Fathers

Showed "A Little Princess" - one of my favorite all time films to my 3 Guatemalan charges Zoila , Sandra and Manuel ages 8-11 yesterday. Jessica (Les and Rita's youngest daughter) joined us too. We ALL cried at the end. I've seen the movie probably ten times and every time I cry. And I'm proud of the fact that I have a soft heart, a heart that God has softened.
(If you haven't seen the film don't read on because it will spoil the ending for you.) At the end when Sarah realizes her dad is alive and he doesn't recognize her - oh the pain! But then when the police are trying to take her away and her dad comes out of the house and shouts "SARAH!" Oh the joy! I think anyone who has experienced any kind of father related sadness in their life really is moved by this scene. After the movie was over and we were all wiping our eyes and chuckling at ourselves I realized something. The three siblings have been abandoned by their father, Jessica has never known her birth father (she was adopted by the Peter's when she was a baby) and my father died when I was 16. The role of a father is huge, I'm so thankful for Blaise's wonderful father and that God the Father calls me His own.

The "Cold" Season

Talked with my neighbor Ruth today and she said her husband commented how the rainy season is over, and now it's the cold season. But if this is the cold season I'm laughing! Today was like a nice summer day in Alberta or BC! Windy and sunny, perfect for doing laundry. Not a lot to talk about this week, I have some kind of bug bite on my leg I discovered this morning, pretty newsbreaking info I know:) Zaak will be home tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that:) Have a great weekend one and all!

I love mail and avocados:)

We've received our first piece of snail-mail this week! And it is from none other than the illustrious Mr. Curt Gesch, my favorito teacher from highschool. What a thoughtful chap. Sure did appreciate getting a letter, you all have our address right? So if your looking for something to do this weekend, write us! (I'm not laying it on too thick am I?!?)
No folks, that's not a bowling ball that Blaise is holding, it's an AVOCADO! Incredible eh? I couldn't resist buying it at the market the other day, and it's really nice inside too, we had some for breakfast today.

Who?

I've been wanting to do this for a few days now, put all three of our baby pictures together and compare. So who do you think Blaise looks like? (He's the one in the middle, I'm on the left and Zaak's on the right.) I find that he's looking more and more like Zaak, but he still has my nose, mouth and chin. Also I know he looks like his own little person but it's fun to compare.
Tonight some of the teenage girls from church stopped by and wanted Blaise! It's already begun, he's charming the ladies at 3 months of age. Ahhh the sleepless nights I'll have (again)! I'll have to get my rifle from Uncle Terry...

Sadness and Loss

Well, we caught our mouse. The poison did the trick I'm afraid. Zaak told me last night he'd spied a mouse carcass near Blaise's room and so he took care of it. I felt bad that the mouse had to die and we were the cause, but he was leaving his "mark" everywhere around the house so he had to go. I wish we could have reasoned with him, then taken him out to the countryside and found him a nice spot to live. But mice are not to be reasoned with. Sorry little mouse.
Today Blaise and I have the place to ourselves because Zaak went to help deliver relief supplies to the people hit by Hurricane Stan. The reports are saying about 200,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged, and over 800 people are missing. I was trying to imagine what would happen if this type of disaster happened in Canada, and I know there would be a lot more hoopla about it. This certainly puts my mouse musings into perspective. One village was completely wiped out here, can you imagine? The Guatemalans often live near their families so I'm guessing there are entire families that are now gone. Godspeed the resources to help those who did survive but are without shelter, food, water and belongings.

Mice and Men

I just finished translating the instructions on a package of mouse poison. Yes, we have a mouse who I do feel sorry for (since we plan to exterminate him) but mice carry diseases! This morning there was even a mouse dropping right beside the poison package, like he was taunting us! So tonight we hunt us a mouse...stay tuned to find out what will happen!
On a much brighter note, our little man Blaise has slept through the night 3 NIGHTS IN A ROW!!! I think this is the beginning of something wonderful. My friend Ruth who has 2 little kids was telling me how you love your babies even more than you already do once they start sleeping through the night. It's so true! When I see Blaise in the mornings after a full night of uninterrupted sleep I feel such immense love for him. It's fantastic this journey and adventure of parenting:)

Happy Bird Day

Thanksgiving Dinner turned out great despite the skinny turkey; he must have known what his fate was to be and so had been fasting in hopes of his life being spared. I made a mean pumpkin cheesecake (from a fresh pumpkin as you can see) plus we had mashed and sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce (from the can unfortunately - you can't get them fresh here), olives, gravy and green beans. YUM! It was a memorable first Thanksgiving in Guatemala!

Laundry and Rain Don't Mix

Here are Blaise's clothes and blankets blowing in the wind, sweet shot hey? I think I could pretty much enter it in a photo contest and win a prize:) I'm usually eyeing the skies on days I hang out laundry, but I've always been interested in the weather anyway so I don't mind. We got cable last year and I was most excited about having the weather channel! I think my sister Alanna has aspirations to be a weather girl on TV someday too. Hey I'm proud of myself for figuring out how to put a picture on here all by myself, yes sirreee.

Nicknames

Okay I know I'm going a little "blog-wild" here but this will be my last post for today, I promise.
I called my old blog "Bersblog" and tried to use it but couldn't remember my password so alas I had to start over. But I called it that because Ber was a nickname given to me in highschool by Jeremy. He was in the grade below me and had nicknames for everyone. He called me Ber, Sarah "Rah", Patricia "Sha" and Esther "Ster". His locker was beside all of us 4 girls and so he'd come from class to his locker and see all of us there and say "RahBerShaSter!" Funny guy that Jeremy.
The King of nicknames though has got to be Alan. He has come up with about a dozen nicknames for me, he's a clever one that Alan. My favorites are Ambrosia and Rambler:)

Rest

My kitchen is clean, my baby's asleep, and my husband's hard at work making a music video from our home movies that I know is going to make me cry. The town is quieting down, only a few dogs are barking and there's a church service going on that I can just faintly hear singing from. It's the weekend! La fin de semana. Life is sweet.

Phew!

I started a blog way back in '04 (heehee) and couldn't remember my password so I just decided to start over. It only had one short entry anyway. So April has inspired me as of late to get a blog going. Zaak's had one for awhile too and I love reading it so now it's my turn!