Monday, January 11, 2010

Home sweet home

Where to start???

We are in our home and settled finally. Our container did arrive on the 17th of December...just a couple of weeks later than we expected. Christmas seemed a little rushed, but we did have all of our decorations up and most of our things unpacked. It is nice to feel like we are home.

So many details rush to my mind that I want to share...petty unimportant things, as well as wonderful blessings! I will start with the petty.

Ant nests, I found 4 of them in my house, 2 of which were in my clothes drawers. One was in my kitchen cabinet. I opened the cabinet and they were EVERYWHERE! I was disgusted, and weak-kneed! I called Kevin to tell him, I saw dozens crawling out of the spout of a ceramic teapot, so I put the aerosol can of ant killer into the spout and sprayed away. I told him I couldn't stand the sight of all of those ants, so I would not be cleaning the teapot out, I would leave that for him! When I got of the phone I thought to myself, "Some missionary wife YOU ARE! Calling your husband crying over an ant nest!" (by the way they were bigger than carpenter ants, and had pinchers!) I just couldn't bring myself to even take the teapot out of the cabinet! So after a good scolding to myself, I brought the pot out of the cabinet, peeked inside, and almost threw up! They were ants in every stage of development in there, even the larvae! PUKE! After seeing them, I just accepted that I would not be cleaning out that teapot, and it was waiting for Kevin when he came home!

The ladies at church told me that even though the ants are scary, and they do bite, they are a blessing when they come to your house, because they march right through in scores, and hundreds, killing any insect in its path. Then they move on. They even eat scorpions.

Oh, I had one of those in my house to. A big black one called an Emperor Scorpion...about 3 inches long. Yep, that was quite a scream too!

Then you have to remember that I have boys. Lots of jungle trees to climb. FUN FUN FUN!! Right? Well, you forgot that little boys do not have developed brains until they are 25!!

Derek tells me he was climbing this tree, and he saw a tail sticking out of a hole! It was a mean looking lizard, but because the lizard wasn't moving, the boys decided he must be dead and started PULLING ON HIS TAIL!! Fortunately for them, the lizard did not attack them, just stayed in his nice hole. Crazy boys!

The water here is also nasty, you cannot drink it or brush your teeth with it. There are many parasites and germs that can make you very sick. Ellie was taking a bath the other night, and I went to check on her, she had taken the head off of a doll and was drinking water out of the head! So we have be trying to help her through a lot of dirty diapers and a small fever.

Because of the water...when I get home from market, I immediately put all of my produce into a sink filled with bleach water, and let them soak for a few minutes and air dry before putting them away.

I have learned to make homemade tortillas and homemade salsa. Yummy.

It has been wonderful to be a part of the church here. We are meeting in a tractor barn, and the people just keep coming! When it is hot, there are mosquitos and gnats that bite. One man even stepped in a bunch of ants during church, and was in the back lifting his pants legs, smacking and hitting them. We have a dirt floor too, that the kids love to run around and kick the dirt up in the air. Matt Leonard found a 6 ft snake right near the church a few weeks back...it was poisonous too.

Each day I wake up to the thought of how wonderful it is to be here...how good of God to lead us to this place of service. I look forward to seeing all that He has planned for us and the Leonard's.

Thank you all for praying for us as we made this move, please continue to pray!

8 comments:

  1. Soooooooooooo good to hear from you!!! I have prayed often for you. You are a brave woman - I wouldn't handle the ants well, either. :)

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  2. How exciting! We will be taking a cruise to Belize soon, I know now what to be careful of :).

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  3. I have been praying for you my friend...What a
    treasure you are and your family as well. You are incredible as well...What stories and challenges...I am so glad you and Michelle are
    together there. She is a treasure also. Thank
    you for sharing your days..augh! and your prayers...
    I will continue to pray for you all and thank you so much for all you are doing....
    love, nancy

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  4. Great to hear how you are doing! Glad you are HOME!!!!

    Growing up in the Mojave Desert in So. Cal., we battled ants all the time- big fat flying ants that would bite and leave huge welts. I despise ants. I would have done exactly what you did, or even worse and just thrown the tea pot away!

    Praying for you and your family! Take care! =)

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  5. So wonderful to hear how things are going! Praying for you and the Leonards.

    Paula

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  6. Oh Amy! So glad to here from you. How quickly you are unpacking & settling in~ but so you! The bugs are rough & I too think that teapot would have landed smack in the garbage without a second thought! What a blessing though, to know that they eat all the other bugs. I laughed so hard at "don't develop brains till 25" at least I know my boys have hope!
    We are so thankful for you being our missionaries. I pray for you often as in any time I play the "Amy's favorites" cd you gave me (which is whenever I get it back from my husband ~ he really likes it too) or whenI see that little bird votive holder ( it reminds me of the time you cleaned my house for me when I was struggling so) or any time I see a yankee candle. Are you still trying to collect those for each month?
    Please tell they boys hello from our boys. Take care.

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  7. Hi,
    I am soooooo excited that you are blogging. My husband and our seven soon to be 8 children are planning Lord willing to move to Belize as missionaries the end of this year. Before that we were serving in the Philippines. Our site is
    www.babyhomepages.net/tenlittleinions
    I was disapointed to read about the bad water. It was like that in the Philippines too. There we even put a little bleach in the bath tub to kill parasites. The baby got to take her baths in purified water that we illed the sink with.
    Just wondering what moving company you used how the price was and if you were happy with that. In the Philippines we had a great yahoo web site just or missionaries to share ideas, tips, warnings, vacation ideas, sales etc... it was a HUGE blessing. Is there a group like that there?
    I will be praying for your family and I hope you will update often. I wish I had blogged much sooner especially in my early days of culture shock. It is great to look back on the memories.
    Sj

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  8. Oh yes, one more thing.... about the ants in the Philippines we would lay equal at the door entrances. It won't hurt the children but it kills the ants.

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