Getting Around Belize

We once heard that while living in another country, especially while doing ministry work.. that the most important thing to have, besides direction from the Lord.. is a good running car. We can say AMEN to that! Since late February our van has been growing increasingly ill.. Grady is pretty mechanical and an expert on diagnosing vehicles.. but this one has him a bit stumped. Once he finds out one problem and fixes it, something else becomes problematic or the problem remains.. thankfully most of the parts he has needed have been available here.. but we do have a diagnostic tool coming late next week and yet ANOTHER part which he hopes helps. It is hard to 'go' when you cant go. (if that makes sense!) we have had to cancel some things and change plans as of late. We can pretty much only drive around the Spanish Lookout area and neighboring villages. Sigh

 

 Oh boy! Or should I say Oh Man! Our baby boy is getting to be a man and I no longer can convince he and Daddy that he should never ever grow up. I kept my mouth shut on this day...... :-) I know, incredible. Our friend fulfilled his promise of letting Rye take a ride on his motorcycle

And he's off.. well you know, not literally.. but he's really getting the hang of it!

 

On our way home from taking little Maria to her house, Gracie asked if she could drive the dirt roads. She did great! Yay Gracie! I guess you are growing up too!

 

One morning we found this huge semi truck turning around in our backyard after unloading some bags of fertilizer at the barn..now, if you know our backyard, you may find this almost impossible to belize! :-)  but you've heard me say -' In Belize, It Can Be Done!'

 

The 'workers' clean up the huge broken branch that the semi broke off of the girls swinging tree.. in the background you can see the bags of fertilizer at the barn that they had dropped off..

Once the coast was clear and the big scary semi was out of the yard, the girls had fun playing with the bicycle cart that Grant constructed. This thing is amazing.. he constructed it out of some very strong wood, wheels off of a 24" bike. He even installed a little bench seat for the girls to sit on. Grace chided him for not putting in a seatbelt. He said he would think about it. :-)

Although intended for a bike, Grace and Laura have a fun time pulling one another around the property in it.

The four oldest children have been getting up very early for their own personal Bible Study and a walk. They have really enjoyed spending that special time together. I tell them that they will treasure these days forever. Maybe its been a blessing that we haven't been able to run all over the place for a few weeks. Times together are the best times of all!

Accident!

Now, Grant will be the first to admit that he was going too fast.. and later felt so badly when... they went over uneven ground and both he and Laura flipped over, he over the handle bars and she straight onto her head with her arm bent backwards.. you know *that* cry? Welp, sure enough she had it and I KNEW right away that her arm was broken. Grady and I quietly gathered some things up, told our guests which were at the house that we would have to cut our visit short.. loaded up with the guests and took them to the bus stop.. all the while Laura was mostly screaming which is really unlike her..

 

Ash giving her sissy a goodbye snuggle in the car while we gather up the company and diaper bag, ready for a LOOOOOONG night at the government hospital. After dropping our guests off at their bus stop we decided to head to the medical clinic in Spanish Lookout for their opinion. The nurse at the clinic felt her arm and informed us that yes, there was so much swelling already and that she felt a bump, like her bone had 'buckled' with what she called a probable green stick break. So our options were to have a local lady who does chiropractic wrap it up and let it heal.. or to head to Belmopan for an X ray to see how bad the break was. We didn't want to take the chance of it healing improperly so Grady decided to get an X ray in order to see exactly what was going on with it.  We were a bit concerned about the trip since our car is barely running (our parts should be in late next week from the States!)

We made it into Belmopan, thanks to many prayers and Grady nursing the vehicle which literally died at every intersection and over every speed bump.. and come to find that the only imaging place that we knew of in Belmopan had closed early for the day.. hmm.. well, we spoke with our friend who said that she was pretty sure that the BMP Government hospital had an X ray machine.. so off we sputtered across town to the hospital..

Now, upon first look it didn't really *look* like a hospital.. we had never gone there and hadn't heard the most positive things about it..

Now, this looked more official.. signs and everything.. we must be at the right place

 

It looked clean enough..

 

Thankfully the waiting room seemed pretty empty. We had heard to expect to wait 2- 3 hours just to be seen by the doctor.

We finally were able to meet with the triage nurse and was with the doctor within an hour. The doctor wrote a prescription for an X-ray and we headed over to the emergency side of the hospital

A very nice hospital attendant came with a wheelchair for Laura

 

She was so brave and looked so tiny and cute as he wheeled her off to get her X ray!! :-)

The X ray indeed showed that  Laura had a fracture in one of the bones in her forearm.. the nurse and doctor proceeded to set her up with a temporary cast until we could see the bone specialist who would set it and put her permanent cast on.

She was SUCH a trooper! Didn't cry once through the whole ordeal..

And left the hospital quite proud of her cast and her story. Meanwhile, her brother Grant was suffering back at home.. feeling so badly about the accident. Grace too was very worried about Laura's "casket" and was nervous about seeing her with it. Laura reassured her on the phone on the way home that her "cyst" wasn't that scary looking! :-) Now.... how to manage a toddler for 6 weeks with her right arm broken... eating.. writing and coloring.. dressing, bathing.. sounded a bit daunting.. We prayed that the Lord would let her heal quickly.. for her sake and ours! :-)

Current Things

Lately I have been doing more with my littlest ones in regard to schooling. It has been a blessing to see them blossom and learn. Grace is doing great at reading and Laura knows many words as well and both are learning to decode with great success. In addition we have been trying to integrate more copywork, dictation and lapbooking with the emphasis on nature. It has been fun trying to implement  the Charlotte Mason Method into our schooling. We have heard about it for years and figure that living in such a rich country, full of so many varied flora and fauna.. now is the time to implement it!We are REALLY enjoying the freedom and exploration the children are experiencing. Every outing, walk and trip, whether to the backyard, jungle,  beach or to the city becomes an opportunity to learn.

 We have enjoyed filling the school blackboard with our topic of study, in this case, dragonflies!!

 

This little guy was kind enough to show up this week! We were able to closely examine him in a glass jar. The girls really got a kick out of examining it's compound eyes, thorax, abdomen, head, wings and legs. They had learned all of the parts earlier in the week and were thrilled to see 'up close'

Laura is making great progress in reading

Grace and Mama work on the lapbooks. We took all the work that we had done together on dragonflies and glued it into a file folder. Lapbooking provides a great creative outlet for children and helps reinforce the information by arranging projects and information in an organized folder. It also provides a great little 'book' which they can show off to daddy and other family members.

Grace and Laura love helping Ashley take care of the mama goat and kids

Ryan's favorite past time. If ever anyone asks "Where's Ryan?" we all know to look here first..

While coming down the staircase Ryan spots this lovely specimen (can you see whats on the stick?)

We have literally seen 8 or 9 snakes at our house since arriving this time.. but this was the first fella that was discovered INSIDE! No worries though.. he was only semi venomous! :-)

A travelling produce man sold us this 50 lbs or oranges for $5 U.S! Can you say fresh squeezed O.J.?

Gracie working on her Spanish sticker book that Grandma gifted her with before leaving the States

Mandy has been such a trooper although sadly she is not feeling very well on some days.. we think we have some answers to why.. as we do more research about her condition we would covet your prayers. She would never complain though! What a joyful lamb!

Say CHEESE!! What cuties!

What are you up to Mr. Grant? :-)

Not sure what's going on here.. we have an 'open camera' policy here! Everyone, even Gracie is able to grab the camera and catch important moments.. its fun to look through and see what is on the card. :-)

Now, this photo may not seem very interesting.. unless you know what it is! Mandy perfected a gluten free focaccia bread recipe! By adding B and L and T it made a SCRUMPTIOUS meal!

Here I am Skyping with a very good friend. It has been a great blessing to utilize Skype this time to stay in touch with friends and family. Last time we were in Belize 2011-2012 it was blocked. Since then the restriction has been lifted! My family has to remind me to Skype early though or this is what happens.. I am so sleepy by 9 or so.. probably because of the extreme heat we are currently experiencing. On this particular night, my friend kept chiding me for yawning! :-) I kept assuring her that she was not boring me I was just SOOOOO exhausted!

Good evening Mrs. P! In the background you can see the make shift bunkbed Grady has made for the little girls. Our room is literally the size of a King sized bed plus 12".. so Grady bolted Laura's wooden toddler bed onto posts above Grace's homemade Belizean (by daddy) toddler bed and we now have a toddler sized bunk! Thanks to brother Ryan Laura even has a ladder now too!

 

The other day Grant caught a cute basilisk lizard....

 

Little did he know that later that day they would catch a HUGE iguana! (note the color of Grant's face.. they had been hiking around in the bush in the pasture at our house.. in 104 degree weather, chasing this guy for a half hour in the burning sun.. ) Originally they put this guy in their Hart trap and planned on butchering and eating him.. but then they got attached and didn't have the heart to kill it! LOL.  Rubins.. if only they had found this guy a few weeks ago!!!!!!! :-)

 

 

Goodbye Mr. Lizard! (update on this photo.. this happened 2 days ago and the fellow is still living in our huge cottonwood tree out front. After being let go, he scrambled up the tree and now refuses to move. The boys hope they didn't scare him to death!)

Grady chats with this man who was overseeing some

 work at the neighbors..

 

 

We were amazed at how this excavator just simply drove off the trailer and back onto it after its work was done..meanwhile the entire truck leaned and tipped.. I *knew* it would tip over.. but as the phrase our special friend coined while visiting here says- "In Belize, it CAN be done!"

 

We are loving it here.. we pray that the Lord will be able to change us and use us, broken vessels that we are, for him. . Please be praying for us.