Top Ten Reasons I'm Stoked to Raise a Jungle Child

Is there such thing as a stupid question?
The sassy side of me screams YES!
The linguist in me acknowledges that there is probably some kind of miscommunication or an assumption that I have that the questioner does not.
So when someone asks me, "Are you taking your baby with you to the jungle?"
...
There's a sarcastic voice in my head that says, "No. We figured we'd leave him with a colony of Texan armadillos. I've heard they're very nurturing."
Thankfully, there's also a logical side of my brain. It says that, as much as I find any alternative to be absurd, they probably think me taking a helpless infant to the jungle is absurd. While I wonder what other answer they're looking for, they are probably desperate to see another answer that isn't as horrible as the simple "yes."
But, in case you were wondering, I will be taking my child to the jungle with us, and I am super excited about it! Let me tell you why.

Top Ten Reasons I'm Stoked to Raise A Jungle Child

10. No clothing
Small children in Papua New Guinea run around naked. Older children wear a pair of shorts until they are literally falling off of them. Older children still receive a t-shirt and shorts until the same fate befalls them. As I hear parents lamenting about how much the Back-to-School wardrobe is running them, I just smile and think of my little naked village boy, who, one day, might need me to spend a couple of dollars on shorts for.
9. Coconuts
Coconuts grow at the very top of palm trees. I don't know how to climb a palm tree, but little village children are great at it. And my child will be a little village child. So whenever I need my thirst to be quenched, I can send him scrambling up a tree with a machete and have him throw a couple down.
8. Sweet Machete Skills
From the time they can wobble on two feet, village children grab hold of those useful bush knives and start "helping". They learn at an early age that machete's are sharp and to be careful. But they also learn sweet skills. Like how to open that coconut my son just fetched for me with a single, well-placed thwack.
7. No cars
As often as I hear parents shouting to their oblivious child to look both ways before running into the street with reckless abandon, I am so glad that there aren't cars cruising through the village. The fact that their loud and stinky diesel engines aren't fouling the atmosphere is secondary to my child not getting smashed under their tires.
6. No buses
Along the same vein as cars, there are no buses! No waking up at ridiculous hours of the morning to pull grumpy children out of bed and race the clock to see their clothes donned, their teeth brushed, and their shoes put on. No standing outside waiting for that bus to round the corner so we can retreat to our house and find where we left our coffee in the chaos of the morning.
5. Homeschool without qualms
Though even if there were a bus, I suppose we wouldn't have to worry about it as we're homeschooling. But we get to homeschool without the worry of whether or not it's the best choice. We don't have to stress about how much social interaction and how many extracurricular activities they're missing out on. We don't have to agonize over our qualifications to teach various subjects. We just simply don't have another option. We homeschool by necessity. (Though I anticipate enjoying it!)
4. No Screen time issues
In our age of media, issues of screen-time become more and more complicated. In our home, however, the introduction of addicting screen games can be totally avoided and not perpetuated by neighboring children. Our son will believe that the good Lord invented the screen so that he could read books on it and complete his homework. My little oblivious son.
3. No materialism
It's pretty inevitable that when you declare your home to be in a place where children and pigs fight for scraps, and rocks and seeds are used to play Jacks, where eating meat is a treat, and malnutrition runs rampant, my son will not throw a temper tantrum because I didn't buy him a new Tonka truck.
2. It takes a Village
You often hear that it takes a village to raise a kid. We'll get to try this out ourselves! We'll have the entire village watching out for our precious cargo, meaning that we can let him go tromping about with his friends without worry of his safety. He may have a number of pseudo-moms taking a swat at him, but hopefully that will only teach him that he needs to be good all the time and not just around mom. The defiant "you're not my mom" I hear so often will be absurd as our son will know that you don't get to opt out of listening to others but you should always mind the words of someone who is guiding you to the proper course of action.
1. They'll be Missionary Kids
Missionary Kids, more commonly known as MKs, often get a bad rap for being really really weird. And that rap is often justified. But anecdotal evidence has me convinced that if they're raised by social normal parents then they'll be social normal kids. And, I mean, I'm awesome. But the thing that MKs really have going for them is their emphasis on family. When no one their age understands the collision of cultures that they've experienced, they turn to their family unit. MKs are open minded and well rounded kids with a firm grasp on holistic problems and global issues. They're also super great at interacting with adults.

Bonus - They're great ministry tools

There are pros and cons to living anywhere. But we're thrilled about the pros of the jungle.
Kids are born and live happy lives there everyday. While the infant mortality rate is a bit higher than we're used to here in America, most of those deaths are from preventable and curable diseases. We will have access to medications for our son and will hopefully be able to a be a blessing to other children in the village as well.

5 Registry Items I'm Most Excited about for Jungle Living

Last year, I wrote an article entitled 5 Things I Couldn't Live Without In the Jungle. Along that same line of thinking, this article is built. Of course, could I live in the jungle without them? I don't know. Obviously, I have no child and am not in the jungle. But nonetheless, I'm super stoked about these registry items:

1. Fresh Starts Food Mill (received) - While I would really love to have the Baby Bullet for use in town, this hand cranked food musher is going to be fan.tas.tic for our third dinner mate. Sure you have to overcook a portion of food for nibbler, but when no fridge and little electricity is available... I'm thrilled for this!

2. Brica Fold 'N Go Travel Booster (received) - Speaking of supper time, this is a booster chair... that folds flat! Think of the portability!!! (Portability is a big factor for the nomadic missionary.) Unlike some turn-a-chair-into-a-high-chair, this offers a little vertical aid. AND IT FOLDS FLAT!

3. KidCo Go Pod Portable Activity Seat (received) -  As much fun as those saucers looks, the ones the little kid stands (or works on standing) in, with all the toys around it to hit enthusiastically play with, they're so big! (Read: not very portable) So instead we found this!! It folds up like a camping chair! And has little velcro straps to wrap around toys, making it (almost) as stimulating as it's bulky friend. Bonus: While it doesn't wobble on that curved saucer base, it can be scooted by children savvy enough to take assisted steps, which means, the kid can move around the house (with an 8in buffer between him and the wall!) to his heart's desire!

4. Poco - Plus Child Carrier Pack (Youth) - With mobility on the mind, check out this awesome kid carrier! Structured like a hiking backpack, any jungle treks will be way more pleasant for everyone involved. It's a shame we have to wait until he's 6 months to go to PNG, as everyone knows 3 month olds are way lighter...

5. Safety 1st Complete Air 65 Convertible Car Seat - Bentley  - Since we plan on living at a road allocation and subsequently needing to purchase a Hilux, it will probably be important to also have a carseat. This one here has a cup holder! It also will hold the child well through the age where we care about him being held down, and will hopefully help protect his cranium from the aggressive roads we'll be bouncing along.

So there it is! And so far I have 3 out of 5 of these items!! Now I just need the child....

Our Sunday at Liberty Baptist

We're unaccustomed to having trees towering over us. But either side of the dirt road was lined with their 5 story majesty. After my sister skid on the gravel into the church parking lot, my feet found a great amount of pleasure finding purchase on something that didn't jerk, jostle, or bounce. Those country roads are notorious for jerking, jostling, and bouncing. My sister's inability to brush her teeth while I was putting on make-up in the mirror delayed us enough to miss the grand tour of the new infant and toddler facility at Liberty Baptist. Instead, we were ushered into the sanctuary moments before the service began. And, as all good small southern churches do, we began with announcements. Announcements about how amazing the previous week's Vacation Bible School had been, about the generosity of the children in their giving during that week, and of the decision that was made to give those funds to the missionaries of the week: us! So we got to work our way to the front of the church (in 5 inch heels, since my flats looked bad with my outfit and I didn't have any heels in between, on slippery carpet...) and, after successfully arriving, were handed a generous gift. After navigating to the back, this time uphill, the service proceeded without further surprise. Immediately following service, we headed over to the fellowship hall, across a gravel parking lot and a grassy field (the things one does to look adorable...). Upon entering, we were presented with the most adorable baby shower. A nautical theme with emphasis on the octopus. Cupcakes were assembled and decorated to form the massive cephalopod.

Little pigs and a blanket were strategically wrapped and cut to form octopus snacks. A row of tables, centerpieced by a plush octopus, was scattered with burp clothes, fabric markers, and stencils, which resulted in our plethora of adorable burp clothes. The lovely baby shower had so much work put into it and was so thoughtful for them to do for us. Afterwards, we took our gift-cards to do some serious shopping for baby, and presently we're feeling pretty good about our level of preparedness. Now we just need to decide on a state to have the baby in...

Step by Step Guide on How to Pack Like a Rockstar

We've been packing up the apartment to head on our ridiculously long-term fund-raising trip. This isn't the first time either of us has packed up our lives so we're kinda experts now. So allow me to give you a fantastic and amazing step by step guide on how to pack your home and maintain a suitable level of sanity and emotional stability at the same time!

1. Figure out what your specific packing needs are and get really specific with it.
   We needed to pack our entire home and have it split three major ways: storage, PNG, with us. But this needs to be really specific. What all piles will we actually need to have? See below:
   Going to PNG
   Going on the PD roadtrip
   Going in storage
   Going on Sale
   Going in the trash
   Baby stuff
   Clothes that can't handle the baby bump but I still want
   Clothes going to the Boutique
   Winter clothes going on the PD trip
   Clothes going on the PD trip that I won't wear before then
   Clothes I probably won't wear before going to PNG that I love too much to give away
   Clothes going to PNG
   Crafting in progress
   To be crafted before departure
   Things that aren't mine
   gifts
2. Examine this list. Decide how much time you will need and how much space you will need to masterfully rock this list like a champion. Double it.
   Even if double the time/space is more than needed, that's a lot better than having less time/space. Trust me on this one. 
3. Get your materials together.
   You're probably going to need some boxes. Maybe some bags. But you will definitely definitely definitely need the following:- Materials Bag - It seemed like the only time we could find the duct tape was 20 minutes after we had needed it and found another solution. Keep all your tape, scissors, Sharpies, bubble wrap, sanity, etc in one nifty bag and you'll be good to go!
   - An accordion folder. Or the likes to put documents and small important things in that you will need handy when you can give it a moment of your time but really need to put away right now. (Travel documents, bills, cancellation forms, etc) 
   - An Oops Bag. This is the bag that you put that bottle of Tylenol in after you've already whisked the medicine bag out of your home. Where the straight pins go after the sewing box is packed and gone.
   In each of the following steps, the accordion folder and Oops Bag should be used to the fullest extent. 
4. Cover major sections.
   Pick a genre of items and go for it. Go all the way for it. Get ALL the books taken care of. Pack ALL the picture frames. Sort through ALL the clothes. Then, when you stop and look around, you can be like, "dude, check out my hard work! Look at all those books taken care of! Bam! Imma rockstar!" And you are!
5. Pick a corner.
   Eventually you will get to a point where the packing has morphed into chaos and all the major types of things are taken care of and you just have stuff. At this point, take a deep breath. And pick a corner. You pack that corner. And you pack it good! And then step back and look at that packed corner and remind yourself that you are a rockstar. 
6. Pick the smallest space you can find. 
   Eventually corners will have too much junk (see, we've gone from stuff to junk) that you can't really just pack it up in any coherent way. Walk away from those corners that bring you down! Move to the drawers! The cupboards! The closets! The bathrooms! These smaller spaces will (usually) have like items that you can sort through quickly and pack and be done with. Whoa! Look at that empty cabinet! That was all you! Way to go, rockstar!
7. Find another set of eyes.
   Once you've done all that you are emotionally capable of doing. And have even tried to come back to the same spot the next day to take a fresh look and still cannot do a single thing more with what remains, find someone else to manage it. When I am at my wits end with a junk drawer or the likes, I send my husband in, who is not so emotional drained by packing that he can think of what to do with a handful of pens, a box of tacks, and some random beads. 
8. Toss it.
   When all is said and done, you don't need this kind of negativity in your life! When you have odds and ends littering the floor, throw them away. Will you need that screw in the future some day? Maybe. But you can spend a dollar for a bag of them at the hardware store and not have an emotional breakdown. That seems worth it for a maybe. 

Tips:

• Know when to take a break. You don't need to go until the brink of an emotional breakdown. Know when you're tired and done for the day and allow yourself to stop then. If you've doubled your time then you have time to rest. Take advantage of that time. 
• When packing books. Lay them on the shelf spine up and organize them by height. Then when you pack them in boxes, you won't have that irritating irregularity that makes it impossible to make the most out of your box's space.  

not-PMI: 2014

The event formerly known as Pioneer Missions Institute, which will be known as Resource, and is presently not known as anything, has just ended!
It's been a fantastically good time, the kind of fun that leaves you totally 100% exhausted afterwards (no, we're not finished packing...).
This year I was the Games and Activities Coordinator for the Children's Program. After designing most of the games and activities, I was on call all day in the event that one of the four classrooms needed me. In the afternoon, I orchestrated the larger games that brought all the ages together.
(The pinnacle of my efforts was the Paul's Missionary Journey Game which I will be posting about soon. Considering how much effort I put into designing that game, I figured I should share that with the world via the world wide web.) 
Jacob taught 3 short lectures for the Literacy continuing education course. The people in charge of the course said he did a great job. Unfortunately, this was right during the time of my afternoon games, so I missed them.

On Tuesday of this week, I coordinated the annual PNG Braum's Night (Braum's is an ice cream place found in this area), which really involved putting it on the schedule and making sure everyone had a ride from the rendezvous point to Braum's. (They did.) Hopefully the entire event won't collapse next year in my absence. (-sarcasm)

At 6:30 we met and then headed off for ice cream. I found myself sitting with a missionary who was on her way back to PNG after a stint off the field. Jacob was at another table with her husband. After we stood up to leave, we were invited to come back to campus and continue talking with them. We left their room at 2 am. While it was an amazing conversation that we absolutely do not regret taking the time for, we never actually recovered from getting only 5 hours of sleep...

The next morning involved me very frustrated from lack of sleep compounded with the cats having gnawed on our brand-new coffee tumblers in the night and me pouring boiling water over my hand as I tried to get coffee. (Luckily, Wednesday was a low-key game day...)

But at the end of all of it, the kids were raving about the amazing time they had had and how fun the games were, especially the Roman Soldier Game, which ironically had 3 emotional breakdowns during gameplay.

I'm almost sorry we'll miss it next year.

What's the Plan?

We have found more meat for our bare bones of a plan! Originally it was: We're going to raise money, go to Papua New Guinea some time in 2015, go to POC (How to live in the Jungle 101), and go from there. Lots of motion.

Now! The plan is:

• Our personal profiles will soon be submitted to the PNG branch. If they decide they want us (and we anticipate no problems there), they will send us our Letter of Assignment. (We want you to come and do A, B, and C, during your first term.) 
• Then! We will begin filing for our visas. (And getting new passports)
• We will do partnership development (raising money) 
• We need $5000/mth
• We need $44,000 in start-up expenses (relocation expenses, POC, solar panels, Toyota Hilux)
• We are praying to be fully funded by Oct 3rd (Jacob's Birthday). Just a couple of weeks before our son is due. We really really don't want to worry about fund-raising and infant-raising. We hope you will join us in these prayers. 
• We will leave for the Pacific Orientation Course in May 2015. The enrollment process for May POC has already begun. 
• We will spend approximately 4 months in POC learning everything from how to bake bread over an open fire to how to speak Tok Pisin. The course in completed after spending a few weeks living in a village setting. If you're still alive at the end of the time period, you pass. (Just kidding! The death toll of POC is quite low.)
• We will spend however long it takes researching and doing survey work to figure out where we're going to live and work full time. 
• This will probably be in or near the Lower Ramu River Valley, which happens to have a road that connects it to Madang. This means we won't have to spend $3000 on a helicopter every time we want to arrive or leave the village. Instead, we can buy a Toyota Hilux for an up-front cost of $35,000 and save a lot of money in the long run. 
• We will load up our child and cargo in our Hilux and go out to the village to live in a small bush house for the remainder of our term. 
• We will begin language learning. 
• If we decide that is the right location for us to be long-term, we will start figuring out how much it will be to get a house there. 
• We will go on home assignment, visit all of you, and raise money for our Americanized house, and start planning for our second term in approximately 2019. 

Bam! 4 years in 10 bullet points! That's what we call an overview!

(Please remember that there are two constants in the life of a missionary: miscommunication and change. Please don't feel lead astray if there's a change in this plan. We have to roll with the punches...)

"So how's your pregnancy been?" Conceiving after a Loss

(Note: I'm doing great! Fantastic! Really. I have some stress, yes, but compared to anyone else who is quitting their job, packing their house, getting ready to be homeless for the next who knows how long, including when they deliver their child, getting ready to ask people for money relentlessly until they get on a plane to go to a third world country where they still don't have a house with a newborn, I'm doing really really really well. This blog post looks back at February/March. That was months ago. I'm great!)

I, like every other pregnant woman, often get asked how every thing is going. But people seem really stuck on morning sickness. I'm not sure what's up with that. Even well into my 2nd trimester, people keep asking me how the morning sickness is. Maybe it's because that's the one miserable pregnancy symptom everyone knows about, so that gets overly worried about.
I haven't had morning sickness. At all. And I'm always so taken aback by that question. Because the first one, "how's your pregnancy been?" causes me to reflect and think, and then out of nowhere "have you been retching in the toilet?" What?! No! Compared to what I was just thinking about, that seems so trivial! As much as I hate throwing up, I'd rather bear that burden than this. But these generous souls have given me an out, so I take it. "No! None at all!" I smile up at them. "Good, good!" They pat me on the shoulder and walk away. And I never have to tell a soul that I'm afraid I will fail again. 

I had my D&C on December 5th. We start counting how far pregnant I am at January 7th.
Unlike the first time we were trying to conceive, I didn't take a pregnancy test every month and cry over negatives. (Mix hormones with disappointment and it gets messy!)
This time though I took got a positive on the first try. I came out of the bathroom holding a pregnancy test and bawling my eyes out. Needless to say, my husband was uncertain of what was happening. Why bring a negative test to him? Why cry if it's positive? But when he saw the positive test, fear flooded his face too.
Fear that we would miscarry again. Fear that we would have to go through this emotional turmoil again.

Every day for 6 weeks, I would replay that miscarriage again and again in my head. That moment of false hope when I saw the small form on the sonogram. The world falling down around me when there was no heartbeat. Everyday, I heard my wails echoing off the walls. Everyday, I felt the cold that the IV drip filled me with. For 6 weeks. I feared it would happen again. And I knew that if it did I would die. I knew I could shed no more tears. I knew I would go through the whole routine of the D&C shut down, going through the motions, without the emotional strength to do anything. I didn't know how long that emotional death would last.
But at 10 weeks, I had an ultrasound (that was actually not any further along than the first had been so offered me no reassurance). Nonetheless, peace came. And not the peace where I had to scream out to God to take these images away from me and let me sleep. Not the peace where I had to pray that God would protect me from my imagination (as I child with some mild paranoia issues, this was a common prayer). But a true peace that didn't need to be scrambled after, but endured. A peace where people would ask me how I was doing, and I was surprised to realize I hadn't been worrying about it.
The second trimester finally came and the doctor looked me in the eye and said, "You are not going to miscarry. Do you believe me?"
I did.
(Though if a kid dies in utero after the first trimester, they just call it by a different name. Tricky, tricky, doc.)
Our son started kicking two days before 19 weeks. Our final ultrasound looked great and the next doctor's appointment is the day after Father's Day.

Now the answer to that question?
Everything is looking great! I feel good. My child's kicks haven't become painful yet. I'm not uncomfortably large yet. None of the stress in my life is related to my kid at all. (Unless you count the diaper-shaped fabric in the to-sew pile.)

So the moral of this story is, don't lead the witness pregnant lady. Sometimes that gentle inquiry is enough of a platform for someone to open up. But it's a natural tendency to take the easy way out, so don't provide it. Give people the opportunity to gather the courage to share.