House Hunting and Hot Season

I had a post all written, and in the process of editing and posting, it was lost.  So I'm trying again. I'm going to retype the journal. Dru is singing nonsense to Jube, putting himself to sleep. Something about walruses eating marshmallows, etc. So with that music I'll proceed.

3-8-10

What a day! Or so it felt. We went to look at houses, teach English, then went to KFC in Big C on our way home. Mae Wahn was with us. Poor woman was weeping today because we are leaving. I think by including her she felt better about it.  

She came up and wondered if we could live over there and sleep here at night. Too l ate I realized that she was grieving--I couldn't figure out why she thought such an idea feasible and answered, "Mai Daai!" emphatically. Later I realized she was crying on the veranda and Dru and I went out and talked it out with her--inviting her to come with us to look for a house this afternoon. It's all okay now and she really does seem to understand our need to move.

I think her biggest sorrow is Jube leaving. We'll have to be sure to visit often. Maybe have her babysit. I thought of setting a room aside for her at our new house, but can't decide if I like the idea. I like the idea of having more privacy in a new place. Yet I'm learning that as a missionary my ideals of privacy might have to be altered--if not disposed of altogether. We Americans like our privacy!

Because of a blog I read this morning, I've kind of been thinking of "counting the cost" today. The cost of living on the mission field. The truth is, when I did my cost counting some three years ago, I was counting the cost of not spending the rest of my life with Dru. The idea was intolerable and gets more and more so as time goes on. Yet now that I'm here I realize little by little that it is time for me to learn to be a missionary. I need to let God open, soften, and teach my heart to care for others more than myself. I am such a selfish person!

[End of entry.]

That gives you a pretty good idea of what our lives look like right now. We looking for a house and a car and the right one of each has not come by yet--or not that we know of.  We'd like to be moved next month sometime and have a car soon as well.

My dear baby seems to have thrush. It's for real this time I think. Last time I treated him for it by the time it was all over with I decided that he hadn't had it at all. This time his mouth is full of white patches and he's got a diaper rash. Why it doesn't hurt for me to scrape the patches off, and why he isn't having a hard time nursing, I don't know. He seems a little fussy today too. What can I do to prevent thrush? Is it something some babes are prone to and others aren't? Is there something I can do? Is it diet related or is it something he might pick up somewhere or what or what or what? 

Hot season is upon us here and this year I don't mind it. We're sleeping in the air conditioning at night and Jube sleeps much better down here in the AC at nap times too. My only complaint is that I wake up with a headache in the morning. It goes away soon enough, but still, not fun. Unfortunately, the headache doesn't go away as well for Dru. He does not do well this time of the year because of the pollution in the air. Even with the air purifier going we both wake up feeling not so wonderful. I have a theory that if we get the AC cleaned out, maybe we'd do better. Dru will probably struggle regardless. He said today that he'll probably feel like this for the next couple weeks and will have to figure out how to cope. Pray for him right now in this season. Being under the weather physically can cause one to feel discouraged and effect all other areas of ones life.

I said I'm enjoying hot season. It's occurred to me lately that I am free to grow what ever I want to try growing here. I don't have to worry about frost too early--if anything I need to worry about too much heat. So I'm trying to raise some plants from seed. If anyone has seeds laying around that they aren't going to use, send them to me! I am going to fill pots with flowers and even a few veggies. I really want a very large species of very orange pumpkin to grow. So far I haven't got the seed I need to do so. The pumpkins here are small and green when they are ripe. The funny thing is that when I was at home, gazing at the seed catalogs in the late winter, I was always disgusted that the pretty stuff wouldn't grow in our Wisconsin zones. Now that I can try that stuff, I want to grow the old, familiar flowers from home.  So digging in the dirt is my new therapy for now. Baking was the old one, but my kitchen is warm enough without the oven going these days. And all that aside, I'm also enjoying hot season because although it's warm, I don't find the heat as unbearable as it was when I was pregnant a year ago.

So that's a peek into our lives. Keep us in your prayers, please. We have a lot of decisions to make right now about moving, new car, and in the future, coming home for Melinda's wedding or not. And Dru's health. I think for me that's on the top of the list. Pray too for Mae Wahn over this time. She's coping very well but sad about us leaving.