Learning the culture

Ya know I learn something knew everyday. I am always trying to remember the things I find interesting so I can write them down and tell them to you. Then after thinking about them I think, oh maybe that is boring information, maybe you won't find my new information interesting. However, I have decided that instead of my just thinking for you, I will give you the opportunity to decide for yourself if it is boring or not.

Usually when I wake up in the morning, it is VERY difficult to drag myself into a sitting position so that I can make my eyelids remain open, so that I can do my bible study/quiet time. For me the word quiet time is not good because if it is too quiet I find myself drifting off to sleep. :o) I am such a good "M!" I know God is smiling down on me right now as He is thinking,"Oh what was I thinking when I put her in the middle of a village of lost people? Hmm?" I do try my best and most of the time I do stay awake during this time of studying the bible! Yesterday, when I was in this state of dragging myself to the sitting position I heard a loud moaning/crying noise coming from outside my window. (Our windows are not insulated, you can hear everything outside) I then jumped up ran to the window and instantly knew what had happened. My Adolfo had died. I quickly got dressed and went outside in the frigid weather and found our landlord, Adolfo's son by himself. He told me that Adolfo had indeed passed away. So I went to see Mada. (Adolfo's wife)

Now you have to understand a little about the way we live her to fully understand this story. We live in a home that was built in the middle of Mada and Adolfo's property. They have their bedrooms; which are 2 concrete rooms on the left side of our home, and they have three wooden rooms which are used as a kitchen and storage,on the right side of our home.  There is a wall built around all of their property, kinda like a compound.

So, I walked over to the wooden rooms where Adolfo and Mada had been sleeping for the past few months and found about 20 or so people sitting on benches. These were all people who were distant relatives, many of whom I have never seen. I found Mada sitting on a stoop in the room where Adolfo's body was. He was on a table with a white sheet over him. His daughter was fiercely dusting the room, his sister was sitting with Mada and I was rocking Mada as she silently cried. Now I haven't been around that many dead people in my life, but since living here, I have been around a lot more. It is strange how things don't bother you the way they once may have. I was sitting right next to a corpse and I never once thought anything of it. I sat there with Mada for awhile. Then her son, (our landlord) came in and had a ball of string in his hand. I thought to myself, "Oh he is going to hang something, maybe I can help him." Then I see him take the string and place one end of it at Adolfo's head and then he started to unravel the ball of string and handed to another man. The other man took the string and pulled it tightly so it was at Adolfo's feet. They shook their heads as if to agree and then tied a knot a few inches past his feet and wala, that is how long the casket needed to be. :o) See, told you I learned something new everyday!

So, I told Mada I would come back later and she said okay. I went back home and was trying to do school with Annie when we hear the horrible moaning sound. Not a human moaning an animal moaning. Annie asked what it was and I said I didn't know but it was coming from our backyard. So, we got up and looked out the back window. What to our wondering eyes did we see? But a bull being slaughtered! Oh my, oh my! "Mommy, what are they doing?" "Umm... fixing dinner." "Oh, I don't want any!"  "I don't either!" 

Later on I find our dog, which is really Mada's dog in the backyard with something in his mouth. I ask, "What does Louie have in his mouth?" " Oh that is the bull's tail." Oh the memories we are making here are so interesting! I hope I haven't totally bored you! I have a ton more to tell, but I know you aren't ready to read all of my adventures today! I will try and save some for later! Love you! Missy

My sweet Nana Mada and Tata Adolfo

This is the photo I said I took a few days ago while Adolfo was trying to get warm in the sun. I told you it was priceless! I just got home from sitting with Nana Mada. (That is her pictured with him) Bless her heart, this is so hard on her. They were married for almost 67 years. Please pray for her. I love her and it is breaking my heart to see her so sad. When I first moved here, she was a thorn in my side. Oh, she really made me mad. Now, she couldn't be sweeter to me. She is loving and kind and treats me like I am a daughter. I have learned a lot from her. Tomorrow, or I guess later today, (it is 3am) will be extremely hard on her. Please pray she will have the strength to endure it! Love you all! Missy

Adolfo has passed

It is a sad day for us here. Tata Adolfo who was very precious to me has now passed away. He died early this morning. I am sad but happy. I am so happy he no longer has to shiver in the cold nights and endure the pain that he had. I am sad because now sweet Mada is now alone to endure all life's trials by herself. She is a rock. She has cried but not like many here do. She just cried a few silent tears and said, " All he wanted was for his children to come and visit him." Yesterday when he was sitting out in the sun, trying to warm up, he saw a plane and said he hoped some of his kids were on it. He has 7 children and only about 3 of them came to see him regularly. Anyway, please pray for his family as they are all mourning the loss of their father, grandfather and so on. The next 9 days will be somewhat sad around here. They mourn for 9 days. 

Our internet has been horrible here and some days we have none. This is the first time we have had it in awhile. So, I will try to post a picture I took of the Mada and Adolfo two days ago. It is priceless. Really priceless. Some days I am so thankful for the little things I am able to offer these people, like electric blankets and lasting memories. Until later.....

Baby it's cold outside!

Hi friends! For some reason people always think that it never gets cold in Mexico. Well I am here to tell you it is cold here! I am sitting in my bed, with flannel sheets on, long very furry pjs on and socks and I am still cold! I would say it is about 50 degrees in our house. We don't have central heat here, and with tile floors and concrete walls it feels like an ice box. I am only setting this up so you will understand how my neighbors must feel.

Adolfo, who is still hangin' in there; is all bones. He truly looks like someone from a concentration camp. He is always in his bed and just doesn't want to eat. But he is always cold. They live in a wooden home with concrete floors and some of the cealing is open so the air comes in pretty easily. It literally hurts me to think about. So tonight I brought over an electric blanket. You would have thought I brought over a million dollars. It was so fun to watch as they touched it and saw that it actually got warm. So after about 15 minutes he stopped shivering and went to sleep. I felt so much better just knowing he would sleep a little better. Please pray for them. There are so many just like them that are cold. Really cold. The kind of cold that you can't make stop. We don't know how good we have it. I complain when I am cold and I at least have tons of blankets, pjs, a mattress, a space heater and plenty of ways to get warm. They have nothing.

Thanks for praying!

Door has swung open! ;o)

Well friends, next stop, Saint Tommy! We went to talk to our "person of peace" today and found him at home with his family. He took us to meet the  town leader and Greg explained that we wanted to live among them. He said he saw no reason why we couldn't do that. Which left us feeling very excited.

We then called our "person of peace's" brother, who lives in the US and asked if we could rent his home. This home is about 75% finished and still needs a lot of work before we could live in it. However, his brother was very excited and agreed to allow us to live there. Now we are going to try and fix it up over the next 6-7 months so we could move in sometime next summer. I will post pictures of our future home ASAP. We are sooo excited about this home and this village. We are very happy and know God has planned this all out for us. He is in control of our every move. Yay God!   Thanks for praying!

Off to get answers

Hi friends! Thank you all for praying for Annie. She is healing well. We went back to the Dr. yesterday and he said it would be more traumatic to give her more stitches. He said she looked good so we are just taking it easy and eating soft foods.

She is LOVING all of the attention! I need make a correction of sorts from my earlier post. I commented on how Alex was taking good care of Annie, mainly because that was the picture I had and I was commenting on that. However, Jerod also took very good care of Annie. Those fake nails she has on her fingers were painstakingly put on by none other than, Jerod! So, I wanted you all to know that although I don't have a picture to prove it; Jerod was loving on his sister too!

We are off today to "Saint Tommy" to find out if they will allow us to live in their village. If you read this, please pray. We are REALLY  hoping that this would be the answer to our prayers and we would be able to live in this village and maybe in the home that Greg was shown last week. We will find out today if the door is wide open or slammed shut. Thanks for your prayers. Love to you all! Missy

2 stitches busted

We were on our way to the car when blood started pouring out of Annie's mouth. We turned around and headed back to her room. She had 2 stitches that had come loose. We waited for the bleeding to stop and the Dr. said we could wait until tomorrow to see if they would restitch it or if we could let it heal on it's own. She is nervous to move her mouth. Right now we are cuddling in bed watching the movie, Elf. Please pray her mouth heals quickly! Thanks! Missy