Glimpse into our life - Laundry

Here in the Dominican Republic, doing laundry requires a delicate balance of several factors over which I have little to no control.

In order to wash clothes, I need electricity and running water.  Since we do not have a dryer, in order to dry the clothes, it needs to not be raining and the clothes need to be on the line well before 6 pm.  (Eddy put clotheslines up in our "backyard" and also on our porch.)

So there we go; laundry needs to be done in the morning or early afternoon when there is running water, electricity, and it's not raining. Easy, right?  Nope, not here in the DR.

Here's the problem with the electricity.  We lose our electricity every day.  The amount of times that the electricity goes out and the duration that it goes out varies and is in no way a dependable schedule.  On a good day it will go out two or three times for an hour or two.  Most week days, however, it goes out sometime in the morning, and doesn't come back on until late afternoon or early evening.  On bad days, it doesn't come back on until late at night.

Here's the problem with running water.  We lose our street water several times per week.  This is more on a schedule.  For example, we know that every Wednesday and Saturday sometime during the morning, the water will go out.  Plus it will go out random other times as well with no warning.

Here's the problem with rain.  When it's rainy season, or there is a storm nearby, it rains pretty much every day.  It usually doesn't rain all day long.  It rains in short bursts, separated by sunshine.  When it stops raining and the sun comes out, there is no guarantee that it won't start raining again in a half an hour.  Sometime it's raining and sunny at the same time.  Seriously.

Here's the problem with doing laundry in the morning or early afternoon.  I work at a school.

Because of all of these factors, I had not been able to do laundry in almost two weeks.  But a couple days ago, the stars aligned, and it was sunny with running water and electricity ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  I got so much laundry done.  It was great.

I love my little automatic washing machine.  Most Dominican washing machines require the use of a bucket and hose.

Drying in the sun in our "backyard".

Drying on our porch.

Glimpse into our life - practice

I believe that most of you know that Eddy has a gift for music.  He self-taught himself to play the piano and he also sings.  He serves at our church on the worship team.  He also plays the guitar and percussion (on the keyboard).  A large part of my time at home is spent listening to Eddy practice.  I love how passionate he is about worship and I love listening to him play.  He usually sets up on the kitchen table but since Jenny and I were hanging out in there, he came up with this set up today:

He was so focused, he didn't even notice me taking his picture.

Sitting in a rocking chair, piano on the hamper, computer on the floor.  Whatever works right?  Love him.

Glimpse into our Life - phones

This is the cell phone that Eddy and I share:

I bet you didn't even know they still made phones like this.

This beauty is pay-as-you-go.  We "buy minutes" when we run out so that we can make phone calls.  Its features include texting capabilities and an awesome multi-colored font when dialing phone numbers.

My lack of modern phone technology, has led to me asking my friends and family in the states ridiculous questions such as "Do you have a cell phone?" or "Do you have minutes?", which usually leads to them patiently explaining to me (with the voice usually reserved for when speaking to small children) that yes, they do, in fact, have a cell phone, and they don't "buy minutes".  Embarrassing.

Eddy had a second phone for a while, but it never worked very well and finally broke completely a few weeks ago, so for the most part, yes, this has been our phone.

That is, until today.  I present to you my very first smart phone:

Isn't it beautiful?

Now I just need to figure out how to use it.  

Glimpse into our life - Sobrinas

This is a picture of me with our three sobrinas (nieces).  They are my loves.  My life would not be the same without them and I consider myself to be truly blessed to be their tia (aunt).  On the left is Jenny.  On the right is Adriana and Adrianys.  Adriana and Adrianys are sisters.  For the full year before Eddy and I got married I lived with Adriana, Adrianys and their mom (Eddy's sister, Guillermina).  They are a huge part of my life.

 In May the girls, and their mom, moved to New York to be with their dad.  Their family had been working very hard for years to get their visas for them to be able to move the states to live with him.  We celebrated that their family is reunited, but we miss them terribly.  They call us a couple times a week to talk one the phone and catch up.  Here is a picture of them at the airport, ready to go.

There is probably nobody that misses those girls more than Jenny.  Jenny and Adrianys were born days apart and the three girls are the best of friends.  (Jenny's mom is Eddy's other sister, Gloria.)  The girls lived right down the street from us, but Jenny and her mom live farther away so we have to be more intentional about spending time with her.  Jenny comes over to our house about a once week to visit us.  We bake together and play Jenga and hang out with Eddy.  She also comes to church with us most Sundays and participates in the activities that the church has for the kids.  We love her dearly and are so thankful to have her in our lives.

Glimpse into our life - Roadside Stands

One thing I love about living in the Dominican Republic is the ease at which you can purchase everyday items.  From neighborhood colmados, to roadside stands, to people selling items at stoplights.

Within a block of our house there are four colmados open.  These colmados are small stands or stores that sell a variety of things that you can buy in small quantities.  For example, I could go down to the colmado and buy two eggs, three plantains, a bottle of water, and just enough laundry detergent for two loads of laundry. That would be a completely normal colmado purchase.  Within a mile of our house there are also several roadside food stands that sell fried chicken, empanadas, pizza, etc.

At most busy intersections throughout the city, there are vendors selling a variety of items on the street.  Things we have bought at intersections: bottles of water, cds, phone cards, windshield wipers, phone chargers, educational posters for the school, avocados.  The people walk between the cars when they stop and you buy what you want right through your window.

One of my favorite kinds of roadside stands are the flower stands.  Along the normal routes that we take, there are four different flower stands of various sizes where we will sometimes stop to buy flowers.  These flowers are fresh and beautiful and cheap.  What I love the most is the variety of tropical flowers available, most of which I had never seen before moving here and don't even know the names of.  I love having fresh flowers in the house and I love giving flowers as gifts as well.

My mom calls these "bird of paradise" flowers.  There is a large variety of this type of flower.  You can see a few of the different kinds in the last picture.

I like the ones in the back that look like honeycombs.  I think they are really cool.

So many cool flowers to choose from.  :)

Glimpses into our life - First day of school

Hi All,

I've been thinking and praying a lot about this blog of mine that I have been ignoring for several months and neglected for far longer.  For a while I was considering shutting it down, but as I thought about it, I realized that it is such a great tool for connecting with all of you.

We have such an amazing group of friends and family and supporters in the states.  We love when some of you have a chance to come visit and get to see firsthand our life down here in the DR and we love catching up with you all when we are in the states and telling you stories about our lives.  I realize that most of you reading this have no idea what our day-to-day lives are like.  You don't know what its like to live in a barrio in the Dominican Republic, but in talking with some of you, you seem to be really interested to know.

I would love to start writing on here again someday about some of the deep stuff.  To share my continued testimony with you and talk about the heavy stuff and the way that God is moving and working in our lives.  But for now, what I really want to do is just reconnect with you all and start sharing our lives with you.

So what I've decided to do is start a new series of blog posts called "glimpses into our life".  A few times a week, I will post a few pictures with a short post explaining the most recent "glimpse" into our life.  Each post will focus on one small aspect of our life; from what our home looks like, to the struggles of doing laundry in the Dominican Republic, to our church activities, to Eddy's family, to why we are afraid of mosquito bites, and the list will go on.

To start us off today, the first "glimpse into our life" is an easy one.  This Tuesday was: THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.  This is the fifth school year that I will be present for here at Pathway to Jesus School (and, I think, the ninth or tenth for Eddy.)  Luckily the school has started off very smoothly (with very little crying at the preschool side).  Here are a couple of pictures.

Cafeteria at the elementary building

some of the big kids

KINDER - 4 year olds

PARVULO - 2 year olds

MATERNAL - 3 year olds

Loved

What I am about to write about is not a new topic.  It is not a revolutionary concept.  But it’s the work that God has been doing in me.   He has been teaching me that He loves me.  Obviously, this something that I know.  This is something that any of my preschoolers could tell you.  They sing it every day.  Jesus loves me.  

However, God has not been teaching me to know that He loves me.  He has been teaching me to see the outpouring of that love in my life and to recognize it for what it is.  As a result, I feel loved.  For me, using the word ‘loved’ to describe myself, has a deeper significance.  

I am loved.

It's more than just a word or a feeling, it is a state of being.

I am loved.

 I need to be conscious of that.  I need to be thankful for that.   It needs to be my testimony.  



I have this memory of my wedding weekend. 

It's so clear in my mind.  We had all piled into a bus and were heading to Jarabacoa.  My whole family and close friends were there, Eddy's whole family was there.  There were a lot of us and we were pretty smushed into that bus.

Our wedding was the next morning, but we were heading up to Jarabacoa the day before so that we could have some good family time together.  I remember sitting next to my soon-to-be husband and looking out the window at the beautiful mountains and listening to praise and worship music and having this amazing feeling wash over me.  It was a feeling of being loved. 

I felt loved.

I felt loved because I was surrounded by my family and friends who came all the way from the states for my wedding were so, unbelievably, supportive of me and Eddy and our marriage.  I felt loved because of the  acceptance of Eddy's family into their family.  I felt loved because there was man sitting next to me who had chosen to be at my side for the rest of our lives.

But the feeling of being loved went deeper than that.  I realized that all of those people in my life; my family, his family, my husband, were all blessings given to me by my God, out of love for me.  I am loved by a perfect Father, who gives me more than I need and who blesses me in immeasurable ways BECAUSE HE LOVES ME. 


Now, like I said.  This may not seem like a huge revelation to you.  Maybe you have never struggled with feeling loved.  Maybe that was not a hard concept for you to grasp.  But in my life, I believed for a long time  that I was unlovable.  The enemy convinced me at a young age that I was impossible to love.   With each mistake and failure, he reminded me that I would never be good enough.  

Since that day before my wedding, God has used people and sermons and books and children and His word to teach me about His love.  He has shown me in countless ways that no matter what I’ve done, or the mistakes I make, or if I fail, His love doesn’t.  I don’t need to earn His love.  I don’t need to be “good enough”.

Another example of this is our recent trip to the states. 

Eddy and I just spent about 6 weeks in the states.  We had a great time and God blessed our time there and our work.  We presented in four churches, had several meetings, found over 40 new sponsors for our students, etc.  We also had the opportunity to go spend time with family and friends.  I also had a lot of fun watching Eddy experience his first Chicago winter.  It was his first time seeing snow, feeling cold, going sledding.

However, in our last days in the states, as I was reflecting on our time there, I was brought back to that same feeling of being loved.  

Stepping away, having some time for rest, praising God in my first language, being surrounded by my family and our amazing group of supporters, and growing in my relationship with Christ.  All of those blessings, which not only gave me a sense of peace in the midst of difficult times, but also a reassurance of the unfailing and unconditional and elaborate love of God.


So as I am handed pamphlets by my doctor with the word "infertility" on them and the enemy starts to whisper in my ear, I can stand firm in the knowledge that I am loved.  And as the weight of my responsibility in the ministry and the stress keep my mind running at night preventing sleep, I can remind myself that I don't need to be perfect because I am loved.

And every time I look at my husband or skype with my family or remember my nieces or nephews or receive an encouraging email or notice any of the blessings that God has given me, I can remember that as He blessed me with each of those things, He was saying to me "You are loved."