Getting Pierced

Well getting Karis' ears pierced turned into a language and cultural learning time for Jeremy and myself.  I thought I had researched it online but evidently not.  The store that I thought said they did ear piercings, don't do them in the Spain stores even though their website said that they did.  They informed us that we needed to go to a PHARMACY to get her ears pierced.  Well her birthday was on SUNDAY...which most pharmacies are closed on Sunday {most all smaller stores are}.  So we drove around to about 15 different pharmacies in two towns looking for a Pharmacist that did them.

With NO LUCK.  

Karis = SUPER disappointed.  

However during our quest on Sunday there were two pharmacies that said that the Pharmacist that did the piercings would be there on Monday.  So after school we were off again to get Karis' ears pierced.  Went to BOTH Pharmacies and were told that they either didn't do piercings there or that the Pharmacist wasn't working!

{insert: frustration here}

Once again we were on our way home with NO EARRINGS.  

We have a Pharmacy two blocks from our house but we've actually NEVER seen it open, it keeps VERY short hours AND closes down for siesta in the afternoons.  But as we were on the way home, it was OPEN.  So I went in and asked...which the translation was something like: do you all make holes for children? After clarifying that Karis was at least one month old {they pierce girls ears here early}.

They said YES!   

This Karis' recap of the event:

 I was so happy...

then it HURT, the gun "hurted", 

then I was so pretty...I love my star earrings! 

This is how Jeremy and I recall the experience.  A little stressful.  It ended up that the Pharmacist wanted US to mark her ears for the piercing.  Jeremy has a slight obsession with  aligning things correctly and since I assumed the piercing professional {aka Pharmacist} would do it- we were clueless as to where those pin marks needed to be.  HA! It took awhile.  

Notice Karis' smiling face per first piercing, then the tears afterwards.  Now for weeks I've been explaining to her that it would hurt {kind of like getting a shot} but that she'd have to get BOTH SIDES done, one after the other.  I made her watch YouTube videos on it and the cleaning process...she was educated. she was informed. She was adamant that she still wanted them.   

However when knowledge met with life experience, the two collided, Karis REFUSED to take her hand off her other ear and of course the Pharmacy was about to CLOSE for the day!!!  So she suggested us coming back TOMORROW evening to get the other one done.  I was like...absolutely no, there is no need to drag this out {plus Karis going to school with only one ear pierced...kids can be ruthless...she was already "strange" because her ears aren't pierced...then only to have one done...NO THANK YOU...no need to infuse more drama/trauma into this situation}.

So I reminded Karis that once she got the first ear pierced, she was COMMITTED and needed to follow through.  Then I had Jeremy hold down her arms, I held her head and with TREMBLING hands the Pharmacist pierced the second ear....ONLY the gun misfired, there was blood. A second attempt was made to push the earring the rest of the way by hand {Pharmacist thought she may end up creating another hole doing it that way} So she took it out cleaned everything and the THIRD time was the charm.  

The Pharmacy staff felt so bad about botching up the piercing...that Karis got a 

sucker, 

balloon 

AND 

a new umbrella

{worked like a CHARM- she carries around the new umbrella like a badge of honor}.

So there you have it.  Lessons learned.  Karis does LOVE her earrings.  I catch her scoping herself out in the mirror often! =) So for her the pain was worth it.  

Also photographed was "Rai" her classes stuffed animal.  It was her turn because of her birthday to take Rai home with her and photo document their adventures together during the week and put them in his story book.  HA!  

Family Jungle Trip

Well we had a blast.  I've uploaded lots of pictures to tell the story but we had a few stories that we're captured on film (some were captured on video but our internet is WAY too slow to upload those).  So the story goes:

Not pictured:
1.  The first night out- we spent it sleeping on a sandbar stranded because we broke part of the prop on the motor and couldn't fix it yet (it did get fixed the next day).  We were too far up the river to turn back to the last village but too far away from the village we were trying to make it too!  Oh yeah- the other family we were with didn't bring their tent, so we lent them one of ours.  So Jeremy, me and the girls all slept in a 2 person tent in the pouring down rain. (Well the girls slept at least- J & I tried LOL!)
2.  Crystal was able to have a women's bible study with several ladies.  We studied Proverbs 31 and she taught them 5 questions they can ask themselves when studying the Word.
3.  Jeremy was able to teach as well in each village on Godly Wisdom.  We also were able to distribute several Bibles in Buena Vista.
 4. Crystal learned how to weave baskets/plates!
5.  They had a special service in Atalaya the last night we were there.   At the end folks prayed for our family and said their good-byes.  It was sweet.

All the stories that have pictures:

Addie sleeping ontop of the luggage on the boat ride up the river.

Everyone calls Addie "babydoll" here, but she really does look like one. LOL

The girls killing time in the hammock on the boat ride up the river.

Karis & her favorite friend in Atalaya- Ana!

Jeremy is teaching Luis the "fisherman's tail" way of taking a photo, so that the fish appears much larger.

Actual size of the peacock bass. LOL 

Addie & her favorite Peruvian Uncle Omar playing with dinner before its cut up.

Karis & Alton (Luis' son) playing on the steps of the house while folks play soccer.

Crystal and Karis

Buena Vista

River bank

Location of Bible study in Beuna Vista

Jungle version of a pack-n-play.  The mayor's wife saif this is what she uses for her grandbabies so that they don't have to sit in the dirt to play.  I thought it was sweet of her to get it out for Addie to use during Bible study.

Karis wanting to play in the "boat" as she called it.

Addie taking her morning nap at 6AM!  Jeremy was kind enough to stay in his hammock and let her rest awhile.  So precious how she has her arm resting on his. =)

Nothing like a 10 year old and an 8 year old gutting lunch down on the river bank.  And bringing their little brother down to watch.

Luis & Addie playing on the boat.

Karis is a very good observer.  She noticed that everyone nursing their babies lots in the jungle.  So she was nursing her babydoll and telling us we needed to be quiet, so she could feed! LOL!





Omar and Karis on top of the boat catching some air.  Do you think Karis likes it?



Addie after Daddy lifted her up high enough to feel the breeze.  Not a big fan!  Such a sad face.

Samuel & Alton (Luis' sons)  such precious boys!

God has a plan for Alton's life.  Before he was 2 years old (he is six weeks younger than Karis).  He has had dengue fever twice, dysentry, and a motorcycle fell down on him punturing his skull...he still has a hole in his skull from it.  He is a trooper!!!

On the Amazon

Our friends, Larry & Sharon, came to visit us for 3 days this week.  Larry took a lot of great pictures and videos.  We thought we'd share this cute one of Karis enjoying the boat ride on the Amazon! 

Cute Kid Moments

Karis-

So Karis is talking up a storm these days and even is making sentences now and then. She blends spanish, english and signs together to get her point across...which is amusing to witness. Her lastest and greatest phrases are all about activities that she's helping with. She likes to puff out her chest, pat her chest with her hand and proudly annouce "Workin" or "Cook" or "Helper" or "Wash". Its funny. But lately anytime she leaves the house to go run errands with Jeremy or I, she lets everyone know that she is going to "Work HARD" and then she nods her head and says "NNNiiiiiiccccee" with a huge smile on her face. Its priceless.

Adalyn-

Is basically one of the most precious things that you could ever lay your eyes on. She is sweet to the core and such a great patient baby. She cut her first two bottom teeth last week and we are expecting her to start crawling in the next few weeks. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth with all of her might. She can actually move the pack-n-play she sways so hard. She loves eating, which is visible by all of her leg rolls (knee rolls and triple thigh rolls in the back) you just can't help but squeeze them.

Spoiler alert- coming soon- pictures of Jeremy last trip to the jungle and Karis' 2nd Birthday party!

Be Imitators of God...Ephesians 5:1

God has shown me several things this month, through reading scripture or seeing the girls doing something and recalling scripture that relates to it. Adalyn was covered in bug bites earlier this month and Karis is covered in a heat rush now, yet I watch them choose joy in their circumstances rather than focusing in on their misery. I think Habakkuk 3:18 kind of sums that up: "...yet, I will rejoice in Lord, I will be joyful in God my savor." and I later read an article about choosing joy. It said that happiness is something you feel but joy is something that you do. You can either submit to the misery & bitterness or to the Holy Spirit and cultivate the fruit of the Spirit into your daily life. Other scriptures mentioned action phrases like: "shout for Joy", "sing for Joy", "cry for Joy". It was a fresh reminder of that choice, watching my girls covered in itchy and miserable bug bites or heat rash yet observing them pushing past the discomfort and being honestly joyful. I’ll quickly highlight some other points God drove home with me this month. Watching Karis choose “good over evil”. To be honest, obedience is a daily struggle for Karis and I suppose we can all add ourselves to that boat on some level. But there are moments when I see Karis try to decide whether she will obey or not and it’s so sweet when she looks at me, smiles, nods her head and says "obey". Her mind made up to be obedient and I thought of those moments when I read "Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good" - Romans 12:21. I think the absolute cutest moments though are watching Karis try to imitate Jeremy and me (espically Jeremy...such a daddy's girl). If Jeremy is leaning up against a wall with arms crossed and one foot over the other...Karis is there mimicking the same stance. If I have my sunglasses on in the truck, Karis wants her sunglass and the examples can just keep rolling. During those moments it makes me ask the question "How am I imitating Christ in my life today? How am I imitating God in my actions and reactions?" Anyways- I know that you really can't draw too many parallels to your children and your faith but God has used our girls to really challenge me in my walk with Him this month.

A Few Pictures from the IWC Project

From top to bottom: One of the large group International World Changer team pictures. This was taken after we all got back to Iquitos and were able to take a "real" shower with running water =). Next, is the family photo from all three of us out in the community together- our first family ministry trip. Third- Just a cute picture of Karis. Fourth- when we were out in the communities during the day with ministry teams- after lunch I would find a place to either set-up Karis' hammock or find a house where I could use a hammock for Karis to nap in. Which was interesting some days- one day I had about 15 people watching Karis try to get to sleep in her hammock. LOL! So that is Karis being a good jungle baby and napping in her hammock (well Daddy's hammock from Venezuela technically but Karis has claimed it for herself). The last picture is us on the last day in Palmaras while Karis is napping- I enjoyed her nap times, I was able to talk to several of the moms in the communities and/or curious kids coming to see the gringa baby sleeping.

Overall the IWC project was a wonderful trip both from a ministry point of view and from a family perspective. There was definitely some difficult moments and many opportunities for both the team and us to practice being flexible and having plans change. God did some really neat things in and through the team. He opened doors in some of the villages that we haven't seen open like that before. There was solid discipleship that took place, evidence that God was at work in people's hearts before the teams even arrived and there were also those that came to know Christ as well. One girl in one of the villages started asking "What is sin?", "How can I stop sinning?" etc... obviously God had been working in her life before we arrived. Another lady memorized her first Bible verse and other communities had questions answered from scripture about assurance of salvation and what is prayer and many more topics. It was neat being able to see God working in the villages, instead of just hearing about it as I debrief teams when they come back to Iquitos. Karis did better each day we were out. The last day on the boat ride back to Iquitos was rough, but unbeknownst to us, she was cutting her first molar tooth and had really itchy chigger bites on her ankles. So all in all Karis did REALLY well. We're really blessed to have such an adaptable baby- she was sleep deprived, took river bucket baths, was dirtier than she's ever been in her life, has never sweated that much for that long and been surrounded by that many people for a week straight. We were proud parents for sure.

Thanks for your prayers.

Prayer Request for IWC-Orellana

INTERNATIONAL WORLD CHANGERS- ORELLANA

Please pray for the 56 volunteers, 3 missionaries and 15 translators that will be working amongst Yagua people off the Amazon River, doing discipleship of believers and holding Bible Yard Bible clubs this week. The original plan was to work in 5 communities: Atun Coche, Las Palamaras, Vainilla, Puerto Rico and Catalan Urco.

Specifically pray for safety, discipleship & growth for believers there and witnessing opportunities to those that remain lost.

Also we just learned several moments ago that the water on the river is unusually low for this time of year and the boats will not be able to reach most of the villages. Even Orellana, the community we will be staying in for the week. We will have to hike in & out of the communities each day. Pray for flexibility for the volunteers, missionaries, translators and for the Yagua communities as well.

We also will not know until we try, once we get there but we are fairly certain that we will not be able to reach one of the villages we were trying to minister to this week (Catalan Urco). The river has dried up too much and there is no trail through the jungle to get to it. It is one of the most remote places in the this segment of Yagua and has no church and only 2 new believers. We are discouraged by this news but trusting the Lord in providing a way to either reach Catalan Urco or opening up other doors in more accessible Yagua villages. The river should not be this dry until almost mid-August. Its even taken the Yagua by somewhat of a surprise. We were just there two weeks ago and made it in and out of all of the communities with very little difficulty.

Pray for Crystal and Karis as well. This is our first time out on the river for this long. Pray for Karis to sleep well at night, its hard for her with the intense darkness, no air circulation and new sounds. Last time she was very fearful at night. Pray for protection and safety for Crystal , she is almost 6 months pregnant. Pray for Jeremy as he is somewhat nervous and excited about having his family on-site for the biggest group he has ever lead into the jungle!