Flying with Dad and baking with Mom

Gavin had a lot of extra space last week while flying one of our Bible translators to her village in the mountains, so Isaac and I got to have the adventure and blessing of going along! The bananas I'm holding were a gift from a little old lady in the village. The people were really excited to see the mother of the five babies. Apparently the story is well known there. :)

I'm so proud of Gavin!

Marcie is amazingly adept in the kitchen. She did this when my back was turned. She is especially interested in helping me whenever I'm in the kitchen.

David wanted me to take pictures of him with his new LEGO car. :)

Isaac "photo-bombing" the picture I was taking of Marcie and Seth. I'm glad he stuck himself in there!

New family photos

Some of you probably already saw these on Facebook, but for those who didn't:

This was taken Saturday before Marmi and Papa left on Monday. *Sob* I'm so glad we got a great family photo in before they left. Seth was asking me yesterday, "Where's Papa??" He seemed to understand the answer. The kids are already pretty used to the idea that people leave on an airplane to go back to America. Such is the life of a missionary kid! We're blessed to have loved ones here in the first place - so, so blessed!

[Aside: Even though I'm wearing jeans in this photo, it isn't really culturally appropriate for me to do so during the day here in PNG. No one saw us, though. ;) Normally I wear skirts or dresses, although more and more PNG women are wearing baggy capri-type pants and even (very occasionally) skin-tight jeans. I love skirts and dresses, so for me it's no hardship just to stick with those during the day.] 

Thank you to Susan, who took the kids' 3rd birthday photos (and Isaac's 11.5-year-old photos). She does an incredible job! Unfortunately the last photo is blurry, but I still really love it. Thank God the kids were so happy during the photo shoot! We only had 20 minutes before it started to POUR rain. 

We're all doing well. Gavin is med-evacing a PNG woman from the bush because her labor was "distressed," poor lady! I pray she's at the hospital and safely operated on or otherwise delivered of her baby/babies by now. He got the message too late to help last night, so all night long I thought of her in that agony, waiting for first light for Gavin to take off and come get her out of the bush. (She was at a remote aid post.) I love this part of Gavin's job. He does, too, although he just feels terrible for the poor women he's flying. But he's getting them to help, thank God!

I am moving into the laboratory at our clinic starting the end of the month. There was a need for a replacement lab tech, so I got "promoted." I'm thankful for my Biology degree and all the hours I spent looking into a microscope. My favorite class was microbiology. :)  I'll do blood draws; various tests - malaria, HIV antibody, urine, blood sugar, pregnancy, etc;, blood slides and counts, and more. One of my best friends, Natalie, will be my trainer and supervisor. I'm really excited! I'll only be working two mornings a week, so it's pretty perfect for a busy momma and household. 

Better run - Will is hungry! He wants Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, though, so he's out of luck on that count. ;)

Love and gratitude,

Carrie

And a Happy New Year! (she's back!)

Thank you all for praying!! I (Carrie) am indescribably grateful for good health again. Today was the first day I've been completely back to normal, and I'm blogging at 1 a.m. because hunger struck in the middle of a sound sleep. I haven't been hungry since Christmas Day, I don't think, so it's a blessing! I'm on my second big bowl of generic Raisin Bran.

Finally, some Christmas pictures! We've been having pretty severe computer issues, so that's a big reason for the delay. I had hoped to get them out right on Christmas.

Stocking joy! The kids didn't remember last year. Their first response to the empty stockings hung over the fireplace was to want to wear them. Isaac, of course, helped teach them differently. Thanks to Aunt Jenn for the stockings!!!

Tousled-hair Gracie is thrilled with her candy cane

Handsome Will showing off some candy

(We had to move Will over so he wouldn't get his items confused with David's or Gracie's.)

Sweet Seth eats a sweet See's lollipop from his Grandpa

Marcie sat so long and so quietly with her candy cane,
it was almost eery. She was just really happy!

Isaac's present (flown up by one of our airplanes from Target in Australia). Note David and Seth in the background, wearing reindeer antlers from Marmi. 

David is so happy with the empty box in the background. Red Robin balloon courtesy of Grandpadad. ;)
Marcie wore her beautiful red Christmas dress over her pajamas.

Like father, like son . . . David and Gavin building LEGO and loving it!!

The village near us that has been the hardest hit by the staple crop shortage (no sweet potatoes or yams or taro) showed their gratitude for the missionaries' gifts of food relief with this abundance of garden produce! Very little of what they brought is substantially caloric food (cucumbers, greens and tomatoes don't so much fill one up as provide vitamins, hence their need for rice or other starchy basics), but it still seemed strange to be taking food from the people who so desperately needed food a few days before. But this was a very Melanesian act, very much focused on reciprocity and giving something in return as a true "thank you." The neat thing is that the food relief (nearly 100 ten-kilogram bags of rice, with oil and salt to add in for fat and flavor) was delivered to them on Christmas Eve. God's timing, not ours! They came a few days later with this thank you heap of food and apologized for how "little" it was. (We still have some on our front porch!)

Reading to my kids, even the big one. He can't resist a silly rhyming song book either. :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Seth, Marcie, Will, David, Gracie and the rest of us!