I’ve been overwhelmed with gratitude the last few weeks. There’s nothing like flying into the tribe for the first time and seeing firsthand the things that God is doing among the people to make one feel grateful-grateful for the missionaries, the pilots, and for the grace of God to see His good work accomplished among the nations.

I am grateful to the missionaries who have given their lives to serve a people who would have never had the chance to hear had they not willingly left their families to come live with them. I have had two sweet opportunities the past two weeks to fly in and visit two different tribes and I was completely blown away. The amount of work that goes into just living there, let alone translate God’s Word and teach the people how to read and write and then pass on that teaching to others is truly overwhelming. Can you imagine? They teach and preach and are doctors – plus, they print and laminate and edit and draw and color and translate and edit and re-edit and re-re-edit…whew! All the while having kids and grandkids in their home countries to miss. They have sacrificed so much to be a light to these people and I am grateful. In the second of the two tribes I visited, the missionary was returning back to her tribal home after being in town for months. I was overwhelmed by the amount of work she had in front of her. In the States, when you return home after a long trip, you have some dusting to do and maybe change the sheets on the beds. In a tribal house, after a few months of being gone, the rats and termites have claimed ownership and taken over the house. She was going to have to take EVERYTHING out of every cabinet and drawer and clean inside, wash every pot and pan and fork and spoon even though no one has used them, maybe even wash all of her clothes again (by hand) and that is just the beginning! Not to mention she had just traveled an hour to get to the airplane for the second day in a row(the first day we drove out to the plane only to find the weather was not good enough to fly. So we drove all the way back to town, she had to buy new fresh food, pay for another night in the guest house, and wait to MAYBE get in the next day.) Thankfully we DID get in the next day and the work began – unpacking boxes, cleaning the house, reuniting with friends…it was too much for my little brain to process and it left me feeling grateful for the hard work these missionaries put in every single day, for the sake of the Gospel. Thank you all of our missionaries who work so hard and are so faithful.

Experiences like this also make me feel grateful for my husband and all the other pilots out there who are allowing the missionaries to stay in the tribe and reach these people.  One of the days that I was able to fly with Brian, the weather was bad and the decision was solely on him whether or not our missionary friend would make it back home into the tribe to be with her husband.  Talk about pressure! I am so thankful for the wisdom and discernment the Lord has given our pilots to make hard decisions like these.  On this particular day, Brian had quite the task ahead of him. He was to fly my friend, Judy, and I into the tribe along with some cargo. He would unload, load 5 passengers (all of them just kids) who spoke no English into the plane, fly back to the airport, unload and drive all the kids to the road about 10 minutes away, come back to the airplane, load the second round of cargo onto the plane, fly back in to the same jungle strip to unload cargo and pick me up, head to another one of our tribal strips to do two airdrops, then finally head back to the airport for the day. This all happened before 11 am and he was battling weather the entire time. I left him to clean up so I could get our kids so when Brian arrived home he had two kids and a wife waiting for him and demanding his attention. He deals with all this with patience and grace and love, just like all of our other pilots do as well. So…all of you pilots, thank you for all you do for our missionaries and your families!

Of course, most of all, experiences like these make me so grateful that we are not doing these alone! In fact, these things would be completely impossible have we not the Lord holding our hands the entire way. It is Him who guides us and gives us the strength to carry on with the day-to-day, tedious tasks of life in the jungles, and Him who gives us the wisdom to know when to fly and when to not fight the weather. It is because He loves us and the whole world that any of us are here and I am so incredibly grateful that He has allowed us to play such a part in reaching a world that He loves.  Thank you, Lord, for how you take care of us and love us and carry us and allow us to serve in this way. And thank you, also, for allowing me the opportunity to see Your hand at work.

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My amazing wife. Maycie and Dylan's amazing mommy.

It’s the night before a flight. A flight that involves me staying in the tribe for the day until the missionaries are ready to come home. I can see on the weather map that a stationary front is moving in over the Eastern Philippines which means rain and nasty weather – stress. Bailey and I just put the kids to bed and Maycie was complaining off and on through the afternoon about her stomach hurting. We braced for a possibly long night of getting up to help her because she knew she had some leverage. We were near the end of a movie when we were interrupted by Maycie crying, and then throwing up all over her bed.

We cleaned her up, changed her bedding and held her on the couch in the living room. I had to start thinking, “if this continues I’ll be in no shape to be flying in the morning, and I need to let Stranges know right away.” Everything seemed okay and we started heading to bed and getting Maycie ready to go back to bed. Maycie puked again. While I was taking her clothes and other dirty stuff to the laundry room Bailey gathered her own pillow and things for the night and headed to Maycie’s room. She knew that if I had to help in the night it would mean I’d have to cancel the flight and the Stranges who had waited a long time to be reunited with their tribal friends would have to wait for another opportunity. It wasn’t even a discussion. Bailey barracaded herself in the bedroom and I got a good night’s sleep and woke up fresh for the flight.

As I was flying overhead at the tribal airstrip I called Bailey on the radio to let her know I’d be landing soon. Just as I called, Dylan started screaming on the floor next to Bailey and Maycie decided it was time to toss her cookies again – all over Bailey and the floor. Bailey stayed at the radio, mess and all, until I was on the ground and safe. I had no idea anything had happened until I got home later that afternoon. Amazing.

It isn’t fair that I come home with all the stories and get to see all the tribal churches while Bailey stays at home on the radio. However, it was never more clear than it was yesterday that I can’t do this job without her, and the missionaries can’t do their jobs like they do now without her. We are a team and without Bailey our ministry wouldn’t work. I just wanted to let all 5 people who read our blog know just how amazing Bailey is. This is just one small example among many.

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I just had to take a moment to brag about my little lady today. Today is a flight day which means I am on the radio and can pretty much pay NO attention to Maycie at all.  She knows that when the radio is on, she can’t be near me; but she is still a two-year-old so that is often a challenge for her.  Today, though, she was abnormally quiet.  When I finally had a spare second to listen for her, the quiet kind of made me a little nervous. So as soon as I knew Brian was safe, I went out to find Maycie and to see what had made her so quiet. That’s when I found this:

I sure love this girl…

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It’s crazy how fast time flies and how much change just a few weeks can bring.  Just two weeks ago I would have been sitting on the couch watching tv next to my sisters in the good ol’ USA and today, I’m back across the world, at home with Brian.  It feels crazy that I was even there!  But, as crazy as it feels, I WAS there and I had a truly wonderful time.  It was a bit surreal to be back with my family, most of them I hadn’t seen in 2 1/2 years. It was hard to see my nephews again because they were so different and I realized just how much I had missed. The three of them are so so precious and sweet and just a complete joy to be around.  They had fun loving on Maycie and Dylan and Maycie had fun being loved on  It was a sad day when I had to take her away from her cousins again but I found excitement in knowing that Lord-willing, we’ll be back again in just 10 short months.

In addition to seeing my nephews, I was also able to spend a lot of time with my sisters. It was strange to have us all in one place again since we’ve been scattered across the world for the past 10 years.

Anyway, what I really want to say is THANK YOU to all of you who prayed for our flight!!!  Many of you know that the flight to the States didn’t quite go so well and I was dreading and stressing about the flight back here. We were going back exhausted and sick and cranky and it was 4 hours longer than the flight to the States PLUS a stop in Honolulu for refueling.  Needless to say I was not very optimistic about how this flight was going to go and it literally made me sick to my stomach to even think about it.

BUT…GOD IS GOOD!!!  I prayed and prayed and prayed and had many other people praying for the trip and I am so grateful I can say that it couldn’t have gone better.  I could see God’s hand in every detail of the trip-it was just incredible. Here’s how it went:

Because I had booked tickets so last minute, there were no baby bassinet seats available for us. That meant that Dylan had to be on my lap the WHOLE time and Maycie was left to squeeze into her tiny seat to sleep.  That did not make her happy on the way to the States!  Well…when we arrived at the airport at 6 o’clock PM  we got in line behind the 50+ people  checking in for my same flight.  A man who worked at the airport approached us out of ALL the people standing in our same line and asked if we’d be interested in an earlier flight.  My heart skipped a few beats as I knew, even though this didn’t mean anything good but an earlier flight, that God was going to take care of us and maybe even blow me away as He often does. Before I said yes to the man, I asked if there were any good seat available. The man left and returned with good news that there were “good” seats available.  I didn’t know what that meant but it was enough for me to say “Yes! We’ll take them!” All we had time for was for my mom to run up to McDonald’s to grab us some dinner while I finished checking in. We gave some quick hugs to my parents and almost had to run to our gate to get there in time. We arrived just as people were starting to board the plane. What a blessing to not have to wait a few hours in the airport!!!  I boarded the airplane and when I finally found our seats, my heart skipped a beat again as I saw that we had bulkhead seats with a baby bassinet!!!  We were first in our row to board so as we got situated we waited to see who our neighbors would be (we had the middle two seats of a row of 4.) Eventually one older lady sat down next to me and another next to Maycie. As we said our introductions, I found out that they were BOTH grandmas and were excited to sit next to some babies! One of them held Dylan for the first FOUR hours of the flight even though the bassinet was available for him!  They held Dylan whenever Maycie needed to go to the bathroom and hung out with Maycie whenever Dylan needed a diaper change. They helped Maycie eat her meals and even played with her when she started to get cranky.  This is all in the middle of night even!

Ok, back up a little bit.  Before the airplane even took off BOTH of the kids were fast asleep and stayed that way until our stop on Honolulu.  They slept most of the way and when they weren’t sleeping they were happy – I never even used up the battery on our dvd player and that is miracle in itself!

So we arrived in Manila without a hitch around six in the morning.  Our flight home wasn’t until 12:30 that afternoon so we had a long time to wait. I went to the check-in counter just to see about the possibility of getting an earlier flight. The man looked at me with a hopeless look and said “It’s possible but it will not be cheap. Do you want me to check anyway?” I said I did because at that point I might have been willing to give him right arm to not have to wait in the airport for 6 hours!  He came back and said that it would cost p200 (about $4) a person excluding Dylan to change to an earlier flight.  My heart should have stopped completely by now with all this beat-skipping and excitement!  I had a few things I still needed to do at the airport so I rushed off to do those and when we finally made it to our gate, we had only 30 min to wait before we boarded.  Maycie fell asleep while I fed dylan and when we got on that plane, our last leg, I was beyond relieved and incredibly grateful to my God Who made our trip as easy as it could have been and threw in little surprises all along the way.

So THANK YOU all who prayer for us and our trip home!  We are so happy to back home with Brian and back in the Philippines.  We are only mildly jet-lagged and are working at getting back into the swing of things. It was a wonderful trip and a blessing to see those of you who we were able to.  I apologize to everyone we missed seeing and look forward to catching up when we’re ALL back for furlough.

Click here for more photos of our trip.

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One week after I flew Aysa to the hospital, I returned to the tribe to deliver her dead body to her family.

On November 28th rainy season started here with a round of weather that made flying nearly impossible. We were also alerted by Chris and Lynne Strange and Albert Castelijn that they had an emergency medical situation in their tribal location. The most critical patient was a man whom they were not certain if he would make it through the night. The other was a 16 year old girl who was dying of Tuberculosis. We woke up early the next morning and I headed to the airplane while it was still dark. Bailey started getting weather reports and coordinating with the missionaries at the airstrip. Weather was terrible and we knew we had our work cut out for us.

Just before lunch, it appeared that we had a window of opportunity in the weather and I took off and headed for the tribe. I never saw the ground from shortly after takeoff to the time I was overhead the airstrip. I could see the airstrip down through a very small hole in the clouds but I was nearly 9,000′ above the airstrip and the clouds were moving too fast that to descend through the hole among the mountains was not possible. I spent a considerable amount of time exploring the area for holes in the clouds to get down to the airstrip. I made it close, very close but had to call it off as the hole I descended through started to close me in. I had to get out while I still had options. I returned to our home airstrip after Bailey called me on the radio to report that the tribal location was experiencing heavy rain and overcast skies.

We watched the weather all day and never again had an opening to get to the tribe. It was the worst weather I had seen yet. We all went home a little discouraged and prepared to try the next day. We woke up and Bailey ran “communications central” again and I started down the dark one hour commute to the hangar. Along the way we learned that the man had in fact died and that everyone in the tribe was incredibly thankful that he died at home where they could have the funeral and his family could care for the details. It was a sad time, but we had to move past it quickly because Aysa, the 16 year old, was still in need of care.

The weather pattern from the day before had carried over into the morning and we knew we were up against some nasty weather again. Thankfully a large enough hole opened up in the clouds that I could get out of our home airstrip and into the tribe. It was a fight with weather the whole way, but we made it. The weather was closing in quickly so I didn’t waste any time on the ground. We loaded up 5 passengers – three patients and friends to take care of them. We took off just as the weather was closing in and made it back home and got the girl on her way to the hospital. She only weighed 57 pounds!

This is the video of the flight to get Aysa to the hospital…

One week later we loaded the airplane with Aysa’s dead body. It was a tough week, two deaths and the stress of  the busiest flight schedule I’d worked through to date mixed with these emergencies. It worked out that we could fly Aysa’s body back to her family which was a huge testimony to her parents who were not believers. She had only recently placed her trust in Jesus as her Savior during an outreach by the Banwaon church leaders – the tribal church runs the outreaches now. The weather was still giving us challenges and we were delayed a couple of hours before we could takeoff. I tell you what, a two hour delay with a corpse in your plane is a LONG delay!

Finally the weather cleared and we flew back to the tribe. The believers there met us at the plane. There were over 100 of them. They took the body and had a sweet funeral service for her which was, again, a testimony to her parents who know nothing of hope beyond the grave. There was still more flying to be done that day so I hopped in the plane and flew the rest of the day’s route.

Just this week I learned that Aysa’s parents are now attending the teaching in the church and are eager to learn about the Savior their daughter came to know just before her death. The love of the missionaries, the efforts of the flight program, and the comfort and counsel of the Banwaon believers have impacted them greatly. We are praying that the Lord will bring her parents to Him and that God will use her death to bring eternal life to the village she came from. It is a display of Love that the unbelievers have a hard time reconciling and are looking for explanations. Let’s pray they find their answers.

1 Peter 2:12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

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Maycie loves her little brother. It's really cute to watch her as she realizes her role as the big sister.

Everyone always told me that the transition from having one child to two is not too difficult because there is still only one child for each parent. Let me tell you…had it not been for my mom being here and having THREE adults to watch over two kids, I would have gone crazy!  Granted we were moving at the same time and flying/doing radio as well, but still!  I keep thinking life is going to calm down a bit and I can finally get used to having eyes in the back of my head so I can be watching what my two-year-old is doing while I feed the baby, but it definitely hasn’t and there isn’t much hope of it calming either .  I am not complaining – I LOVE LOVE LOVE my babies and love that I get to spend everyday at home with them as I know many people don’t, BUT it hasn’t been an easy adjustment!

This is not to say that Dylan is a difficult baby either. He is such a sweet, easy-going, quiet baby. He is just over 3 months old now and is always happy, loving whatever life throws at him…which has been a lot so far for a 3 month old! In and out of the hospital, moving, having a big sister who acts like a big sister in more ways than one, getting sick, long trips away from home…I know he is just a baby and doesn’t know what is going on but we sure are grateful that the Lord has given him such a mellow, calm spirit. I can’t imagine how much harder the last three months would have been had he not been this way! Thank you all for your prayers for him and his health. Since we were released from the hospital 3 months ago, aside from a little cold, he has been a perfectly healthy little boy. We are still in the process of getting Dylan’s paperwork in order – visa, passport…It has taken this long just to get the RIGHT papers turned into the RIGHT people and even now that we think we have all of that worked out, we are still waiting for an appointment with the U.S. Embassy where they’ll tell us our paperwork was either accepted or not correct and we have to start all over again.  Please pray that all would go well and we can get the things Dylan needs to be an official American citizen!

Maycie is about 2 1/2 and a little more intense than Dylan  She loves being a big sister and “taking care” of Dylan but that includes the typical tattling and sharing and sibling issues. What there is to tattle on a 3 month old, I am still not sure, but Maycie doesn’t like whatever it is that he does to her!  Brian thinks I am strange for loving this part, but I do! I guess I think about how often my sisters and I fought and battled with each other and about where that has brought us to today. What siblings who love each other DON’T fight sometimes?!  Yeah, yeah, yeah I know, Maycie and Dylan aren’t exactly fighting yet since Dylan just sits and smiles and you’re probably thinking “just wait!” I know there will be days when I just want to lock the two of them up in separate rooms and never unlock them again but for now, I am loving that Maycie is treating Dylan like a brother she loves and not just some cute baby I brought home one day a few months ago.

As for me, I am doing well. I’ve had my fair share of days when I’ve felt overwhelmed and wanted nothing more than to go back to California where I would have the help of my family but, thankfully, those days are few and far between – I love life, I love my family, and I love being here in the Philippines doing what we are doing – I wouldn’t trade it for anything. My days are filled with feedings and diapers and shaking rattle toys while coloring Cinderella and sitting in Maycie’s “castle” while she cooks for me.  I am trying to find the balance between time spent keeping Dylan happy and time spent with my little girl.  Am I the only mom who feels this way? That when I am cradling Dylan when he’s crying I feel guilty that Maycie is playing all alone and when I play with Maycie while I let Dylan cry all alone in his bed, I still feel guilty?  How thankful I am that there is Someone who loves my babies even more than I do and NEVER leaves either one of them!  And how much more respect my own mom and dad for making all three of us girls always feel like we were the most important person in the world to them, and also those moms who have 4 and 5 and 6+ kids and still find time to love on each one of them AND keep their sanity!

Sheesh, I am acting like life is SO hard when really I have it easier than most! I am also thankful for all of you who pray for us and give us parenting advice when we need it and a pat on the back when we’ve actually done something right!  We love all of you and can’t wait until our two little ones can get to know you and love you like we do.

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Hospitals here aren’t like hospitals in the States. In the States, the nurses wait on you hand and foot and you can feel pretty well taken care of even if you are there alone. Here, you have to have a “watcher.” The staff aren’t here to GET the things you need, only to implement the things you need. So the watcher must be with you to do the “getting.” When I was in the hospital after delivering Dylan, Brian was my watcher. This means he had to get prescriptions from the doctor, take the prescription to the pharmacy here at the hospital, get a bill for the prescription, take bill to cashier and pay, take receipt back to pharmacy and pick up prescription, take prescription back to the doctor so that she could then give it to me. It works this way for everything and this is if everything here at the hospital is open. Unfortunately, things aren’t always open. I gave birth to Dylan on a Wednesday morning. Wednesday is the day off for the hospital so no cashier, no pharmacy…Brian had to take all my prescriptions into town to the local pharmacy and do the same thing there. It can be quite a frustrating process and Brian did it all with a a two-year-old on his hip and a smile on his face.

Oh and that’s not all Brian did. Hospitals here also don’t have any of your daily necessities. We weren’t really prepared to stay at the hospital so we didn’t bring anything with us. That meant that Brian had to go home, pack up my clothes, toiletries, toilet paper, soap, towels, food, water, fan, pillow, diapers, clothes for Dylan, blankets… EVERYTHING! He even managed to bring back the computer AND movies for me just because.

Oh and that’s not all Brian did! When we were finally able to go home after Dylan’s birth I was pretty uncomfortable and not very mobile. Here is about how my days went:

Wake up in the morning. Brian already has Maycie up and is making breakfast. I feed Dylan. Brian serves breakfast. I eat breakfast. Brian cleans up breakfast. Brian keeps Maycie occupied so she’s not missing mom too much. I sleep, feed Dylan, sit in the lazyboy, relax. Brian makes lunch. I eat lunch. Brian cleans up lunch. Brian puts Maycie down for a nap. I sleep, feed Dylan, sit in the lazyboy, relax. Maycie wakes up. Brian takes Maycie out for a daddy date. I sleep, feed Dylan, sit in the lazyboy, relax. Brian and Maycie come back. Brian makes dinner. I eat dinner. Brian cleans up dinner. Brian gives Maycie a bath, brushes her teeth, reads her a book, and puts her to bed. I sleep, feed Dylan, sit in the lazyboy, relax. Brian works on the computer and tries to catch up on everything he was supposed to do that day. I go to bed in our bed while Brian goes to bed on the couch. I wake up to the same thing the very next morning.

Oh and that’s not all Brian did! There are so many other things Brian has done for me over the last few days – some things I’m sure I won’t ever even know about.

Do I have an incredible husband or what? Brian did/does all these things and even manages to spend quality time with me and show me how much he loves me. How in the world did I get so lucky? Thank you Brian for taking such good care of us. You are an amazing husband and dad!

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Bailey and Dylan just a couple hours after the delivery. They are both doing very, very well.

Last night we went to bed early anticipating an early morning supply flight into one of the tribal locations that we are flying for. It is a particularly challenging flight so I make sure I’m extra well rested before going in there. We knew that we needed a backup plan for the flight incase Bailey went into labor and we were sure glad we had one! At about 12:30am Bailey started having mild, consistent contractions. By 1:30am she was confident it was time to call off the flight and have the other pilot, Garry, fill in. We weren’t very excited about spending much time in the provincial hospital, so we waited in our home for as long as we felt was wise.

Around 5am we took Maycie to a friend’s house so they could watch her and we continued on to the hospital which is only a few minutes away from our house. A little while after we arrived, the doctor told us we could expect to deliver in a couple of hours, but her shift would be ending then so we would have a different doctor do the delivery. The one who was available wasn’t one we were comfortable with so grasping for hope we asked if Bailey’s original doctor, Doctora Ruthie, might come in special for Bailey. We loved Doctora Ruthie, but she retired at the end of March and hadn’t seen Bailey since. As it turned out Doctora Ruthie was already coming in that morning and was more than eager to deliver the baby. What a blessing that was!

She came to the hospital around 7:30am and never left Bailey’s side until well after the delivery which was at 8:12am. We were so thankful that God answered so many prayers and gave us the best doctor in the area to look after Bailey during this scary time of delivering in such a small hospital. Doctora Ruthie is a believer and even stopped to pray for Bailey, Dylan and the delivery before things got serious. It was so nice to remember in the chaos that this crazy thing of childbirth is by God’s design and He overseas every step of the way.

Bailey had a quick delivery with only 10 minutes of pushing which beat her previous record of 15 minutes with Maycie. Both Bailey and Dylan are doing fine and are expected to be released first thing tomorrow morning after staying 24 hours in the hospital for observation. Thanks so much for praying for this pregnancy and delivery.

See pictures of Dylan >>

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I experienced something this week…something I never want to experience again yet glad I did because I believe I am truly a missionary now. I’m not very good at telling stories so you’re just going to have to imagine this in your head as I describe what happened and then you can all tell me your stories and how they are far worse than mine!

Here goes…It was a calm Tuesday night…I think it was Tuesday at least…Brian was gone, Maycie sleeping, power out, me snuggled up in bed trying to get just a little sleep (I’m not getting much these days). I was just about to transition into a nice deep sleep when I heard, or thought I heard, Maycie turning the pages of a book. Normally this would make me happy but not this night. With the power being out, I had already had a bit of a rough time getting Maycie to go to sleep and was so relieved when she finally did. So you can imagine my frustration when, after all that work, I still heard her up and awake.

I rolled (literally) out of the comfort of my bed to go and give her a whooping; however, instead of walking out of my room to find Maycie reading I walked out to find COCKROACHES crawling all over the walls in our hallway! I would have taken Maycie reading over this any day, but no, she was fast asleep as she should have been, and had left me all alone to deal with this very serious problem. The sound I’d heard was the nasty little creatures‘ feet crawling and definitely not the pages of a book. My eyes immediately counted maybe 8 and that was just at first glance! I knew better than to take a second look as I would probably be horrified at how many there actually were. Instead, I ran back into my room and closed the door so I could sit and think for a minute about what my next step should be.

Should I try and kill them all? Should I go check on Maycie to make sure there were no cockroaches in her room? Should I run through the house screaming to scare them all away? After much thought and consideration, I decided I needed to be a good mother and check on my daughter. I slowly opened my bedroom door, quickly assessed the situation, and then started to make a run for it. Apparently running was a bad idea because as soon as I started the cockroaches must have thought I was playing chase or something and began to fly about the room and mostly coming RIGHT for me! So there I was, all pregnant extra poundage of me…running, full force, as fast as I could, back to my room to get away from the flying beasts.

What was I supposed to do now! I wasn’t about to go back out there just to be attacked! So, I decided that Maycie was fine and that if there WERE roaches in her room, she’d let me know. I crawled back in bed after a thorough examination of my walls and bed sheets and hoped I could just fall asleep and forget about the whole thing. Well, that was after I called Brian to inform him of what I was dealing with and texting all my friends…just for comfort. I knew the power was coming back on at 10 so when I couldn’t fall asleep, I decided I would wait until then and then I would run through the house and flip on every light switch that was in my path so that the little boogers had nowhere to hide…and that’s exactly what I did. I made it safely back to my room and actually did sleep without any dreams of cockroaches. I got up hesitantly in the morning to find no sign at all of what I had just experienced the night before and for that I was thankful! And I am so thankful Brian is home now and we haven’t had a problem since then!

So, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it…at least until I proudly tell the next person about how I defeated 50 beastly cockroaches instead of 8 and how close Maycie and I actually came to death.

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I know I have completely failed at keeping you all up to date on the latest in the Pruett girls’ lives and for that I apologize! Here is my attempt to fill you in in the shortest version possible…

Maycie is no longer a baby but a little girl and it is so hard to believe! Sometimes I just sit and stare at her thinking “where in the world did the time go and where did it take my baby?!” I’m not sure I like that her 2nd birthday is quickly approaching but, at the same time, LOVE this stage of life. Seeing her sweet little personality being revealed more and more is a true joy and I feel so privileged that I get to spend every day at home with her and watch her grow. She is saying all kinds of things – good things like “Okay Mommy” and “No thank you” to things I’d rather her NOT know how to say like “I don’t want it!” and “mine!” She is no tame little angel but a wild, strong-willed, hilarious little princess. She loves everything girl like high heels and frilly purses but loves to wear those heels while she helps Daddy fix the car outside and wrestles the boys to the ground. Oh how she needs a little brother! Her favorite things to do are to push her baby doll around in the stroller, race her little pink car across the house, and read book after book after book…She hates to be messy and loves putting her toys away just as much as she loves to get them out. She likes her space but also likes to have all the attention. What fun we’re going to have when a baby boy comes to threaten that attention! We’ve had our rough times with Maycie, for sure, and I know many more to come but we are so thankful for this little life the Lord has so graciously put into our hands. How dull life would be without her!

My days are spent doing all I can to keep up with Maycie! I am in my last trimester of pregnancy and it is proving to be quite different than my first. I am much more tired and uncomfortable with this little boy than I ever was with Maycie and I find myself constrained to the couch more days than I’d like to be! I have a really great doctor here who has delivered many New Tribes’ missionaries’ babies and I trust her completely. It’s a good thing too because the hospital here doesn’t work like the hospital in the States. When I go into labor, no one but the doctor and nurses are allowed in the room with me. That means I won’t have Brian or my mom to be with me and hold my hand! Had this been my first pregnancy I might be more nervous about this but because I had no problems with Maycie and I have complete confidence in my doctor, I actually feel ok about it. Our baby boy is doing well, although I’m a little worried that he’s going to be HUGE! I feel like if I get any bigger I’m just going to pop and I still have 2 whole months left! He must really be a boy…I’ve had a few ultrasounds and each one has shown a very healthy little boy and we can’t wait to meet him!

Aside from these things, my days are spent writing emails and learning the ropes from the other pilot’s wife, Cynthia. She is teaching me how to do the NTMA bookkeeping as well as how to use the radio. I wasn’t expecting the radio to be so difficult but it definitely takes a trained ear to be able to hear everything! She can hear things when all I hear is static! This will be an important thing for me to learn, though, as I will be the one doing all of Brian’s flight following over the radio. This is exciting for me but a little scary too. Not only do I have to train my ear to listen to it, I have a whole new radio language to learn AND it means I’m responsible for knowing where Brian is at all times while he’s in the airplane! I have so much to learn! Thankfully Cynthia is very patient with me and is good at not overwhelming me!

This year is looking and proving to be a very busy, yet very exciting year for us. Brian gets to begin what he has trained so long to do, we have another move coming up, a new baby, and all these things I mentioned before that we must learn. I sure would appreciate your prayers as we seek to balance all of these things while walking in a way that glorifies Him and that amidst all the busy-ness we wouldn’t lose sight of the real reason we are here – to reach the unreached with the Gospel!

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