Tour de West

Well, it's Monday in Norfolk and we know what that means!
It's time to reflect on the past 2 months and get ready for the next couple!
With coffee in hand (a gift of Starbucks coffee pressed in a stainless steel french press we wanted for the field and a supporter just happened to have in his closet), (speaking of which I haven't yet mailed back his key...) a to-do list is born!

With coffee in hand and a pen and pad at hand, I sit to reflect. Two months ago, we left Houston for a whirlwind of travel and partnership development. We had supporters and contacts ranging from Phoenix to Washington State and we left to visit them. It is, of course, our job to visit supporters and update them on our travels. But we hoped to turn contacts into supporters and find new supporters in the process.
We did a good job at that. Where we had supporters, we found more. Where we had contacts, The good Lord turned them into supporters.

Leaving Houston
Phoenix is a charming 18 hour jaunt from Houston, so we decided to break it up a little. We stopped at a friend's house in San Antonio and we're so glad we did! She gave my son a toy (which she thoughtfully screened for size and the length of the age of interest. Up to 3 years!), a toy which was pretty much a life saver on our very very long road trip. We stopped in El Paso, to visit childhood friends who happened to be there for a spell. And then we headed on to ....

Phoenix
We loved living in Phoenix. Phoenix begged the question, "If you had to settle in the States, where would you choose?" It's such a hard question because there are so many factors. We have so many friends at The Rising in Norfolk and love that church! We really liked living in Georgia (but I think that might be because we had our own house). Dallas is where all of our PBT friends are/pass through. But Jacob, who has no qualm with being landlocked, loves Phoenix for the sake of Phoenix. (And Christ's Church of the Valley seems pretty awesome!) The desert heat in February, the adobe architecture, the lack of grass lawns, all made Phoenix seem like a lovely place to make home.

Vegas

Norfolk, for me, Dallas, and oddly Vegas, all give us a feeling of coming home. I'm not sure what about Vegas invokes this feeling. Maybe it's the memorable Strip that allows us to look across the landscape and say, "I know this place." But in the midst of traveling, it's nice to feel that way!
We had really great people to visit with, old and new, and made a number of supporters!

San Diego
I didn't get to see my love, the sea, while in San Diego but I did feel it's proximity! We stayed with contacts who became supporters and their adorable children. I brought the boys outside one day and instructed them in the art of paper airplane making. I was a little anxious about having a boy, but playing with three of them has me feeling a bit better about it.

Portland
It was a three day trip up Pacific Coastal Highway 1. Gorgeous, winding trip by the shore and through the redwoods. We got to stay with my other mommy while in Portland and visit with Jacob's aunt and her church while there. Two new supporters and a slew of sight-seeing as my pseudo-mommy showed off her beloved home, including Maltnomah Falls. While it wasn't the first waterfall I've seen, it was the first time I've been to a waterfall. Like, we're in the same vicinity. And it was beautiful.

To Norfolk
We had five days of driving to take us across the country. Traveling through States I've never been through before, I've learned that there's nothing worth seeing off the coast! Lots of farmland both for plants and for animals but not a lot of anything else.... We had a day off of driving in Illinois where we got to visit our cat who we rehomed with some friends of ours. Our reception was disappointing. His love for us seemed mostly forgotten, but that might have been in part due to the tiny thrashing
oddly proportioned human (babies have big heads
and little arms!) we were toting and the fact that when I last saw Shadow I smelled different thanks to pregnancy.

We arrived in Norfolk and pulled up to my father's house. I called him from there and he asked where I was. So that was a fun little surprise. My sister came over shortly afterwards and a nice little family reunion ensued. And now here we are, getting settled and getting ready!

We're now 58% with others who are interested in committing but haven't yet giving a figure.
We need to be 90% in order to buy plane tickets and we're hoping to leave in September!

The States James has been to
(and also the territory we've covered since leaving for our PD trip in July 2014 (excluding Maryland and Pennsylvania) !)

September as the New Target Date!

This morning I got an email from the Director of the PNG branch of PBT, informing us that since we plan on being missionaries in a village setting that it would be best for us to attend the POC course in September. We are on the list of attendees in September!
But we will not be leaving in May.
POC is an orientation course to jungle life in Papua New Guinea, which will teach us skills and give us a chance to practice them before allocating to a village setting.
This change in departure time definitely has a silver lining in that, after we have our funds raised, we can have a bit of a break before departing for the field. Hopefully, this breath will allow us to come to terms with the whole leaving the States for two and a half years and the changes that will have on our lives. This will give us a chance to process that transition before it overwhelms us.
We have 55% of our funds raised presently and are hoping to reach our goal soon!
Please keep praying for us to meet our funding goals and for the people God has chosen for our support team!

The Numbers Game

Since our departure in July 2014 for our full time fundraising trip, there have been a couple of numbers floating around.

5000
8000
6500
4300
4600

See, originally, we thought we were going to go to a road allocation which would require less in monthly costs (5000) but more in one-time costs (36,000). Then we were asked to consider a helicopter allocation, which, I was last told, would bring our budget up significantly (8000). But then we found it was less than we had thought (6500)! Our one-time expenses were raised, enabling us to remove them from the funds we needed (4300). Excel hates me (4600).

 So, right now we're aiming to have $4,600/month raised. And we presently have *coming in* 54% of that! We believe that there is more that's working it's way through the pipelines now, but we try not to count our chickens until they hatch.

We need 90% of our budget to be raised before we can buy plane tickets. We're getting so close!
We're still shooting to leave in May, which is 6 weeks away!! We're planning on leaving in September. 

But we still have a little ways to go.
Please pray and see if God's got you in mind to join our support team!
A gift of $46/month will bring us up a whole percent!


As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

POC and a Call to Action

When talking to people who aren't "in the know" about the workings of Papua New Guinea and its orientation course, Pacific Orientation Course, we affectionately call it Jungle Camp.
It's 12 weeks of training on culture and survival. They'll teach us how to make a fire and cook over it. They'll give a few lessons in Tok Pisin and they'll teach us how to build relationships with the nationals. And much much more, culminating in a 4 week stay in a village. If you survive, you pass. (From my understanding, the death toll is non-existant...)

Historically, this course has been offered twice a year, in January and August. For the first time, they decided to offer the course in May. It is this course that we are registered for.

However! There have been complications in finding enough teachers for the course. The consequence of not finding teachers? The course will be canceled. The course is full and all of those students, us included, will face complications in arriving in country. Additionally, the August course is already booked so attending the next course offered is not an option.
We need prayers that suitable teachers will be found and the course will be able to proceed as scheduled.

Furthermore! If the course is held but we are unable to raise funds to leave for POC in May, we will not be able to attend POC in August, as it is full. So it is very important for the funds to be raised and the course to be held in order for us to get to the field in May.

We need your prayers.
But we need more that prayers.
We need supporters and this may be you.
We need connections and you may be the one who has them.

God has a team of people who bring us to 100% of our budget.
At this moment, we don't know who all those people are. But you may be one of them. You may know one of them. Please help us find our team.

Presently, we're in Phoenix, AZ. We'll be headed to San Diego from here. Then Vegas, before heading north to Portland and Washington State.
From there decisions on where to go next will be made off of our funding situation and our leads.

If you're not on our itinerary but you have ideas of people who might be on our support team or if you think you might be one of these supporters God has in mind for us, we can still get together via Skype or Google Hangouts and answer questions and share more about this amazing ministry committed to seeing transformed lives.

Please help us reach our goal of leaving for Papua New Guinea. There are Bible-less people who long to have the Scriptures in their own language and need help in doing so. Help us help them.
We can't do it without you.

The Really Minimalist Guide to Newborns

Due to the fact that we're nomadic and have limited trunk space, I scoured the internet looking for a minimalist guide to what to purchase for my son. I really wanted to fit everything he needed in a carry-on bag. I'm not *quite* there yet. But pretty close!

But all the minimalist guides I could find had a bit of excess...

So Here's The (Really) Minimalist Guide to Newborns

Sleep:
There are a couple different travel friendly options for sleeping. The true minimalist would choose just one (although at the moment I do have all three...). None of these can fit in the carry-on but they are all trunk friendly.

• Pack and Play - These have become so fancy! I love the bassinet feature, which means that I don't have to bend in half to pick up or put down the kid. The little tiny napper thing and changing station is a little unnecessary. I do wish I had the pack and play that comes with built-in storage space. Alas, retrospect. 
• Peapod - For quick trips, we love our pop-up tent. Covered with UV protection and mosquito netting, it's great for trips to the park or beach. The thin mattress that goes underneath the tent makes it perfect for weekend trips away. It folds down into a small circle the size of a car's sunscreen to easily slip into the trunk. 
• Travel Bassinet - My mother-in-law got us this. It folds up flat, which is definitely nicer than the space the pack and play uses. It does require more in the way of bending and baby will grow out of it sooner than the pack and play, but when space is a priority, this is a great choice. 

Swaddle:

• Woombie - Now I love the aden+anais muslin swaddles but my husband had trouble rocking the origami required for retro swaddling. Instead we invested in the Woombie. We have 5 total and we could probably survive with less. They take way less space than the muslin swaddles and are way less complicated. Just zip them up and then you're done!

Clothes:
The thing about clothes is you'll get a ton and not all of them will be the right size. When they get too small, donate them, stat! You can return the larger stuff and hold on to the store credit until you need them. Or, if you're nomadic like me, you can leave them with someone and have them ship the next size when it's time.

• Sleepers - Those footy pajama things? Buy 5. Quick, easy, no worry about matching or finding socks. 
• Onesies - When it's hot, these are the way to go. 
• Pants - Somehow, my son manages to soil more pants than onesies! Or maybe we just have more onesies than pants... Either way, make sure you have these and a few spare in the diaper bag. 
• Socks - Make sure you have socks and just go ahead and keep them all in the diaper bag, because they will get lost, or baby will have a blow out in his sleeper and you won't have any and everyone will think you're a horrible person because your kid isn't wearing socks. ...not that I know from experience or anything. 

Bathtime:

• Bath chair - We had a little seat for the bath someone gave us, but we tried another method that we and baby liked a lot better. We folded up a towel which he used as a pillow and put less water in the tub. Even with less water, he's more submerged which keeps him warmer and happier. 
• Washcloths + towel - If you feel like your towels are soft enough for baby, then scratch this off your list. But as much as we travel, we don't know the quality of the towels at our destination. Plus, baby towel and washcloths are thin and don't take up much space. 
• Toiletries - We use Aquaphor baby wash and baby oil for his dry scalp. Two bottles and done!

Diapers:

• Diapers - We use cloth diapers, though when traveling, if you find yourself with only access to a laundromat, disposables may become a cheaper option. We run our diapers through the wash 3 times before using the dryer. That adds up! And carrying enough diapers to launder infrequently enough that the price is ok would take up a lot of space. So we use compression bags. 
• Wipes - We also use cloth wipes with the same problem as above. 
• Diaper Rash solution - We prefer baby powder. The paste is just too messy....
• Diaper Bag - If you have a fabulous purse, you could use that instead but you need a bag to carry things for baby. Most diaper bags come with a changing pad though if you want some extra, the cover for the pack and play changing station are thin and easy to travel with. 
• Wetbag - If you're doing cloth diapers, you need a place to throw the dirty ones. Wet bags keep moisture and smell in and you can just unzip them and drop them in the wash with the diapers!

Feeding:

Breastfeeding makes all this a lot easier!

• Nursing scarf - Warmth and cover all in one!
• Nursing Bra - These are a convenience item well worth the money! (And Walmart sells them for cheap!)
• Nursing tank top - Cut the straps off an old camisole, leaving enough of the strap in front to loop it around and tack it back on the shirt. Now it can hook on the nursing bra and you didn't spend $40. 
• Nursing pads - Loving Moments are the best! I got some from Babies R Us that ... "fill up", making a mad dash for clean ones while nursing. Let me tell you, that's not easy. But these just keep absorbing and are excellent. 

Carrier:

• Seven sling - From the time baby can hold his head up, this is the easiest! Just throw it over your shoulder and drop him in! No origami required! (And usually you can find a coupon so you only pay for shipping! I love free!!)
• K'tan - For longer ventures or smaller babies, the K'tan is like a Moby wrap but with less origami! You can even do a DIY one with ease!
• Stroller - You can always go for a stroller instead but they take up a lot more trunk space.
• Carseat - It you're nomadic like us, you'll want to invest in a nice carseat that's super comfortable. We choose a convertible so that we're just laying down that money once and he should be able to use it until he's too old for a carseat!

So here are my bare bones recommendations! A few are options where you only need one but the rest are essential!

Tortillas don't freeze well - The Freezer Meal Adventure

Before my son James was born, I sat down and made 52 meals and froze them.
It was insane.
If you're thinking of undergoing such a task you might be interested in our process. If you're just interested in freezing meals, I'd skip down to the aftermath where I share a couple lessons learned, the most important of which is TORTILLAS DON'T FREEZE WELL.

Prepping:

So a lot of planning went into this.

First I picked out meals. Just searching Pinterest. I started looking for freezer meals specifically but then figured anything could be frozen so grabbed any recipe that seemed delicious.
Then I counted them up. 52 meals for 60 days. Waaaay too many! Most casseroles would take us a couple days to eat. Each soup recipe could feed an army. But, again, we were only here for 2 months and a normal stable family could afford some overflow into subsequent months.

VITAL PREP
The most important step was the shopping list. I made an excel document with column B as the grocery item. The following columns was a recipe each and I would type how many of a grocery item I needed. Then I would add up everything in column A. It wasn't the prettiest system in the world but I had a master shopping list. (Recipes vary on their use of quantity vs weight vs volume. This was a complication for sure!)

I printed off each recipe.
I separated out which recipes could have the chicken pre-cooked vs which ones had special seasonings or preparation.
Then I wrote in the margin the prep time vs the cook time for each item vs no cook. (So if something needed sauteed onions then mushrooms then add other soup ingredients then boil for 20 mins, I'd say it needed 10 minutes of prep before it could be left on its own) (No cook - Some casseroles required no cooking other than maybe chicken which could be precooked. Such items required no stove time which was nice.)
I separated out the soups.
And ordered everything by the amount of time they needed to cook.

Luckily, I had my mom, my sister, and my husband with me to help shop, so I tore the shopping list into thirds based on the type of food and gave out a list for produce, dry goods, and meat and dairy respectively. I flitted around helping each when they needed help deciphering, deducing, or deciding.
Three full grocery carts pulled into the checkout.
The groceries were $500. About $10 a recipe and *a lot* less per meal.

Cooking:

We started by cooking pounds and pounds of chicken. Most either needed to be cubed or shredded. My husband caught up on a lot of TV shredding chicken.
I had wanted to cut all the veggies before we started cooking so everything could just be grabbed and thrown in but that didn't turn out to be the most practical of decisions. And we cut as we went.

I picked a couple recipes that needed some time to simmer on the stove and got those underway while I turned to the recipes that were No Cook.
The goal was to finish as many recipes as possible both to keep up morale and to help clear the living room table of it's stock.

It took a while, and was much faster when my mother and sister were home helping, but all things considered, it went off without a hitch.

Aftermath:

As I stated, we made way too much food.
We should have bought smaller casserole dishes as each one supplied us with multiple meals and the constant reheating wasn't good for the quality.
They took FOREVER to unfreeze. We could lay them out the day before and they'd still be in the oven for hours. (Though we have reason to believe that oven wasn't the best.)
Soups were the best. They thawed much more quickly than the casseroles as they could be stirred and were very delicious.
Freezing flour tortillas in a casserole is a BAD IDEA! They degrade into mush. It's like eating raw dough. Don't do it. (Corn tortillas also degrade but it gives a tamale texture and doesn't trigger the gag reflex.) (Burritos are fine. It's the being submerged in wetness that kills them.)


It was so nice not to have to worry about cooking with a newborn. And living out in the country, not having to worry about making trips to the grocery store was also nice. It simplified life and I, a planner, loved the process!

The Parable of the Newborn's Needs

I know it's the most horrible thing in the world or whatever to be wistfully anticipating the next stage in my child's life instead of just enjoying this one.
But.
I can't wait until my kid can actually, like, love me.
I hear mommies talk about how their kid crawl to them for books, or cuddles, or milk or about how their kid spends "nursing time" stroking mommy's face and babbling incoherently, about how their kids reach out and love their mommies.
My kid, through no fault of his little 3 1/2 week old self, doesn't really indicate that he loves me. Or that I really even exist.
If he stops crying when I pick him up, it's because he found comfort and he's pleased about being comforted. If he stops crying to nurse, its because he's pleased to have food. If he stops crying after a diaper change, it's because he's pleased to have discomfort taken out of his life. The most I get is a brief moment of eye contact before they lose focus on me. He's pleased with the things I give him, but he doesn't seem to realize that it's me who gives it. That there's an entity whose heart swells every time I look at him. Who's taking the time to meet these needs. Instead, he fusses and cries until his grievances in life are gone.
One day, and I know it will come, he'll see me and love me. He'll learn to come to me when he needs something and will trust me to take care of those needs. He'll come to me when he doesn't need something too. He'll come to me just to cuddle. He'll come to me just to babble about the little things a baby spends his time worrying about. And I just can't wait to be loved by the person I love so very very much.

But as I shove the pacifier into my son's mouth for the umpteenth time, I can't help but wonder if God feels the same way about many of His children.