Long Time no Blog

Warning: This post will be very long....and maybe boring to some of you. I always write with our parents in mind, because I know they want ALL of the details. :-)

Where to begin.... 2 weeks ago: vacation! Dwight and I left last Saturday night on an overnight bus to Same beach in Esmereldas. We stayed at Isla del Sol, in a little wooden cabana right on the beach. It was rustic but wonderful! I feel like all we did was eat for the 5 days we were there...but that's nothing new. Dwight got to eat shrimp at pretty much every meal, and while I abstained from that....I did enjoy the fresh pineapple smoothies.

Unfortunately we didn't take many pictures...not even one of us together! I feel bad considering it was supposed to be in celebration of our first anniversary. It just seemed like getting the camera out would take more effort than I was willing to put forth. I did manage to read about a novel a day....while Dwight swam in the ocean and made friends with other guests. lol....

Another missionary family- the Barton's- whom we LOVE spending time with- arrived when we had a day and a half left. They have 4 young boys, and it makes us feel like we're back at home with the nephews. :-) We had a blast spending time with them at the end of our trip. I'll try to post a short video of our little "whale-watching" adventure. I use quotations, because there weren't many whales to be watched.

Overall, it was great to get away and relax for a little while! When we got back to Shell we hit the ground running. Patti Sue had received a new little boy, Jhony, who has a large growth on his face and is need of surgery. He's obviously sleeping in this picture, and I wish I had a better one. He is ALWAYS smiling and such a cute baby!Patti Sue left around 5 am Monday morning to take Jhony to the hospital in Quito. Dwight and I moved into her house on Sunday night, and we'll be staying through possibly the 4th of Sept.

WHICH means that we are now the proud (temporary) parents of an almost 4 month old baby boy and 3 10/11 year old girls. I call this birth control.

No....I'm kidding. :-) We've been having a good time. It's just that we had a small group arrive this weekend, so it wasn't like either of our work schedules were minimized. It's work all day and head home to cook dinner. This definitely makes me appreciate working mothers!

Here's a picture of the 3 girls: (L to R) Jessica, Jenifer in the middle and Thalia. They were getting ready to go lift weights...hence the blue and red sticking out from their shirts. :-)

John Paul is growing so fast, and he's pretty cute if I do say so myself. He's talking to me right here. He loves to coo and make noise. Isn't he adorable!?!

So, at this point Jhony is now recovering from his surgery in ICU. The mass is gone from his face, but it's obviously still very swollen. I won't begin to try to explain what all happened during the surgery, b/c it was pretty intense. In layman terms, he has a hole in the upper nasal area, which has allowed brain matter and a lot of fluid to leak down and form this mass. The neurosurgeon removed it, inserted some type of titanium shield where the missing bone is and covered it all with a skin graft.

Patti Sue has been sending updates via email and there are a lot of people praying for this little boy! It was a very intensive surgery, but he's doing great. There are obviously a lot of medical expenses from all of this, so please be praying about that as well. I don't know how long we'll have Jhony with us after all of this.

On another note, we also got a new little 6 month old girl named Fernanda. Here are a couple of pictures of her.... The police brought her to us, and I haven't heard the whole story yet about why she's here.

I wish I could get a better picture of her smiling, because she's a cutie. As soon as the light comes on on my camera, she drops her smile and gets all wide-eyed. lol...

Other than these things, I'm busy preparing for the beginning of school and our teachers' arrival to Ecuador! Dwight and I will go to Quito on the 31st to pick up Alison and Dallas, and we'll be coming back to Shell on the 1st. Melissa, our other teacher, will arrive on the 3rd, and hopefully travel down with Patti Sue.

There is a lot going on right now, but God is good! Thank you for all of the Happy Anniversary wishes. :-)