Too much to put into words

We've had such a busy past month that I don't think I'm even going to try to put it into words - I just really don't have that much energy or time. Basically since I last wrote we've had teams almost every day. So I will attempt to describe life with teams from our side - instead of going into the specifics of all the amazing ministry things that they've set up. ((If you want to hear about what each team has done, check out: www.elayudanteinhonduras.com and go to the blog section or the picture section.))

We are living at El Ayudante! (for a month and a half)! We have taken up occupancy in the 90% finished, 1 bedroom guest house that is at El Ayudante... and like I said, it's mostly finished. The first day the shower wasn't hooked up or the drain put in so Tristan took care of that the first morning...and we've also now put up curtain rods and curtains and Tristan finished the electrical. We're still missing some false ceiling in the bathroom, a bathroom door knob, etc, but it's totally livable. We have the kids in the bedroom and Tristan and I have a bed in the 'living room'. Really we're just sleeping there so it's not a big deal. The biggest deal is Maddy and Sigel sleep very differently – Sigel needs complete black and no noise to sleep (so he has put up towels around the bunk bed to create a tent for him to sleep in) and Maddy has been having a hard time falling asleep and crying for awhile. And then we all wake up at 5:30am when the Maddy alarm clock sounds. The positive parts of staying out at El Ayudante is that we're together more and not driving back and forth 4 times a day like we normally do when there is a team, which also means the kids are going to bed more at normal bedtime which is nice. One hard part is that there is always work to be done and a team to hang out with which means we're not going back to our 'house' to just have family time as much as we were hoping to be doing. But we all still think that this was a good idea for these weeks. Our plan is to be here until I go into labor and then from the hospital we will return to our home in Comayagua.

We have found some good translators to be with us, however usually Tristan or I – or both of us is still with the team for most of the times that they are out at ministry – so we're running around a lot with them – which we love, but the challenge is finding time to do the preparations for the next team, making sure that the construction project of the fence continues, that the water bottles are full, fixing broken things, napping Maddy, grocery store runs for the team and taxing Sigel to and from school and taekwondo and all of that. But in short, we're loving it! We've been able to do leadership seminars at churches, visit and encourage pastors and teachers, go to tons of schools to talk about having a Godly character while at the same time blessing them with supplies and snacks etc, going to orphanages, installing 34 water filters.....the list goes on.

Tristan also has been working hard preparing for the building of a house that the next team is going to be building – I have been amazed at all the prep work that has gone into this! He had to build a retaining wall, pour the cement floor (20 bags of cement & mixing it by hand), bring up all the supplies, etc – and this is all on a step side of a mountain way at the top of the mountain so ever trip is a big deal. But – now it's very close to all ready for the team which is a huge relief to us all – the only thing left is to pick up the order of wood and have it delivered to the house!

I'm SO READY to have this baby – despite all the distraction of being incredibly busy, I feel totally consumed with thinking about and wondering when this baby is coming. The other night I was having braxton Hicks about every 20 minutes apart and it kept me up until way too late as I'd lay in bed wondering if this was the start of something... needless to say, it wasn't. :( I'm 38 ½ weeks and I've sworn this whole pregnancy that she will be early – and now I”m starting to think that maybe she won't - she's going to make me wait in suspense another 1 ½ weeks. My mom flys in on Saturday!!!! So after that I'm going to start walking more, drinking raspberry tea, all those things that they say brings on labor! :) My ideal day for this babe's arrival is this Sunday – July 22^nd.

Ok, gotta go.