First tour

I'm working on getting some good pictures up on the blog. Should hopefully get them up tomorrow.

Big breath

Things are feeling much better for our whole crowd today. The weather started out sunnyish, with a few clouds. We thought it would be a great day to explore the town. Everything in cusco is either up, or down. We started up. A few steps and stop. Deep breath and up a few more steps. The streets are very narrow, as we walk up the 18 inch sidewalk single file, we occasionally have to stop and let locals pass us as we stop, take a rest. Deep breath and continue are slow walk uphill. Today was a good day. Feeling stronger and ready to go to the sacred valley tomorrow. I bought a really nice alpaca scarf and sweater!

Resting in Cusco

Its 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I'm lying on bed and my heart is beating hard. I can feel it in my head as its thumping. I have just walked up the flight of steps into our hotel room in Cusco, south America. The altitude is around 11,000 feet above sea level, and we can definatly feel that we are not getting as much oxygen as what we are used to. We were told to expect shortness of breath, getting easily dehydrated and numerous other side effects. They say to spend the first day testing do that we wouldn't get sick. Which could feel kind of like the flu. Which we are really trying to avoid. So after arriving and a long lunch. We walked half a block to see a few sites and I immediate could feel that we needed to go back to our room and rest. My head felt a bit like u was getting a sinus infection. It felt stuffed up and just.... Not right some how. What a unique feeling. So we rest, drink lots of cocoa tea. Which is very similar tasting to green tea. It is supposed to help with the side effects of altitude sickness and also good for digestion and everything else that ails you. Our itinerary has today a day of rest, and that's what we will do.

Peru bound

This will be the start of my blogging for our trip to Peru, south America. We leave in 5 days! Getting the last of our stuff organized so that we can focus on packing and finishing up our work week early.
Friends of ours are in Peru right now and put a picture on Facebook of some really interesting food. Makes me wonder what we may be eating for 3 weeks.

We hope to try to keep up with the blog as we travel. Trying to figure out a way to post pictures from my iPhone onto the blog. So far it is not working.

Wendy

inspiring!

 I think that sometimes we look at life and think that we have it bad. We may have come from a childhood where all we can think about is the pain we feel from what we may have experienced or missed which others never felt or what others had that we think we should have had. This video makes me remember that joy is a choice. We can choose to look at ourselves and feel pity or sorrow, or we can look at ourselves and see that beauty within and share it with our joy that shines from within.

who she is...

Every other year, Miranda’s school has gone on an amazing trip to Churchill Mb. To experience polar bears, dog sledding, how northern people live and the great white north. If you know anything about us you will know how exciting a trip like this would be in our minds. We are all about learning through experiences like touch, smell and talking and meeting people from different cultures. So as we started thinking about Miranda going to this school the last few years and hearing about the kids going on this trip we thought. How cool that she will get to be a part of this. So they had the “meeting” and all the parents that were interested in their children going on this trip showed up to hear all about it. The trip sounded amazing. There would be dog sledding, polar bear sightings, bannock eating and much, much more. Oh wow, how excited we got. Dean and I signed up to go as chaperones. We got on the    internet and researched the north. So excited.

Then the bad news came….. 

There were 5 kids to many signed up and there was not room on the bus. Miranda’s name was picked out of a hat. She could not go.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to beg the principle to find a way to fit her on. Didn’t she know that this was a dream that we had made big for Miranda. A chance to go with her classmates in a way that she could learn the way she learned best. Though experience. Where it didn’t matter if you had dyslexia and had trouble learning through reading books. But where she would learn through touch, sight, smell and talk. I just didn’t seam fair.

So we called Miranda over to tell her that she couldn’t go on the trip. We explained to her that there just wasn’t room for her, and really….she had been to so many places in her 12 years and other kids may never get to see half of what she had been blessed to see and do….and maybe, maybe we could sometime travel up to Churchill and see polar bears and she would get to experience some of what her class did. Right? It was O.K. that she stayed home and ya, they would have fun in class. Right? The other thing is that there must be a reason for her to not make the cut. Maybe there was a reason beyond our understanding, where she should stay home. Maybe it was just best?

She put on her brave smile, and with watery eyes looking at me, she smiled and said. It’s ok, and if we go as a family then we all get to see the polar bears. Colton would love to see them to. Then we could all go. That would be really fun. She turned and walked away. I just couldn’t find a reason where this was O.K.

So this week as part of the school is in Churchill, the kids had a learning day. Where they could sign up for an activity that they would like to learn more about. One of the activities was Cosmetology. Miranda thought that would be fun. So armed with nail polish, mascara and eye shadow, the girls had a fun day of celebrating their beauty. Very fun! She came home eyes blue with shadow and very fancy nails.

Today, a few days later, I happened to be in the school. As I walked to the door an EA came up and said she needed to tell me about Miranda during the learning day. As the girls were polishing each other’s nails, there was a girl from their class that hadn’t been polished yet. She is a girl who is a bit different than the other girls. She doesn’t talk or communicate like they do. She has an EA with her at all times. When the EA asked the girls in the group if someone could polish this girls nails. It was very quiet. Then the EA told me Miranda piped up and said; sure she would love to do her nails. She proceeded to give her a manicure and a great hand massage and treat her with the same friendship she did the other girls in the class.

The EA told me, following day in school, this girl sat admiring her nails. Just like the other girls in their class. She hopefully felt one of them and included.

I looked at the EA and thanked her for telling me this story. I came home from that and told myself, this is the reason. This must be the reason Miranda needed to stay home. Sometimes we don’t see the whole picture. What if this girl needed to feel included that day, and Miranda was the one that needed to be there for her. To be the girl that Miranda is.

             Open. Non-judgmental. Friendly.

              Willing to be a friend to anyone.

This is who she is and I am so proud of who she is. 


"And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me! Matthew 25:40

summertime pictures

Summer is coming to an end.

 I was looking through a few summer pictures and thought I would put a few of my favorite summer pictures here.

                                    I just love toasted tomato sandwiches

                                      There is no better summer time vegi

      When we were is Greece years ago. We met a woman names Michelle who was there with her 2 girls. She came from Switzerland.  We hung out for the week that we were there and learned one of her favorite summertime things to do is go camping. When they camp, they eat Hachlette (needs to be said with a strong Dutch accent). We nicknamed it Shlapkey( needs to be said with a strong German accent)..
This yummy dish is our new favorite summertime treat!! 

The warm bubbly cheese is perfect on a slice of fresh baguette. 

    Our pond was our favorite summer place on our yard this year. The water was so warm and deep blue

  Fishing at Grand Rapids was our favorite summer time fishing spot this year. This is some of what we experience while up North. So great!!