Snow!

You may wonder about the snow in these pictures…well, right now we’re in Wisconsin waiting for Baby #2 to arrive! We enjoyed this beautiful snow.

This is Thad’s first time playing in the snow—he wasn’t so sure about it…

a new discovery

One of our friends here has a trampoline. Thad and I have been going to play at their house every so often and now Thad has new love—the trampoline! He can’t actually jump yet unless he has a little help, but enjoys the bouncy sensation when he runs around on it.

(These photos were all taken by my great photographer friend!)

He also enjoys having a friend to play with…and tickle him!

washing the car

Jamie and Thad washed the car last weekend. It was Thad’s first introduction to the hose, and he loved playing in the bucket of water!

Jamie's BD party

Jamie had a birthday last week, and we celebrated with some friends on the weekend. Jamie enjoyed having helpers to make his birthday pizza! Each of the three boys got to help make one pizza, and we all enjoyed eating them!

spreading out pizza dough on a pan

adding cheese topping

adding meat topping

Our four hard working bakers!

I tried to make a creative cake for my hunter: chocolate frosting for dirt, yellow colored coconut as hay bales and remnants of corn stalks in a field, with a little blue-jello river running in the corner and two elk borrowed from one of the boys...all that's needed is the hunter!

Jamie and Thad exstinguish 33 candles in one blow!

After the kids went to bed, the adults got to play games and eat popcorn…but I was having so much fun I forgot to take pictures of that part!

what goes up...doesn't always come down

A couple of weeks ago, I (Jamie) had a flight where I was taking vegetables to a commercial customer and then picking up a retired translator who had been visiting and showing the Jesus film to the people with whom she had worked.

A Cessna 206 plane--the kind that Jamie flies

That morning as I got the airplane loaded, a friend of the lady mentioned that my passenger had been sick and in the hospital. I didn’t think a lot about it because I was busy and we are usually told if we need additional equipment like stretchers for the flight.

approaching the island airstrip

When I got to the airport 2 hours away, I discovered my passenger had been brought to the airport in an ambulance and was on an IV. I went and talked to her and she sat up and talked to me. I asked if she could sit up and travel and the medical staff said that she could. They also said that the IV could be removed. So in consultation with aviation personnel at Ukarumpa, who were in contact with medical staff at our clinic, I decided to take her to Ukarumpa.

We started on our way, but we needed to get fuel at another location before heading to Ukarumpa. After the 36 minute flight to get to the fuel location, my passenger was barely able to speak and had gone into shock.

There was a small medical post at that location, and a nurse helped as we got her out of the airplane and laid her on the ground with feet elevated.

After more consultation with aviation personnel at home base who were communicating regularly with our clinic medical staff, we felt that time was of the essence and that we needed to fly the last leg of the journey, 1 hour 50 minutes to Ukarumpa, as quickly as possible. Apparently, she had more significant health issues than the malaria or dysentery I had assumed she had when I picked her up. I felt the hospital she had just come from would likely not be equipped to deal with her condition. I also realized that we needed to keep her lying down. So I moved the seat around and had her lie down in the airplane. The nurse was willing to accompany us, so I had her sit next to my passenger/patient. When I would look at the lady, she would look up at me and smile. She was pretty stable for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Then I had to start working around some bad weather and her condition worsened quickly at about the same time. Just after getting through the worst of the weather, and with about 20 minutes to go, she died.

Medical staff were waiting on the ground when we landed and they immediately checked her as well, but nothing could be done.

Shortly after she had died, I was struck by the frailty of human life. I mean this person had just passed into eternity and her life on this earth was finished.

Praise God that she knew Christ as her personal Savior and is now in His presence for all eternity. Oh, that all would repent of their sins, trust Christ, and have this same hope.

those grey days

We’re still in the midst of “dry season”, which really means “time-when-it-is-grey-and-misty-but-may-or-may-not-rain”. This makes getting laundry dry on our clothesline a little frustrating. On particularly unpromising looking days I have taken to hanging most of the clothes up on hangers BEFORE I hang them up on the clothesline. It feels like a little more work (especially for Thad’s clothes, which end up in a drawer, not on hangers), but makes taking them OFF the clothesline a bit more speedy if it does actually start to rain…and quick to put back out again when the rain stops!

Thad's clothes-mostly on hangers-on the clothesline

Reading with Daddy

Thad has been getting a lot more snuggly lately with us and his stuffed animals and is even becoming willing to sit still for short periods of time. We’re enjoying this new side of him!

Thad snuggling ON his teddy bear

On Sunday as Jamie was sitting on the couch reading, Thad climbed up beside him. But instead of climbing all over Jamie or trying to take away his book, when Thad was offered a book to look at, he sat quietly next to his Daddy looking at his own book…even seemed to be reading it aloud—though it was a picture book where we just usually talk about the pictures that are on the different pages! He sat happily there for at least 10 minutes! So cute!

Thad reading with Daddy