Goodbye, Old Friend

Skippy and Val, originally uploaded by russandval.

I found out last night that our family dog, Skippy, passed away yesterday. Skippy was more than a pet--she was truly a member of the family, as anyone who knew her could attest. She lived a long life--almost twenty years--and was quite possibly the sweetest dog I have ever known. As we grew up and went away to school, the biggest fights at holiday times would be over who got to sleep with Skip. When my high school did the musical Annie, Skippy played Sandy and seemed to love all the attention. It's going to be strange the next time we visit my parents and I don't get to see my girl!

So I'm a little bummed today. And quite bored. I've been on my back with a monster head cold for the better part of a week. My voice has returned somewhat, though even Russ doesn't know it's me when I answer the phone! (Hey, at least I can answer the phone now--for a couple of days there I couldn't talk at all!)

The rest of the team gets home from furlough in a couple of hours! We can't wait!

How Can I Be Mad?

 

Oh, Sam.

We left you unattended for a long time today.

It was only natural for you to find something to do to entertain yourself.

And I'm quite impressed that while we were at church, you were thinking about Jesus, too!

So really, how can I be mad at you? The sight of you with stickers from head to toe was too much.

But, Samson, for future reference, Jesus' place is in our hearts and not our paws.

Imminent

Imminent.

That's the word that seems to always be on my mind these days. Theoretically we still have a month, but we know there's no guarantee. And as we get closer we complete things and think, "I guess it'll be a while until I get to do that again!" That means I alternate between two strategies. At times I say, "Great! That's in the can--one less thing to do!" and I relax. Other times I say, "I'm running out of time! What can I fit in before the baby comes?" and fill up the free time that was just created with something new.

That was the case today. I got a call just over a week ago about a Sunday School Teacher training day hosted by one of the other congregations. They wanted us to know about this great day coming up and oh, by the way, could I please be one of the speakers? So that's what I did today. It was a great day, an excellent opportunity to build relationships with the other sisters, but at eight months pregnant, I found it a little long and a little hot. (I texted Russ at one point with an update: Things are going well but were better before the power (and fans!) went out.)

Now it's back to checking things off the list. Next week I teach my last ladies class for a while (on submission--eek!). And next Sunday afternoon the rest of the team gets back from furlough which means I will be giving Alicia all her responsiblities back. Then, I guess, we'll just sit around and wait.

Seems rather unlikely.

Diapers Have Been Purchased

Yes, the unthinkable has happened. I thought my birthday made me feel different, or the first time we had an ultrasound and there was definately a person in there. But THIS tops all of the other weird feelings, hands down. We watched Lamaze dvds and washed baby mitts and did many other useful things (I still have to build a changing table; it will come to pass) and yet the diapers seemed much more important that those other things. At first I thought "so begins the worst 3 years of my life" then quickly changed WORST to TOUGHEST. But enough with the belly ache; we are doin great!

I don't know why I ever worry. My fears never come true. It's almost like there's someone making sure it all works out. Hmm...

I was worried about this morning. Russ and I were the only teammates in town so church was entirely up to us. It was pretty intimidating (and lonely) being the only ones around. And today was the day of a big government exam so we knew we'd be missing members. It almost seemed like it would have been better to cancel.

But I'm not the one in control.

We had a guest speaker from another congregation who did a fabulous job. And all the songs that Russ had chosen, the children's time I had prepared, the communion talk--everything!--perfectly tied into the lesson. To top it off, we had what is considered in these quiet summer months a good crowd. It ended up being a wonderful day. I can't believe I was ever worried about it.

Oops!

I just looked at the date of my last post. Sorry! My latest excuse is that we had our friends, the Bonneys, from Mayfair visiting us. Russ and I couldn't go to the missionary conference this year since one of us is great with child but it worked out perfectly because it was the best week for the Bonneys to come. We were so busy with them that we barely thought about what we were missing. (Okay, maybe I thought about it a little...) It was such a blessing to get to spend time with Jeff, Natalie, Phillip and Kyle. (And we never complain when we have to take people to the beach!) I thank God for all the friends He's given us that seem more like family.

Happy New Year!

Oops! I just looked and discovered that I haven't posted in a while. I'd love to say that it's because life has be just too frantic but it's more that we've been enjoying the relative quiet of this time of year. (Though only having two team families in town does mean there's some extra work to be done!) We had a nice Christmas, though it was a little strange because it was the first time Russ and I had ever been completely alone. We handled it okay, I guess (well, he did anyway but I'm hormonal so I've got an excuse!).

We spent yesterday (New Year's Eve day--is there a word for that?) at the beach. A family that has been coming to church lately invited us and the Porters to the beach house they rented just north of town. We spent the day swimming, sitting in the sun and eating. John and Evelyn Willis (from Abilene) are visiting the Porters right now so they came with us, too. It meant we also spent the day translating back and forth, but no one seemed to mind. After a day in the sun, we didn't feel much like going out so we stayed in last night and watched an Everest marathon on the Discovery channel while we waited for all the fireworks to end.

John and Evelyn are celebrating their 52nd anniversary later this month so today we had a get-together with some of the couples from church. They shared what they had learned about marriage with us. It was quite the multicultural (and multilingual) gathering because one of the couples is a Brazilian woman (who is from the far south of Brazil which may as well be another country!) and an man from El Salvador (who really doesn't speak much Portuguese but lived in North America for several years so has great English). So we switched between English, Portuguese and Spanish. In the end I think everyone made themselves understood and were able to learn a great deal from John and Evelyn. It's nice when we have older people around to share wisdom with us--our congregation is young and made up of relatively new Christians so times like today are quite special!

This morning I had the realization that it's now January. It's January and we're having a baby in February. Wow. Just for kicks, we've set up an online baby pool. You can access it here.

Oh Dear

We just got a call from one of our English students who said that he saw me on the news yesterday morning. Oh dear. I was secretly assuming (and hoping) that the clip had ended up on the cutting room floor. When I was a teenager I desperately wanted to be interviewed for the news. It figures that it would finally happen when I'm hot and sweaty and speaking something other than English!

Christmas in Bahia

Sorry for the quality--we were pretty far from the stage and there were LOTS of people around us.

Ahhh...

Russ and I just took a couple of days off to celebrate our eighth wedding anniversary. Being so close to Christmas, our anniversary often gets neglected but we decided to take full advantage of the last of our B.K. (Before Kid) anniversaries. When we just have a short time, we often like to just take a getaway across town and explore different neighborhoods. Thanks to an AMAZING online deal (less than 25% of the regular price), we were able to stay at an AMAZING hotel in the Pelourinho that is a converted convent. We spent three relaxing days lounging by the pool, eating great food and getting to check out some spots in the Pelourinho that we don't usually get to see. (Normally when we're down there we've got visitors in tow so we go with things we know they'll like instead of trying new restaurants or museums.) On Thursday night we went to watch the city Christmas celebration with a choir made up of kids from all over the city. It was a lot of fun and I was even interviewed for the local news! I'll try to post a clip of the performance for you.

Thoughts

Aren't you glad we're not who we were?

I've spent the afternoon deep in thought. I won't go into it all here, but it was triggered by the word that a former classmate had passed away. He was definitely not someone I was close to--in fact we got into it on several occasions. And the guy I disagreed with so bitterly a decade ago was the guy that was frozen in my mind. But as I thought about it, I realized that he probably hadn't been that guy in a long time. After all, I'm not the same person I was ten years ago. And thank God for that.

It made me think about all of you who read this blog. Some of you know OC Val. Some know Val the church secretary. Some know Val the missionary. Some just know Russell's wife, Val. And a select few of you remember Val the child or Val the teenager. More than likely, how you think of me and my personality depends on when you met me.

I look at all those mes and I realize who I've been. I've been short-tempered, quick-tongued, downright mean at times, lazy, gossipy, the list could go on. (Please resist the urge to comment with other adjectives!) Sometimes I still am those Vals.

But with each me I've been, there's been a progression. Technically I'd have to say that they haven't been individual personas but one person on a continuum. Every day I lose more and more of the old me and become more and more of who I'm supposed to be. (Not without setbacks, but we can safely call it a general trend.)

We're getting ready to start a series at church about being "Under Construction". I don't know if our members realize that we missionaries are on the same journey that they are. We fight to be who we need to be. And sometimes, it's only when we take the time to look back that we realize that we're actually succeeding. I'm no longer who I once was. God has transformed me; not just once but over and over again turning me into someone who looks like His child.

I'm a little curious. When I look at how much my life has changed--how much I've changed--I wonder what I'll look like at the end of my journey. I hope that regardless of when you came to know me, the Val you think of, the Val you'll remember, is the one that wasn't content to be who she is right now. I'm glad I've changed and can't wait to be transformed even more!

A Special Message

Happy Birthday, Russell Awesome!

I'm so glad to have you in my life. You are an excellent partner in life, in ministry and in crime. We've seen the world together and are still dreaming of where to go next. You are going to be an incredible dad to our little boy. I thank God for you, baby!

Christmas BBQ

Christmas BBQ, originally uploaded by russandval.

With Christmas comes our annual church barbecue. Here are a few pictures from the day. I'll label them later. Sleep comes first.

Genius

Dogs (and an assortment of other animals) can be trained to do a number of things. Some are working dogs, like my parents' dog/child, Carmen, who has been taking sheepherding classes. Others can perform amazing feats, like water jumping. The most interesting to me are the ones who help their handicapped owners, whether they are blind, deaf or paralyzed.

Which brings me to Samson. Yorkies are not known for their trainability. Any of you who have met Sam or heard our stories about him will know that we're content if he doesn't pee on our bed and doesn't drag out our dirty underwear when we have company. We've learned to settle. Oh, sure, we're working on a few tricks, like "sit", "give me kisses" and "get back there with that, you stupid dog!" but we have accepted his limitations.

So imagine my delight when I discovered Sam's special gift. He, like assistance dogs, can make up for his owner's shortcomings. This morning I was making cookies. I don't have a timer--I don't know why, I guess I just always forget to buy one--and remembering when to take things out of the oven is a bit of a challenge for me. And since I've been pregnant, it's hard to even remember that I have things IN the oven! So this morning I put in a batch of cookies and then Sam and I went to hang out with Russ in the computer room with the door closed to keep in the nice air conditioning. After a few minutes I got up and opened the door, thinking of something I was going to do around the house. Sam saw the open door and bolted out of the room and headed straight to the oven, where he stood until I arrived. When I checked in on the cookies, they were perfectly done.

There you have it--I have a Baking Assistance Dog. I don't think that qualifies Sam to get on airplanes free or come to the mall with me but it's useful nonetheless. He's proved his usefulness so I guess we'll keep him a little longer, even if he did make Randy and me chase him up and down the stairs yesterday, peeing all the way.

English Class Christmas Party

English Class Christmas Party, originally uploaded by russandval.

Since I finally posted about the conference, I can get on with current events. Yesterday we had our English class Christmas party. We had a great turnout this year--almost 40! It marked the end of our English classes for the next little while. Hopefully we'll be able to start up again in April--it'll all depend on the kiddo. In the meantime, we invited all the students to the church picnic this Sunday. Hopefully we can keep them coming to church things during our extended break.

In other news, I went to my first Brazilian Tupperware party the other night with the other girls from the team. The demonstrator asked if we were familiar with the products and we just laughed and started pointing out all the stuff we had grown up with. It was a fun evening though and we got to hang out with some of our regular visitors.

Tonight I made taco soup for dinner. It's amazing how some foods warm your body and your soul at the same time!

The Women's Conference

Today is the first of many catch-up days for me. Some people on the team have very regular weekly schedules but mine is more project-based. I love it that way but every so often, I end up with "the perfect storm" and hit a patch where I look three weeks into the future for days that I can sleep in. Being six months pregnant has been an interesting added dimension since I can't guarantee that I will feel up to working on a particular day or that I will have the energy to do so. But as of yesterday, I really just have one more event on the horizon--the Christmas picnic--and my responsibilities for that are relatively few. So today I get to tackle the things that have been on the back burner for a couple of weeks--updating the blog, cleaning the apartment, etc. And so I begin with the women's conference:

 

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin. It was a great day. I don't have a final count because there were some late in the day arrivals but we had at least 160 women. Then there were about 20 kids and our three tireless childcare workers (Russ, Randy and Tennyson). Honestly, I think it would be possible to host such a conference and have very little planned and just let the women fellowship but, of course, I couldn't let that happen!

 

Our theme for the day was "Connecting with God". Most of the material we used was based on the monthly series about spiritual disciplines that we've been doing with our own women. They suggested that it would be worth sharing with the other sisters in the city so we happily obliged. Mary spoke about meditation, Jennifer spoke on prayer and I spoke on fasting.

 

In the afternoon we had workshops. The workshops are generally of lighter stuff than the sessions. One of our members taught about makeup, another talked about (and gave!) massages and one of our regular visitors gave a workshop on healthy eating. With all of that fun stuff going on, I was surprised that many people came to my workshop about Bible study as a spiritual discipline. It was material that Alicia had originally presented and we decided to offer it as one of the workshops (thus rounding out Richard Foster's four internal disciplines).

I'm still getting great feedback about the day. We did a lot of new things, like breakout groups, but everyone seemed to enjoy them. Even though it was so much work and it took two days for my ankles to get back to their normal size, it was a lot of fun to plan and put on. I do have to admit, though, that I was quite relieved when another congregation was chosen to host next year. It was fun, but not THAT fun!

Here are a few more images from the day:

1. Jaci (the Portuguese teacher) during individual prayer time 2. The popular massage workshop 3. Jessenita meditating on the Word 4. The favors everyone took home (candles) 5. Mary, me and Jenn at the end of the day 6. Tennyson even endured a "manicure" in the name of childcare

We had a great albeit short visit with the Quireys. We were also able to put to rest any fears that our son wouldn't have anything to wear when he showed up--the Blackwell gang had a shower for us a couple of weeks ago and sent the Quireys off with FULL suitcases.

This week is almost over and I really need it to have a couple more days. The English class Christmas party is this Sunday and I have a lot of baking to do before then. There are so many yummy treats that I'd love to share with my students. Russ and I are definitely looking forward to having our summer break from English class. We absolutely love teaching it but it gets tiring and we'll definitely enjoy the extra flexibility in our schedules for the next little while.

I promise I'm going to post about the women's conference soon. Actually, I wrote a long post about it and it got messed up when I tried to publish it. I was so frustrated I had to walk away for a while.

Where Have I Been?

Why haven't I posted for a few days? Well, let's see...

First there was this:

 

and the days of recovery that followed.


Then, we were hours away from the Quireys' arrival when a visa snafu delayed their plans. Rather than lose the money we had already paid and since there was nothing that could be done on our end, we waited here:

 

for a couple of days.


On Wednesday morning, we stopped at the airpot on our way back from the beach and picked them up. So yesterday, we got to enjoy this:

 

with our family and teammates.

(I promise a real post about everything soon.)

I got the post up first!

Val is deservedly resting her feet after an incredible 48 hours of work, ending with a successful womens city-wide converence hosted by none other than the ICOS church. There were close to 200 participants and their children; we cooked for them, kept them cool, and cleaned up after the day was over. It was by far the best event that I have been involved with (all I did was run errands and play red rover with kids). There were little ones and teens laughing, moms and grandmas praying and many people singing and learning how to be leaders in their neighborhoods. Pray that we both will recover before family arrives on Saturday. I have an amazing woman, and soon we will have an amazing baby to share my life with because of her! And now I am finished...

Friday Shall Be the New Day of Rest

Tomorrow is our areawide women's conference. Most of my waking hours for the past couple of weeks have been dedicated to it. I'm really excited about it, though. We're expecting about two hundred women. Today we took Verônica shopping for the food(oh the blessing/curse of owning a car!). She (and several dear sweet sisters) are making Bahian food for everyone. This involved getting up at 6:00 this morning to go to the big food market downtown. It was an incredible amount of food. Scratch that--it was a believable amount of food for the number of people. The unbelievable part was the amount of okra we bought. Yes, my southern friends, we eat okra here. It's a part of a couple of traditional dishes. But Brazilian okra puts yours to shame: it's about eight inches long. And we bought TWO THOUSAND okra. (Okras? Okri?)

As I write, the last of my handouts are printing. My lessons are done, the "to bring" piles are huge, and the "to do" list has shrunk. There is no more "to do"--at this point it's either done or it's not going to happen. I know there will be bumps tomorrow--things people think weren't done adequately, things people think are missing, things that really are missing due to my baby brain--but it should be a great day. And at this time tomorrow night I will be back home, in my little bed, resting up for my in-laws visit. (Truthfully, I will be resting up so I can CLEAN for my in-laws visit!)

Please pray for our conference tomorrow. Pray that the words we speak will be understood and will make an impact on the hearers. Pray that we can keep our stress levels to a minimum and sit back and enjoy the day (I'm not kidding about the sitting part--I've discovered that pregnant Val doesn't do well if she's on her feet all day!). Pray that this event brings sisters from all the other congregations closer together. Pray that I can keep that goal in my mind--it's really the point of the whole thing, but it's easy to get distracted by all the details.