More at blogspot

1-27-10 9pm Paul is home! It was 2 weeks and an hour ago that Sammy and Nathan were sobbing telling him good-bye. Tonight at dinner there was much hub-bub of Daddy this and Daddy that! We are all grateful to have him home and grateful to have had the opportunity to play a small part in what God is doing in Haiti. The next Haiti update will come from Paul as he processes his experiences and share his stories.

Last night while Paul and I were catching up, Patti Sue of Casa de Fe called me to tell me little Steven died. When I left his heart rate was getting lowere and lower and his breaths more and more shallow. We are grateful also to have played a small role in his short and difficult life. We rejoice that he is with the God who created him and that he is no longer constrained by his imperfect body.

1-25-10 10pm Paul is in Florida now. He arrived today from Haiti. Tomorrow they will fly from Miami to Quito. Things seem to be in order regarding the passport. I am planning to go to Quito tomorrow and meet him at the airport. We will have a debriefing meeting with the team before heading back to Shell. I will take Isaac and my parents will be here with the other three boys. We are excited to see Paul again! The boys all have lists of things they want to do with him. We were stunned to learn today that our church raised more than double the cost of the vaccines that were sent with our friend from medical school. God has been faithful throughout these past two weeks and we are in awe to see the way He continues to work! What a privilege to be serving Him.

1-24-10 11pm It has been a busy day, both in Shell and Haiti. The good news is that the team is planning to fly from Haiti to Miami tomorrow. It is unclear when the next flight out (after Mon) will be available, so the current plan is for them to leave Haiti tomorrow afternoon. The passport situation still seems to be up in the air, but we are trusting that things will work out. Lord willing, they will be in Ecuador Tuesday night.
Vaccine: We are working hard to get the tetanus vaccine to the Baptist Haiti Mission. However, it is in Santo Domingo now and will be used for Haitians injured in the earthquake one way or another. Please continue to pray for the logistics of this. The team with the vaccine is driving from Santo Domingo to the border tomorrow and representatives of Samaritan’s Purse are driving to Santo Domingo at the same time, so hopefully they will find a way to connect.
Baptist Haiti Mission Hospital: Paul said tonight (when I finally got to talk to him) that they are busy again with patients transported from the valley of Port-au-Prince up to the mission. Most of them have closed femur fractures, so they are getting very good at repairing this! However, there are now 2 other anesthesiologists, so he has enjoyed working and talking with them.
Steven: Little Steven is still in critical condition at our hospital here in Shell. We changed his antibiotics tonight and hope to see some improvement in the next 1-2 days. Several times today I reminded myself that he is in God’s hands. He has fought so many odds against him. It’s hard to know what God has in mind for him.
Re-entry: Please pray for the next phase of Paul’s experience in Haiti. I don’t know what to expect, but I am very proud of him and hope that the processing and debriefing process goes smoothly.
Thank you for your many, many prayers. I know Paul will want to share some of his firsthand experiences. Stay tuned. By the way, he said it wasn’t him giving the blood!

1-23-10 10pm I haven’t been updating quite as often. Things are becoming more routine in Haiti, according to Paul. They have been there for a week now. It sounds like they are almost caught up on the surgeries at the hospital and today picked up 8 patients from the General Hospital in PAP who need surgery. Paul told me several days ago they were approaching 100 surgeries. Although this is only a drop in the bucket compared to the need, it is a good week’s work for 1 anesthesiologist (most of the time) and several surgeons, as well as a 100-bed hospital. Check the Baptist Haiti Mission blog for more information, stories and pictures. http://www.bhm.org/bhm/lang-en/news-and-resources/our-life-in-haiti-blog.html Is that Paul giving blood to a patient? I know he has type O which anyone can get and I also know he gets woozy giving blood! Some of the supplies and vaccine that have been lacking have arrived. We are thankful for this. We are still working on getting the 500 doses of tetanus vaccine to the hospital. They are awaiting transport with a team this weekend. No word yet on whether Paul will need to get his passport renewed in Miami, but this is the back-up plan if necessary. Flights are leaving Haiti only on Mon/Wed/Fri so the plan next week is for the team to fly out of Haiti on Wed. They have tickets back to Ecuador on Fri and will come back earlier if the passport and flight situation allows.

Here at home we are happy to have Maw-Maw and Pop visiting. Isaac is figuring out who they are and the other boys are enjoying games, books and movies with them. I was able to go to a bridal shower today. Steven was admitted to the hospital for his pneumonia today so I was also able to leave and be involved in his care. I am thankful for the chance to leave the house without any boys in tow! Also, a huge answer to prayer is that Nathan’s infection is MUCH better. That is all for now. I have not heard from Paul today, so I don’t have up-to-date information.

1-21-10 10pm Wow, Paul has been gone for more than a week and we hope to see him in another 9 days. (See #3) I am tired, but want to share several prayer requests. I will try to update on the team tomorrow.
1. We are trying to arrange tetanus vaccine to get to the team in Haiti – please pray for the logistics of reaching Paul at Baptist Haiti Mission. A friend from medical school is arranging for the vaccines and her husband will bring it to Haiti since he is an orthopedic surgeon planning to go to Haiti this weekend. Pray that their travel goes smoothly and that he is able to connect with a representative from Paul’s team.
2. Paul’s team is still lacking certain supplies for fixing fractures. Pray that these would be available to them.
3. Two team members (that we know of) don’t have 6 months left on their passports and this may be a problem getting back into Ecuador. Paul is one of them. (This requirement is also why my parents are delayed.) Pray that if Paul does need to renew his passport before re-entering Ecuador, the process would be completed quickly and smoothly.
4. Praise God my parents should be at the Quito airport now! We look forward to seeing them in Shell tomorrow.
5. Also praise God for the team of nurses that was at Casa de Fe this week. They were helpful with some regular screenings and giving vaccines.
6. Pray for Steven, the baby at Casa de Fe with a tracheotomy. His pneumonia is now worse and we started a second antibiotic today.
7. Pray for Nathan who has an infected scrape on his leg. Some of you may remember Paul’s saga with a similar infection that required IV antibiotics.

1-19-10 10pm The Haiti earthquake was a week ago today. Paul has been there for about 4 days, but gone from Shell for 6. He called tonight and said that things are somewhat less crazy and they feel like they can stop for lunch and dinner and end the day at a decent time (meaning before midnight!) There are more surgeons there now, including the founder of World Medical Mission, a program that sends graduating medical residents to places like Shell for two years to explore their interest in missions. Senator Bill Frist is also there. They ran two OR’s today and there are two anesthesiologists, so it was still quite busy. However, it sounds like the cases are more straight-forward than they were at the beginning. There is still a hospital full of orthopedic cases needing surgery! The ones that remain are mainly closed fractures of arms and legs. Yesterday Paul told me that they had no tetanus vaccine which would typically be given in these types of surgeries. I don’t know if that has changed, but please pray that these patients would do well in spite of this and that vaccine would be found to give them. The sad news is that the lady who was bleeding from her stomach and required a transfusion a couple of days ago died. It sounds like her medical problems were not related to the earthquake.

Paul really feels like God put the team right where they were needed. The two surgeons from HCJB both specialize in orthopedics and as you know have been incredibly busy. Although we shouldn’t be surprised, it is amazing to see how God works even in such difficult circumstances. As some of the immediate needs have been met following the disaster, I can only imagine that many are beginning to process their tremendous grief and loss. It is hard to imagine on such a large scale and yet to each person it is profoundly personal. Continue to pray for the people of Haiti as they begin to consider rebuilding their lives.

Paul is eager to get home, but feels like he is needed there. It’s hard to imagine doing this for another week and then have the 2-3 days of travel to get back here. Two members of the team are leaving tomorrow. Paul considered returning with them, but decided that his job is not done there and will stay. Weariness is setting in – please pray for stamina and rest for him and his teammates, as well as wisdom in the medical and logistical decisions that they make.

Tonight Paul told me that on their way from Miami to the West Palm Beach airport where they took off from for Haiti, the team stopped at Wendy’s. Now this is a normal part of our culture, but the HCJB team is a German, 2 Brits, an Ecuadorian and 2 Texans. Everyone except Paul and our friend Mark found the triple hamburger a strange idea! Apparently the Frosties were a hit, however. This is just a reminder of all the culture leaps Paul is making. Traveling from Shell to Quito to Miami to Haiti was quite an experience. I imagine making the trip in reverse will be even more interesting.

On the home front, my parents were delayed in their travels, hopefully by only 24-hours. Nathan and Isaac both had fevers all day today. It looks like Nathan will be home from school again tomorrow. Tomorrow and Thursday we have a team of nurses at Casa de Fe and I am hoping to get over there to help out. Steven, the baby with a trach, seems to be better. Praise God!

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray, as I know you are.

1-18-10 2pm From Paul in a brief e-mail last night regarding yesterday: Just a short one again! They found diesel fuel so we operated until about 9 instead of 5 then a woman bleeding from her stomach and in shock came in and we operated on her. I just got home at 12:30am. We missed Paul’s call this morning, but he just called and 3 of us were thrilled to talk to him. Several surgeons and another anesthesiologist are arriving soon which should help, but will so many more surgeons than anesthesiologists, I’m sure Paul will stay busy. He said they were close to catching up on the surgeries needed but today a member of the army came by and said they (Baptist Haiti Mission) were the only functioning “trauma center” and they wanted to transport more patients to the hospital. Sounds like it will continue to be busy. He sounded positive, not too exhausted or down. The water filter is up and running, thanks to our friend and colleague Martin Harrison. He also has a blog on BBC in England, check it out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8458915.stm. The need for IV fluid that I mentioned previously was filled when a box was found in the back of a storage closet. It sounds like they have almost run out of several things only to find more stock in an out of the way place! The missionaries at Baptist Haiti Mission have kept up a blog and just posted a prayer request for the patient that Paul wrote about who was bleeding from her stomach. She needs blood. All they need is a bag to hold the blood. They have everything else including a willing donor. Their blog is: http://www.bhm.org/bhm/lang-en/news-and-resources/our-life-in-haiti-blog.html. We are so appreciative of your prayers and encouragement. The boys and I are doing fine (better after talking to Paul.) I can’t tell if the boys are experiencing normal moodiness or extra stress, but overall things they are very helpful. School helps – the weekend gets a little long and house-bound without Daddy. We have been encouraged by notes, messages, meals and calls. The boys ask constantly how many days till Maw-Maw and Pop come and now the answer is 3! Here in Shell, please pray for baby Steven, the baby at Casa de Fe with a tracheotomy. It sounds like he may be developing pneumonia again. Philippians 4:13

1-17-10 10am: I have heard from several team members, including one that Paul asked to write us. They worked from 8am until about midnight last night. Paul was in the OR all that time. They are seeing many infected wounds now that it is several days after the quake. There are no labs available because the lab staff died. There is very little nursing care and no vital signs are being done on the floor. The lady with eclampsia from the first night is still very sick. New patients are still coming in and there is some concern that it will be hard to convince them to go when they are medically ready because the hospital offers safety and clean water. They still experience occasional aftershocks. Some supplies are running low. An exciting development however is the fact that there is a team of Billy Graham chaplains there working with translators. They are sharing Christ with the patients and 20 people have given their lives to Christ today. The chaplains have been helping our team as well. Thank you all for your prayers and messages!

These are some prayer requests from one of the team members this morning:
1. We are running low on diesel fuel for generating power – 2 days left, so we are starting to ration electricity. This reduces flexibility for communications as well as time for the doctors to do their precious ministry. Please pray for diesel to start flowing!
2. Also very low on certain essential medical supplies for repairing broken bones. Pray that other organisations would free up some of their supplies and that new ones would arrive!
3. Stamina – we are working extreme hours in difficult conditions – the doctors and surgeons are amazing!!!

1/16/10 8am: Paul just called and we were thrilled to hear his voice. However, the fact that he called on the satellite phone tells me that what they are doing is very difficult and he needed to hear our voices. He said this as well and had a hard time talking for tears. Please pray for them. Yesterday they tried to deliver a baby by C-section 2 months early whose mother was suffering eclampsia. The baby did not make it, but the mother is recovering. This was very hard on the team and on Paul. So is the devastation that they are witnessing. Please pray for them as they try to deal with all of these things and do their job. They were able to do a couple other surgeries yesterday and get some sleep. He said the Baptist Haiti Mission where they are is a mission compound similar to Shell. He does have e-mail access and we got a brief e-mail from another doctors account.

We were so glad the hear from him and Sammy and Nathan talked to him. But everybody is a bit grumpy this morning. We haven’t had breakfast yet, so that is part of it, but I think this and the weeks since Christmas is taking its toll on our boys. It’s hard to process all the things we’ve had going on. Please pray for them.

1/15/10 11pm: I have not heard anything from Paul since they landed. I did get a phone message from him that they landed safely and were heading up the mountains to the Baptist hospital where they will work. From twitter, the hospital had more than 300 patients waiting to be seen today and only 2 doctors. I can only imagine that the HCJB docs will be working long into the night. Please pray for fuel which is a huge need for the generators that the hospital is running on. Pray for strength for the doctors – emotional as well as physical.

Also, in response to my e-mail update I learned that my friend Dr. Judith is only 20 minutes from this hospital. I hope that she and Paul are able to connect. I met Judith in Chicago at a health clinic where she worked and where I was a volunteer for a year with Lutheran Volunteer Corps trying to decide whether to go on to medical school. (This experience also introduced me to the organization Christian Community Health Fellowship, which was largely responsible for us hearing about the need for an anesthesiologist in Ecuador.) Judith was my first mentor in doctoring, as well as a mentor in walking with Christ. She was a missionary in Haiti before our time in Chicago overlapped and she later returned to Haiti. Even during her time in Chicago, I was profoundly impressed by her great love for the people of Haiti. Never would I have guessed that we would be missionaries in Ecuador and my husband have the chance to meet her in Haiti under such terrible conditions. Also, her son went to my alma mater and I was able to meet him at my 10th? reunion. Pray for her, as she is treating patients in Haiti as well as witnessing the devastation of the place that has become home to her. I will post updates as I know them.

We don’t have any birthdays for a few months and our boys seem to be growing up before our eyes, so it seems to be about time to write about them. Sammy is getting very tall – already up to my shoulder. He thrives in second grade this year and is eager to explain what he learns to his brothers. He loves playing basketball and having adventures around Shell and Ecuador, but is also always content to be in his room reading. He also loves games and we love playing more grown-up games with him. His current favorite is Ticket to Ride and he has also learned Milles Bornes and Settlers of Catan. He wants to learn Forty-Two, which is Paul’s favorite domino game. He plans to be an astronaut when he grows up and loves things about space. Nathan is in Kindergarten and is excited to start to read. He shares Paul’s excitement over model airplanes and they are building one together out of balsa wood and styrofoam. It is quite impressive. He loves games, too, and is especially good at drawing and guessing in Pictionary. Nathan is very artisitc as well as athletic. He is always moving and makes you wonder if he is paying attention, but he is! The other day he explained the entire origin of Hanukkah to us and was the only one who knew what the fighting was about. Nathan always has deep questions to ask, usually at bedtime! Josiah goes to preschool two mornings a week. Most of his classmates are from the orphange here, so he hears and seems to understand lots of Spanish. He is the first one asleep at night and an early bird in the mornings. He alternates between enthusastic preschooler and naysayer toddler. He is figuring out the world and a conversation with him is often a cycle of confusion. (We’ll do that tomorrow, Josiah. Okay Mommy, is it tomorrow?) Little Isaac so far is a charming baby toddler. Walking is now his main mode of locomotion. He loves to go outside and none of us can leave the house without him if he can help it. He loves shoes and balls and a very special bunny blanket. Both Mom and Dad are “mama” and he says a handful of other words in 2 languages. He is still our baby and we rock him to sleep when we can, knowing how quickly these days go by. He is a good sleeper and is often the last one awake in the morning. Time flies by with these precious little ones and we remind ourselves of this when the days are long.

Some times our kids make comments or ask question that remind us that they are growing up a little differently than we did.  Here are some examples:

Josiah (who needed the rabies shot series about a year ago) – Mom, if I kiss the hamster, will I have to get shots?

Nathan, after rinsing his mouth several times at the dentist’s office in Quito – Oh, no, Mom, is this clean water?!

Sammy, at Maw-Maw and Pop’s house – Look, Mom, that is so cool!  Their microwave has a cabinet all around it!  (Ours sits on the counter.)

Josiah – Shell doesn’t have any bad guys – only bugs!

Sammy, our most adventurous eater – I only want to order fish if it has the bones and head.

Nathan, on a hike – Mom, I can climb down by myself. I’m a jungle boy!

Isaac (on our porch) – Cool, cat poop. Daddy will love it if I play with this and smear it all over me! (We don’t have a cat, but strays wander in our neighborhood frequently.)

In honor of the two-year anniversary of our arrival in Ecuador earlier this month, we submit the following lists.  (#11 is the “yapa.”)

10 Things we no longer take for granted

1.  clean water;  paved roads;  a 911 emergency system

2.  paying with a credit card, paying with a $20 (often the seller doesn’t have change)

3.  a basic understanding of germs among the lay public

4.  grocery stores that also carry meat and produce

5.  restaurant playgrounds

6.  air conditioning

7.  boneless chicken breasts;  potatoes without dirt;  cilantro with leaves;  blueberries;  corn on the cob

8.  privacy when we are in our house

9.  seasons, especially changing leaves and snow

10.  writing medical notes in English

11.  Sunday school;  sermons in English,

However, there are many perks to our life now that we suspect we would miss if we were living elsewhere:

10 Things we are now tempted to take for granted

1.  fresh strawberries three time a week at $1.50 a pound

2.  subsidized gasoline

3.  sharing a yard and playground with neighbors and having instant play-mates

4.  windows open year-round

5.  produce delivered to the door weekly

6.  drinkable yogurt in gallon containers

7.  30-second commute to the hospital (walking)

8.  ziplines at the playground

9.  eating lunch as a family most days

10.  $2 three-course lunches

11.  the international church of Christ; the many crucial and often unseen roles in the body of Christ

Saturday I was asked by one of our friends here who is a pilot and evangelist to accompany him in to the jungle.  We were taking some passengers and equipment back home to their village, a 2o min. flight due east of Shell.   A seat had opened up and I accepted the invitation.  After checking in and doing the necessary paperwork, we pushed the little Cessna 172 out of the hanger and were off.  My friend knows my great interest in flying so he let me sit in the “right seat” next to him.  Being cleared to taxi by the tower, he told me that I was going to taxi the plane to the end of the runway and take off!  Well, this was going to be fun, I thought, hoping that the computer flight simulator I had “messed around with” years ago was close enough to reality to get us off the ground!    After a bit of weaving back and forth over the runway center-line,  I was getting the hang of taxiing.  We stopped briefly at the end of the runway then were cleared for take off.  “Throttle all the way forward” were my only instructions and we were airborn in no time.  We flew east with me at the controls and amazed at my friend’s willingness to “bob and weave” while I was getting my feet wet guiding the small craft.  Funny thing about jungle flying here in the western Amazon, it’s really hilly out there.  As we approached the community and made our descent and approach direced only by his GPS, the runway was hidden behind a ridge perpendicular to our travel and yet unseen.  Scooting through a notch in the ridge and banking left I got my first glimpse at the community and its landing strip.  The last few minutes of the flight  happend quickly as we leveled out, lined up with the runway, flared and gently touched down.

My friend not only is an experienced jungle pilot but has a real heart for sharing Jesus with those he helps.  The jungle community met us as we were getting out of the plane and we unload the equipment.  Under his seat was a little box which he pulled out and began to wind up.  “Have you ever seen one of these?” he asked as he began to crank its handle. It looked like one of those emergency weather radios that runs on hand wind-up generator power.   After a few good cranks it began to “preach” in a foreign language.   I asked if it was Quichua, the language of this community.  It was not and he began to scroll through several different jungle tongues with the tough of a button until he arrived at the Quichua version.  He let the “preacher in a box” do its thing for a while as we were making our way from the plane to the houses.

We accompanied the community back to one of the houses where he and I were offered a seat under the roof of their “kitchen-living room” area.  This part of the house had no walls but, pavilion-like, its high pitched, thatched roof served as the kitchen and living room area.  Before I could object, a bowl the size of a cereal bowl was handed to me.  It was full to the brim with a white opaque liquid that I immediately identified as “chicha”.  This is a common drink of many indigenous peoples of the Amazon and Andes made from the starchy root of the yuca plant.  Traditionally, the women of the household chew its flesh mixing it thourougly with their saliva and then spit it into large clay pots where it ferments for days to weeks.  I have read that in recent times the chicha “brewmasters” use other methods of fermentation that don’t involve the chewing and spitting step.  However, I know not the culinary preparation habits of the houshold in which we “supped” and I didn’t ask fearing causing offense. I accepted this generous offer of thanks to us for serving their community  remembering my missionary training.  It emphasized, “I’ll go where He leads me and I’ll eat (or drink) what they feed me”.  Now I know what you all are thinking…”how did it taste”?  Well, it was sour and bland at the same time (yuca has almost no taste at all — only starch) with a background alcohol-ish flavor (and some oaky and fruity notes — just kidding).

The latest development for this house was the father had just been given an anaconda snake, a “small one” they told me, from a cousin who had trapped it in another part of the jungle.  Apparently it would fetch about $200 on the local “snake market” and they were keeping it around until a buyer was found.  Now, ’round these parts, drinking water is kept in the equivalent of a 55-gallon drum made of blue plastic.  Looking across the yard was one such drum with a ton of lumber stacked on top to keep the lid closed.  They seemed anxious to show off the anaconda so off came the wood and over went the barrel sloshing out, you guessed it,  a “smallish” 8 foot anaconda!  The little boy of the house, who was about Sammy’s size and age, really liked the new pet and felt perfectly free to pull and pick up the poor snake by it’s tail.  Others in the neighborhood would pick it up too and let it coil about one arm or the other!

After some time enjoying the snake show, my friend asked if he could talk about Jesus with the kids.  We gathered those milling about — an anaconda in the presence of gringos really draws a crowd!  The kids all sat down and he began to preach on John 3:14 where Jesus, as he is leading into that most famous verse John 3:16,  references the history of Moses who lifted up a, you guessed it, serpent on a stick and, those who looked upon it, were healed from their deadly snake bites (a consequence of Israel’s sinning and grumbling to the Lord in the wilderness).  What a great object lesson the Lord had put together that day.  My friend emphasized that Jesus was saying that we must look to Him, who would be lifted up on the cross for our sins, to be healed from those sins, and have eternal life with Him.  Further, the word got out while we were chatting that I was a doctor.  We added that the medical specialty in the U.S. uses the “caduceus” symbol (a snake coiled about a staff) as the symbol of the  medical  profession.  (We just went with it folks — I know that this symbol has origins in other, secular places….)  Anyway, we shared with the children that day that they, as everyone,  should look to Jesus for true spiritual health and trust in Him to pay for their sins so they didn’t have to (all the while keeping one eye on the whereabouts of that anaconda!)  We said our good-buys and headed back to Shell by the same means.  What an afternoon.  I never will get tired of flying over the beautiful Amazon!

I recently read that there is an organization dedicated to “slow food.”  Although I can appreciate the goals of this organization, I am surrounded by slow food and must confess to missing fast food.  Not necessarily the burger chain kind, although that’s often our first stop in Quito, but any kinds of ready-to-go food, whether take-out, counter service or from the grocery store.  Especially here in Shell, this is not a fast-food culture.   Although we would love to have Cowboy Chicken, Fuddruckers, or Pei Wei nearby, I am slowly expanding the things I make from scratch.  We have made pretzels, doughnuts, tortillas, bread, granola, peanut butter cup candies, Cheesecake Factory’s Lettuce Wraps, fajitas, enchiladas verdes and many other favorite dishes that we can’t get here.  We also make juice from scratch – usually lemonade, blackberry juice or one of the fruits not found in the States.  We use the ubiquitous moras (blackberries) to make pancake syrup as well.  Most recently, we have discovered jungle peanuts.  Apparently they are not a native crop to this area, but grow well.  We bought 10 pounds recently and have learned to dry-roast them, honey-roast them and use them for making Cracker Jacks!  I don’t know what variety they are, but they are striped.  It beats buying the imported ones, but taste better than the ones that are sold in stores.  Things we have yet to try are homemade wheat thins, cheese, candy corn, pop-tarts and peppermint patties!  We’ll keep you posted on how those turn out.

Gracias a Dios, we’ve had water this week after three days without it last week.  We have also had more rain, although the weather is still warmer and dryer than usual.  Our Internet connection seems to be better and thus we feel more “in touch.”  There are still many people in Shell without water for the past 10 days, however.

Josiah started school two days a week at a preschool run by one of the missionaries.  He is one of two missionary children and the other 9 students are from Casa de Fe, the orphanage in town.  He hears lots of Spanish and hopefully the Casa de Fe kids will be picking up English.  He seems to love it and we enjoy having him home the other days.  This morning he told me his friend Katie doesn’t like kisses, so he has to marry someone else!

Sammy is busy writing book reports for school and Nathan stayed on green all week, earning a special treasure today!  Not an easy thing for our active, impulsive little boy and we are very proud of him.  Isaac is cruising around and showing some interest in taking steps.  He constantly says “Hola” and charms everyone who sees him.  He loves playing on the porch and makes a beeline for the door whenever he’s crawling around.  He seems most interested in playing with dirt and sticks when he’s outside, so soon we’ll have another jungle boy running around!

Paul and I started Spanish tutoring this week and hopefully we will cement the grammatical rules that we practice in daily life.  He and Sammy finished their homemade basketball backboard this week and now we have the dribbling rhythm often in the background.  He also fixed the microwave, installed a fan on the porch, rearranged the furniture in Isaac’s room to give him more room to play and solved the problem of our slowly defrosting freezer.  (This time it was simply an open freezer door, but last week the coils had to be thoroughly cleaned to return it to normal function.)  The honey-do list here tends to have several more critical problems than we seemed to have in Dallas!  He also oversees the hospital equipment and the “technicos” that are here from Quito to work on anything that needs repairs.  After attending a meeting on HCJB’s new missionary training vision, he is now up to date on the exciting role that our jungle hospital will play in this initiative.  Yes, he is still primarily doing anesthesia, but as you can see, he doesn’t lack for things to do when his partner is on call.

With everyone is school now, I was able to start back at the Consulta in the hospital.  (I didn’t work my one clinic day during the summer months with everyone out of school and all that we had going on.)  My last patient this week was a very yellow little baby who had to be admitted for jaundice to receive phototherepy.  It was heartbreaking to wonder if the parents could afford the admission.  Although they decided to go through with it, they were worried about how many days it would be due to the expense.  Although I had many patients in Dallas without insurance, this problem didn’t seem to be as common there.

So, a busy, normal week.  We’re glad it’s Friday and looking forward to pizza at our favorite Italian place with 2 other missionary couples.  Paul has great plans for playing games with them after the kids are in bed.  Tomorrow we are going to attend our church’s OANSA kick-off.  This is the Spanish version of AWANA – a club for children focusing on memorizing Bible verses.  We hope to get more involved in our church’s ministry to the surrounding community.