Aunt Rae and the church there that has started supporting us. We spent almost a week with them, and it was lovely to just be in one place for a few days! Aunt Rae spoiled us with all sorts of yummy treats like her homemade Cinnamon Buns; Uncle Ken loaded us up with a few things for our future home, including Rusty's grandma's old oak dining table; the boys got to play in the snow; we saw Kemmy and Christina, two of Rusty's canuck cousins; and Rusty did a presentation and also preached at the church on Sunday.

With Uncle Ken and Aunt Rae -- Manson, Manitoba

Snow angels -- Manson, Manitoba

Leaving Manson, we drove to Winnipeg to do a presentation at the Central Church of Christ, a possible future supporter. Then we drove back to Michigan, but we took several days to get there and stopped in Wisconsin Dells for two nights on the way. It was a nice way to end the trip. We stayed in a hotel with a nice little pool with kiddie slides and fountains. And one day, we bought day passes to one of the bigger resorts and spent all day playing in their big water park and indoor amusement park.

Bumper cars -- Wisconsin Dells, WI

Mt. Olympus Indoor Water Park -- Wisconsin Dells, WI

After a couple of weeks in Michigan, we hit the road again, this time heading south. Our first stop was Nashville, TN, where we spent two weeks with our sponsoring church, the Hillsboro Church of Christ. It was wonderful to reconnect with all our friends there and make some new ones! I wish that we had taken more pictures of our time there, but we were literally so busy running hither and thither that we just never thought about it. We had dinner with folks from church nearly every night, and the days were taken up with doctor and dentist appointments (Rusty even had his wisdom teeth out!), errands, meetings, and playdates for the boys. I met up with my dear childhood friend Rebekah one morning, and we enjoyed catching up on each others' lives. We had lunch with Rusty's Uncle Dennis in Clarksville one day. The church had a lovely send-off for us on our last Sunday there. They showed a video of our family where we shared some of our plans, interspersed with some of the footage Rusty shot on his survey trip in November. Then they said a prayer of blessing over us, followed by singing "Surround Us Lord," all of this while huge flakes of snow were falling softly outside the windows. It's a memory that will stay with me for a long time.

Stephen getting his teeth cleaned -- Nashville, TN

With Uncle Dennis -- Clarksville, TN

From Nashville, we drove to Memphis and spent a few days reconnecting with friends there. We visited the Park Avenue church on Sunday morning and Rusty gave a short update on us at the end of the service. Then we drove down to the Thyatira church for their evening service where Rusty preached and shared about our plans. Afterwards, we had dinner with several of the young families, our good friends when we lived there. On Monday, we met up with the Gearsons and Jin and Gina, friends from our grad school days. We went to the park and then had dinner at Chick Fil-A. Alex was so excited to spend time with Mackenzie and Esther again. I couldn't believe how much they have all grown up in the last few years.

Mackenzie and Alex -- Memphis, TN

Unfortunately, the evening did not end well as Alex fell while climbing on the outside of the play structure and busted his head open! He was bleeding pretty profusely (I am told head wounds do that), and 911 was called, so the firetrucks and EMT's showed up at Chick-Fil-A. They checked him over, bandaged up his head, and then we drove ourselves down the road to the closest hospital. Several hours and 10 stitches later, Alex hopefully has a better understanding of why it's not a good idea to climb on the outside of the play structure! This all happened the day before he turned 6, so it was definitely a memorable birthday. On his actual birthday, we went to the fire station that had responded to the 911 call, and the boys got the grand tour and got to sit in all the trucks. They thought that was fun.

Alex with Evertt Huffard, who shares his birthday -- Memphis, TN

At the fire station -- Germantown, TN

From Memphis, we drove to Oklahoma City and spent almost a week there. We so enjoyed seeing all our dear friends from our time in Japan as AET's (I wish we had taken more pictures!), as well as Robbie, Rusty's nephew, who is a student at OC this year. In addition, Rusty did a presentation at a church in the Oklahoma City area on Sunday morning and was able to connect with many missions-minded folks on campus at OC.

Lunch at Pops with Robbie and Cat -- Edmond, OK

All the kids at the "Japan Peeps" get-together at the Lj's - Edmond, OK

From Oklahoma City, we drove back to Michigan, and upon our arrival, discovered that the final piece of paperwork we needed in order to apply for our Ecuadorian visas had finally arrived. So, 10 days later, we were packing our bags again, this time to make the trip to Chicago to the Ecuadorian consulate. We stayed with our friends the Mearses in Naperville and so enjoyed our time with them. On Monday, we trekked in to downtown Chicago, dropped off the paperwork and the payment at the consulate, went to Gino's and had Chicago deep-dish pizza, then went back and picked up our passports with Ecuadorian visas stamped inside them. It was ridiculously easy!

 Walking the streets of downtown Chicago -- Chicago, IL

So, the fact that we have visas now means that The Great Road-Trip is coming to an end at last. We are aiming to be in Ecuador by mid-April. Rusty is in Nashville this week getting all of our stuff ready for shipment. I stayed in Michigan with the kids and am working on a hundred other little details, like plane tickets. It's hard to believe after all this time that we are just a few short weeks away from actually leaving!

There are lots more pictures of all our travels on Facebook. Click here to view the entire album.

And Now We Breathe

So... it's been awhile since I updated. We're mostly settled in our house here in Nashville. And by that, I mean that we've unpacked most of what we need to live comfortably for the next 3 months. There are no pictures on the walls, and most of the windows have blankets tacked up as curtains. I'm not bothering to decorate. No sense in getting too comfortable here!

We had about a week in our house at the end of September before we were traveling again -- up to Pennsylvania to present to a church up there, and then over to Detroit to pack up the rest of our stuff from my parents' house. The boys and I have all been sick with some nasty cold that took forever to shake... theirs turned into pink eye and ear infections (times two) before all was said and done.

And as if the traveling, moving, unpacking, and sickness wasn't enough to deal with, last weekend, we played host to a gathering of our team and everyone's parents for the Family Workshop with MRN. It was about 30 people all together, and we decided to host the meeting in our home since it is plenty big enough. But that meant a lot of extra work with setting up, plus cooking all the food for everyone. I was so thankful to have my parents here to help out. With me being sick, I think my mom probably did more work than I did! Anyway, the weekend was a big success, but I am glad it's over and just trying to rest and recover this week.

I have lots to blog about -- Stephen's 6-month update, Alex's new bed, and a slide show of pictures from our Partnership Tour is in the works as well. Keep checking back for new posts over the next several days!

Busy Bees

Wow -- life seems to have gotten very busy for us lately! A lot has happened in the last three weeks. Here is a brief recap of the major events:

I celebrated another birthday, my 31st to be exact. It was a special day. Rusty and Alex took me to lunch at Macaroni Grill. That evening, Alex went to Mackenzie's house for a few hours while we grabbed dinner at a gyro place we've been wanting to try and then went to a movie. We ended up going to the cheap theater and watching "National Treasure 2" because there just weren't any new releases worth watching. Anyway, it was fun, and the best part of the whole day was that I got a break from cooking (Rusty made breakfast, too)!

This year (the first that I can recall since we've been together), Rusty decided to try his hand at making a cake for me. When I got home from work, he was just taking it out of the oven, and it was a beautiful golden color and smelled so yummy. I wish I had taken a picture of it, because ten minutes later, this is what it looked like:

Always, always grease and flour your cake pans, folks! That's my kitchen tip of the day. No, no, no need to thank me.

A can of frosting, some Starbucks mocha syrup, and a can of mandarin oranges later, this is the masterpiece that emerged:

That's a "31" with my name below it, just in case you were wondering. You can't fault his creativity, bless his heart. (How Southern am I?)

And here I am blowing out my candles:
And, just in case you were wondering, the cake was actually quite good. We had Danny, Katie, and Gina (Katie's mom) over to help us eat cake and icecream. Rusty cut very small pieces of cake because he didn't want anyone to feel like they had to force themselves to eat it, and everyone went back for seconds! The cake did have a crumbly, cornbread-ish texture, however. Turns out, he made the cake with Bisquick. Bisquick, people. Bless his heart.

Okay, moving on.

Rusty had gall-bladder surgery on April 4th. The procedure went well, and he spent several days at home recuperating. It will be interesting to see if having no gall bladder helps with the acid reflux he has been dealing with for the past several years.

On Thursday, April 10, we went to the circus with the Gearsons. I have never been to a circus before (unless you count some of the elementary schools I visited during my AET years). Alex really enjoyed the show -- especially all the animals. He even got to ride a pony during intermission! It was a very late night, though (the show didn't even start until 7:30), so he was pretty cranky by the time we left. Our son is not usually one to just fall asleep in our laps when he gets tired -- instead, he runs around like a maniac, getting progressively more hyper. It's like he knows if he slows down he'll just fall over.

Most of our circus pics didn't turn out (still trying to figure out all the tricks to our new digital camera), but here are a couple that did:


Let's see, what else? A bunch of little things... We've had several out-of-town friends stop in and stay with us over the last few weeks. I have been getting things in order so we could file our taxes -- for the last two years. When did I turn into such a procrastinator? We had an appointment with our CPA on Monday, April 14th. Definitely getting in just under the wire, wouldn't you say? But the good news is, we are expecting a fat (phat?) refund from the IRS. Woo-hoo for the Economic Stimulus Package! Rusty has been super busy (and super stressed) with paper-writing and studying for finals. The semi-annual Highland Children's Clothing Sale was last weekend, so I went and did some shopping at that. (And can I just insert here that I LOVE consignment shopping and saving money? Definitely gonna miss these clothing sales when we move to Africa!)

Speaking of Africa, we are a little over a month away from leaving on our survey trip. Our visas are in process at the Angolan embassy, and our funds are rolling in (track our fundraising progress with the ticker above). This week, we received a very generous contribution to our cause from a church here in Memphis, which brings us over halfway to our goal and gives us enough to purchase our plane tickets. God is good, and we have faith that he will provide the rest when we need it!

All three of us have been needing to get several vaccinations before going to Africa this summer. The weekend before last, I went to a nearby clinic for mine. Four vaccines cost me a whopping $375. Ouch (in more ways than one)!

Last week, Rusty went and got the same four vaccinations and it only cost him $305. This is because, being the scatterbrained person that I sometimes often am, I set my typhoid vaccine (a set of four pills that you take orally) on top of the car, along with all my shot records and a packet of information I had printed off the CDC website, while I strapped Alex into his carseat (I had taken him with me since it was the day after Rusty's surgery and I wanted Rusty to stay home and rest). Then, you guessed it, I got in my car and drove off, completely forgetting about the stuff on top. The good news is that, after I realized my mistake (and had a complete meltdown), Rusty and I went back to look for everything. (So much for staying home and resting!) We ended up finding all of it except the typhoid vaccine (even found the instructions on how to take the pills, but not the box with the pills in it)! I am thankful to have recovered all my shot records, because those were truly irreplaceable. But it was a bit painful to go in and spend another $70 on a second typhoid vaccine.

As for Alex, he will only need two vaccinations (thank you, Starbucks insurance and well-baby check-ups for taking care of everything else!) -- but the clinic Rusty and I went to doesn't take kids under the age of five, so I will have to take him downtown to the county health department. Ugh, not looking forward to that.

And, no, I am not pregnant, so I can't even blame my scattered brains on a new life growing within!

UPDATED: The Fun Just Never Stops

Yesterday, Alex tripped and fell on the sidewalk outside our apartment, busted his lip and chipped one of his top front teeth. This morning, he had a fat lip, but the tooth seems (to my untrained eye/finger) to be fine. I guess now I really need to make that first dental appointment -- just to be sure. I know that's going to be so much fun!

This evening, the cold that I thought he was getting over seems to be making a come-back. It looks like I'm in for a long (and probably sleep-deprived) weekend. Maybe even a trip to the doctor to make sure he doesn't have another ear infection.

So much for my To Do List.

Updated to add this picture, which I did not realize Rusty had taken until the morning after I posted:

Slightly Traumatized!

Okay, I just have to share that watching the doctor pull the pins out of my son's arm this morning was the most frightening thing I think I've witnessed in a long time. Alex was so good while she was cutting his cast off of his arm. I thought he would be scared of the cast cutter because it's so loud (and he hates the vacuum cleaner), but he just sat there quite contendly in his daddy's lap.

With the cast off, we could see the pins sticking out of his elbow. So I asked the doctor, "Now what?" And she says, "Now, I pull the pins out." Then she proceeds to grasp his wrist and pull on one of the little knobs, and a pin as long as my finger came out of his elbow! I am not kidding! If the way Alex started yelling was any indication, it hurt like you know what. I am still kind of in shock that she didn't even give him a local anesthetic.

Oh, well, it is over, and the good news is that the bone is healed, and he won't have to wear a sling. She wants to see us again in three weeks. In the meantime, I am not supposed to let him be too active. Ummm... okay. That will be a piece of cake, I'm sure.

See? I told you I wasn't kidding!

As if we needed anymore stress...

Whelp... you guessed it. Our little boy has a broken arm! It happened a week ago Thursday when Alex and Rusty were wrestling on our bed. Rusty was picking him up and throwing him down into a pile of fresh laundry (because, well, that's just what you do when Mommy dumps a bunch of clean clothes on the bed). Anyway, Alex fell on his left arm in just the right way and broke it, right above the elbow. We didn't think he had broken it at first, just bruised or maybe sprained it. I called our pediatrician and consulted with the nurse on call. She told me to give him half an hour and see if he calmed down. We watched a movie together, he calmed down, went to bed without any problems, and slept all night. But when we got up the next morning, his arm was swollen, so I decided to take him in and have his arm checked out.

The doctor said she was pretty sure it was indeed broken, so she sent us for x-rays where this was confirmed. Oh, but wait... it gets better! Later that afternoon, we went to an orthopedic clinic where they were going to set the bone and put him into a cast. When we finally get in to see the doctor, he tells us he thinks Alex needs surgery on his arm and pins put into his elbow to help it heal properly. So, they put him in a temporary cast (picture above) and sent us home with the surgery scheduled for Monday morning.

On Monday, we drove out to Baptist Germantown Surgery Center. They asked us to be there at 7:30, called us back to pre-op at around 8:30, and finally took him back for his surgery after 9:00. Of course, Alex couldn't have anything to eat or drink all this time, so he was pretty cranky. When they were ready to take him back, they let Rusty help push the bed out into the hall, and then we just quietly hung back while they wheeled him down to the OR. It's really the first thing he's had to face without one of us by his side, and I will never forget how I felt as I watched him going down that hall, holding onto the sides of the bed, thinking he was just going for a ride...

In his hospital gown, just before going to the OR

In the recovery room

The surgery went well, and Alex was back to his normal self by evening. His cast will stay on for three weeks. Then it will come off and the pins will come out and he will be fitted with some kind of temporary cast/sling that we can take on and off. So far, he seems to be coping with the cast fairly well. Toddlers are so resilient and adaptable. The hardest part, I think, will be coming up with things for him to do for the next three weeks since I don't want to let him play outside too much. Anyone have any suggestions? Other than letting him get hopelessly addicted to TV? I fear we are already well on our way to that one. Since the night he broke his arm, he's watched "Cars" about 50 times, I think, and it's only been a week since the accident!

What I've Been Up To

Well, since my mommy stopped posting "Month Milestones" on the blog, I figured it was time to let my readers know some of the things I've been up to lately. (By the way, I have my own space on this blog. It's called "Alex' Corner," and it's in the sidebar to the right. You can always check that out to see how I'm growing. My mommy updates it about once every month or so.)

I really enjoy playing the piano with Mommy. We make pretty music together. (Editor's Note: Sadly, the piano, which originally belonged to my great-great grandmother, will be going to its new home at Allen and Kristi's soon. We just didn't see the point in hauling it back to Memphis just for a year or two. We are thankful that we have family who are willing to give it a home for us. Still, I am sad that I will not be able to play it whenever I want.)

My cousins turned fifteen this month. They had their birthday party at a bowling alley, so I got to try bowling for the first time. (Cousin Johnny helped me.) I had fun, but the balls were too heavy for me to pick up, and that was really frustrating.

I really love to read! I bring books for Mommy (or whoever else happens to be around) to read to me several times a day. Sometimes, I even read on my own.

Like my scraped up nose? I am always falling and banging my head on something these days. I guess that's part of what being a little boy is all about. This scratch came from falling down some carpeted stairs and getting a rug burn on my nose. I cried, of course, but I'm looking much better this week!

Our Spotted Leopard

This is for everyone out there who asked to see pictures of Alex with the chicken pox. Poor fella! These were taken last Thursday. He looks much better this week, I promise.