What a July

I am very happy to report that all three of my little ones are tucked into their own little beds! Yeah! When I went in to give them kisses last night (actually, just a manly “g’night, Michael” for the 13 year old) I was so thankful to have my family back together again.

I picked them up on Monday night and we flew back to Michigan Tuesday morning. Sean had a business conference all last week in Traverse City, so we spent Tuesday through Friday there. The kids swam in the pool and the bay, ate pizza, stayed up late, slept in and had a great time telling each other what they did on their summer vacation.

Amy still has a few spots of chechem, mostly on her chin, chest and hands, but they seem to be fading. Praise the Lord her team leader Mrs. Paula got her to the doctor the very day the blisters appeared on her face. I see her scratching just the little bit she has now; I can't imagine how she must have wanted to scratch her face when the rash was there in full-force.

We had the film developed today and, considering they were using disposable cameras, some shots came out well. I don’t have stories behind everything, yet, but here are a few:

This is a portion of the sidewalk Amy’s team poured. They completed all 300 feet they were hoping to finish. Now each building on the TMI property in Belize is connected by a paved sidewalk.

Amy’s in the yellow shirt, being held by several teammates as she “floated” the sidewalk. After this process two team members stayed near the fresh cement to shoo away the chickens so they didn’t mess up the smooth surface.

And here’s a shot of the Laundromat they used… Amy said she'd dip her dirty clothes in the bucket, put them on the rain poncho to scrub them, then rinse them off and hang them up. This is the same process Michael used as well.

Michael's team did lots of odd jobs around the TMI base in San Pedro. Here he is painting:

And this is a picture of the garden they planted:

Each of their teams did presentations at local schools. This is a picture of Michael with several students:

And both brought back several beautiful pictures of the Caribbean Ocean. Here's one from Belize:

And here's one from Honduras:

For the most part all the stories we're hearing are good. The ones about mildewed clothes and scorpions and rats in the kitchen... let's just say I'm trying to focus on the positive. And after those incidents I'm pretty sure they're not going to complain about my cluttered kitchen. Well, at least not right away.