Robyn left for two weeks in October. She went to the States for her brother’s wedding.
Just before she left, we had the privilege of meeting her boyfriend, Austin, who came to Peru to visit. He was here about a week before flying back to the States with Robyn. We were glad that Robyn had a friend here for a while, and she seemed happy about it, too.
Not long before Austin arrived, our water heater started going wonky. It has a perennial problem where the doohickey that lets gas pass into the heater will not open. Tanner did surgery on it and removed the safety, bypassing the problem piece. This requires us to go through a series of steps to have hot water: (1) Open the faucet or shower (2) turn on the ticker/igniter at the water heater (3) open the gas valve (4) Poof! You have hot water. Then we must do that in reverse to not have hot water.
What happens to the uninitiated (and to the forgetful initiated) is that the gas is opened before the igniter, leading to a moderate to loud Boom! when the gas ignites, as Austin discovered a time or two. Yes, I know that this is not the best option and is not incredibly safe, but it works until we are able to replace the water heater. We have not sold enough rabbits to pay for a new water heater yet. đ
When we weren’t blowing Austin up, I think he enjoyed his time here. He and Caleb worked together on a few projects here at the farm, including repairing the fire damage in the barn. Again, thank you to several of you who sent donations to help with the fire damage; that went a long way toward the total cost. We are grateful.
Steph and I asked Robyn and Austin to babysit for us when we went for our doctor checkup in Cusco. Everything is looking good with the baby. At that point, the doctor estimated the baby weighed about 5.5 pounds and had eight weeks to go. Looks like this baby will be maybe as big as Anne and Abbey were who weighed nearly 9 pounds at birth.
While Robyn was away, we had a hybrid schedule for part of the time that allowed us to get school mostly done and then gave us time to help Steph at home. It worked okay. Steph really missed Robyn’s help, but we all pitched in and made it work without too many crises. While I wasn’t glad that Robyn wasn’t here, I confess that I enjoyed being able to walk around in my pajamas in the evenings once again. đ Having visitors and/or house help most of the past several years does means we don’t have as much privacy as we otherwise might, but we’re glad to share our home.
Robyn flew back alone. She was a little nervous about that at first, but things went very smoothly for her, thankfully. We are now at 25 days until the baby’s estimated due date. We are all eager to have the baby here, none more so than Steph. We deal with worry a bit over what the delivery may be like with how scary Daisy’s birth was, but we are working to cast our fears on the Lord.
It will be wonderful to have Robyn’s help over this time. She is an ideal help for Steph. They get along well, and Robyn is disciplined, eager, helpful, and cheerful, all the things Steph most needs in a helper. Robyn’s parents certainly deserve a sticker for their training program: it has certainly worked well.
Juan David 