Ate Minda

This is Ate Minda (pronounced 'AH-tay' = older sister). Elijah loves her! Sometimes she can actually get him to take a nap, like he's doing here. Minda comes 3 days a week to help us, and she makes us delicious Filippino food. She is a huge blessing to our family!

Elijah loves his Mommy's kisses!

Two shy sisters

These sweet girls were sharing a fruit shake at the market

Happenings...

These are some of our experiences over the past week or so:
- Seeing a huge pile of dead cockroaches the morning street-sweepers had gathered
- Being in a small traffic backlog, only to discover the cause: a vehicle temporarily “parked” in one of the lanes while the driver waited with engine running. Our taxi driver said “Only in the Philippines!” with a little laugh and shake of his head.
- Encountering a destitute-looking woman on a main street, clothed with only a t-shirt.
- Loving the sound of rumbling thunder as the rainy season starts here. That means the hottest weather is behind us, and the days will be cooled now by afternoon rains.
- Seeing God’s provision in bringing us a house-helper on the very day Elijah came down with a virus. We really thank the Lord for Veronica! She will live in our house and help us so that we have time to learn the language.
- Having the chance to buy barbequed chicken-foot-on-a-stick from a street vendor! (We haven’t tried these yet, tasty as they look.)
- Eating our favorite fruit – mangosteen, which has a purple rind with tart fruit sections inside.
- Finishing the very first part of language school. Next we'll have a section called "phonetics", a study of the sounds in the Tagalog language.

Sweet baby

Elijah is happy for about 30 minutes in the morning to be on his back. The rest of the day, he hates it! :) So here he is "playing".

Some photos for you...

The men in our house having fun...
Caution, this photo will hurt your heart...these are some street children who were still sleeping the morning this photo was taken.
Our family of three!
Elijah and I are cruising Filipino-style in a tryke. Elijah loves riding in the tryke....I think the sound of the motorcycle is what he loves.

Elijah's Gallery

What a cute little guy...

This is Elijah "smiling". It's about the closest he's ever come to smiling, and he melts our hearts whenever he gets this expression. Usually it's when Daddy has been playing with him, bouncing him around. We keep praying that one day he will be able to really smile.

Walking in Manila

If you were out for a stroll in the big city of Manila, here are a few things you might see or experience:
- A street child asking for money, or trying to sell a strand of fragrant sampaguita flowers
- Sidewalks that may or may not exist; if there is a sidewalk you might have to avoid posts, holes, large chunks of concrete, or steeply slanted driveways
- The icecream man (you will know him by the song he plays), who pedals his bike with an umbrella over the top and a little cooler attached
- Men walking the neighborhoods with a wooden yoke with buckets attached, carrying soy pudding (like tofu) or other food
- Tropical trees and flowers
- Car horns honking at intersections, since there are no stop signs or lights at most (on all but the major roads). The horn lets others know you are there. If you are driving, you don't have to stop and you don't expect anyone else to stop either.

Hard to believe, but we've been in the Philippines for almost three months now! We looked for over a month for an apartment and finally found one that is close to the language school. So we can walk to our Tagalog class each day. Our apartment also just 'happens' to be near Elijah's therapists as well. We really are thankful for such a great place to live!