No Air...

Tell me how I'm post to breave wid no air.  We have a pretty cool view of Manila from our condo.  We live up in the hills, and we can typically see for miles.  This morning I got up early to jog, and I couldn't see Manila at all.  I could see maybe a mile, and then greyish-brown haze.  Gross.  I felt like I was breathing dirty jell-o when I was running.  So last week we found out that Abby is basically allergic to the air here.  She has had an increasing cough for a month, so Michele took her to the Doctor.  Doctor put her on Claritin and she will probably take a steroid this week.  It kind of bums us out that our decision to live in the Philippines has side effects on our little girl.  The doctor said this is pretty common, like hay fever, but it still stinks.  Her little pink body is growing up and getting bumps, bruises, and issues.  :(

On a more better note, let me tell you about Efraim Calopez.  (EF-rah-eem) is one of our feeding program kids at Tanza.  He's a favorite because he's one of the cutest kids I've seen anywhere.  If I'm around long enough, I want to put this kid through Bible school and make him a Filipino pastor.  Efraim's english is excellent; as good as most adults here, and he just turned 6!  At night before bed he asks his mom to teach him English!  Last week I thought of giving him a couple of literacy books we have laying around.  They are full of kids' stories like Dr Suess, etc.  I figured he'd enjoy practicing with them, so I threw them in the car.  The next few times that I was at Tanza, I forgot to give them to him.  So yesterday I remembered, and handed him the books.  He was all smiles and thanked me profusely.  Come to find out, it was his 6th birthday and I had no idea!  How cool.  Did the Lord tell me to give him those books, and cause me to forget until his birthday so that it would make a lasting impression on him, causing him to grow up desiring to serve the Lord because of the generosity of that American missionary so many years before?  I doubt it!  But it made my day.  Here's the little turkey...

Around the house

Thought I'd share a few pictures from this weekend.  First of all, I'm not sure why we would invest in an easel, when we have a perfectly good floor to color on...

Abby has been fascinated with the idea of growing flowers, so we bought some seeds, pots, gloves, etc.  Abby and Olivia helped mommy plant the seeds, and we each have a pot on the back porch with our name on it.  Abby woke up this morning expecting to see flowers...

Tonight we watched a little 'Narnia' before bed.  Today at the mall I found a cool Aslan shirt for Abby, and she loved it.  Yes, it's a boys' shirt.  It was 50% off.  Missionary to the max...

Finally, we started getting the apartment ready for the new baby.  Finished painting the girls' room (it took about 10 months total) and put a bunk bed in.  Abby and Olivia are enjoying it so far, and are sleeping soundly as I type this.  It's a milestone for Olivia; her first night out of the crib...

Not the most riveting blog-post, but I got some sweet girls!

Food and stuff

Last week we received a huge shipment of donated food items from Indiana.  My missionary friend Daniel Bucher's dad operates a food bank, and he sent over a shipping container full of rice, beans, baby cereal, granola bars, spinach, and TVP.  Textured Vegetable Protein is a vegetarian meat substitute made from soy beans.  It's like crunchy granola, and you make meat out of it by adding water and spices.  So far we've faked out the kids at the feeding program a few times; they think it's pork.  I call it mystery meat.  

I am renting a storage closet in our condo building, to house all the food.  Yesterday morning I went in the closet to get some pasta, and I saw Ratatouille staring at me.  He was a pretty big one, too.  I declared war.  Mainly because I want to preserve the food for the children, but also because I wet my pants.  I am not a rat lover.  I went out and bought poison, glue traps, and a $20 electronic thing that messes with rodents' nervous systems.  I hope our neighbors don't have hamsters; this thing has a 200 yard range.  This morning, no sign of him and one of the glue traps is gone.  He probably ate it.

Last week we took Abby to 'Wall-E', the pixar movie.  She loved it.  She was the happiest girl in the world, sitting in the chair and watching the big screen.  I loved watching her as much as the movie.  Toward the end she decided she'd rather sit in the aisle, with her head against my arm.  Weird, but cute.  Like her old man.

Marathon Man

Well, my first marathon is behind me.  It was extremely painful, humbling, and terrible.  But, it's kind of like what Michele described after childbirth.  I'm already forgetting the pain that I went through... except for the lingering foot blisters.  Not much to report, other than the fact that I finished in 4:40.  Most of the senior citizen runners were already at the buffet breakfast by the time I finished.  But I finished.  That was my main goal.  If there's a next time, I can only improve on my time.  Here are some of the gruesome details that won't make the prayer letters...

Here I am at mile 16, getting passed by a woman, and my feet are about to pop.  I've got a pretty good smile considering the pain I'm in.

When I crossed the finish line, I blew kisses to the crowd... 

 

It was only at the taking of this photo that Michele pointed out to me that my nipples were bleeding.  Embarrassing!  That only happens to amateurs!

And here they are again, incase you like seeing them...

This next photo requires parental guidance.  4 and a half hours in wet socks.  The skin on my feet shifted all over the place, and is still recovering.  Note the nasty blisters on the side of my heel, and under my little toe.  Hungry?

Finally, I hobbled back to our hotel room and did this for a while:  

It took two days and six washings to eliminate the odor from under my arms.  I'm a man's man - like Rock Hudson!  Thanks for all your support, and for praying me through  this ordeal.  Next year I'm going to run 3 miles and try to raise $10,000 per mile.