august 3rd, 2007 - DR journal

i haven't written in three days. i've been discouraged, but not sure i wanted to share. i have been ordered to bed rest by matt and the team leaders. i have been in awful pain for almost three days. i have been in bed since wednesday night... today is friday. not really how i expected to spend this missions trip, but i think that is one of the things God is trying to teach me about... my "to high" expectations and my need for control, both which have been stripped from me.

i spent yesterday afternoon in a dominican doctor's office. found out i was having "importante" (important) contractions. guess he was trying to say they were the real deal, not just braxton hicks. praise the Lord I had one while I was in the office. he wound up checking everything over twice. susie, matt & i got to see the baby. the doctor said the baby was moving well and it's heart rate was good, but they put me on some medicine to stop the contractions.

it's hard to watch the group having fun without me. i feel like i am missing everything.

bored bed rest self-portrait.

last night matt & aubrey went to dinner at the home of a dominican family. matt had fun stories about trying out his spanish. they showed them photos of our family and had a wonderful meal. (i think i was having pollo victorina for the 3rd time.)

save the children

this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.
let's just say we all had some hard days in the Dominican Republic.

july 31st, 2007 - DR journal

matt and i decided to move to an empty bunk room. we all slept very soundly. praise the Lord! actually, aubrey is still asleep.

ok, so this is tuesday morning.... we left the the retreat center and headed to the beach before going to santiago to work at jacagua christian school. this is the last journal entry before august 2nd.

tuesday we spent an amazing day at the beach. i was in heaven. nothing like having a number of "helpers" to play with aubrey so that i could relax. matt spent the afternoon cliff jumping and swimming. i didn't quite relax, so to speak, i kind of went snorkeling.... it was awesome! only problem is that swimming doesn't really seem like exercise to me. you don't sweat. you don't get tired (until later). i wound up being out in the ocean for over 2 hours. not so smart. that night was the first night that i wound up in pain and on bed rest.

july 30th 2007 - DR journal

Psalm 86:1-3

Bend down, O Lord and hear my prayer;
answer me, for I need your help.
Protect me, for I am devoted to you.
Save me, for I serve and trust you.
You are my God.
Be merciful, O Lord,
for I am calling on you constantly.

up bright and early at 5 am. aubrey decided that as long as 13 other people were in her room, it must be time to play. trying to keep a toddler from waking up a room full of people is quite a feat. i prayed through an hour of rocking her. when it was light enough in the room to see, i discovered that she was covered in bug bites. they were head to toe, so many it looked like chicken pox... the guilt set in. i had one bite on my knee and my poor baby was covered. what had i gotten her into? seems the mosquito got stuck in her pack & play and made a meal out of my baby. she hasn't complained though. the kid is amazing. takes everything in stride (that's her daddy's personality coming out).

we had our breakfast and our team climbed into a pick-up truck to head out to the schools and hand out supplies. the driver, susie, aubrey and i sat in the front (aubrey on my lap) and everyone else crowded into the back of the truck with the supplies.



i prayed up every hill and around every sharp turn, but we made it safely. we were warmly welcomed in each community. we were able to play games with the kids and "practice" our spanish. try teaching 10 kids card games in another language is interesting. i still don't know how to say "go fish" in spanish. the kids were sweet, they loved aubrey. they shared coconut meat with her (yeah, for peer pressure).


matt has been awesome. i get worn out easily (and tired, and hot). he has been great at anticipating my needs and being a strong shoulder to lean on. he and aubrey spent an entire hour or so together swimming in the river. aubrey made friends with a dominican boy who took on a "big brother" role and kept an eye on her while she played. thankfully, aubrey fell asleep in my arms on the way home. God has graciously provided a catnap for her each day.




we got home, took showers and headed out to dinner. we got to dip our feet in the ocean and eat pizza. (yeah!) it was a perfect end to a wonderful day.

july 29th, 2007 - DR journal

i just took the best cold shower of my life. i would have stayed in longer if i wasn't so tired. today was a long day. up at 4 am, to the airport by 6:30, by 8 am we were on our way. for a full day of flying aubrey did exceptionally well. we arrived in puerto plata at around 2 or 3 pm, not sure, time is kind of a non-issue. we had an amazing meal and I was surprised to watch aubrey gobble up everything... rice, beans, chicken. she is picking up spanish faster then i am. makes me excited to see what God has in store for us on this trip and in the future.

wow, what a summer!

hey all... we have returned. our computer and internet are FINALLY up and running at the new house and i am hoping that this means many "nap times" filled with blogging and internet surfing. thank goodness that it is finally set up. i know you are all anxiously waiting for the details of our missions trip. i will try to make up for a very "quiet" august on our blog with many posts of our adventures in the DR, and updates with what is going on in our neck of the woods.
thank you for your patience.