Catching Up

Belcarra Park

I thought Caleb was the only mountain goat in the family.

Celebrating Mike's Bday with a few more days in Vancouver

Ben loves water, expecially falls

Karis, Ben and I went to Bridal Falls while the other two took the trailer for the biker church.

Here's Ben and Karis at the bottom of the falls.

Lily Pad Lake!

Happy fisherman getting his gear ready

bird

Caleb chipped his front tooth in a scooter trick gone wrong the second full day in Africa.

Chicken and Fry night is back!

Potato Chefs

Ben knows how to carry his liquids in carry ons.

Last picture in Vancouver

I guess it's time for a little catch up. As I mentioned last time Mike hurt his knee a few days before our departure date and we did indeed receive a 2 week 1 day delay in our return for him to get physical therapy. Thanks to your prayers, the injury wasn't as significant as first thought. I think it is entirely possible that miraculous healing took place as all of the physicians were thinking it was BAD! What was found on the MRI was not nearly as bad as first thought. We are all glad to now be on the field instead in line for surgery somewhere!

While in Canada for the extra weeks, we moved to a different house to save the company some money and so our internet was off and on for that time. Here is a little run down of some of our adventures.

Caleb convinced a colleague with a vehicle to help him get his fishing license, which we'd tried to do earlier, but were unsuccessful. The laws were tricky and finding some place that could actually print a license was quite time consuming. Armed with his new fishing license and later on a new pole, we tromped here and there so that he could use it. One such adventure was at my expense and chronicles how many of my adventures, or misadventures as may be more suiting a name, go. I'd worked all day with the kids of a new group of colleagues coming to Vancouver and upon arriving home, found Caleb chomping at the bit to fish. I quickly made supper and then phoned a friend that had said she would be heading out and could drop us off at a lake. Unfortunately, I called too late and she was already gone. So Caleb, Karis, Ben and I headed out for the bus. We had just missed it and so had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. Upon finally arriving at the location the computer directions had told me to get off the bus, there was no lake in sight. So we started walking after a good 10 minutes, we found a sign for the lake. As we tromp off into the woods, still not seeing a lake, we hike for another 20 minutes and FINALLY we see the lake. Please remember we have a 21 month, and not too keen on hiking, in tow! So we get there to a small dock and for about 50 yards out the lake is all lily pads. It's now approaching 8:15 PM and Caleb is trying to get his rod ready to throw out. I am no help at that as I haven't done too much fishing myself. I'm trying to keep Ben amused so he doesn't fall in the lake, but he is tired and cranky by this time. He picks up Caleb's tackle box, which I figure is OK because it's latched, and quickly heads to the edge of the dock and chucks it as far into the water as he can. Horrified, Caleb runs over and is prepared to jump in if he can't fish it out as his grandfather gave it to him. Fortunately he gets the tackle box out with the rod as it continued to float for a few minutes. Now it is nearly 8:30 and Caleb is just starting to fish. He can't get the line out beyond the lily pads and loses one piece of bait after another casting, getting stuck, pulling the line out and starting all over. By close to 9 we've all had it, dark is approaching and we still have to hike out to the bus stop. Nobody is in a good mood at this point and Caleb is sure he knows a better way out to catch the bus. So we try it. After 30 minutes we finally hit the road just to see our bus pass us. Not good, but there is another bus on that road so we still have hope at this point. We hike/jog along the road for nearly half a mile trying to find the bus stop. Just as it comes into view, the second bus passes us!!! So now, it is really late. The two buses have just gone by and we are really tired both from the hour of the day and from all of that walking. We have to wait over 20 minutes for the next bus, and everyone was so glad for that day to be over, that Caleb didn't ask me to take him fishing the rest of the time we were there!!

We caught a few more provincial parks while we were there the extra time. Mike and Caleb got to help a Biker church get their trailer to a big rally called Sturgis North. We also got to dogsit for a colleague so our kids are ever so anxious to get their own dog back now.

When we were cleared for travel, there were no good tickets available. We were offered a ticket that would have us traveling the wrong way around the world to get to Africa with three days travel or a ticket way in the future. Since we have a volunteer coming the first week of August, we didn't want to wait and come just before him, so decided to go the torturous 3 day option. Everyone did fairly well on the trip, but we have all hope to never to do that again.

Now we are back in our old house. Thanks to the help of a national, we had most of our belongings back in place in just two days. There are still a few boxes to unpack, but we covered a lot of ground in a little time. We are beginning to catch up with a few friends. We hope to see so many more this week. We are already hearing terrible tails of the trials they've suffered in our absence. I'll have more of how God answered your prayers of protection for them in the coming days and weeks.

Everyone is so happy to be home. The kids are acting like all of their toys are new and amazing. It is so much fun to see Ben learn about his new environment. He loves the ants and lizards and frogs! Just a blown kiss or a little goodbye wave gets him cheers from the crowds and feeds his baby ego!

I'll be sure to write more soon although our internet is not great right now. We are borrowing from the mission and hope to get our own hooked up soon so that things will move more quickly. Even at that, it won't be as fast as I'm used to. I'll have to learn patience again.

With love,
Heather