Traveling to Lima for Priscilla's wedding

I'm so behind on blogging..."wow, with 4 kids how is that possible?", you are saying. :o)

Last month while Jeff was in Chicago, I left the boys with some good missionary friends and took Sophia to Lima for Priscilla's wedding. Priscilla is one of my closest friends here, she is also a missionary and like a sister to me. I hated leaving the boys, but I wasn't going to miss this opportunity to celebrate with her and Luke! I didn't take my camera, so I'll have to get some pictures from others who took them. It was a grand time, even as hard as it is to travel to get there, it was wonderful.

Sophia & I left early on a Thursday morning, I walked a few blocks to find a taxi to take me with Sophia, my suitcase and my stroller to the taxi stop. The "colectivos" are bigger taxis that can fit up to 4 people in them (well, we've seen them fit up to 15 in them) safely. When I got to the colectivo stop, I had to wait about 1/2 an hour for the taxi to fill up with 4 people so we could leave for Curahuasi.

Curahuasi is about 1 1/2 hrs away, at that point you have to get out and switch taxis and wait until the new taxi is full before leaving for Cusco. I had to wait about 1/2 an hour there for it to fill up and then we were off to Cusco. Once arriving in Cusco, the taxi leaves you at the "taxi stop" and I had to take out Sophia, my suitcase and the stroller and find another taxi to take me to the airport.

Once at the airport, I was able to check in and only waited about 1/2 hour until we boarded. Once in Lima, I took yet another taxi to the Guest House where I stayed for the rest of my time. It's a HUGE hassle to travel here, especially since we live in the middle of the Andes mountains--I'll have to find some good pictures of the roads to get out of our town!

In any case, I stayed for 4 days, was able to get Sophia in to the Pediatrician for her 4 month shots and check up, pick up a passport for some friends from the American Embassy, and spend a lot of time with friends. The boys did phenomonal with our friends and I was very thankful for the short time away!! The wedding was fantastic, Priscilla was gorgeous and I ended up feeding Sophia all through the ceremony so she wouldn't cry!! Thankfully it was a nice, short ceremony! lol

4 months old!!

The months are flying by, and our family is getting closer and closer to leaving Peru for a time. Where we are going--we have yet to figure that out, but at the very least we'll be returning to the States for a few months while we decide.

Sophia is now 4 1/2 months old, and what a carefree life she lives! She gets so much love and attention not only from our family, but also from anyone who we pass on the street! They LOVE her big, blue eyes--they always tell me her eyes take up her whole face! ha ha I still enjoy my princess, I love dressing her up in girlie clothes, and I love the fact that the boys "need" to know where she is and what she's doing at all times! From the time they wake up, they are inquiring as to her whereabouts. When I arrive at the boys' school to pick them up, all the kids rush out shouting, "La Sophie ha llegado" (Sophie has arrived!!)...then they remember me and greet me--sometimes.

Sophia is now rolling over from tummy to back--mostly because she hates tummy time and has figured out that that is the surefire way to keep from being stuck on her tummy! She is eating rice cereal a couple times a week, and she has stopped sleeping through the night (grrrr), but is still going 6-7 hrs at a time. She smiles and giggles and "talks" nonstop and we can't stop kissing the top of her very bald head!

In the trenches...

So we've lived in this house since 2002, each year during the rainy season the heavy rains flood the dirt roads and make my kitchen look like it's been carpeted....with mud. About 2 years ago the city finally built some sidewalks and so at least now we don't have to walk in the mud to get to the bus or wherever we happen to be going. But you can see from the picture above that our street at the present moment is completely impassable! Finally, after all these years, the city is going to pave our street!



The key to paving is in the people who live on the street that is going to be paved. First of all, a lady came around collecting money, we had to "donate" a certain percentage depending on the size of our lot. Those with corner lots obviously have to pay more, but we have a pretty big lot, so we had to pay a whopping $45 to the pot. The next step is that every person who lives on the street has to dig a trench in front of their house (or in our case across the street) where they are going to put the tubes underground. Our trench is approx. 30 feet long and 4 feet deep. We're supposed to have it done by today, but well...I think the boys actually put more dirt back in the holes by walking on the dirt piles! Needless to say we won't get our trench dug today...maybe tomorrow....or maybe we'll hire some youth to come with their pick-axes and help out!

What do you see on the way to school?

On a typical school day, here's what's shakin':
7am: wake the boys up if they aren't already up
7:15am: eat breakfast--this is anything from pancakes or waffles to cold cereal or yogurt
7:25am: Devotionals with Dad
7:35am: send them upstairs to get dressed and brush their teeth
7:50am: leave for school

If I take the boys, I will usually try to catch a taxi with them. We walk down about 2 blocks and wait on the corner for one to come by. When we catch a taxi, it's 2 soles (70 cents) and takes us about 5 minutes to get there. If there isn't one coming by, we will walk on the road into town and try to find one closer.

On the way, here is what we usually see: horses & donkeys with packs of wood on their backs, a minimum of 15 stray dogs (usually roaming in mutant packs), Quechua women with their bundles of alfalfa on their backs, chickens, an occasional pig (not often), an occasional cow, many kids also on their way to school, and other random people on their way to work, the market, school or wherever they may be going.

What do you see on the way to school or work?

3 months old!!

I looked back at my posts and had to laugh that I could hardly wait "3 more days" for Sophia to arrive....and now she's 3 months old already! We are just loving her so much, she brings constant sunshine to our family & others. When I arrive at school to pick up the boys, all the kids rush out of their classroom shouting, "Sophie" and gather around her petting her bald head! It's pretty funny, though I don't get any greetings until the boys realize they haven't even said "hello" to me.

She now smiles all the time, it's a gigantic "gummy" smile that shows her bottom gums...her little nose wrinkles up and there it is, a Sophia smile. She is also talking up a storm, cooing like crazy and even making "B" sounds as she blows bubbles at us. She is, for the most part, a very happy baby...though her colic time is between 5:30-7:30pm each night. She goes to bed around 8pm and sleeps until 8am...except for the past week when she has started getting up a couple times a night. I thought it might be her 3-month growth spurt, but it's been lasting a week. UGH. Hopefully she'll return to some normal sleep habits soon.

I can't believe how much we love this little princess...she for sure completes our family!

My kids

My kids are amazing, they can make me want to hug them and spank them all in a matter of a couple minutes! ha ha Jeff is leaving in a couple weeks and will be gone for a month. The kids and I will stay here in Abancay and try not to count down the days until Jeff returns. We'll try to enjoy our special time together and I'll try to be patient with the boys knowing that I don't have anyone to hand them off to during the day.

Typically when Jeff travels, he is gone for a week. During the week we get into a routine that works for us, the boys have to step up to the plate and help me a lot--especially now that Sophia is here. When I'm feeding her or she's fussy my hands are pretty much tied and the boys are on their own. They've learned to get their own breakfast and of course they dress themselves and brush their own teeth, but I do feel like it's sometimes hard for them to not have me free to do things with them like when Jeff is here.

But we'll trudge on and survive and pray for safety while Jeff is gone. It is my fault, after all, because I was the one who suggested he take this course...rats! lol

What's ahead??

I am a worry-er by nature...well, maybe not so much a worry-er, as a planner. I love to plan. I love to organize. I'm the typical type-A personality. I have to laugh at my friend, Denisha, who calls herself an "OCO"--Obsessive-Compulsive Organizer!! That is me, to a "T". The reason I bring this up, is because we now have more or less of an idea of when we are leaving Abancay and leaving Peru. If you don't know, which most of you do, we are leaving the field for a few years while Jeff pursues more studies to get his Ph.D. Once he finishes that, we will return to Peru, but will live in the capital so Jeff can teach at the Seminary there and our boys can go to a good school.

Our plan is to leave Abancay on January 1st and go to Lima. The January 4-8 we will have our annual Spiritual Life Conference at the beach with the other SIM missionaries who serve in Peru. The last 3 weeks of January will be spent in Arequipa while Jeff teaches 3 week-long classes. The boys and I will hang out with friends, maybe I'll put them in a soccer camp again, but mostly it will be just enjoying friends. We will fly to Lima around the 30th of January, and hopefully leave the country on February 2nd. We don't have our tickets yet, but that is the tentative plan. We will spend that first week of February at the SIM offices in Charlotte, NC and then fly to Minneapolis. Unless we buy a car, then we'll drive to MN. But of course that still needs to be planned out. Maybe I'll plan that out next week. ha ha

Am I excited to be going home? Yes. Will I miss Abancay? Yes. I will miss our friends, our church, and the teachers at the boys' school. I'll miss hanging laundry in the warm sunshine. I'll miss the sound of roosters at 4am (I really will miss this sound). I'll miss the smell of our neighbors burning wood to cook their food. I'll miss the sound of chopping wood. I'll miss having a maid (vain, I know)--not only because of her help but because she is a good friend to me. I'll miss the ministry opportunities of telling taxi driver why we are here. I'll miss people "petting" my kids' heads because they love seeing the gringos on the street. I'll miss eating out for cheap.

The thing is, now that I have Sophia, I'm finding it hard to be "here"...meaning to focus on the things here and now. I find my mind wandering at planning and I know I need to just stop and enjoy life here for these last 6-7 months and stop making a list of the things we are going to sell. I need to call the girls in my mom's group and invite them over, instead of packing a suitcase for Jeff to take with him to the States. I need to call my friend, Silvia, or go to her house to visit her instead of packing up some of the boys' books. My prayer is that I will enjoy these last months and finish well. I feel completely blessed to have served here and to have been touched by the many people we have come to know and love. God has been so good to us. Please pray that we can stay focused!

2 months old

It's a beautiful thing to see Sophia's smile. She started smiling around 7 weeks and now freely gives out smiles to her brothers, her daddy and of course I see them all the time. She has brought so much joy to our family, not just because she's our sweet princess, but because having a baby does that. The sweetest thing that I will remember forever, was the first night (she was about 2 weeks old) that we really heard her cry. Brandon was upstairs in bed and he came downstairs crying, and so, so sad that Sophia was crying so hard!! It was such a tender moment to see him so sensitive to his sister's needs.

I love dressing miss Sophia up in her little pink clothes, I've found that dark pink suits her more than light pink, and I'm already starting to plan some shopping trips. lol Not really, but I do love playing dress up with her. She loves having her diaper changed, she can be crying up a storm, but the minute we "free" her up, she is happy as a clam. Once those clothes are back on and she's in a clean diaper, she resumes her crying.

One month old today!!

Our big girl is one month old today!! She must have been so excited to be one month old that she didn't want to sleep last night! UGH. I feel like I'm still in the "newborn fog" stage of life--meaning I can't get anything done or feel like I just can't get on top of things! The boys started school a couple weeks ago and I still haven't bought all their school supplies. My house is pretty much a disaster, even with our maid coming 2 days a week. Meals are sketchy at best--at least I'm trying to get a meat and veggie put together each day. Anyhow, you get the point.
But regardless of how much I'm NOT getting done, we sure are blessed by this little peanut! She is such a good baby, of course she has her fussy moments, but really, they are not that many. I was worried about her as she wasn't gaining much weight, in fact her pediatrician called me as she was also concerned that after 20 days of life Sophia had only gained 3 ounces. So we spent this past Monday in the missionary hospital getting some lab work done and talking things through with the pediatrician. It ended up being a fantastic day, I LOVE her pediatrician (a wonderful woman from Germany--her and her husband founded the hospital)--she is so sweet, sensitive and caring. Sophia had ended up gaining weight at the appt., but the pediatrician worked through some possibilities of why she isn't gaining much weight, and then took the lab samples herself. It's quite challenging to find a vein big enough to get blood when you are just 30 days old! :o) Anyhow, the lab results came back fine, and Sophia has gone from 7.05 lbs at birth to 7.7 lbs now! Yay Sophia!!

She's here!!

On March 3, 2009 at 9:36am, Sophia Noelle Krohn entered our world!! If you remember, we didn't know if she was going to be a boy or a girl. God blessed us by giving us the desires of our hearts--a baby girl! She's beautiful, of course, and the boys are so in love with her...so is her daddy!


I was the one who named her, Jeff had asked not to be told the name until he/she came out...it was so fun to finally get to tell him what her name was. Sophia comes from Greek origins and means "wisdom". She is so lovely and even after 2 weeks, I can't stop staring at her and kissing her! Our family is now complete!



Another huge blessing has been having my mom here! Not only did she come to help, but she brought a boat load of PINK clothes!!! I'm talking a full TWO suitcases of clothes! Sophia has enough for the first 6 months and I feel totally blessed! It's like playing dress up actually. :o) My mom arrived the Friday after Sophia was born and left yesterday...I will miss her!! Thanks Mom!!!

Why does 3 days seem like an eternity right now?

So I've finally hit a wall...a pregnancy wall. I'm 38 weeks and know that my c-section is going to take place in just 3 days...so why do I feel like it's absolutely impossible to wait for 3 more days?? Seriously, the time is just dragging by for all of us; the boys wake up each morning and anxiously ask how many more days they have to wait to meet their new sibling. Now I realize that 3 days really isn't that long, but the anticipation has hit a high and in my hormonal state I just want to scream.

The plan is that we are to go to the hospital on Monday afternoon. They will do some bloodwork and maybe another u/s, then we will stay the night with the doctor and his family in their home...which is kind of funny to think about. I wonder if he gets nervous before a surgery. I think I'll ask him over dinner on Monday night. Then again, maybe not.

For those who don't know, the hospital is about 1 1/2 hrs away from Abancay, in a small town called Curahuasi. Here is the website to the hospital if you are interested:
http://www.diospi-suyana.de/index.php?id=29&L=2&L=1

So, after staying the night with the doctor and his family on Monday night, I will go into the hospital on Tuesday morning for the c-section. Jeff will stay with me and hopefully get to be right there during the operation, or at least be close enough to get to hold his new daughter/son right after he/she is born. I will also be getting my tubes tied, so it will take a bit longer than normal for them to finish up with me and stitch me back up. During that time Jeff can be with said son/daughter as they check him/her over and do the APGAR tests and make sure that all is well. We are hoping for the most boring, routine c/s ever.

I hope to be able to stay through the week and go home on Friday. My mom is flying into Cusco on Friday morning with a friend, so Jeff can pick them up and as they are coming back through Curahuasi they will pick up the baby and I and bring us all home to Abancay. The boys will be staying in Abancay, one of our missionary friends here has graciously agreed to feed them and stay the night with them on the two nights Jeff will be gone. Jeff will come back to Abancay sometime on Tuesday after settling the baby and I in, then will come back to Curahuasi on Thursday to be with me overnight.

Everything is washed and put away. The bed is clean. The bouncy chair is clean. The swing is clean. I have a few packages of diapers and wipes. The baby's bag is packed. Mine is not. I hope to pack mine this weekend after doing some wash--however the constant rains have prevented me from doing wash the past couple days, so I'm hoping for sunshine today to finish up what I want to do.

I have quite an extensive list of what I need to take to the hospital. If you've had kids in the States, you know that the hospital provides diapers, blankets, onesies, and basically whatever else they think you might need during your stay. Here I must take everything with me--including diapers, wipes, clothes, hats, blankets, towels, etc. So my bag is going to be pretty packed...not to mention the fact that I will be there for 3 full days without any friends or family near (no TV either). I am hoping (in spite of the fact that I'll have a newborn to take care of and a c-section incision to work around) to treat it as a bit of a vacation! :o) I'm taking snacks, books, and maybe even my computer with some DVDs! Of course in reality I'll be sleeping and just staring at my new little one.

A week from today will be our first full day home (if all goes well). I'll be sure to post some pictures. Please pray for a smooth operation and a very healthy baby!!!

Am I really 34 weeks already??

It's amazing to me that I'm already 34 weeks along. Yes, there are some days when the time seems to drag and I'm so glad because I doubt that I'm really ready to have another baby in the house. Yet there are other days when the time drags and I feel this little monkey kick and I can hardly wait to hold him/her in my arms!



This pregnancy was so hard at the beginning, I was so sick, and to be honest (I know it sounds harsh), but I wasn't really that excited. I mean really, all the boys can dress themselves, feed themselves, brush their own teeth, etc. so how could I think about being excited about diapers, sleepless nights, solids, teething, and all the other stuff that we must start over with??



But God is good. And He is faithful. And He truly knows me more than I even know myself. He knew it would take awhile for me to adapt and well, that's why He gives us 9 months!! So I just completed 34 weeks yesterday and while my due date is March 13th, I will have a c-section on March 3rd...just 4 weeks away!!! And guess what...I can hardly wait for the diaper changes, the nursing, or the sleepless nights! I feel the elbows (or maybe the knees) pushing against my belly button and I just want to giggle. I toss and turn all night long and don't get any sleep...yet I wake up feeling happy and excited in the mornings. God knew.



Finding out, or in our case--NOT finding out the gender has been a HUGE step of patience for me. I am not patient. At all. But I told Jeff that if we couldn't see him/her clearly at the ultrasound we had at 16 weeks (it was early for an u/s), then I would join him in not finding out the gender. Well guess what--our little jellybean was so stubborn!! He/She had the umbilical cord between the legs and his/her legs were crossed at the ankles! So no chance to get a view on "the goods". Bummer.



So here we are, just 4 weeks out and I'm dying to know if this will be another boy, or a surprise little girl. Of course we will be happy with either, what kind of mother would I be if I didn't say that, right? Yet I find myself obsessing about it all day (and all of those sleepless nights) long!!! I want to know, and I want to know NOW, darn it!! :o) I am tired of buying yellow, green, orange and red clothing....and worrying over every piece of that clothing if it's too "boyish" or too "girlie". Yet we wait.




Because of where we live in Peru, I have had 1 official Dr. appointment!! I know some of you might be aghast at that--what, no prenatal appointments? Our colleagues have a portable ultrasound machine, so they did a couple u/s to make sure the peanut was measuring okay--according to my dates (this was back in October/November). They also took my blood pressure a couple times to make sure that was alright. Then I did go to the hospital 1 1/2 hrs. away to have my blood glucose tested. And then there was that time a couple weeks ago when I met with a Dr. here in Arequipa (the one who delivered Nathan almost 5 years ago) who measured my belly, listened to the heartbeat and told me things looked good. But because I'm an obsessive worrier, I just want to make sure things are okay--so I found a place here in Arequipa that does 3D ultrasounds and I made an appointment to have one done this next week! I just want to make sure that there are fingers and toes and chubby little cheeks growing in there!! I am so excited to see this little person on screen and watch him/her moving around!! I'll keep you posted, but the gender will still remain a secret for another month...then we'll all know!! :o)

Random kid stuff from 2008

I continue to find it amazing that I'm a mom to three boys. It's such a joy (most of the time-ha ha) and I wish I didn't take it for granted as much. I want to cherish these precious lives and remember everything about these years....yet most days I am so wrapped up in me and what I need to get done, I just don't appreciate them as much as I could.

Brandon is such a great kid--he is obedient and while he loves to bug his brothers, he is just a fun boy to be around. I enjoy conversations with him, I enjoy playing card games with him, and overall I just think he's a well-rounded young man. At the age of 8, he really enjoys school (mostly math), soccer, bugs, reading chapter books, piano lessons, playing with Legos, and watching "cool" movies like National Treasure and Prince Caspian. He is finally learning to ride his bike and swim--things he would have learned ages ago if we were living in a place with a decent pool and good bikes! :o)



Jonathon is a typical 2nd born--if you have more than one child, you may know what I'm talking about. He is our "spirited" child, I'm choose this word as opposed to "strong willed"...seems less harsh. lol He is very sensitive and funny he's got such a sweet & tender heart--and at the same time, he can be so spirited that it drives us nuts! He's 6 and also loves school--more for the social times, but he does do very well and managed to get very good grades this year as well. I find it hard to believe he just finished Kindergarten and will start 1st grade in March. He loves math, soccer, catching really creepy bugs in his bug catcher, playing with the dogs, playing with Legos, and we are working this summer (it is summer now for us) on reading. He loves to try to sound out about any word he sees. He is really hoping that this baby will have blond hair and green eyes and look like him. I guess because he is more fair than the other boys, he needs some comraderie. ha ha He brings me much joy.



And then there's Nathan...who is pure sugar! We always ask him if he's pure sugar and he always responds with, "No, you are". :o) He loves most everything about life. He loves school, his friends, his dogs, his Legos, his soccer ball, his sunglasses....well, you get the picture. Math is his favorite thing right now, which is funny since he's only 4--well, he'll be 5 in March, but I still don't know many 4 OR 5 year olds who love to do math problems! He is always asking me to do addition and subtraction for him, and recently he learned to do double digits (no carrying or borrowing yet), which he is very proud of. He kisses my belly everyday and tells the baby how much he loves it--he is the only one that wants a sister--the other two boys want another brother.



I know with confidence that this new baby is going to be loved. These boys have so much love to give and are anxiously awaiting the birth of their new brother or sister.

Christmas

I love Christmas, it's by far my favorite time of the year. I not only love decorating the house, but I love the coziness of having the lights on at night, and the comfort of hearing familiar Christmas songs on the radio. Yes, we get radio stations from home! We pipe in KTIS (Christian radio out of Minneapolis) to our kitchen and listen to it all day long. It's so fun to hear the weather & traffic reports and feel like we've got a little bit of home in Peru.

We typically take a family picture in front of our tree--this year we realized again how short our tree looks!! It's always a challenge to get the boys to cooperate and smile in a "normal" way--not with weirdo smiles or faces.

I like the way our picture turned out this year, and I especially have enjoyed this Christmas as it's our last one with only a family of 5! Next year we'll have a new little peanut running around, we'll have to hang the ornaments higher up, and I won't be able to put the presents out quite as early for fear that he/she will be wanting to open them up.

Of course Christmas for us in Peru also means the end of the school year. There are parties galore and the boys are studying for end of the year exams. Brandon had an entire week of exams and we are proud to say that he got all A's for the year!! We are proud of how well he does in school--not to mention the fact that it's all in SPANISH!!! We also attended an end of the year party for Jonathon & Nathan's class--complete with a clown who later showed up as "Papa Noel" (Santa Clause) and handed out presents. It was fun to see the kids with their presents, and also fun to see our boys interacting so well with their classmates.

Family trip to Huanipaca

So I wasn't that excited to go along...I mean when you only have ONE weekend free in the whole month of December, who wants to be gone for it??? BUT...I decided to suck it up and make the best of it. Jeff wanted to "treat" me to a hostal, located outside a village about 2 hours from home. It's a hostal owned by an Italian couple, and is on the way to the Incan ruins of Choquequirao. He wanted to show the boys and I what a great place it is, and to just get away as a family--I shouldn't have been such a baby about being gone from home, because it was such a great night away as a family!

The drive is a bit dangerous, dirt roads with severe drop offs on the side...made more difficult on our trip by thick fog and rain. But we did manage to get out of the rain for a bit and take some pictures of some villagers plowing their field with oxen. It's amazing to see the oxen plowing and then someone going behind them dropping the seeds in the rows by hand. What hard work!

It rained a bit the night we got there, but the next morning we were able to get a good 4 hour hike in with the boys before the rain started again. We hiked towards the ruins (which are a longs ways off) and enjoyed some fun times of singing, collecting rocks, capturing centipedes, collecting stink bugs (fun for the boys, not as much for me), and just spending time together as a family.