One year

So I am officially the world's worst blogger. I started off strong, but got a bit too busy along the way. It has been one year and almost two months since we arrived in Dominica. I have not been home (to the US) since. It is very hard to believe that so much time has passed when it seems like a blink of an eye. I guess this just goes to show you how time does pass us by, and reminds us to make the very best out of every day.

We did a lot of island sight seeing during the last break. We wanted to get in all we could before it was time to leave. We rented a car for the two weeks (since ours was still broke) and toured the island with some friends of ours, Paul and Brandy Tarap. The girls have probably hiked more and seen more than most people ever will. Hopefully they will be able to look back at this when they are older and appreciate what a treasure this journey truly was.

Wes and I celebrated out 10 year anniversary on May 14. To commemorate the occasion, we island hopped to Barbados for a couple of days. You would think one island is the same as the next, but that is not so. Barbados is not a volcanic island, in fact it is flat. It is a coral island so it has the bright white sandy beaches. The turquoise water was spectacular and there were even wild monkeys at our hotel. Amazing! We had a great time relaxing in comfort that you don't find in Dominica.

Wes and the girls left Dominica to get re-established in the States in the middle of June. This gave the girls time to enjoy the grandparents and get settled in before entering a much larger school system. Leaving their friends was probably the hardest part. They stopped over in Barbados for two nights on their way home and got to enjoy the monkeys as well. They adjusted to life back in the States within the first few seconds of stepping off the plane.

Life is much quieter here. I seem to have a lot more time than I once did. This must be what 'regular' medical students experience. Weird. But, I am hoping to utilize this time to my advantage and get good enough grades to get off the island in August. (so I am blogging...hmmm).

The journey has been very memorable and looking back there are plenty of lessons we have learned that I don't think would have been possible anywhere else. Wes has become a hands-on father and the girls now know that their daddy loves them very much. We have all learned that life in the US is not what 'real life' is for the other 99% of the world. Hopefully we can all remember that the US is not the center of the universe and that there are others who are much less fortunate than we are. I hope to always be thankful for lights, water and food! Things that were not always plentiful or present in Dominica.

Thank you God for taking us on this journey and opening our eyes to Your creation. I look forward to the next leg and what it has in store.

Perspective

I know I have not been the best at updating the blog, but here is what has been going on since last time...

Wes: As you probably all know, Wes spent about a week in the hospital in St. Lucia for MRSA in his chin. He underwent two surgeries and came extremely close to meeting Jesus face to face. It was very scary there for a while. He called me and told me that he needed me to come get him out of the hospital because he was pretty sure he was going to die there. So, with the help of a whole lot of people, I hopped on a plane and was back in St. Lucia to get him out. I am amazed at the support we had from literally all over the world. I sent out a prayer request to our church in Boise, our church in Dominica and family members and we started getting e-mails from people we didn't even know offering support in all sorts of ways. It was incredibly touching and marvelous (can't find the words to describe) to feel people standing together with us in such a dire time while we were so very far from anyone.

Wes recovered quite miraculously just in the few hours I was there. I got back to him at 11:00pm and he was quite ill. The pain was insane and he literally looked like he had aged a good 20 years. By morning, he looked extremely better and the pain was gone. Amazing! I was able to take him home with me (to Dominica) a few days later. We had to purchase a bunch of IV drugs (from all over St. Lucia - no kidding) and the doctors at the clinic on my campus had to administer his drug therapy for a week following his return. He went in twice a day for his IV that lasted 2 hours each. Long story made short, he is done with his drugs and is recovering rapidly. He only has a "noticeable" scar on his chin, but nothing like I was imagining.

We are very thankful for everyone who pulled together to support us. We were incredibly blessed. Thank you to Scott and Whitney for staying with the girls while I went back to St. Lucia; thanks to Mike B. for the transportation to and from the airport (in a questionable vehicle). Thanks to Ryan Miller for rallying the troops of Lighthouse and all those involved in Lighthouse that held us up in prayer. Thanks to BVCC who not only supported us in prayer but helped us financially as well. To our parents who literally went above and beyond the call (sorry Grandma and Papa G that you were not able to use that money to come and visit). And a big thanks to my sister and brother-in-law who dropped everything to find me a plane ticket that left that very day. There are so many more people that helped us out in so many different ways. We are incredibly grateful! I have said to many people, "If I said Thank You every day for the rest of my life, it would not be enough". May the blessings you have been to us be multiplied and poured out on you!

Love you all.

First of all, I can't believe it has been so long since my last post, and secondly, I can't believe it is 2010! This last year has been quite an adventure for us with lots of life lessons learned (we hope). Let's see...since I blogged last, we have moved on to 3rd semester of medical school, so we are half way through our time in Dominica.

The girls:

Karissa is loving the 1st grade and has started to really accelerate in her learning. You can no longer spell words that you don't want her to repeat because she will figure out what you have said. Her best scores in school are socializing (can you believe that), which is also what her worst scores are in because she tends to do it during times she should be paying attention to the teacher.

Can you believe the size of this lobster?! No, Wes didn't catch it and yes it was alive when she was holding it.

Jillian has really started to come out of her shell and develop her own personality. She likes school, but especially loves her friends. She has been so excited for Christmas this year, even though we really made no big deal of it. We were able to borrow a Christmas tree and she thought that was the best thing in the world. It was fun to see her so full of excitement for the holiday.

Christmas was very different for us. Besides being on and island with no snow, we also were away from family and did not do gifts. There were other families that stayed on the island that we had dinner with, so it was nice to have others to share the season with. When I say we didn't do gifts, I mean we didn't get anything for the girls or each other. Crazy? Not really. The culture here is the children get two things for Christmas...like a puzzle and a doll. Nothing fancy or expensive and they don't do Santa (something I fully support). The grandparents sent gifts for the kids, so we figured that was sufficient for Christmas. Plus, we will have to ship everything back when the kids return to the states, so less is best.

Me: I really haven't been up to much except studying and school. I did have a birthday somewhere in there and Wes got me an ice cream cake. Yes, I did say ice cream. We had to eat it in one sitting because our freezer is too small to put stuff in. Wes also took me to a little place called Sunset Bay for a lobster dinner. Wow, they gave us a lot of food!

We really haven't been able to take many tours of the island this break because our car is broke. That is a real bummer. But we did have a 5 night vacation in St. Lucia which is supposed to be a 3 hour ferry ride. (Notice I say "supposed".) We have a friend who lives on St. Lucia so we had a good time visiting and catching up. Unfortunately, the trip did not go as we had originally planned...which brings me to Wes...

Wes:

Since the last blog, Wes has been cliff jumping off the 50' cliffs and of course more spear fishing around the island. He also went on a "guys only" hike of the biggest mountain here. They had a great time hiking through mud that was knee high.

He was grounded from snorkeling/spear fishing for about a month when he had an ear infection that required two rounds of antibiotics. But other than that, he has been able to run around the island seeing lots of nature.

St. Lucia did not turn out as we had hoped because Wes contracted a massive Staph infection in his chin. We think it happened just before leaving on our trip while snorkeling in Douglas Bay. Wes felt something poke him, like a bee sting, in the water but didn't think anything of it. As the days went by his chin developed a small bump, then a larger bump then a huge mass. This all developed while in St. Lucia. He saw a doctor, who made a "house call" to our room and gave him medication. This didn't work and eventually Wes ended up in the hospital having surgery on his face. As I sit here and type this, he is in St. Lucia at the hospital with a tube in his face to drain the wound. He is on high powered antibiotics to try and stop the spread of the infection. We are glad he was not in Dominica when this happened, since they don't really have a lot of access to different medications.

So, I don't have many pictures of St. Lucia, but here is a little video of Karissa and our friend Paul making a waterfall in our hotel pool.

Until next time...have a safe and happy new year!