"New" Clippers, New Hair!

Last week we discovered that Laken's hair was getting a little bit long. Both Logan and I like it when he has longer hair sometimes but he is in a "pretty" stage right now and we felt he looked a little girly! Sadly Logan decided it was time to shave his head!

The process began outside at the picnic table and of course as I am sure any of you know with young children it was a battle in the beginning!

After some coaxing Laken sat still as Logan proceeded to cut off all of his beautiful blonde hair! Oh and yes if you look closely you may notice that these clippers are not your normal clippers. Maybe some of you have used them before. These are hand powered clippers from the 1940's. They have been a dream of my husbands for several years now! He spent hours while we were home in the States searching ebay and other websites for these clippers. He was thrilled when he finally found them and they arrived at his parents house. I on the other hand just laughed to myself and shook my head!

Later that evening I was thinking about Laken's hair cut and Logan's clippers and all the other happenings of the day. Thinking through these things made me appreciate my husband so very much. Logan is different from me in so many good ways! I am typically an inside the box thinker. I want instructions for everything. I want to do things the way everyone else has done things because we know that way works. Not Logan. Logan wants to find things out for himself. Like the clippers, why not use clippers that don't use electricity? Well in my opinion its just easier. We may not have an unlimited supply of power in our future home but we surely have a enough to give the boys a 5 minute hair cut! In Logan's opinion why use clippers that use power when it is just as easy to use ones that don't! 

Logan thinks this way about almost everything in life. Where I would say lets just have a bathtub in our tribal house we know it works because other people have done it, he says yeah that works but wouldn't it be fun to collect stones and build a stone shower? 

More often than not my first thought is, "this could be a disaster!" Yet, time and time again Logan proves to me that just because we aren't doing things the "easy" way or the "normal" way doesn't mean it won't work out (sometimes it doesn't, but for the most part it does!). 

I am so grateful for a husband who loves life and who makes even the most boring every day parts of life an adventure! Like getting a haircut with "old school" clippers!

Looks good to me!

Liam didn't get a hair cut but he is just so cute I had to post a picture!

It's really going to happen!

We woke up early Monday morning excited to leave for the airport. I was much more nervous than I thought I would be. Flying on a small plane with my two children without Logan, CRAZY! I was praying everything would work out! My biggest fear was the boys getting sick. We recently figured out that Logan gets sick because of the elevation (it usually starts on the plane and lasts about 24 hours, the first time he experienced it he passed out on the airplane). All morning I kept picturing the boys puking or passing out while we were in the air and I would have to figure out what to do!!

We arrived at the airport at 7:30 and our flight was suppose to leave at 8:00. For some reason or another that didn't happen and we had to wait around for about and hour and a half. 

After our long wait in the little MAF waiting room our pilot came to meet us and said the plane was ready. The boys were thrilled. We headed out to the plane and climbed in! Liam and I sat in the back.

Laken was thrilled to be the co-pilot! He got to wear a headset and everything. I was a little nervous because Laken is a talker and I knew that he would want to chat with the pilot the whole way and I wouldn't be able to hear their conversations. I warned the pilot and he just laughed. Later I learned that he had a special button he could push so that he couldn't hear anything Laken was saying! Later into the flight the pilot let Laken play his iPad, which Laken was thrilled about!

The views from the air were absolutely breath taking! I had so many emotions running through me that I felt like I was going to explode.

After about an hour the pilot pointed out our airstrip. Its that tiny light green strip of land. This was a huge moment for me. This was what I had been preparing for, for the last 8 years of my life. I was about to land in a remote location and meet the people that we are going to have a ministry with. We circled around a few times as the pilot was checking out the airstrip. We were getting closer and closer. I could see the people and their houses. I could see our coworkers house. This was it! The moment I had been waiting for all this time.

Then we landed. It was surreal. I had so many emotions running through me and yet I didn't really feel anything. I was happy to be there and I was excited to meet the people and see our house but for some reason I was expecting more and it wasn't there. The people smiled at me and greeted me and the boys. We shook hands and said "Wah, wah, wah!" 

I wanted so badly to be able to communicate. I wanted the people to like me and I wanted to like them but what do you do? What do you say? How do you act? I knew that I wouldn't be able to communicate. This wasn't my first time experiencing a totally different culture and yet I felt like a deer in headlights for a minute. I finally got a hold of myself and continued to smile and say hello and do the best I could. I was after all so excited to see Logan! 

We began the walk down the airstrip toward the VanRensburg's house. I was still a little bit nervous about the boys reactions to everything. They don't typically like to be touched and carried by others, but this time it was different. By God's grace they seemed to really like the people. Laken was excited to see the kids and Liam even let a little boy carry him. I didn't have the emotional high that I was expecting but God gave me a special gift. My boys loved almost every moment we spent in the tribe. Laken ran down the airstrip like it was already his home. He "talked" to all the little kids and let them put a necklace on him. He was so excited about our new home and wanted to know where his bedroom was going to be! Liam walked around the house saying "hi" to every little kid that was watching him. He even stopped to show someone a bug he found! My heart was full despite my lack of an emotional high!

Logan gave us a tour of our home and I thought to myself "It's really going to happen!" We were really going have ministry with the Dem. We were going to move into this place and be with them every day. WOW!!! I almost couldn't believe it, like I said it truly was surreal! After about half an hour we hiked (I say hiked because the airstrip is WAY steeper than I could have imagined!) our way back up the airstrip to the plane. We boarded the plane and waved goodbye to the people.

The little eight passenger plane took off down the runway and we were off. I could hardly believe what had just happened, it had all happened so quickly! It really was amazing and although it was different than I had expected it is a trip I will NEVER forget!

I was thrilled to have Logan with me on the flight home!

Thankfully the kids didn't get sick going there or coming back.

What does your dream house look like?

Recently Logan got back from a trip into the village where he started building our future home! I am really excited about all the Lord has in store for us over these next few years.....well the rest of our lives I guess! 

As I was thinking about our future home something that I have struggled with for a long time came very apparent to me. It was really an issue for me in the states more than it is here. I have a problem with "house/home envy." Obviously that isn't a real thing but I have it!

When we were back in the US this past year talking to people about their new houses and their new apartments and their new furniture and their new paint job in the kitchen, sometimes I wanted to cry! 

I would dream about having plush carpet in our future living room, painting the kitchen aqua blue, a big comfy couch the whole family could pile on in front of our flat screen TV, a big claw foot bathtub, and lots of soft fluffy pillows on our bed. Then my dreams would come crashing down and I would begin to have nightmares about what my house could possibly be like. Hard wood floors that are uneven, dark dingy wooden walls in the kitchen, no couch-no TV, no bathtub, and pillows but probably not soft and probably not many!

However in all actuality neither the dream nor the nightmare are anywhere near what our home will be like. 

No I won't have my plush carpet, but I will have hard wood floors that my amazing husband carefully laid by hand. 

My kitchen probably won't be aqua blue (although I could do that if I REALLY wanted to but I will probably let that be a dream!) but it will have windows that look out onto a beautiful airstrip where I will be reminded each day of God's amazing creation.

I probably won't have a big comfy couch like the one in my dream (or like the one at my parents house!) but I will have a couch and my boys can climb up on my lap and we can chat about what they learned in school and what adventures they went on in the jungle and even watch a movie on our computer (or maybe a TV, who knows).

We won't have a claw foot bathtub or a bathtub at all (we could but are choosing not to because Logan wants to build a stone shower!) but I am lucky to have a bathroom at all! :-)

Of course we will have pillows on our bed! How silly am I to even think we would have to go without pillows! No they may not be exactly what I would choose if we lived in America but they will be pillows and they will be soft. I probably just won't have as many as in my dreams!

So my actual house won't really resemble my dream house in many ways at all, but in SO MANY ways it will be much better! I am so blessed to have the opportunity to live on the other side of the world and tell people about my great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Honestly who cares what my house looks like. It is all worth just to able to tell one person about Him who has never heard before!

Please pray for Logan as he continues to build our home. Please pray for me to daily be content with the house that I will have. 

Beach Day!

Going to the beach is one of our favorite things to do so when our friends asked if we wanted to spend the day basking in the sun we happily agreed! We had lived on this on this island for nine months before we returned to the U.S. for our home assignment but this was the first time for us to experience this particular beach.

After a long and very bumpy ride in the van we reached the little spot where we could load onto the boat. All 13 of us (6 adults and 7 kids) loaded into a little boat and headed off into the ocean!

After a short ride and much discussion with our boat captain ;-) we made it to a land of beauty! We were able to spend hours swimming, snorkeling, and soaking up some rays!

Israel and Laken LOVE to swim and they never took off their goggles!

My sweet boy Liam! He loves the water too and would just sit in the water and play so content all by himself!

Raquel and Laken having a blast!

Logan went snorkeling and brought back these crazy cool starfish for the boys to play with!

We don't have an underwater camera so I tried to capture a fish just looking into the water. If you look carefully you can see a tiny little blue fish swimming around the coral!

A sweet family shot before we headed back to the mainland on our boat!

We had such a great day, and we are so blessed and to have such awesome friends (who just so happen to be our coworkers!) to spend this blessed time with. Our trip back was very eventful as it started to absolutely pour about 30 seconds into our trip! Too bad none of us had water proof cameras to capture the moment!

Making our way back to Asia Pacific!

So here it is..........my first blog post in three years!
Last December, after 2 years and 9 months of living hundreds and thousands of miles away from where we call "home," we made our way back to our tiny home town in Michigan!
Our time in Asia Pacific was literally life changing in so many ways. God grew and stretched us beyond what we ever thought was imaginable. Ministry in a country/culture that is not your own is so humbling but also physically, emotionally, and spiritually draining! We were more than ready to be encouraged and loved on by friends and family.

We spent an incredible 7 months with family and friends. The boys got to know their grandparents all over again, they made best friends with their Teall cousins and met their little cousin Sage for the first time! We were so very blessed by our church family, they encouraged us spiritually and emotionally.

By the time our 7 months had come to an end we knew it would be hard to leave all the "wonderfulness" behind! Although we left with lots of tears we left with full hearts ready to begin our ministry with the Dem. We said our final good byes at the airport to Logan's two brothers and boarded the first of our 4 flights. Our emotions were all over the place! We were sad to leave but so excited to see what the Lord had in store for us in the mountains of Papua!

We flew 30 hours across the ocean and finally arrived in the hot and sweaty tropics! Man had our bodies adjusted quickly to the cool Michigan weather! We were so grateful for our amazing boys! They were so good on the flights. I even think Logan and I got some sleep! I think!

It was good to be back. To be honest it seemed like we had only been gone a few weeks. I hadn't expected that feeling. We quickly started unpacking and repacking all of our stuff. We only had two weeks before Logan would go interior to start building our home. It was exciting to see the boys adjust to being back in this country. They quickly fell into the swing of things and so did we!

To Blog or Not to Blog?

Well as you can see if you actually read this, I haven't blogged in almost 3 years! So I have been trying to decide if I should start blogging again. After hearing from three people that they would read our blog I have decided to go ahead and give it a try. So I hope you enjoy!

Baru Klinting (a legend from Salatiga, Indonesia)

In class on Friday our pelatih (teacher) told us a cerita rakyat (legend) about a giant snake that was killed at the foot of one of the mountains here in Salatiga. Many people believe the snake still lives in the swamp near the kampung (village) where the legend happened. So today, along with our friends the VanRensburgs we took a quick trip to the area. It was so much fun as we got to see a large dragon that was built as a monument and then we took a boat ride out in the swamp. It was a great cultural experience as many Indonesians visit this area as well. Many people who believe the legend also believe that when people die while fishing in the swamp it is because of the snake that still lives in its waters.

A family picture on the back of Baru Klinting!

The Baru Klinting monument!

These "perahu" are the boats most commonly used for fishing and gathering the swamp plants.

People have little sections of the swamp netted off to do their own fishing in.

Laken LOVED the boat ride! As a matter of fact he nearly went over board several times out of excitement!

Family picture at the fish place we had lunch at!!!