Earthquake Aftermath

Well it has been an interesting couple of days. Several people have pointed out that yesterday we had a flood, today an earthquake...what do we have to look forward to tomorrow? Hopefully a quiet, boring day! I'm ready for it! All day we kept an eye on the updates online and the ocean which is just a mile away and visible from the house. There were rumors off and on all day of tsunamis, but none of them were legit. Brian went out and checked on the families we serve and they are all fine. He did see a house that had cracked and crumbling pillars and other damage. There doesn't seem to be much here in Trujillo. In fact it is hard to tell that there was a major earthquake so close by.
Thanks so much for all your love and support. We started getting e-mails as soon as we were up this morning. It is nice to know so many people care out there.

Shaken, but Not Stirred

This morning at about 2:30 am, Brian and I woke up. Some one was rattling the door next to our bed, making a terrible noise. Now they were shaking our bed too. What IS that? We both were instantly awake. Brian got up and started turning the fan and AC off so we could hear better and figure out what was going on. The noise and shaking seem to come in waves. Finally it stopped all together. Rachel called from her bed, "Jonathan...what is that shaking the house?" We realized it was an earth quake. How weird! And unnerving! I turned the computer on and looked up recent earthquakes in Honduras. Sure enough there had been one just off shore of Roatan, an island north-west of us. It measured 7.1 in the scale. We searched some more and saw that there was a tsunami warning for Trujillo. Jonathan was up and so the three of us prayed for protection. We weren't very afraid for us because we are on high ground, but we were concerned for our friends who live on the beach. After a bit of searching we learned that if a wave was coming it wouldn't get here until later this morning and there wasn't anything else we could do so went back to sleep.
This morning we learned that at least on person was killed when their house collapsed and a big bridge in Progresso , which is near SPS is out. One of our workers, Roxanna, said her house has one wall that is cracked. It is hard for me to believe that it could be that big of a quake and not do much damage. We are thankful for that and not to stirred up about it since we know that God is in control.

Satellite Up and Running! (and more of Sara's rambling!)

Right before our trip to renew our visas, Brian finally got the satellite installed. That is another story all in itself that I will have to tell later. And last night he was able to get the cable run to our house so we can use it here too. So now, no more excuses about no posts because of a bad Internet connection. I won't promise to write any more regularly. I would really like to, but I am learning that outside of God's promises in His word, there isn't much that we can really count on in this world. Especially here in Honduras...I can't even be sure that I'll have electricity to run this thing tomorrow or that the house will still be standing!

My case in point...this morning Faith woke us up saying she couldn't get to the bathroom because there was water on the floor. I sat up and put my feet down. Yep, we were flooded again. There was 2-3 inches of water all over the house, all three rooms of it. The supply line on the toilet had broken in the night and while we slept the house filled with water. It was actually running out onto the porch under the doors. Most of our belongings are stored in plastic totes so most things were not wet, but since we had just returned from a trip all the suitcases were on the floor and a lot of dirty clothes. We also had several books and shoes that were totally soaked. The shoes I can live without, but the books make me sad! We cut the pages off the spine and laid them out to dry. I'll put them in plastic pages later. We spent all day sweeping water out the doors and laying stuff out in the sun to dry or hanging things up on the extra lines Brian put up. All the floors are sunken in the middle so the water pools there and has to be swept up over the hump and out onto the porch. We're exhausted tonight, but things are pretty dry and most things cleaned up. So as I was saying...this was not the plan for today, but we are learning to be flexible and go with the flow...yes pun intended!
And I am counting my blessings today too because with all the cleaning up going on, Brian was able to fix the microwave/toaster that has been out of commission since we got here in Feb. Wahoo! I am thrilled to have that up and running again. God is good.

Whirlwind Trip

We are back in Honduras tonight after a quick trip back to NH to renew our visas and take care of some things there. We were in the states for five days. They are a blur in my memory now. We did get to spend some time with Brian's dad which was good for all of us. We told him how there were people praying for his recovery all over. (Please keep that prayer cover up! He is not regressing, but the progress is in such tiny increments, that it is easy to feel discouraged.) The kids enjoyed feeding the ducks and fish in the river near the rehab hospital where Dad is staying.
We spent a day with all of my family. The kids were thrilled to see their cousins again. Jonathan got to catch some creepy crawlies in the states. The girls and Andrew enjoyed their bikes. They all got a ton of black fly bites, which our bodies aren't used to so they swell and itch like crazy. (I did say that I was glad to leave them behind and could look forward to malaria infected mosquitoes. They are far less annoying!)
We took care of our evaluation for home schooling and a friend jumped through hoops to help us get the books we need for school in time to bring them back this trip. We had hoped to acquire a gently used laptop to replace the one we did have for the kids. It is barely limping along on its last leg, but it looks like for now, we will have to make do with that.
We stayed in our house which is vacant as our renters moved out much, much earlier than planned. My family helped us move some of our things out of the parts of the house we were using for storage back into the bedrooms. It was so nice to sleep in our own beds again! And I couldn't believe how wonderful the flower beds looked. There are many things in bloom and many that will be in their prime in the next couple of weeks. We had hoped to get some things in place as far as having someone living in the house until we return, but that didn't work out either.
Our trip back was the best traveling experience we've had yet. Leaving SPS last week had been the worst so we wondered what we were in for on our return. The lines were longer than usual due to some extra steps in the immigration process because of the swine flu scare. Once we got through that, we were home free. We didn't even have to deal with the officials searching through our luggage/totes. Usually they have to open at least one to determine we aren't a threat.
We will spend a couple of days here in San Pedro Sula to do some shopping and hopefully some resting before we head back to Trujillo on Monday morning. We are adjusting to the hot humid weather again. Doesn't seem like we were gone long enough to need to do that, but right now it feel REALLY hot to us!
We are missing our family at home, but glad to be back and looking forward getting back to Little Hands and our work there.

Poem for Mother's Day

Jonathan handed me a handmade card which said to read the following poem aloud to the family:

Thank You

Thank you for washing my clothes every day,

And cooking my meals without any pay.

Thank you for washing all of the dishes,

And tending to all of our many wishes.

Thank you for doing a good job with our school,

Even though sometimes I act like a fool.

Thank you for living through your many toils,

Like fixing burns and squeezing our boils.

So we'll double your salary in hopes that you'll stay,

And all of us wish you a very

Happy Mother's Day!

by Jonathan with a little help from Daddy and Rachel

Yes, I read it out loud. And yes, I cried. And yes, I will keep it forever.

Dad's Great Week

I want you all to know that your prayers are continuing to work. Dad had a much improved week. Everyday he had a great attitude and slightly more movement in his fingers and hands. Such tiny steps of progress, but we are thankful for each one. We did hear this morning that he had another fever and that is not good as it slows him down considerably and the time he has at Spaulding Rehab is going by quickly. The insurance will only pay for a certain amount of rehab.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and words of encouragement and please keep it up. These next few days/weeks are critical not only for Dad's chances of a complete recovery, but also this is impacting our future as we consider our role in helping Mom and Dad deal with these challenges. Please pray for wisdom as we make decisions. Please continue to pray for healing and progress everyday. It has been amazing to see His Hand at work already.