Home at last

The last couple of days in Mazatlan were filled to the brim. Monday we had our 'day off'. Bill and I slept in, enjoyed a leisurely afternoon and had dinner with our dear missionary friends, Kyle, Ellen and their baby Ethan. Bill played with Ethan all dinner and right before he fell asleep that night, he said 'I love that little boy. I just want to hold him and squeeze him. Makes me excited to have a baby'... good thing because Lucas is getting bigger as I'm getting fatter and he is on his way. We did go to Walmart after supper on Monday to buy some more meds that we were out of and we bought Lucas a pack-n-play. The exchange rate is so fantastic there that we thought we'd buy a pack-n-play to leave in Mexico and not have to drag it with us every time. Kyle and Ellen will store it and use it probably too while we are gone. It was fun to buy Lucas his first piece of furniture and it really cemented in my mind how 'real' all of this is. We will have a baby soon and he will grow up in the midst of our ministry in Mexico.


Tuesday we had clinic at Kyle and Ellen's colonia, Dona Chonita. It went well. The building has no walls so it was dusty and windy and actually a bit chilly (if it is ok to complain about being cold while in Mexico). We had the mobile kitchen and mobile Sunday school come out with us so it was a busy day for our team. We saw 88 patients. Tuesday night was Elizabeth's last night so we went out for dinner and played some cards.

Wednesday was our last day at clinic. Elizabeth did leave for the airport by taxi after breakfast and it was sad to see her go. We had such a fun time hanging out and she was such a HUGE asset to our clinics. We had clinic that day at Universo which is right next to another colonia named Loma Bonita so it was basically like seeing two colonias in one day and it felt like it because we saw over 130 patients. It was a really long tiring day. We did have the mobile kitchen which our teenage team members ran mostly and had the mobile Sunday school out there as well. When our last patient left for the day and we were all packed it, we all exhaled a giant sigh of relief. We had done it. We were finished.

Kiwi Joe (which we called him to distinguish him from the Joe we brought with us) had a birthday on Thursday, the day we were leaving so we had a surprise party for him Wednesday night complete with yummy Mexican cakes and two pinatas. It was fun to be together as a whole team (minus Elizabeth :-( ) to celebrate not only Kiwi Joe but our entire experience together. God showed up and did amazing things in our lives and in our outreach. Though typing this being back at home with a cold and over tired, I can truly say there is no other way I would have wanted to spend my last week. It was the biggest team I had ever taken/lead and the logistics leading up to were multiple but the entire week went so smoothly and the team did so amazing.

We were blessed a thousand times over to have the Legat family from New Zealand with us, James, Anna and their four kids, Georgia, Rosa, Ben and Joe. They jumped right in, worked so so so hard, never complained and were up for anything. James preached at one of the colonia churches on Sunday night which was the first time he had ever done something like that. He did fantastic.

We had no trouble with our flights but landed to almost blizzard like conditions south of Minneapolis on Thursday night. Bill did hero-worship driving getting us home safely. Our normal 4 hour drive took almost 7 but we arrived home before 6 am on Friday morning. I slept almost the entire time which was good because the conditions were so bad I would have been freaked out. Bill had clinic Friday morning which he did on like 2 hours of sleep but he did come home and sleep all the rest of the day. We are unpacked with mounds of laundry to do. Now all we need to do is take our Christmas decorations down :-)

I did put a bunch of pictures in the next posting showing what we did all week. I am already looking forward to the next time I go. Bill will go alone with a team in May and then we'll go together again with Lucas in September. I can't wait to have my little boy grow up among this ministry and to enjoy his time in Mazatlan as much as his parents do.