I really like decorating a house, and I really love paint in nice, rich colors. I have tried to put my signature in each place we live, to make our home a cozy place that feels like it fits our personality. Something that has always made an impression on me when decorating is chapter 11 of Deuteronomy, verses 18-21.

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

I really like the idea of having the Word in visible places in my house--not just the actual book, the Bible, but the WORDS. So here's a sampling of my latest work in our new dwelling. Before anyone fusses at me, I only painted the parts I could reach, then I got out of the way and let those who are allowed to stand for long periods of time and climb ladders, to finish the wall painting. Then I came behind and did the words a little at a time as I could. All good.... :)

This is one corner of our living room. Below is the entrance, which says in Spanish, "You will be blessed when you come in, and blessed when you go out. Deut 28:6" Upon reading this, one of our neighbors went in and out several times to "get as many blessings as possible." It was his first time to read that scripture, so we just grinned at his interpretation.


This scripture says "God is the portion of my inheritance, ...and the heritage he's given me is beautiful. Psalms 15:5-6" The photos in the frames are different shots of our family.


This isn't actually spiritual at all (unless you count the times we read the Bible while sitting on "the throne"), but I couldn't resist showing my mother-in-law how we're using the shower curtain she sent us. It is exciting to be living in a house again that has a real bathroom, with enough space for a real shower and a real shower curtain. The little things mean a lot sometimes. Thanks, Meemaw--it matches just fine!

This past week has been full of animal fun. We heard some racket one day and found that Niko's crazy barking was not at the neighbor's cat this time, but at some cows who'd decided to wander up to our back porch. Needless to say, Niko was not happy...


Niko had more excitement later, when he was apparently bitten by a spider or... something. He ran fever for a couple of days, refused to eat, and wouldn't use one of his back legs. Caroline spoiled him terribly during this time, of course, and he's been sleeping on her floor every night since. (He woke up all better on the third day--no Easter pun intended.)
Then Camille walked outside to close Caroline's bedroom window shutters for the night (What a sweet sister, huh?), when her foot brushed across something hairy and she let out quite a squeal. This is the young tarantula (still a bit small) that her toes touched in the dark.
The next night, we heard a loud buzzing and saw this giant flying thing on our window screen--the outside, thankfully. Saul ran outside to put the ceramic pot lid on top so we could get the photo. It's some kind of locust, I'm guessing, but it looks like a gigantic cockroach up close. YUCK!

The first month or so after my accident, I had to wear this stiff leg brace they called an immobilizer. It kept my knee perfectly straight and I rolled around in that wheelchair with the left leg sticking straight out on a footrest. The immobilizer was a wrap-around canvas thingy almost as long as my whole leg, with metal rods going down the length of it. It did a great job of keeping my leg still while I was in the acute phase of recovery, but that bulky thing was not much fun to sleep in!

Every time I needed to care for the wounds, I unstrapped it from around my leg and let the whole area breathe. And every time, I was a bit nervous that the leg, which had a mind of its own, would accidentally flop off the wheelchair's footrest or roll off the side of the couch. I didn't have much, if any, muscle control over that left side. They say if you don't use your quadriceps (the thigh muscle) for one week, it deteriorates and you have muscle "wasting." I went about six weeks without using mine. Once I tried to slide into the bed from the wheelchair without the brace, and the knee bent on its own. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that night and was in great pain that next day.

I think my doctor sorta, kinda, like, forgot I was using it, because of his concern over other complications, and I used it a bit longer than I should have. When he finally told me to put it away, I was surprised to find that things had changed drastically.

Over the course of time, the floppiness in that left leg became stiffness. The soft tissues weren't soft anymore, and they kinda dried up and got tight. (My PT explained it like toilet paper that gets wet than dries again, and it's all stiff and crackly. But without the stink, haha.) The knee joint got super stuck in the extended (straight out) position, and refused to budge when I wanted it to bend. There was a big difference in the size of the calf and thigh muscles of the right leg, and the hanging skin where my muscles USED to be on the left leg. As much as I liked the security of that brace, it did damage while it did its job.

The past few weeks while I've been retraining the muscles to work and the joint to bend, I've thought about that brace from a spiritual standpoint. How often do we stick in something that's comfortable way past the time we should, because we fear what might happen if we step out of it? How many times do we think that some situation has "a life of its own" and back away from it because we fear not being in control? ("He's not a tame lion....") How many times do we worry that God will drop us off the side of the couch and we'll spend the next while in pain? I reckon I've been guilty of staying put in the comfort zone past my allotted time at least once or twice. :)

I can tell you that the recovery process for my leg is probably a bit more difficult than it has to be because of the damage from that brace. Retraining a weak leg is one thing, but breaking the stiffness--loosening the places that have gotten "stuck in their ways"--is by far more painful than the work I'm doing to strengthen my weaknesses. It hurts, and it hurts a whole lot. I wonder how many times I've made life harder--more painful--because God's had to break things in me (habits, control issues, attitudes, selfishness), as a result of me staying comfortable in something I'm familiar with. How much easier would it be if I could just let Him strengthen my weaknesses and get me ready for the next phase. I say I love change and I live for the next adventure, but on whose terms? Is it MY adventure, or God's adventure? Am I the only one who sticks to the comfort zones?

I pray that the things He prescribes for a certain time in my life don't become things that I cling to for too long out of fear and ignorance. I pray that I remember the lesson of that stinkin' brace. May we go where He wants, when He wants, and do what He wants, without fear....

As promised, I've returned to tell you a bit about where we've moved to. My intent was to post a few pictures at a time and give you a running tour, but I found that hiking the grounds with this walker and a camera didn't prove a good idea. Just in time to save me from being a liar, a project came along for a promotion video.

What you'll see is a sampling of the children, the homes, the school, and the staff here at Hogar Ganar. (For those family members who've asked for photos of where we live, all the houses look the same. So pretend that when you're seeing one of the homes where the children live, you are really looking at our house....) We are thrilled to be living here in the middle of it all, even if we're not able to physically take part as much as we'd like to yet. It really is a spectacular place that is making such a difference in the lives of the children and youth living here, as well as in the community. You will recognize Camille and Caroline's voices in the narration, and if you look closely, you'll see Saul in one shot and Camille in another, both when the weekly discipleship program is mentioned.

Today we went down to the school for their weekly assembly, to sing along with the students and listen to the devotional. It was absolutely precious to see these 50 or so children who come in the morning respectfully listening, and bowing their heads to pray afterward. We were blessed by how many stopped to tell me that they'd been praying for my recovery. There was an assembly for the afternoon students, too, but we'd already left for my doctor's appointment when it began.

On that note, the doctor is pleased with how much progress I've made so far in physical therapy. He ordered some tests for my right hand, since I still can't close it (make a fist) all the way, and there's a lot of pain in the knuckles. I continue PT for the leg, moving up to the next phase and more strenuous exercises. That's sure to be fun!

So check out this video, and see what Hogar Ganar is all about.... (WARNING: It's 6 and a half minutes long, so be patient as it loads. It's worth the wait!) And if you're reading this somewhere that doesn't show the video below, check this link instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Qw9NItG_4

In the time since my last post, we've gotten settled in a bit more in Itaugua. I plan to devote some blogs to the awesome place we're a part of now, but first I just wanted to check in and let you know we're still among the land of the living, and back among the land of those who have internet. It's a peaceful (sometimes boring) change to go offline for a time, but we are glad to be connected again to the electronic world.

I've almost completed my first two weeks of physical therapy. I'm beginning to step a little on my left leg now, and getting that knee to bend some. I still have to hobble around on the walker, but I'm trying to avoid rolling around in the wheelchair when possible. I can feel my strength and endurance building. My wound has been healing so much that the doctor says the skin graft he was considering will not be necessary after all. Within the next week, I think it will be sealed in nicely with scar tissue and no longer a problem.

We're in the capital basically everyday for appointments, so everyone stays a bit tired. We know this is for a time, though, and are thankful that God is faithful no matter what our days look like.

Ken was able to finally pick up our truck from the mechanic's shop yesterday, where it's been for four months. The motor is, hopefully, in better shape, but the truck is definitely worse for the wear. He's adamant that the repairs that are now needed from the damage done while it was being repaired, will be done at a different repair shop. Did that make sense? Oh, Paraguay. Everyday is an adventure, and we wouldn't trade it for the world. :)