Just the facts...

Two years ago, we left our family, friends, and comfortable home here in NH and moved our family of six to Trujillo, Honduras. Our goal was to shore up the mission Little Hands, Big Heart, and encourage and mentor Maybelline and Jeffery, the Honduran directors. We spent most of the first year evaluating and revising the current programs and getting to know the families of the special needs kids that LHBH serves. The second year we continued to work at perfecting the mission and gave more and more responsibility to Maybelline and Jeffery as well as making some major improvements on the grounds and to the compound. When our commitment was finished, we were confident that LHBH was in a good place and would be able to effectively carry out its mission.
We packed up, or gave away two years worth of possessions, said good bye to dear friends from church, neighbors, fellow missionaries, all the LHBH staff, and all the precious families and children who LHBH help. We took lots of pictures and tried to squeeze in visits to our favorite places in the final days.
Our trip home was uneventful. Friends from church met us at midnight at the airport and drove us the hour or so to our house. It took two big vehicles to get all of us and all of our stuff here.
Our house had been empty for most of the year as our renters left early. Our belongings were packed into the upstairs and the basement. We started emptying boxes and trying to get settled. Brian spent the first few weeks repairing the ceiling, refinishing the entire downstairs floor and painting.
A week and a half before Christmas, Brian's dad came down with an infection. His parents live next door to us where Mom has been doing an amazing job taking care of Dad since he came home in a semi-paralyzed state back in August. Early one morning, we had to call an ambulance to rush him to the ER with a fever of 106. He was admitted into the ICU and was near death for a week or more. At this point, he is stable and will be transferred to a rehab hospital near Boston in the near future. He is not able talk and is very weak. We are hopeful that he will regain his voice and strength so that the temporary trach and feeding tubes will be removed.
Brian has not started back to work yet and with the uncertainty of his dad's health, it has been good for him to have the flexibility to be available to go the hospital and help Mom make difficult decisions. He anticipates construction work to begin soon and is trying to line up jobs now.
We have not officially started home schooling yet in the new year, but we are starting to get back into the swing of things. I am sorting through all of our curriculum now that I have access to all the books I want/need again.
The kids are playing in the snow every chance they get and happy to have their long lost toys unearthed from the mountain of boxes. They have spent several good times with the cousins and also with friends.
So...there's the facts. Now, how are we doing with all of this? Well, that will be the subject of the next post.