Anticipation, Sick Family, Book & Losing Friends

Isn't it funny that sometimes the anticipation of something unpleasant that is going to happen is worse than the actual event? Orin and Caiah had to get their second flu shot (I guess the first time you get one you have to get two.) Orin remembers his from October and anytime we've even mentioned the Doctor since then he has said he doesn't want a shot. Well, yesterday his fears came true. From the moment we told him in the morning that we had to go to the Doctor, he was crying. Unfortunately, he asked if he had to get a shot when we told him we were going. We couldn't lie! Luckily, his crying was soft until we got in the room. Then he lost it. He wouldn't let me hold him and tried to get out of the room a couple of times. The nurse was killing me because she was ssssoooo ssssllllooowwww! I couldn't believe how long it took to get everything set up. But then, the second she put the needle in Orin's arm and took it out, he stopped crying.

Anticipation leads me to the next item. My sick family. Caiah has been on antibiotics for a week. He's been throwing up on and off for the past 7 days. We don't know what's up. Then, last night, Micaiah comes running in saying, "Orin's throwing up!!" I was proud of him for coming to tell me. I find Orin standing on the bed in his room in a puddle (seriously) of you-know-what. This was about 5 minutes before our mission's director was supposed to call to have a conference call with his Shepherd group who has 'adopted' us. Orin has great timing. Anyway, the rest of the night Damien and I weren't feeling good. It's like we knew that we'd probably be doing the same thing Orin was in the middle of the night. Just anticipating it was making our stomachs hurt. Then we wondered, should we we eat or will we regret it later on? Anyway, Damien ended up in the bathroom all night. I, on the other hand, ended up the the guest room so I couldn't hear!

So a neighbor introduced me to Francine Rivers. She's a Christian fiction Author but I had never heard of her. Before she became a Christian she had actually been a well known romance novelist. My neighbor loaned me a book of hers and now I'm totally hooked. I read "A Voice in the Wind." It was so great. I'm looking forward to reading the second in the series, "Echo in the Darkness." I enjoyed Christian fiction as a kid, but I haven't found anything that I really like as an adult - until now.

Which leads to my last topic. Our neighbors moved yesterday. The were the first people we met when we got here. They were on furlough from Papa New Guinea and are now returning. The boys loved to play with their two kids. We spent much of the fall outside watching them play and talking. She's the one who introduced me to the above author. We were all sad to see them go. I know that this will be part of our lives as missionaries. People are always coming and going. The only other family with young kids living on the center will be returning to their country in February, so we're praying that the new families who move in have kids Orin and Caiah's age. One positive to them moving is that we inherited a few of their toys. I've always wanted to get the kids a play kitchen. They seem to love it. We'll have to see if they still play with it once the novelty wears off. We also got a bean bag. Orin calls it a swimming pool and likes to jump in. The problem is that he HAS to take his clothes off every time. The first time he did it he told me he was taking his clothes off because he didn't want to get in trouble for jumping in the pool and getting them all wet. It was so funny I had to help him take them off. Micaiah who has to copy Orin in everything now does it too. I'll get a picture up later.