Move over Dorshinko

Just to let the ones of you who know "Dr. Dorshinko", or know who I'm talking about, this should be good.

Last week I started a crash course dental training school. It's a one week school (with lots of volunteer hours) that teaches you how to fill cavities without using a common tooth drill and without using local anesthesia.

So far the class has been great. Due to some family needs I missed the last 2 days of class so I'm having to make them up, but its still mucho fun! If I can get enough hours in this week I will get to work in/on some real mouths!

I'll keep you up to date!

we're back!

Graham playing on Elijah's bike!









We are so sorry for the lack of post. Our home computer crashed 3 weeks ago and we are just now back and running.

Wow-lots to talk about. I'll catch you up on the kids and Alex can tell you all about PNG.

First off...We are so excited to have dad back. We all managed great, but missed him dearly. Alex was gone close to 5 weeks and that just can't happen again :)

Since the last post, things have been pretty calm for the most part. We made it home (Texas home) safely with no complications. *subject change...When Haley does something that makes us laugh or is just too crazy we call it a "haleyism". She had a cute on the way home. We had to fly through some windy weather and when we the plane would have turbulence she would put her hands in the air and say "wee, mom its like a roller coaster"! it was cute.

Grace came to visit 4 days after we came back and we had a great time. We cooked lots of good food and I took her to all the "popular" places. When we went to the beach we stopped by the turtle sanctuary. It was way cool. You can check it out at seaturtleinc.com ... We also went to the zoo. For the most part we just hung out and relaxed. We did one more thing but you'll have to ask us in person:)

Alex came home 4 days after Grace left. His plane came it at midnight and we all were waiting for him at the gate. The kids responded great. Graham was kinda fussy but it was only b/c he had been woken up from his peaceful sleep. He missed his daddy and when he saw him the next morning-it showed. He was so happy! Alex did look kinda different. The kids did not seem to noticed, but i did. He was tan and thin! jealous...anyway.

We spent the next week just catching up. We all spent lots of time together. We went to the beach for the day and had a blast. The beach was crowded-spring breakers-but both kids had a great time. Graham is a hoot a the beach. He acts like the sand is grass. He rolls around and smashes his face in it. The sand never bothers him. Haley and Graham still don't like the water, but I can't blame them. For one, its FREEZING. The waves are what really scare both of them.













The next thing on our calendar was Easter. We(Belinda)had a great egg hunt for the kids. Haley really got into it. Graham on the other hand, not so much. He had one egg in his bucket and just liked picking it up, putting it in his basket and then throwing it out. One new thing we found were confetti filled eggs. They are real egg shells, dyed and filled with confetti. The kids could crush the eggs in there hands or on each others head and confetti would fly everywhere. They had a blast.













Well that brings us to April. One last "haleyisim"... tonight we were talking about animals and how we eat them for food(we were talking about the 10 plagues and we were on the one when God kills the Egyptian livestock)anyway, she said "mom, i know where chicken come from", "where" I asked..."fish!" she answers?????? don't ask. Alex and i just sat and stared. he is so goofy sometimes.

back to the land of the living!

We are finally well! Graham is still having some breathing problems, but that’s normal for him. We joined 4 other moms at the park today for a “play date”. The kids had so much fun. Even though we’ve only lived in Texas for short while, our bodies have already adjusted to the warm weather. The temp in Birmingham has been in the 50’s and for us, that’s freezing!

Graham and his friend, Hayden Meredith!

Our time in Alabama is coming to an end. We leave to head back to Los Fresnos in 5 days. We are sad to go, but ready to be back at our home. I want to thank anyone and everyone who has helped make this trip back home great! Even though we were sick most of the time, it’s still nice to be in a familiar place while Alex is away.

Speaking of Alex, I've not heard from him in about a week but the last time I talked to him (the one and only time I’ve talked to him) he said everything was going great. God is doing some amazing things in Papua New Guinea and he is doing some awesome things in our family. Since Alex has been gone God has given me gracious amounts of patience with the kids. The first thing that Haley told Alex the other day was “dad, I’ve not gotten one spanking since we’ve been in Alabama”. It’s true; Haley and Graham have both been real troopers!

Please continue to pray for the team in New Guinea and for the other team from TETM (in La Barra, Mexico). Also, please pray for the families that are at home. While our husbands are away, satin has a way of attacking us constantly. We are always on the battlefield for Him!

Birmingham Update

After a great time at Delta Flight Haley, Mom and I headed to Troy to visit Aunt Grace and Aunt Abbie. Grace had a leading role in the play The Misanthrope and she was AWESOME! We stayed in her house and had a chance to meat Tommy’s parents (Tommy is Graces man) and we also had the “pleasure” of seeing Abbies dorm. It is so much fun getting to spend time with girls. That is one thing that I miss a lot-seeing and spending time with my sisters!

Monday night (the night in Troy) I started feeling under the weather, but I just assumed it was a cold setting in. On Tuesday Graham also stared feeling bad so I took him to the doctor and she said he just had a virus so I just needed to treat the symptoms. At that point she also listened to my chest and said I probably had the same thing. Graham soon stared feeling better but I just got worse. After 5 more days of feeling like crud, I went to an after hours clinic (on Sunday) and ended up with strep. I’ve now been in bed for a week and am about to go CRAZY!!! After lots of antibiotics and over the counter meds I’m finally coming back to life.

We only have one more week left in Alabama, yet so much to do!

so far, so good

Well we made it safe and sound to Birmingham. I am very thankful that the trip was uneventful. The kids did great flying (as always)!

Alex also made it safe to PNG.
Here is a clip from him.

Things are going well here. We are currently in Wewak. It is 3:00 in the afternoon, and we are waiting on David and Rod to join us this evening. We will finishing up getting supplies tomorrow and head to Chambri late thursday evening, early friday morning. Sometime between midnight and 3 am. We have a 5 hour truck ride to get to the river, and then we will get on the canoes and it will be 2 to 4 hours depending on the water level. I am not really sure why it could be such a big difference, but that is what they tell us. We have met several local people all ready and spent much time with them. It has been really great. Their english is much better than I expected. We have almost no problem communicating with them. I don't expect the same in Chambri, but for now it is great.

Not too much went on Friday in Alabama. Since we were up so early for the flight, we just stayed at the Sissons and rested then headed to church for Delta Flight. For those of y'all who don't know what that is, it's our churches disciple now weekend. Alex and I grew up going every year we were in the youth and it has been something that we have been helping with over the past few years. The kids and I stayed at Lee & Michelle Tindals house and as always Haley had a blast with Matthew and Justin. She is so cute to watch when we go back to church after being gone. Her excitement gets the best of her! The entire weekend went great!

We don't have too many plans for the rest of our time in Alabama. I spoke to some of the women at our home church tonight about our life in Texas and TETM. It went great. Thanks ladies for the time! More updates soon! We love and miss our Texas family!