Milliscreaming Sleep

I'm tired. Bone tired. Sometimes I look over my blog and realize that based on what I post, it may seem to you that we spend most of our time at waterfalls, beaches, pools, zip lines, restaurants...you know. Playing.
Allow me to set the record straight. I post about such things simply because during those few occasions we happen to have a camera and time to snap a few shots. Oh, we work. We work hard. Granted, there are some months that are slow, but that is only because it rains every minute of every day, discouraging much productive activity. This is not one of those months. No indeed. We are here to serve people and serve them well and we thank God for that opportunity. Over the past two months we have been hosting people at the Refuge back to back, well, overlapping, actually, and I have been overseeing the kitchen. Not a very daunting task right? Unless you factor in that we have no stable electricity, which means that we have no refrigeration, which means that all of the perishables must be purchased every day, which means that I have to go to the hot grocery store almost every day, which means that I have to drag Luka there with me too, which means that the whole time we're there he'll be begging for one of the balls in the large ball bin, which means that I'll hand one to him, which means that he'll be throwing it all over the store, which means that I'll be re-stacking things on the shelves, which means that I'll leave the store red faced and embarrassed hoping that please please Lord don't let me forget anything because I don't want to do that again, even though I know I'll have to go again tomorrow but please, no more of that today. And are we REALLY hoping to have another child? Or two? Please Don't let them be twins Lord! Because if they are, I quit, my job, my calling, motherhood and life in general.

I have also been spending the night on the mountain a lot lately, you know, just to make some logistics easier and to keeps things organized as much as possible. This was working out great. Until last night. Oooooh, last night. Sigh. A team came in last night and brought children with them. One of the little girls is two and needed a pack-n-play to sleep in. Being that our pack-n-play was already on the mountain for Luka, I let the Refuge borrow it for the little girl to sleep in. I knew I was going to be spending the night last night because I was cooking dinner for 27 people. I knew our sleeping arrangements were maxed out and that the only place for us to sleep was on a mattress on one of the bunk room floors. I thought Luka would just lay down like a perfect child and sleep peacefully. Exactly what was I thinking? Not only was Luka completely ecstatic about the fact that he got to sleep in a big bed with Momma all night, every time the girl in the bed next to us turned a page to her brightly clip lit book did he jump up and giggle. It. Took. Forever. For him to fall asleep. He did though, eventually. And so did I. Blissfully. Deeply. And then? My eyes popped open. What is this? Many, many, many of those things you see in that picture up there joined us in our bed. All night. All over us. Yeah.

Luka woke up for good at 5:37 a.m.

Yeah.

He also screamed at me and the kitchen staff for 40 minutes straight while we cooked breakfast for 24 people.

Yes.

Bone tired.