Over the last year our blog has been pretty quiet.
I've thought I would probably just close our blog down because it seems like I just can't keep up with it and everyone seems to be on Facebook these days, so it may not interest anyone anymore. BUT the other day I was reading a book and the author said, (in my words) "List the things that are taking away from your life and drawing you away from the life you want to live." She went on to say, "Now list the things that are really important to you, even if you're not doing them right now. List the things that you really really wish you had time to do."
One of the things on my list of really, really wanting to do was our blog. I enjoy writing and putting pictures on here, even if no one looks at them. :) I enjoy sitting with the kids in the evening and scrolling through the pages here and hearing them get excited about remembering the memories we've made.
I'm not alway very vocal on here, but sometimes I am and that helps me. :) And right now I think it will be a good outlet for me to blog again.
So I'm laying other things aside that aren't as high on my priority list and making time for our blog again.
I'm not even going to try to catch up on what all has happened in the last year. If you're reading this, you probably already know what our life has been like, but here is a little "overview" of what our first days in Guatemala were like.
January 2nd, found us scared to death and excited beyond words as we arrived at the Tulsa International Airport at 5:00 in the morning. We were running on adrenaline and 2 hours of sleep. ;) We were SO thankful to have our parents at the airport with us to see us off.
When we arrived in Guatemala City, we were met by the Rickenbacks who are the missionaries we are working with. They took us to eat and then to the apartment in the City. That night Kristyn and Megan got very sick. Megan was more sick than Kristyn and we were a bit worried for her as she couldn't keep anything down. The next day they were still sick and we had to go grocery shopping before we headed out to our home in Jalapa. Mrs. Rickenback offered to keep the girls at the apartment so we could go shopping.
During our last shopping stop Keith started getting sick and was sick for the rest of the afternoon and night. It was one of those times that we knew the devil was fighting. That night I laid in bed and looked up promises that God had given us over the last year. I needed to claim those promises that night that God WAS looking out for us and not doubt that He had called us here.
We weren't really sure what to expect, but Guatemala City was not what we thought a "foreign country" would be like. There are a lot of fast food places, Walmart and malls.....
But then you see places like this and it smacks you right in the face that you are not in the good ole US of A anymore.
FINALLY, on Sunday we were headed for our new home in Jalapa! It was exciting to actually be going "home" even though we had never been there before. The kids sang for most of the 3 hour drive. There is a stretch of road that is 40 kilometers and has around 300 curves. Megan still wasn't fully recovered yet, but she did well on the trip.
Guatemala is a very beautiful country and our drive from Guatemala City to Jalapa was so pretty.
We reached Jalapa and immediately claustrophobic feelings started to settle in. :) It may be a two lane street, but there's three or four lanes of traffic. Cars, motor cycles, motor taxi's, street dogs and people are everywhere. Tall buildings all joined together line the streets for as far as the eye can see. Horns honking, dogs barking, buses blaring air horns and blowing black smoke, people shouting, fire works blasting, roosters crowing, the list could go on. That was a real dose of reality: This is where we're going to be living.
Then we turn down a narrow, cobble stone street and Keith says, "I think we're home"
Sigh...."home"!
A new place to call ours and make memories.
The picture below was taken from the school roof. The first yard (with all the flowers) is the Rickenbacks yard. Our yard is over the next wall (with the banana trees in the corner). Our little yard is surrounded by a 10 foot wall with razor wire on top. In the front of our house, there is a one room library and teacher office and then a medal gate that goes out into the street, and all this inside the walls. (I hope to do a post on our house soon)
The very next morning at 8:00, Keith had his first staff meeting. It was a little intimidating, but the staff welcomed him with open arms (literally - they hug a lot here) and smiling faces. :)
That first week, Kristyn made fast friends with Maylein. Her mama cleans the school so she was over across the street most days and Kristyn loves go play with her. That's a huge help for Kristyn to have a friend.
This is the school's play set, but the kids have sure enjoyed it being in our yard until they get a place for it to be at the school yard.
Outside of our back wall is a drop off down to a river. They have 32 steps down and grass planted at the bottom for the school kids to play. Our kids enjoyed exploring those first few days.
Mikah is a fellow missionary lady that lives here and immediately became part of our family. She helped us with finding stores and would interrupt for us when needed. Over the last few months her friendship has been a big blessing to our family.
We have adjusted well, I guess, for being first-time missionaries. The hardest days we have are Sunday's. We go to Sunday School and church, but can't understand anything that is being said. People try to talk to us and all we can do is smile and shake their hand. We are trying hard to learn Spanish, but it's coming slow it seems.
But we are very thankful for our church. I remember the first Sunday we were here, everything seemed so strange and foreign to me and as I sat there a lady got up and led the congregation in quoting the 23rd Psalm.
Psalm 23
The Lord is MY shepherd I shall not want
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
He leadeth me beside the still waters
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name sake.
Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemy
Thou anoints my head with oil my cup runneth over
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Salmos 23
El Señor es mi pastor,
Nada me faltará.
En lugares de verdes pastos me hace descansar;
Junto a aguas de reposo me conduce.
El restaura mi alma;
Me guía por senderos de justicia
Por amor de Su nombre.
Aunque pase por el valle de sombra de muerte,
No temeré mal alguno, porque Tú estás conmigo;
Tu vara y Tu cayadome infunden aliento.
Tú preparas mesadelante de mí en presencia de mis enemigos;
Has ungido mi cabeza con aceite;
Mi copa está rebosando.
Ciertamente el bien y la misericordia me seguirán todos los días de mi vida,
Y en la casa del Señormoraré por largos días.
That was a beautiful sound to my ears and the tears flowed freely. This Psalm meant more to me that day than it ever had before.
God is so good to us! Of course there are hard times. There are things that we don't understand and have our heads spinning. Some things are too deep for us to comprehend and then some things we wonder how in the world will work out, but at the end of the day we can rest our heads and say, "He's been good to us"
It's very humbling to think that God would choose our little family to be missionaries, to live in another country, to share our struggles and happiness with people of a different language and culture, to share Jesus with someone that has never heard of Him before. It's an honor to have been chosen for this mission and we know we are here for such a time as this.
We stumble and get back up and then stumble again, but God is always faithful!
This is a lot more "wordy" than my normal posts, but I want to remember this. I want to remember these feelings and remember these first days.
If you are here, thank you for having an interest in our life. We love hearing from our friends and even if you don't know us personally, we'd love to hear from you. We welcome comments. :)
Look for more posts to come, Lord willing.
