Cactus Flower

In February I had a toothache during a retreat out on the island.  Got home on a Tuesday...   On Thursday I went to the twice-a-week-comes-from- the-big-city dentist.  She was nice and took an x-ray but said that it looked complicated and root canal-ish.  Told me to go to the "root canal" dentist that only comes on Thursdays and Fridays.  She told me to take the name of a good pain killer.  It was too late to go right then...   On Friday morning I called the "root canal" dentist only to be told that their schedule was full with no available appointments until March.  My husband called them back and convinced the secretary to see me quickly for an evaluation in the late afternoon.  I took my x-ray from the day before.  The dentist saw me after an hour and a half wait for five minutes only to tell me that she could only do any work in March.   On Saturday I called a friend in the big city, who called his family's dentist.  ...

.... So did I say that I'd left the house with no supper?  A few hours after Dalton's surgery to insert a pin to hold the bone together in his little finger, the nurse brought him some soup and a piece of bread.  By then it was about 10:00 at night.  He gulped it down.  I sat and watched and regretted not letting my neighbor's husband go out before he left to get me a snack as he had suggested.  Honestly I didn't feel much like eating.  I was nervous to be in a ward with other patients in a strange place to spend the night. After his soup and a bit of t.v., Dalton went to sleep on his bed.  An orderly told me and another lady who was with a boy who had broken his arm that we could feel free to lay down on the extra beds in the room.  I laid down, but my eyes stayed wide open most of the night.  Around 3 am I remembered that I had some dramamine in my purse and decided that it might help me relax and sleep a little.  It did and I must h...

The Broken Finger ....When all of a sudden my middle son started screaming, hollering, and doing some sort of war dance.  He had been jumping with his skateboard and bar on the front sidewalk.  Ah, ah, ugh, ugh, arrrr!  Seems he had fallen, but I could make no since out of his squalling to know what he had hit.  He ran into the house and collapsed on the couch.  This kind of thing happens a lot in my house.  So I passed on by to get a drink of water before coming back to ask what was the matter.  Then I saw blood and a bent finger!  Broken finger!  The bone poking out was causing it to bleed.  Oh joy! We live in a small interior city of Brazil.  No hospital.  There is a small emergency clinic.  They have no  x-ray machine.  Often they have no doctor for the day.  Frequently they don’t even have simple supplies.  What to do?  My dh was in the big city an hour away with the car!   That w...

It all started on Saturday and Sunday with a Siamese cat that would not go away. Why did the poor cat not see that my two dogs don’t like cats? All day on Saturday the little kitten ran around in the backyard dodging the dogs, resting, and playing tag again. We tried to catch it to no avail. We tried to run it off, but you know the song – The Cat Came Back! Sometime on Monday I decided I would catch that cat and I would make it mine! I spent a good part of my afternoon following the cat around the backyard in an attempt to coax it to come to me. Ah, I put the dogs in the house! Mmm, finally a cat for me! Sometime in the afternoon, my youngest called from the school room, because the dogs had THE cat cornered under the old washing machine. I’m going to get my cat! I bend down with dogs breathing down my neck, and see not one, but TWO little cats! One ran off and climbed the wall never to be seen again. The other stayed huddled way up under the washer. I got ...

Chapter 1: Once upon a time a dear, elderly missionary lady sent a box of kitchen things my way.  Included in the box was a square, divided cast iron skillet.  It was a little rusty, but I oiled it up and set it aside.  At that time a family from our work in Fortaleza was living on the island.  The wife had not brought all of her dishes, pots and pans along in their move.  She asked if perhaps I had a couple of old pans or pots that she could use.  Since she was going to be using a typical Brazilian style wood cook stove, I thought the heavy, iron pan might be a good thing to let her have.  So, being the good, little, helpful missionary woman that I am, I gladly gave up the cute, little square griddle and sent it on its way to the island along with a super-nifty round skillet that was just right for making tapioca pancakes.  It was heavy, but not iron.  Chapter 2: Once upon a time, I sat on the back porch of the caretaker's house on the...

" Smaosh-ded ,"  that's what happened long, long ago to some lizard eggs at the hand of one of my boys.  Last night Byron recounted the story for some visiting guests.  Here's how it was told... Once while remodeling the parsonage for the church in Joao XXIII in Fortaleza, Byron took toddler Dalton and little William along for the morning.  As the men were clearing out rubbage from the back yard and working on the house, some strange eggs were discovered.  Byron set one aside on the sidewalk or front steps of the house and said they would take it home and see if it would hatch to find out what sort of egg it was.  He left do other things. William and Dalton,1998 When it was time to go home, Byron called the two boys and stopped to get the egg.  It had been cracked open and a small baby lizard was still inside.  When Byron picked it up, the little thing jump out and ran off.  He asked the boys if either one knew how it had been broken....

This is a very special story written for my three little nephews who live in Southern Brazil very far from where I live up in the Northeast of Bahia.  I hope you all remember this special day. Once upon a time there were three little brothers who lived in a far away place called Mountain Valley.  The three little brothers were the only sons of a man and woman who were getting ready to travel to a far off country.  They were going to be missionaries in a place were many people needed to hear about God and the Bible.  The three little boys had a crazy old aunt who was home from that same far away country.  She and her husband happened to have three sons just like the man and woman.  She and her husband were missionaries just like the man and woman, too.  They had been living in the far away country for many years and had never gotten to meet the three little boys before. One day while in the place near Mountain Valley where the missionary ...