Clinic

We are helping with a medical clinic this week in South Quito.  It is really fun to watch families that come into the clinic and be blessed.  One lady came in today and just wanted some tooth paste, how sad is that?
Not only do the people get medical attention they also get prayed for.  We are going to enjoy our week with this team.

Here are some pictures that I took of a few of the children today.  I'm always a sucker when it come to children.  They are just so cute.

See how cute she is?

This little guy wasn't excited about seeing the doctor, all he wanted was a sucker.

Look at this precious little girl and her big beautiful eyes.

This little guy gave me a wink.  

Spring break

Spring break here is better known as holy week.  

The kids left last Tuesday and flew to Costa Rica for an MK Retreat.  I was really nervous about them traveling alone and I think they were a little nervous as well.  They did great and they had a great time at the retreat, they had so much fun that they didn't want to come home.  

They flew home on Megan's birthday so we showed up at the airport with balloons for the birthday girl, oh and a Dr. Pepper.  They were really tired but they talked nonstop about the retreat.  We went straight to McDonalds because they were starving and then home.  Around 4:30 they were asleep, we decided to let them sleep all night and they woke up the next morning at 8:30.

Since the birthday girl slept her birthday away we took her out to eat the next day for her birthday.  Of course we went to TGI Fridays and of course hers wasn't free because it wasn't really her birthday, but that didn't matter.

We are so proud of our kids!

Ethan enjoying his hamburger.

Megan enjoying her birthday lunch.

While the kids were in Costa Rica Shannon and I flew to Cuenca for a couple of days.  I love Cuenca and I'm so glad that we went.  We haven't really had a lot of time to travel and see Ecuador because of the kids school schedule so we decided to take advantage of the time and go.  

Cuenca is the third largest city in Ecuador and it's beautiful.

While walking the streets on Good Friday we ran into a processional.  

There are lots of little restaurants, coffee shops, and ice cream shops that line the streets.

On another note,  I have an appointment tomorrow with my doctor in the states and I'm praying that he tells me that my allergy test was wrong and I'm really not allergic to all those foods.  Hey, I can always dream, right?  Eating out is not one of my favorite things to do, it's just too hard.  I didn't eat when we went to TGI Fridays for Meg's birthday, I just had a pineapple juice.  I am hoping that I will know more after tomorrow and things will get easier for me.  I will share what I find out in a later blog post, stay tuned. 

Passion

Remember this?

Yesterday our church went and put a roof on for this family.  Shannon left our house at 4:30 a.m. and didn't return until 9:30 last night.

These pictures brought tears to my eyes and Shannon couldn't even talk about it without crying.

This family raises sheep for a living and the husband, Juan, sells banana chips at a toll both here in Quito.
Their house had been damaged by wind and storms and they only had half a roof and the rest was covered in plastic.  They have dirt floors so that means when it rains, which it does everyday there, they would have a muddy floor.  (Last night they had dry floors!) There are nine family members that live in the house, which includes Juan's sister-in-law and her child.

Shannon said it was a beautiful drive.

Here is the house.  They had to park at the top and then carry all of their supplies in. They were at about 14,000 feet about sea level and it was really cold.

Here is a closer look at the roof.

This is their kitchen.

This is where they do all of their washing.

This is Juan's son at the front door.

This was their neighbors.  If you look closely you can see all the sheep.

Shannon and some men of the church.

Putting on the roof.

Putting in two front windows.  All the windows of the house are covered because they don't have windows.  

This is Juan's wife and daughter.  They have five kids.

This is the family.  Juan is in the orange hat.

They stopped at this volcano on the way back to Quito.

Take time today to thank God for your many blessings.  

Otavalo Baptism Service

While I was in the states Shannon went to a baptismal service in Otavalo.  This is one of the churches that Shannon helped build in January.  

The service was held at a local park.

Home Sweet Home

Well, I'm back home here in Quito. It's kinda of funny saying that I'm home here in a foreign country and I just returned from my home country. It's just all so confusing.

I'm going to be honest and tell you that it was a long two weeks of sickness.

Let me start off by saying that I have had a lot of problems with my stomach since we moved out of the country almost 3 years ago. And I can't tell you how many times I was told that it was all caused by stressed and I believed them. I mean I just moved to a foreign country that speaks a foreign language and it was all pretty shocking to my system. It's shocking to every one's system that has done the same thing. Not sure if it was enough for 4 colonoscopies for me but....

Over the last three years I haven't been to the doctor for anything else but stomach problems. I was finally told in October that I had IBS. Ok, I guess. I started doing everything trying to help my stomach and rid myself of my stomach pain to which I was unsuccessful. So back to the doctor I go. By this time I am down to 105 pounds and miserable. I was really in need of some medical testing that I could only get in the states but I thought that I could just wait until June when we come back home. (to the states, I'm so confused as to where my home is)  Shannon thought differently.

We found a specialist in Seattle Washington and made an appointment that I had to wait three weeks to go to. And I must say that it was a long miserable three weeks.

I flew to Seattle and then to Houston to spend a couple of weeks with my mom. It wasn't the greatest trip to the US because I was too sick to eat at my favorite restaurants or even drink Starbucks very much. (you know I'm sick if I don't drink Starbucks every chance I get) But I did get some much needed rest. I guess when you're sick there's nothing like having your mom by your side.

Results:
I do know that I have some food allergies, ok a lot of food allergies. I'm not going to say much more because it's all unofficial because I haven't went over my test results with my doctor yet. I should know all the results in a couple of weeks. I will let you know one thing that I'm allergic to and that is coffee. NO, I'm not lying, I'm allergic to coffee beans. I'm pretty sure that I'm only going to be able to drink it on a rotation of every four days. I don't think it will be too hard for me to do because I haven't really drunk straight coffee in two weeks. Ok, I'm lying, it's going to be hard. But I'm willing to do whatever I need to do to get better. Maybe there will be some kind of miracle and I will be wrong about the coffee beans, but I doubt it. Actually some of the other allergies are worse than the coffee beans, I wish it was just coffee.

So, I guess I will be back to blogging. I'm sure I will be filling you in on some of my struggles with food allergies in the coming weeks. I would really appreciate your prayers because it's going to be hard. While you're praying I have a very dear friend of mine that is a missionary in El Salvador that has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Please remember her in your prayers too.

Goodbye Starbucks, hello healthy. 

A blogging break

Just wanted to inform you all that I will be taking a blogging break.  (It's not like I haven't been taking a break already.)  I think I told you in my last post that I have been sick and haven't really gotten out of the house much, well it's actually been like that for over a month now.  I am needing some medical tests done that are not available here in Ecuador, so we made the decision that I should fly back to the states.  I will be flying out first thing in the morning.  Please pray that my flights go smoothly, I don't think I could handle any delays or canceled flights.  I must also mention that I'm not very excited about this trip because I'm not really sure how long I will be gone and my family will be here without me.  But, what do you do?

Well, that's about it in a nutshell.  I'm not sure when I will blog again, probably when I get back to Ecuador.

Please pray for these guys.  They will miss me and I will miss them.

The Night Sky

I took these pictures from my bedroom window last night.  I'm not sure if the pictures really do the sky justice but it was a beautiful sight.