A long time coming

A post I wasn't able to finish from a few weeks ago - adding to it today and posting it up!:

This is going to be quick.  I have Hatice at the house today (prounced Huh-teej-uh) and I'm at Starbucks for the internet with the laptop, but I forgot a converter for the 220v plug here so I can't plug my failing battery computer into the wall.  

It's still hot here.  Very hot, but not as hot as it was.

We are meeting friends are blown away and blessed by how God provides like minded people to surround us with.

We are still on base lock down and there is really no end in sight to that.  :/

We are growing into the house, though we still do not have our own stuff.  We were told it was supposed to arrive on the 10th of August, but then got an email the day before that it wouldn't arrive until the 3rd of September. (That's today.....no stuff and are told it's "untraceable")  Sounds like the running theme around here is that those types of emails continue to come for a few months, until finally house hold stuff is delivered.  We anticipate the day of soft mattresses and couches and the familiarity and homeyness that comes with our own things.

Here are a few pics of our life right now, as we try to familiarize with the base, people and as much of the culture as we can without being allowed out into the culture.

helmet head

Judah is a huge fan of blue, and his new helmet that we paid a whopping $4 for on clearance at the BX.  Most the time he's too busy playing to stop and take the helmet off.  

Ninji action on the back porch

heat rash healing

Luke has developed some nasty heat rash in a few places.  This is our solution every now and then.  I don't dare put him back in his fleece cloth diapers until things cool down here a bit!

I cranked my ankle a few times stepping off this porch, so figured stairs were in order (there is a set to the right on the side, but who wants to go ALL the way over there?!...) - a pallet cut once and stacked works like a charm.

Dead

After 10 solid years of service, our rice cooker blipped out.  We mailed it with the rest of our unaccompanied baggage (small household items) and it worked once for us before taking rest.  

a frown

The salt jumped ship a few times, strewing it's contents along the counter, before I decided it was time for a change.

a pallet later - much better!

we borrowed our neighbors wagon to haul some dirt for the pool area and the boys decided to use it as a pool one afternoon

the boys are making friends quickly and very much enjoying being in a neighborhood surrounded by so many kids!

painting watermelons

this was fun, and a great idea for a summer activity, but I wouldn't recommend it.  Two of the three rotted heavily where the paint was thick, and ended up getting chucked into the compost pile instead of eaten.

this adorable baby pallet was next to the dumpster by the med group, so we hauled it home and it became a chalk board shelf just inside our kitchen.  It was easy to remove and rearrange the boards, as they are soft wood secured only by staples.  the light switches are through the bottom shelf and the ac controls are through the second shelf

multi function shelving

for lack of a better solution, a busted apart pallet ripped down, sanded and reconstructed became our iPad stand, fruit bowl house and sundries holder.

let there be shade!

let there be light!

I was giddy with excitement to get these in the mail.  They are so magical in the evening!

Miss Hatice

we are blessed to be getting to know and growing to love Miss Hatice.  She worked for the Kitsteiner family (we've known them for sometime and they lived here before they moved to the Azores) and they adored her, so we snatched her up before all her days were filled.

I'm sorry Wendi, I know this is going to make you sad.

crazy sunset clouds

I had to climb out my bedroom window to get a good enough view of these - aren't they neat?!

So there you have it.  That's been our life for the past month or so.  Getting settled into the house and finding plenty of pallet projects to keep us busy while we wait for our household stuff to arrive (still no timeline).  The weather SEEMS to possibly be cooling off a bit, but most days are still quite unbearable for the mid day hours.  We are so ready for cooler weather. 

We are meeting really wonderful people and it's such a beautiful reminder of how God orchestrates all the pieces.  With each move I find myself preparing to not have deep, meaningful friendships, and he always proves my fear is a waste of time.  I have frequent dreams of the island and many days long to go back.  OH how I miss the sound and smell of the ocean, the sunrise over the water, the beautiful adventures the boys and I took along the sea, and freedom to drive around the island and enjoy the depths of the forests and the heights of the ocean cliffs (ok - I didn't actually ever enjoy the ocean cliffs - not at all).  There are days I will have a fleating thought of, "Oh, we should go to duck lake this weekend!......oh, yeah"  Or a restaurant that we loved, or a hike that we loved.  I was telling Josh last night that it feels like moves are so intense and such a whirlwind that trying to process leaving things behind doesn't actually happen until everything is all said and done and some time has been spent in the new place.  It's honest to goodness still so strange to me that our time on the island is done - that it isn't our home and we most likely won't go back to visit - that the Portuguese people we loved there and the incredible things we loved about the island are a closed chapter of our lives - not that we won't continue to cherish them - it just seems to backwards that we aren't going back - that this hasn't all been just a long drawn out trip.  I remember feeling that way when we left Florida.  Like we'd left the home where we were supposed to be and certainly we'd be going back.                                          Josh and I process this stuff all very differently.  He likes the memories of places but really forms no attachment to them like I do.  The memories are beautiful, indeed, and will hopefully be adorning our walls in printed form before too long here.

  It's strange being locked into one place here.  Compared to life on the island there is SO little to do right now because we aren't allowed off base - it's been on lock down since the day after we arrived and it looks like we are in it for the long haul - there's really no end in sight.  Hearing the sound of jets is crazy, knowing that the flights aren't practice flights like they were in Florida, or fueling up flyers like they were in the Azores, but fighters who are actually flying out to fight the terror that is taking place very few kilometers south of us.  It's very sobering.  It prompts prayer, because what else can one do? 

We are thankful for God's provision.  We are thankful that he paves the way.  We are thankful that he loves and cares and is patient and kind!  We are thankful that he is in even the tiniest details.