Build Trips: The Other Side of the Story

While our men have been gone doing the very manly work of building our houses and growing their facial hair to the macho-est of proportions, we ladies have not been sitting around eating bonbons and pining for them. Our days have been brimming with all the expected duties that come along with caring for children and keeping our space livable, but also with the additional jobs that accompany moving a household into a bush location. Our days often start very early, especially those on the team with smaller kids (in this I am grateful to have boys out of the baby stage!). If I want to have a moment’s peace before the day to get into God’s Word, it often gets squeezed into this time between my groggy waking up and the moment my kids’ clock turns green and I am greeted by my thundering herd of offspring who have been released from their room with shouts of, “we can get up!! We can get up!!.”

Following an hour of watching the pokiest eating ever enjoyed by children, the rest of our morning is completely occupied by school.

Making cave paintings- cutesy Neanderthals you ever did see.

Besides school, there is the ever-present task of cleaning, compounded by the need to start preparing to move.

Before these mattresses moved to the bush to be used by the work teams, they were made right at home in the kids’ room, to their joy and my everlasting frustration.

As any parent will attest, though the to-do list be long, the days are short. As much as my task list is hovering around, slapping my subconscious, I want to always make sure my kids don’t feel like when Daddy is gone, they get no parental attention.

playing market- anyone looking to purchase a teeny tiny strawberry, a pea pod, a basil leaf or a twig?

Back in September we celebrated PNG Independence Day sans husbands; pretending to be independent women who don’t need no men (while counting down the days till their return)

Amidst the day-to-day goings on, there are also the one-off chores assigned as the family representative on base. Currently I get to assist the building efforts by prepping a few pieces of plywood for flooring so they can be flown in on Tuesday and added to our house.

I got to keep a couple burly men home with me to help with the heavy lifting! They take after Dad in strength and willingness to help, not so much in their photography skills.

Though the guys get to see the houses growing and taking shape day by day, we are able to get a taste of that here as we see the same happening with the things going into our house.

To add a touch of realism I posed dramatically in my future kitchen. As you do.

We have been incredibly blessed to see how God is orchestrating the details during this hard season of separation and busyness. He is teaching us plenty about how we are not enough, and how He is ever sufficient. Every day we ladies get together to lift up the team in prayer and thank the Lord for his provision, in between shouts of,”stop climbing on your brother’s face!”, and murmurs of, “sorry…” to our partner as we hurry off to rescue our wee barbarians from the muddiest of puddles (I couldn’t mean ‘barbarians’ more endearingly- we adore our little rabble-rousers). Even in the chaos, He constantly brings to mind the ways that He and this body of believers are blessing us during this process.

And this chapter of the story is just beginning. I can’t wait to watch the next months and years unfurl. In the meantime, I think a kid is calling me…

Leave a Reply