P.S. to yesterday....

I did ask someone I love if they were feeling alright when I heard them stutter for the first time, and I found out that He was not ok. He had been, or was going back to the hospital for another malaria treatment because the previous round of meds didn’t get totally rid of this case of malaria. 

It was a big deal for me to know that asking a question about an abnormal behavior was ok. He wasn't offended. I knew he was smart, and pretty thoughtful before he spoke. He was usually methodical in his communication and I had never heard a stutter before. So, I was genuinely concerned when his stutter went a little bit into a slur. That's when I said to him what I hope someone would say to me if they noticed a brand new ‘quirk’ or maybe even a typical quirk of mine that was a little too pronounced.

So yeah. That is another reason why I’m so passionately talking and writing about mental wellbeing. That case of malaria stuck around and messed with his brain for a long time. Jesus won, and he's not even stuttering. But that was a big scare. 

I guess that is all I have in mind for mental wellbeing. I’m also interested in other things like, celebrating my little sister’s 30^th birthday, hosting my best-friend while she has a three day speaking engagement near Denver, and all the while getting ready for our trip to Cali and then on to Mozambique.

Do you want to know some of the preparations for our trip to California?

Dance moves! I love it!!!! A dear friend from our early days on the mission field is getting married and we’re gonna do a Bollywood flash-mob dance.

Here’s a few of the dance moves that I gotta try to roll through :-) to read because I thought that if I wrote out some of the dance choreography, then I could remember it better. I'm pretty wordy.....if you haven't noticed.

So here it is: Intro 1,2,3,4

Starting on 5, then 6,7,8  feet shoulder width apart both feet facing forward and tapping. Turn face towards the right lift right hand up straight and flat (bent at the elbow) in front of face, with left hand just under chin in the middle of upper chest. Pumping shoulder a bit and hands at the beat.

On 1, then do the same move facing left 2, 3, 4

Back to right on 5, then 6, 7, 8

On 1, move left hand from in front of the chest to the left of left hip at waist height. Move fingers to soft and long with middle finger touching the thumb. Step with the right foot slightly to towards the left in a counter clockwise motion bouncing the right hip with each step and slightly extending and retracting the arms on each step.  Then on through 2, 3, 4 ,5, 6, 7, and clap in front of your waist on 8 and change directions.

On 1, doing this move going from left to right. Clap on the 8 count

On 1, lift hands up and out in a slow bounce (slightly facing left with right knee slightly bent) out to 8 count. On Jai Hoo

That’s only the first part of the dance! It is going to be fun, and I am certain that the choreographer is going to tell us we look amazing!!!! Here’s hoping.

Well tomorrow is my day off from Blogging. So lots of love for two days!!!

Missionary Momma Mia 

Missionary momma’s prayer

Oh Jesus,

I was so excited to write something today. I woke up just full of words and thoughts, but know I’m finding myself at a loss for words.

The thing is that this day has been very nice. I’ve been upbeat and happy, but I’m concerned about Benaiah now. I love the spring, the spring isn’t loving my littlest guy to much though… or it could be that the weather here changes sooo often! Our boys are on spring break, but the wind was so crazy yesterday that they didn’t even play outside. Colorado weather is so very different from the weather in Chimoio. There are basically two seasons in Chimoio, and four in this corner of Colorado – and we did have a freak blizzard two weeks ago followed by sunshine. So seasons change every other day here…. 

It normally isn’t so bad for our littlest guy, but this week he’s been hit with a cough. Jesus, please sooth his throat, and strengthen his immune system.   

He’s been coughing today, and it is like the cough that he had when the seasons changed in Chimoio. He had such difficult time breathing with the irritation in his throat that we ending up driving him to the private clinic in the middle of the night so he could use a nebulizer. The private clinic was only a few minutes drive away from our house. But with our youngest son fighting to catch a breath, it felt like half an hour away.

When we arrived at the clinic in the middle of the night, everyone was kind and helpful. The staff was great. They led us into their urgent care, and set him up on a bed next to a gurgling machine with menthol smelling mist to soothe his airways. After a little while it helped his breathing slow down and become less shallow.

I remember holding him while he tried to breathe the medicated air in through the face mask. It took a bit over fifteen minutes to open up his breathing, but when we got home he was finally able to sleep. I think I held him all night that night. 

The evening was memorable for many reasons, but one of the most memorable was the compassion and concern in the nursing staff’s eyes as we waited for my youngest son to be able to breathe freely. I never imagined that the problem would persist, but we knew he was in good hands. We ended up having to drive him to the clinic three nights in a row.

When we talked with our doctor, he pointed out that there was more than just the change of the season, there was also a lot of soot and ash in the air because many local farmers burn their fields to clear them for planting. We kept our windows and doors closed as much as possible until the air cleared. We hoped he wouldn’t need an inhaler. The problem passed after a few days. He didn’t seem to have a long-term breathing problem.  

Tonight Benaiah’s throat is still irritated, we’re thinking it’s from a lot of dust in the air that the wind whipped up yesterday. My poor little guy….so we gave him some cough and cold medicine and dabbed some Thieves oil to help open up his breathing. I was a little concerned that he might need a nebulizer, but with a deep sigh of relief I remembered that we wouldn’t have to drive anywhere. It’s nice when your needs are met. We were given a brand new nebulizer so we can help our little guy right away if he needs help breathing. Thank you Jesus for the little things, and the big things….

Missionary Momma Mia

At 7 in the morning, he woke up just now, taking painful shallow rapid breaths. Thankfully the machine was humming in a matter of minutes.....