Happy Birthday To Evie

We are officially parents of a two year old. Evie turned 2 on the 15th of May. I had been looking for a certain gift to get her but could only find half of what I wanted to get her and the half I found does not work without the other half. Her birthday ended up getting here and I having nothing to give her for her birthday. I was incredibly crushed, even though she didn't think anything about it. Around 6:30 on her birthday, one of our fellow IMB missionaries called and asked if she could bring a little something down to Evie. She had bought a little princess drum for her. I was so touched by this gesture that the next day I could not control the tears from coming when I thanked her from the bottom of my heart. God is Good!

The next night I did make a chocalate cake for her birthday to serve at our first IMB meeting. I had baked it the evening of her birthday and then was going to ice it before I took it to the meeting the next evening. We returned home from school and Aaron said "don't flip out but, Yolanda (our house helper) ate a piece of the cake!" So I had to take the cake with a piece taken out of it. I guess this is a cultual thing, I have since found out. Oh well, glad she enjoyed it.


Mylee and I also attended a baby shower and what an experience it was. They had a lot of games, a lot of food and a lot of presents. While the new mom is opening her presents they play the game of whosever presents are first, seventh and last will be the next babies in the church. My gift was number 8! Close call!

On Sunday evenings we attend a house church that our supervisors on the field, David and Ana have been trying to get up and running. So far we have not branched out beyond the family whose house we are meeting in. WE are hoping to change this Sunday when we will be celebrating Yolanda's birthday and have invited the neighbors to the party hoping to get some new contacts. Pray this time will be successful. Pray for Francisco, Yolanda, and their son Moises, that they would be used by God in their neighborhood. Yolanda is also our house helper and does a tremendous job, helping us out with household chores so that we have more time with studies and as a family. Praise the Lord for Yolanda.

Click here for some more pics of time at the park, cooking class with David and Ana , "monkey brain" fruit, the flowers I bought for 3 dollars at the market and our little lizard friend we stop and say hello to every day walking to class! Enjoy.

May2008-2

Doing well!

We made it through our first full week of classes! However we both have our first exams this week. Pray we can do well. I would've made my dad proud Friday night when I played a game of basketball against the senior girls basketball team. It was exciting to know I could still make a few baskets! But the senior girls ended up winning 21 to 20 at the very end. Their coach also played a bit because they were missing 3 girls so that helped them out a bit. I guess I could go ahead and say I made 10 of our 20 points. It was the first time I was the high scorer ever! It was just a really fun time for me.

Above is a picture of the flowers Aaron bought for me from a street vendor for 6 dollars. They were so beautiful. Next week I will post a picture of the bouquet from the market today that I bought for 3 dollars! The other picture is of the girls playing in our front yard with their babies. We love it because Evie can't go anywhere because she is detained by the locked gate! These are all the pics I have for this week. Hope to have more next week.

First Two Weeks...

May 2008-1

They have been very full. We have had 3 days of classes and we each have our different experiences with them. Aaron and I have Grammar class together but then Phonetics and Language in different classes. I feel my 2 years in High School is really paying off. I am wishing I would've paid a little more attention to it! Aaron loves his classes as well and we are adjusting very well. We are all sleeping very good and trying lots of new foods. But there is plenty of Gringo food here as well. For dinners we have fixed hamburgers and chicken on the grill, and last night we made tacos for our missionary friends.

We have a swimming pool on our back porch now for the girls to play in and they absolutely love it. We are getting into rainy season and a bit cooler (70s) but they don't seem to mind that. We went to a local market and bought some yummy fruits and veggies. It was an experience cutting up my first pineapple! I also gave Aaron his first haircut here and we ended up taking almost all of it off because Aaron wanted me to try something new. It didn't go very well. So he now has really short hair. But he says he wants it this short all the time because it is cooler.

Please continue to pray for our safety here. We are Americans and unfortunately are targeted for crime. We actually feel pretty safe here in our neighboorhood but crime can happen anywhere. Please also pray for some of our missionary friends who were pregnant with twins, but went into preterm labor at 25 weeks. These little girls are very little and having several complications. Please visit Ted and Kerri's website at www.dewettsonmission.blogspot.com to find out more specific prayers. Click on the picture above to view a few more pictures. Enjoy!

Saying Goodbye & Saying Hello

What a busy last two weeks we have had! We were able to get all packed up and had everything weighed at 50 pounds each. We decided we wanted to take 1 extra bag with us to make a total of 9 bags plus carry ons going to the airport with us. Thank you to Doug and Arlene Driskell who offered their suburban to haul all of our bags up there. We get there and went to weigh our bags at check in to find all of them were 5-9 pounds too heavy. I guess our scale didn't match theirs. So Aaron decided to find a close Walmart and went to buy another suitcase. While he was gone, my dad and I started weighing all of them again and removing items to add to the extra suitcase coming. We got it down to a pile on the scale weighing in at 47 pounds hoping the suitcase didn't weigh more than 3 pounds. We ended up leaving the girls hooded towels, two pairs of jeans, a pair of jogging pants and a devotional book.

After we got all of that taken care of we were needing some lunch for us and the girls. Really more for the girls than us for a peaceful flight. About a quarter mile down the airport there was a Burger King. There were no other kid-friendly places to order from closer to our gate. The problem was they were moving so slow and there was a really long line. If it hadn't been for the kids I would've left but they needed to eat. So I waited. I finally made it back to the gate about 30 minutes out from the flight time. So we decided to eat on the plane. We said our goodbyes and went through security. It was at that point we found out we were selected for additional screening. So they had to take every thing out of our carry ons to test for any chemicals. Because they had to do this, it caused us to miss our first flight by 5 seconds. We stood there and watched the stairs pull away from the airplane. I was really disappointed and scared because I really didn't know what this meant for us. So they told us to go back to the ticket counter to see what other flights we could get on to get to Atlanta.

We found out there was a flight available with 2 coach seats at 3:30pm (our first flight was at 12:50pm)and 2 first class seats for about 900 more dollars. We passed on that option. We decided to go ahead and book the coach seats for Mylee and I on the 3:30 thinking it was going to be easier to find 2 seats instead of 4. After about 20 minutes of looking at other flights and trying to see what was going to work they told us all to go to the gate at 3:30 and they were going to try to get us all on that flight. We had to go through additional security again but this time we did it an hour and a half before flight time. It was time for Mylee and I to board so we go on not knowing if Aaron and Evie were going to be on the flight with us or not. Talk about walking in faith. Mylee and I sat on the plane and prayed that Daddy and Evie would be able to get on with us. The next thing I knew Evie showed up in our seats and there was Aaron with her. It was a most joyous moment. Come to find out the ticket lady had told Aaron that she broke some rules and pulled some strings for us and was going to trust God to take care and hers and her co-worker's jobs. We are eternally grateful for what those ladies did for us that day!

The next day went so much better for us. We got to the Atlanta Airport after a good nights sleep at the Hilton Airport, booked and paid for by a local church. We did the curbside international flight check in and went so smoothly. Then we found our way to security and found the line to be atleast a mile long if stretched out. No kidding. We stood and just stared and knew there was no possible way of making our flight once again. Until a security gaurd said we needed to get in the children's line, which was past all the people standing in the mile long line and to the front! We couldn't believe it. Needless to say that Evie could have gotten anything she wanted that day. It still took us about 30 minutes to get through because being selected AGAIN for additional screening but nothing near what we would have been waiting in the other line. We were Praising God for this.

We got a meal on the plane and the girls slept the last hour and a half even during the landing which seems to always be the worst for Evie. We were also able to watch National Treasure II and were able to spread out over 6 seats because our whole row was vaccant! It was so great. We got off and was told to go to another children's line at immigration so we didn't have to wait again because of Evie in the stroller. Got through that and customs oh so smoothly. I guess God knew we had already been through alot the previous day and wanted to give us a break. We found Scott and Sherry and made it to our house safely.

We have already had a little culture shock hit us with how crazy the traffic is and how pedestrian's have no rights here. If you get in the way they will hit you. But the side walks are too uneven for the stroller so the street is a lot faster. We will just pray and trust God to keep us safe. We love our house and will post some pics just as soon as we get settled and things are put away. We thank you for your prayers and are ready to begin language school on Wednesday. Below is a link to some pictures of our last few days in the states and the first couple of days in Costa Rica. In a couple weeks I will have some more airport pictures up. But this is what we have for now! Enjoy.

April 2008-3