UGH

this week has been trying. i have a cold. i feel fat and miserable and can't get comfortable. work has been busy. bill and i have had some miscommunication. my hair froze walking into work on tuesday. my two days off flew by without getting much done. ugh is all i can say. i have had a terrible horrible no good very bad week.

bill and i leave for a week in england tomorrow. he is doing some collaboration work with a doctor at Cambridge. i am excited for the week together and for the time i'll have alone when he is working. we will be able to sight see some and bill has never been to england. we will spend some time with my friend Lizzie and her husband Phil whose wedding i went to in October in London. i am even excited for the long flight just to be together the two of us. i am excited for inflight movies. i am going unplugged; no computer, no email, no phone. i am taking like 10 books and plan to drink tea. i plan to have a heart to heart with myself about my crabass attitude and its need for adjustment especially in my last trimester.

please pray that we have a restful, refreshing trip together we need it. (don't worry about my blog, i'll keep good notes to update it when i get back so you won't miss a moment) :-)

Choosing to put on love

I was going to blog all about my irritation with husband over the past few days who has, in my opinion, not taken good care of his 7th month prego wife. I have a list of grievances. I was going to make it really sarcastic and funny too to entertain all of you. But then in church today I heard a convicting sermon from Colossians about 'bearing with one another' and about choosing to 'put on love' especially in our closest relationships which cause us, at times, the most irritation. So I am making a conscious choice today to put on love (hope he appreciates it :-) ).

Timbits

I live in the land with no donuts. No Dunkin Donuts. Certainly no Tim Horton donuts. Just some crappy Krispy Cremes which arrive to the gas station already a day old. When I was a kid and we traveled through southern Canada we would stop at Tim Hortons (the Canadian version of Dunkin Donuts) to get my dad a coffee and we would get timbits (the Canadian version of the donut hole). I love Tim Hortons and I lament living in a land with no donuts. Luckily for me are there not only a bunch of Dunkin Donuts here in NY at my folks but Tim Hortons has come to America. Today we stopped, I drolled from like 10 minutes at the donut case and then got some chocolate glazed timbits. They were purely delightful.

Madison took this picture of me with my decaf Tim Hortons coffee and my sweet little box of timbits. Yum!

To my big brother, David, the most overlooked guy in town

We were at my brother David's house this afternoon for the game and dinner. His wife, Melissa, is an amazing chef and made quite a spread of food. During half time, she had her own cooking show and taught us how to make fresh mozzarella cheese. David went on my blog and read the post about the shower and started to get all whiny that I mentioned Brian coming in from NYC and not him being around making the day as a family so special. "You never blog about me" he laments. He was finding something else to complain about seeing as how the Eagles couldn't win the freakin' game. See David lives in town so he thinks he is the most overlooked guy around. No one throws David a party for coming home-- he's no prodigal son. He's the eldest son who stayed home and mows my folks lawn (he charges them by the way). David is the one who picks my folks up at the airport and keeps their car in his driveway when they are out of town (not to mention he drives it while they are gone because he likes it better than his car- he probably returns it on empty too). So Dave thinks he gets the short end of the stick. I told David I'd blog an entry all about him.

We left our shoes out in their cold little entryway tonight so when we left our feet were freezing. Melissa said, "I told David to bring them in but he refused". I said, "I'll blog about that so watch out what you complain about". Last night at my folks, I really wanted to go out and get a Diet Coke so David offered to drive me in my folk's Mercury Mountaineer (I told you he likes that car). So he grabs the keys and out to the driveway we go in the cold to get prego some poison (but it tastes soooooooo good). We quickly realize he grabbed the wrong keys. After a few chilly moments of 'you go' 'no you go' 'i'm not going' I come up with the brilliant plan to call my dad on our cell phone and have him bring the keys out. We start hysterically laughing that our plan is actually working and out from the garage comes my dad with the other set of keys. At the grocery store, David can't figure out how to turn off the lights and then he can't figure out how to realize the parking brake (it is unclear why my folks entrust their car to him for days on end). As I typed that story, I realized it was really only funny if you were there.

But truthfully, my other brother, Brian, and I appreciate David being so close to my folks to keep an eye on them and the house. It would be a lot harder to be so far from home if there wasn't a sibling so close. Sure, he charges my folks to mow their lawn and probably eats all of their food and I'm sure he steals things from their house that he likes when they aren't looking but he's a great guy and I love him dearly. So take that, David, a blog entry all about you.

Pictures from our fun day.

Here is a collection of pictures from my shower and the day with my family.

My mom set out an amazing spread of food. I don't think I really am as big as this picture; I blame it on the camera lens for making me look so darn wide.

Nancy is the Younglife Admin in Syracuse who kept me sane during my internship here; her daughter Annette was one of my brother's students and a high school kid when I was a YL leader. It was great to see them both.

Random candid shot of folks having fun. These gals represent Young Life kids turned adults, friends that were leaders and in the background, Diana Emhoff, who is the matriarch of a great family whose kids I grew up with.

I got an extra action figure of pregnant Padme (Luke and Leia's mom) years ago and saved it for the cake at my baby shower. My mom kept calling her Leia and I kept correcting her. She made the perfect addition to my cake.I can't believe my niece Madison is 10 already.

My mom wanted to play the shower game "guess how fat the pregnant girl is?" and I put my foot down saying NO GAMES. She, of course, only half listened and we play two benign games.... guess the babyfood flavor (no tasting, no smelling, just looking) and guess how many M&Ms are in the bottle. Very well done Mom on the whole day... great food, good games, great company and tons of loot for Lucas and Me!

We also celebrated my dad's birthday which is on 2/2 with another cake. We have like 1000 slides of all of our childhood pictures. My brothers and I want them converted to discs so we can have them/reproduce them. I'm dying to find the picture of my eldest brother David who climbed over the side of the Grand Canyon and said, "Help mom I'm falling" Once my mom's heart started beating again and my dad finished 'talking through his teeth' at David, they realized he was safe and took a great picture. Anyway we bought my dad a slide converter so he can begin working on storing our childhood memory on some type of usable 21st century media.

Me and my brothers... David is on the L and Brian is on the R

With David's wife Melissa, their daughter Madison and, of course, Bill. Brian's wife Michelle and his daughter Lauren didn't make the trip.

More than my baby shower and celebrating her husband's birthday, my mom was in heaven having all her kids home at the same time. We haven't all been together since summer 2006 and haven't been together at my folks house since before that.

Here is some pictures of the clothes Lucas got. He has tons of the cutest clothes ever. Bet he can't wait to pee, poop, spit up and vomit on them.

An overall picture of the loot.

It was a great great great day!

Loot for Lucas

My mom threw the most amazing baby shower today for me. My brother who lives in NYC (who wasn't even really invited to the shower because he's a boy) came up which was so fun. It was the first time my brothers and I have been together in over 2 years. We took plenty of family pictures. And the shower...wow! Lucas cleaned up. He got a ton of awesome loot- clothes, toys, blankets. We have a bunch of pictures, but my dad has to help me download them from my mom's camera. I'll post them later. It was such a great day to have my brothers here along with almost 2 dozen women who have meant so much to me and my mom over the years. It was just delightful to have them all in the same room. Pictures to come tomorrow. 

Chance Encounters

So one of my closest friends in college was Janna. We were RAs together. After college we lost touch out of no faults of our own just time and distance and busy lives. I always wondered where she ended up. Two spring breaks ago while on a long layover in Chicago, we took the kids into the Field Museum for the day rather than sitting in O'Hare. When we got our food in the bustling food court for a quick lunch, I walked right into Janna who was there with her family. Her eldest son woke up that day and said he wanted to see the dinosaurs so off to the Field Museum they went. It was so random and fun to run into her all these years after college. So we got on Facebook and we started to just chat every now and then. Last summer when we went to Tybee Island in Georgia, I got a note from Janna that they were moving there the day after we left. So my mom and I scoped out their new house and left a fun 'welcome home' gift in her mailbox. Anyway long story, but yesterday in O'Hare Bill and I were walking to Terminal C and the gal in front of me on the walking sidewalk looked a lot like Janna. Her hair, her build, her walk. There is no way she is in Chicago, I thought. She still works for her Chicago company from Savannah and comes up once a month for meetings but what are the odds. I am telling Bill a story and start to talk a bit louder knowing that if it is Janna she will recongize my voice and turn around. By golly it was her. Our next flights were leaving from gates right next to each other so we got to sit, have a bite to eat and catch up. Another random chance encounter with Janna. It was a delightful way to spend our layover. 

Ready for the trip

So there is this box sitting on our kitchen table. It was a box that my mom sent Gabby's Christmas present in. What's this box here for? I ask Bill. It has football men in it, he answers. Now most of you know that Bill plays electric football which is this game from the 80s with little plastic men on these stands that move by vibrating around. Bill sets up plays and has this entire way to figuring out which team wins. The table/field currently resides in our living room. All the teams live in these giant boxes with small drawers most like meant for screws/nuts/bolts/fishing lures. It is totally geek to the core but a past time that he enjoys, keeps him at home with me and out of trouble. When I first asked what the football men were doing in the box, he said they were in the hospital. (see thanksgiving post about Bill as a boy nursing back to health his plastic mouse friend named Boxer who had an unfortunate parachuting accident). But then he said, no they are not in the hospital, they are packed and ready to go to your folks this weekend so I can paint them. I got him some plain colored teams for his birthday and he is painting them to look like college teams. We will be traveling to New York with the Texas Longhorns-to-be in a box. Hook em horns!

You open the box and it has a picture from Sports Illustrated of the jersey he is trying to recreate.
Then you take the piece of foam out and find the team in their traveling compartments he cut out of foam. I said why does everyone get a private place and not those 4 on the left? Those are for practice painting, Bill said. Guess they won't make the team.

He thinks I am always making fun of him and his electric football, but I find it most endearing and hopes he teaches Lucas about imagination and care for all toys big and small.

Oh I had to get a picture of him this morning because I just really like his outfit and I think he's cute.

14 weeks to go

Again I am at a loss of words to describe how I feel all distorted like this. I am now counting down the weeks.

Where did she come from?

Who is this girl and why is she in my kitchen? I came home for work yesterday and this is the outfit Gabby had on. I had to take a picture. It was 8 pm and she was wearing these sweet shades inside. Has on her cool but fake Ugg boots and looks like she should be walking in Hollywood being stalked by the paparazzi. She did say in her defense that the sunglasses were her friend Katherine's and she didn't want to break them so she thought the safest place for them was on her head. That does seem logical. I think she was rather proud of her 'cool outfit' because she rarely lets me take her picture and she actually posed for this one.

Montage from Mazatlan

We had to sort and count vitamins into month's supplies which we did in the hotel lobby the night before our first clinic. Strangely this large table in the lobby disappeared after we did this. I wonder if it was not meant to be used in this capacity :-) It was so much easier to get this done with the help for 25 other folks. Last time there were just 4 of us.
Here is a group shot from Church on Sunday.
Back row... Cassie Wassink, Kiwi Georgia, Kiwi Rosa, Kiwi James (Dad), Bill, Me, Elizabeth, Marya Outterson (family from Boston)
Middle row... Josh Wassink, Tom Wassink with Adey Wassink whose arm is around Abby Outterson, Kiwi Ben, Kiwi Anna (Mom), Joe Wassink, Luke Wassink, Mariel and Benjamin Bryden (med students) and Kevin Outterson
Front row: Kiwi Joe, Caleb Wassink, Mim Winn, Meredith Outterson, Derek (recent Iowa grad) and Josh Fischer aka Fish (med student) missing Katie Outterson who was a bit under the weather
Bill and I getting coffee after church
Elizabeth and I and if you look closely you can see Lucas' distortion of my body
Kevin with the help of Kiwi Rosa explaining medication dosing to a patient at Dona Chonita

Fish with the help of Ben who speaks the best Spanish seeing a patient in Dona Chonita

Mariel and Mim checking patients in at triage

Bill and I taking a break from seeing patients. You don't have to look too hard to see Lucas in this picture. I'm getting big.

Elizabeth and I on her last night

Bill and I like to be adorable and wear matching Hawkeye gear. Did I mention that Iowa was the only Big 10 team to win its Bowl game? Go HAWKS!

Seeing a patient at Universo with Dave (missionary who lives in Mazatlan full time) helping me translate

Kiwi James in the far back outside the mobile Sunday school doing balloon animals

Above is the kids running the mobile kitchen with Josh at the hot grill

Kiwi James in balloon animal making action

Quote of the trip unrelated to Mexico, medicine or God from Fish:

while watching this amazing street artist do amazing paintings with spray paint and fire, "I have been in college for almost 12 years and I can't really do anything."

Kiwi highlight- anytime we could get the Kiwis to say they liked something because they would say that was 'quite good' which doesn't read well but in their accent is super fun to hear. Bill would coax it out of mainly Georgia and Rosa whenever he could.

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.

Mazatlan Update- what day is it?

I only know it is Sunday because we went to church today. Otherwise the days mix together here. Yesterday we had a full really long day at a colonia called Madero. On Saturday mornings they have what is called a 'feeding center' and local kids come for fun, games, songs, sunday school type lesson and a hot meal. Our team prepared the hot meal for about 200 kids, the ladies in our group did a Bible study for moms during the kid time and at about 1 pm we started our clinic. I have been too tired to count papers but I think we saw at least 100 people. It was such a great day. Our team has kinda of 'split' into two groups- we have three large families, Wassinks 7, Outersons 5 and Legets 6 which make our team kind like having a youth group around with all their kids and then there is Bill and I and three other singles who came with us. It has been hard to get time together all of us but nonetheless it has been really great to have so many people to help in the clinic and to keep the kids entertained. James Leget (dad from New Zealand) is a trooper always playing some game with the kids in the colonias and the kids on our trip. He is an amazing balloon animal maker and so far has taught our kids touch rubgy on the beach. He was a professional rugby player in his earlier days. He hopes to teach us all cricket by the time we leave. Their family has been a hugh asset to our team.

Church today was good. Fred taught about not getting weary and continuing to serve and fight for what we know God wants to do down here and in our lives. It was helpful for Bill and I as now on our 8th trip we are getting a bit weary. Fred talked about how we may not see the fruit of our labor for years or even in our lifetime but that doesn't mean there will not be fruit. It was a powerful reminder for Bill and I today.

One of my old YL friends, Sydney Boone Gaylord- mother of 3, just got diagnosed with a brain tumor. She is getting great care at Duke and had a biopsy last week. Right now they believe it is malignant and non operatable due to its location. I got this news from a mutual friend just the other day. Today in church one of the verse Fred used was 2 Cor 4:16-18. Sydney must have brought up this verse while at Lake Champion where we were on the laundry crew together one summer because I had it highlighted in my Bible with her name next to it. It is a powerful reminder of what to really hold on to and my prayer for Sydney and her family and for me in my weariness.

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal."

Thanks Sydney for sharing those words with me over 15 years ago. We are praying for you and knows God will continue His mighty work in your life.

Mazatlan Update

Yesterday was New Years Day so as a holiday here we did not work. Bill and I and two other guys from our group went to our friends, Kyle and Ellen's, to watch the Outback bowl which Kyle gets streaming through his parents cable from Champaign Ill. He somehow streams it through the internet to his TV. Their internet connection was moving slow and the game was choppy and at times made it feel like you had macular degeneration and couldn't focus but nonetheless it was fabulous. Kyle made awesome homemade fresh pico de gallo and Ellen spoiled us with pumpkin bread and fresh brownies in their toaster oven. Their generosity to feed us while letting us watch the game was amazing and made the four of us feel like we had won a reward on Survivor. As their cable is streaming from Champaign Ill, we saw a few Menards commercials and J Leman advertise for a car dealer which made us feel closer to home :-)

Today was our first day at clinic. We were at Valles; the day started slow but we ended up seeing about 90 patients. Half of our team, mainly the kids, went to paint at a different colonia and they did an amazing job. The stories I heard and the pictures I saw were awesome. Apparently no one grumbled and they got a lot more done than even the church done here expected. It was great to hear their stories when we got back together tonight. The medical clinic ran relatively smoothly so that was good. I'm really tired as are the rest of us. Tomorrow we have a long day at another colonia as we will be helping feed the kids in the morning and then having clinic all afternoon. I'll try to blog more tomorrow night.

Bill and I can't believe Ol Miss beat Texas Tech which proves my theory that I think the Big 12 South is all about high power offense... they are like the NBA of college football. Also I can't believe Utah is going to beat pretty boy John Parker Wilson and Alabama. Utah should be playing for the National Championship Game next week. The BSC sucks and I hope our new president, Barack Obama, can make a change to the playoff system which actually works. I am excited to watch Texas kick the crap out of Ohio State on Monday and can't wait to hear the analysts talk about how weak the Big 10 is all the while singing the praises of the Hawkeyes, the only Big 10 team to win their bowl game. Go Hawks!