More Island Pictures

Saint Lawrence Island

Here we are- finally on Saint Lawrence Island! It's been two years that we've been hearing about and praying for the people of this island. There's roughly 1500 villagers living here, split between two towns.
In Gambell we were greeted at the airport by 5 or so ATV's with riders donning full snowgear. There's no terminal to speak of. We just jumped out of the plane and loaded our stuff onto the ATV's (locally called Hondas) and were whisked away to the church. It was a stormy time landing.
Cloudy most of the time, and blowing wind almost always, this is an interesting place. No trees, lots of ocean. We saw whales two days in a row. First time it was a bowhead whale, which doesn't show it's tail when it dives. THe next was beluga whale, which showed it's tail.
Everyone enjoys Squeakums. There's sickness going around our group, but it's doing a slow rotation, so we're not all out at the same time. That's good. We've met some amazing elders in the community with steadfast faith for generations and in the face of many sorrows. Often when we meet people, within our first conversation we hear their number of siblings and children and grandchildren, and also the number of them that have died. Usually the sea is part of the cause, storms, ice breaking through, boating accidents. Death is a big part of their lives, as odd as that sounds.

Aaaaaah, Maui.

Squeakums loved the aquarium, he was so excited running from exhibit to exhibit. It was pretty cool for us adults, too.

Beach was ok, but he was scared of the water! Too much, too loud, too dangerous. If Grammy was there to play in the sand with him, he was fine. But he didn't even like seeing mom and dad play in the water. We couldn't do that much anyway due to BearHunter's torn elbow ligament. So we had to work on Squeakums fear of the water after that. He didn't even want to take a bath. Today he overcame, as we eased him into the pool. He even tried to get in the pool himself...a new danger.

Luau was interesting, great pork and squash. Neat production about the legends and cultural history of Hawaii.

Grandpa and Grammy treated us to a night away. We drove the windy road to Hana while they watched Squeakums. We loved best the Oheo Gulch hike. We trekked through bamboo forest, up to 30 feet tall I'd guess. That was amazing.
Heading home too soon (tomorrow).

October changes

A picture is worth a thousand words. So I'll spare you the thousand words and keep it to a few.

Pictures are: new hairdo, picking potatoes, sad face, dad and baby, mom and baby.

In other news- We had our first snow already. And we started the homestudy process to qualify for adoption. We are hoping to pursue domestic and international adoption simultaneously. Hopefully one of them will work out. I wasn't nervous about the homestudy meeting. Perhaps because I'd met the guy before and I'm confident that we'll be great parents. There's nothing I'm afraid of being discovered that'll disqualify us.

Other exciting news - We were called by the church and asked if we wanted to rent the parsonage.d We've been praying about and looking into getting our own place, even buying something. It would have to be a God thing to even qualify for sufficient loans to buy. But in the meantime this gift drops down from heaven, all perfect gifts are from above. It's a two bedroom home that I've been in often. It's on the same church property as our YWAM base, where we live now. Pastor Dave is getting the monthly utility figures for us. We may have to rent out the loft to help cover the costs of it. I would so look forward to having a house, so I can invite people over for meals or to hangout, a way to meet visitors at church or people in the community.We are both excited about the prospects of living there. It'll be potentially a $500 a month increase in expenditures to live there. So we'll keep praying about it. Our support is not full yet, but we learn to live by what we have. Some months that means no spending money on anything extra. And we're okay with that. But Yahweh, Jehovah Jirah is a God of abundance! It is within his character to provide abundantly. Amen.

Diaper Story

So this is a funny incident. Squeakums, now 16 months old can sign to us when he has gone pooh in his diaper. We're hoping that develops to BEFORE he goes. Body language and facial expressions are also dead give aways that he's up to something in the diaper. On a recent occasion he was clearly pushing out a number two. I rushed to get him on the potty to train him that's where he's to go. I unfastened his cloth diaper cover and let it drop as I picked him up for the transer to the toilet. Unfortunately he stepped on his diaper in the meantime and how had a large clump of pooh stuck to his shoe. This clump proceeded to drop to the floor, thanks to gravity, while I was holding him on the potty. Next I needed to get his poohy shoes off which he was making footprints on the bathroom floor with. Keep him off the rug, toss the pooh into the toilet, keep him away from the dirty diaper, and clean him up. In needful situations like these, it's wonderful to know that BearHunter is a willing helper. So I called on BearHunter to take baby and clean him up while I finished rinsing pooh out of the soles of baby's shoes and cleaned up the bathroom. Everything cleaned up just fine. Life with a toddler. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

Fall Days

It's exciting that we're going to Maui in just a few weeks now. SO looking forward to a fun, HOT vacation. We'll do the drive to Hana and a few other tourist things. HOpefully rest a bunch.

Housesitting has been great. I love having the extra space and this afternoon I can sit here in a chair while baby plays around the living room, occupying himself and staying out of trouble mostly.

I read about toddler tantrums today. Our little guy hardly has them, and none in public yet. If he's frustrated he may lay down and do a couple of pounds with his fists, but then he's done. He loves being read to and likes the flip the pages in his cardboard books while we read them. His favorites are the Touch and Feel Farm and Miss Spider's New Car.

His vocab is increasing as is his sign language. But some signs that used to be clear he's changed! LIke cheese; instead of rubbing his hands together, he rubs his arm.

Finally we have some beautiful weather. The rain has been a daily damper this month. But it's been sunny and lovely fall colors a couple days this week. What a treat before the snow. It did frost this morning.

Our base is building a cabin out East End to help out a friend in town.

I started to lead a women's inductive bible study on Tuesday nights, just for 5 weeks. It's been fun so far, 5 ladies come.

Hockey camp went well, though we didn't have as many players as we had expected. We got the Alaska Aces to make an appearance which I'm sure the kids thought was pretty cool.

September Already

The pretty scenery is from a recent boat ride CalaLilly took to Halibut Cove with her massage employer and other employees- a staff treat.

YWAM is moving into a new room in the church facility. Which means we get to paint it new colors, replacing the children's room look it had before (bright blue, red...).

Baby is reading magazines now. He'll pick up a paper or book and start jabbering as though he's reading it. I suppose he's mimicking mom and dad who read books aloud to him or to each other.

Dog video

I keep trying video again. Here's a cute snippet of baby with a puppy. He loves animals. And we're trying to teach him to pet gently- for his own safety. And to pet people gently too, for that matter.

He's so full of curiosity and simple joy. Happy to play with or do the simplest things. He likes to snuggle up against us or on us in bed. Often he comes over to my head turns around and tries to sit on me. It's fun.

We are pursuing adoption right now. Just starting the process, but we've done hours of research and been praying about it off and on for a couple years. We're open to domestic or international, but probably will try international first.

Summer pictures

You know Squeakums and BearHunter. The other four young people next to Squeakums is the team from California that just finished their mission trip to Alaska with us. They served us and with us the last two weeks and were a welcome encouragement. They taught us a powerful skit to music "everything" by lighthouse...check it out on youtube, it's amazing. And they helped with our vegetable gardening, community service,a nd joined us for our High Praise and Warfare and intensive Bible study that we're preparing for a secondary YWAM school here.

Squeakums was rock wall climbing quite well actually. He's very physically capable - not too surprising considering his parents. And last weekend we took a nice 3 mile hike with him in a borrowed backpack to Reuben Call Memorial. The view is beautiful from up there

More sign language

Squeakums twirls in circles! It takes him about 5 seconds for each revolution. Not sure where he picked that up.

He now signs "eat/food." He loves drinking his juice - which is at least half water. And his favorite blanket is a pale yellow, very soft one. If he's thrown it overboard out of his crib while crying, then he wont' be able to go to sleep until he gets it back. Luckily he only throws it over once it at all, each night.

The bear hide on our bed (!!!!!) captures baby's interest. We try to teach him to pet it, so he interacts well with dogs. He actually calls it "Dooh" thinking it's a dog. He loves animals, especially dogs. And actually pets them pretty well, but we are hovering over him to make sure everyone is safe.

Baby communication

Squeakums is blossoming with his sign language. He started doing “please” within the last two weeks (his version is both hands slapping on his chest accompanied by an exuberant cry). “Potty” is the new sign he started this week (one fist waving an ASL ‘T’ for toilet). He’s also showing interest in learning how to get himself on and off his little potty. We’re excited about that since the elimination communication has not worked as well as we, or rather I, (mom) had hoped. He rarely ever goes in the potty anymore, just in his diapers, even though we try to offer it to him. Yes, we’re still in cloth diapers except at night and occasionally for naps when we expect a poop. So his now signing “potty” and pointing to it and being happy to sit on it, though briefly, is great news.

He discovered a bongo type drum on the stage this week as well. Now whenever he walks into the lounge, he beelines for the drum and starts beating on it, as if he knows what he’s doing! His version of dancing is bouncing up and down, sometimes bending at the knee, and sometimes going on tippy toes. It’s sweet. Every day brings so much joy with him. He loves to be tickled and surprised and play peek-a-boo with blankets. He also loves to watch mommy and daddy tickle eachother and laugh, he joins in quickly with big laughter.

Then tonight he started saying “nana’ for banana…which he loves to eat! Dad gave him a while banana this weekend at family camp and he chomped his way through the whole thing before Dad realized what was happening. Not eating the peel of course. However, he bowel movements have reaped the consequences. Bananas cause constipation in babies, FYI.

Other words he’s saying:
MORE he says like “noah”
DAD is “dah”
HAT is “t”

Hawaii coming up

Squeakums has been mastering so much since he turned one. Just yesterday he said the word "more" while signing it, and did this twice! he also repeated the word "shoe" after me, but only did that once. We've been working so hard at encouraging him to sign "please." But I haven't seen it yet. Some of our lady friends claim he does it with them.

Because he's one he's allowed to drink cow's milk. So I started to finish weaning him by replacing his bedtime nursing with a bottle of cow's milk. We also started giving him some milk at meals. HOWEVER...he has since stopped napping so well and going to bed. Instead he'll stay awake and cry for up to an hour off and on. We switched to lactose free milk, which I drink, and he improved some. Then yesterday we tried only breastmilk and he went immediately back to his good nap habits, which means going to sleep after only a few minutes of crying if any. I'm not sure what this means for the future. Maybe we'll try the milk again in a month or so when his digestive system is perhaps more ready for it. Our friends here had one son who was similar, never liking milk. They opted to go straight to water instead. I was looking forward to the freedom of not needing to nurse him 5 times a day...and actually get away for a day. Oh well, that's on hold for awhile.

Looks like we'll be going to Hawaii this fall!!!!! I had been convincing BearHunter this winter that Hawaii would be a nice vacation spot sometime. (He's not keen on beaches, preferring jungles anytime). We talked with enough travellers to feel we would enjoy a trip there together. So this spring I prayed specifically asking God to let us go to Hawaii. You've got to be specific in your prayers and pray for what you want. About a month ago my dad calls to OFFER us a week at a cohort's timeshare in Hawaii! Hmmm. Amazing. But how will we find a trusted babysitter while there, so we can go out in the evening or do water play, etc? Well, grandparents offered to come be babysitters! So that's it. We have a companion ticket on the airlines, which will save us one fare.

So we'll be in Maui this October. If you're gonna be there too, let us know!

My First Bear

On May 30, 2008, I stepped off the narrow trail and gazed for miles. A glacier flowed between mountains, pointing to a lake feeding a winding river. I leaned the borrowed .30-06 rifle against my leg, and meticulously marked the spot on my GPS.

A slight thump snapped my head up. Eight yards away, a black bear had materialized on my trail ambling obliviously away. My heart choked my throat and suddenly I viewed him through the riflescope. I’d been advised to not shoot the first bear I saw because there’d be plenty. But, we had seen one bear when two buddies and I arrived by boat four hours earlier.
I lowered the rifle. Would I find a larger one?

Now fifteen yards distant, the lumbering animal and would soon be out of sight! The rifle came into position. I aimed below the head and pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

All chattering of internal questions ceased with the explosion. The bear rolled from sight. I remained frozen. I had just fulfilled a dream!

But what if he wasn’t dead? I felt silly with the unloaded gun in my hands. I quickly chambered another round, but terror already gripped me. I took a few tentative steps, far enough to see a furry black body blocking the trail. How long does one wait to check out an animal bowled over by a bullet?

Twenty minutes passed before I bolstered a wobbly form of courage.

I moved slowly to within a few yards of the beast, but could not force myself closer. I saw no trace of the wound. I waited for him to leap up, shake off the stunning blow, and shred me. The rifle felt way too long—surely he’d just bat it aside. I set it down and pulled out my hand-cannon, a .454 revolver.

I kicked the body and nearly fired when it jiggled.

Finally convinced of his demise, I reached down, but there was no way I could move what seemed to be a 300-pound beast. And I knew little of gutting big animals. I left to find my friends.

We spent the rest of the day gutting, skinning, butchering, and hauling. We tossed the bones in the woods.

I arrived home to discover I was required to not only pack out the meat and hide, but also the skull. I groaned. Without it, I would face a hefty fine (amount determined by a judge).

Six days passed before I scrounged up a ride across the bay. I hiked in alone and went directly to the site of the bones. Nothing remained. Another bear (as evidenced by ample bear scat in the area) had feasted on them.

I prayed and searched. After twenty minutes of tedious eye-straining, I found one leg bone. I called Martina and she and others prayed.

A solid hour of crawling and circling melted my determination. The brush and thorns and trees kept me from any semblance of a methodical search and I simply wandered. I prayed again and looked left. There sat the cranial treasure. I scrambled to it and clutched it as though it might vanish.

The next morning, as I was about to pack up and start the hike to the trailhead for my scheduled pickup, my cell phone rang. A gruff State Park official asked if I’d killed a bear. My answer precipitated the firing of a dozen questions. My gut-pile, he informed me, was left too close to a trail.

Would this adventure never end?

Later, I received a $225 citation. But, I happily learned, I could go to court and probably get the fine reduced to community service.

When I showed the hide and skull to Fish and Game for the mandatory documentation, the biologist measured the length and width of the skull, totaling it to nineteen inches.

“Anything,” he said, “over eighteen inches is classified as a large bear.”

I shot my first big game animal—in the butt! The bullet traveled through his body and out his shoulder. I shall try to tan the hide myself.

Baby Birthday

This week has been full of fun events. Squeakums both turned one and started walking. Now he walks frequently and quite far, but also plops down and crawls to reach his destination. On his birthday the YWAM base had cookies and ice cream for everyone. He ate some with his spoon and fingers, even pieces of cookie. A few people pitched in for some baby gifts, which was neat. They gave him a little rubbery ball and a funny cardboard book.

The greenhouse is up and growing tomato plants very well, seeing some yellow blossoms now. Our outdoor veggie gardens are looking less prolific but not bad. We are thankful for an anonymous donation of really good soil which we were able to make do by mixing it with topsoil for our four beds. I have so much to learn. Put up a wind barrier today, per suggestion by a local...after I inquired why all my outdoor starts look like they are dying. She also suggested covering the plants at night because it's still in the 40's at night, too cold for them. I'm so grateful to be learning all this gardening advice. Someday when we have our own plot of ground or are living in a village somewhere I can at least have some basics down. Another friend taught me how to 'prune' my lettuce starts and harvest them as they grow, hopefully starting next month. I really enjoy working with the plants. I've been hitting garage sales for cheap garden supplies, since I will be buying it out of my own pocket.

BearHunter got his bear! He tells me he will write the tale himself and post it later. Right now he's hurriedly trying to treat the skin so he can save it. Apparently it's an arduous process and few people have any experience with bear hides, they are notoriously hard to tan. But too expensive to have a professional do it, at least $55 per square foot!

Not walking quite yet

I'm alwasy stunned how fast time goes by. Squeakums took a couple of steps again today, but that was his first time in weeks. He doesn't seem eager to walk on his own. He can play and respond more to games like peek-a-boo or passing the ball back and forth. When he really wants to get somewhere fast, he ducks his head down while crawling...we think it's to decrease wind resistance! He also holds out to us small items that his picks up off the floor (a tiny piece of lint or a fallen cheerio, etc). He's still the sweetest thing around.

A new thing he's started doing, is laying his head down for a few seconds, on the floor or on a blanket, or on the bed (as in this picture).

His menu now includes new foods: tuna, monterey jack cheese, puffy stars, broccoli, and yam ALL by hand.

I, CallaLily, have devoted herself to raising up a greenhouse. I and another staffer took on this project with the director's permission, but with no budget. So we began asking local businesses for donations. The first coupe of places responded positively and fast. So we were thrilled. But then the responses have come slower and slower. So we have the fixings for a greenhouse-lumber and plastic sheeting, which BearHunter has been putting together. But we don't have the soil for the raised beds yet. A commercial greenhouse is offering herb and vegetable starts. So it's all exciting to see what we can accomplish without spending a single dollar. We'll see how God provides for the soil.

We parted with a few staff this week to do a sheetrock floating trip to Ouzinkie. We are still working on the house project there. This time a few extra workers from Homer joined them.

The other picture is of a local small business (cafe) that we helped out with some paintwork. He's a new owner and totally changed the colors inside and out of the building. They did a great paint job!

Two steps

Since we've been home baby's started standing for long periods on his own, meaning 15-20 seconds. Then Squeakums took his first steps yesterday, two of 'em during community worship time. I, mom, was sitting on the floor and he came crawling over to me, stood up in front of me, leaning on my legs, then with his arms out to me walked two steps toward me for a hug. He has mastered going down the stairs on his own, and has been eager to do it repeatedly today. Though he has taken one backwards tumble in the attempts. He recovers almost immediately from most falls. Next he has started climbing ladders!

With his top and bottom two teeth in, he is able to chew more solid foods. He has enjoyed pieces of cheese, rice, peas, shredded halibut, crackers, and cheerios by hand and also his fruit bag (peaches and apples in it so far).

Trip to California

Whoah, we're way overdue for a post. Sorry friends. I've been in California for the last two weeks helping my sister with her newborn baby girl. Squeakums has a cousin now! We were both at the hospital during the birth. But due to flu concerns Squeakums was too young to be in the actual room until the last day. So we slept in the waiting room, what an adventure with a ten month old. But we were glad to be in California for the birth, which happened only because my sister delivered over a week late. We also were able to zip over to my in-laws to visit the other aunt and grandparents for the weekend.
Many people we encounter in our travels remark how cute our baby is and what beautiful eyes he has. He is a great traveler, a very happy baby (in general).
Now that we're home again we're re-establishing his sleeping through the night, which went out the window for most of the trip. Without dad's support and not wanting to wake up our hosts it's easier to just nurse him through the night. We loved visisting family and seeing some friends at church, but it's good to be back in Alaska in our own room.

Anniversary Surprise

What an amazing surprise...for our anniversary (the weekend prior) BearHunter planned a weekend away! I was totally blown away, for one, that he pulled all the details together and secondly, that I had no clue.
Friday started out with breakfast in bed, chocolate chip pancakes reminding me of our engagement. Then he casually suggest we go on a walk for a "quiet time" together. That sounded good so I agreed. Then came the blindfold. We drove to a nearby B&B, owned by our friends, and he quietly led me down the steps to the door. "I've kidnapped you for the weekend" he whispers. I was gleefully astonished. He cleared my schedule as much as possible, God cleared the rest of it. We found a gift certificate for a dinner date in the room, and a special cake in the refrigerator. Wow, what a suprise blessing.
Squeakums is with us, though our host babysat him last night for while and tonight another friend will watch him while we go out for our dinner date. We've enjoyed the space to let him play on the floor while we sit on a couch or at a table nearby at this B&B. We don't have the luxury of much personal space where we live, so this is wonderful. He didn't sleep too well, but hopefully tonight that will be better. He has a bit of a stuffy nose, a possible cold or teething, waiting on tooth number three. He's 9 months old now, crawls well, climbs stairs, stands up and sits down. He's discovered a high pitched voice, in addition to his usual rumblings and we love listening to his self talk.

Ouzinkie

Our first trip to a native village finally happened! Our school did a short trip to the small island of Ouzinkie, near Kodiak. Before taking the tiny boat to our destination, we practiced putting on red lifesuits. If you have to abandon ship, these increase your chance of survival in cold water. It was pretty funny to see everyone struggle to get into these rubbery suits.

Squeakums did amazingly well on the overnight ferry to Kodiak, and sleeping in a new location. We brought a playpen to use as a crib, and threw some extra sheetrock under it for support.

Our primary work on Ouzinkie was to put insulation into a Baptist missionary home. We also began building relationships with people in the community. They call themselves Aleutiq, and are of Russian descent if I understand correctly.

We are enjoying the camaraderie with the new set of students. It will be sad to see them leave for outreach without us in April.

Big Smiles

Proud to be American

Some fun pictures we took this week:
Got a great angle of the eagles now swarming to The Spit here in Homer, in front of a well used American flag. I'm proud of that shot. The family in front of the local beauty. Finally, sweet Squeakums squeezing into daddy's big boots, his Mucks.