The Blackout

While the temperature here in Puyo is fairly constant, the weather is not necessarily. Granted that we have not been here a year yet, and that we are still learning about the "seasons", I was still compelled to tell my brother-in-law recently that, while we have some big rains, nothing here compares to a West Texas storm*.

Last night, Alesha and I were sitting downstairs in the hammocks talking and I mentioned that I heard the rain. After listening for several seconds we realized that the rain that we heard was not hitting the house yet, so it must be still on its way. Even so, it already sounded "torrential". Then with one big crack of lightning that must have come right over our heads, for the sound caused us both to jump, the rain came down on the house, and it came down hard. Since the children had only recently been put to bed, we decided to go upstairs and check on them. They were fine. The metal roof over our heads, though secure and protecting, was very loud. We closed our west-facing windows since the wind was driving the rain inside and listened to the rain.

Then, with another crack of thunder the power went out. I went to the window. It was not just our house, but the whole block. And then I saw that even downtown Puyo was out of power and more. As I scanned the horizon, I realized that the whole town lost power (this was a first for us to see). It was not pitch black since there were still several cars on the road and I could see the faint lights of Shell and other neighboring communities rising over the hills. By the time that I found Alesha, she was in the process of lighting a candle. We left the candle in the bathroom and watched the blackness and listened to the rain.

After about 15 minutes, the power came back on and the street was full of lights again, and with a start I woke out of my semi-hypnotic state. At the time, I had not realized what drew me to gaze out the window with such interest. Later recollecting my thoughts and feelings, I understood how the darkness reminded me of living out of town, in the country, back in Texas. It seemed so much more natural for there to be dark at nighttime and not bright. *sigh* On a more humorous note, during the power outage, I recall seeing my neighbors wandering through their house with a flashlight; I found this humorous only because he and our reactions to the complete loss of power were such opposites.

While Alesha and I still much prefer living outside of the city (and perhaps one day we will do it again), "the city is where the people are" (-J.F.).
Enjoy!
TaylorH


*Nothing that I have experienced in Houston, compares to a big West Texas storm either. Of course, I was too young to recall some of the really big hurricanes that hit Houston when I was young.

October's Progress

A lot has been happening around our house the last several weeks, so much so that we have forgotten about posting to our blog, so here is a quick month-in-review:

Levi's Birthday
Levi turned 6 at the end of September. Highlights from his birthday party were playing Pin-the-Tail-On-the-Donkey (see pics below), and getting a "birthday spanking".

Levi found it funny the his "tail" wasn't even on the board...can you find it?

Jungle Eggs
I took a short day-trip to the jungle this month. A group of people were headed to the jungle, but needed an extra vehicle to get them from Puyo to the river "insertion point".

While stopping at the little Waoroni community of Menepare, some of the locals gave me some turtle eggs to bring back. They were very different than chicken eggs; they had a lot more flavor!

Painting - Phase 1
Glory's room got a face lift. Perhaps it is because she is the only girl. Perhaps it was because the "burnt orange" walls did not look very girly (sorry, Longhorn fans). Now we just need her matching curtains from Texas!

Settling Down
We have made several trips to Quito in hopes of finishing our visa process, but there always seems to be something new. Since our visa process is still on hold, we are no longer planning on coming to Texas in October. Thanks to my mom and some friends, we should have the remaining paperwork by the end of the month! Instead we have been settling in more here in Puyo: painting, some minor electrical rewiring, building new beds for the boys, installing a fence around part of the property so that we feel safer letting our kids "roam", attending a Bible conference, etc
.

Levi really enjoys spending time with his baby brother, Noah.

Sorry about the lack of pictures of the others, I suppose that they were not very photogenic this month.
Enjoy!
Taylor

The many faces of Noah

 He smiles!!!

 He wails...

 He watches his beautiful shoes.

Good Night, Noah.

Last week in pictures

Life is getting fun, and really BUSY around here. To start with, this past week began the first of (we hope) a weekly Hymn Sing/Bible Study at our house on Tuesday nights. :) We were really encouraged to have 8 young people last Tuesday. 

We've started school back for the year, included in which is that the kids are learning how to swim. We try, weather permitting, to get to the pool twice a week for about 40 min. (Also in this pic, you can see Ariel, our neighbor who hangs out over here quite a bit working on his English and playing with Nathanael.)

Glory and Levi started playing soccer with a group in Shell and are both seeming to enjoy the practices. (Also twice a week). They are in the same age category, which is really nice; not only for them to get to play together, but more so for their parents, who are glad not to have kids playing on different days. ;) 

To finish up with, the church has started a kids' Bible Club on Saturday mornings,
which we are enjoying being part of.

I'd better go to bed now because tomorrow we start all over again. :D

Happy Birthday!

...Between driving back and forth to Quito, we celebrated 3 birthdays in late August! Taylor's was first...and I guess no one took any pictures. We did, however, have peach cobbler and go out to eat at a grill type restaurant. (and if you'll notice, in the picture of Glory's birthday, you can still see "Happy Birthday Papa!" decorations up. :) Daniel and Glory got to go out to eat as well, picking pizza and fried chicken, respectively. Taylor and I always roll our eyes when we see Dan's pizza restaurant, which they oddly named, "Hut Cheese". Really?! "Hut Cheese"? Oh well. Such is English in Ecuador some times. :)  The kids both wanted to help make their own birthday cakes - Glory would have made hers by herself, except I wanted to play too.! We love you, big kids!

Ministry (?) Update

This morning while I was running on a trail along a river here in Puyo, I found myself thinking, "What are we doing here?" In Honduras, we had a goal of improving our Spanish and for the most part, it was a success. But when we came to Ecuador, our "goal" was not as obvious. We have thought about several things that we want to do and certainly there are needs that we can help with, but to be plainly honest our "ministry" at this point is best understood in these verses:

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake...
-1st Peter 2:13

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
-1st Timothy 2:1-3

Beginning the process to change our visas, renting a house, obtaining legal/notarized rent contract, learning how and where to pay the water bill, learning how and where to pay the electric bill, setting up and paying for phone and internet service, obtaining the proper, legal, notarized documents to process our visa, purchasing a vehicle, obtaining legal documents for ownership of vehicle, obtaining a driver's license,  correcting proper, legal, notarized documents to process our visa, having a baby (Noah), obtaining legal Ecuadorian citizenship for Noah, visiting the US Embassy to obtain US citizenship for Noah, setting an appointment to revisit the US Embassy to obtain US citizenship for Noah, attending a driver's education course so that I can take the driver's license test, recorrecting proper, legal, notarized documents to process our visa since the law changed as of 3 weeks ago (yes, it does not matter that we were in the middle of the process), being the proud parents of a card-carrying Ecuadorian citizen!

Are we still working to improve our Spanish communication? Yes, but we could still be more dedicated to our studies. Are we continuing to look for more opportunities to share the wonderful news of salvation? Yes, but we could certainly be doing more. Is there more that we would like to be doing? Of course! Are we caring for our children and family physically, mentally, and spiritually? Yes, but there is always room for more growth.

Do we sometimes get frustrated that our current outward "ministry" is simply submitting to the government's whims? Yes, but that does seem to be both important and urgent at this point in our life. So if you talk with me on the phone and if the conversation turns to what we are doing, don't be surprised if I simply quote to you 1st Peter 2:13!

Enjoy!
Taylor

P.S. - We return to Quito in a week to (Lord willing) finalize our recorrected documents and apply for new visas, and to apply for US citizenship for Noah.

Happy 4 Weeks, Noah!

Well, Noah is not quite a month old, but as today is 4 weeks since we met him, we thought we should at least put a picture up. :D He reminds us a lot of Glory when she was a baby- big bright eyes; easy baby. He likes his pacifier ("plug") a whole lot. He looks like all the rest of our tribe, with the exception being that his eyes are still gray...we'll see if they change later or not, but our others had completely brown eyes by this point. We're really excited to see what this little person will be like as his personality unfolds. :)