Hair Cut!

Hadley and I were both tired of her stringy mane, so tonight I cut about 6 or 7" off of it. I was a bit nervous about doing it, but it turned out pretty cute:o)

In completely unrelated news, it took Talby about a week to figure out that standing on the rocking car is lots more fun that just sitting.

A Swingin' Good Time

Happy Birthday Talby!

Not sure where the last year went, but Talby is officially ONE today!! Happy Birthday Sweet Girl:o)Last night, Talby got to celebrate with fellow 1-year-old missionary kid, Aliyah. They had a fun toddling around the living room, occasionally bumping into each other, but not quite ready for "social play" yet. Talby was particularly unappreciative of being forced to pose on the couch.I couldn't locate our birthday candles, so we had glow sticks on the cake instead.

The fun nubbly ball from Aliyah. When you're related to Josh, you don't get a rocking horse for your 1st birthday. You get a Rockin' Race Car:o)

Catching Up A Bit

An assortment of relatively recent pictures.....Julisa, Genesis, and Talby are all rockin' the toddler world.
Poor Genesis was 15 months old and weighed 11 pounds when she arrived a month or so ago. She has gained about 4 pounds, learned to walk, and has a sweet, chubby little face now.

So much fun painting:o)

Sand pile = happy, dirty Hadley.These kittens showed up in our yard, stayed for a day, and left. I think they realized that the population density of kitten-mauling pre-schoolers was dangerously high in our yard.
Finally posting the Harvest Party pictures. Talby the bee and Aliyah the chick. It was a bit warm-ish for both of those costumes, but they sure were cute.
Josh and his clever saw blade....
An Industrial Accident, a Domestic Goddess, two Nomads, and a Bee.
Fortunately the girls' stone age costumes only required similarly evolved sewing skills.

Brownings in Balfate: November 2011

Putting People Back Together
The doctors at Hospital Loma de Luz often talk about how patient outcomes are so often better than what could be expected, how alongside the tragic cases are many who heal and get better when they just shouldn’t. Such a patient is Marcos, a 14-year-old who came in a few weeks ago with his foot mangled and barely hanging on after being caught up in a boat prop. Dr. Mckenney, the hospital’s founder and surgeon, reattached the foot. At the public hospitals throughout Honduras, very little attempt is made to salvage damaged limbs, and Marcos’ foot would have undoubtedly been amputated in any other hospital.

Because he needs ongoing care at the hospital and a clean place to live to prevent infection, Marcos is staying at the Children’s Centre. Most of the Centre’s 32 kids are there as a result of abuse or neglect, but several, like Marcos, are short term residents, staying only as long as they need medical care at the hospital. I don’t spend much time at the hospital, but I do get to share a yard with the Children’s Centre and see first hand the tangible hand of God loving, rescuing, and shaping the kids who live there. (And living in the same yard with nearly 40 rambunctious kids, I often think, “Thank God we’re close to a hospital!”) We are so honored to serve with a ministry that specializes in putting people back together - physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Josh’s Jobs
Like clockwork, things just keep breaking and wearing out, lest the maintenance guys run out of things to do. The other day, Josh was putting some finishing touches on the new boiler room when Dr. Abby came out from a surgery suite and said “Josh we want you in surgery,” to which he, fearing forced donation of blood or organs, replied, “No!” Turns out that a pulse/oxygen monitor needed fixed, and Lorenzo, the Honduran technician who normally repairs medical equipment, was gone that day. So Josh scrubbed up and headed into surgery to work on the ailing machine, which was hooked up to an anaesthetized patient part way through an abdominal surgery. He quickly fixed it, posed for a picture, and returned to work.

In addition to the occasional appearance in the surgery suite, Josh has been working on remodeling the sterilizer room, which involved making a new boiler room and installing a new autoclave. He says, “It looks like a pipe organ stuffed into a phone booth.”

Also underway is a kindergarten building at the bilingual school, which should be done in time for the start of the Honduran school year in February. The maintenance crew is working on converting a box truck into a flatbed with removable sides for hauling oil palm fruit from the Loma de Luz farm. Projects on the docket include remodeling the hospital’s kitchen to include an eating area and turning the old break room into an obstetrical ward. This will keep healthy moms and babies away from sick hospital patients.

The primary water tank at the hospital has reached a whole other echelon of rust, and frankly, it’s becoming a hazard. Picture Godzilla attacking Tokyo: we have visions of it crumpling like a pop can, spilling 15’000 gallons of water, and taking out the road. So if you’re tired of winter and have 20 thousand burning a hole in your pocket, send us an email!

Browning Girls
I spend Mondays teaching a chemistry class for four missionary kids and tutoring several kids in math. Aside from that, most of my time is spent at home with the girls. Guildy is in 1st grade. She is wise beyond her years, reads like a champ, and loves history. Hadley is perpetually energetic and keeps us entertained with her 3-year-old’s observations of life. Talby will be 1 in a few weeks and is also highly entertaining as she toddles around teasing the dog and copying her sisters.

Please Pray
**Staff needs at Loma de Luz: auto mechanic, surgeon, anesthesiologist, family doctors, nurses.
**Hospital finances.
**Safety and protection for the ministry and missionaries here. Honduras has become increasingly unsafe and less stable in recent months. And while life in our rural area goes on as pretty much as normal, the country as a whole needs much prayer.

Thank You
We are continually amazed and blessed by the many ways you support us and Hospital Loma de Luz!

Many Blessings,
Josh, Linzy, Guildy, Hadley, and Talby

Busy Browning Girls

I don't have anything earth-shattering to report, just lots of pictures of very busy little girls. Hadley wears dress-up clothes every day. Every. Single. Day. No exceptions. Talby will soon be on board with princess play, but for now, her costumes only last until she crawls out of them.

Rainy season is here, and with it come lovely cool temperatures, droves of mosquitoes....and lots of indoor (or porch) activities. Here are the girls coloring with Sara, a girl from across the road. Hadley has suddenly decided that coloring and writing are the best, which has been great. She loves it, and it keeps her still for more than 15 seconds at a time.

Josh says Talby is "all teeth and eyes." Pretty accurate description of our skinny wee baby, who weighs about 16 pounds and has 9 teeth. Our Honduran friends say she is "pura Josue" - pure Josh, also an accurate description. She started walking about 2 weeks ago, but crawling is still a more efficient mode of transportation, so she mostly sticks to that.

Standing is so fun!

We had two dead buses outside our gate awhile back. It created quite a spectacle when the third bus came to haul one of them away. Doesn't take much to entertain us! We kept our distance, because I had visions of the tow chain breaking and the deader rolling backward through our gate.

Guildy made a "museum" one day, complete with exhibits, written explanations, and "activities for children."

Hut-building is a favorite activity on sunny days.

Climbing under the table....a perennial baby favorite.

The orange play dress.... Rainy season also means ample quantities of puddles. Hadley is unconvinced that her boots are meant to keep her feet dry.

Wild Kingdom

It was like something off the Discovery Channel on our porch yesterday. First, the girls spotted a tarantua. We caught it and kept it in a jar for the day and learned all about tarantula anatomy, behavior, and feeding habits. Did you know that there is a species of wasps that preys on tarantulas? They sting the poor critter to paralyze it, drag it back to their lair, and lay an egg on the still-living spider. The tarantula stays alive, but the developing larva feeds off it, finally sucking the life out of it just as the wasp reaches maturity. Apparently this is a popular activity in the wasp world, because there is a species that does the exact same thing with cockroaches. Speaking of cockroaches, something, no idea what, appears to be disassembling cockroaches under out bed every night. We constantly sweet up antennae, wings, and legs. I suspect ants, but whatever it is isn't bothering me, so I'm actually quite pleased about it.

Anyway, after photographing and studying our arachnid friend, the girls turned it loose out in the yard a little ways from our house, only to return to the porch to find one of the higantor cockroaches that occasionally show up around here. Unlike the tarantula, this one had to die, but not before a picture with Guildy's hand for size comparison. We moved the toy box to kill the roach, and who should we find but a crab. They are pretty harmless as well, so it got swept off the porch along with the remains of the roach. Hopefully the former made a good meal out of the latter. I swear I do things other than wrangle kids and manage the wildlife population in and around my house....but these make for the best blogging!

Talby: Almost 10 Months

Talby is almost 10 months old! She's still quite petite, and in true Browning fashion, she eats like a show steer with not much to show for it. She isn't quite walking, but she crawls, climbs, walks around the furniture, and stands alone for long periods of time. She is a diaper Houdini, able to escape her bottom covering even with a t-shirt buttoned over it. And she's a rummaging force to be reckoned with. Nothing below the 3' mark is safe in the house:o)

The Fort

The girls had a great time last week building a fort out of palm leaves against a trailer that was parked in the yard. Below are Reina, Guildy, Hadley, and Keily.

The Caterpillar

For her Language class, Guildy memorized the poem "The Caterpillar" and we made a fun picture to go with it

The Caterpillar

By Christina G. Rosetti

Brown and furry

Caterpillar in a hurry.

Take your walk

To a shady leaf or stalk.

May no toad spy you.

May the little birds pass by you.

Spin and die

to live again a butterfly.