Back to the future!

I dont know if this is a step into the future but we are updating our blog from my phone for the first time. Our computer started acting funny last week. We are stuck. We are going to try to implement a plan to get it back to the states for repair and then back to us by next Saturday. We hope it works. Praying for contentment!

New Niece!!!

We are proud and excited to announce the arrival of our new niece. Keri's brother, Kory and his wife Megan, recently picked up their daughter in China. Their "gotcha" of their new daughter, Suhn, has been anxiously awaited. Their first few days have been difficult and so we pray that the transition can smooth out as they travel and arrive home. Adoption is amazing and something that is often hard to even understand, but it is real. We are excited for Kory and Megan and family. You can follow the rest of their story HERE.

Last Daisha Reflection!

This is my favorite picture of Daisha during her ordeal. It is after she was in Peoria and it shows her resting comfortably in spite of all of the "things."

I think it was one year ago today that we left the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Peoria. The previous 9 days represented a time of extreme chaos in our lives. But, and that is a big BUT, as hindsight always does, we can look back on those days with a bit more clarity. In hindsight, we realize that it was only chaos to us. From our perspective it seemed out of control, from our perspective there were times that it felt hopeless, and from our perspective we were trying to trust. I would love to try to speculate as to what it looked like from God's perspective, but I cant. I have my thoughts, but I know His are so much higher. I have my hopes, but I know His are divine. Here is the quick recap of the story.
1. Fear - Keri has extreme pain indicating serious complications
2. Fear - We go to the hospital and complications are validated by Ultrasound
3. Fear - Delivering Daisha
4. Joy - Healthy baby girl
5. Joy - Our family all together
6. Fear - Daisha's breathing changes for the worse
7. Fear - She is transferred to the public hospital
8. Joy - A hospital in Florida agrees to transfer her
9. Fear - They want a ridiculous amount of money upfront and so that door closes
10. Fear - We are not comfortable with the level of care for Daisha at the hospital
11. Joy - Peoria Hospital agrees to take her
12 Fear - Keri and Daisha leave for Peoria leaving me with the boys
13. Joy - Keri arrives safely and is ecstatic over Daisha's progress
14. Joy - Kirk, Drew, and Truitt fly back to the states
15. Fear - But get stuck in Charlotte due to bad weather
16. Joy - Get a flight out the next day after a "mans night out" in a hotel
16. Joy - Reunited
17. Joy - Daisha makes awesome progress
18. Joy - Daisha goes home from the hospital

Flopsy, Mopsy, or Cottontail

The Jamaican authorities have captured "Dudus." This is the man that is at the center of all of the controversy and trouble that hit Jamaica at the end of May. They have been searching for him ever since and this afternoon he was taken into custody at a police check point. It is great that he was taken peacefully. The first search for him started a war and has created chaos in Jamaica. Hopefully, the situation will continue to be addressed peacefully.

As news of the Jamaica's gang problem continues to spill out, I have been amazed at the creative names of the gangsters. I have always had a sense that it would cool to be known by a catchy, creative nickname. I have no idea where the name "Dudus" came from, but its catchy. So, I dont know, maybe flopsy, mopsy, or cottontail, or maybe I will hold out for one a bit more masculine.

Happy Father's Day!

I am blessed beyond measure to have grown up knowing and learning from a wonderful father. This blessing is missed by so many boys and girls in Jamaica. Little girls become ladies who haven't learned about their value because they had no father to tell them, and little boys grow up into men that never had any respectable example to learn from.

Thank you, Dad, for giving this to me and my siblings. You showed us who our heavenly Father is through your life!

Thank you, Love, for being this to our children. You are teaching them so many valuable lessons, and through your life, your love, and your time they are so blessed!

A few pics of our week

Here are a few pics of our week. We just finished a week with a team from Dallas/Ft.Worth. They were a great group. The kids loved them and they did a great job with the kids. They were mostly skilled signers and they have big hearts for the ministry. They also did great with our kids. They collected some pictures at the end of the week and I linked to them above.

Happy Birthday Daisha!

HAPPY ONE YEAR BIRTHDAY DAISHA!



Later in the day after Daisha had gotten sick, I left the hospital to run home to pick up some things for Keri that she needed at the hospital. We were both really feeling the stress and urgency of the situation. I arrived home and was back in the office at the computer trying to send out a quick email update. Erin Davis was at our house watching the kids and they were listening to music and doing their normal dances. In the middle of typing my email, I heard from the other room the song, "God is so Good." Then, I heard that simple line, "He answers prayer, He answers prayer." I was blown away and overcome. It was not this overwhelming sense that God was going to answer our prayers in the way we wanted, I dont think we ever received that promise. It was a measure of peace and an ounce of understanding that this was out of our control and in His. That simple song for us will never be just a simple song.

A week of reflection

A year ago Monday, Keri started having the serious stomach pains that took us into the hospital and subsequently started Daisha's delivery. I am guessing this week will involve not only celebrating Daisha's birthday, but also alot of reflecting on the events of her first week of life. Dont be surprised if some of those reflections and retelling of the story make their way to this page. Daisha continues to "blow our socks off."

"Ahh Shucks" by Drew

Hi, my name is Drew. Thats D-R-E-W and my last name is P-L-A-T-T-N-E-R. I like helping my dad. Last week, was it last week? "Mom, when did I help dad with the corn?" Yes, last week, my dad brought corn from the farm. At first, I didnt know what to do with it. I asked my dad and he told me that we were going to SHUCK the corn, I think its called Shuck, wait, let me ask my mom. "Mom, what is it called when you take the green stuff off the corn." yea, Shuck. I will tell you how. First, you take the corn. Second, you pull off the top. Third, you pull off all the green. Fourth, you take off all the silks. I think that is spelled S-I-L-K-S. And then, you put it on the plate. My brother kind of helped, but he doesnt do it good like me. He is more little than me. I am bigger. I like cleaning corn and I like eating corn. I think you can eat corn in Illinois at Grandma's house. You can do everything at Grandma's house. I have 2 grandmas. I think that is all. All is spelled A-L-L. "Mom, is that all?" Yes, thats all.

P.S. - The other week, Jon and Amy Gerst updated their blog from the perspective of their newly adopted twins. I thought it was a great idea. What a great way to capture your perceptions of your kids at a particular time in their lives. So, I thought I would give it a try from our kids perspective. As I have mentioned here before, one of this blogs main purposes is to be a journal of our experiences for our family. Maybe I will try to do it periodically to capture their changes and development.

No Internet!

We had a little storm blow through our area on Sunday evening. It carried with it one really big bolt of lightening that either hit or got very close to hitting the school's office building. Needless to say, our internet has not worked since. This means that we are without our phone, our news, our main method of communication, our entertainment, and maybe my sanity. I am sure we will learn something through this. Hopefully it will get fixed soon but then again that word "soon" is really relative in our world. Until we get connected to the world again, we may be a bit AWOL.

P.S. - Ohh, and if you were wondering how we are updating our site without the internet, well we will just leave you wondering about that mystery. Just Kidding, we happened to come down to Montego Bay for some business and have internet for the night in MoBay!

May Update

May Jamaica Update

Relationships are critical. How is that for an understatement? In any context, but certainly across cultures, relationships are vital and sometimes difficult. It seems weird to say it, but we have been in Jamaica for two and a half years. As I process that amount of time, I realize that it has taken the entire time to cultivate some of our cross-cultural relationships, and we certainly have a lot more growing ahead of us. But, it is in these relationships that we find our greatest joys and our greatest struggles as we consider our time in Jamaica. All the ideas behind relationships are magnified exponentially across cultures. For example, as just mentioned, relationships take time and when that principle is applied cross culturally we find that relationships take lots and lots and lots of time. Or, we all know that growth in relationships is often catalyzed by conflict that has been properly resolved. What is that supposed to look like cross culturally. Conflict seems impossible enough with people whom we are speaking the “same language,” the challenge across cultures seems like a mountain too high to climb. This means that a positive breakthrough in any relationship across cultures feels like a giant leap forward, while any bump in relationship, feels like the mountain. It is shocking how such a small part of communication is done through our words. If it was only words, I think we would be climbing the mountain at record speed. But, it is not just words because words are just words and mean different things different places. Facial expressions mean different things different places. Everything is interpreted differently. So, this is our struggle. We know that this is all a part of the process, but there are times when the bumps feel more pronounced than the leaps. We really believe that this is the heart of our ministry, relationships. We are praying for wisdom and grace that we may walk in and through these relationships in a God glorifying way.

The month of May has represented a lot of these dichotomies of questions for our family. While our family continues to experience unbelievable blessings, we also have been working through some inner battles. Questions about the future abound; relationships, effectiveness, our calling, tough love, helping without hurting, etc. Again, they are all questions that do not allow for “broad brush” answers. Similar to previous experiences, we hope and pray that this is a part of a bigger picture, a bigger plan. Also, we continue to be bystanders to people walking through extremely deep valleys, and we in no way want to even try to bring comparisons to our struggles. We pray for God to be glorified through each of our adversities large and small.

In regards to activities for the month, May was an average month. We had a couple of work teams, we were responsible for chapel at school for a week, and we had some visitors. Our involvement with the work teams continues and is consistently highlighted by the broad range of personalities we get to meet. Our Chapel duties involve teaching responsibilities for Wednesday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday night. This is always a great challenge for us as we have the opportunity to teach and try to do it in a way that is understood through our limited signing abilities. We also had the pleasure of hosting a couple of brothers from our church. Our team had the opportunity to travel around to visit some of the sites that our church supports. We always enjoy hosting people traveling through Jamaica. We are thankful for an average month.

What was not average about May is the recent troubles in Kingston. Kingston is probably about 60 miles from where we live. A “war” broke out in that area for several days. This unrest captivated the nation and brought things to a standstill. Kingston is the capital and the center for all business. So, when Kingston stops, Jamaica stops. The military has gained control of the situation. While we have been watching it closely, we have not felt any direct effects or seen any of the violence. We are thankful that the trouble stayed isolated to a small area, but the devastation was awful. We keep the situation in prayer.

It is shocking how time flies. As June knocks on the door, I feel like January hasn’t even left. We feel some of the same tension with the passage of time. There are times that we are anxious for our next return to the states and we find ourselves wishing time along. Most of the time, we are deathly afraid of lost time. Afraid of forgetting how cute it is to see Daisha so active and digging into everything. Afraid that one day we will find ourselves wishing we could spell every word for Drew again as he cant get enough of the alphabet. And, wishing we could take Truitt back to the innocence that allows him to sport the best looking flipflops and undies combination. So, we try to live in the moment, experiencing the joy in the journey, and trying to work out our faith in daily life.

Thanks so much for your love and support. Thanks for the prayers, the little emails, and the blessing of your friendship.

Social Gospel

Here is a quick book quote I read today. Our work is of the humanitarian variety and this was a very appropriate challenge. I hope it similarly challenges you in your relationships.

"Jesus was a humanitarian, but of a unique kind. He healed to reveal true healing. He fed to reveal true food. He quenched thirst to reveal everlasting water. Christ's actions were temporal, but His intended impact was for His every word and deed to be eternally transforming."