great adventures and planes in pieces

Here are some photos from our recent trip north. We enjoyed seeing God's creation and breathing fresh air for a week! Our reason to go was for Todd to help disassemble an airplane that was being shipped to our mission base in the USA. Todd and some of our NTMA coworkers spent most of the week working on the airplane and securing it inside a 40-foot container.

Never know what you might find on a Philippine highway! This rock made us laugh. Note the piles of rubble -- and no warning signs! This one apparently fell during a landslide and it was too big to move easily.
We went to the Banaue rice terraces in northern Luzon. Here we are in front of these ancient man-made wonders. It was beautiful - and it was the first day since arriving here that I've had goosebumps! A short rain shower and higher elevations gave us that delicious sensation!
Another picture of Banaue...
Elijah had to get in on the action, of course! Here he is supervising Dad's work. Todd enjoys a good project and this one was a welcome change of pace from language study for him. Thank you for praying for our trip. We wondered how Elijah would do in a car (we rented the mission vehicle). It wasn't easy, but Elijah handled it better than he would have a few months ago! Our trip home to Manila ended up taking us nine hours. When we calculated the mileage, we discovered that we'd travelled less than 150 miles! We couldn't believe that, but it demonstrates that some things just take longer here... A few shots of Todd at work...

Preparing to take the wings off the plane...

Many hands make light work!

The wingless bird gets loaded in the container here.Todd and our co-worker Ben Hart in the container with the airplane carefully stowed and secured.

Elijah's new cousin!

Welcome to the world, Brogan! Brogan belongs to Brian and Beth (Beth is Julie's sister), and was born on July 2nd! Wish we were there to cuddle ya, Brogan! Your aunt and uncle are very happy you're alive!

yes ma'am, he's married - to me!

Tall, handsome, caucasian men are in great demand in the Philippines! We saw an example of this walking to the nearby fruitstand lately. This story was too funny not to share! A lady standing a distance from the stand started calling to Todd, "Hi Joe!" (a leftover term from the GI Joes here), and yelling out that he was handsome. Then she approached us and asked Todd to buy her a mango. Now, mind you, this lady did not look malnourished in ANY sense of the word. I asked her if she had a job, so she turned to me and said (in Tagalog) that she was fat because she had to drink so much water. NEXT she asked me if Todd was married to me. I told her "yes", so her final comment before walking off was saying "I love you, Joe!" to Todd. Poor Todd. He can't help being a chick magnet. We should add that most women here are completely polite - this was an odd situation (thankfully!).

asking for your prayer

Hi guys,
We just wanted to let you know of a specific need we have right now in Elijah's life. We really appreciate you caring about this little boy and our family. Elijah is nearly 14 months old now, and is still almost exclusively drinking from a bottle. Will you join us in praying that he'll be able to start eating "baby food"? Elijah is hyper-sensitive to touch and sensation inside and around his mouth, so our attempts so far usually are ineffective and/or unpleasant for him. He either spits food out, acts like he hates it, or gags. Thank you so much for lifting this need before the Father. We send our love to you.

you've got to admit, this looks like fun

These are some photos of Elijah getting tossed in the air by his Dad. He loves this!! Please notice that Elijah is wearing his bib backwards. This is because the bib becomes a superman-cape when doing flying stunts with Dad. (Can you tell I have a very fun husband?)





The last picture is so you can visualize how tall Elijah is getting. He doesn't really stand for any period of time, but we have him propped up here. He will just stand for a few seconds and then start crying, as his muscles try "too hard" and it becomes uncomfortable.
We just wanted to say hello and send our love. We are getting excited about the short trip we are taking this next week to the country. Todd will be working hard (taking an airplane apart), but for me it will just be a nice time away from Manila...time to take Elijah out in the sunshine and sit on the grass. I can't wait to breathe clean air and keep the windows open! Our helper, Veronica, is from the area we are going to, so we'll get to meet her family, too!

sweetness

This is my current favorite photo in the world. Elijah is so cute to us! We had a very good day with him today - he seemed happy, and tried hard to 'play' when we gave him toys to touch (cerebral palsy makes learning motor skills very difficult - it is a lot of work for him even to move his arm or hand). To make our day even better, he didn't throw up and also ate a small amount of mashed banana (we're working on teaching him to eat semi-solids).

This evening, Todd gently tossed him in the air for about ten minutes, and it was really cool to see Elijah's expressions. We laughed so much. Elijah is a true gift, and how thankful we are when we have little windows of 'fun' like today with him.
"Mr. Serious" trying to figure out what he's looking at. We think we do see some progress with his vision!

playin' with Dad

smiles?

These were Elijah's expressions after being 'bounced' in a standing position on the big ball...we've done this with him a lot, but for some reason this time I could feel his legs responding and trying to 'spring' off the ball. He must have really liked it!

Hello Grandma(s)

P.S. Elijah says thanks for the clothes, Grandma!