Rude awakening

This morning a little before 2:30am a 7.1 earthquake hit Central America. We were awakened to our house which is up on stilts shaking pretty hard and to terrible noises of ours and other buildings creaking. Hannah and I awoke about the same time, dazed and confused, rushed to get Lily and Aidan and ran outside. It must have lasted at least 20 seconds or longer and ended seconds after we were outside.

There have been no reported deaths in Belize, however a teenage boy died in Honduras. Several homes were destroyed in Southern Belize and a town just north of us had a water tower fall down. Some stuff was knocked out of our bathroom and kitchen shelves but thankfully no real damage.

Needless to say we did not sleep very well after that. I felt a small after shock at some point that got me heart racing again. Praise be to God that although we were shaken, we were not moved!

Lily's birthday

This past Saturday was Lily's birthday and her party. It is SOOOO hard to believe that we have a SIX year old child. Man, has time flown!!! She has been beyond excited about this party for MANY days. See anguished over and spent hours discussing with us who to invite, what to do etc. All the details of the part were planned out well in advance. She is so funny. We have proved that you don't have to have all the "stuff" to have a fun party. She had a BLAST and so did her "friends" that came. The theme was of course, "Princess." They colored princess pictures, decorated princess crowns, and did whatever else little princess' do.

The day started out with breakfast of her choice (blueberry muffins) and the rest of the day was consumed with party set up, celebration and then clean-up.






Probably the most special part of the whole thing was that Tanika, one of our special needs friends, got to come. When Lily and I went to invite her, her eyes lit up SO MUCH and she immediately asked her mom if she could go. We saw her a few times in between then and when we picked her up for the party and she would ask me how many days until "Lily's birthday." This was the first birthday party she had ever been to!!! She LOVED it. Even though she could not run around with the rest of the kids, she loved every minute watching them. Marcella, Tanika's mom also got to come which was very important to her. In 8 months, I have never known her to leave her house, so she really appreciated the adult socialization.

Hannah's birthday and Mother's day

May 7th Hannah turned 27 (for some reason this was a birthday she dreaded...). The kids and I got up and surprised her with breakfast and some special birthday cards. Lily even made her a gift! That night we got as gussied up as we can here in Belize and went out to eat at one of our favorite "eat'en places' as the kids call it. Then we came home and had some yummy birthday brownie's and sang happy birthday with the Quick's via webcam which was cool.






I am so blessed by God to have such a wonderful awesome wife to be the mother of my children. So many often take this blessing for granted. The kids love her SOO much, and they wanted to show her so they gave her an award, it was very sweet!

Bad, bad blogger...

I know... I am sorry it has been so long. Don't know... I have just not been in the blogging mood. Maybe a little depressed although not sure why. On top of that I have been extremely, extremely busy. I think things are beginning to calm down a little now. Either way, I am determined to look up to where my help comes from (psalms 121:1) and also get back on the blogging train.

So much has happened, not sure where to start. I think what I will do is make a few small blog entries to catch things up. More to come!

"Help" is not always what you think

On my last post I told you about a 103 year old lady (Mrs. Victoria) that Hannah and I were taking care of. We were seeing her daily (even over the weekend) checking on her, cleaning and treating her wound etc. I would pray with her although she did not know I was there most of the time. Her family asked us to eat lunch with them Sunday. We had a nice time getting to know them more. They were so gracious, seating us at the table while the waited on us, and only eating after we were finished.

After lunch I went in to Mrs. Victoria's room to check on her. She had stopped eating several days prior, and by the way she looked to me, I felt she was very close to death. We discuss this with the family, and I told them I would be very surprised if she lived through the night. After a while longer, we left to go take care of another lady with a wound that lived near-by (who happened to be related to Mrs. Victoria), and when we arrived at her home in less than 5 minutes, we had a message waiting for us to come back quickly. So we cleaned and changed her dressing and returned to Mrs. Victoria's home where were told that they thought she had died. After confirming that indeed she had, we spent some more time with them talking and offering what little help we could, at least that is what I thought.

This afternoon I went to her funeral that was held at her family's home. Strangely, Mrs. Victoria and I share the same birth date. She was obviously a very special woman. I hate that I did not meet her when she was well and vibrant, but I am grateful to have known her none the less, regardless of the circumstances. So many people came to show their respects and celebrate her life. As a part of the service, they thanked us for being there when she died. They said it helped them so much. I was so touched by this sentiment.

You see, I thought I was helping Mrs. Victoria by trying to "heal" her wounds and illness (which in a way we were), but God had a different kind of "help" and healing in mind. We did not do anything special or spectacular, and most of what we did, does not require special training or skills. It was not our knowledge and expertise that impacted this wonderful family. What we did that had the most impact was show love, compassion and care in a real and practical way. These are things that we can all do everyday to show the awesome powerful love of Jesus.