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!

Merry post- Christmas! AndCarrie's sick

We would really appreciate your prayers for Carrie.  She hasn't felt well for many days, but just in the last few has started having symptoms of vertigo, where the world seems to spin whenever she moves her head.  Since everything here is closed down until Monday, the 4th, we won't be able to get a blood test sent to Australia until then, and the results would be several days later.  Given her current symptoms, that seems like an awful long time.  She had a blood test a couple days ago (a simple one they can do here) and it showed she is fighting some kind of infection, but there is concern with possible thyroid problems, iron deficiency, etc.  Please pray for wisdom, strength, healing, endurance, for all of us.

Fortunately, the kids are mostly feeling better, with the exception of David having a tummy ache.

We had a nice Christmas with my (Gavin) parents and some other good friends here.  Sadly, though, we will be bidding my parents farewell on Monday as they finish of their fourth year here in PNG.  We will miss them very much!  The kids have loved having them around so much, them dropping in here, going over to their house, going out on walks or drives, etc.  We have truly enjoyed their presence here in our lives, working alongside them and having family times together.  They will be missed by more than just us!

Some pictures will follow.

Thanks for you thoughts and prayers!

Gavin

Coughing fits and other news

There's a cold going around right now and our kids have the coughing fits pretty badly, especially Gracie and Seth. If you read this and want to take the time to pray for them, we'd appreciate it! Seth's poor BPD (bronchopulmonary dysplasia, or chronic lung disease) lungs sound crackly and "wet," but he's keeping his blood oxygenation up, thank God! It's nice to see him start to outgrow some of the stuff that used to land him in the hospital or at least on oxygen supplementation and steroids. He is better today than he was yesterday, for which we praise God as Gavin is on an overnight far, far away in the village of some Bible translator friends of ours. He has a full two days of flying, starting at dawn today with a medevac of a heavily pregnant woman with expected delivery complications. I'm so glad he gets to do these "rescue" trips, especially when I think about how excruciating even uncomplicated labor usually is!

We're humming along here at home, winding down the school term (tomorrow is the last day for Isaac) and looking towards a two-week break. It's lovely to have Gavin's parents here still, although his poor dad has been sick for going-on-five-weeks now due to a parasite that resulted in extreme lethargy. We also appreciate prayers for him, especially as they are only here for three more weeks!

We've been having glorious rains which we do not take for granted! The food shortage is still really bad as the people wait for their sweet potatoes to grow, and it's a really fun honor to get to be involved in some small-scale relief efforts. I just wish larger-scale relief efforts would ramp up! Things have been promised but haven't come through yet, to the chagrin of those who are just hanging on.

Okay, some photos, then off to bed:

David loves to "build" things while Gavin is also working in the workshop. He laid down all these pieces of scrap lumber and had Gavin help him move a box to where he wanted it to be, talking to himself the whole time about the best way to set it all up. He has a lot of plans that his siblings often foil, so this is a nice creative outlet for him and a bonding experience with his daddy.

Aunt Katie (my sister) sent the girls these darling headbands. We had a fun little photo shoot before church last Sunday:

Gracie trying to kiss Marcie (who had already kissed Gracie) but Marcie is too busy arranging her hair to notice

They love each other so much!

Gracie's facial expression isn't great here, but Marcie's makes this photo worth posting

Silly, happy sisters

Enjoying watching the horses at our Ukarumpa paddocks on Saturday

Beautiful "ballerina" Gracie. The girls are either ballerinas, princesses, puppies, mommies, babies, or "just a girl," depending on the moment.

Isaac swinging the boys with his feet

At the annual Aviation Christmas party

Quints on the tire swing

This is at our store:

Catching up on family fun

Getting into Daddy's car tools

Two handsome boys with beards - David tried to draw his own on!

Riding their horsey - Jason.

David with a Mega Blocks creation

David with his Daddy-made axe. He was clearly in the mood to pose that day.

Where's Seth?

The kids love the train paraphernalia at Marmi and Papa's house

Will enjoying the tent at Marmi and Papa's

David showing off his balloon sword at our high school's "Carnival"

Isaac strutting his Nerf stuff. He loves dressing up goofily.

Just having fun on the rug, nothing special except they are multiples and best friends (and sometimes enemies, although they really stand up for each other if one of them is being a bully!)

David at a restaurant in the coast city of Lae during a quick weekend trip

David on a shiny new tractor in Lae

Enjoying the tire swing at the Store. Don't you love Will's butterfly wings?