Daniel's Birthday

Dear Daniel,
23 years ago today you were born.  Your birth nearly cost me my life.  It was the hardest thing I've ever gone through and the best thing I've ever gone through.  

Early in the morning on February 22, 1989 we went to Gamkalle Clinic.  The amniotic sac in which you were floating had broken and while labor pains weren't strong, we decided to go in.  The contractions continued off and on all day, but never really progressed.  By then you were at least two weeks overdue, but apparently very comfortable where you were!

By evening the midwife decided to induce labor.  She started the drip and contractions started in earnest.  Dad was there the whole time, all through the night, helping me breathe through each contraction as they got stronger and stronger.  Finally the moment came when we were ready to go to the delivery room and that's when the excitement started.

First off, the midwife made me walk down the corridor, out through the breezeway, and into the delivery room.  Yes, there were wheelchairs, but apparently she thought real women should walk to the delivery room.  I had at least one strong contraction on the way.  I remember leaning on the wall, being held up my dad and our friend, Sarah, while the contraction passed.

I  worked hard to deliver you, but the contractions were not really strong enough.  The midwife decided I needed a little help and told the nurses to push down on my uterus to try to force you out.  That was extremely painful.  I also found out later that the uterus was already on the point of looking like it might rupture and what they were doing was putting both of our lives in jeopardy.  I yelled to Sarah to make them stop.  She told the midwife she was pretty sure that practise had been outlawed in England.  The midwife said it probably had been in France, too, but she continued on anyway.  Finally you were born, coming out sideways instead of the normal way.

I thought all was over and just wanted to hold you and get back to my room.  But now the placenta wouldn't deliver, which resulted in heavy bleeding.  NOW, they decided to try to get an IV going.  They must have started the inducement with an injection rather than a drip or I would already have had an IV started.  I can't remember that detail.  By that time I was going into shock and they couldn't get the needle in.  After about six tries, they finally succeeded.  They eventually got the bleeding stopped and got me back to my room.  Then I had to have two units of blood, one from Sarah, and one from Uncle Dean.  The next day a gynecologist came in and removed all the bits of placenta that had been left behind.  That was also extremely painful and none with no pain relievers!


For days I was so weak I could barely lift my head or turn over in bed.  They decided to not give me more blood than they did because of the risk of my getting malaria or something from the blood of somebody who may have been about to come down with malaria or hepatitis or something else.  For at least two months, all I could do was take care of you.  Just folding laundry was an exhausting chore.

But, was it worth it?  Absolutely!  I would do it again if I had to.  You have been a delight and a joy.  I am so glad to have been given the privilege by God to be your mother.  I know I haven't always done it right, but here you are, 23 years old, all grown up and about to get married!  I am so proud of you, of the man you've become.

Celebrating John's Birthday

Internet continues to be a struggle here.  During this past week I have probably averaged answering three emails a day before the internet dies.  I don't think we even got a connection on Thursday or Friday.  It always seems a little better on the weekend, though it isn't great.  So will it work tomorrow at the office?  If not, I always have quilting to do at home!  Thankfully we are in a slow time of year in the Personnel office!

John's birthday was January 29th and we had a three day celebration, of sorts.  Our small prayer group meets the last Friday of the month, so I took a carrot cake to share with the group in honor of John's birthday.  Then Saturday evening we had friends over to share John's birthday.  I can't remember what I made for supper, but it must have been one of John's favorites.  For his birthday "cake", I made a cheesecake. It was the first day I had seen strawberries for sale in the market (we have about a six week strawberry season), so I splurged and made a strawberry topping for the cheesecake.  The cheesecake turned out perfectly!  Then the 29th, Sunday, was his actual birthday.  So after church we had a nice dinner and I gave John his gifts.
  
I splurged and got John a handful of grapes I found in the market.  While cheaper out on the street than they would have been in the store, they were still a splurge at about $4.00 a pound!  He got a handful, not a pound of them!  I also bought him a really cool book called Niamey 360+ (that's supposed to be degrees). It is a book of aerial shots of Niamey.  Most of them are current, but thrown in are shots of Niamey from the 60's and 70's.  It's a fascinating book.  If you know John, you know how much he is enjoying looking through the book.

I'm so thankful for my husband and for all he does for me, for his faithfulness to the Lord and to our marriage, for his kindness, for his discipline, and so many other things.  Here is one of the things he's done for me recently.  He planted cilantro and parsley right outside our kitchen door.  All I need to do is step outside and pluck fresh herbs for when I'm cooking.  He also has tomatoes growing and we will soon have a bumper harvest of fresh, organic tomatoes!  


Celebrating John's birthday was just one small way of saying thanks to him for all he is and for all he does.  I am blessed.

How I Saw God Today

Every January all of our missionaries here in the country get together for Spiritual Life Conference.  We have a guest speaker who brings about two messages a day, except one day that is just a "down" day.  On that day we have a prayer breakfast, team reports, an open forum, sports, seminars, and in the evening a fun/skit night.

This year John was heavily involved with the worship sessions for conference.  He has been involved almost every year we've been here, but this year all of the planning and leading fell to him. He had a great worship team working with him and it was fantastic to see young people taking part in the worship. He did such a superb job and most of all God was glorified in the music.

The prayer breakfast was really nice, too.  Some of the ladies had made special decorations .... out of newspaper.  How creative is that?!   As one of the single guys said, "It looks like a wedding in here!"  The men have their own prayer breakfast and theirs is all about the food.  But we have food AND decorations!  We spent a good amount of time in prayer as well.
  
Skit night was probably not as funny as some years....but it was still pretty good.  Some of the younger missionaries talked many of the ladies into participating in a flash mob.  In the middle of some announcement the theme song on Slumdog started playing.  One lady stood up and looked around like, "What in the world is going on here?!"  Then two others stood up and started dancing and the first joined in.  Little by little we all stood up and started dancing.  It was a hoot and I think the men were left speechless.  I'm told one husband's response was simply, "Unbelievable". We're hoping that a missionary who just went on home assignment will be able to post the video on You Tube....the internet here has been so bad lately that there's no chance of doing it from here.  Check out the full story here.  And, no, I don't have any pictures.  I was too busy trying to get my moves right.


As I mentioned we had some great messages.  One day the speaker spoke about miracles.  His definition of miracle is something that only God could do.  We get so used to a miracle having to be something huge and amazing like a person being healed from a terrible disease, but in reality a miracle might be something we often pass off as a "coincidence".  How often does God orchestrate events in ways only He could do and we are not even aware of it.


After the message we met in small groups and discussed the message. Our group talked about how often God does something and we don't even see it.  It's not huge or "amazing" and we forget to look and we aren't even aware.  So one of the things I am trying to do this year is write in my journal each day (well, every day that I write) a way that I saw God today.  I call it "How I Saw God Today".  Some days it is something pretty big like using the current climate here to rearrange our plans for a certain missionary to put him in a different place, the place where, I believe, God wants him.  Other days it's something "small" like noticing the gorgeous bougainvillea that pour over many of the walls on our street in a profusion of pink, purple, white, yellow, and orange.

Our street on a very dusty day!

I would not base my theology on most country music,  but I love the words to one of George Strait's songs:
I saw God today.
I've been to church, I've read the Book,
I know He's here, but I don't look
Near as often as I should.
His fingerprints are everywhere
If I just slow down to stop and stare,
Open my eyes, and, man, I swear,
I saw God today.

How have you seen God today? 
Have you really looked?

The Year in Pictures

I decided to summarize the year 2011 by putting up a picture for each month.

January 2011 
We made a visit to Connecticut, then took Suzanne back to Ohio (Daniel was already there, but I don't remember how he got back), helped represent SIM at Cedarville's missions' conference, and spoke at a church in western PA on our way back to Maryland.  To celebrate John's birthday, we went sightseeing in Washington DC. We visited the African-American Civil War Monument, the Daughters of the America Republic museum, and walked past the White House.

February 2011
Daniel (not our Daniel) and Victoria came to visit.  We had a great time.....guess what?....sightseeing in Washington DC.  This time we visited the African Art Museum and the Holocaust Museum.

March 2011 
John had his spring break from the college we were at, so we drove to Sebring, FL to visit my parents.  We had a really good time with them, sitting on their verandah eating lunch and just spending time together.  It was a foggy rainy morning the day we left.


April 2011
Spring was absolutely gorgeous in Maryland!!!  The azaleas and the cherry blossoms turned the area into possibly the prettiest place I have ever seen in the spring.  But even better was a visit to us from good friends....Ed, Sharon, & Luke and a week or so later Al & Judy.  I chose this picture of John with Ed and Sharon just because it shows how much fun we have together.  Oh yeah....guess where we went with our two sets of visitors?  You got it!!  Washington, DC.  With Ed & Sharon we visited the President's Gallery at one of the museums, went quickly through the American History Museum, and then we walked around the monuments where all the cherry trees were in blossom.  With Al & Judy we went to the American Indian Museum.

May
Another trip to Ohio, this time for Daniel's graduation from Cedarville University.  We couldn't be prouder!  (or is it more proud?)

June 
We moved from Maryland back up to Pennsylvania and John was off for his six weeks in England.  Daniel was working in Ohio, and Suz and Theo were working at nearby Camp Ladore.  Thankfully they came home every weekend which kept me from getting too lonely!  It was a pretty quiet month, though.


July
Most of this month was spent packing and getting ready to return to Africa.  John was back from England and we took a couple of weeks for a "staycation", seeing some of the local attractions.  But probably the highlight of the month was taking the wedding pictures for my nephew's wedding. Jeremiah and Heather had a beautiful wedding!


August 
Back in Africa!  Suz and Theo went with us and got engaged while they were here.  That was pretty exciting!!


September
September was a pretty quiet month with us settling into a routine.  One day everybody in the office went to the house of one of our co-workers to have a time of prayer and present a monetary gift to him to celebrate the birth of his twins.  Normally that is done at the naming ceremony, but that was held in a neighboring country and none of us could go.  Meanwhile, back on the other side of the big pond Daniel got engaged to Kelly! :)


October 
More routine!  One of the big things we did though, was to host an orientation for new missionaries. In this picture John is translating for Hama who talked about Nigerien culture.


November
These are two of the ladies I get to work with.  I enjoy them a lot.  We also got a new generator installed at the office meaning we can continue on with work even when the power goes off.  Suzanne had been sick for over two months so I made a quick trip to the USA to visit and encourage her.


December
While in the US, we got to take a trip to Washington DC.  While there we visited Georgetown Cupcakes.  It was fun spending time with Daniel and Kelly and Suz and Theo.

2011 was a year with a lot of transitions in it, such as moving twice.  There were times that stretched our faith and that were difficult such as Suzanne's extended illness.  And there were a lot of joys such as the engagements of both of our children to godly partners. 

May God bless 2012!

Honoring an Honorable Man

Let's just call him  "Ancien", which translates as "Elder". This is the nick name affectionately given to him in the office.  Not only is he  the oldest in the office, but he is also an elder at his church.   Ancien has worked for our organization for 30 years.  Every day he counted and handed out cash.  Never once was he caught short or with his hand in the till.  

We recently celebrated his retirement by having a big party for him.  As people got up and shared what Ancien had meant to them, the words honesty, integrity, and faithfulness came up over and over again.

In an area where graft and corruption are fairly common, qualities such as honesty, integrity, and faithfulness are to be highly honored.  As Ancien said, "I am retiring with a clear conscience."  He has not knowingly wronged anybody, stolen from anybody, or ever embezzled money though all of those would have been temptations common in his position.

And of course, every big celebration is accompanied by heaps of good food! 

I hope at the end of my career words like "faithful" and "honest" will be used of me and that I'll be able to say that I am retiring with a clear conscience.


I think this is a little bit of what heaven will be like.  I'll stand before the Lord with a clear conscience....not because of what I've done or who I am, but because of what He's done and who He is.  I can't wait to hear those words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."  Not because I'm so wonderful, but because He's given me the power and ability to do what He wants me to do. And then we'll have the Marriage feast of the Lamb with food like we can't even imagine!  What a day that will be!!


Maranatha!

Christmas 2011

It's been awhile since I did a blog!  First I was really busy getting ready for all the people who arrived between December 27 and January 1st.  Then we had our conference from January 4-8.  And then we had no internet for a week.  I never had a chance to write about our Christmas, so I'll do that now.

I got back from the US on December 20, so the next day John and I decorated for Christmas.  Here's our little tree aka the bush.  But I like our little tree!  John and I got a little tree for our first Christmas because we didn't have a lot of money and because we thought it would be easier to bring a little tree to Africa than a big one.  Then when we moved to the "village", we decided we didn't want to have a big tree that attracted a lot of attention.  As we established a church we didn't want to do anything that new believers would think they had to do, such as have a Christmas tree.  It's normal here to decorate your house for holidays, so our decorations were understood as making our house nice for our holiday.  But we just didn't want the focus to be on the tree.  So to this day we have a small tree.  (I've got nothing against big trees...this has just been our personal choice. And when we're in the US, we almost always buy a real tree.  And I love going to people's houses who have lots of decorations!)  We try to keep our decorations simple, too.  This is a small creche scene I picked up at the dollar store, but I really like it!

On Christmas Eve John and I had our traditional Christmas Eve supper.....curry, the way my dad makes it with tons of chopped up fruit, nuts, boiled eggs, etc. to go with it.  I also made sticky buns which we had Christmas morning for breakfast.

Here Christmas is spent at church with believers AND this year was also Sunday.  So we went to church!  It was a great service, full of joy and celebration.  The walls, ceiling fans, and even the guitars were decorated. The choir had several special numbers. Each Sunday School class came up and sang songs and recited verses. Some of these verses were really complicated, too. These itty-bitty kids speak better French than I do! Of course, the little guys stole the show like they do at churches all over the world. Our neighbor kids even recited verses in French. I was  proud of them so I'm sure their parents were extra proud! The oldest Sunday school group did a skit. And the ladies' group sang, too. The white blurs are hankies and kleenex being waved around.  Why, I'm not really sure. I have been attending meetings, but missed for a month so since I wasn't there when they practiced I didn't participate in this special number.  And, of course, there was a message.


The service was followed by a meal.  I didn't get any pictures of that because I was too busy eating!


Later in the evening we went to a friend's house for a potluck supper.
And on the 26th we opened our gifts.

And that was our Christmas!

And,yes, we missed our kids.  Immensely.

A Quick Trip to DC

My reason for going to the USA was to try to get Suzanne back on the road to health.  But of course I wanted to spend time with Daniel as well.  I saw him overnight on Thanksgiving weekend and we got to have lunch together, but it was a really brief visit.  

So Suzanne, Theo, Kelly, and I decided to drive down to DC for a weekend.  We finally found one that worked for all of us.  It was an 8+ hour drive.  We stopped once for supper at Wendys and once for gas.  We made good time until we got near Daniel's exit and the traffic was all tied up because of construction.  I guess we finally got to his house around midnight and we had left at about 2:45. 

We saw his apartment and Theo stayed there.  Suz, Kelly, and I had reservations at a hotel.  First we went to the wrong one, then we had to figure out where we were really staying.  We were so tired when we finally dropped into bed.

The next morning we went to McDonald's for breakfast, but there were so many people there that we decided to take the metro on in to DC and find a McD's there.  But by the time we got there, it was too late for breakfast so we just had an early lunch.  We got to see Daniel's office building, and we stopped at a trade fair outside the Art Museum.
  
Our next stop was Bolling Air Force Base where my nephew is stationed.  He had just graduated from the Honor Guard program and is now starting technical school.  In addition to learning a trade (something electrical???) he will also appear in parades, at military funerals, and at others affairs of State.  The bottoms and sides of his dress shoes have metal taps on the toes, horse-shoe-like pieces on the heel, and metal on the sides so he can click his heels together. I'm guessing his shoes weigh about three pounds a piece.  Fortunately he doesn't wear those all the time! We didn't get to see him in uniform, but I'm sure he looks pretty handsome! He should after all the hours he spends ironing (yes, even his boxers), polishing, and duct-taping stuff (you'd be surprised what all is duct-taped on the reverse side of that uniform!). He and his wife have a real nice apartment and she'll be able to transfer into a university near there to continue her social work program.

Back on the metro we went, this time to Georgetown.  Suzanne wanted to visit Georgetown Cupcakes which is featured in the show "DC Cupcakes" on TLC.  Daniel had figured out where it was and what metros to take to get there and where we had to walk to find the shop. Once we got there, we had to wait in quite a line, but it moved along quickly and the cupcakes really were delicious. I got a cup of steaming hot tea to go with mine as well.

Our next stop was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but unfortunately the park was closing at 5.  After seeing J in uniform, we wanted to see the Changing of the Guard (which he said is always Army, never Air Force), but it wasn't to be.  Somewhere in all this Metro riding and changing lines we rode on the 2nd longest elevator in DC.  It was a bit scary.

And then we went to Old Towne, which is in Alexandria.  We got there in the dark and walked down the main street, peering into shops and actually going into a few.  We three teachers in the group enjoyed the Children's Book Store we found and we all enjoyed the 10,000 Villages store we went in.  We ate supper at Chipotle and then walked down the other side of the street back to the metro. All my pictures are blurry, but it was really pretty with the Christmas lights.


Back at our hotel a huge party was going on.  We had to park in the parking garage and fell into a huge pothole on the way there.  Around 1 a.m. a drunk woman woke us up with her loud talking.  It kind of scared us (Kelly and I....Suzanne slept through it and I didn't know Kelly was awake) because she was yelling about "I don't even know you" and "get out of my room".  Sounds like she got a little too friendly with somebody at a party and then decided they were a creep.  It was kind of hard to know what to do and if we should do anything.  After awhile we heard her saying "thank you" so I think security came and helped her out.  It was quiet after that, but I found it hard to get back to sleep.  Please remind what's fun about getting drunk?


I'm so glad we were able to go visit Daniel and spend good quality time together.  I just wish John had been there.  All in all, it was definitely worth the 16-hour round trip!!!!