September Happenings

We haven't posted since the beginning of May...I think that might be a record!

We have been back in Honduras for 7 weeks, and the time has flown by!  My allergies hit the day we got back, and then I later got a cold, so I have spent a lot of time recovering, as well as we've all had to adjust back into a new routine. 

Kyle
Kyle is nearly done with his Master's Degree!  He only has 2 classes plus an internship (which is also his job) left, and then he will graduate in December.  It has been an easier semester so far, but I think we will all be very relieved to have him done.  He has gone back to work full time, and is again in charge of all sports and other events.  He usually stays at work a couple extra hours each day working on his classes so that most nights he doesn't have to study at home.  Tomorrow he will take a bus to San Pedro Sula for an Athletic Director's meeting, and then this coming Wednesday-Saturday he will return for the annual track & field meet.  He has had to take on a job this year with the local association of athletic directors, which will involve working on some Saturdays.

His youth group is doing well.  Kyle has started reading the book Clean with the boys and the girls are doing a different book study.  They are also hoping to have some fund raisers in the upcoming months in order to pay for their yearly service project and retreat.

Melodee
I have been working on making some changes/additions to the Honduran Fellowship website, to make it look a little more professional.  We're also working on creating a place where we can have password protected files that only our members will have access to.  We also have a number of events during the months of October & November that we are hosting or co-hosting: singles mini-retreat, Living in Your Strengths workshops, General Assembly, etc...  Outside of my work for the HFMM, I still attend my Tuesday morning ladies Bible Study (working our way through Judah & Israel's kings, currently just before the exile) and we are hosting our Thursday evening Bible Study at our house (it is better to be able to have Juliana in bed on time).  I have also been meeting with the 2 other stay-at-home moms at school once a week...one has a new baby and is homeschooling her two older boys, and the other is new to Honduras and has 4 kids, 2 not yet in school.  We get together to sit and encourage each other for an hour an a half each Wednesday morning while the kids get to play.

Juliana
Juliana has started Pre-Kinder!  She goes from 7:30-2:30, 5 days a week and it has been a VERY rough start.  Many days she wakes up a cries and has temper tantrums until she leaves for school (after sleeping almost 11 hours every night).  Yesterday it was so bad that we put her back to bed until 9 am and then took her to school.  Starting school for the first time is hard for anyone, but she is the only English speaker in her class.  All Pre-K classes are in both English & Spanish, except Bible with is only in Spanish.  She adores both her teacher and the assistant, and has made a few friends, but can't really communicate with any of the other kids and comes home completely exhausted.  I was able to talk to her teacher when I dropped her off yesterday, and hopefully we'll be able to work with the school counselor to help her adjust better. 

Levi
Levi is loving all of the attention he gets as the only child home on school days!  He can be a pretty crazy boy some days.  Our nanny has been trying to teach him some words in Spanish.  So far, he really hasn't had the desire to say any words other than Mama, Dada, and Nana...but he does express his desires very well nonetheless using sign language, pointing, and boy noises.  This week however, he started saying a few words...ba (for both ball and bus), da (dog) and I think there's been a few other words that I can't remember.  Then today, he started saying some of the words that Iris has been trying to teach him awa (agua), torrrrrta (tortilla), and zapato (although I never actually heard that one). 

We have rain!

Almost exactly a week after I blogged the last time it finally rained!  And it was a very big storm with lots of lightening and thunder.  I had thought it looked like it might rain, but took the kids to school and we barely made it into the gym when it started pouring!  It hasn't rained every day, and the plague of flying termites hasn't appeared yet, so I'm not sure if we're in the rainy season or not...but its enough that the smoke is gone from El Hatillo.

Also, after I posted the last time our church had a baptism and church picnic at a nearby lake some private property that belongs to the father of someone in our church.  Thirteen people ended up getting baptized...a huge number considering how small our church is.  Other than the flies that swarmed during lunch it was a great day.  Nice to get out of the city for a few hours.  Kyle was not able to go since he was gone for the volleyball tournament, but me and the kids had a lot of fun.  Here's a few pictures from that day.

Speaking of Kyle, he is currently working on his final week of classes for the semester!  He will then have the summer off and begin the last year of classes in August.  He has huge amounts of reading to do this week, then a 2 or 3 hour test to do over the reading.  He hasn't done well on the other big tests, so pray that this one will be better.

I have been very busy lately working on things for the Honduran Fellowship.  Last week we changed some of our job titles, and rearranged some of our tasks.  This week our "homework" was to write out procedures for how to do each of our duties.  I finished my 10 or so pages this afternoon while the kids napped.  This morning I also had to go and renew my driver's license.  Licenses here are only given for the amount of time that you have residency.  Since my residency is renewed on a yearly basis, I am also required to renew my driver's license every year around the same time.  Before you are able to renew the license you have to go into a little shack outside and pay for a medical and eye exam...which consists of reading 3 lines of letters and getting your blood pressure checked.  This year they also added a psychological exam...which you must also pay for :)  I walked into this little tiny room crammed with desks and was handed a packet with 50-60 questions in it all in Spanish.  The first 40 questions or so were basically an IQ test.  The next section was questions about how you would feel if you arrived late to an event, or how you would feel if someone arrived at a party badly dressed.  And the final section asked if you knew the day, date, year, season, what floor of the building you were on, etc...  Someone had told us yesterday that the test wouldn't be a problem.    But once I opened the packet and realized how long it was (and how bad the copies were---some questions were impossible to see the entire thing) I was a little worried I might fail the psych exam :)  Apparently I worried Kyle because I was in there so long...I had put my phone on vibrate and I could feel it vibrating in my purse over and over and over.  When I walked out of the test I had 5 missed calls and 2 texts from him asking where I was and if I was ok.  But most of the other people taking the test were in there for longer than I was, so I think it is normal to take awhile on it.

The kids are their normal crazy selves.  Levi likes to go outside and talk to the birds, and wants to be wherever his big sister is, doing whatever she is doing.  Juliana has been saying and doing some pretty funny things lately.  At dinner she told us, "I wish mommies could just take care of kids and let them do whatever they want to". After she dinner she asked "why do I call you mommy?"  And yesterday she asked for a pair of scissors so she could cut out a parable.  Apparently in Sunday School she learned that a parable is a "rectangle with a little topper".  I think they've been learning about Jesus' parables, but I'm not sure how that fit with the story of the Good Shepherd :)

Praying for rain...

In Honduras we don't have 4 seasons---we have 2--rainy season and dry season.  Rainy season is from the beginning of May to the end of January.  Dry season is the rest of the year--and is definitely my favorite time of year.  I love the warmth and sunshine, and because our school is so good to us we haven't had to worry as much about the water rationing that affects so many people.  And its also our anniversary, and Easter, and usually we get to go on a short trip to the beach for a couple of nights to rejuvenate before heading into the last month or 2 of school.  And for the first time, I have a real clothes line, with 2 poles and 3 lines strung nicely  in between.  In the past Kyle has tied up make-shift clothes lines between trees, and cement walls, and bars on windows...and they aren't always at a height that I can easily reach without standing on something.  So its been a huge blessing this year to be able to save a little money on electricity and hang out almost all the laundry to dry...especially since Levi has been wearing cloth diapers this year and its better for them to hang in the sun.

That said, the end of April  is my least favorite time of year.  Its when the fires take over.  Traditionally it doesn't rain from April till May 3rd...I'm not sure how scientific it is, but May 3rd is the day that the rains are "supposed" to start.  But by the end of April almost all the grass and leaves on the trees are dead.  So people start "controlled" fires to clean out fields because its the easiest way and it add nutrients to the ground.  And often these fires get out of control.  Other times, the forests burn for whatever reason.  Either way, during April the mountains and forests burn and the city below gets covered in a thick layer of smoke. 

And looks something like this...

For much of the month we aren't too affected by it because we live higher than the layer of smoke.  But once the fires start on our mountain the smoke takes over El Hatillo.  According to the newspaper, there have been 5 fires in the last 4 days (3 major) that have burned 1000 hectares (a hectare is equal to 2.47 acres).  Two of the major fires and 1 minor are burning in our area.  Our house is not in danger but there is ash falling everywhere, it burns your eyes and throat to spend much time outside, and the sun hasn't made it through the smoke in the last couple days.  I've tried to keep the windows closed as much as possible, but Levi has gotten a cough and runny nose that I'm pretty sure is from the smoke.

A friend who lives in the city took a picture of our mountain last night.
There's also a bigger fire that is further up the mountain than us.

So although I'm not quite ready for the end of the cloudless, sunshine filled days, I am ready for the rains to come soon to stop the fires and smoke.

Catch up...

So I've been telling myself that I should update the blog since probably Thanksgiving...and now it's the end of January.  Sigh.  Let's see...I've missed Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Juliana's birthday, just to name a few of the big events.  If I catch you up on everything you'll probably be reading all night :)  So I'll try to make it brief...

Christmas & New Years
We celebrated the holidays here again and had a lot of nice, restful time with friends and as a family.  We attended a number of dinners, a birthday party among other things.  The weather was beautiful most of the time, and since the kids got a sandbox for Christmas, they spent a lot of time playing outside.  Most of the teachers left for Christmas, so it was very quiet around our house, which was a nice change.  Kyle also had a month off from his grad school classes, which was GREAT!  The last quarter was really rough and we were all pretty burned out from all the work he had to do.

For me the best part was planning a service project with Kyle's youth group at a low-cost daycare for kids of single working moms, run by a family in our church.  I had wanted to do something to teach our kids about giving in a way that they (at least Juliana for now) could understand, and was talking about it with a couple friends of mine.  We came up with an idea and Kyle wanted to get his youth group involved.  We bought gifts for 21 kids and 3 workers, went to the daycare on their last day before Christmas, and got to sing songs with them, play games, eat a snack, and hand out the gifts.  The youth took on leadership roles (all on their own!) and everyone had a great time.  Juliana got pretty shy, and had just started warming up not long before it was time to go, but I think the more she's involved in projects like this the easier it will be for her.



 
 Juliana's 4th Birthday
Juliana always has big parties.  And every year when planning her next party I try to get her to invite a few less people.  And every year she has more and more people that she wants to invite.  In fact, she has so many people from school and church that she wants to invite, that I'm afraid I'll just be leaving out 1 or 2 people accidently.  So this year I basically just opened it up to anybody and everybody who wanted to come, and made it a Grilled Cheese Potluck.  Good thing we have a bigger house this year, because I believe we had 61 people who came!  It was crazy, but she loved every minute of it.  Her cardboard kitchen that we had given her for her 2nd birthday was completely worn out, so I started looking for a used plastic kitchen in October or November and had it hiding in the closet.


My silly 4 year old

and her huge crazy party!

The kitchen (as well as the rest of her new gifts) is getting a lot
of love from both kids as well as several of Nana's friends.
 

Juliana is getting to be such a big girl (not really in size, more in how much she's learning)!  She can be really helpful and a very loving sister.  She has a sight words video and placemat that she watches on occasion (maybe once every 3-4 months) and the other day when she was using her placemat at dinner she started "reading" about half the words!  Both Kyle and I were shocked!  She's also figured out how to ride her bicycle by herself...although she has trouble steering and falls off the sidewalk sometimes. :)  AND she has finally stopped wetting the bed at night!  It would only happen occasionally before and only when we would forget and let her drink too much in the evenings.  Now, she calls me during the night to have me take her to the bathroom!  The downside is that she calls me almost every night, but at least she goes right back to sleep and no more washing all of her bedding :)

Hardly anyone was around at Christmas so I let her go ride
her bike in her jammies :)

Levi
My big boy can walk!  Actually he still prefers to crawl and climb, and if you try to get him to walk he'll more than likely give you a big grin and a laugh and sit down.  But at least he's able to walk.  And it was at Bible Study with about 15 people cheering for him, so it was memorable and perfect.  And when he thinks no one is watching he'll stand up on his own and balance and bob up and down on his own.  He's got 9 teeth and a 4th molar is trying to push it's way through.  He has gotten very jealous of his favorite people, especially mommy...and he doesn't like it when anyone gets too close (especially in the evenings when Nana wants to cuddle).  He wishes he was a bigger boy than he actually is, and gets pretty upset when Nana gets to play with friends and he can't go.  He likes to babble a lot, but I'm pretty sure the only word he says in correct context is "Hola".  At least he likes to pick up my phone, put it to his ear, and almost always says something that sounds an awful lot like hola :)  But I'm sure he understands a lot more...whenever he wants something and I'm trying to guess what he wants, he claps his hands if I say the right thing.  He can FINALLY drink out of a bottle!  Only a bunch of months too late, when he should be drinking from a sippy cup instead of a bottle...but he loves loves it, and he loves to drink warm milk from it, so for now we'll allow it.  AND he will still only nap in his swing.  I've started trying to transition  him to the crib (he sleeps there at night, you'd think it wouldn't be a problem!) but he sleeps so much better and longer in the swing...and having a whole hour after lunch when he's sleeping and Juliana's in bed looking at books is just a REALLY nice luxury.

Kyle
Kyle started his next semester of grad school about 10 days ago.  His 2 classes this quarter are Ethics in Sport and something about sports and law.  Yuck!  So far there's been a LOT of reading.  He's already had a few nights that he's been up till 1 am or much later trying to finish his work.  He even asked me to buy some coffee to keep in the house (we've never owned coffee or a coffee maker since we've been married). 

Melodee
I've been spending a lot of time working for the Honduran Fellowship.  The Mattica's found an office to rent the end of October and moved into it in November.  Around the same time, a guy who used to go to our church (still goes to the church, just one of the Spanish services) emailed John and asked if he knew of any ministries needing a Honduran volunteer.  John had been praying for a couple years probably for an assistant, and JuanJo was PERFECT for the job.  He spends a lot of time at immigration and running errands for John.  So this past Friday we had our first staff meeting, in the office, with all 5 of us! (We also have a Director of Member Care)  I believe we will be having regular meetings for the next couple of months as we are working on planning our yearly retreat.  It's a free 3 1/2 day retreat for missionaries within the Honduran Fellowship, and we can fit about 150 people.  We opened registration almost 2 weeks ago and already have 143 people registered.  I'm also working on changing a bunch of things on the website, and the company who designed it originally is adding our new logo to it and making it more modern looking.  We often have 2-3 missionaries a day apply to be members, so its growing VERY quickly.  This week we realized that almost all of our members have only been members  since 2009 or later so we're definitely attracting a lot of new missionaries.

Time to go make dinner--we have bible study right after supper!  Hope this wasn't too long :)

If my house were on fire...

...and my family was safe, and I could only take one thing with me...What would it be?  Right now, it would most definitely be this swing!

 

 

 

Levi sleeps fine in his bed at night, but at naptimes, he will only sleep in the car or this swing.  I've tried everything, and its miserable for everyone in the house...and he will never go to sleep.  Put him in his swing, and he's asleep within a couple minutes.  And for now, I'm ok with that.  Because on days like today when Kyle leaves the house by 7 am and very likely won't be home till 10 pm...it means the kids and I can actually have a good day :) 

The last couple weeks have been extremely busy for us...Kyle is in his 3rd week of his second quarter of classes.  And these classes are A LOT of work.  He thought he was busy last quarter, but it was nothing compared to this quarter!  On top of his 200 pages or so of reading to do this week, he also has papers to write and projects to work on.  AND this week is the national basketball tournament.  Thankfully it is in Tegucigalpa, but it means he leaves the house early, comes back late, and squeezes in his work in any spare minute he can find.

The kids and I had a battle with head lice this past weekend...which meant 10 or more loads of laundry, stinky lice shampoo, a few different home remedies, and hours spent combing out hair.  There's been no sign of lice or nits since Monday, so I'm PRAYING there will be no relapses.  I have however become an expert in locating Honduran head lice and nits...and yes there is apparently a difference between American head lice and Honduran head lice.

On a much happier note, the Honduran Fellowship has rented their first office and has a new assistant...all in the same week!  Both of these were most definitely God-sent and are both perfect fits for the HFMM.  The office won't really affect my job...I will still do my work from home.

The office is in the tower on the right, on the 9th floor.

And Levi is now 1!  We had a very fun birthday party for him with a bunch of our friends from church and school.  I think he enjoyed the party, and he definitely loves all of his new toys :)  He isn't walking yet, but will soon I think...but he climbs stairs.  Entire flights of tile stairs, all by himself.

Juliana is quickly learning Spanish from our nanny, and she's had friends over a few times to play.  Her and her friends like to take her Dora house to the back porch and spend hours playing there.  She was also invited to a birthday party last Saturday and actually made a friend :)  She's been to birthday parties before and always gets very shy and plays by herself...basically she goes for the snacks and candy...But this time she actually understood enough of what was going on to have fun.  She's still talking about her new friend, Olivia.

Busy 2 Months

Its taken me awhile to get around to updating the blog...My intention was to keep it updated at least every month, if not every week.  But every time I sit down to do it, there's too much to write and I don't know where to start.

 

Family

Its been busy since we got back to Honduras 2 months ago.  It took awhile to get resettled back into our house and routine.  The kids and I have been sick 3 times each...usually Juliana gets sick, gives it to Levi, and then I get it (Levi’s getting over a double ear infection right now).  I also cut my thumb pretty badly in September and had to get 6 stitches.  The stitches are out and the scabs have started to come off and it doesn’t look too badly, but its pretty numb.  Its hard for me to write or do much with my right thumb.

 

 

Juliana

This year Juliana has 5 elementary aged kids that live in 2 neighboring houses that she likes to play with when they come home from school.  Its the first time that I've been able to just send her outside to play on her own.  It is a little different for me (and sometimes a little frustrating) to have a bunch of dirty kids running through my recently cleaned house, but I try to remind myself that we're very blessed to have neighbor kids and a safe area for them to run free and play.  Our church recently started a "Li'l Ones" sunday school class for 3-4 year olds (and added in the 5 & 6 year olds as well), which she is loving!  They study the same story and bible verse for a month...this study they were learning about creation.  I love all the things she is learning and the funny things she comes home saying :)

 

 

 

 

Levi

 

Levi crawls everywhere, gets into all the cupboards, makes funny faces at everyone, and will be walking in the next couple months.  He got 4 top teeth within 3 weeks of getting back here, for a total of 6 teeth.  I can't believe he will turn 1 in just 2 weeks!  I've been busy planning a train birthday party for him.  We'll have a bunch of friends from church and school over for snacks, cake, and a piñata.  We have a 5 day trip planned (for the school track meet) right before his party, so I'm trying to have as much as I can ready before we leave.

 

 

 

Melodee 

I’ve had an overwhelming number of computers to fix for staff at the school, and the Honduran Fellowship website has needed a lot of updating.  Between all this work, a lot of sickness, and a hurt thumb, I've needed a little extra help.  We needed to hire a new nanny this year to take care of the kids on Tuesdays, and since she was looking for another day of work each week, she also comes on Thursdays.  So far it has been wonderful!  She is the first nanny that the kids have actually liked.  She spends the day on Tuesday playing with them and teaching Juliana Spanish.  On Thursday she comes to help me clean the house & wash laundry and diapers.  Or if I have a meeting or computer to work on she keeps the kids busy for awhile.  Juliana asks every morning if Iris is coming to play with her, and Levi threw a fit when she left today (So she came back and played with him an extra 20 minutes...and then he threw a bigger fit when she really left :).  It makes it easier when I need to leave the kids, gives me time to get some work done, and I don't feel guilty that the kids are feeling neglected.  Its also helped Levi become accustomed to being held by other people...he got pretty clingy towards the end of the summer and didn't want to be left in the nursery at church or taken care of by anyone else.  He's  definitely gotten better the last month and will let most people hold him...at least for a little while.

 

Kyle

Kyle started on his master’s degree a week after we returned to Honduras...he says its a lot more time consuming & work than he expected.  This is the 8th week (and end of the first quarter).  He’ll have next week off and then he starts the 2nd quarter.  Its a lot of reading (he told me this is the first time he’s done every bit of the reading for a class 😊) and MANY papers to write, but he’s really enjoying the classes and doing well. 

 

At work he has a few events coming up in the next couple weeks--a planning trip/meetings in San Pedro this Saturday, the track meet in San Pedro the following week (which we will all go for), and then Family Game Day at school the weekend after that.  Family Game Day is a yearly event where our basketball  teams come and play against teachers, alumni, other students, and their parents.  During the last couple games Kyle has started a "Balls & Dolls toss" where the audience tosses balls & dolls onto the court during the first free throw.  Then all the toys are collected, I wrap/gift bag them later, and then a school or hospital is chosen and the students take them to give away right before Christmas.  The first couple years its been a little slow to catch on....so I'm praying that this year the students and families will really want to take part and bring lots of balls & dolls to throw.

 

Kyle's also still enjoying leading the youth group at church...they are currently answering their "tough questions" that they worked on over the summer.  He'd also like to plan a weekend event (retreat or something similar) to help the youth bond and really become a group.

 

Hope everyone is doing well.  We loved being able to see so many of you this summer and are still so thankful for how you've all blessed us.

 

Love,  Melodee, Kyle, Juliana, and Levi

Heading back

Well I should have written this post weeks ago, but its just been too good of a summer!  We have had an amazing 7 weeks spending time with friends and family, and we've seen God's faithfulness every step of the way.  Its been hard saying goodbye at each of the places we've been, but at the same time we're ready to head home and get back to work.

Since I left this for last minute :) here's just a quick run-through of some of the things we've done and places we've been.

First we were in Nebraska for about 3 weeks.  We were able to go to a family reunion and a cousin's wedding reception, visit great-grand parents, aunts & uncles & cousins, see Seussical the Musical, go to the playground and splashy parks a few times, and spend lots of time with Grammy and Bippa.  LOTS of time spent in the car, but it was worth it to see everyone.

 

 

 After we left Nebraska, we flew to Hawaii.  We were able to spend the first week with Kyle's sister and her family.  I think the kids were excited to spend time with their cousins :)  Kyle's grandpa also came for 2 1/2 weeks...it was his first time meeting his 4 great-grandchildren.

 

A trip to the aquarium all together

We went to see the Battleship Missouri with Kyle's dad & grandpa.  The Missouri is where the documents were signed at the end of WW2. 

We also got to spend time with some of Kyle's friends and their families.  A great time had by all...I think :)

As some of you know, in addition to spending time with family and friends, Kyle and I were raising some support.  In all honesty, at the start of the summer, it seemed like a huge amount that we'd never reach.  Over the last 7 weeks we've  been amazed at how God has worked.  We haven't  raised all of the needed amount, but we are close enough that we feel more confident in the direction that we felt God leading us.  It will mean some changes (and extra busy-ness) over the next couple years, but I think it'll be good too.

Ok, time to load up the suitcases and run a last couple errands.  Our plane leaves at 3:20 this afternoon, and we arrive in Honduras around lunch time on Thursday.  Looking forward to a new year!