The parents are coming, the parents are coming!!!!

Well, Thursday is the big day!!! Mom and Dad are coming Thursday for a visit. Everyone is excited and looking forward to a fun week. The girls have their plans all lined up so we will see if Mom and Dad are up to the tourism schedule layed out by "Olivia and Claire Turismo Company"! HAHA

We are all anticipating their arrival so pray for safe travel, the bags to all arrive (no really, it means more velveeta!), and for Daddy to not try to invoke his "constitutional rights" at the immigration office in the San Jose airport.

Happy Birthday Claire!

Claire will turn 4 on March 2 and so we have had Birthday Celebrations all weekend. It started Friday night at the Play McDonalds with a huge crowd and a great party. On Saturday, we had a fellowship with our Argentina family and had cake again (poodle cake that she asked for). On Sunday, we will open more presents!!! Enjoy the video clips and pics.....I can't believe our little Claire-Bear is 4 yrs old.

You know you are a TCK when.....

Well, it finally happened the other day...the girls were out in the backyard swinging before school and they were just chatting away with each other. As I stepped onto the porch to watch them, Olivia said "Mom, where am I from? I mean am I from Arkansas, Richmond, Cancun or where?" The old joke is that you know you are an "MK" when someone asks you where you are from and you are not sure how to answer them. On the walk to school we retraced Olivia's life for her (all 5 yrs of it) to help her discern exactly where she was from.



Don't worry Mom....she KNOWS she is from the U.S.!!! You can hang up the phone from speed dialing me now! HA

Happy Valentine's Day!

The girls had a Valentine Party and passed out cards to all of their friends at school today. Mark and I were the helpers at the party in Liv's class so we took some photos and video for you guys. Check out the pinata!!! Can you believe Ms Lauren is brave enough to let a group of 13 kindergartners loose with a stick swinging?? She is very BRAVE ....and quick too....she almost got hit a time or two.

Prayer Request

Here are a couple of prayer request for opportunities with national relationships:
1. Mark has met a young (20's) man at the barber shop. Mark is able to practice his Spanish with "Christian" and has been able to have light conversation with him. Please pray that the opportunity will open up for more conversation as Mark tries to meet Christian once per week and hopefully begin to talk about spiritual things.

2. The girls have started taking ballet a couple of afternoons each week. Please pray that as I meet other mothers (this is a Spanish ballet school) that I will have opportunity to build friendships with these Tica's (Costa Rican Women) and hopefully begin to talk about spiritual things.

...AND I live in a foreign country!"

Well, if you have ever wondered how we missionaries whine let me give you a class real quick....it goes like this.....take any average, everyday type problem that could come up while living in the US or anywhere else and add to the end of the complaint....."AND I LIVE IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY!" (enter drama queen stage right!). That was my evening tonight. After a couple of things went wrong, I had to host a pity party but unfortunately I am the only one that showed up! Thus the life of an RLM (real life missionary).

Swimming Pool Fun

After a hard week of school...it's play time!! The girls got a swimming pool for the backyard and Mark filled it up today. It was a very sunshiney day ...perfect for a cool dip! Watch the video and enjoy. To play, just click on the arrow on the left of the screen.