Thursday, Victoria, Cori, Mykenzie, Blake and I traveled up
to Wichita to meet the twins. It was amazing to see them; so tiny, so miraculous,
so beautiful. We all got to take turns feeding them. That was not a problem
since they were being fed every three hours and each feeding took about an
hour. They were only ten days old so most of their time was spent sleeping, but
even in the several days we were there they had more alert time each
progressive day. They are very good babies, very mellow in disposition, very
easy to work with. I only heard Zoe cry once. She was being changed and did not
like her bare skin exposed to room temperature. Brittany and Andrew are rising
to the challenge of caring for the two little ones. As much as is possible,
they take turns through the late-night feedings, although, Brittany is more
easily waked than Andrew. It will not be very long before Brittany will feel
the urgent need for extra help again even thought she was a little bothered by
having so many visitors so close to having the babies. She will figure out what
is non-negotiable in the care of the girls and what things are merely nice to
do if possible, but that will come as experience builds her confidence. I wish
we could have done more to help, but at this stage most of the care is centered
on being ready to feed and change the babies when the time comes punctuated by long
periods of watching them sleep between feedings.
Mama and I left Brittany’s Saturday. She was slated to
leave today but that is not how it worked out. Cori, Victoria and the kids
headed back the Friday morning because Nate was getting sick and Cori was
pretty concerned. He spent a full day cleaning out the a-coil on the a/c because
it froze up on us earlier in the week. It took several hours for him to clean
all the residue off and the position of the a-coil in the a/c closet required
him to be in a position that hurt his back, but he got it sufficiently cleaned
to get the a/c working properly. In fact, I do not remember it blowing this
hard for since we bought the house. That was a real blessing. I had already called
a repairman that the pastor recommended and he will look the unit over today
just to make certain we are in the clear. It will be a small price to pay for
the assurance of help in the future.
The very first thing Mama did after saying her hellos to
everyone was to get on the mower and cut the grass. We are forecast to have
rain every day this week and I had not cut the grass in her absence – so it
needed to be done. Later that evening she looked the animals over and gave her
general approval for the condition of her herds and flocks. The first thing I did
was to water some of the plants that looked the most stressed out; just enough
to hold them until the rain started. Our cattle came to visit Saturday evening.
I am not sure how they knew that Mama was back but they were rewarded handsomely
for their appearance. Both of the calves are getting big. Big Mama’s heifer is
already passing up the little bull calf that was born about six weeks earlier
than he was. We are planning to keep her, sell both mommy cows and the bull
calf in October and go down to just Daisy and Mellow (Big Mama’s heifer calf).
Hopefully, Daisy will get bred in her time with the neighbor’s bull.
Nate and Cori have this week off, then they will head to
Houston to fly out to Honduras for twelve days. It will be the first time the
kids have flown. It will also be their first visit to Honduras. Mama is
lamenting the fact that we cannot go with them but it would not have worked out
for us to make the trip and I believe Nate and Cori will be able to accomplish
more without the added burden of entertaining her parents as they get a deeper
exposure to the work they have committed their lives to. I would love to see
how the kids react to the overwhelming newness of the visit, but we will have
to settle for a second-hand recounting of the adventure.
At the very least, the kids will be able to say they have
seen Honduras and the work at the children’s home.
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