Standing in line

Today was a crazy day for us. We started with doing school and then had plans to go shopping for the month. We were going to start our shopping and be done in enough time to pick up our final official paper on the truck we imported. Just as we were leaving, one of the men in our church came by. We ended up taking him on an errand and then we went to pick up the paper that gives us permission to drive without plates for the next 90 days (we were told that there is a 2 year wait on license plates) at which time we will have to go in and have another renewal done.

As we got to the DEI (Department of something) to pick up our paper we were met with a huge line. I got in line while Jason went to see if he could find anyone official to ask if we were even in the right line. Just as he started looking someone came out the front door and announced that we were in the wrong line. We quickly moved to the right line and were lucky enough to be the first in line (after they let a bunch of people in front of us in). We discovered that first in line is not where you want to be unless you like to be pushed, shoved, and sandwiched in between people. Needless to say, the line was anything but orderly. Once the line was more than five people long, the people in the back decided that they didn't want to wait, but pushed ahead. I was literally sandwiched between Jason and someone I didn't know. Several times I had to tell someone to stop pushing me and wait in line. Finally Jason put me in front of him and then I was sandwiched in between the door, Jason and two other guys who saw me as an easier target to get in front of than Jason.

The guard who lets people in a little at a time kept opening the door and yelling at the people. I was just standing there and about 30 minutes into it he stuck his head out and said that he had been there for 9 hours, so everyone had just better get patient. I gave him an "I am so sorry that you have had to put up with this for so long" smile and he grabbed my purse and pulled me inside. Jason had a hold of my arm and so he got to come in too. I don't know if it was any better inside, but there was np pushing. Once people got inside they were more orderly. Probably for fear of getting thrown out again. We only had to stand in line for another 45 minutes in an non air-conditioned building (with all the doors closed) so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

It was very frustrating for me though when the lady in front of us kept going to the window and coming back with more peoples papers to do so they wouldn't have to wait in line. She even let a couple of people cut in front of us. I did feel slightly vindicated though when the woman that cut when there was only two people left in front of us was told that she couldn't get her papers today as someone had done something wrong when they photocopied her husband's license. It was a little scary when they couldn't find out paperwork though. We were wondering what would happen, but they found it in the papers that were approved yesterday.

After that we had to go home, pick up the kids, and go shopping. Thankfully there seemed to be no one in the stores and we got in and out in record time. We made it home just before 8:00 pm.

I had a huge blessing today. I had forgotten to go and order the favors for Adelaida's baby shower. I called the store where I am going to get pewter baby shoes made and they told me that they would start working on them and I could come in and pay tomorrow. Ordering something to be custom made without having it paid for us unheard of. I was amazed that they said they would do it for me. As it is customary here for the hostess to give everyone who attends a baby shower, bridal shower, graduation, ect, a "recuerdo" (which is basically a dust collector that says, "Remember my __________") I have to buy 24 for Adelaida's baby shower. Tomorrow I will go and pay for them and give them the ribbons to tie on the little baby shoes for added cuteness. I am glad that they allowed me to place the order today. That was s huge blessing for me.

Yeison (Jason)

Adelaida had her baby a week ago. She called us at 3:00 am asking us to pick her up and take her to the hospital. We picked her up and she gave birth about 3 hours after she arrived at the hospital. She had a baby boy that weighed just over 7 lbs. They have named him Yeison (pronounced Jason)Renieri Rodriguez Lopez. She brought him over yesterday and we had fun taking some pictures of him.

Last night Jason took a car full of people to a place called Tizatillo to hold services in the house of one of our church members. Teresa invited most of her neighbors and they had 30 adults in the service. I am glad that I didn't take the kids when Jason didn't get home until after 10 pm. We decided that the kids would only go to one school night service. We will still go to Thursday night services and to the Friday night house service that we hold in Santa Rosa.

Please pray for the meetings in Santa Rosa. They are having another church come on Saturday nights. Jason is not sure if we will keep that service up. They do not have another good church in the area and the other church that is coming is Pentecostal,but we don't want to steal from someone else's members. Augustine (whom Jason let to the Lord) really wants us to continue to come. We are hoping that they tell the Pentecostal "church" that is meeting in the same house to find another place. We will let you know how this works out.

Electric Storms and Eggnog

I know that you are wondering what those two have in common. Actually they have nothing. It is just my way of getting two blogs into one.

Lately we have been quite busy, but that is not why I have not updated my blog. I haven't updated it in a while because we have been having so many electric storms at night (the only time I have to write my blog) that we have had to turn the computer off and I haven't been able to use it. Tonight was the first night in almost three weeks that I haven't had to rush upstairs and turn the computer off for fear of damage. Therefore, I have written a few blogs tonight to let you know what has been going on. Please read them for exciting news about Audrey.

Blog #2
Is there anything better than eggnog? I love it! For the first three years we were in Honduras there was not eggnog to be found except for the alcoholic version they sell at Christmas. Of course I am not going to drink that. So we had to make our own. It is a pretty good tasting recipe, but if it gets too hot it will curdle, it uses a lot of eggs, and is pretty time consuming to make. Needless to say it was not something we got very much of. The good thing is that now there is a company called Leyde that makes it year round. It cost about $.70 for a pint. It is so good. Last Christmas when we were in the states our trailer fridge wouldn't hold much eggnog so we didn't get it but once. Today when I was in the store I just had to buy some. It is so good added to coffee. We may not have Starbucks here, but I can make a pretty mean Eggnog Latte anytime I want. :-) Having this Eggnog just seems to be getting me in the Christmas mood. I can't wait for Christmas time!!

First day of school

Today was the first day of school for Audrey and Jordan. They both had a great time. By dinner Jordan was asking if he could do more school.

Audrey was impressed that she didn't have a lot of "hard" work to do. Thankfully she is easing back into the work load and not complaining a lot. The only problem is that she keeps telling Jordan his answers.

Jordan seems to be doing well. I am introducing printing letters to him one the first day we learn that letter and then the rest of the time he is doing cursive. It seems to be working well for him.

Please pray for me as I am learning how to teach more than one grade at a time. I can't imagine how the teachers of one-room schoolhouses did it many years ago.

Baptism Sunday

Yesterday was baptism Sunday. We had a good attendance in spite of the fact that we had to lay planks of wood across the stream to be able to get to the baptism spot. Thankfully everyone was able to get across. We had four baptisms. Osmin, Jimena, Kimberly, and Audrey. The three girls are all about the same age and were a little afraid of the water as it was pretty high, but once they decided to go for it they all did really well.
Audrey does not like to be the center of attention so it was a little difficult for her to make the decision to get baptised where everyone would be watching. It made it a lot easier for her when Jimena (7) and Kimberly (9) did it first.
We almost had to cancel the service as it has been raining so hard these past few weeks. We are thankful the God held back the river enough so we could have the service as planned. Please pray for Augustine and Juanita that they would make the decision to be baptized soon. They both have been saved in the past month and this was the first baptismal service that they had ever seen. We are talking with them about when to schedule a baptismal service for them.
Please pray for Osmin and Esperanza as they begin working on getting married. It is a lot of money and a lot of work to get married here so we are excited that Osmin and Esperanza want to make this step of obedience to the Lord.

Tela Trip

Our Tela trip was cancelled. I can't say that I was disappointed as I really didn't want to go anywhere today. I was a little saddened by the reason of our missed trip. Two of the ladies who went and stayed with the national lady (against counsel of many missionaries) got really sick. They have classic Amoeba symptoms. Please pray that they will be better tomorrow or it will be a long trip back to Tegucigalpa.

We have enjoyed our time with the Tweet family so much. They are Washintonians too and have been in Honduras for a long time. They have very graciously opened their home up to us for the past few days and we have greatly enjoyed our time here.

Journey to San Pedro Sula

Yesterday I left with two women and a teenage girl for San Pedro Sula. The heat index has helped me to not look forward to this trip. It is over 100 today with high humidity. San Pedro Sula is also a very confusing city for me. I have to have someone from here go with me to give me directions where ever I go.

Today we did tourist things and tomorrow we are going to drive to Tela (a beach city) to visit with a family. It will be about an hour there and back. We are looking forward to a good time.

This trip is very stressful for me. It has been hard as the ladies that are with us have no concern for their safety and will not listen to us when we tell them not to go to a certain place. I am very worried as right now they are staying in a neighborhood so dangerous that the taxi drivers don't even like to go there. They will be staying there tonight and tomorrow they will be going to a motel and that will be a lot safer for them.

I will be glad when we get back to Tegucigalpa in familiar territory.

I am sure that Jason will be glad to not have to watch the kids for a while.