Birthday Party for Jesse; Pirate Style!

Jesse was born on New Year's Eve 6 years ago!  Wow, time flies when you have kids growing.  Jesse decided that having a birthday aboard The Black Pearl with Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew was just too awesome to pass up...and so we did!  I don't know who was more excited, Jesse or his parents! 

We had a great time!  Jesse has quickly made friends here and was able to invite them all onboard.   They learned some handy sword moves from the Captain himself and then we all scattered when they actually gave them all swords!  Sorry no pictures...I was hiding!

We did not set sail, but we had an amazing time in the port. 

One of the amazing adventures here in the Caribbean!

¿Dónde has estado? Feliz Navidad!

Oh, how God amazes me.  The most fascinating thing to me has always been to ponder my place in existence.  Not a new concept but always an interesting one.  To us, our life is so important, as it should be, because hey it's our life!  But there are millions, billions of others, whose life is just as important...and the world revolves and stops for them too, right? 

What am I getting at?  Well, I think Mat Kearney put it best when he said, "We're all one phone call from our knees."  (Closer to Love) Think about that for one moment.  Our world revolves as expected, we rise and do our daily routines...and it's not until we are thrown a curve ball that we realize that we're never in control...never. 



I had a wonderful blog prepared for you all last week and then we were thrown a curve ball.  Our youngest, Elias, is a beautiful, friendly, loving child who loves animals, especially dogs.  He is not afraid and will play with them all.  To make a long story shorter, Eli was playing with a very large dog and was playfully bit in his head.  Playfully bit is still bit and when it's by a German Sheperd, it's never good.  Needless to say, Eli ended up with 5 stiches in his head, several small punctures wounds from the dog's teeth and whole lot of crying from both him and his momma.  After four children, this was the first time I had ever experienced holding my child down for stiches and there was never a minute that passed that I didn't wish it was me getting them instead of him.  Elias is the only one of our children that is not fully vacinated so I ended up having to take an unplanned trip to the United States for a Tetanus Globulin Shot which was unable to be located anywhere near Honduras.  Had it been any other of the other children or Chris or I, we would have easily received a tetanus booster and all would have been fine. 

Nothing is ever as it should be when you are in this family (I say this smiling).  Our adventures are always extravagant and never foreseen!  So as Chris got off the plane in Honduras; Eli and I gave him a big hug and kiss and got on the very same plane and headed for Houston!  We sat for 4 hours at the nearest emergency room for a single shot and I can't imagine what our hospital bill will surmount to.  (At this point I'd like to mention that Elias received a shot to numb his head, five stiches, antibiotics, and a topical cream in Honduras, not to mention they opened the clinic for my baby boy on a Saturday morning and had to call in the doctor...all for..wait for it...1,000 Lempiras which amounts to about 50 US Dollars!  How's that for health care.)  Being that it was Christmas time, I could not get a return flight on Sunday, but had to wait until Thursday. 

Thanks to a very wonderful friend and his excellent girlfriend, Eli and I were treated like royalty for the evening and next morning until we flew back to Lafayette, LA our hometown to spend the four days until we could return home. 



Eli was loved and cuddled by many Grandmas and Grandpas and we got to spend lots of alone time together.  Just what the doctor ordered. 



So...like I said, never boring in Honduras!

Elias and I made it back in time for Christmas and we were able to continue our Christmas cookie decorating tradition with the help of some good friends.  We just so happen to be really good friends with an Italian chef and his wonderful chef sister came visit from South Africa for the holidays.  This equals great food and wonderful sweets for all! 



We didn't have a tree for Christmas so we put the Christmas gifts out along the couch and the kids were satisfied just the same!  Christmas brought with it many wonderful things (especially with two trips to the US) for the children.  Everyone was happy and we were able to spend another holiday at the beach! 





Still no complaining here!  So stay tuned and hopefully this lazy island bug will remove itself from me and I'll get on the ball and start posting again.  I think we've decided to stay a little longer so that results in more crazy events to post for all! 

Feliz Año Nuevo!