No Rest for the Weary

This will be short and sweet as I've run out of words (as I've heard before :) It appears that although the parasites are gone... we now have a type of amoeba that has taken up residence in the precious body of my sweet boy. We started medicine today and will continue it for 10 days trying to get rid of the ugly bug... but my heart is hurting, my spirit is weak, and I feel under attack. I know many say we as Christians should take as a compliment, that Satan sees us as enough of a threat to attack. But I can tell you I'm a little to weary to feel complimented, just angry, irritated, and alot of other yucky emotions right now... praying they will go away soon... so thankful that aside from a being fussy, Nathan's pretty much himself... I'm just feeling as his mommy, and the caretaker of this home, a little violated. And though I know the word violated is a strong word, it puts into words perfectly how I am feeling right now... I do everything I humanly know to do to keep our home sanitary despite living in a city that's not always "clean". And so to have this continue to happen to Nathan just makes me feel lousy, like I'm letting him down as his mommy. I'm so sorry for the "yuckies" that have been voiced here, but mission work, like life, is full of ups and downs. I sure am ready for some of the ups to start coming our way. Thank you for being a listening ear, and a prayer support!

(The emotions and ideas voiced in this post are in no way a reflection of how Nathan is doing :) ... aside from the slightly increased fussiness, majorly increased number of dirty diapers, and some discomfort in his tummy, he's really doing well... so know that he's going to survive... and have fun doing it, I just needed to voice some frustrations and am thankful for friends and family who read and have given me a place to voice frustrations when I need to! Thank you!)

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was beautiful, sunny and cool here in Cochabamba! It was a crazy morning around the Bull house, trying to make it out the door on time (which for those who know me well enough... know is an almost impossible task). But we did finally make it to church and were blessed to have close to 50 people in attendance this morning to worship our Lord and celebrate the resurrection of His son! The kids participated in a resurrection eggs type activity which they really seemed to enjoy (even though they were made from plastic bags instead of Easter eggs, despite Julie's galant effort to find Easter eggs... sometimes on the mission field you just have to improvise :) So I thought I would include a couple of pictures from this morning's worship and a new picture of our family that we took this morning! Enjoy and God bless!

Worship this morning (and for those of you who are familiar with worship in Latin America... this picture doesn't show the last 10 people who trickled in during service :)

The kiddos presenting their improvised Resurrection Eggs.

Josh leading children's worship songs... Nathan was there I promise, if you look to the right you'll see the top of his little head :)

What? Two new family pictures in a week? Who would have thought?

Who's that handsome little man? It's my Nathan :)

Team Retreat

This last week we as a team were blessed to have Dale Hawley come down from the states to do a sort of team dynamics retreat for us. Dale was the facilitator of our first team workshop in Brownwood before leaving the states for Bolivia and so that was a blessing to, in that he already had a feel for us individually and as a team (although so much has changed in our lives since then :) We headed out of town to a hotel of sorts, set on grounds with cabins, a pool and room for our kiddos to run crazy and had a really good few days. Team dynamics are always a tricky thing, but I think I speak for Gary and I both in saying that this week was such a blessing. To be able to work together to better our relationships, learn even more about each other, and move forward with new perspective, new resolve and new hope in our relationships is so exciting to me! So thank you to all who were praying for us in our time together! Know that God is good and He was so present in working among us as humans, teammates, and brothers and sisters!

A new family picture we snapped in our time at Camp Campestre. Sorry for the long face on Nathan... we'll work harder for a smile next time, but the playground right beside where we were standing was too tempting for our little man (who by the way, climbs ladders really well now since he had lots of practice on the slide during the week) to endure another picture, hoping for that precious smile that we all love so much. Maybe next time (but then with little one's there's really no guarantee now is there :)

One thing I've learned...

So one thing that I've learned in my limited time as a mommy is that when little man is ready to get home, you stop the car for nothing, no man, or woman, and definitely no errands :) But when you come across a sign as perfect as this, you can endure the few minutes of whining to capture your name painted beautifully (ha ha) on a Bolivian wall on the side of the road. Nathan's daddy couldn't help himself... so he jumped out and I captured the moment next to a work of art :)

The results are in...

Well the results are in... and drumroll please... it looks like Nathan is parasite free! What a blessing! I am so sorry for taking so long to post, but kind of wanted to wait until I had some real news to share. Times were rough here around the Bull house, but we know God was here because we're all still alive (as in no one killed each other :) and we're all feeling better! Nathan's symptoms continued for about a week and he was miserable... feeling miserable and miserable to be around. But after the antibiotics kicked in and the vomiting came to a stop, things got a little easier. For a few days all he wanted to eat was oatmeal (don't ask because I honestly have no idea :) but then slowly but surely branched back out into the world of food. He lost about 3 pounds which is alot for a little man's body. But we're working on fattening him back up :) and having that funny loving chubby bubby that we're used to! It's just so very nice to have my son back, to play, to tickle, to color and to laugh together is all the medicine that this mommy needs! So thank you so very much for all your prayers and support! It was such a tremendous comfort to know that in the moments of insanity, there were people who care about us, love us, and were lifting us up in continual prayer... for healing, comfort, strength and wisdom! What an amazing support system we have in you our friends and family! God bless you each and know that we love you so dearly!!!

(rough translation... NO MORE PARASITES to be found!!!)