October Life

A few pics of what happened in October!

Kensington has kept getting ear infections - the doctor says she needs tubes, but can't do here.  So, we have been praying she has no more until we are back on furlough next year.  Pray she can sleep well- she has been up lots of nights from this.  But her joy and fun personality keep us smiling.

Brice and I moved into the living room - hence the mattress there :). With Kensington sleeping little this allowed all the kids to not be in the same room and wake up from her crying.  These sisters sure do love one another :)

Our teammates arrived!  They have 2 little ones also and we found a community doing Trunk of Treat here - so the kids got to make costumes and dress up!

We are surviving most days - but loving it too.  Here Brice is holding the babies while I try to get dinner cooked.  A real life moment right now...

We started back our tradition of a student a week coming over and eating with us and spending the evening.  We love asking them questions, praying for them, and playing with them.

We have lots of students living here now and a lot of them are very talented in worship.  We are enjoying hearing them lead worship.

So much rain here.  A blessing - have not been able to do as much laundry with the rains.  And another blessing - the kids got to boat around to places on campus :)

The days and nights seem full, but we are still taking time to enjoy family time and God's beautiful creations - like the cliffs near us.

A full, crazy life!

    So enjoying life right now.  It resembles this picture a little.  Very hot, so we are enjoying popsicles (Kensington's first)!  Baby Greeley sleeping away.....   Keeping our 1 year old busy and buckled so we can get schooling done.  But, to be home is so very great.

    Upon arrival we were told and stamped on our passports to get student visas or kids have to leave in 3 months.  The process seemed overwhelming- submit a letter to the department of education, be granted an interview there, then submit to immigration to see about approval.  All these require lots of driving from where we live, waiting, and juggling kids.  Thankfully we had a group here from Elizabethtown, KY and while I usually try to just do things ourselves- this time I asked them for help watching the kids so we could get all these meetings done this week.  And we did get them done and approved and it also felt like Brice and I got a few dates with the driving time and no kids along.  So we are good to go until we do the process over again next year :)

Student visas granted!

   
     I wish everyone could know our students personally and hear their stories.  We heard today immigration granted the student visas!!!   Daily staff was calling, praying, and checking on their status.  Yesterday we racked our brains....and remembered a friend had a friend at immigration.  She gave us some great advice in a certain letter to take.  Staff took it in and ....they are coming!

     Ebi here has waited over 2 years for classes to resume at WISE to finish his degree and he finally is coming back!  Thank you, Lord!!!

Waiting, waiting, waiting

     Still we wait on immigration to let the students come to start school.  We have pushed classes back, but praying this next week classes can start as we can only push back so much for this term.  We just submitted a request as all the paperwork was in the 1st of June for the students and new staff to receive visas.  We pray they see our diligence and will grant the visas anyday now.

     We are also praising God for our grads and students coming from Aintgua that they were spared from the hurricane and we are praying for our friends in Haiti and Florida now.

     For our family we are waiting on baby's documents.  Brice hopes to travel as soon as the storm passes in a few days and then the rest of us are hoping to travel back the week after.  Thanks for the prayers, keep praying!

Greeley Arrived Today!

     Well, our other babies came early, so we had thought Greeley would come by now and we would be on our way back to Barbados.  In fact, the last several weeks we did lots of walking and trying to find hills in Kansas to climb to get her to come.  We just miss home and our own place and cooking and life in Barbados, not that our parents are not so generous in sharing their homes with us.  We even thought about delivering in Barbados since baby was not going to be so early, but without insurance there did not see a way to afford a $10,000 birth there and figure our the dual citizenship, etc.  So,  after 4 trips to the hospital and being stuck at a 4 dilation for weeks with the doctor saying as soon as you feel anything come in as your labors go fast...the 4th time she did come!

     Each of the places we have lived we have a child named after, except for our time we cherished in CO.  So....this last baby got a Colorado name - Greeley Lechelle.  She was our biggest baby even being 3 weeks early!  Brice will head back to Barbados soon to start the semester off and I will follow as soon as birth certificate comes, social security card, and then her passport.  We have heard this can be done anywhere from a week to 4, so we are praying on the shorter side but know may not be the case.

     As we waited on baby, we have also been waiting on immigration in Barbados.  Even though staff work permits for fellow teammates and student visas were submitted months ago, they still have not processed them.  Frustrating for the students waiting and our new teammates to just wait.  We have pushed back our Sept start date and praying we hear any day now that they are processed and can all come in.  This wait and see what the Lord does in HIS timing certainly is faith stretching and seems to be how everything works in our lives now :)

Waiting on baby

     So we are back in the States now.  And so blessed with family basements and guest rooms to stay in, but sure longing for our own home.  We are really just waiting on this baby girl to join our family and head back!   We are still 8 weeks from delivering and while the other 3 have come a month early, 2 months is a lot early.  This past week our family all got some vomiting sickness, which caused me to go into labor.  Brice was away at camp and my sister went with me to the hospital.  Thankful for great care and medicine and baby staying put at least for now.

     Brice leaves to go back to Barbados in a few days and so praying baby will keep growing inside me, he can help get work done there with accreditation, visas, etc.  Also prayers as every week we are in the States we are sharing at a different church all over to maximize our time here and so prayers we make wise decisions with baby's health.

Crazy trip back to the States

     I can't ever say we have had a stress free travel day, can anyone?   Maybe because luggage, kids, and international travel are added in to ours?  But, Brice does say his worst days being married to me are travel days :)  But, hey- we have had a lot of those travel days in our marriage and he is still staying with me :)

     We had a totally different schedule this time.  Usually we get up at 3am for a drive, and early 6am departure.  This time we were on an afternoon flight getting it at midnight.  And then a 2 and half hour drive back to parents house.  We were thrilled to make it in one day and while getting in late, we would still make it in one day.

     A fellow teacher dropped us off and our bag we brought (full of medicines, etc) was in the trunk to have space to sit.   Naturally the bag was forgotten.  By the time, we realized it after check-in time we  kept calling him, his wife, his neighbors.  Thankfully someone reached him an hour later and he got the back to us in time, because our flight had been delayed.

     Because of the now 3 hour delay, we now had just 30 minutes in Miami to get off, walk their 10 mile long airport, go through customs, grab our luggage, recheck it, go back through security, and find out plane.  So we missed the connection.  We got in a super long line for a reconnection at 10pm and were informed all the hotels in the city were booked up (of course).  So the kids and I just kind of plopped down and laid down on the suitcases and a very kind worker said...let me see what I can do...and found us a room at the MIAMI Airport hotel for free and gave us $60 in food vouchers.  And by 11:30pm we had the kids( in the only bed left around) asleep, our bellies were full, and as Brice and I awoke early to leave at 3am, we realized we would have just been pulling in to his parents place and that the delay was such indeed a blessing!

     I'd love to hear your travel stories sometime!  We are sure thankful for quick travel nowadays, but do love when we are "home" for awhile and don't have to travel.