10 months old

Miss Anslie is 10 months old!  Yesterday was her "month birthday", but she had tubes placed in her ears to help fluid drain from them so it wasn't a good day to take pictures.  (She's had 6 ear infections already.  Too many!  Hopefully the tubes will eliminate the problem.)  She did very well with the procedure, but she was more clingy and needy than usual the rest of the day.  A good night's sleep seemed to fix that; and she's been her normal happy, playful self today.  See?

Anslie weighs just under 17 pounds.  She eats 3 small baby food meals in addition to her 4 daily bottles.  Her favorite foods are any kind of fruit, YoBaby yogurt, and banana puffs.  We haven't given her any solid foods yet because she still doesn't have any teeth.

She is scooting all over the place and loves to pull up to stand next to the sofa or at the little toddler table our friend Priscilla loaned us.  We are starting to think that she is going to skip crawling and go from scooting around on her bottom straight to walking.  She jabbers all day long and has started making funny expressions and laughing at herself.   The boys have also taught her to shake her head "no" and are they are working on nodding "yes".  This surprised face is her current favorite:

I forgot to get out the stuffed bear for pictures today, and Anslie is napping right now.  I'll have to take another 10 month picture of her with the bear for size comparison later tonight.  Can't believe her birthday is coming up so quickly!

Busy girl

We don't have a lap baby any more! Miss Anslie is getting around very well - not by crawling, but by scooting in a sitting position. She has also figured out how to do this:







Also, I knew that Walton would be a fun Daddy for a little girl. Check this out...painted fingernails can't be too far behind, right?

Will @ the Dr.

Soooo...I got my first look at Will's bites today. After a solid week of healing, they still made me cringe. We saw the nurse practitioner who asked many questions before even taking the bandages off his legs. Will gave her good, detailed answers, down to spelling the name of the antibiotic the Jamaican doctor prescribed for him. (Love my detail-oriented boy.) She thought they were healing pretty well, but wrote him a prescription for another round of antibiotics because one of the puncture wounds is still pretty open. She also gave us the name of a plastic surgeon if we choose to see him. Her reasoning was that Will will soon start his teenage growth spurt and those new scars will stretch into much larger scars as he grows. Will is o.k. with having some scars on his legs - so we will just keep them wrapped and clean until they heal & skip the plastic surgeon.

I have a picture of the bites on each leg, but it's too icky to post them here. If you're curious send me an e-mail!




Anslie has been a very happy girl to have her 3 guys home today- and so have I.

bad news + good news

The bad news = the boys did not get to fly home with Brent today.  They arrived at the airport in Montego Bay (about 3 hours from Port Maria where they stayed), and Walton realized that he had left the boys' passports back in the guest apartment.  Argh!  He was frustrated with himself.  (I'm giving him a break - his brain is probably fried from the 106∘heat they've been working in all week.) 

The good news = The Jamaican Delta ticket agent changed the boys' flight at no extra charge.  Nice!

The bad news = Will is 12 years old and can't fly internationally without an adult.

The good news = Walton was able to change his ticket as well and all 3 of my guys are flying home tomorrow evening.  Hooray! 

The majority of the house was done, there are just small details left to be finished.  Walton was meeting with a Jamaican worker today who will take charge of getting everything done for Peta-gay's family.  

We are ALL looking forward to being together at HOME again!

Yes, really

It was this hot in Jamaica today. And it will continue to be so through next week, apparently. Whew.

Will is doing great. His attitude has been very positive and the bites are healing without infection so far. He will have one more recheck with his Jamaican doctor on Friday before flying home on Saturday.

Brent made Walton take it easy on the construction site today to help him bounce back from whatever was making him feel so terrible, and he was feeling much better tonight. Their goal for tomorrow is to get the bunk beds for the house built and install the toilet. Their Jamaican helpers will put up the zinc roof panels. We'll post pics of the project after the guys get home.

Keep praying for God's purpose to be served...

This morning's info...

Thanks to our friend Brent's connections at Delta and some perseverence on his part, Will's plane ticket has been changed. (Without any fees! An airline miracle!) He will be flying home this Saturday with Brent & Kyle instead of waiting til Walton comes home on the 17th. I have already set up an appointment with his doctor for Monday.

Another development - Walton was awake all night with fever & body aches. He said he felt somewhat better this morning and was headed out to work on the house. I am concerned for him because this does not look like it would be beneficial to his health at all:









Wow. 106 on Friday? He is drinking quarts of Gatorade & water. At this rate, he is going to need a week for his body to recover when he gets home.

1 Chronicles 16:11- "Search for the Lord and His strength. Continually seek Him."

Will update

Walton called earlier this evening to let me know that Will is doing very well.  They went back to the ER yesterday afternoon to have the bites cleaned and checked.  The doctor was pleased with how both legs looked and said there were no signs of infection.  The antibiotics are doing their job and Will is cooperating with what he's supposed to do to keep it clean & dry.  They will have to go back tomorrow & Friday to have the bites cleaned again.  We are working on getting Will's plane ticket changed so he can fly home with Kyle and Brent this Saturday the 10th.  He was originally going to stay with Walton until the 17th, but we agreed that it would be best for him to come home early. 

As far as Peta-gay's house,  the guys were able to get most of the walls up today.  They hope to finish raising the rest of the walls tomorrow and get started with the roof.  Peta-gay's father, Peter, has been working alongside them which has been a neat experience for all of them.   Walton doesn't have a way to send me pictures this trip, so I will have to post a bunch of them after he gets home.

We are thankful that so many people are praying for Will and have taken time to check on him.  I told him on the phone he had lots of friends here who cared about him - it made him happy when I started naming everyone.

Will

Will, Kyle, & Walton flew to Jamaica on Saturday to complete the construction of a house for Peta-gay's family. There was a mission team from McDonough in Port Maria 2 weeks ago. They were able to lay the foundation so our guys could hit the ground running and put up the walls this week. Yesterday after church; Walton, our friend Brent, and the boys went to the building site to check it out. As they approached, a neighbor's dog attacked Will. His first instinct was to run away, so the dog got a good chunk out of his leg. Ouch! He fell down and the dog grabbed his other leg. Walton and Brent got the dog off of him and headed straight to the hospital. Thankfully, the doctor told them right away that rabies is not a concern on the island of Jamaica - there is no rabies there. They cleaned and dressed the bites and prescribed antibiotics and pain pills for Will. He will have to go back to the hospital several times this week to be checked for infection. The biggest issue is that he will have to stay in the apartment all week - he can't be out and about. Kyle will stay with him so he won't be alone all day. It is a big disappointment for him & now Walton is down 2 workers. But, as I told Will when he called me this morning; God knew that this would happen long before we booked the plane tickets. I encouraged him to still be part of the mission trip while he's sitting around by praying for the team members who are out building or doing VBS in the community. Please pray for Will's leg to heal without infection and that the time will pass quickly for him. He is not in a lot of pain, but he is miserable with too much time on his hands.

Discovering Bubbles