Surfing in Peru!!

I know we are here on a mission trip, but we had a little recreation time at the beach today! And I learned how to surf!!!!! I still can't believe I did it, and got up several times!!!! One time was "pretty", but probably not the other times. It was one of the most fun things I have EVER done!! It was great!!!

We have been staying with my new friend, Alleen McLain, who has just moved here from Jackson to be short term missions coordinator. She is so much fun and we have loved spending time with her!

We are currently still in Trujillo, although we were supposed to be in Lima now getting on a flight to Atlanta. We have loved it here and had a fabulous week, but it would be nice to get home! We are attempting to fly to Lima at midnight and then will not get to fly to Atlanta until midnight Saturday. All that aside, it has been great!

An update on our weeks activities: Tuesday night we had dinner at the Eby's beautiful home, and had a great time of fellowship and hanging out with their kids. Josh and Robyn are here with Peru Mission working with college ministry as well as many other things!

Wednesday we worked at the clinic in the morning, and did a clinic in the afternoon in the village of Clemintina. This community was even poorer than the one on Monday, but they were so sweet and appreciative! It is hard to imagine living in such extreme poverty. I saw two ladies washing their clothes in plastic tubs. Really all they could do was rinse them out, and they must be dirty because there is only dirt everywhere. They have a great sense of community, and work together to provide for their families.

Once more we had a great night out at this fabulous Japanese restaurant, Ka. It was amazing and was so beautiful. It didn't feel like we were in Peru...... maybe New York, or maybe even Japan! What great fellowship we had with the Ellisons, Bradfords, Alleen, and some of the interns.

Thursday was back to the clinic, then I met with some physical therapists at a rehab clinic. They were so sweet and kind, and begged us send them supplies. They also requested some therapists to come and teach them some continuing education.

We visited an orphanage that Peru Mission has just become affiliated with, called House of Hope. The doctors did some physicals, and we mostly just played with the precious children! Some of the boys were "playing doctor" and had so much fun diagnosing us all with "rabies", "tumors", and "having no heart"! They were so much fun!

Once more, we went out for dinner with all of the missionaries and had a great time! There is such a great group of people that God has brought together!

Peru Mission

Marcus and I are having a great time in Peru! We had safe travels, which we were very thankful for! On Saturday we arrived in Trujillo, where we were so happy to see the Bradford family! We had dinner in their home Sat night and had a great time catching up. On Sunday we worshiped in the church at Arevelo. There are several different churches that Peru Mission has started, and Arevelo is the newest. Of course we didn't understand much that was being taught, prayed or sung, but it was great to worship with the Peruvians just the same. We had a great lunch at the Ellison's home, with all of the missionary families and interns. There are several Mississippi natives here, so it was fun to make some connections! Right now there are a few Ole Miss students interning here and teaching English classes at the language institute. Everything is so laid back and not rushed, so I fit in just fine! We stayed at the Ellisons visiting until about 4, then went to an English worship service at the Larco church. They have this service once a month so that their children (and themselves) have a chance to worhip in English. Afterwards we had a great dinner out at an Italian restaurant, and ate plenty of pasta and pizza with the group.

Monday we had a medical clinic set up in a remote village on the outskirts of Trujillo. You just cannot imagine the extreme poverty here. There are little clay huts and some straw huts. This area of Peru is desert, and this particular neighborhood is so dry and dusty. The homes have bare dirt floors, with no running water or bathrooms of any kind. About 50 patients were treated, and many children came. John Harrison, a Tupelo native interning here, was my partner in checking people in. What a small world! I took blood pressure and had a few patients to treat as well. We had bubbles for the kids and they were so excited! Bill Bradford helped Marcus with translating, and each patient was prayed for after their treatment. They found out that many of the patients were believers! It is a blessing having the opportunity to serve the needy people here!

Later in the afternoon we had tour of the "country club" where the missionary families have a chance to play tennis, golf, basketball, swim, and exercise. We had supper there with the Bradfords and love spending time with their precious family!

Today we are working in the clinic in the Wichenzao neighborhood. Marcus is busy treating patients as I am sitting here blogging! I did treat some this morning and assisted him with a patient. Sorry no pictures yet! I will try to post some later from a different computer. Be sure to check out perumission.org to learn more about what God is doing here!

Easter Blessings!

We had a beautiful Easter day to celebrate Christ's death and resurrection! Getting a photograph wasn't the best way to celebrate, but we did try! What a glorious Savior we have - that is much more important than the pictures!

Luke's Pirate Party

Luke chose a fun pirate theme for his 5th birthday, which was on March 5th! We had a treasure hunt through the neighborhood and the cutest pirate cake I've seen! He loves his pirate costume, so this was a fun chance to dress up! He had some fun gifts this year - a Spiderman bike from us, and the best ever........ a real set of golf clubs from Mimi and DoDad! He is really excited about golf, and he is so proud of these nice golf clubs! He said he would give his "fake" ones to Ben and Sam!

Birthday Celebration in Atlanta

This year we decided to take Sarah Caroline on a special trip for her 8th birthday! Thanks to Katie and Talmadge and Mimi and DoDad for keeping all 3 boys! Marcus and I loved having special time with our only girl! We had a special birthday dinner at the American Girl Bistro, and Sarah Caroline had her doll's hair styled and ears pierced! She also had a very special hotel room complete with a bed for her doll!

Ben's Birthday in the Barn!

Ben loves horses, so we had a fun 6th birthday party at Circle Y in Corinth. We had a great day taking a few of his friends to ride horses and pet some goats! It is hard to believe how big our children are getting!!

Christmas Memories

Eagerly waiting to see what Santa brought!! Not sure where Sam was at this moment, but probably on my hip!

Happy Birthday, Jesus! Each year on Christmas Day we have a birthday cake for Jesus!

We had an early Christmas at Mimi and DoDad's house! They were sweet enough to give our kids a Wii, so they had several days to enjoy it before Santa came! It was fun all being together! Sam was a little too interested in Graham's new toys! Well, DoDad was pretty interested in the Wii as well!! We left the Wii at their house for one night, and evidently Justin and he stayed up pretty late having a competition! Only an hour went by after moving the Wii to our house that DoDad was shopping to buy his own Wii!

To get us in the Christmas Spirit, we have some wonderful neighbors who really go all out with their decorations and lights! As it came closer to Christmas, Santa and Mrs. Claus began hanging out by the street to greet children and hand out candy canes. One night we drove by and an Elf had joined them! We just had to stop for a photo! You never know what you may see in our neighborhood! Only a couple of days earlier I drove up to see Santa having a hot chocolate stand at the Beans house!

DisneyWorld Delight!!

In November we had the most fun ever at Disney World!! This was our first time to take our kids, and Marcus had never been! We had such a great time playing together and being silly and being away! We were so blessed to have a full six days, so we spent three at Magic Kingdom, and one each at Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot.

Sarah Caroline had a special treat at the BippidiBoppidiBoutiqe! She had so much fun getting a makover and transforming into a beautiful Princess!!! This was a highlight of the trip! That night I took her to a Cinderella Dinner, and you would not believe that she was asked to dance with Prince Charming!!! She looked so pretty and it was such a special night for us to have together!

Luke's favorite character, Buzz! The entire trip was great for all of us, but I loved Luke's age for going to Disney! During The Lion King, he was so amazed he looked at me and said, "Are they doing all of this to make me happy?" Yes, they were!!!

This trip we did not take Sam, and we are thankful to Aunt Bec Bec and Uncle Justin for taking such good care of him! They are the greatest!! I will have to give them credit that it all went really well until they all got sick with the stomach virus. They managed to survive the illness while taking care of two babies under 2! Did I mention that we are the ones who gave them the virus??? We really owe them a lot!! We hope to help them with Graham when they need us to! And any future kiddos they may have!

Catching Up Again!

I am going to attempt to catch up my blog once again!! I think I am an all or nothing person.....I really get into what I'm doing at the moment, but then leave it for a while and move onto something else. Why can't I just do a little every week??? Somehow I get busy running around with four kids!! Can't imagine how that happens!!

Halloween '08

SuperWoman, a cowboy, Buzz Lightyear, and a lion. What a group of cuties! Luke enjoyed his costume the most, I think! He practiced being Buzz for a several weeks beforehand, and loved flying through the house with his inflatable wings hitting everything possible on his way! Sam was not interested in wearing the lion hat, but he did love the candy!!