An emotional couple of days

On Thursday we had a family meeting at the hospital with the Director of the Program of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, the Head Nurse, the Speech Pathologist, Physical Therapist and Occupational Therapist. It is their recommendation that my Mom will not be able to reside at home and that we seek long-term nursing home care. For her to be able to stay at home, she would need 24-hour, two-person assistance. There are a number of reasons for this physically which I won't mention here for dignity purposes, but also, some of it has been pointed out to us that it is the normal process of an elderly patient beginning to slowly let go. My Mom's Alzheimer's seems to have really taken control of her mind with this particular stroke. It is hard for me to even fathom that she was in Costa Rica with us four days before this massive stroke. While this, I feel, was a significant gift from God for my family, there is always the mindset of "had I known, I would have done things differently", like, I would have requested those two weeks off from work with my U.S. job to spend more time with her. It was a real shock for me to see over the past year that we have been living in Costa Rica, how much of the Mother that I am used too is gone from her cognition. Needless to say, when I arrived back in the States, and while I have been here in the hospital, it amazes me how one significant event like a stroke can also take so much away from a person. It has been a couple of days of processing "things" for me as our family begins the letting go process of the "way things were" to "how they will be". One thing I am thankful for are two long letters that I wrote before my family (Ken & I and the kids) moved to N.C. One was to my father and one to my mother recalling childhood and young adult memories, as well as intentionally thanking them for the impacts that they had on my life. I will never regret writing that to her when she was able to read it and comprehend all that I wanted to express to her. I have much to be thankful for in this life. God is a God of grace, of love and of care. I couldn't be more thankful or more indebited to Him for the role model of the mother that I have had. Please, pray for Mom. That in her confusion, she would have a sense of peace that God remains with her. And that when she is alert, that she would sense her family and our love surrounding her.

Some culture shock and helping.

I've been in Syracuse, NY now for one week supporting my family in the overseeing of my Mom's care in the hospital. Somedays go really well with her eating and others seem a little more slower and trying, but all in all, my Mom is progressing. On Monday, she will have another swallowing study while she is actually eating as they believe it is time to move her up to thinned liquids from pureed. She is still having physical, occupational and speech therapy daily which makes her really tired, but is also improving in that area, as well. Being home with family has been really nice, especially having time with my Dad. He remains in good spirits and encouraged. I enjoy being able to laugh with him! The biggest adjustment for me has been time zone changes and the fact that when I take a shower it feels like I am standing in a car wash OR being hosed down by a fire hose! The showers here are so small compared to our tile ones in Costa Rica where our family could shower together; and I have been dealing with a feeling of claustrophobia every morning. Of course, remembering that it is okay to flush the toilet tissue down the toilet instead of placing it in the bathroom trash can has been an adjustment too! Eating has been a little overwhelming with the amounts of food being offered to me. One thing that I had not planned for was speaking in churches. I have pictures with me on my laptop that are not organized or prepared for slide presentations. Today, I spoke with the women's group at Syracuse Alliance Church, my parents home church. Please pray that some more speaking engagements can be arranged as in recent weeks we have lost $450 in monthly support due to the US economy and our state of support is in a critical state. For now, the plan is for me to stay in Syracuse until April 5th. I will then return to NC to finish up wedding plans. Ken, Heather and Kyle should be arriving in the States on May 6th and we will hit the ground running with tux measurements and clothing adjustments for them! Thanks for your continued prayers for my family and especially my Mom! Edit: Just for the record, "No, our family doesn't shower together"...inquiring minds wanted to know!

An update on my Mom...I'm in the U.S.

I'm writing this from N.C. I have returned home to the States when it didn't look like my Mom was making any kind of improvement. I had planned on returning to the States in mid-April to help Danielle and Brad finish up their wedding plans. Today, my Mom was supposed to have a feeding tube placed since her physician informed us that she probably would not live long without one. She had initially failed the swallowing test. My older sister, Wendy and my Dad had been swabbing her mouth on Sunday and noticed that she was making an attempt to swallow. They informed my mother's physician and he had her re-evaluated. Today, my mother has been upgraded to a pureed diet and the feeding tube procedure was cancelled. I honestly believe this is because of the prayers of so many people on her behalf! The nursing staff has requested that a family member be with her as much as possible, and so my Dad and brothers and sisters are taking turns feeding her and being with her. Them talking to her has helped her to improve to some degree. In physical therapy, she walked favoring one leg, but at least she walked! I haven't been able to make any plans to go to Syracuse, NY where my Mom is because my NC driver's license has expired while we have been serving in Costa Rica. Today, with Danielle as my chauffer (that's kind of humbling, having your kids drive you around) I renewed my license. I've been getting regular updates from my sister, Wendy, on my Mom's condition. I told her today that when my sister-in-law, Renee, was sick with leukemia we all kind of took turns waiting in the wings as each sibling took turns caring for her. That's the main reason I came home, to serve my family. I am waiting for her to let me know when I can come up and be a help to all of them by taking my turn. The waiting is hard, but I want to go at a time that will be a blessing to those who need rest. Please continue to pray for Dad and my sisters and brothers as they make decisions for my Mom and her continued care. Most of all, on behalf of my entire family, thank you SO MUCH to all of you who have prayed already and Thank You, Lord, for answering.

My Mother

This picture is of my sweet mother, Ginny. It was taken in the last two weeks while she was here in Costa Rica with my Dad, my older sister, Wendy & her husband, Gary; and a special short-term team of Central New Yorkers. Yesterday, my mother had another stroke, though worse than the one she had over a year ago that triggered Alzheimer's disease in her brain. She is now in the Intensive Care Unit in a hospital at home in Syracuse, NY. Right now, her physicians are not sure of the permanent effects that this new stroke will have on her body since they cannot seem to get her to wake up. That does not mean that she is in a coma. My sister said, "she is snoring"! She is sleeping very well which is typical, they say, after having a stroke of this magnitude. The physicians and nurses cannot get my mother to stay awake to run more tests on her, though preliminary tests, the results of which we do not know yet, have been done. Today, please keep my mother and my family in your prayers!

Feeling sad.

Yesterday, we took the family and their team to the airport. We didn't come right back to the camp because we just wanted to be alone to process their departure. Our house had no groceries in it from eating with the team for two weeks, so we took the afternoon to do some "household" errands like grocery shopping and my Dad left us with a little bit of money in case there was anything that we needed. Jordan desperately needed sneakers and a pair of shoes like Crocs to replace his that are literally worn through on the bottom to his bare feet. They are his absolute favorites to wear and we got those in NC before we left for Costa Rica at Rose's for a whopping $5! We searched several different places, even Payless shoes and found some sneakers for $22, but knew that Heather as well as Kyle needed jeans, so passed them up to make the money s*t*r*e*t*c*h. We went to HiperMas (the Costa Rican WalMart) to finish up our grocery shopping and on our way out of the store found that they had a large area of "reduced" clothing. On one shelf I found several pairs of sneakers and two that looked like they may be in Jordan's size! I prayed that they would BOTH fit since he is literally desperate for sneakers! Sure enough, both fit, one pair for $6 that were mesh covered and while they won't hold up in rainy season, he can at least wear them for church or when we need to go out; and a pair that were leather for $8 that will repel the rain better! We were all so excited AND...at another store we found a pair of Croc replicas, but again for $5 and even better...in the color of West Johnston High School, a light gray with a teal ankle strap, so he was thrilled since he was the marching band's mascot last year! We kidded him about being worse than a girl coming home with SO MANY pairs of shoes and he had a huge grin! Heather found a pair of jeans FINALLY which has been difficult since she has lost so much weight both when she was in the US and some here; and we didn't even know what size she wears anymore, but at least we now know in Costa Rican clothes what to look for! I guess we will just have to look for Kyle on another day. Today we spent our day doing laundry and picking up the house. Tonight, we had Ruth over, one of the interns, and played some Turkey Foot while Heather and Kyle were at Youth Group. We're feeling a lot better tonight over our family leaving! Danielle sent us a special email letting us know how excited she is that we are coming home soon and that meant a lot! Tomorrow, we are going to the International Baptist Church where the entire service is in English. It has been a very long time since we have been able to go there, since last summer. We just need a break from trying to "think" in two languages, so we are looking forward to that and we have invited Ruth to go with us. She said she was more than "ready" to enjoy an English speaking service too! She even asked us if she could treat our family to lunch! I think tomorrow will be a much needed day away from the camp for all of us!

Just a couple more days with family.

It's been a busy time here with my family and their team. They arrived last Monday night. On Tuesday morning we had orientation. In the afternoon on Tuesday half of the group went up to San Jose to minister at the homeless shelter. While there we cleaned the building, prepared clothing, towels for those that would be coming in that evening and any other jobs that they asked us to do. The other half of the team stayed back and prepared a meal of spaghetti and sauce to bring up to the shelter to feed the 85 people. Once they arrived as a team we fed the people and my sister, Wendy, shared a message and invitation. We arrived back at the camp late. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we worked at the camp doing all sorts of "odd" jobs that Ken had lined up for us, although the main reason this team came down was to put the new roof on the bathroom addition which the contractor had been working on. Due to delays with the contractor, we may actually get to start the roof tomorrow before they leave on Friday! This has been so discouraging for the team. Last Friday, we prepared the Celebration Center for the clinic on Saturday. On Saturday, with the help of quite a few volunteers from the church we attended 135 patients at the medical clinic at the camp, 23 of which accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior! Two members of the team headed up Children's Ministry throughout the clinic. On Sunday immediately following breakfast we headed up to the orphanage and had three hours to minister to the kids. The guys on the team kept the older boys happy playing soccer. The same two team members headed up ministry to the kids through a Bible story, craft, Heather led the singing, games. We had a great time with all the kids who came out of their homes at the orphanage! Monday was our free day and the team was ready to see some sights in Costa Rica. We took them to the botannical gardens for a tour, souvenir shopping and to the Cafe Britt plantation tour. We arrived back at the camp late in the evening, but the team seemed to really have a good time together. Today, it was back to work finishing up painting, sanding of picnic tables and varnishing those, planting an herb garden for the camp cooks, painting part of the Celebration Center roof around the building, finishing painting the deck of the pool; just a lot of little "things" that it seems we never have enough time to get too and probably without this team would be a very long time until we were able to accomplish them. Well, tomorrow (Wednesday) and also Thursday, the team hopes to be able to get the okay from the contractor to begin putting on the roof of the new bathroom building. It's been a busy few days and I apologize for not posting a whole lot. It's now 9:50 p.m. and I still need to do my U.S. job and that's pretty much how things go when we have a team here.

A "sad" day, made brighter!

Today was a kind of "down in the dumps" day for me. Yesterday, one of our short-term team members mother's died unexpectedly and that was difficult for all of us here. It was sad, it was stressful trying to get the airlines to cooperate with us in getting her home, and today it is hard not to have her here! I guess for Ken and I it was good to have to "deal" with that kind of circumstance should it happen again in the future, but it certainly was heartbreaking to see the team member go through. Please pray for Sandy and her husband, Paul back in Scipio Center, NY as they deal with this.

Today, while coming back from taking Sandy to the airport, Ken stopped at our PO Box and brought home a manila envelope. Inside were all kinds of greetings from the precious kids back at Hickory Grove Church. Tears welled up in my eyes as I read some their personal notes to each of us. So many said that they were looking forward to us coming home (they must know that Danielle is getting married and we will be back soon) and it tore me up to know that so many were excited about our brief return. Heather and Jordan read their very personal notes from the Bizzell's which brought huge smiles! I passed each note to Ruth, our intern, to read as I read each one and looked at the drawings. We are so thankful for this really special envelope today. It was so needed and God knew it! Thank you so much Hickory Grove Children's Church for thinking of us and for remembering us in your prayers! We could not do what we do without each of you!

How you can pray!

Well, as if coming we haven't had enough excitement in the last few hours with picking up and seeing family, coming home and finding our screens tore up and things stolen; we were woke up this morning at 4:30 a.m. by the groundskeeper screaming at our door that the camp had been broken into at 4 a.m. Ken went to the camp and everyone is fine, in fact, as of this moment they are just waking up and may not even know all of what on early this morning. The police were summoned to the camp by the groundskeeper when a neighbor going to work at 4 a.m. saw someone leaving the campground with a huge garbage bag full of stuff. When screamed at, the man dropped the bag up the road in front of his own home, and took off in his car, but the neighbor and the groundskeeper both got a good look at the man. The police did a full report at the camp of the kitchen which we are unable to use this morning to have the camp cook prepare their breakfast due to the damage. The guy helped himself to some of the team's food that we purchased for them, drinking milk from cartons, cutting into a pineapple, opening a jar of peanut butter and eating from it with his hands. Plenty of fingerprint evidence in there! From there, the police came to our home and did a full report. They retrieved the bag and found two rice cookers, a huge electric griddle and other kitchen items from the camp kitchen, but also found a pair of our sneakers in the bag too. They have not found the camp camera, yet. So, they believe the person they are looking for in both incidences is the same person. While leaving our home, the police heard screams from a gentleman up the road pointing out that the man was trying to return to his home where he dropped his bag of goods. A pursuit ensued on foot by the police into the coffee plantation on the opposite side of the road as the camp, but they were never able to catch the man. Ken and the groundskeeper are now on their way to file a police report; the camp cook is with Katherine buying plastic bowls, cereal and milk for the team for breakfast and David & I will have to do orientation. At least we are all safe!

Team #3's arrival and being robbed!

We got to the airport and found out that the team's plane was an hour delayed. They arrived excited, but tired. We got everyone settled in at the camp and came home to notice that things outside were out of place. Later we realized that some of the screens to our windows of the house had been cut. At first, it seemed as though nothing was missing, but on further inspection, our camp camera had been stolen off of a dresser, and a couple of different pairs of shoes had been taken from the laundry room which is a separate room outside of our house. I guess it wouldn't make you so mad except that when you have very little and they are even taking that...it is frustrating, but again, it could have been much worse if they had gotten in the house and taken our laptop since we wouldn't have the money to replace that right now and I need it for working my U.S. job. There is always a silver lining if you look for it. Right now, just pray for the kids who feel a little bit unsettled knowing that someone was trying to get into our house. I guess since we have never had problems here we may have become a little too relaxed in what used to be our "ritual" before leaving our home, closing all the windows and locking them, etc. Unfortunately, I guess we need to return to trusting no one like when we first came here.

Recounting...

I sent my brother-in-law a copy of his team schedule, only to find out from him that there was a mix-up in their flight arrangements in that I thought they were arriving Sunday night, and they don't actually come in until Monday night! Needless to say, our kids are a little perturbed today with me and sad. We lose a day with the family and Jordan was all excited about only having "two more sleeps"! So, we're recounting our sleeps. We got the grocery shopping done and now we are just waiting...impatiently...for them to arrive!

Team #3...their special!

Today was a day of cleaning cabins and beginning the laundry, sheets, blankets, towels, etc. We had a group of Korean missionaries from Chicago who were having a retreat staying in the cabins since Monday and they left this morning. Such a wonderful group of people! I also finished the menu planning for the next team that arrives this Sunday night for twelve days. Planning for that many days and meals takes a lot of thought. Tomorrow we plan on doing the grocery shopping and then picking up our orders with the butcher and vegetable/fruit supplier. Please keep us in your prayers the next two weeks as we work on construction at the camp, go to the homeless shelter and serve there as well as supply them with a meal, hold a one-day medical clinic at the campground and work at the orphanage with the kids. This team is "special" in that my Dad & Mom, sister and her husband are coming with them from Central New York! It's been a year since we said good-bye to my side of the family, so we are all very excited to get to be together again!

Happy Birthday, Ken!

We Love You!
Sherri, Danielle, Heather, Kyle & Jordan

Angie in Costa Rica!!!!

This is Dinia! She is the wife of the Elder at our church. Our very first Sunday here in Costa Rica back in March we sat down and a few minutes later she sat down right in front of us. All of our mouths dropped open at once, I think, and we looked back and forth at each other, Ken, Heather, Kyle, Jordan and I. She looked a lot like Angie!

This is Angie, a Deaconess at our church at home, and now the church secretary. It's funny, but she and her husband, Bill have always sat right in front of us in church at home! If you could see Dinia and Angie side-by-side you would be amazed that they probably have similar body shapes, about the same height and well, it is amazing to us when you are in transition how generous and loving God is. I think he placed Dinia in our church to not miss home as much. We love you Angie, but we thank God for Dinia, who makes being away from you a little easier!

The earthquake and its victims

Today, we set out to see the areas hardest hit by the earthquake, and to see if there was anything that we could be doing as a small team to help. From the road, here is a picture of one of the huge cracks caused by the shaking and part of a house missing. Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for, missing and presumed dead from mud slides. While we didn't get even remotely close to the most devastated areas due to a tractor trailer blocking the main road; below are some pictures that might explain better how Costa Rica is coping with this disaster.

This family of kids let me take their picture in a make-shift "tent village", though they had their bedding and clothing inside this huge tractor trailer where they were trying to stay warm. Someone, just anyone that they didn't even know, taking a few minutes to talk with them and take their picture, give them a hug and try to share in their difficulty seemed to bring a simple smile.

Inside this large tent which was being whipped around in the wind today was a smaller "tent village" for refugees.

Outside the large tractor trailer, people were coming and picking up water, for drinking and to brush their teeth.

Because of power lines still down in this area, travel was difficult today and a tractor trailer blocked our way of seeing more. Outside this tent village we parked our van and as a small team we prayed for the Costa Ricans in this area. There is much to do to rebuild this part of the country which occupies some of the most beautiful tourism sites. Our hearts were heavy today as we toured the area. The loss of homes, businesses and the tourism trade is obvious. I'd ask that you continue to pray for Costa Rica and for the clean-up efforts.

Saying "Yes" to Jesus!

We arrived at the children's home at about 1:30 p.m. today. Once inside, we locked ourselves in to have the necessary time to set up our projector and movie screen. Word got out quickly that we had arrived and that the kids would soon be able to see, "The Chronicles of Narnia". What started out as an easy set up, soon began to take a downward spin and we realized that our showing of the movie was facing opposition. Just as we got the movie underway, power cords began to malfunction. We would get things started again, and breakers would blow. Finally, we lost power altogether and with great frustration, had to send the kids back to their perspective homes. We found out that the day before the power had been out for two hours. Not willing to give up easily and go home, we spent close to an hour praying and trying to entertain the kids outside for we believed that the power would come back on!

Word spread quickly as power all over the compound began to come back on; and within just a few minutes some 48 kids returned to see the movie! Here they are with bags of popcorn in their laps and juice bags in their hands. The power remained on throughout the almost three hour movie. Following the movie Amy shared a little bit about C.S. Lewis and the spiritual significance of the movie. When she was done, Ken & I shared the plan of salvation using the Bible and interpretive chalk art. Katherine, of course, was our interpreter.

With heads bowed and eyes closed, my eyes filled with tears when I saw that 20 of the 48 children raised their hands to show us that they wanted to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior! Thank you, to all of you, who have been following our blog and who specifically prayed for this ministry today. I believe that there were people who were standing in the gap for us!

On Friday...earthquake victims.

Please pray for us this Friday as we take the three interns to the hardest hit area from the recent earthquake. The government is finally letting church organizations and missionaries into the areas to help with re-building homes, feeding families, distributing clothing, etc. after declaring that the search and rescue for bodies was over; not that they had found everyone, as there are many people, in the hundreds, still missing. Please pray for us for wisdom as we try and discern what is most needed and how we, as a small team, might be able to help this devastated area and how often we should return to work in this location. Pray for the people that we might speak with and meet, that we would be a blessing. (From there, we will take Amy to the airport to return home after her one-week extended stay).

This week...How you can pray.

Last night Ken took the three interns plus Amy who was on the last team, but decided to stay a week longer to work alongside us, to the homeless shelter. Heather went along with her Dad, but Kyle and Jordan and I stayed home to work on getting our house back in order. When we have a team here, we basically run into our house, drop things and are on the run a lot, so things needed to be put away! On Thursday, we will return to the orphanage to show the movie, "The Chronicles of Narnia" in Spanish and Ruth (one of our interns) will explain the meaning of the movie from a Christian perspective. I am praying about doing an invitation with the children utilizing chalk art. On Saturday, we have a group rental at the camp for the weekend, but the interns with David & Katherine & Heather will be doing a one-day medical clinic at the homeless shelter. If you think of us on these days, please pray for us.

New Bathrooms!

Here are pictures of the new bathrooms that are being built at the camp. Global Outreach Mission has hired a contractor and with his crew they did the foundation work for Team #2 to be able to come in and start the block walls. As you can see, the contractor is still working and preparing for Team #3 to come in and help his crew do the roof.

To the left of the new walls, you can see the "old" outdoor bathrooms (the white doors lead into small stalls with just toilets and there is an outdoor sink). This new building will house "guys" and "girls" bathrooms complete with 4 new stalls, 4 new showers and sinks on each side! One of the biggest complaints of the rental groups or teams that we host is that "there are not enough showers" in the cabins! Just like camping in the "States", you'll have to walk across the campground to the bathrooms, but here's hoping this will help bigger groups get their showers in a more timely manner!

A day off!

Yesterday, after church, the North Americans banded together and loaded in our van to go to Tara Mall! Once there, with trays of American food in hand from the Food Court; Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, CinnaBon we politely took over one of the televisions in the Food Court and watched the Super Bowl. Ken, of course, was decked out in his Pittsburgh jersey and baseball cap! We were anticipating a quiet ride home toward the end when the Cardinals were up by 3; but Pittsburgh pulled it off in the end! We all ate together, some of us walked the mall, and we even just sat around. We had a lot of fun together!

Team #2...recovery...

The team left this morning at 4 a.m. to head up to the airport for a morning of departures. Thank you, Lord, for Victor, our bus driver! We spent most of the day today at the camp, even though Isa and Gloria clean the cabins, do the laundry and clean their kitchen; the Celebration Center looked like a bomb went off in it. We also needed to "reclaim" the desk in the office and put things back together in the ministry closets! Lots of garbage was gathered. I am currently staring at a "mound" of laundry in my home, but do not have the energy to care to do anything about it! Tonight, we have to get some groceries as the refrigerator is bare from eating every meal with the team over the last weeks. Tomorrow is another day!

We saw some 963 patients in medical clinics, half of which accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior! Praise the Lord! 250 kids participated in Children's Ministry. 60 Children's Ministry workers received formal training! It's been a very busy past two weeks, but we are filled and blessed! For now, we just need a couple of days of rest, before the preparations begin for Team #3!