Happy Half-a-Birthday, to Noah!!!

 In honor of Noah being 6 months old yesterday, we threw him a half-a-birthday party...the main attraction being that he got to officially eat banana off a spoon. He liked it just fine. (Like we were worried...the little plate grabber. :)

 The REST of us, did not eat mashed banana. We ate half-a-birthday cake. :) It was good too.

The "icing on the cake" however, is that we brought home two fierce and mighty mousers...who are still about the same size as some of the rats we've seen, unfortunately. However, perhaps SOMEDAY they will be fierce and mighty mousers. Anyway, meet Mene and Mishi ( MIN-yeh and MEE-she). Mene is a Waorani word for jungle cat; Mishi is Kichwa for "kitty". In fact, I have friends who make a swishing noise to call a cat, which is actually "mishi-mishi-mishi-mishi" run together, like we would say, "here, kitty kitty kitty". (For any who are curious, Mene is the one sleeping in the picture. His "leopard spots" are more pronounced. )

Fun day! :D

Because it's been a while...

Enjoy! (by the way...Noah is not officially eating food. However, he has snuck in 2 strawberries...and likes them very much.)

A New Year!

Growing up, my family minimally recognized New Years...we would go over to my grandparents' house for supper; maybe stay up till midnight...maybe not. I figured that this year would be a bit livelier than that; in part because we live in town, but mostly because that town is Latin American. :) Our evening started by attending the youth group's celebration. Of course, in order to get there we had to go through multiple impromptu road blocks where dancers would stop traffic with rope or cane poles, requesting money to let you pass. The town streets were busier than I've ever seen them at night; not necessarily with car traffic, but pedestrians and bystanders everywhere. The feel of the town reminded me a bit of the 4th of July back in Texas,in that it was a whole town, on the street affair, mixed with what I've heard about Mardigras or Carnivál because of the night life and masks. Something different for us was the "burning of the 'Old Year' (Año Viejo)".  (see picture at the bottom). Everywhere you turned, there were paper-machet dummies representing last year, which are burned up on New Year's Eve. To add to the hilarity, it is common to "honor?" someone by making your dummy look like them. (The youth group leader, a celebrity...the nursing staff did one of the Docs at the hospital last year....etc.) After the celebration with our friends in the Church, we wound up taking several people home to Shell, as it was too late for the regular buses to run. We got back to our house at almost midnight; Nate crashed in bed while the rest of us watched the fireworks that started at midnight from our second floor.  In a town made of concrete situated on a jungle hillside, no one worried about the in-town fireworks displays any more than all the paper machet bonfires by (or in) the street. :) Our next door neighbor saw us on the balcony and brought over a HUGE plate of roast turkey and rice. We finally gave it up and went to bed, several hours before the Ecuadorians down the street did. :) Still, when I think about the burning up of the old year, I can't help but think it a fitting description. 

"Only one life, will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last."

Christmas Rainbow

A typical Christmas season for us is busy with traveling and visiting people, but still fairly relaxing since I can usually take a week or more off of work. This year was different though. I worked until noon on the day before Christmas and returned to work the day after. There were no long distance travels, but there were plenty of activities to keep us busy. 

After work on Christmas Eve day, I had several errands to make, including getting paint for the painters to keep painting, buying last minute gifts, searching, finding, and giving out a dozen gifts for our close Ecuadorian friends, passing out the remainder of our Christmas tracts at the newly opened park near our house, and buying some extra groceries for Alesha's awesome Christmas dinner! 

By Monday at 5pm, I was ready for a break. The "break" that I got was to quickly shower and get the family ready for two Christmas Eve activities that night. The first was a Christmas carol meeting with several of the other gringo missionary families. But first!, on our way there we experienced one of the clearest rainbows that we had ever seen, and certainly the best one yet since moving to Ecuador. Since we were on our way to begin our Christmas-time celebrations, we thought it fitting to dub it as the "Christmas Rainbow". We recalled how a rainbow is a symbol, a reminder when God saved a few faithful servants out from a terrible death by water, and how we were driving to remember the day when God was born on Earth to save a few faithful servants from another, more permanent death. These were our thoughts as we sang carols to and about our Savior as well as listened to some selected readings. 

After this, we headed to our local church's Christmas program. It started promptly at 7pm (Ecuadorian time). We watched Levi and Glory act out their part of the play. Glory quoted a verse. We listened intently as a translator spoke in the Waorani language. We enjoyed hearing the gospel. We watched a skit organized by the young people about how living a "good" life still only brings death in the end. Finally, around 10pm we were served an Ecuadorian Christmas supper (which looked very similar to and Ecuadorian lunch). Amazingly, all of our children did great even though we did not return to our beds until 11pm! 

Enjoy!

TaylorH

Of Socks and Underwear

Back in Honduras I bought Levi some much needed socks. They happened to be "Superhero" socks with Superman and Batman on them...of course, my children had never seen Superman or Batman and initially Levi, Dan, and Glory just saw them as fun colorful socks with funny looking people on them. Over time, they have learned that those funny looking people have names and at least Glory remembers which character is which. At the time that I bought them, I had little idea of what I was starting.

When Dan's birthday came around this year, his Grandma sent him some underwear (per our request). When he open the package of colorfully striped, dotted, and checked undies, his eyes opened wide and he finally had undergarments to rival Levi's Superhero socks. So Dan sports his fancy underwear like an Olympic swimmer struts around in his Speedo swimsuit.

As Christmas time comes around, my mother asked me to get something for the kids. When I asked her what type of gift she wanted me to get the kids, she responded with, "Buy them anything but clothes. Clothes are not too exciting for ages 2,4,6,8." Only two days prior, Levi received a new package of whitey tighties, though not as colorful as Dan's undies, he was still proud enough of them to show them to me with a broad smile that stretched from ear to ear.

Are my kids fun or what!

Enjoy!
TaylorH

15 Days! or In The Lord's Time

In a recent e-mail to a friend, I was informing him that I would not be able to make it to his Bible conference in California at the end of December as I had hoped; he nicely responded that we would see each other in the "Lord's time". So that is what I have to say here too.

We DID get our new visas approved. The visa office finally accepted our Passports to stamp the new visa in, but they told me that I would have to wait 15 days before coming back to pick them up. I lightly harassed the nice lady about taking 15 days to put a stamp that has already been approved in my books. She simply smiled back, shrugged her shoulders and responded with "15 days".

At 15 days from now, ticket prices for coming to the States are nearly $2,000! Additionally, I have to be back in Puyo for our busy month at work on January 8th...this would cut our visit to Texas short. Finally, there may still be some more paperwork that we have to do after the visas are back in hand (resident ID cards must be issued, etc.).

So, all this is to say that we do not plan to return to Texas for another 3 months. While we are a bit disappointed, we are also excited to see what the Lord has planned for us in these next 3 months. Also, this seems to have put the nail in the coffin, so to speak, for "grandma's" to come see us. Alesha's mother is coming on December 6th and my mother is considering coming sometime in January.

We look forward to seeing you in the Lord's time.
Enjoy!
TaylorH

Sportsmen (and girlie :)

November has been chugging along quite quickly. As I was talking to my mom today, I realized that I had not recounted some of our recent sporting adventures here.

Glory and Levi had their first soccer tournament...in which we were badly beaten, badly sunburned, but had fun anyway. ;)

As always, Ultimate Frisbee is a highly anticipated part of our week. I can't get enough of watching Taylor and his little "apprentice". :)

Last but not least, the surest way to dispose of a rat is to put this team on it's tail. :) They may have missed hunting season in TX, but at least they get to hunt something! 

...though before you hire them, you need to know that they are NOT responsible for rat disposal, floor cleaning, or kitchen reconstruction. All barricades used for entrapping said rodent are yours to dismantle. However! They DID kill the rat. For which I am VERY grateful. I still got a good deal.  :D