Arrived in the Philippines 2013

Greetings from the Philippines!

Don’t you love the new pictures of us???  We had to redo our pictures for immigration, seeing as we have all changed so much!  You can’t wear your glasses or smile.  Makes for some fun pictures!

We arrived in Manila at midnight on Thursday night (Friday morning) almost 2 weeks ago now.  We were expecting to be hit by the heat as we did the first time we arrived in the Philippines in 2005.  But it didn’t have that same feel…until we woke up Friday morning and went outside!  The humidity really hit us as we ventured out of our air conditioned room!  It is still hot season here in the Philippines but the rains have started again.  Last evening we were able to feel the breeze as the rains began.  It felt so good.

We had very uneventful flights.  Our first flight was delayed by just over an hour but the flight time was reduced so we were only 15 min late getting into Hong Kong.  We were disappointed to learn before we boarded our flight in Toronto that they wouldn’t allow Beatrice’s infant car seat on the plane.  They said it wouldn’t fit!  We had purposefully purchased her seat so that we could put her down during the flight as we knew that we wouldn’t get a seat with a bassinet.  After Chuck explained all this to the ladies at our gate, they asked another lady to move, she was supposed to be sitting with us.  So that gave us an extra empty seat.  Bea and I, Shannon, were able to have 3 seats all to ourselves!  I later shared the space with Charlotte so she could lie down and sleep better!  In the end Bea slept only for a while on the seat and spent most of her sleep time in my arms.  But we are praising the Lord that she slept most of the flight and when she was awake she didn’t fuss too much.  We are also praising the Lord that Bea didn’t throw up.  She has been our spitter upper of a baby, usually in the evening and usually it is a lot that we can’t catch!  Thankfully she spit up on her Aunt Christina before we left and then kept everything down for the next 36 hrs!  Thanks Aunt Chrissy!

On our second flight from Hong Kong to Manila, they allowed the car seat but wouldn’t let Bea in the car seat for take off and landing!  We landed right at midnight and took our time getting off the plane.  We went through immigration with no problems also.  Once we collected our mountain of luggage, we headed out through customs to find ourselves a ride to the NTM guest house.  Thankfully the time of night meant that there were not very many people, so we were able to get two vans to take us and all our stuff.  We arrived at the guest house around 2 am and quickly turned on the air conditioning and found our pj’s and headed to bed.

We were all awake by 5:30 am which isn’t too bad.  The kids did great getting over their jetlag.  After just a couple of days here the kids were going to bed at their usual bedtime of 8 pm. Chuck and I have struggled a little more in staying awake into the evening.  By 8 pm we were fighting to stay awake and then waking at 5 am.  It is better now though.  I was a little worried about switching Bea around.  I have heard the stories of trying to get a baby to switch their days and nights around, and they were never good stories.  I expected the worst!  But she is doing great.  Each day from the beginning we were able to keep her awake for several hours at a time during the day.  She didn’t want to wake from her afternoon nap but a bath helped to wake her up.  Then she was ready for bed for the night by 7 or 8 pm.  Each night she has was sleeping a little longer before waking up for a feed.  Then she was goes back to sleep and wakes between 6 or 7 am to start her day!  I am feeling so blessed!  Now for the last several days she has been sleeping 10 hrs straight at night!  That’s an amazing thing for many 3 1/2 month olds!

We have been out a couple times around the city and are amazed at the changes that happen in just a year.  This city just keeps growing.  We are excited about some of the changes and look forward to some things that are still in progress! (2 of our favourite stores are being rebuilt just 10 min from the guest house!)

Thank you for all your prayers for our travels and adjustment to life back here.

Please continue to pray for us.  Here are some prayer requests for the upcoming weeks:

1.  Pray for Eli as he is still back in Ontario finishing his semester of high school.  He is staying with Chuck’s parents.  He flies over with Chuck’s dad and his cousin on July 6th.
2.  Pray for our continued adjustments to the time and the heat.
3.  Pray for Chuck and Dennis as they left today to head north to our village.  They are needing to work out some new plans for land transportation to the waiting shed as the mission vehicle is no longer working. They have a second trip to make later this month.
4.  Pray that they find the right people to help make things go smoothly.  Over the next year there will need to be a lot of supplies brought by land to the trail head as we plan to build the Easton’s house.
5.  Pray for our generators to arrive in the next 12 days or less.  They will be needing them to do the work on the house the Easton’s will live in for this next year.
6.  Pray for Shannon and Valerie and the kids as we stay in Manila while the men are gone.
7.  Pray for our families as they adjust to life without us nearby.  We miss them already.

Thank you again for your prayers and support of the work the Lord is doing among the Ga’dang of the Philippines.

Some fun in the Manila rain with friends!

In Christ,

Chuck & Shannon
& the kids