Mommy-Hood in Honduras

You know when I pictured myself as a stay at home mom, I wasn't expecting it to actually mean “stay at home”. That term here in Honduras is very literal, I literally can’t go much of anywhere! When I read other mommy blogs some say “I go to Target just be around ppl.” Or “I love meeting other moms at the park” yeah here in Honduras there is no Target and no parks. Even a hot shower is hard to come by these days – last night I went to bed with a wet shampooed head simply b/c we ran out of water. Life just isn’t the same, so I have to be a little more creative! I have been watching a little boy named Sammy recently; his mom is a missionary pharmacist that works with medical mission teams. So Sammy comes to my house three days a week and he Raegan and I get to hang out! Now neither one of them can talk, so basically I talk to myself all day long, most days I can’t wait until Stephen gets home just so that someone will respond to me haha!

There is a moms group here, those of us with husbands that work at the school, we get together every Thursday morning! Sometimes we just chat, other times we talk about the portions of scripture that we are reading together, and we have on occasion baked some bread together! This past Thursday was a bit more chaotic than most. My poor friend Melanie about 2 weeks ago was doing a "trick" with her husband in the kitchen with a machete . . . you can only imagine where this is going J needless to say her hand got sliced instead of the roll. So my poor friend now has a cast on her hand, and with 4 kids that can be challenging. So last Thursday our friend Melodee and I decided to go to Melanies house so that we could help her cut up some potatoes for dinner. She lives across the street from the school, so Melodee and I walked over with our strollers – I also had Sammy on this Thursday so he was in the stroller and Raegan was in the carrier. So we get to the gate and Melanie was on her way out to unlock it for us when her youngest took a spill in the driveway so she sent the key up the gate with her daughter Abigail. Melodee and I let ourselves in the gate and were in the process of locking it back up when Woody (the guard dog) came sauntering up the driveway. Now my mommy brain was not working fast enough to do anything, just to think about doing something. This is what was going on in my head “if I let the stroller go Sammy will go flying down this hill of a driveway, I can’t park the stroller b/c there is dog poop everywhere, Melodee can’t let go of her stroller for the same reasons” and by the time all of that went through my head, and nothing came out of my mouth. . . Woody (pictured below) was out the gate.  

Well at that point I realized the longer we wait the farther the dog is going to run, and the harder it would be to catch him. And I was not about to let my friend with the bum hand go chasing this dog that I should have somehow stopped from getting out. So I find a safe poop free zone to park Sammy and take off down the road, in my flip flops and Raegan bouncing in the carrier. I jog past the schools guard shack and ask for his help to get the dog . . . he responds by letting me know he will have to go talk to his boss first. I was like forget it; if I can still see the stupid dog then I was determined to get him. So Raegan and I continue on down the dirt road for a pretty good distance. Then finally I see the dog dart to the right and that’s when I realize “yes he has trapped himself” he had gone out around and then behind this barb wired fence so I stood at the end of it so that he had to come to me. Perfect, my plan had worked I had the dog! Well when I took off running after this dumb dog I did not think about the long walk back. So off we trudge back around the windy road, Raegan and I being drug by Woody. Raegan didn’t seem to mind b/c she had fallen asleep J A few moment later Melanie met us with a leash, completely surprised that I had caught Woody. Quite honestly I was rather surprised myself, anyone who knows me, knows that I HATE dogs.

To make the day even more dramatic, after we got back to the house I was helping to cut sweet potatoes for Melanies dinner. I had maybe 2 more potatoes to cut and I looked down to see a bloody blistered finger – how that happened I don’t know I was just happy that my hand was not in a cast. So I put a Band-Aid on that then a little while later I went to check on Sammy only to find him with a handful of dog food, I could only assume that this was not his first helping . . . it was at this point I realized home was calling!

So all you stay at home moms in the States, be thankful for Target and public parks . . . and go make a new friend today . . . just because you can J

Grandmother Goes to Honduras

Around the first of the year Stephen’s mom and grandmother came to visit!That was Grandmother’s 84 ^th birthday gift from Grandfather – a ticket to Honduras! I learned a valuable lesson when through Grandmothers adventurous spirit . . . you are never too old to experience new things! Sometimes older individuals have the habit of being stuck in their ways, being afraid of change, or newness. Well I learned through Grandmother that no matter how old you are there is always something new to learn or experience! She was able to try new foods, avocado’s to be exact! Here in Honduras they are a staple food in our home, Stephen and I eat them with everything. For Grandmother it was a new treat! The sugar that we have here is raw, it’s not refined and white like it is in the states, Grandmother was intrigued and wanted to take a baggie of it back to the States to show her OWLS Friends (older, wiser, loving saints - I hope they enjoyed hearing about her adventures!) You can’t flush the toilet paper here or drink the water from the faucet, just a few of the differences that Stephen and I have gotten used to and we forget that it’s SO different from the states. An older man from our church has an agricultural farm and offered to give us a tour, we drove all over his beautiful property and tried coffee beans and sour oranges. We were able to experience the beauty of Honduras. We also went to a restaurant called “La Cumbre” and enjoyed a lovely dinner with a breathtaking view of the city. Stephen and I loved seeing Grandmother interact with Raegan, they read books together, sang songs, and even took a nap together (Grandmother was not supposed to be sleeping, we had to keep a closer eye on her in the future to make sure they didn’t fall asleep and tip right off the couch J)

But Grandmother was a trooper, I didn't once hear her complain about any of the differences or inconveniences and it was so refreshing to see her loving life. I hope that I am that filled with joy, adventure and enthusiasm when I am 84!