Ezra

Ezra is 18 months old now. I think 18 months has to be my favorite age. Old enough to communicate and interact with the world; too young to talk back. :) Ezra is a doll, still my baby, but every day turning into a little boy. Here are some of his recent goings on....

No, he still doesn't walk. Crawling is much faster and he is very adept at pushing books across the floor, crawling with our cell phones, keys or the TV remote. He also CLIMBS.... he has figured out lately that he can push our ottoman across the floor anywhere and climb up on it... to reach the top shelves of the bookshelf, the top of Brant's desk, you name it.



Papaya... the kid could live off of it. I don't know what we would do if we had to move back to States unexpectedly.

I love this... he's into trying to dress himself lately. Here, he put his bib "on." He actually ate the whole meal, holding the bib on with one hand and eating with the other. :)

Ezra loves to "go" As soon as we tell him we're going he heads off to the shelf by the door where we store our shoes. As fast as he can "shos, shos, shos, shos" and grabs his little shark Robeez. :) Since he got to go on the motorcycle with Brant, he often wears his helmet around the house... can never be too prepared. :)

Ezra sucking his thumb at night.... every time we put him down for nap or bedtime it's the same... he grabs his rag, wads it up and sticks his thumb in his mouth this way. He's still my baby.

Caleb....

....has worn the same outfit every day this week - his "surfing clothes" (little blue tank top and blue shorts with surf boards on them that Gappy sent from Hawaii!) He just keeps pulling them out of the dirty clothes basket each morning... and returning them each evening.

At least it cuts down on laundry!

Scary

Last fall Elijah’s tennis shoes fell apart.... after a year of hard wear one day they had just had enough; the soles fell off and his toes poked through all in one day. So I went to our big box of extra clothes and shoes and discovered to my dismay that despite all my detailed lists and careful shopping last time we were within 3000 miles of WalMart, I had forgotten to get two sizes of little boy tennis shoes... which meant that there were no shoes remotely close to Elijah’s size in the box.

So I trekked off to the “department store” here in town and then proceeded to hit all ten of the shoe stores in the local “mall.” People here have a thing for shoes... there are more shoe stores in the mall than all other types of stores combined. But I couldn’t find a decent pair anywhere. Quality here is crummy to say the least, and prices are expensive for the quality offered.

So I decided to pray about it. Elijah definitely needed some tennis shoes; he had flip flops, but nothing else. About a week later, we had gone to visit a friend and as we were leaving she said “Hey, does Elijah need shoes? I have a pair my son just outgrew that Elijah can have.” She pulled out a cute pair of little brown and navy Nike shoes that fit perfectly and still looked really nice (her son must be easier on his shoes!) I cried and praised the Lord that He was into details of little boy shoes.

And then, I thought, what a great opportunity I had missed to show Elijah God’s faithfulness. I had not told him I was praying about the shoes. I had not given him the chance to pray with me and watch God work. Was I scared that God would let me (and him?) down?

So, today we talked to Elijah about school. He’s supposed to start kindergarten in ten days, but as of yet, we don’t have the money for tuition. We told Elijah the situation and how much money we need and told him we will all be praying that the Lord would provide the money in the next week.

The caveat in this situation is that we’re not sure that the Lord wants him in kindergarten at the MK school. We have all the home school materials already and the logistics of half-day kindergarten would be difficult to swing with only one car - which Brant needs most days for supply buying. WE really want him to be able to go, and HE wants to go, but we’re also open to the idea that maybe the Lord doesn’t want him to go, so maybe the lack of money is the Lord’s way of saying it’s better to homeschool him this year.

Funny thing, this trusting the Lord business. It’s a scary thing to put God to the test in front of your children - definitely a test of your own faith. :) We know the Lord can provide and we want Elijah to see God’s work in providing... but we also know that a “no” answer is also God’s working as well...

Hoop dreams

Yes, even in 3rd world countries there are toy fads. The latest and greatest toy to hit town is the hula hoop. A couple months ago they suddenly appeared EVERYWHERE. They are bright and colorful and I'll admit, if I were a kid, I would think they were pretty cool. It is hard to go into a store without seeing them and lots of kids in our neighborhood have them. A while back, Elijah decided he HAD to have a hula hoop.

We are not the type of people to just go out and buy a toy for our kids just because... they have tons of toys, and I know the boys well enough to know they would not have the faintest clue what to do with a hula hoop nor have the coordination to acutally use one. :) So, we decided to teach Elijah a bit about money and give him opportunities to earn money to buy his own hula hoop.

Trouble is the stupid hoops are EXPENSIVE. I went in the store pictured above (which happens, by the way, to be the only store in town that sells canned refried bean and cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving time) and asked... the hoops were $7 a piece! That may not seem like much, but I know for a fact they are cheaper at WalMart... and considering that the average wage here is $3 a day, I was shocked that so many kids here have them. AND trying to keep Elijah engaged in earning money long enough to save $7 was going to be impossible... so I thought.

Money here is based in 1000 rp bills. 1000 rps equals roughly a dime. We gave Elijah extra jobs to do around the house - sweeping under the dining room table (mainly under Ezra and Caleb's spots!) after meals, wiping the bathroom sink down, helping fold laundry.... he did SUCH a good job. I was really impressed with how careful he was and he was so excited to earn money - we gave him a few 1000 rp bills each job and he kept them in a box.

It's been about 6 weeks since we've began the little project and he is almost able to buy his hoop. He had grand dreams of saving enough money to buy Caleb one too, but I'm afraid the hoop craze will be over before he gets that much. One good thing in the delay is that the prices have come down some... he could get a medium size one now for about $3. The other great benedit from this whole thing is he is SO much more careful around the house... and makes Caleb be too... "Caleb eat your sandwhich over your plate... you're making too many crumbs for me to sweep up." It's given us a better idea of his abillities too; definitley enjoying not having to sweep every day. :)

We're going to take him to buy his hoop this weekend; will post pictures of it. :)

This week

Ezra took his first motorcycle ride with Brant. He LOVED it. He now goes around wearing his helmet.... usually backwards. :)


Caleb "hiding" from me. "Mom, come find me!"


We cut Elijah's hair today... school starts in less than 3 weeks, and he was looking pretty shaggy. We still haven't decided whether or not we're going to put him in the MK school or not. Money is an issue, but so is logistics with it being an afternoon only class. :P One day he is really excited to go to "school with the big kids" and the next day he wants to "do school at home like Jaden" (his friend here in town who will home school kinder this year) So praying for wisdom - fast! :)

Fried chicken

We found this great fried chicken stand on the side of the road. Normally we don't eat a lot of street food, but this place seems clean and it's really good... and cheap! :) Last night was movie night so we sprang $5 for 8 pieces of fried chicken... Ezra loved his drumstick....







Brant and I are doing lots of playing with his fancy camera (mainly so I can teach my journalism students photography this fall!) but also just for fun. So *hopefully* you will be seeing some better quality pics of life here in the coming days.

And... today celebrates 3 years of us leaving America and coming here!!! Very thankful for God's grace the past 3 years....

The beach

There are some great things about living here. One of them is the beach. We live on the coast, but it's not easy to get to the beach; and after living here for a while, I have a new understanding of tropical beaches. Those beautiful calander pictures you see of the palm trees and clear water and empty sandy beaches? They are empty because it's a pain to get to them... and behind all those palm trees are no restuarants, gas stations, or any place to wash your hands or go to the bathroom. Getting to the beach for us involves an hour's drive down a bumpy road then a 20 minute boat ride to the nearest stretch of sandy isolation with no bathrooms. It takes a lot of planning and is definitely a full day trip.

This week we went to the beach with 3 other families.... all with little kids. Elijah was the oldest! It was a lot of fun. Here are some of the highlights.

Elijah with his sand castle. He had help. :)


Caleb and his starfish. There were some really cool neon blue ones, that I didn't get a picture of.


Ezra "talking" - this is a classic look for him these days - lots of noises and pointing. He loved the beach once he got used to the idea of the sand.