Rattins living Coram Deo

We are loving the warm days and cool nights of the end of rainy season in Honduras. It has rained most of the trip (making photography less successful) but the weather has really been beautiful, especially coming from New England winter! We traveled safely and without any major challenges. The ease of travel without children was incredible! We receive word that the girls are doing just fine with the grandparents (hopefully the grandparents are doing just fine as well!). Our trip has been a dizzying journey of exploration, trying to see as many aspects of the ministries as possible, meeting every single missionary, milking every minute of conversation for all it’s worth as we gather information and as those here understand who we are and the heart that God has given us for missions. The Loma de Luz hospital is primarily outpatient with a small inpatient unit and limited resources. They do quite well with the resources that they have. The hospital has a cardiologist, several family docs,...

Well, the blog is about to get a little more interesting for a short while at least! Josh and I are headed to Honduras for about 5 days. We leave on Saturday. We leave the kids behind (!!!) with Josh's parents. They'll have a blast! I'm struggling with leaving them behind though. Gracie's been in much better health lately, few seizures, and no recent seizures requiring diastat, so she'll be fine... it's me... Missing even a day of my kids' antics is so hard on me! We are going to Northern rural honduras east of La Ceiba on an exploratory trip to determine if this rural mission hospital is where God would have us serve for the next four years. Very exciting! See below for an email that I just sent out. If you are not on our email list and would like to be, let me know! Pray us along our trip: Depart Boston, Saturday Feb 21st at 11:30am, fly through LGA (New York) and Miami, arriving in San Pedro Sula at 7:55pm. Saturday night: Spend the night with our d...

Gracie and I had fun making valentines for her classes - Gracie was intrigued with the hole punch but thought the rest was quite boring! Our lovey Ana has quite the motherly streak in her - she loves her "babies" (has been found to be changing her baby doll's diaper, including wiping her bum!) and takes care of Gracie already. She carefully hands things to Gracie directly into her left hand (the only hand that works) and is eager to take her things. She's quite a help at 14 months! She was overjoyed to encounter this "real" baby, her cousin Ella, who tolerated being "cared for" very well! My Gracie is such a beautiful girl! We are so blessed to have this gorgeous happy daughter! Look at this sleeping beauty! She looks fantastic in all the bright colors - I've become much more girly having this child in the house! Pink is not so bad after all! ;-) Gracie has become ALIVE again off lamictal. She's now on two meds, Depakote and Keppra, and sh...