A Time For Baughnding: Monday Mania

{Heads Up - it's a long one today}

Okay, so yesterday was just half of the trip for Craig as he headed for Ecuador. He and the group flew out to Houston and waited a few hours for their connecting flight. As they were headed onto the plane, Craig was stopped and told that his passport was too damaged to continue on to Quito. (This was the same passport - with the same damage - he took to Quito back in November without a problem. He had been washed at some point in the past and the edges of the cover were starting to come apart.) He and his carry-on bag were whisked away to the passport detention area. He was told that he would have to go to the Passport Office in the morning to obtain a new, undamaged passport. Continental made reservations for him at a hotel and were able to get him a reservation on another flight just about 24 hours later. To say Craig was out of his comfort zone last night would be just a TAD bit of an understatement. Stuck in an unfamiliar city, alone, having to find your way to an office downtown and then back to the airport, praying the whole time that getting a replacement passport would be a simple as everyone was telling him it would be.

Even in all that frustration and concern, we can still say God is so good! Craig was upset that they had even let him get to Houston - he would have felt much better doing all this passport stuff in Atlanta, a town he at least knew a little better. However, God knew that Atlanta did not have a passport office where Craig could get a new passport in an hour - Houston has that. God also brought Craig a great cabbie who knew exactly where Craig needed to go and what he to expect. Craig commented that the whole episode felt like a "time out" - a time for God to remind Craig that this trip is really nothing about him, but about Him. So, at 6PM tonight, I said one more good-bye to Craig as he headed off on his final leg to Quito.

{Just another heads up note, over the next week and a half, most of this will be written for Craig. Since I can't give him the scoop on what happens at home, but he can check email, we thought this would be a good way to keep him updated.}

Now some news on the home front. Trinity has had quite a time trying to figure out why Craig is going back to Ecuador. In her mind, he's been once, there's not really any need to go back again. We've told her that he needs to tell more people about Jesus and she just doesn't comprehend why people didn't get it the first time. This morning, I tied on one of the bracelets that Craig brought us from Ecuador. I told her that each time she looked at the bracelet, she could pray for Craig and all the people on the mission trip. A quick glimpse into what she's thinking through the prayer of Trinity - "Dear God and Jesus. Thank you for everything you've made. I pray for Daddy. Help him to tell people about Jesus more than he did last time. Amen." (Apparently she's thinking that he didn't do THAT good a job sharing the Gospel and he needs to do MUCH better this time.)

We had a pretty productive day today. We began the HUGE job of cleaning out our playroom downstairs. This has been a room that the kids have demolished over the past few months, just pulling out toy after toy after toy.

Our only disclaimer on this mess is that most of it have been gifts and hand-me-downs of one kind or another. No, we haven't bought all this!

My goal, while Craig is gone is to get at least half of the chaos, AKA toys, out of there and actually have a place for them to play. Trinity was a huge help in putting things in boxes, taking them in the other room and dividing them out into the various categories (play food, babies, Mr. Potato Head, etc.) Kalyn started off strong but in her first gathering, found a doll, a blanket and we didn't see her again. Xander found a spot and a book and got comfy.

After a few hours, all the toys were out of the playroom and into the front room.

Wednesday, we'll be attempting the role of whittling down - in a massive way. We still have a way to go, but I can begin to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Tonight was also our youth's Mission Monday - for those who aren't doing their own Mission Monday in Ecuador. Our original plan was to paint a fence at our church cemetery. However, due to a lack of paint from the man organizing this project, we moved on to project #2 - cleaning the buses. Well, we got one really clean. The other one, we could only clean the outside windows since we didn't have the keys to get inside and there's a huge drought here and watching cars is pretty much prohibited. Then we headed to Brusters for some celebratory ice cream.

Trust me, even if you can't tell, this bus is clean!!!