A Review of 2014

Hello again,

Ok, so I have come to the conclusion that blogging is not my strong point.  In fact getting myself to prioritize correspondence is quite difficult.  We are always in the middle of something that seems to take precedents over being still and documenting/journaling our lives.  But the holidays seem to help me every year to reflect on events and blessings that are noteworthy.  So, here I go straining my brain to recap the year.

The year 2014 held some life changing events.

JANUARY
*January was spent focusing on my dad's health issues. We were trying to work with doctors to see if we couldn't keep him from another amputation.  He had already had a toe removed on one foot and a cadaver vein used for a bypass to feed what was left of the foot.  That was 2013.  Now he had another sliver(?) which created a wound which again would not heal.  They removed another toe on the other foot only to go back and remove the leg below the knee because he would not stay off of the foot.  He also had dementia so was not able to grasp all of the doctor's orders.

*We had been waiting for God to release us to set a date to move to the Philippines.  The day they announced they would remove the lower leg and foot was the day we felt it was time to set a date for departure and move forward.

FEBRUARY
*February was spent packing, organizing 15 month's worth of supplies, purchasing tickets, raising support, and visiting my parents and family.  February was also the month that they amputated my dad's left leg below the knee and he moved to a nursing home.  We were to depart in early March.

MARCH
*On March 8th we left our son, and my son's friend who had already been living with us for 3.5 years, in our home in Neenah and headed for the airport to finally make this journey we had been working towards for a few years now. We arrived in Manila on March 9th.  We stayed with Chris and Alex Kuhlow while we started the process of acquiring our retirement visas. We spent some time shopping and then headed for Mindoro to begin our work.  We had one month to get acquainted and acclimated before the Kuhlows left to go back to the States.

*Our eldest son Ben turned 22.

*We moved into an efficiency apartment at Tamaraw Beach Resort on the island of Mindoro in Aninuan (ah-nee-new-on).

APRIL
*In April the right leg that had already had a toe amputation and a bypass started to fail because Dad was  sitting in a wheel chair 20 hours a day.  Lower leg number two was amputated.

*We worked on systems to handle the creation of orders for the bracelet makers.

*Our personal property arrived via ship and we retrieved it paying a huge customs fee because our retirement visas were not yet done.

MAY
*Early May we moved to a 2 bedroom apartment and had the guys from the church help us paint.  We started acquiring furniture and appliances we needed from missionaries who were returning to the States.  We made trips to Manila with the church van to retrieve our acquisitions.

*On May 19th my Dad passed away.  The second amputation wouldn't heal.  That very same day there was a stunning wedding here on the beach and they sent lanterns up to heaven like they were going to my dad.  Jim was in Manila picking up a videographer that came from the States to make a new Threads of Hope video for us, so I was here by myself.

*We spent a few days helping the videographer take his footage.

*At the end of May our youngest son, Will, turned 20.

JUNE
*June was business as usual with the bracelet makers and we worked on making furniture for our apartment.  We went native and had the guys make a bamboo bed and cover cabinets and other furniture with sawali (woven panels).  We learned quickly that we had a problem with humidity in our back bedroom.  Everything was molding, so the search began for a dehumidifier.  One would think they were fairly common in a warm humid climate, but most people didn't know what we were talking about.  We found one on the internet.

*We spent part of the month trying to get a wire transfer completed properly for our retirement visas because our last name was misspelled.

JULY
*July was when we survived our first typhoon.  Glenda came in unannounced and took away our entire beach.  The level of the sand at the break wall dropped approximately 6 ft.  But the sea returns most of what it took so in a month or so the level was up again but not quite as high as it had been.

* We received our dehumidifier and were done with treating the bamboo for bugs and mold.

*I turned another year older at the end of the month but we won't talk about how old I am.

*We still weren't done with our retirement visas but the wire transfer debacle came to an end.

AUGUST
*Early August we renewed our tourist visas for the last possible time.  The same day, we submitted our retirement visa package.  We were told it would take 10-15 days to process.  We checked on our visas after the allotted time and were told it would take 21 days.  After 21 days...you guessed it..we had no notice that the process was complete and we could not get in contact with the person we were supposed to be calling for the information.

*At the end of the month, Jim turned another year older.

SEPTEMBER
*Early September our tourist visa expired and we were notified that there was a problem with the addresses on our tourist visa and our application.  So more money needed to be spent adjusting the address BEFORE the package was submitted to the Department of Immigration.  But now we have an expired visa AND we have been in the country for more than six months.  Based on the difficulty we had every step of the way, we expected to be required to leave the country for 24 hours so we could start the clock on our tourist visas again.  But they have had our passports for over a month at that point.  But FINALLY on the 17th of September, while we were in Manila, we were notified that we could get our visas.  We picked them up and reviewed them only to find that they had a wrong address as our primary address and they misspelled Jim's name on our wire transfer.  But we said thank you and got out of there with our visas as fast as we could.  We can correct that stuff online later...we think.  Drama over for the moment.

OCTOBER
*October was pretty quiet, with business as usual.  We are tweaking our business systems again to refine the ordering and payment process, automating more and more of the process as we go.

*We finally seemed to be able to get a work out in on a regular basis and have move time for devotions.  It think we are finding our new normal.

NOVEMBER
*November brought 7 World Racers to the ministry center.  Their month serving with us was month 3 on their 11 month tour.

*Chris and Alex returned to Mindoro for the first time since April.

*We had an American Thanksgiving dinner with Pastor Al and wife Marina, daughter Jojo, the 7 World Racers and the folks that work so hard to keep the ministry center cleaned and cared for.

*We had been going to Manila once a month but are finding that things can be picked up in Manila for us and delivered to us without ever leaving the island now that Chris and Alex are here on a semi-regular basis again.

*We have been doing more music than normal with the church because Christmas is approaching.

DECEMBER
*This month, December, started out with the World Racers leaving us and going back to Manila to meet the rest of their team and move on to Thailand for the month.

*While everyone was in Manila the threat of being hit by Super Typhoon Hagupit/Ruby started so Pastor Al and family stayed there until the storm passed.  It was moving so slowly that there was much time for prayer and evacuation. God performed His miracle and by the time it reached us it wasn't even rated as a typhoon, it was just a tropical storm.  It turned out to be less of a storm than Glenda was in July and we didn't have any notice about that storm at all just because we don't have a TV.

*This month, we have also completed more automation of our systems just in time to start changing the way that we pay people in the next couple of months.

*We still have been playing more music due to the Holidays.  The past couple of days have been filled with Christmas parties.  Tomorrow everyone leaves, and Jim and I will hold down the fort over the holidays again.  There are Americans that work in Manila at Faith Academy coming this way for their Christmas break, so we are excited for the company during the week.  It is always good to hear an American accent.

Thanks for reading our blog.  We also have posted 3 other blurbs.  There is "A Christmas Greeting for 2014", "A View from the "Thoughtful Spot"-Beauty and Poverty", and "God Reveals His Purpose-The Lives We Are to Touch".