Trace Baldwin Day

After a week of contractions, 24 hours in the hospital, and a little help from a drug by the name of pitosin...we have a baby! Trace Baldwin Day was born at 7:05 pm on July 28, 2008. Weighing in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. and with a reach of 20 inches, the little guy is finally here! Everything went well and is continuing to go great. We are all a little tired (except Charyse), but other than that we are doing wonderful :) Thank you to all who have been praying for us! We look forward to seeing you again soon and introducing you to our newest addition. We will have more to come once we are back at home...for now, here are some pics of the day's events.

Waiting, and waiting...and waiting...cutely!


First Light


The Incredible Dr. Nguyen


Proud Big Sister


Congrats to Mommy


The Family


First Kiss


Proud Aunt B


All clean and shiny!

Already / Not Yet

Erin is having contractions already (for about a week now) but the baby is still not here yet. We have the car seat in the car already, but nothing to put in it yet. We have our bags packed to go to the hospital at a moments notice, but no reason to go yet. In this strange period of anticipation and anxiousness I am reminded of the same struggle that exists throughout Scripture and in our spiritual lives as well. If you have ever done much research or just spent a decent amount of time in the Word, you know what I am talking about. We are already reborn, but not yet complete in the process. We have been transformed in our mind, heart, and spirit, but not yet physically nor completely in our mind. We are already coheirs with Christ, but we have not yet received our inheritance, have we? This struggle that exists between the "already" and the "not yet" is where Paul spent most of his time writing...see: Romans 6:4-5; 8:18-19, 23-25; 1 Cor. 13:9-12; 2 Cor. 5:16-21; Galatians 3:26-4:7; Ephesians 2:3-7; 3:19-22; Philippians 3:10-14; etc. The list could go on, but I think you get the point :). If you notice, I went in order of the books Paul wrote (at least the order they are in in the Bible), and he talks about this struggle in every book...multiple times! The reality is, the entirety of our lives is lived between the Already and the Not Yet. We have been entered into the story during the 2nd act of what we know is at least a 3 act play (thanks to John Eldredge for this analogy). In simpler terms, our live can be summed up by the simple " / " that separates the Already / Not Yet...kind of like the dash between dates on a tombstone (April 13, 1983 - September 3, 2000). I know it is a very humbling and almost depressing thought to think that our lives can be summed up so simply, but then again - we are not the main characters of the story. Our role, in both the Already and the Not Yet, is to get as close to the main character as possible. This uncomfortable tension is heightened by the knowledge that we canNot Yet do this perfectly. I find myself often waiting impatiently for the Not Yet rather than savoring the Already or the " / ", and the funny part about waiting impatiently is that it makes everything seem to take longer. For example, the last week of waiting for little guy to show up has felt like a month of my "normal life." We have ALREADY made all the preparations, washed all the new clothes, cleaned the car, and even put new batteries in the camera! And while this should make me feel more prepared and comforted, it only makes me aware of how little preparation I have been putting toward the real NOT YET. I am not appreciating the Already, enjoying the / or yearning for the Not Yet...how are you doing?

Day by Day...we wait

I doubt there is still anyone out there reading this, but for my own entertainment I am going to continue writing. A lot has happened since June 2, but most notable has been the prolonged waiting for the arrival of baby number 2. Erin's due date is officially this Saturday, but she has been having contractions since Friday and was told by the doctor he'd be here by now. So, most of our time has been spent in waiting and last minute preparations for the little guy. During that time span we have managed to enjoy our summer break and our time together as a family (by far the biggest reward of being a teacher - the summers with your family). I have posted a collection of pictures below from our adventures this summer (nothing like a drive to Alaska and back, but still some good pics :)

Galveston Island and Crystal Beach:



Uncle Jay's B-Day and the "tall skyscrapers downtown":




Charyse being Charyse:
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More to come soon...like pics of the little guy and some reflective writing about why I haven't been writing this summer like I said I would. May the Lord bless you and keep you until then...

My how time flies...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Seems to be the common theme around here for the last 4 days. We celebrated Brie's birthday on Friday, our dear friend Ami's on Saturday, and today is Charyse's 2nd! With all due respect to the other ladies, Charyse was definitely the cutest of the birthday girls...and was in an especially good mood tonight :). With Jay and B working, it was a small celebration with just mom and dad...but not to be forgotten are the parties we had yesterday with Ya-Ya, Yo-Yo, and Aunt Heather and the upcoming party this Sunday with the rest of "The Crew." Before it's all said and done she will probably think that birthdays are supposed to last for weeks, if not longer! Anyway, I have attached some pictures below. The video is pretty self-explanatory and the pictures say enough by themselves. The baseballs, glove, and "hockey stick" (more commonly known as a baseball bat) were all gifts from Pops...they complement the tricycle, mini-trampoline, swimming lessons, and swimsuit she received yesterday nicely. Which, if I were two, would bring up the question - why don't we have birthdays everyday?!

Explanation

Rather than trying to sum up the trip in one ridiculously long post, I have decided to break the trip down into parts. Below I have posted the first 2 (of 4) sections about the trip. I will be updating the rest of the pictures and details as the week goes on...I would like to say tomorrow, but I don't want to make any promises. :) I appreciate your patience as I try to catch up - on a lot of things, but even more I appreciate your prayers. God is faithful. Praise Him, and thank Him - daily.
Once I finish updating the blog with the details of our trip, I will be using this blog to share more of my personal reflections on the more significant things of life. God has shown me a lot about his character and his heart. I will seek to share those things with you as He continues to lead me. My desire since 9th grade has been to make Paul's statement in Acts 20:24 true in my own life. It has led me to incredible places, like Chile, but it has been a journey of the Spirit far more than a physical journey...I hope you can trust God enough in your own life to lead you on such journeys. Anyway, more to come on that later :). I am home, safe, and I am blessed to have a wonderful wife, daughter, family, and friends like you. Thank you.

Spectacular Views

While Chile is not a very "big" country, it is incredibly long. It's length gives it a unique claim to various different geographic features with varying climates. The northern part consists mostly of desert, with few towns. Central Chile occupies most of the county's population - 7 of the 13 million live in Santiago, which is the center of Chile in just about every way. As you head down further south (where we spent most of our time) the towns become smaller, the mountains bigger and more jagged, and the lakes multiply. Most of the bodies of water we were around were lakes, not the ocean. From the traditional map view, there does not look like there is room for many lakes, but from the ground it appears surprisingly similar to Alaska with lakes and ponds scattered throughout the terrain...the most beautiful, as in Alaska, are fed by glaciers.


This one is my brochure picture for the travel agency ;).

Southern Chile is also the site of the world famous Patagonia. We had the "privelage" of experiencing it from both the air and the ground. Erin posted the picture already of our plane, and I have posted a short video clip from the plane. Here are a few more pictures from the air.





What you may not have heard yet, is the story of our famed bus ride. Allow me to entertain you with circumstances of my sufferings:
A few years ago, on my journey to Ecuador, I was blessed with the experience of what it means to be "car sick" for the first time in my life. It came in the middle of our 9 hour bus ride down a mountain from Quito to Guyaquil (which is only a 25 minute flight). On that tilt-a-whirl ride I was blessed with a view down into a gorge filled with running white water at the bottom, the sounds of Sylvester Stallone's Cliffhanger (dubbed in Spanish), and frequent trips to the bus lavatory...the trip ended with us stopping at a "convenient" store where I was greeted by a child with a goat on a leash. I know, it sounds like a plot for a bad movie - but it is the honest truth.


This trip started out much the same - we got off of a plane, spent the night, and were awakened to board the bus early in the morning. Once we boarded the bus I could tell it was not going to be a good day. For starters, most of the guys had gone out to "socialize" the night before and did not have time to shower this morning when they returned. The other obvious problem that jumped out to all of us was the fact that none of the windows opened...our desperate hope for a working air conditioner was also quickly shot down. About 30 minutes into the ride, in 80 degree heat, the majority of the guys were stripping clothes trying to cool off. Whether due to exhaustion or despair from no other way to escape the heat, everyone started falling asleep.

As we rode along the dirt road, in our oven, I was able to take in some breathtaking views and capture some beautiful pictures:



Just to make sure we didn't suffocate, overheat (the bus), or suffer from heat stroke, we made occasional stops where everyone bailed out of the bus for a breath of fresh air. It was during one of those stops I was able to capture the footage below...which I know none of you would believe if I just told you. Here is the setting:

Our bus on the dirt road. Everyone walking around topless (no women within 200 miles), sorry. There is a river running about 40 yards to the right of the bus. When it rains it supposedly overflows its banks and covers this road (made me feel at peace about the heat :). Thus, there is standing water in both of the ditches alongside the road. After observing this, one of the guys riding along with us - who I later found out is an electrician - runs back onto the bus and emerges with his "fishing gear."



If you cannot tell what he is holding, it is a coffee can with a wodden handle screwed into the middle. He has punched a hole in the side of the can and tied the fishing line to the handle. The rest of the line is wrapped around the outside of the can, like a reel. I must give him credit for resourcefulness, but I am also a little concerned. I would love to see what he could do with an actual pole! The most interesting part of this whole ordeal is that the 3 or 4 fish we saw in the ditch were not much bigger than an anchovy. Anyway, he did not catch anything (surprise), but it defintely provided a much needed diversion from the bus ride.
We continued along the road until we finally reached the thriving metropolis of:

Don't let the sign fool you...this place is no Hollywood. In fact, once we reached the town center we had to unload our bags and put them in the back of pick-up trucks so we could get to our various "hotels" for the night...did I mention this was part of the "exhibition" part of the trip?

Our trip was two-pronged. One aspect was the competitive basketball and the attempt to earn contracts with the teams. The other was to travel throughout the country playing local teams in attempt to raise their level of excitement about basketball, and in the long run, help raise the level of basketball in the country...it was the latter part that brought us to towns such as Cochrane. You can find more on this part under the blog to come - "Basketball Lessons."

Food

For anyone who has ever been to South America, you already know what breakfast consists of - bread and butter - and if you're lucky, maybe a little ham and/or jelly. Everyday, every restaurant, bread and butter. Some mornings it is rolls, some days crossiants, others it might be dry toast...but there is always butter! Unlike my previous trips to South America, there was no Coke on the table for breakfast this time.
Lunch and dinner are a different story. For those of you who may not know, Chile is the largest salmon producing country in the world. In fact, most of the salmon we eat in the States comes from Chile - not Alaska (despite what most menus say). That being said, I had salmon once - and I am the only one who did. I ventured off by myself one night in Port Montt to a little restaurant called Dino's. For an appetizer, I had an avacado, halved, and filled with shrimp, then topped with butter - I don't know, they like butter.

The salmon was stuffed with shrimp and cheese and covered with a butter and whisky sauce...it was delicious.

Dessert was capped off with a fruit parfait topped with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, wafers, and a cherry.

This was not the normal menu, nor the cheapest :). Most of our meals started off with a "salad." "Salad" to them is a plate of quartered tomatoes mixed with sliced onions. Our main course was usually some sort of meat (usually chicken, occasionaly beef) and rice. In some of the nicer places they brought out plates of meat and let us serve ourselves.

This was not the norm though...it was usually 'a' piece of meat with either rice or papas fritas (french fries). I have honestly eaten more french fries in the past month, than in any year of my life...and I was happy to have them :). Another one of my more unique meals was a "burger" I ordered at a place called Club 77. One of the numerous restaurants on the side of the road in Pucon, it was owned by the brother of the lady who owned our hotel. Anyway, the burger was more like skirt steak, covered with green beans, lettuce, and a "mustard" sauce. Very good, and even better with the aji sauce (chili) you can see in the background.

All in all, the food was good. My only personal complaint is that I did not get enough...we usually ate three meals a day - 9:00a, 2:00p, 11:00p. That is not enough food for people who are playing basketball games everyday and trying to satisfy high metabolisms. Thankfully, my foresight and planning proved critical...my diet was filled in with three boxes of instant oatmeal and three boxes of microwave popcorn to cover the gaps between meals. I still lost weight on the trip overall, but it was minimized by my snacks and, even more importantly, my AdvoCare vitamins :).

On the beverage side of things, juice was the favorite and was the most prized commodity among the team. Unfortunately, the Chileans did not know this and just like every other time I have been in South America, they were constantly trying to provide Coke, Sprite, and Fanta. Again, I consumed more soft drinks in the last month than in any year of my life :). And again, the ReHydrate and SPARK I packed proved to be critical. At any point in the trip you could find me with 3 bottles of water - a 5 liter bottle in my room, a 1.5 liter bottle attached to my backpack, and a 12 ounce bottle inside my backpack. The process would filter down from the 5 liter bottle into the 12 ounce bottle, where the water was mixed with the appropriate supplement. The wine, which Chile is most "famed" for, was surprisingly disappointing. Supposedly, they export all of their "best" wine to the US (imagine that). You could find wine in every store on every street. It was relatively cheap, like a bottle of Yellow Tail in the States, but it was to hard to know which was worth buying. The locals pointed me to a few bottles of what they said was the best, but the price jumped significantly - more than I was willing to spend :).
So, the question most of you are probably looking for the answer to, "What did you want to eat when you came back?" In reality, and this definetly shows I am getting old, I missed vegetables more than anything else. Simple things like green beans, squash, zuccini, CORN...I know, disappointing, but I honestly had no desire for a hamburger or a hot dog, sorry.

Safe and sound!

Heath is home -- ahead of schedule! YAY! He and the team returned home today instead of Friday, and we are both happy that he is back safely. More updates are on the way -- he will be posting more pictures tomorrow and giving the "inside story" on his crazy trip. We are praising God!

Ups and downs

Thankfuly, Heath and the team are back in Santiago for two more games before returning to the US this Friday. The past two weeks have been extremely eventful in both positive and negative ways. The team won the tournament they played in Lautaro last week, and during that tournament Heath made some very good contacts with both Chilean and Argentinean teams. On the downside, it appears that we were grossly mislead by Patrick, the trip organizer, in several ways, including the nature of contract opportunities, the quality of teams scheduled for games, and how the trip would be managed in Chile. We are disappointed, but we are still hopeful -- as I mentioned, Heath has played very well, made some good contacts, and we are praying that God will work through those. We are also praying that they are more trustworthy than Patrick & Co.! Please continue to lift up our family as we decide how to proceed with this dream. :) A few pictures from last week:

At least he's going against the flow of traffic.

Looks like a cathedral, doesn't it?

Nice landscape. :)