Claire's Field Trip

Claire's 3 yr old class had a field trip yesterday to the Children's Library and OF COURSE I went along. We had a great time with reading books, face painting, a puppet show and just playing.

Here is a picture of Claire and her teacher "Teacher Tatiana".

We have a friend!

Mark and I had our FIRST Tico family over for dinner last Saturday night. We were so excited because the entire (5 hours) evening was in Spanish.....bad Spanish but still Spanish. We were excited to talk about all different kinds of topics including our faith, family and what a relationship with Christ means in our life.

The girls had a great time visiting with their daughter in all Spanish!

Please pray that this friendship will flourish to a more solid witness opportunity.

Earthquake & a Tropical Storm!!!

OK, we had our first earthquake last week (although I was disappointed because we were in a car and didn't feel it) BUT everyone said it rattled the house!!! Our friend, Socorro said she ran and got under the door frame and she was in our house when it happened.....AWESOME!! Also, we have had rain for several days now all day long and it is because (or so they say) we are in a tropical storm. Wow...2 natural events in 1 week AND I LIVE IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY!

Sir, get up on your feet Sir!

Ok, I have to tell this story on Mark. While we were at the beach he decided to learn how to SURF! So, he and Jonathon went to the surfing school. This young local guy was their instructor and had been surfing since he was 4 years old. In Mark's defense, he says that the sport is much harder than it looks.....but then he says that about Golf....about tennis.....pingpong, etc...... After 30 minutes of eating waves, the instructor say "Sir, you should get on your feet. Get up on your board and get on your feet."

Mark said the ultimate blow to his ego was when the guy carried his board back to the beach for him because he said "Sir, you look really tired". I have posted what Mark was SUPPOSED to look like surfing and what he ACTUALLY looked like.

Fun times with old friends

The Parsley family came to visit while we were on school break. We had a great time traveling around Costa Rica. It was neat to watch our kids interact. Our friendship goes way back to before either of us had children and now to see our families in fellowhsip is really neat.

We had a great visit!

A visit to the ER

Well, you always know that it is coming but you just don't know when.....the dreaded first trip to the emergency room in A FOREIGN COUNTRY (background music starts now). Seriously, that is one of those hard things about living away and being a Mom......"will I know how to take care of my kids, where to go and what to say?"

Olivia had a bout of croup that landed us in the ER at 12:30 AM. She woke up and couldn't breathe, had chest retractions and we couldn't ease up her breathing so to the ER we went. We called a cab and my next door neighbor for Claire and off we went. God was in control of the whole matter and things went very smooth.

After we got back home and could collect our thoughts enough to realize how God had worked out everything from waking us up in the middle of the night to calming Liv's nerves at the hospital to giving Claire peace to stay with Aunt Paula next door. It was incredible to see His hand in all of the details.

Arenal Volcano

Yesterday we returned from a nice couple of days of relaxation (and some fun!) at Arenal Volcano. Yes, it is an ACTIVE volcano!!!! We had a great time visiting with some old friends from the States, the Parsley family.

Mark, of course...Mr. Adrenaline Junky....did the 17 platform zip line across the treetops, the girls played in the pool and I "processed my loneliness" in the spa getting a volcano rock massage and facial (the facial thankfully didn't include using volcano rocks...YIKES!!). We had a great time going around to the lava side of the mountain each night to view the falling lava rocks and spray of fire from the top of the mountain. It was an awesome display of the POWER of God!!!

Here are some pics from the trip.