Hola, It's been a while.

Hello to all of our friends and family from the DR!  We pray that you are all well.  We thank and praise God for each of you!  We apologize for the lack of updates from our end.  We have been very busy getting settled into our new house and into our new culture.  It has been amazing to see how God fills our needs and gives us even more when we depend on Him.  One such blessing is our house.  We found a wonderful house that is just right for our family.  It is about 10 minutes from the Makarios school.  We are getting settled in here and it feels like home now.  The girls are enjoying having their own space to play.  We also now have a puppy named Macy.  Macy found us and after attempting to find her a new home, came back to us.  So...Jenna talked Mom and Dad into keeping the puppy!

Our house

Macy (about 8 weeks old) and Jenna 

The month of February was a busy one for us, not only were we getting settled into our new house, but Darren had the opportunity to have a medical student work with him for four weeks.  Brad and his wife Brittany were so much fun to have around and were such a blessing to us and to the kids a the school.  Darren, Brad and Brittany had an opportunity to go to Haiti to help with a medical clinic for several days.  Darren and Brad worked with a Haitian doctor while Brittany helped to translate, she knows Creole!  They were able to help a lot of people as well as enjoy the Haitian culture.

Darren at the clinic in Haiti

Darren is working hard at the school taking care of minor as well as a few major health issues of the kids in the school.  He also provides medical care for the Dominican staff and people in the village when he can.  He is currently working on developing health education for the students and staff.  While Darren is at school working, Becky is at home with the girls.  Her day consists of many things, but a large part is homeschooling Jenna while trying to keep Audrey and Macy from getting into too much trouble!  We are both working hard on improving our spanish by taking classes four days a week.  It is helping but neither of us feel we have a handle on the language by any stretch of the imagination!  Please pray that we will continue to persevere in our language studies and have opportunities to practice it.

A few weeks ago for semana santa (spring break) we took a couple days to visit Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.  It was a wonderful family vacation and we all enjoyed our time.  There is a lot of history around Christopher Columbus and the Spanish settlers in Santo Domingo.  Were you aware that the Dominican Republic was the first island in Western Hemisphere that had a European settlement (first on the north coast near our house and then Santo Domingo)?  And according to our guide on the train, Christopher Columbus claimed the DR was the most beautiful island he had ever seen!  After learning about the history of the DR, we enjoyed hiking around Los Tres Ojos (the three eyes), visiting the national aquarium, walking around a very large mall in which there was a small amusement park, riding fair type rides at the mall, and finally enjoying a yummy meal at Johnny Rockets complete with a big milkshake!  Tasted a lot better after months of not eating that type of food.

Los Tres Ojos

The Columbus Grave

Darren and Jenna enjoying Jonny Rockets

Thank you all for your love and support of our family during our time here.  We have been studying the book of Ephesians in our bible study here.  Our prayer for you is this "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17-19).  We love and appreciate each and everyone of you!  Until next time...

Adjusting to Our New Life in the DR (January)

We made it to the DR!  It has been an eventful month and we are adjusting as well as can be expected.  We arrived on Dec. 30th and spent the new years at our friend's house (The Menolds).  Our first day was spent trying to get cell phones, groceries, and other necessary items for living here.  We ended up eating our lunch out of our grocery cart while in waiting in line to get our phones.  It is hard not to say things are weird here, they are just different. We don't want to have an ethnocentric view of things and are really trying to understand and enjoy this culture.

I started Spanish lessons the first week and was going 3 hours every day for a few weeks.  Now I am doing 2 hours 2 days a week and Becky is doing the same on alternating days.  Our teacher is Dominican and her husband is from the Ukraine.  One night we learned how to make sancocho (a Dominican stew) it was very tasty.

The Makarios school started on Jan. 8th, which means I have been at my job as the Health Care Administrator for several weeks.  I have a one room clinic/office and I see kids throughout the day.  They have a lot of abdominal pain, headaches and other various injuries and illnesses...sometimes they have neither and just want to come visit because they think they "need" some medicine.  Makarios has had two teams visit for one week each since we have been here.  The first was a group of college students from Austin Stone Church in Austin, TX.  They worked at the school building shelves, doing a drama/Bible story, and spending time with the students.  The second group was a dental team also from Austin.  I was responsible for triaging all of the kids and then make a schedule for them to see the dentist and hygienist. The team did great and they saw all of the kids at the school (about 96) and the staff.  They pulled, cleaned, and fixed a lot of teeth.  A much needed thing here in the land of sugar cane and coke.

We are currently still living at the Mak house but have a good lead on a house and hope to be there soon.  It has been challenging looking for housing.  We've looked at a lot of different options.  Our top priority is location and safety.  We've seen houses that have been owned by a Swiss, a Belgian, and Dominican of course.  Some of the houses were shown to us by a German realtor.  We really like the variety of ethnic groups here on the north coast, especially in Sosua and Cabarete.  Thanks for all of the prayers and support during this time.  We will keep you posted.

We were able to find a good reliable (sort of) vehicle in our price range also.  So, we have an SUV (that is very beneficial on the roads here) in addition to my moto.  When they are both working properly it's great:)

We have a busy time coming up in the next couple of months with different people and teams visiting, as well as a staff retreat in Jarabacoa next week.  A couple from our church is coming next week for about a month to help at the school.  He is a 4th year medical student doing a rotation here with me. We are looking forward to them being here with us!

Thanks so much for the thoughts and prayers.  Hasta luego.  Si Dios quiere.  Until next time...

Feliz Navidad! Pair o' Ducks

Greetings!!! and Merry Christmas!!!  
Well, it has been a crazy past few weeks of preparing to embark on our adventure to the DR.  Just wanted to give a recap to those who didn't know our plans and what we've been up to for the past few weeks.  I will try to give you some of the highlights.
Right after Thanksgiving we went out to Palmer Lake, Colorado for our training at MTI (Missionary Training International) for three weeks.  We weren't really sure what to expect for this time but it surpassed anything we thought it would do to prepare us for our time in the DR.  The program was called SPLICE which stood for...

Spiritual
Personal
Lifestyle
Interpersonal
Cultural
Endure/Enjoy

The time spent there was wonderful and couldn't imagine going to the DR without it.  It is very hard to explain but it really helped strengthen us (spiritually) individually, as well as a family.  Jenna was in her own class and learned some of the same stuff that we did.  One of the first things that we all learned was the pair o' ducks (paradox).  This was helpful for Jenna to verbalize some of the things she was feeling (as well as us).  This paradox is when we are experiencing something (like leaving) and we have both good and bad feelings about the same thing....a "yay" duck and a "yuck" duck.  We learned it's ok to have both feelings about the same thing and it's ok to talk about it.  We are leaving all of our friends, family, pets, and things we know (Yuck Duck), but we are going to a new place to explore, with friends we have there already, and new friends to make with many new unknown adventures (Yay Duck!). That reminds me of a joke...a duck walks into a pharmacy and asks for chap stick.  "Will that be cash or charge?" says the cashier.  "Just put it on my bill!" says the duck.  Anyway, the pair o' ducks has been very helpful in talking about our transition to the DR.  

We did also talk about this transition time into a new culture and what it looks like and how we cross the transition "bridge" at different times and at different speeds.  The transition bridge involves 5 stages:  Settled, Unsettled, Chaos, Resettled, and New Settled.  This picture is Jenna in "Chaos" in a illustration with her "family" that is going through this cultural transition.  As you may see, as we go through the chaotic times of this transition we need help from those within our family as well as outside help too (thanks for those of you who are helping and will help us during this transition time).

We made some wonderfully awesome new friends also. There were about 29 family units (some families with lots of kids and some individuals).  We got to spend a lot of time getting to know them, learning with them, and hanging out with them.  We also had growth groups each week which were very helpful to spend time with others, men for Darren and women for Becky.  These friends are also going through the same things as far as leading our family in this challenging transition.  It was very encouraging to spend time with people who are "homeless, jobless, and leaving the country soon."  It is great to think that we have friends that are going to be all over the world (Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Spain, France, South Africa, China, Cambodia, and even the DR...to name a few).  We will truly miss all of these friends, but will be in contact for love and support as we go into the world.

During the weekends we were able to spend some time as a family and with others at MTI.  We got to go to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs, snowboarding at Breckenridge, see our friends in Denver, and hang out in Denver.  This was a good time to learn how to spend time as a family.  We enjoyed this time very much.

Our friend "Sita"(who will be with us in the DR) at the Olympic Training Center.

Garden of the Gods

After MTI we have been spending time with family.  We have been in Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin.  It has been great being able to see our parents for more than just a day or two at a time and then be gone for months.  We celebrated "cousins" Christmas in Wisconsin this past weekend and had a stupendous time, hanging out, playing basketball, playing games, eating, opening presents and seeing a Dancing Horse Show.  

Our plans?  Well, we are celebrating Christmas with family today and tomorrow and then 2 days of packing and then....we head to Chicago and fly out on the 29th.  We do have an overnight layover at Newark and then arrive in the DR on the 30th!  We are very excited about this new time, yet we still have a lot of  "yuck" ducks in leaving all of our friends and family.  But we know this is what God wants us to do and are open to what He has in store for us.  Can't wait to see.  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers...and don't forget us!  Why doesn't Santa Claus have any weeds in his garden?  Because all he does is "HO, HO, HO." 

Please, remember the real reason for Christmas.

May God richly bless all of you during this wonderful season of celebrating our Savior's birth!

Houses, Cars, and Motos.

Well, we've had an eventful week after our clinic week.  We stayed in the DR an extra week so we could look for a vehicle, house, and orient a little more at the school.  We looked at houses and areas that we could potentially live in.  There's quite a range of places and should be exciting to see where we end up.  We looked at cars also.  We had one that we were interested in but then when we ran the CarFax it showed it was totaled in the states and was shipped to the DR...so, no go there.
 I was able to purchase a motorcycle though!  It was an interesting adventure.  First, we had to talk to the guy at the colmado (a small neighborhood store) where the bike was, then, we talked to the "owner" on the phone (who was Haitian and not really the owner).  We made an offer and he countered.  We finally met and agreed on a price.  We then had to meet with an attorney to make sure the paperwork was done right.  We ended up meeting at the lawyer's house at night while I had 60,000 pesos cash with me...a little scary and we weren't sure what was going to happen.  It turned out that the Haitian was a pastor and the lawyer was a pastor at the church that our friends go to.  We got a deal on the lawyer.  What a blessing that was.  So, anyway, I do have a motorcycle now which is a great economical way to get around down there.

One of the days we took one of the students to the HIV clinic to get his blood drawn, see the doctor and get his meds.  This is going to be one of my duties as the Health Care Coordinator at the school.  He got his blood drawn and then saw the doctor and then got his meds.  He is 6 years old and is doing better about getting his blood drawn a lot but does better knowing he gets helado (ice cream) after his appointment.
On our way back to the states our flight was delayed and we couldn't make our connecting flight to Columbus.  There were no hotels by the airport because of the power outages in New York and New Jersey.  So, we ended up getting picked up by the mom of one of the teachers at the Makarios School and she took us to one of her friends houses for us to sleep for a several hours and then got taken back to the airport to catch a flight to Columbus...whew!  We are very grateful to all who helped us out so we didn't have to sleep in the airport with 2 kids.
We are in the Dayton area for a few days and then heading to MI for a while.  Thanks so much for the thoughts and the prayers.  We really appreciate it.  Dios te bendiga.

Makarios Medical Clinic Week

This was the week for our "normal" medical trip that we have been doing for six years now.  It was a fantastic group of people that we had assembled from various locales (Ohio, Georgia, Texas, and Illinois).  We had three main providers including a Pediatrician,  Pediatric Ortho PA, and an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner.  We also had 3 fabulous interpreters that spoke English, Spanish, and Creole (for the Haitian population that we see).  I had the opportunity to spend time with Lauren, the PA that has been with Makarios for the past 3 years, and learn her job.  We had some Nurses and PCAs to help with the clinic as well.  We also had one non medical person to help around the school as well as with our medical group.  A total of 13 people that  did a wonderful job.

 One of our "rooms."

 Wilner, one of the Mak school students.

This year we were able to set up the clinic in the new cafeteria at the Makarios School.  We had three "rooms" made out of tarps along with school tables for our exam tables.  We had a lot more room and the flow of patients was very good.  In all we see about 371 patients throughout the week (really in about 3 1/2 days)!  It was great to interact with the students and their families as well as the Makarios staff.  We would consider this week a success with many people treated and healed physically and one woman who asked to be healed spiritually and gave her life to God.  We appreciated all of the prayers throughout this week.  We will be here next week to look for a house, car, and orient.  I put an offer on a motorcycle and am waiting to hear back.  Lots of good stuff going on:)  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
Darren and Becky

We Made It!

Without any complications from Hurricane Sandy, we made it to the DR.   We went to church today and then took a little ride up Mount Isabel which overlooks Puerto Plata.  Great views.  We will post some pics later.  We are ready for the week of clinic at the school this week.  We have a great medical team including an MD, PA, NP, some RNs, and PCAs.  We have a great host couple and it's been great getting to know them.  No tarantulas yet either (bummer).  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers this week!
d

DR Here we come!!

Well, it has been a crazy past couple of weeks.  It has been very hectic trying to get the house ready to rent.  People ask what we are doing with our stuff...which is a loaded question.  Some of it is staying in the house for our renters, some of it is being stored in the storage/attic area, some scattered with friends throughout the Miami Valley, some in Michigan, some sold, the rest is in our cars....which will hopefully sell soon also (our cars that is).  I have come to realize we have a lot of STUFF!  I am glad we are having a stuff catharsis:)
We are leaving bright and early in the morning (before the sun comes up)...I usually forget this...and then it "dawns" on me.  We are flying Columbus to Newark and Newark to Puerto Plata, DR.  There is a little "storm" in the way (Hurricane Sandy).  So, I guess we will find out tomorrow what happens with that.  We are very excited to start this journey as a family.  Audrey keeps saying, "trip, ocean and sand."  She is excited without knowing what we REALLY are doing.  Jenna is doing well also.  It was a rough week saying goodbye to our canine, Molly, who we've had since she was a puppy 5 years ago.  She said goodbye to our 2 cats, Kiara and Nala, who we FINALLY found a home for (Thanks AMY, you're the best!!).  She also had to say goodbye to her friends and gymnastics, which are her two big loves right now.  However, all in all, she is doing great and knows why we are going.  Well, friends, please pray for us we embark on this wonderful journey.  Talk to you soon.
D