Papa and Nana in Lae: Week 1

A wave from Papa as they disembark the plane upon arriving in Lae! Thank you Lord for keeping them safe on all their travels. Our kids are basking in all the attention from their Papa and Nana! (Usually they have to share them with their cousins...all 25 of them!) It is nice to have them all to ourselves for a few weeks...no offence, cousins, we still love you!
GIRL STUFF: Karlyn gets her nails painted by Nana.

PAPA AT WORK. We've already been blessed by Dad's experience with woodworking. Even with old tools, his patience being tested at the hardware stores (1 hr to get two pieces of wood!), and the humidity, Dad has had a very productive week, as per usual! Here he is working on a storage cabinet for us.

Mom and I went to the public hospital the other day to visit a friend (she used to help me in the house) who had a baby. When we got there, there were two babies on her bed! The little girl on the left is the baby of another woman. The mother had her by caesarean and was in extreme pain so our friend Jakina was helping to look after her little daughter--even changing dirty diapers and propping her up to be fed as the mother lay on her back in pain. It was difficult to witness this woman's pain especially since there were no nurses or doctors in sight. Mom, being trained as a nurse herself, would've jumped right in to help the woman, if she could've. We felt helpless and frustrated to see the lack of care in this hospital. Thankfully, our friend Jakina was doing very well and it was beautiful to see her helping this other woman--so often people here are trying so hard to make it themselves they don't care for others like this. Jakina's new little son is her fourth child and weighed a healthy 3.7 kg.

Jakina and I marvelling at her son--so fearfully and wonderfully made.

Mom has a cuddle with the other baby.

And then today Mom was working on sewing some curtains for the library at our church with some of the women. It too was an exercise in patience as it took forever to get both manual machines sewing well! But they persevered and got a good start on the curtains. Hopefully the job will be finished off next week.

This is Rebeka, who proved to be an experienced seamstress. I did not even know that she knew how to sew. She shared with me today that she used to sew clothes often until her husband wrecked her machine when he was drunk one time. Not a surprising story. It must've happened some time ago though, because her husband passed away a few years back already.

Some of the kids came along for the sewing day too! Here is Louisa and Ruth--as you can see Louisa has some terrible sores on her. Please pray that she will be healed from these sores soon.

PAPA AT WORK YET....Here is the 'white board' stand that Dad made. It will be well-used at the church for the various classes that are held.

Mom and Dad with Mom's tropical bouquet for Mother's Day.

Wishing all of you mother's a Happy Mother's Day!

May God continue to give you all what you need to be loving and godly Mom's to your children!