A Moment of Reflection

Thanksgiving has come and gone. The day is usually full of cooking and visiting and our day was no different here but I did have moments of quiet (even while I cooked) to think, what am I truly thankful for. At the moment a Steven Curtis Chapman song was playing "if this was my last day of earth..." what would I be thankful for? Perspective hit me again. Remember, I've already written that "perspective" seems to be the lesson of the year for me. The year is almost over and I hope I have learned my lesson well :)

Our day held a bit of a breeze off the lake as the men set up tents, tables and chairs in our neighbors yard. Some of the ladies decorated with flowers from thier yards. People started arriving and the buffet was laden with a ton of food. We had at least 80 missionaries visit our center to share this meal and it was a wonderful time. Yes, we even had turkey. We had to order them from Lima but nonetheless we cooked three of them. We had all the trimmings with stuffing and sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy and side dishes all around. Dessert was pretty good too if you had room to get a piece of pie in. The kids swam in the afternoon and the men played football. I chased Judah.

This year has been full of unknowns and travel and changes. It's been hard.

• I am thankful that we are now in the place we are to call home for as long as the Lord calls us here.
• I am thankful that in the past few months both Dean and Adrianna have made a decision to follow Jesus. Lauren made that commitment several years ago and I am thankful in the very bottom of my heart that 3 of my 4 children know the Lord. May He teach and mold each one of them more like Him each day.
• I am thankful for my husband who is a rock to me. This past year hasn't been easy on him either and we've had our ups and downs trying to make decisions and make the best of our situations. David maintains the optimism in our family and keeps us moving forward. He manages all the headaches from visas and paperwork to making sure we have a place to lay our head at night. We were told yesterday that one of the little girls at school couldn't believe we were married very long because she thought we still acted like we were on our honeymoon. (I promise we are not all that touchy in public.) More than a few people got a chuckle out of that but I'd say that's a compliment to our marriage after 12 years and going strong. I am thankful the Lord has blessed our marriage through the struggles we've experienced.
• I am thankful for ways to communicate with family and friends. Cell phones, internet and email options make keeping connected pretty easy. And that leads me to a huge thanksgiving and that is for our family and support team who uphold us and provide for us to be here. We know the economy is unstable right now and our team that stands with us has been incredible in their generosity.
• Thank you to all our supporters. We thank you for your prayers and we thank you for your financial support and we thank you for the care packages that have come our way that make us feel so loved.
  
  Recently, safety has become an issue near our little community. Without going into detail the Lord has clearly shown his protection towards some dear friends of ours and we are thankful for that. We have come to realize anew that even when hard stuff happens, nothing happens that hasn't first passed by God's approval for our benefit. We don't understand but God IS in control. Please pray with us for safety as we seek only to do the Lord's will and to offer His love towards the Peruvian people through our lives here in Pucallpa. Thank God with us for the protection He has already given to us and to our friends. Pray for healing as they seek to gain a sense of safety in their lives again.

A Day in the Life of Jan

My dad wrote me a letter a while ago and said, "and don't be afraid to write what a day in the life of Jan looks like." Hmm. It's not that I'm afraid...but maybe you would be...it's more that I don't have "normal" yet. It might not what I do in a day that is so different but the place and the things that come with the daily tasks in living on the very outskirts of the jungle. But here's what a typical day might look like.

The sun rises around here at about 5:30 or so. I think. I will hear Dean and Judah anywhere between 5 and 6 in the morning and the sun is usually coming up or already shining bright when I groan and think "another day is here already? Can we just lock those boys in their room to play?" David agrees as he rolls back over for more sleep and how he can just shut out the noise of the kids is beyond me! My alarm goes off at 6:15 and then I really do roll out and stagger out to start my day. I really do NOT enjoy mornings and every day I think "I'm not going to be so grouchy to my kids" but each day that's a serious struggle. We have one hour to get Dean and Lauren ready and out the door to the carpool to get to school by 8am. Dean is slow as molasses. There's not a fast bone in his body. Lauren is becoming quite fussy as she might come out with as many as three different outfits on within the hour despite having picked out her clothes the night before. Has anyone out there been there and done this?

When the kids are gone I leave Adrianna and Judah to play with Laly while I get in the shower and emerge human again. I am ready to start teaching homeschool to Adrianna by 8 am and if I've done my preparation for the week it's quite a pleasant experience. She is a quick student and I love to hear her learn verses and poems. It's my favorite thing. My helper comes Monday's and Friday's and finally Judah will willingly stay with her. For a while there leaving him on the other side of the door was a trial and one that I often had to rescue him from. But teaching Adrianna and keeping up with Judah is a stretching few hours for me.

Tomorrow I start school. We have found a tutor to go over my books with me so Tuesday and Thursday mornings I will take the kids into school and stay there with Judah and Adrianna and do my own lessons. That means we have to cram a bit more into the three days of homeschool for Adrianna but I figure I need to start somewhere so I don't lose all my spanish. I'm a bit nervous of getting started again but I really, really want to speak this language and be comfortable here so please pray for my ability and time and progress in language learning.

After lunch I do household chores or take a nap - depending on my energy level which has been pretty low lately. Even the dog can be found asleep and trying to keep cool under the fan in any position! The kids come home at 3pm and Judah is getting up so the house gets wild and crazy for a few hours. The supper routine starts around 5, we eat at 6 and the kids need baths and to bed by 7:30. And then I can breathe. Well, unless I find a humongous spider in my bathroom and then I hyperventalate while trying to communicate to David that there is something very scary in the bathroom. And when I find two of them the same night, minutes apart well then there should be concern about my heart! I tell David if it's ever a snake in my house he will come home to find my bags packed and ready to go. What is the likelyhood of ever finding a snake in my house? Pretty good, I'd say. Rats are evident again. It got quiet after the first kill (I'll refrain from posting the picture David took) but they are eating my soap again. I can tell they have some big chompers.

What else takes up my time? Marketing is a huge time consumer. Just buying groceries takes a long time because you don't have one-stop shopping in Pucallpa. It's more like a 10-15 stop shopping trip and hope you get it all. Veggies are on one street, fruit on another. There is a store for chicken and a store for beef. We haven't found pork yet. There is a store for baking supplies and distributors for milk and yogurt. I buy about 30kg of flour at a time and about as much of sugar. Canned goods are available at Los Andes but you'll pay more...sometimes it's worth the time saved but if you have time there are plenty of small stores available to browse for goods. David has a store for each specialty it seems - do you need electrial supplies, go to Rotsen's or a battery, go the the shop on the corner as you head out of town. Hmmm. We're learning though! Needless to say, shopping trips to town don't happen all that often and living as far out of town as we do it's necessary to buy in bulk. I knew my love of bulk shopping would come in handy some day! When I get the fresh stuff home then I have to clean all my fruits and vegtables in an iodine/bleach solution and I process my meat. This can easily take the better part of a day if I'm working alone (with kids around) but my helper, Laly has been a big help with this lately as well as shopping for me.

And a social life? Well, you have to make that happen here. Sunday is our day out visiting. After church in town we usually go out with friends and it's a long day for the kids but we feel it is necessary to build relationships. They handle it great and sometimes there is even other kids for them to visit with. Wednesday night is prayer meeting which we all enjoy and there is a couple down the road from us that have young kids that we enjoy just hanging out with. We live about 30-40 minutes outside of town so going in has a purpose. We've had a few game nights at our humble abode with friends playing Settler's of Catan or Ticket to Ride. All in all, when you have four kids you can't really say you don't have a social life - they are the life of the party! Just look at my darlings. But it sure is nice that God has provided some pretty special people around us to help us through this adjustment and be our family away from home.

In conclusion, I do a lot of the same things you do. I take care of my kids and my house, I shop and and I clean and do laundry and I homeschool. The only difference is I live in Peru in a wood house with only screen and bars on the windows so cleaning is daily. I live with quite a few more bugs and snakes around I think. My grocery shopping day never ends. It's always hot here, unlike Arequipa, but I have an awesome view of a lake and palm trees out my kitchen window. I'll post of picture of that someday. Have a great day! Mine's been pretty good.