New Staff Houses Opening

Yesterday we celebrated the completion of 10 of the houses for our hospital nursing staff.  The houses are sweet and simple.  They have three small bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, an open living/dining area, and front and back porch.   

This is one of the rows of houses where they "cut the ribbon."

The men in the yellow vests are the project workers who built the houses. 

It was sweet to see how much pride they took in being a part of providing these houses for the hospital.

Jordan and Dr Andy Bennett

Just a boy rocking his crop top!  :)

Miles was woken up from his nap to attend the ceremony...so he was craaaaaaanky!!  But our little Graham cracker was his usual happy self!  

Also not pictured (because we can't all get out of the house that early), that morning Jordan was given the honor of killing one of the pigs they cooked for the party.  

**STOP reading now if you want to remember Jordan as a kind and gentle soul**

One hit...with a 2x4...between the eyes...the pig went down like a sack of potatoes.   OR so I've been told.

Maria John

If you've come to visit Kudjip, there is a good chance you've met John Opa.

We've known John for as long as we've been in PNG...he introduces himself as our PNG papa and us as his family.  I've lost track of how many times we've been to his home on top of a nearby mountain, and he's one of Miles's favorite Papua New Guineans.

John and his wife, Maria, need our prayers.  Maria either has a brain tumor or TB in her brain.  Unfortunately, she hasn't been responding to the TB meds, which means cancer is the more likely and untreatable option.  We are thankful Maria knows and loves the Lord.  Pray for Maria.  Pray for healing.  Pray for John. Pray for their son Peter and daughter-in-law, Rosemary.  Pray for their grandchildren, Junior and Rachel.  

Lena

One of my favorite people in the world is my sweet sweet friend, Lena.

I hired her a couple years ago to help me when I was getting overwhelmed with housework...but over the years she has become a wonderful blessing in my life.  She has an amazing heart of compassion and kindness that shines the light of Jesus!  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to visit with her when she comes over once a week.  I enjoy the casual chats we have about what's going on in the villages around us...but she also lets me ask difficult questions, when I'm not understanding something about the PNG culture or language, without judgement.

I'm also thankful for her willingness to help me clean (I know I would be drowning in housework without her!), and her patience with Miles who is continuously by her side asking, "Whatcha doin, Lena?  Whatcha doin?" or "Lena, come play toys? Come on?"

Miles adores Lena, and she will always lovingly take a few minutes to play on the floor with him or involve him in her work.

Thank you, Lord for Lena's friendship!

Our Normal: Water

After living in Papua New Guinea for 6 years certain things have become our 'normal'.  However, after each home assignment I realize how different somethings are compared to life in America.  For example...our source of water.  See those two big metal tanks?  Our entire gutter system flows into those two rain tanks.  Rain water is what flows out of every faucet in our house, it fills our toilet, flows into my washing machine, and comes out our shower head.  If we want drinking water we filter it first through a filter that sits on our counter in the kitchen.  On the very top of our roof is a solar panel that heats our water.

Usually in PNG it rains almost everyday and keeps our tanks quite full.  However, there are times when rain is more sparse and we need to go into water conservation mode.  That means we collect the water before it gets hot to put in our water filter before filling the sink to wash the dishes.  We shower less (and wear more deodorant...yikes!), Miles gets a very shallow bath, and we use that water to flush our toilets.

It's not always the most convenient...but we are ALWAYS thankful we don't have to bucket water up from the river!!  We've also been thankful for some heavy rains in the last few days that have filled our tanks!

How could I...

It had been a long Saturday. 

Graham woke up earlier than normal, then didn’t have any interest in going back to sleep. 

After giving Miles the breakfast options of yogurt and granola OR eggs, he insisted he would looooooove some eggs.  After making eggs and setting them in front of him, he decided that he would much much much rather have yogurt and granola!   

Jordan had to work most of the day putting up powerlines so that people in the lower section of station could have power that evening.  (I do a lot of extra praying on days I know he’s working on powerlines.) 

Miles spilled his apple juice.

Graham thoroughly covered my clothes in spit up.   

I picked up the same blanket off the floor at least 4 times.

As soon as I got my hands covered in bread dough, Graham decided to wake up screaming and crying.

Thanks to my awesome clumsiness, I spilled raw chicken juice on my kitchen floor…then cleaned it up…then spilled it again…then cleaned it up…again.

By late evening, I was holding my sleeping baby and telling myself if I could just stay awake 30 more minutes it would be time to feed Graham again and then I could put us both to bed!  At this point, I was, to say the least, a bit cranky.  If it wasn’t for this baby I would be in my warm comfy bed already.  Better yet…if it wasn’t for this baby I wouldn’t have woken up so early and therefore not been so tired in the first place!  If it wasn’t for this baby I would have gotten a shower today.  If it wasn’t for this baby I would have gotten something…anything done today.  If it wasn’t for this baby…..

I opened our blog to work on a few posts I had saved.  The old post about my emergency surgery caught my eye.  I realized some people had commented on the post…I didn’t even know they could do that!  After reading the comments I decided to re-read the post itself.

I cried.

How quickly we forget.  How quickly I had forgotten.  What a miracle this baby was!  My beautiful little boy…an amazing miracle from God.  How quickly I had forgotten.  How could I not spend every minute of every day rejoicing in what God has given us?  How could I look upon this child with anything other than joy and amazement?  How could I forget how close we were to losing our little Graham.  How could I…

I know there are going to be more days like this one. 

I pray:

May I find joy on those days.  May I find Jesus on those days.  May I be able to go to bed with a heart bursting with thankfulness for the blessings and miracles our God has given!  May I never forget the gift of salvation God has given in His son Jesus.  May I be a mother who points my children to Christ. 

Amen.

Traveling Back to PNG

Our travels according to Miles:

First, we got on a "wittle wittle" plane.  

I met the pilot who was a very nice man...even though I was convinced the 

entire flight that he said "Arrgh!"  

(Pilot vs Pirate - very confusing!!)

Then we waited in an airport in Dallas for a very long time. 

I did a lot of this.  Please don't judge my parents. 

Then we got on a big big plane.  

We ate some food and went to sleep. 

 I was quite comfy curled up in my own seat between Mommy and Daddy.  

Graham got to sleep in his own neat little bed that folded down from the wall.

After I woke up I watched some movies on the airplane.  

My parents said sometimes "ya gotta do what ya gotta do 

when travelling with a toddler." 

 I'm not sure what that means...but I like it!

 We FINALLLLLY made it to Australia 

where we missed our original flight.  

But don't worry...God took really good care of us and we were able to get on an even better flight!  

Even though this picture makes me look a little cranky, 

I really was a very good boy for my Mommy and Daddy.  

On the last flight Mommy and Daddy thought about just letting me and Graham 

share a seat while they both took a nap. 

 I'm glad they didn't do that...Graham gets heavy after a while.  

After four airplanes rides, we made it to Papua New Guinea.  

There were a lot of people at our house and I was tired, 

so I cried a little...

but now I'm all better and I'm having fun getting to know everybody again!

Thank you for your prayers for our travels.  God answered them.  

Baby Graham

Thanks to an adorable little church in Ottumwa, Iowa, we realized that we had forgotten to blog about the birth of our second born.  We showed up to Ottumwa Trinity Church of the Nazarene, who had put together an amazing dinner and tons of information from our blog about Jordan, Miles and myself.  Unfortunately, the arrival of Graham had been a surprise.  So...

We'd like to announce the birth of Graham William Thompson on August 13th, 2015 at 7:30pm.  He weighed 8lb 2oz, and was 20 inches long!

Thanks to my amazingly talented cousin, Maribeth Rocke, we have beautiful baby pictures of our little miracle.