All I want for Christmas is a pressure cooker,

and a crockpot, and a stove, an oven, a refridgerator, an automatic washing machine, dryer, bed, table and chairs, sofa, kitchen cabinets, closets, window curtains, shower curtains, lamps... The list is way too long. Getting ready to move out of our furnished apartment and into our very unfurnished house has been a little overwhelming.

One overwhelming factor has been that household items, especially appliances, are really expensive here. They are often twice or even three times as expensive as they are in the States. We have been researching every appliance store we know of to get the best deals so that we make the most of the money we have allotted for this. Please pray for us to have wisdom!

We've also been realizing that when we lived in the States, the vast majority of what furnished our home was either given to us or borrowed. I think the only furniture we ever bought for ourselves was our couch. So, it's crazy now to need to buy everything. Here in Costa Rica, when you rent a place, it does not usually have appliances and you might have to put in your own closets or cabinets. That is the case for us. There is a lot to do in the next couple of weeks!

Where we will live soon...

In two weeks, we will be leaving San José and moving to Atenas. We are eager to get to the place we've been preparing to go to, and we are excited about what God has been preparing for us there. One of the things that we're excited about is our house. The story of finding this house is a story of God's provision and guidance.

In August, we spent a week in Atenas during a break from language school. During that time, we looked at some houses that were for rent just to get an idea of costs, locations, what was available, etc. It was discouraging because it seemed that what we were looking for was going to be hard to find. We wanted a house that was good for both our family and for our ministry. We found a couple of houses that would have been great for our family, but, because they were far from the center of Atenas, they were not so great for our ministry. We also found other houses that were a great location, but were not good for our family. Very few of the houses had a large living space that we feel would be beneficial for having over groups of interns, host families, etc. In addition, not very many houses are available to rent in Atenas because it is such a small town, and those that are for rent are often quickly snatched up.

When our team director and his wife returned to Costa Rica at the end of that week, they drove us around showing us some of the areas of Atenas they liked. They drove us into a neighborhood where one of our intern host families live. I remembered that I had been there before and liked it, and I also remembered that we really liked that host family. There were no for rent signs, but our team director pulled over at a house that was obviously not being lived in. Out of curiosity, we all got out of the car, and started looking around. The man across the street immediately came out of his house and asked, "Are you interested in renting that house?" !!!

He had the key and took us in the house. I almost cried; it was more than we had been hoping for. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, one large main room that is open to a kitchen with a lot of counterspace, lots of windows, a yard, and beautiful mountain views. The man told us that the owner's family was coming to Atenas that afternoon and we could meet them if we wanted. Later that afternoon, we met with them and basically made arrangements to rent the house. What's amazing is that the family, who actually lives very close to us here in San José, was coming to Atenas that afternoon to post advertisements about the house! What an encouragement to see how God put us in the right place at the right time!

Another amazing thing is that we are paying a similar rent to what we pay for our apartment in the city. Why? Well, here's the catch. The house is unfinished. It is definitely ready to be lived in, but there is still a lot of work to do. Dan was out there two weekends this month painting the inside of the house with the owner's family and some EMI staff. The EMI interns worked on it some a couple of weeks ago, too. There is an upstairs loft area that is completely unfinished. It will eventually have two additional rooms and a bathroom up there, but since we don't need that space now, it's not a big deal that it's unfinished. Kitchen cabinets, closets, and a laundry area outside need to be put in before we move in or soon after. Throughout our time living there, we will be working on the house and our rent will be used for materials, labor, etc. Of course, all of the engineers and architects on our team will be excited to help out!

We signed a three year contract, so this will be home for quite a while, longer than any other place we've ever lived in so far. We're excited to get to know our neighbors, who have been so friendly and welcoming (by the way, the man in this story is the same man we talked about in our latest newsletter). We are excited to set up our home and to open it up for ministry. We are thankful for this blessing. Please pray that we will be good and grateful stewards of it!

Timmy says...

...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We give thanks to God for His salvation, for our son, for bringing us to Costa Rica and for teaching us much more than Spanish during our months in language school! We are also so thankful for the love, support, and prayers of you all, our dear friends and family. May you all have a blessed Thanksgiving day!

Progress

Our Spanish is definitely improving, which is very good, since our focus has been Spanish study for the past 6 months. We've learned a lot. Sometimes I recognize the progress we've made, and it's so exciting! Today, as we were singing in church, I realized that I understand the songs so much better now than several months ago; I felt like I was truly worshipping in Spanish. It was great! I still haven't mastered grasping the whole sermon while trying to keep a squirming baby quiet, though.

I know that I make so many mistakes every day. I'm sure I often conjugate verbs into the wrong tense, saying that I'll do something tomorrow when really I did it yesterday. There are so many times that I take a really long time to say something because I don't know a word. Instead of just saying the one word, I use ten words to say what I'm trying to say! And, there are other times that I just say completely the wrong thing. A couple of examples come to mind:

Back in September, I wrote in a grammar class composition, "mi bebé nació el día antes de la fecha del vencimiento." (translation: my baby was born the day before his expiration date). Whew... good thing he got out in time! Just in case you're confused, I meant to say that our little guy was born the day before his DUE DATE. The same week, after putting my sleeping baby in the school nursery for a nap, I told the teacher, "Voy a regresar pronto para comerlo." (translation: I'm going to come back soon to eat him"). Fortunately, the teacher is used to talking to gringos who don't know what they're saying in Spanish. She just nodded and smiled, and probably laughed as I walked away! She must not think I'm a cannibal, because she willingly handed Timmy over when I came back to FEED him.

Recognizing the humor in our mistakes has helped us along. We definitely have made a lot of progress during our time in language school. While we still have much more to learn, we feel like we're getting to a good point to leave school and move on to more "normal" life in Atenas. Only three more weeks!

(And, because blog posts just aren't as fun without photos, the two photos here show how studying with a baby gets done around here!)

Fall, we missed you!

Sometimes it's hard for us to believe that it's the middle of November. This is the first year that we haven't experienced seasons in the way that we're used to. We haven't seen a single leaf change color, nor have we sipped apple cider, eaten my favorite pumpkin desserts, pulled out our sweaters and jackets, or visited the pumpkin patch. As cute as a photo of Timmy with a pumpkin would have been, I had to settle for something a little more, well, Costa Rican:

Timmy and his piña

"Um, Mom, isn't this supposed to be a pumpkin?"

how Timmy would have been dressed for the pumpkin patch...

Enjoy the last days of Autumn for us!

Where we live now...

I thought it might be interesting for you all to see where we live now. Since the beginning of June, we have been renting a little, furnished apartment in San Francisco de Dos Rios, the area of San José where our language school is located. We really love our neighborhood. What we love most about it is that we can walk everywhere - to school, the market, the bakery, the meat shop, some restaurants, and five different parks.

The photos I'm posting are from when we first moved in, so our place looks a little different (and a lot more crowded!) now. But, these at least give an idea of what it's like. I know if I wait to take recent photos, I'll never write this post! The top photo above is our apartment building (ours is the top door on the right) and the second photo above is the view we have from our front porch. Here's what it's like inside:

the main room (add a rug, desk, high chair and play pen to imagine how it is now!)

the eating area (and the front door)

the kitchen (and the door to the laundry patio)

our bedroom

what Timmy's room looked like before we got a crib and rocking chair

the laundry patio

You may have noticed we have bars on all our windows. That is standard here in the city. Every house or apartment building is surrounded by a wall, often with barbed wire or razor wire on top of it, with a locked gate and bars on the windows. It might look a little scary, but that's just part of life in the city here. We are used to it now, and in some ways, I like having a wall and a gate around our place; I definitely feel safe inside my home! I won't miss the bars, though, and I'm looking forward to the unobstructed views of the mountains we'll have from our house in Atenas. Check back soon to see where we will be living soon!

octubre

We have somewhat neglected our blog for the past month, even though there has been a lot to write about. In fact, I (Sarah) have a growing list of blog post ideas on a Post-It note on our computer, including posts about Costa Rica's Independence Day (which happened six weeks ago!), some of the funny Spanish mistakes we've been making, our ongoing fight with las hormigas, our house in Atenas, etc., etc. etc. The list keeps getting added to, but our blog does not!

My excuse, or at least my main excuse, is that October was not the easiest of months for us. Now that it is the start of November, we are nearing the half a year mark of living here. With that, some of the struggles of cultural adaptation have arisen; we sometimes just have a hard time not understanding the language (we call it a Bad Spanish Day), or miss home more than usual, or wonder when we'll do a better job getting to know people in this new place. In the midst of that, our whole family got sick with colds, nausea, and ear infections (there were six infected ears in our household a couple of weeks ago!). We were really sick and missed a lot of classes. We're beginning to study grammar concepts I've never studied before, so missing class was rough. We were sick during a week when it was very cold (for Costa Rica) and rainy. We had solid rain for four days straight! We felt pretty low, but as always, God lifted us up.

He brought us a breath of fresh air, a cool, refreshing breeze all the way from Kansas - my mom! Months ago, my mom planned to visit us during the last week of October and the timing couldn't have been more perfect. God is so wise! Having my mom with us for a week gave us a link with home that comforted our homesickness. It gave us time to rest and recover from being sick, thanks to her help with Timmy and housework and to her treat of a relaxing weekend at a lovely inn in Atenas. As we showed her around and introduced her to people at school or met new people with her in Atenas, we were reminded of what we love about living and working here in Costa Rica. And, of course, Timmy had a great time playing with and snuggling his abuelita all week long! (hmm... now I'm adding another topic to my blog post list: Timmy's time with his grandma...)

We were also blessed with another breath of fresh air - spiritual emphasis week at our school. The school arranged for a pastor from St. Croix (in the Virgin Islands) to come speak to our student body twice a day every day this past week. His talks definitely were encouraging and challenging as they addressed issues that we face here and in our walk with the Lord. But, what really brought the refreshing, cool breeze was the change in our schedule. Our classes were shortened to make time for the extra chapel times and our teachers could not give us any homework or tests all week long. Having this more relaxed schedule was a blessing to us. The revised schedule worked out so that I had extra time every day that I could spend gazing at the mountains and communing with the Lord. That time refreshed my soul! (another addition to the list: what I've been learning from the Word lately...)

Now we're looking ahead to six more weeks of language school and of living here in San José. It's hard to believe that we're that close to the end of this chapter in our lives. Please pray for us to remain refreshed as we finish.

More to come soon... if I can ever get started on that list of mine...