I’m leaving for Costa Rica about three hours. And it’s 9:30 p.m. Which means I’ll be getting into Houston at 4 a.m. my time. Not real excited about that. But what I am excited about – drum roll please – is that our 450 sq. ft. deck is DONE. Can I just tell you that the deck kept growing in size every time I stepped foot on it? I swear, it just kept getting bigger and bigger and the project seemed like it would never end. But end it did and boy am I thankful to have that project behind us.
I couldn’t have done it without the help of my mom, who came out this week while Joe was leading the team down in Costa Rica. On Monday and Tuesday mornings, she took Kate to the park so I could paint the ‘gaps’. Each gap had to be painted by hand with a foam brush (without paint in the gaps, you could see the different shades of wood). Then we had to paint all the railings, and let me tell you, that’s a lot of surface area even though it doesn’t seem like it. There are all these crevices that you really gotta dig the brush into to get the paint to cover it. Hence, the picture of the seen-better-days brush below. So while Kate was napping, my mom and I went to town on all those surfaces and crevices. Finally, on day SEVEN of working on the deck (two last week, five in a row this week), we completed the task, and I let out a loud “Yes!” when the final coat was applied last night.
My mom also went crazy on painting/staining other surfaces: the front steps, the gaps in the siding on the steps, the side steps, and of course was super helpful in the kitchen and with Kate and just all around – all week long. And when Kate went to our babysitter on Friday so we could finish our projects, my mom paid for it. Thank you mom for your incredible generosity and helpfulness.
Now I’m off to Costa Rica and we have some big plans. Not really, just a final scouting trip to 1) Catch up on sleep from the red eye flight (Sunday) 2) Meet the doctor and tour the hospital (Monday) 3) Look at houses to rent (all week) 4) See where Kate could go swimming, do gymnastics, take ballet, etc. 5)Find furniture/bed/pet food stores 6) Hang out with the amazing missionary team already living there… 7) Meet some of the new/current children living in the homes (a two-month old just arrived last week)… Please pray for safe travel, for open doors, for guidance, wisdom, and most of all PEACE. Also you can pray for Kate while we are away – Joe’s amazing parents are taking care of her this week at our house. Thank you for your prayers! As my uncle, a long-time missionary always says, we’re all in this together.
P.S. I hope to be able to write from CR but if not, I’ll post pics and do an update as soon as I can when we return (late Thursday). Pictures of Deck below!
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