Campo's Latest Project

The Chanpa Project

http://www.thechanpaproject.com/

Rosa, Campo Alegria's head cook.

Due to the massive amount of rain we have received in Nicaragua thousands of families have been pushed out of their homes. It has recently come to our attention that our neighbors down the beach in Tolas Maydas are in need of help. To see how Campo Alegria could help we decided to go check out the situation.

The road into the village was covered in water and was so deep our truck barely passed through. Water has funneled from the sugar cane fields, across the road and right into the homes. The ground is saturated with the continuous rain and the water levels have risen so high there is no where for it to drain. While some families have felt the effects more than others, most homes have been effected. At some houses the water has rose just high enough to be inconvenient, resulting in walking through a bit of mud to reach the door step. While other houses have become islands, surrounded by water on all sides. In both of these scenarios the families are able to continue living in their homes. However, other families were not so fortunate. For them the water has risen high enough to fill their homes with a couple feet of muddy brown water.

On our way back through the village we visited the school where the families had relocated. About 20 families total where packed tightly together in five classrooms. There was one shared pot for all twenty families to cook in and the mayor graciously donated five days worth of rice and beans. However, after the week is through the families will be own their own. "Where do the kids go to school now that everyone is living here?" we asked. One man explained there hasn't been school since they moved in. Soon though, some classes will start in the church while others will meet in homes.

The situation certainly is not ideal. We wanted to help in a way that would be of long term assistance to the community and find a way to open up the school. After mulling over a couple of ideas, talking with several families in the community and speaking with the mayor we finally settle on this idea: The Chanpa Project

Click here to learn more about what we are doing.

Sydnie's Birthday

June 29th was Sydnie's birthday, she turned two years old and I am finally getting around to posting a few pictures of our fun day.

Three gifts

We decided to fumigate our house because the mosquitoes had gotten so bad since rainy season has started. Every morning the girls would wake up covered in bites and we couldn't even sit down without mosquitoes buzzing around us. So this morning we packed up the girls, dog, turtle, two baby chicks and spent the day at our friends house.

We came home in the late afternoon and the house still stunk like the smoke they had sprayed and our courtyard is now off-limits for three days because of the chemicals sprayed in it. I was busy changing sheets, wiping things down and was worrying about the girls touching or breathing in anything that would hurt them. So needless to say I was a little stressed out and officially give myself an F- for patience with Ashlyn & Sydnie. We finally made it to bed time and after Sydnie fell asleep I went in Ashlyn's room to check on her. She was still awake just lying quietly in bed. I went in, gave her a hug and she pulled my hair back and told me she loved me. Then our conversation went like this:

"Did Jesus give me to you?" "Yes Jesus gave me three daughters." “Did you ask Him for Ashlyn, Sydnie and Payden?” "No, I asked Him for babies and He looked all over and decided that Ashlyn, Sydnie and Payden were special and He would give them to me". “Oh, and you said thank you?” “Yes, I say thank you all the time.”

She is so sweet, I can't believe this is what she is wondering about before she falls asleep. She makes me want to be a better mom, I wish I would never loose my patience with her! All my girls are such a amazing gift from God that He has entrusted to me, it is very a humbling job.

Four months old

Payden will be four months old tomorrow! She is reaching for things and starting to roll over. And hopefully she will make it one of her goals to start sleeping through the night, she's almost there!

29 Years Old!

It was my birthday today and I turned 29 years old! This is my last year in my twenties...I guess I'm getting old. ;)
I had a wonderful, relaxing birthday with my family. It started early this morning around 4am when Payden woke up to eat. I reached for my phone to see what time it was and my hand hit a balloon that was taped to the side of our bed. Then on the way out of our room another balloon taped to the wall and another one taped to Payden's door! When I came back from feeding Payden I went to the bathroom and there was yet another balloon taped to the toilet (how lovely) I guess someone was busy after I went to bed and he knows exactly what I do every night!
In the morning my amazing husband got up with the girls while I laid around in bed which was wonderful!! Then I opened my birthday present...a new digital camera! Our old one officially died a few weeks ago and I really wanted a new one to take pictures of the girls. So now I have a great camera to take lots of pictures with!
We went to Managua for lunch and to get a cheese cake as my birthday cake, yum! Later we had cake and had the girls hit open my birthday pinata. After we got back from Managua Adam watched the girls again while I had a facial. They are very inexpensive here and I've never had one so I thought it would be a nice treat...and it was! Another great thing about today was God answered my birthday wish! Yesterday I prayed that it would please be rainy all day, I get so tired of being hot and sweaty all the time. And today it rained all day!! The sun never came out, it was a cloudy, rainy day...my favorite kind of day in Nicaragua!
I had a great birthday, here are some pictures from today with my new camera.

Ashlyn & Sydnie loved my Tinker Bell pinata!

My three little girls.

I have been pleasntly suprised at what an easy adjustment life with three little girls has been and I give most the credit to Payden for being such a good, easy-going baby. She is only 13 weeks old but it seems like she has always been here! She rarely cries and is very content to spend a lot of her awake time kicking in her bouncy seat. She is full of smiles, talks a lot and is starting to laugh, she is my little angel.


Sydnie is loud, a little bit naughty, and full of energy. She is my challenge but has an addictive laugh and I don't know how many times she's gotten out of trouble by making me laugh. She will be two years old in June and is talking like crazy, can you believe she already asks me "why?"


Ashlyn is my quite, sensitive girl who loves to help and be the mommy. She loves dancing, dressing up, and you should hear the funny songs she comes up with to sing! She loves having books read to her and has memorized most of the stories. She will be four years old in November and I can't believe what a big girl she is becoming!

I am so blessed to have my three beautiful girls!

Last week Adam's dad, Grant came to visit us for a week to see his new granddaughter! It was a lot of fun to have him here and a big help to us. He made supper, entertained the girls and brought us some luxuries from the U.S.
Adam and Grant took the girls all over touring around so I could have some rest with just one little baby to think about. Ashlyn and Sydnie really enjoyed having their Grampy around to play with and we were so glad they were able to get to know him better!
It was great to have him come visit and we hope he comes back soon. ;)

Finally popped!

I can't believe it's already been over a week since Payden was born! Here is the story of how she came into the world:

My contractions started around 9 p.m. But they were 20 minutes apart or more and I barely noticed them. But by 10 p.m. they were 10 minutes apart and starting to really hurt so I knew this was it! The baby was finally on it’s way!
We called our friend to come stay with the girls and headed out to the hospital around 11 p.m. The hospital is about a 30-40 minute drive, so we figured we had plenty of time. But as soon as we got in the truck my contractions went to 7 minutes, then 5, then 4...3...2. By time we reached the hospital I could tell I needed to start pushing and desperately wanted to get into the delivery room.
However the hospital was in no hurry to accommodate my desires. A man took me to reception in a wheelchair while Adam parked the car. The lady behind the desk proceeded to ask me my name, husbands name, favorite flavor of ice cream, etc... Once Adam came it was the same thing…questions and her standing there literally thumbing through a stack of papers looking for our information. She could not find the information and therefore would not let us through. It was a bit ridiculous and I was just sitting in the wheel chair pushing away with every contraction. Adam tried calling the doctor to come down and help us but he was still on his way!
At that point I started getting frazzled. The doctor wasn’t even in the hospital and I was sitting in a wheel chair pushing my baby out. I think the lady finally realized things were about to get ugly so she reluctantly let us through.
Hurray! Up to the maternity ward they wheeled me! A few minutes later our doctor ran in to examine me while I was in the middle of a contraction and pushing. At that point my water broke or should I say exploded? It sprayed Adam right in the leg! Yes! I nailed him with amniotic fluid! Doesn't get much better than that. :)
At that point we all looked up at the doctor in shock who was looking a little stunned himself. He then started yelling for the nurses to move and get me to the delivery room. Finally! I was so relieved people were moving and trying to get me to the delivery room. It only took my water shooting across the room to get their attention! :)
As the bed was being pushed into the delivery room Adam said "Dr. Menditeta! The head is coming out!" So the doctor ran around and basically caught little Miss. Payden Ily on her way out.
She was 6 pounds 6 ounces and 19 inches long, born at 12:05 a.m. on February 10th.

I am feeling very good and recovering fast. Adam has been able to be at home so I am having a luxurious time of sleeping in with my little baby while he gets up with the girls.
Payden is such a good little baby and I'm just in love with her! Ashlyn and Sydnie both love her and want to hold her & help me all they can. We are so blessed to have our three little girls!!

Ready to pop!

I have officially passed my due date of Feb. 5th and have been impatiently awaiting the arrival of our new baby. I feel like my body has been giving “any minute now” signs for the last week yet nothing is happening! Usually I am very happy for the baby to stay in as long as he/she likes because they are a lot easier inside than out, yet for some reason with this one I’ve been anxious to pop it out.

However this last week Adam has been home after a busy December and January at camp. It has been so fun having him around all the time, swimming in the pool, cooking dinner together, taking the girls out to playgrounds and even the zoo. When I look back on this past week I’m so glad we were able to have a fun, relaxing time with just the four of us before things get crazy again.

One of my favorite memories from this week happened today when we went out to lunch at a local restaurant called “Tip Top”. When our food came Adam and I were eating and talking away when I noticed something bright blue disappear into Adam’s mouth. “What blue thing did you just eat?” I asked. He quickly spit out what was suppose to be a bite of a chicken wrap only to find a bright blue, deflated balloon mixed in! We both stared at it confused…finding a hair in your food would be one thing…but a balloon? We called our waiter over and Adam asked for another chicken wrap without a balloon, which just sounded extra funny in Spanish.

I was laughing pretty hard but Adam was just staring in awe. He finally said “if you don’t know there’s a balloon in the sandwich you’re making…then what does that mean…? What else is in the sandwiches they don’t know about??!” Good question! I can’t imagine how a balloon ended up in a chicken wrap!! When the waiter came back with a new chicken wrap he told Adam not to be scared to eat it…how reassuring! The restaurants catch phrase is “Saborear los buenos momentos” which means to savor the good memories. Thank you Tip Top for creating such a good memory, although perhaps next time we could do without a choking hazard in our food!

Christmas Day

I keep forgetting to put pictures up of Christmas day, so here they are just a little late! This was our first Christmas spent in Nicaragua and it went great. Ashlyn is old enough now to understand what is going on and looked forward to opening her presents. Sydnie just liked ripping the paper open and playing with all the new things.
Adam's mom was able to fly down to spend the week with us. It was fun to have family visit and the girls loved having their Grammy around!