Our little Girl

So someone asked me to blog about Jordan some more.... no problemo there! I could write about her all day! She is just changing all the time and some days when she wakes up, she is like a whole new baby. Jordan got her six weeks shots and polio drops this week, she weighed in at 12 and half pounds, she's a big girl (she is a Schilinski after all :-). Jordan is letting me get about 7 hours of sleep at night which is wonderful! She does like to eat and sometimes it seems like I'm nursing all day but I've got another month till I start home schooling so hopefully she'll be in more a schedule by then. I'm just enjoying our time together and not worrying to much about the piles of laundry. Jude is my big help, he loves to help me change her nappies and bath her (and jab the pacifier in her mouth :). Seth has got the touch and she usually falls right to sleep when he is holding her, so cute! 

I did my first big shopping on Thursday since Jude was born. I'd forgotten how people just love babies here, and really help you out with them, even more so in Bamenda than in the capital Yaounde. At the "supermarket" the workers carried her while I shopped, and then when I was in line, the lady behind took her and was just snuggling her to death (and they don't ask you to take her, they just take her :). Then even at the outside meat market there was an old mama sitting there and she just put her hands out and held her till I was done getting my meat. Makes life a lot easier, (especially as there is no carts to put her into). No wonder Cameroonian babies go to anyone! We were at Teen Missions last night and I didn't see Jordan for the whole meeting, she just passed around to everyone (good job she is easy to spot). It's the same at church too. 


Below are a few pictures of the last couple of weeks:

Getting a kiss from her big brother (and not too sure about it!)

Jake is great at getting her to smile

We think she looks like a little turtle in the one (click to enlarge to see her little turtle lips! :D )

Thinking while she's sleeping

Pretty in Pink

Awwwww!

Teen Missions

Nine of our kids (including Ma and Pa's grandchildren) headed off to Teen Missions last week. For those of you who don't know, Teen Missions is a summer missions camp. First the children spend 10 days at Boot Camp where they'll have classes on evangelism, puppets, drama, singing, construction, and biblical teachings. They'll sleep in tents and run an obstacle course every day. They have to learn 40 memory verses and have a 30 minute personal devotional time. They have a big rally every night which is always a lot of fun.

Then they head out in teams to different villages to put in practice all that they've learned. They'll be gone for  total of five weeks. It's not always easy but it's usually a life changing experience. Please keep these children in your prayers that they have a great time and their walk with Jesus becomes stronger and that this time will ignite a passion for missions in their hearts. Also keep Ma and Pa in your prayers as when the older kid's leave they have a lot more on their plates even though there are less kids. The older children are a big help with the little ones and do lots of the odd jobs around the Children's Home.

Jake will be speaking at Boot Camp rally tomorrow night, please pray that he'll be lead by the Spirit and lives will be changed for the glory of God.

Cidoni, Mirander, Aruna, Mary, Joel, Blessing, Joseph, Kari, and Rodine all set to go! 

And their off! They were so excited!

Fresh air!

Yesterday we went for a hike up in the village of Sabajora (not sure of spelling). It is a Fulani muslim village that some of our missionary friends are outreaching too. It is breathtakingly beautiful and everyone is so friendly. We had a great time and got some good exercise too. This country continues to amaze me.

Jordan of course gets made a fuss of wherever we go. These are the three wives of one man up there (they each have their own house/room). The first thing they asked me (through motions, they don't speak English) was if I was breast feeding... very important here :-D. To which I answerd the affirmative.

At our friend's house, their cow had just given birth to a calf a bit early. He was so tiny and soft and kept following Jake around! All the families up there are cow farmers.

Jude was amazed!

This is the father Jakuba and he 7 month old son.

We hiked up to a cave, it is enormous! The cave (as most caves and waterfalls here) is used as a place of idol worship. Usually you just see some stones and chalky stuff sprinkled around but this one actually had statues and grave sort of things.

So here is a little "joujou" spot. The Cameroon culture is definitely a fear culture. Christians often struggle to break ties with their traditional belief because of fear of witches and evil spirits.  These people need to be set free with the power of Jesus!

An amazing view of the Ndop plain. There is a huge lake in the disance but hard to see. God's creation is  amazing. My legs have been aching today!

A couple of weeks ago...

Here's a few photos of when we took Jordan down to the Children's Home for the first time. Everyone was so exctied and she got passed around to everyone :-D. Every time I go down there now I never see her, the girls whisk her off. Jordan loves to be held so makes my life a little easier!

Eliza and Jordan... it wasn't cold but if you don't put a hat and blanket on a baby here everyone shouts at you (even if it's 90 degrees!)

Pa was so cute with the baby, I think he held her the longest.

Jordan being admired!

Old acquaintance

Craziest thing happened today. We live right behind a lawyer who has a huge house. Lots of people live there, Josh and Seth play over there a lot. A lady that lives there (the lawyer's niece) that we have seen a few times and said hello to. She stopped Jake the other day and asked if she could come over and talk about the orphanage. Well, she came over today and we sat and talked about the Children's Home. She says she loves children and would like to come and volunteer at HHCH, spending time with the kids, playing with them. She is a believer and said that she has always worked with children in her church. After chatting for about half an hour she mentioned that she had moved to Bamenda from Limbe two years ago. Well, we lived in Limbe for 8 months when we did our internship here in 2000. So we started talking about that and mentioned which church we worked with. She asked "With Pastor Isidore?" Yes we said and then she said, "Are you Jake and Holly?" Turns out she was the children's workers at the church while we were there. I thought she look familiar! We remembered her as soon as she said that. She hadn't realized that we had moved back to Cameroon. Now what are the odds of moving next door to someone we went to church with 10 years ago in another town 6 hours away? Pretty slim!! We talked about old times. So looks like she will come and help out when she can at the Children's Home. God is Good!

July 4th

 Been wanting to blog forever but seems every time I've sit down to write, Jordan wakes up or I remember I need to hang a load of laundry on the line or something :-). It's been a busy but great few weeks (Jordan is four weeks today). She is soooooo sweet and changing everyday. She is more of a baby than a newborn now. We've had a team here, been out to the village, lots going on at the Children's Home.... but I'll blog about all of this when I get the chance. 

We had a great July 4th (also Jake's 31st birthday), we had a bunch of friends over (missionaries and Cameroonians), 24 in all! Praise the Lord the weather was great with only a sprinkling of rain. Jake grilled, everyone brought great food; it was a feast with wonderful fellowship. 

The trampoline got a good use and Jake got a game of American football going, a first for the Cameroonians. We had some Fulani girls over too, that's a muslim tribe here (they don't look Cameroonian, more north African), and they even joined in the game, they were a lot of fun! We said goodbye to our last guest about 7pm; it was a great day!

Seth took photos before anyone arrived and then we completely forgot to take anymore till the end when they were playing football.

Jake grilling (our BBQ is an old water heater cut in half)

Kebabs, yum! We had burgers too.

Jude cleaning up the grass before everyone arrived :-)

Seth told me to make crazy face!

Football game

Joshua's travels

My parents got Josh a ticket to visit them in the States for 6 weeks. We were planning on early July but tickets were much more expensive so on Saturday we found out Josh would be leaving on Monday (21st). Jake and Seth drove the 5 hours to the airport and dropped him off. Josh was a little nervous about the flight (three flights in all) but he is a really mature, confident boy and we knew he would do just fine. I called my folks at 12:30 last night to hear that he had arrived safe, sound and happy (they were in a Burger King already :-). I know he is going to have a fantastic time, get spoiled, spend lots of quality time with grandparents and even spend a week with his niece and nephew in Tennessee. I sure do miss him, I think the longest we've been apart is 10 days when I came to the States by myself for my citizenship, so this is much longer. We are so happy for him though!

At airport gate with Granddad

At Burger King with Nanna (I'm soooo jealous!)

I was looking through pictures of when Jude was born and came across this one... just like the one with Jordan. Being a Dad is a tiring job!! How adorable are they?!

Wow, Jude sure was tiny

And Jordan is a little chunk! (and Jake is less hairy :-)

Finally got the chance to sit down and write Jordan’s birth story… Jordan’s been sleeping for a few hours at a time for the last couple days, wohoo! Praise the Lord this birth wasn’t as dramatic as Jude’s, it sure was nice to have Jake around for this one, he is such a great husband and support!

So I stated to have contractions about 8pm… they were really irregular and not hard at all (I’d been having contractions on and off all week).  By 9:30 they were getting about 15 mins. apart but still not really painful. I told Jake he’d better call Joy to come spend the night just incase. There was a really bad storm raging. Joy got here and then the contractions seemed to stop for a while but by quarter to 11 they were back and we decided to head off to the hospital (I still wasn’t sure if I was in labor or not).  We got to the hospital about 11:30 and went to the dilating room (labour room :). There are three beds in there with a delivery chair plus a delivery room right next door with a few more delivery chairs. They checked me and I was already at 6 cm, so I was super happy... it took me many painful hours to get to that point with Josh and Seth! The contractions were still not really painful; I could talk through them all, so great! Jake was amazing, rubbing my back and encouraging me. I just kept walking around the room waiting for baby to come.

There was one other young lady there who'd already been there for four hours, it was her first baby, all alone (which is normal here), but I’m guessing she wasn’t married, as she was pretty young. Poor thing was really suffering and shaking with each contraction, she had tears running down her face. The midwives (three in all) kept telling her not to cry, that these were joyful pains. I don’t think that really helped. It brought back memories of my first two deliveries, I can’t imagine doing it by myself.

Anyway just before 2am, I was at 10 cm and felt like pushing. I was pretty tired by now but not in any serious pain. At the exact same time the other lady went into the other delivery room. Now usually when it comes to pushing it is like the easiest part for me, as you can counteract the pain and you know you are almost there. Well not to be this time. I pushed for about an hour to no prevail, I got down and walked again, I even got down and squatted, nothing helped and I was getting pretty exhausted. The funny thing is that the chair was electric so the midwife could raise it…. there was also a big light there but there was only one plug in. So each time I got down from the chair they had to unplug the light and plug the chair in, then when I got back in they would raise me up and plug the light in again. Not very convenient! The pain was pretty intense and I was freaking out a bit. Anyway they gave me an IV to give me a bit of strength but didn’t really help. I pushed and pushed and think I popped a blood vessel in my eye as it has a big red spot on it… I was also kinda out of it, I think from lack of oxygen as not breathing probably between pushes… it’s all a bit hazy… Jake was great through this all and kept telling me I could do it and encouraging me. The electric also went out twice while I was pushing, they had a generater though as the lights came on almost immediately. One of the midwives is a little, old Spanish nun (I gave birth at a Catholic hospital). She only speaks pidgin English which is really funny to hear with a spanish accent. Each time the electric went off she would say, “Por favor, Señor, por favor.”

The other midwife said she was going to help me and push on my belly, I was like, “no, it’ll hurt too much” so I wouldn’t let her but after another exhausting 15 mins I was ready to try anything. She pushed on the top of my stomach and it pushed the baby right out! Of course it did make me tear but I was like, I should have let you done that 15 mins ago! She said that Jordan was looking up instead of down so that’s why she didn’t come out very easy. Praise the Lord, Jordan cried in the first few seconds of being born. I asked what it was and was thrilled to hear a girl. At the same time the other lady was still pushing and sounded like she was in a lot of pain too, poor thing! But she finally delivered about 10 minutes after me.

Jordan had an apgar score of 9 so she was super strong from the get go. She weighed in at 8.4 pounds; by far my biggest baby. She is off the chart for Cameroon baby charts… all the nurses kept calling her fatty :).  The Spanish nun was like, “muy grande!” Anyway as they were cleaning up and dressing Jordan the midwife started to sow me up. She had used local anesthesia but not enough because the last couple of stitches I could feel, it made me shout, let me tell you. But finally it finished and I laid down with Jordan, nursed and fell asleep.  When they had finished up with the other lady they showed us to the room…. Unfortunately there were no private rooms available so I had to go into the general ward… a room with about 10 beds in it. PTL there was nobody in it when I got there so Jake could sleep in there with me. I got some sleep and woke up about 7am. Jake went to go get the boys and some breakfast. Since I didn’t have a private room there wasn’t a private toilet so I had to use the squatties. This really wasn’t fun, just giving birth, having stitches, and then having to squat, not a good combination! Anyway, I survived, thank you Jesus!

The boys got there a little later; they were just so proud and happy to see their little sister. Jude was a bit unsure at first and wouldn’t kiss her but he soon warmed up to Jordan. At about 10am a private room became free and we could move into a room that had two single beds and a toilet! No toilet seat but a toilet nonetheless :).  We had a lot of people come in and see the baby, lots of hospital personnel, even the janitor came in! Jake was able to spend the night with me again so that was really nice. They wanted us to stay for another night but we insisted on leaving the next morning as I really wanted a hot shower (cold just didn’t cut it) and be in my own bed. As we left the nurse told me to make sure I clean my stitches with salt water, I just smiled and nodded but not in a million years! All in all it was a pretty easy labour (besides the pushing) and we just praise God for the safe arrival of Jordan, she is such a blessing, and such a sweetie!  

For more photos of Jordan click here and then click on the little Jordan icon

http://www.schilinskifamily.org/Schilinski_Family/Welcome.html

No baby yet!

Four days after my due date and still no baby, but it has to be soon, right? I keep telling myself patience is a virtue :-). I've been feeling fine though, besides being super tired in the afternoons. I had a checkup on Thursday and all is fine, the baby is engaged (who to, I'm not sure) so just waiting.

Had a great day yesterday, the children for HHCH finished their school year. The school put on an end-of-school program with each class doing special presentations. It was meant to start at 9am so we left the house early. Of course nothing had started but no problem sitting and waiting for an hour... pretty normal here... but by 11:30 things still hadn't kicked off, it was a little frustrating. They were waiting for the District Officer to show up. We had another program that afternoon so we had to head off so I didn't get to see any of the presentations :(. But our kids did look sooooo handsome and we are just so proud of them. All of them, besides one, will be moving forward in classes. Many of them where the top students for their class. It's really amazing to see how far they have come in such a short time.

Our beautiful children, they look so smart!

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Dorcas, Jude, and Bena, we couldn't get one of them to smile! They are friends, really!

So we rushed home, had lunch, I made snacks as we were heading to a home schooling open house at some of our missionary friends. It was a time to allow the children to display some of their work this year and give a little presentation. The four missionary homeschooling families in the city participated, it was a lot of fun and always great to get together for some good food and great fellowship. All the kids did great (from K to 11th grade) and got to ride our friend's horses at the end. All in all a great day!

Seth reading a story he wrote

Josh reading a report on the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Fun with the horses

Jude wasn't too sure about this one

The things you see on the mission field!

We just got back from visiting some friends who've recently built and moved into their own house. We stopped at the top of our road at the little market stalls to pick up a couple of watermelons to take with us (never visit empty handed here). We pulled up to the little stall and there was a large crowd standing around. This is never a good sight as that usually means thieves have been caught and killed. But this crowd was looking up. There was a "mad" man running and jumping across the rooftops of the shops there. He had a big piece of plastic and long grass wrapped around his head. The roofs were super old so he was falling through the rusty zinc up to his waist and then pulling himself out. People were shouting and throwing stuff at him. Then he starting throwing stuff and a stick hit our truck (time to roll up the widows!). Next he jumped up and twisted himself in the electric wires that were just above the roofs. Finally about 4 guys got up there and tackled him and brought him down. The police were already there and I couldn't see if they took him away or not as there was a huge crowd by then. Seth started to cry when the guys tackled him but I explained that they were trying to stop him from hurting himself. We said a prayer for the man. So we got our two watermelon and headed off. 

There is a lot of what they call "mad" people in Cameroon. In Yaounde you would see them everyday, usually stark naked with bags and twigs in their hair. Bamenda has a few, I didn't recognize this guy though. There is a mental institution in town but I can't even imagine what that is like. I know these people really need Jesus and would love to see a work started with them.  Who knows what they have been through to get to the state that they are in. Anyway, never a dull moment in Cameroon!