Traveling adventures

Whenever we travel it ends up being an adventure. Not just in the seeing new places meeting new people sense. But sometimes it’s a kiss-the-ground-and-hug-the-tree-when-you-get-out-of-the-vehicle-because-you-are-just-that-happy-to-have-survived kind of adventure. That kind of sums up our last trip to and from the states. But let me start from the beginning...
Our flight to Miami left out of Guayaquil Ecuador at 8am. Since we don’t have an international airport here in Piura, we have the choice of taking a bus 12ish hours north to Guayaquil. Or we can take a bus 16ish hours south to Lima. There’s also the option of flying to Lima which takes about an hour. But that can often be 2-4 times the cost of a bus x 4 tickets plus baby tax...we usually take a bus. Lately the cost of flying out of Ecuador was about half that of Lima so when we found some great tickets to the states we jumped on them. We had not been back for the holidays since we came to Peru 3 years ago so it was a big deal to find tickets we could afford.
Since we were flying out of Guayaquil our only way to get there was on a bus. Now when we were newer to the country we foolishly took a random bus to Ecuador that we later found out is not the safest thing (nor is it the most comfortable) since they stop for anybody that flags them down and have no regulations about what you can bring on. But this time we did the research and took the safest most comfortable bus. The only catch was theres only one per day. But it was scheduled to arrive about an hour before we needed to be at the airport so one of us thought we would be fine...the other one of us is working on having faith when it comes to the timeliness of public transportation.

We got to the bus terminal to wait for our bus they were running late but the lady at the counter said they would make up for their time on the trip. Even so if all went according to plan we would still arrive with a little time to spare. My mantra was something like “this is a vacation just go with the flow” it worked about 15% of the time so that was a plus. Finally the bus arrived about 30 minutes late and we were off. We should have made it to the border of Peru and Ecuador around midnight or 1 at the latest but that didn’t happen. We got there at 3 am Jose bolted out of the bus like a rocket and was the first in line to go through immigrations. But we were still 4 hours (in a car) away from the airport and the bus had already taken 2 hours longer to get to the border than it should have. Not to mention the 50 other people on the bus who needed to go through the immigration process. Jose did some asking around and found out we could get a Taxi to Guayaquil from immigrations. It was the most expensive Taxi ride we’ve ever taken but we figured lose the money or lose the flight...so we took a taxi. The driver was very energetic and anxious to get on the road so we moved all our stuff and sleeping children and we were off...until we got just outside immigrations. He was on the phone saying “yeah, I’m right here in the turnaround, pull up behind me.’ As he pulled over. He started telling Jose. “You have to change to my brothers taxi. Mine is a “new line” (code for illegal) so the cities always give me problems. But my brother has all the right permits already. He will take good care of you.”
So here we are between the Peru and Ecuador on the side of the road in a taxi that can’t go any further with 3 sleeping children at 3:30 am. He told us we need to move to the Taxi behind us so what else can we do? we move as quickly as possible because at this point we need to be at the airport in 3 and a half hours. We get settled and close the door when all of a sudden a truck pulls up next to us with a police lamp shining in our faces. They think somethings up so they take our passports and make us go back to immigrations to verify that everything is legit. Now I can’t say that we disagree with the police. If that kind of thing had happened at the USA/Mexico border I’m sure we would have been in prison 5 minutes later. I know it looked shady to him. But at that moment all we could think about was getting to the airport. So Jose keeps telling the taxi driver and police that we are pressed for time. Thankfully I had told the immigrations officer outside our whole story while Jose was getting a taxi so he remembered me and verified that we were not doing anything illegal. Once the officer was convinced we were not fugitives or people smugglers or something they let us go. It is now 4am and we have 3 hours to get to the airport. Jose stresses to the guy that we.have.to.be.there in 3 hours. Taxi man says no problem and once again we were off. 

                       (reference photo stolen from internet this is basically what our taxi looked like) 
Now, I’m almost accustomed to not sleeping these days because of a certain 9 month old princess who still thinks the middle of the night is the best time to be awake since she gets me all to herself. But I’m almost basically narcoleptic for me. I find myself dozing off only to be snapped back awake by random things like the taxi driver taking a speed bump at full speed causing me to hit my head on the roof of the car. (taxis don’t have seat belts) so I did doze of for awhile. But after waking up like that ^ I couldn’t sleep for some reason. There were 2 things I learned about our taxi driver. 1 he should have been in bed instead of driving a taxi full of people I love and 2 apparently he learned how to drive using a race car game. He kept speeding way up only to slow way down. I don’t usually have a problem with motion sickness, but I started to think it might become one. Logan on the other hand has a huge problem with motion sickness. Poor thing was so sick the whole trip. But the main problem was the taxi driver was trying not to fall asleep...and he was not being very successful. I was watching his eyes in the rear view mirror and they were shut more than they were open. Aside from that he kept rubbing his neck and face in the universal man gesture of trying to stay awake. So Jose tells him to pull over and trade places. It took a great deal of convincing but he finally did it. Thats right my husband took over driving the taxi. Let me just say here that I never appreciated what a good driver my husband is like I did that morning. You almost would have thought he was driving an automatic the way he sped up and slowed down was so smooth. I could have slept if it weren’t for all the adrenaline pumping through my veins from the previous 2 hours of the car trip. We rode like that for about 30 minutes before the taxi driver started telling jose we need to pull over for gas. (which turned out to be code for he had to go the bathroom) When the driver returned to the car he swore he was good to go and took over the driving. Yeah, lets just say he lied ok? We got into Guayaquil after another hour of jerky, sleepy driving. We tried to soothe ourselves with the thought that most likely the bus would just be leaving immigrations by now for all we knew. We formulated a plan. I would run to the counter and start the checkin process while Jose got the bags and paid the driver. As we are talking Timothy starts asking how many minute until we get there. I told him I didn’t know but it would be soon. As we pull into the airport I feel a warm wetness spreading under my leg..the leg closest to Timothy. Normally he wakes up and stumbles into the bathroom as fast as he can. But this time there was no bathroom to stumble to. We pull up to the departure door and exhausted carrying the baby and holding Timothys hand I ran into the airport half soaked in fresh pee.

(it might look big from this picture but this is all the check in counters. There are maybe 30 stations) 

Our checkin counter was by the door (thank God for tiny airports) and there was a sign above the counter. “Check in by 7:50 required” I looked for a clock it was 7:50 exactly. But there was a line. I got in line and waited. Jose walked in with all the luggage and the taxi driver pulled away. I pulled out some clothes and waited in line until the ticket counter person could see me and Tim then we dashed off the bathroom to change clothes. We were on our way

And that was just what it took to get to the airport...

Exciting Update

 Hey guys! We’ve had a lot going lately and theres something I’m really excited to share with you.

 Last year we got connected to a couple of Pastors from Argentina who have a mission to fight sexual child abuse in Latin America. They wrote a children’s book that we used last year as our Christmas campaign. We were able to reach over 1500 children directly with the material and over 2500 children through local teachers and schools.  Over the past year we have learned a lot more about what they do and have been equipped to help children fight against sexual child abuse.  This has brought our understanding to another level and made our commitment to help rescue children even stronger.
 We learned that 1 out of every 3 children in Peru will be sexually abused before puberty.  The studies they did also indicated that the abuser is usually someone the child knows and possibly someone who lives in the home.  The statistics are likely very low because only about 5% of the children abused actually report it.  This is a continuous spiral that repeats itself from one generation to another. We also learned that there are 4 ways someone can sexually abuse a child.  The first is what most of us think of when we hear the term sexual abuse - It involves touching and is what is considered sexual molestation.  The second and third type of sexual abuse are exposing the genitals to a child to be aroused or to have the child expose their genitals to arouse the abuser.  This is where most children feel it is hard to defend or confront the abuser because there is no physical evidence of a sexual violation. The last, and probably for us the most eye opening and impactful and least known form of abuse, is exposing a child to pornography.  Children are sponges so full of creativity that when their minds are distorted with images it becomes a permanent part of their formation and development.  This fourth form of sexual child abuse has grown over the past 20 years through media and technological advances.

Armed with this knowledge and the host of resources we were given access to, we went into 3 different schools we were invited to speak at and did assemblies with all the kids, parents and teachers.  That led to something we never expected, 60 other schools in our city reached out to us and asked us to come and do the same! These 60 schools mean we would be able to reach 9000 children directly just this year. Our indirect impact would also be to the siblings of the kids we reach and any other children the educators have contact with.
 Our plan:

•  Go into 5 schools per month with this material

• Equip parents and educators with tools to prevent future abuse

• Help train children ages 3-10 in a fun and age appropriate way to protect themselves. 

• Provide counseling for any children/parents who have been effected by abuse. 

• Follow up with the schools to support them in this fight. 

• Continue to train up family counselors which we have been doing since our family conference last year.  

 Every piece of the puzzle is important in helping our community with the awareness and effective teaching and training to combat sexual child abuse.

We are so excited to get started but there’s one thing missing. You! We need your help. For us to make this happen, and reach these 9000+ children, it will cost $10 per child. That helps with everything from transportation to the school to giving each child their own copy of “Cuentos Que No Son Cuentos” or "Fairytales that are not Fairytales” - the book that started this whole thing.
 If you were thinking of giving a charitable donation for Christmas, this is the perfect opportunity.

Help us bring hope to this generation of children.  Partner with us to see the lives of children transformed all over northern Peru.

If you would like to give into this project and are a member of our home church Powerhouse please give through here just mark it missions or on Sunday mark missions and write in Peru on your offering envelope.

If you are not a member of our home church and would like to give please go here

Thank you all so much for all your support
God Bless
Kat

Randomness

A couple weeks ago Jose's computer went to the great apple in the sky. To be honest we were surprised it lasted as long as it did given it needed a new mother board when it was given to us. But now we are down to one computer, mine. I have a tendency to take a million pictures and then each one is precious to me so when I have to delete some I stare at 2 pictures like these

And hitting the delete button is so hard on either one of them. Yeah I know they are almost exactly the same and I even have a preference between the 2 but deleting the other one is hard. 

Something inside of me feels it's cruel to have to delete memories to free up memory. But if I don't we won't be able to function much longer. 

(actually I have been deleting things here and there as sparingly as possible just to make it through, up until now.) 

So I decided instead of leaving all my pictures for just me to enjoy I would post some of the ones that make me smile the most. And no they are not in chronological order. But they are from the past year and a half. Enjoy my randomness

love this face

and this one

Definitely one of the best days of my life.
The day my firstborn was baptized

toe dippin'

My favorite person at my one of my favorite places. The beach.

Logan's first Christmas pageant 

Caleb's 1st birthday

We love you Caleb. Miss you too

Self-portrait Logan loves his sister.

Training our kids early

One of Timothy's (and my) favorite people Ashlynn

One day old and already a mama's girl

He wanted his face painted like a Lego mini figure. lol

I'm not the only person in this house who is wrapped around her finger

She has my eyes

My favorite Pastor

Can you tell she's proud of herself?

So that's kind of like our year in pictures (family only I already transferred all the church pics other places) It's been a busy, hard, but happy and healing year and a half. 

All you need is love

Have you ever been on a roller coaster, gotten to like the crest right before the big drop and you really want to get off but theres no way off? So the only thing you can do is just ride it out and wait until the end even if that means putting your head down and trying to ignore the jerky motions the whole time... That feeling kind of describes what I'm feeling right now. 

In the world, especially the U.S. there are so many situations right now that are "hot button" or controversial and "Christians" are taking both sides of the issues. But love has lost its voice. I'm not saying that we should stop talking, not at all. But there are times where we should listen to Paul's advice to Timothy.

^" Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people. Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants."

2 Timothy 2:23-26

Maybe it's just me, But when someone starts yelling at me or saying awful things in an angry way I either walk away, curl up in a ball or block them out (mentally or literally) But if someone I disagree with presents their thoughts in a kind, "I still love you if you choose not to agree with me" way I'm way more likely to consider their point of view. 

It's easy to search scripture and find verses about loving each other. But this is probably the best one to me. 

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.

God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first. 1 John 4:7-19

I'm so tired of hearing about people who walked away from Christ because of the Christians. Truthfully I almost was one of those people. What do we gain by being hateful? I'm a southern girl so I'm going to play that card and use a good old southern idiom here. You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. So why are we throwing vinegar everywhere? Life is hard and we were meant to build each other up. Not tear each other down. 

So I'm offering you a challenge. Show love. Next time someone posts something on Facebook that makes you angry, do what your mama taught you. If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all. Next time you see someone walking down the street that you believe is living life the wrong way give them a hug and tell them Jesus loves them (or if you can't do that just smile) We might now change the world or our city or even everyone we know doing this. But what if we did? What if you could "be the change you want to see in the world" 

What if all we need is love?  

Happy Birthday Timothy

In our home birthday season is February-June. We start with Caleb in February then it's Zoe in March, Jose & Logan in April, Me in May and finally Timothy in June. 

 Logan and Tim had been planning this birthday party since Logans birthday ended. One of our friends from church actually told me her son came home with a handmade invitation to Tims party at "the robot restaurant" (a restaurant with a play area that looks like a robot) a few weeks before his birthday. He's proactive like that. 

He always surprises me with the way he thinks. After Zoe was born he told me he couldn't touch her because he would get sick. Later I realized he meant she would get sick. He treats her like a precious relic and takes a very strong "look but don't touch" stance about his sister. At least once a day he gets angry at Logan for touching the baby without washing his hands first. 

Timothy is the most affectionate kid in the family right now. He always starts the morning by walking into my room and giving me a hug. Any time he leaves the house as soon as he gets back he looks for me to give me a hug. That's just a given.  

He is stubborn. While I think this is ultimately a good quality it creates lots of

opportunities for mommy humility. Like when he decides to go on strike and not speak spanish.

He is amazingly creative. For the last few years he has been very interested in movie end credits. 

It's hilarious to us that he will watch the beginning and end of any movie he can his hands on 

but isn't all that interested in the actual feature. 

He also loves Lego's. 

He spends hours building movie credits or movie theaters

He says he wants to be an architect or a movie producer when he grows up.

Timothy, you are and always will be baby mine. (even though I won't call you that after you hit puberty) I love you from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. I hope you always know that you are loved and cherished by me and daddy. 

We are proud of you and excited to see what you do this year. I'm sure it will be surprising and amazing!

I love you!

Mommy

someday we'll laugh about this

I'm sure you've heard someone say "someday we'll laugh about this" maybe you've even said it yourself. 

A few days ago we had a mid-week servolution. We went to this area called "El Indio" and gave clothes and shoes away in a school.

so many clothes were donated by people in our church! it was awesome

one of the kids peeking through the broken door while we set up

this little guy was so sweet, he kept asking me to take his picture

Waiting to pick something out

It was a great day and we got to help a lot of people. It broke my heart to see some of the people looking for something for their kids and happily taking newborn size clothes for their toddler or boy clothes for their girls. Really they took what we had because at least it was something. 

One of the little girls came in at the end when we had barely anything left and she took clothes for her baby sibling and shoes for her mom. She didn't want anything for herself. 

the team

We always leave these time elated and exhausted. It's a lot of work ya'll! 

We were in an area where there aren't a lot of taxis and it's at least 2 miles to the street 

where you can pick one up. 

Out of all the people working we had one car between us...ours.

Now, our car was given to us when we first got to Peru. 

It has been through a lot, we have loaded it down with people many times. 

(I should add there are no laws about seatbelts in the back seat and the speed limit in piura is something like 30 mph) 

This time it was a little trickier than normal since we had 7 adults, 2 children 1 infant with a car seat, a stroller and about 5 folding chairs. (plus all the stuff that was in the car before we started)  

Somehow we managed to all fit inside our car. 

We got most of the way home when the car started to stall out. 

This happens sometimes...

well, a lot...

ok, lets be real it happens every time we drive the car.

So nobody worried, Jose just put the car in neutral and tried to restart it. 

Did I mention we were on a bridge? 

Yeah, that.

So anyway, the car does what it always does. It makes it's little pre-starting noise

kind of like this "ngggngnngngngnng" but it never turns over. 

We have been coasting this whole time which seems like it was maybe an hour but was probably a lot more like 5 minutes. People just pass us and keep going. That's Peru for you. Nobody is fazed in the least by the dying car full of people.

Right about now I was thanking Jesus that we had a car full of grown ups, 3 of whom were men. 2 of them jumped out and started pushing until we got off the bridge then Jose jumped out and did the push and steer until we got to a "parking lot" (more like a parking space) on the side of the road.

From here we all went our separate ways. The plan was to get a mechanic to come look at it (tow trucks are not the norm here.) So we got a Taxi to go home. 

We got home and paid the Taxi driver with the only money we had between us.

It was a counterfeit bill, we didn't know. 

Thankfully, Logan has a piggybank and is a saver. 

We paid the Taxi driver. 

Peru is not exactly a country where urgency exists. Mechanics work certain hours no more, no less.

So our car had to spend the night on the side of the road. 

The next morning Jose went to try to figure out what to do about our sad little car. 

This story just writes itself.

Someone broke the window and stole everything inside, 

from the phone charger plugged into the cig. lighter to the toolbox in the trunk. 

Even Logan's Astros cap (but they left his shoes...can't say that I blame them, those things are toxic) 

We finally got the car to the mechanic (I'm not even gonna' tell y'all how. Some things are just too hard to believe if you don't live here) 

The car won't start, that's true, but theres nothing wrong with it. 

It just doesn't want to work anymore.

 It just turned 30 maybe it's having a midlife crisis? 

I guess it lost it's will to live. 

Now, I would love to tell you I responded at each step with some of the grace that Job had when he lost his stuff. 

I sound so spiritual and wise right?

 But seriously Job may have temporarily reacted with grief but in the next verse he's all 

well I came into this world naked I guess that's how I'll leave. 

!

(warning, do not read this next paragraph if you like thinking I'm perfect and selfless. 

It might ruin things for you) 

Nope, that's not me. I had a nice little pity party. 

I don't love that car I actually have been praying we could get rid of it and get one that is a little more reliable. You know little things like not stalling every time we drive it.

A working air conditioner too.. Those are my top 2 requests. But I digress. 

I started telling God all the things we have done for him. 

I'm all, we left our friends and family and church God. 

We came here were we have no guaranteed paycheck.

We've given so much  

We built this thing you told us to, 

we've been obedient and we were actually driving home from helping people when this happened. 

It's not fair! Why do selfish people get nice cars and we are giving everything just to drive this car that needs to be pushed 90% of the time. (yeah, I'm not selfish *rolling my eyes at myself*)

Then this thing happened. I don't know how to explain it.

 It wasn't instant but it did happen. I stopped caring.  

I started thinking about the lady with a baby that took the outfit that Zoe grew out of for her child who was clearly older than Zoe. 

She actually smiled when she picked it up like it was the cutest thing she had ever seen, and it was hers.  

The baby is on the right (her mom has the sleeper in her hand)

I thought of the pregnant woman who made a beeline for the baby clothes pile and 

I remember how I had to get rid of some of the clothes I was given for Zoe 

because she was given so much and I couldnt bring it all.

I think about the basket of baby clothes I have. Full of stuff that fits my little one.

The other basket with stuff for her to grow into.

And then I told someone else the story of the car. 

I laughed. I kept laughing. My "someday I'll laugh" happened today. 

I joked "next time I'll be more specific when I pray we can get rid of something" 

God answered my prayer. Ok, so we don't have another car. 

Yes our car is basically worthless now. 

But is that a surprise to God?

Is that more than he can handle?

Is that the worst thing that has ever happened to me?

No, no, no. 

The theme of my life seems to be letting go of control. 

Letting God be in control and not freaking out when I'm surprised.

Sometimes I get it right but most of the time I don't.

Most of the time I freak out.

I'm a control freak. 

I "need to know" what is going to happen. 

 Someday I'll learn.

By the way, does anyone want to buy a "classic car" for display only? 

it needs one new window

 

 

9 years!

Nine years ago today I married this guy. 

Since then life has been crazy, hectic, happy, sad, adventurous and beautiful.

Being married to him has taught me so much about love. 

Saying "I love you" is wonderful, but acting out "I love you" is 100 times better.

Love is a verb. It's taking care of the kids when I'm not feeling well. Or choosing to see the romantic comedy because the movie we watch is not what matters its who he's watching the movie with that matters. 

Love can be seen in the easy times but when life gets hard love makes it easier to walk through.

Love is full of surprises.

Love is fun but sometimes it's hard.

Dr Cole says that Marriage can be the closest thing to heaven or hell in this life. 

I got heaven 

Jose you are

the pickles to my ice cream

the milky to my way

the peanut butter to my jelly

the cheese to my macaroni

the flip to my flop

the blue to my sky

the cherry to my sundae

the han solo to my princess leia

my best friend 

and the love of my life

I love you