We Made It!

October 27, 2020

We Made It!

It's been a little over a month since we've first arrived at Big Woods and so far, it's been pretty amazing!

It has taken a few weeks to get acclimated to a schedule. There are still a few tweaks to address, but overall, we are finally in a rhythm that works for our family.

Our average day looks like this:

After breakfast, we have morning prayer. We usually pray the Liturgy of the Hours. On Mondays, we do this as a community in the parking lot in front of the chapel. (Covid rules) We then begin homeschool and Chris leaves for the Discipleship Program. Around noon, we all have lunch together and Chris usually reports to work at 1:30 (sometimes the older boys go as well). The boys usually finish their work by 2:30 and all are out to play! At 4 p.m., Chris comes home and the boys head to a field near our house for the daily EPIC soccer game! You begin to hear bells, whistles, and megaphones around 6 p.m. Families get pretty creative at calling their kids in for dinner! After dinner, we have some downtime and around 7:30 we pray again and maybe play a game before going to bed.

Our temporary home is a sweet little house with plenty of room! This is the same house we stayed in when we went to our "Come and See" a year ago, so we feel quite at home! We live near a swampy area, but we are also near pastures and fields of sugar cane, rice and crawfish. Wildlife is very active with alligators, armadillos, frogs, turtles, egrets, and LOTS of mosquitoes and SNAKES. We haven't had many issues with most of the wildlife. Wish we could say the same about the mosquitoes...

When we arrived, we had a couple of girls come up to us to introduce themselves and let us know that there are now 21 boys and 8 girls in the neighborhood. You can imagine the fun the boys are having! A playground is right next door to our house and although it's pretty distracting during homeschool, it is super convenient!

The community here has been very inspirational. They have gone out of their way to help us feel at home. Meals were provided for us the first week we arrived so that we could settle in a little smoothly. Every Wednesday evening until December, we are scheduled to go to each family's home for dinner and to get to know them better. We have heard some pretty amazing testimonies and tips that will be helpful anywhere around the world! We also have invited a few single missionaries for dinner at our house. We REALLY loved playing Uno Dare and making caramel apples one night. The older boys also went to a Rodeo with many single missionaries and had a blast! We are so grateful to have these wonderful role models in our lives.

We did have an opportunity to see what it was like to be in a hurricane. We had to evacuate and decided to stay with a beautiful family in Baton Rouge. When we returned, there was A LOT of work to be done! Many trees were down and there was some flooding, but PRAISE GOD, no structure had major damage. Although we are still picking up and burning debris, it's amazing how much better the grounds look already - especially when we all come together and get it done! The larger debris had to be brought to the side of the road for a contracting company to pick up. We were pretty impressed with the men who could manage a HUGE crane so flawlessly as they grabbed the massive loads.

Beyond work on the property of Family Missions Company, we have been working on a few projects in the community as well. It didn’t take long before Chris’s talents were spotted and utilized! Last week, Chris and the boys finished putting floors in a house of a family coming back from Mexico to have their fourth child in December. Angie and Job cleaned up the mess. The floors turned out beautifully!

This week, Chris is working on a ramp for a woman in town who was just diagnosed with cancer, had surgery, and is now in a wheelchair. One thing we are learning about Family Missions Company is that there are many “special projects” going on. With these projects, anyone can help with the funding. The materials of this project were not donated and it costs about $1,000. If you have it on your heart to help fund this project, go to https://www.familymissionscompany.com/donate/, fill out the information and click on “Yes, this is for a particular full-time missionary or special project.” A small field will open up for you to type in the name of the project. Just type “RAMP for Martin/Waldrop/Pena."

Out of everything going on, we all agree that our biggest growth has been prayer - individually AND as a family. We are pretty accustomed to the Rosary, Divine Mercy, and the Angelus, but contemplation and just taking time to stop everything and to listen to the Holy Spirit has been so fruitful. We are also focusing on Bible History and Lectio Divina the past few months. We have some friends who taught us to work as a family to memorize scripture and we have added this as well. (This week is James 1:19). We also have ADORATION - RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from our house. 24 HOURS!!! How BLESSED are we?! We have decided as a family to dedicate two one-half hours of Adoration for all of our benefactors (Mission Partners). We pray for you daily, but every Tuesday and Thursday, we come to Jesus for you and your intentions. If there is a SPECIFIC PRAYER REQUEST that you would like us to pray for, PLEASE LET US KNOW at cawaldrop@familymissionscompany.com.

We can honestly say that Louisiana is certainly unique! From the people, to the food (no we have not tried crawfish yet, but we hear Abbeville is THE PLACE to get them), to the climate! We had MAYBE a week of cold enough weather for a sweater. On most days, we are wearing shorts in the 80 and 90 degree weather. It doesn't feel like the end of October!

We ask that you continue your prayers for us as we grow in this time of preparation for the field. Once again, you can be assured of our prayers. God bless you and your families.

Your brothers and sister in Christ,
Waldrops