Our Costa Rican Christmas: let it snow?

A few days ago, Dan arrived home from the office just as it was getting dark outside and as Timmy woke up from his nap. The three of us settled down on the couch for a little family snuggle while we gazed at the lights on our Christmas tree. I said contentedly, "it doesn't get much better than this." Dan then vocalized what we both immediately thought after what I had said - if it was snowing outside, it would be better. But, it's just not going to snow in Costa Rica! We just feel like it should be snowing because we're North Americans who've grown up feeling like white Christmases are the ideal.

Ticos seem to be really into snow at Christmas time as well. We see snowman decorations everywhere.  "Let It Snow" (in English!) signs are hanging on front doors, and we hear "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" playing in the stores. It makes us laugh. Last week, Timmy got as close as he's going to get at making a snowman this year. (Thanks, Bree, for sending these craft supplies to us!). He loved our creation, hugged it repeatedly, and carried it around with him all day. It now resides on his bedroom door.

As much as we dream of white Christmases, we know that this Christmas will be very green! 

Our Costa Rican Christmas: our tree

Here in Costa Rica, Christmas trees seem to be just as popular as in the States, and Ticos either have artificial trees or natural cyprus trees (we don't have a lot of pine trees around here).  I love that here in Atenas many people put their fully decorated trees out on their front porches so we all get to enjoy them! 

It's too long of a story to share, but it took us a long time to find any tree that we could buy, and we finally ended up buying a cyprus tree in the parking lot of Maxi Bodega, a store in Alajuela, the capital city of our province.  This was a little different than our family's tradition of going to a tree farm on my birthday, choosing a tree, cutting it down, enjoying hot cocoa in the farm's farmhouse... but, we got a tree!

We left the tree in a pot of water on our back porch for several days.  The intense Costa Rican sun didn't help the bush-like tree and we were a little sad to find that it was really browned when we finally got around to getting it inside.  Fortunately, it needed a lot of trimming any way to give it more of a Christmas tree shape!

You might notice that our tree is in a flower pot.  That's what they do here.  You can't get what we think of as a traditional Christmas tree stand here, so we were told to fill a bucket or pot with gravel, stick the tree in, put more gravel in, and pour water into it.  It works, and I think it's cute, even if the tree needs to straightened a couple time every day!

We made hot cocoa to drink while we decorated, but we both felt like sipping on it wasn't quite the same when it wasn't at all cold outside. In fact, the marshmellows we'd splurged for for this very event melted together into one big clump in the bag!  Even so, it was fun.

I got really excited as Dan put the lights on the tree and we got out the ornaments we had brought here from the States.  Two years ago, when I was pregnant with Timmy and we knew we'd be living in Costa Rica the next Christmas, I packed away our favorite ornaments into a little box that we moved here with us.  It was so fun to unwrap each familiar, pretty ornament and remember who gave it to us or when we got it.  We added some glass balls and ribbon that we bought here.

We wanted to Timmy to join in the decorating, and he did, but we got started too late and he was sleepy.  The progression of Timmy photos below makes me laugh:

...putting an ornament on the tree...

...ready for bed and not too happy that mommy wants a photo by the tree...

... subdued by the pacifier that he's normally not allowed to have outside of the crib...

... hugging Daddy and wishing someone would put him to bed.

After Timmy went to bed, we added a star on top, a bow around the pot, and later a few handmade ornaments made out of craft materials my mom and wonderful friend Catherine sent to me.  Here is what it ended up looking like:

My favorite part is that the lights reflect in our tile floor.  We missed out on that with our carpeted living rooms in the past.  It is so fun to be experiencing Christmas in a new place!

Photo Friday: the beauty of the season

In the midst of our beautiful decorations and our gift-giving, I pray that we'll remain focused on the awe-striking beauty of the real meaning of this special season.

Last Bible study

Last week, we had the last Bible study with this term's group of interns.  It was a sweet night of sharing what God has taught us through the study and how He has worked in our hearts to change us over the past four months.  Dan had asked the interns to share something creative that would summarize this, and it was a blessing to see and hear what they shared.  Christy wrote a poem, Ben drew an illustration, Nick designed a creative photo collage, and Avery wrote a song which he performed on guitar, with Nick on harmonica.  The night became especially poignant when the electricity went off and we did the sharing time by candlelight!

Here are each of the interns posed with Timmy (taken before the loss of electricity):

with his fun buddy Nick

listening to Avery play guitar

hanging out with his friend Ben

happy with Christy

We said good-bye to these interns on Monday, and we all miss them.  I hope to write more about our good-bye soon (along with what we learned about how you say good-bye to those you love here in Costa Rica!).

Our Costa Rican Christmas

This will be our first Christmas in Costa Rica!  Last year, after graduating from language school in mid-December, we returned to the States to celebrate Christmas with our families.  Even though lately I've been having a few tinges of nostalgia and homesickness thinking about what Christmases have always looked like for us before this one, I have been really excited all year about experiencing Christmas here for the first time. It is fun to learn how another culture celebrates Christ's birth, and celebrating Christmas here with our Tico friends makes this seem more like home.  I'm also excited about being in our own home for Christmas so that we can start to form some of our own traditions as a family.  I love thinking about believers around the world preparing for this special celebration, worshipping the Lord during Advent, and identifying with those long ago who anticipated the coming of the Messiah.  For the next couple of weeks, I'll be sharing here about our Costa Rican Christmas. 

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

la fuga

Unfortunately, the Spanish word la fuga has become a way too frequently used word in our house.  In fact, we have had four major fugas and countless smaller ones.  We never learned the word fuga (which means "leak") in language school, but we have used it way more than we would have ever wanted to all year long living here in Atenas.  After living in the house for about a month, there was a leak in the bathroom plumbing which resulted in the whole house flooding... twice.  The first time, Dan woke up at 3am and stepped into standing water as he got out of bed.  At 5am, we were still tossing buckets full of water out of the windows of our house, mopping, and wringing out towels.  Thankfully, the fuga that caused those two big floods has been successfully repaired for a long time. 

We have had another fuga in the bedroom wall, and another outside, and more recently, we have had fuga after fuga in laundry room.  For several weeks, our laundry room (and sometimes the area of our house next to it) was completely flooded about every other day!  Then, our hot water heater started erupting, so that there was very, very hot water spraying out of it into the laundry room sporadically throughout the day.  The first time this happened, Dan was working on the fugas in that room, so he was really close to the hot water heater; I'm so thankful he didn't get burned!  I just heard a loud popping noise and then the sound of rushing water, and then saw Dan sprinting out of the room faster than I've ever seen him move before and into our bedroom to switch off the breaker for the hot water heater!  Whew!  Never a dull moment in our house!  (note: our water heater is not like ones we have in the States.  It's very small and just heats the water that runs through it as we use hot water in the house.  We have had similar types of water heaters in the showers only, which are called "widow makers", unfortunately.)

After repeated tries to repair the most recent fugas, it seems that they are finally repaired (thanks to our new friend Jose Luis, expert plumber/electrician and former mayor of Atenas!).  We're still working on the hot water heater.  At best, we have lukewarm showers, which is way better than cold showers, but we'd like to get back to hot showers and not needing to flip the breaker on and off each time we want to shower.  Hot water or no, I'm so thankful to not have a flooded house anymore.  May the word fuga become a much less commonly used word in our household once again!

Honoring our host families

A month or so ago, Dan and I planned our second host family appreciation event (I never got a chance to blog about the first, but those of you who receive our newsletters heard about it and saw photos).  I love this event because it so fun to get the families who host our interns and all of the EMI staff together in one place.  We provided a dinner to honor the host families and to thank them for all of the ways that they bless our interns and our staff.  Dan and I are continually amazed at how these families so wholeheartedly welcome the interns into their families, treating them as their own sons and daughters.  The interns are always blown away by the love and acceptance they receive from their Tico families.  These families are our closest Tico friends and we are so, so thankful for them. 

We asked the interns to share with the host families about their project trips to Haiti.  The host families really appreciated this because it showed them how they are partnering with us in ministry by hosting our interns.  The interns did a great job explaining everything in Spanish.  It's amazing how much they learn living with these families!

Here Christy and Ben talk about their trip to Arachaie with Dan...

...while host families listen intently. (sorry the photo quality is so bad!)

This is what I consider our whole EMI team: the EMI staff families, the interns, AND the host families!

Thankfulness

This post is going to seem a little outdated as it is more than a week after Thanksgiving, fall back in the States seems like it is over as snows and freezing temperatures arrive, and preparation for Christmas is in full swing.  It's hard for me to realize this quick passing of one season to another and one holiday to another here where the weather is sunny and warm year round!  Rainy season does seem to be over, so there is a slight change and our Tico friends are telling me that this is the weather of Christmas time, but so far, I'm still getting used to the fact that fall and Thanksgiving passed so quickly. 

It is also hard to believe that we have now celebrated two Thanksgiving days in Costa Rica!  This Thanksgiving, we felt so much more settled, so much more at home, than we did last year and that is one of our biggest praises to God in this season.

We started out el Día de la Acción de la Gracias (literally "the day of the action of thanks"; isn't that a great name?) with a special family breakfast of French toast and bowls of great tropical fruit.  As we ate, Dan and I wrote out the blessings that we are praising the Lord for this year as we "come before Him with thanksgiving."  This is a tradition I'd like to continue each year on Thanksgiving day so that over the years, we can look back and joyfully praise the Lord for His faithful, constant working in our lives.

After breakfast, Timmy got to experience some fall fun with the fake leaves that I had used to decorate our breakfast table.  I had no idea he would have so much fun having the leaves dropped over his head again and again!  His giggles reminded us of one of our biggest praises: the joy our little guy brings us. We might have to make fake leaf games another Thanksgiving tradition, at least as long as we live in the tropics!

In the afternoon, we joined our team for a Thanksgiving feast.  The food was exactly what you'd expect at a traditional Thanksgiving meal: turkey! (last year we had chicken), stuffing, pies, etc., but the atmosphere was not traditional.  We ate outside in a rancho (a covered patio) surrounded by a beautiful garden with a river running by us.  A short walk away from the rancho took us to several waterfalls.  It was a lovely afternoon!  Here are some scenes of our celebration:

eating together

It's hard to believe that last Thanksgiving, Timmy got turkey in a Gerber jar!

me and my boy

exploring the dark river area with Daddy

one of the beautiful waterfalls

There is so much to be thankful for - Jesus and the salvation we have through Him, our little family, the joy Timmy brings us as he grows and learns, the Lord's provision and grace for us during our first year here in Atenas, the opportunity to live in this beautiful country and to serve God's people in Central America, our health, our marriage, our family and friends around the world, those who support us financially, our church both here and in the States, new Tico friends, the amazing gifts of God's Word and prayer...  We are so blessed.

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.  Let us come before Him with thanksgiving, and extol Him with music and song.  (Psalm 95:1-2)

Photo Friday: So happy together

I am so very thankful for YOU, mi amor.

Meet our interns!

We have had a great group of interns with us since the end of the August. It is really hard for me to believe that they will be leaving us in just several more weeks.  As coordinators of the intern program for our office, the interns are a big part of what we do here, and we are so blessed to get to spend a lot of time with them.  Because of this, it's kind of crazy that I'm just now introducing them to you all, but better late than never! 

I love this photo because it just epitomizes the dynamics of this group.  They are so much fun and are always laughing together!  On a day that they were scheduled to a present their trips to Haiti at a staff family meeting, all four of them showed up to work wearing the matching outfits... completely by coincidence!  They had great fun with it all day, and took the opportunity to pose for some cheesy "family" photos. 

The guys, from left to right are Nick, recent graduate of Virginia Tech; Ben, recent graduate from University of Colorado; and Avery, recent graduate of Texas A&M.  And, Christy graduated from Southern Methodist University in Texas.  This group is obviously different from our previous group that represented five different countries!

On that same day, I showed up to the staff meeting wearing a black shirt and white skirt, also completely coincidentally.  So, of course, another cheesy photo had to be taken (like I said, these interns are funny!).

I meet with Christy every week as her mentor, and I have loved getting to know her.  She gave her life wholeheartedly to Christ just a year ago, and immediately decided she wanted to use her engineering skills to serve Him.  Isn't that so encouraging?  She has a tender heart for Jesus, and a merciful heart for people.  We have been working on scripture memory together by going through the good ol' TMS (for all of you Navigators out there). 

These interns are also in our home once a week for a Bible study that Dan leads.  We are studying faith, and have been doing character studies on the people of faith listed in Hebrews 11.  We have all been encouraged by the study and Dan and I find ourselves challenged by the interns' insight and questions, as well as their great definitions of faith based on what we've been studying. 

Please pray for these new friends of ours as they have less than a month left of their internship.  Please pray for their ability to finish their project work in the office, for continued blessing of their time with their Costa Rican host families, and for God to be working in their hearts to use what they have been learning of Him here to prepare them for what He has planned for them in the future. 

Evangelization Campus in Haiti

Fall 2009 Project Trip:

Evangelization Campus

Arachaie, Haiti

At the end of September, I spent another week in Haiti for a project trip. We went to design a master plan for a ministry that supports various churches north of Port-au-Prince. They had purchased about two acres of land to construct a base for their ministry in Haiti, including a church building for the local church in that area that currently meets in a thatch-roofed space.

The church building will be the first building built on the two acre site. It will be followed shortly by a basketball court.  Then will come a home for the missionaries that also includes team housing.  As the ministry grows, they hope to build a Bible college in order to train pastors, and, finally, some small homes for Haitian pastors who may need them. 

The week started with attending church with the congregation that will benefit from our design. What a blessing to meet the pastor, the people, and especially the children of this small, very poor community! There was a joyous contentment among all of them that challenged me and that which is so engrained in me as important in life. These kids may not have even had shoes, but they were content. Their bright teeth smiling out of their beautiful dark faces proved a fitting analogy for their bright and happy souls in the midst of such a dark place.

The week continued with hot days in the sun surveying and doing other site assessments. After that, it was hunkering down in the heat of the missionaries’ home to tune out the roar of the generator and to do the design. The classic EMI image of a group of people clustered around a small table that holds more computers than people was a common one. But it was often interrupted with jokes, or an odd mix of voices singing (some in English and others in Creole), and even an all-out totally-drenching water fight one night. Despite the distractions and the heat, the team accomplished a lot in such a small time, and by the end of the week, we had a mostly complete design to present to the missionaries.

Haiti is a difficult place to be and a challenging place to minister. Therefore, I have great respect for every missionary who has the endurance to serve the Lord there. In this case, it was Bill and Marylin Fair. They began their life together as central Missouri farmers. Then they took a short term mission trip to Haiti, and ever since, they have devoted their lives to follow God’s call there. They have several churches in different cities that they support in various ways. They do everything from training leaders and providing financial assistance, down to physically building the benches for the churches. Their work there and the joy with which they do it left me (and the rest of the team) with a great excitement for this project.

One team member I would like to spotlight is Jean-Claudy Lamontagne Junior (or just Junior for short). Junior is a Haitian civil engineer whose wife introduced him to EMI, and when he found out about our project, he was excited to sign up for it. He took a week without his family and without work (and thus without pay) to help us on our trip. And while he was a great asset as an engineer both to Mike, our environmental engineer, and to Micah, our structural engineer, his greatest value came to the whole team as a guide to Haitian culture. He spent hours and hours talking with us as a group and me individually, patiently enduring our incredulous looks as he explained the culture of Haiti, its spiritual climate, the challenges and blessings of being a Christian there, some of the language, and much more. There are a few people I have met in my life of whom I think back and think, “it was a special blessing to know him or her.” Junior is one of those.

My baby...

... isn't really a baby anymore.  He is 20 months old, and so interested in everything, is learning so much, and is picking up new words in both English and Spanish so quickly these days.  There are times when I look at him and think, "How did he get so big!?"  Even so, he's still my baby.  Yesterday night, he was sitting on my lap on the couch, and he snuggled down into a rock-a-bye baby position in my arms, and said "baby" very contentedly, as if to say, "I'm still your baby, Mommy."  And, this morning, he started yelling "baby! baby!" and patting the rocking chair, which is what he does when he wants to snuggle for a little while.  When I picked him up, he wanted to snuggle like a "baby" again.  It is so sweet!  Here is my "baby" drinking his leche from a cajita... like a big boy:

just some every day fun

Making do with what we have is a constant theme here that comes up almost daily, and I definitely see that I've grown in this area.  At times, the need to make do just allows us to be more creative than we would need to be if everything was as it was for us in the States and it ends up being fun!  Here are some examples:

What do you do when your little guy loves play-doh, coloring, and other crafts and so far you haven't found a little table and chair set that's in your price range?  Well, fortunately, the stairs in your house are still unfinished and make a great craft table (and a toilet paper roll makes a great play-doh accessory when you don't have any cookie cutters)!

 

Or, here is another scenario.  What do you do when your hands are all muddy from working outside on the plumbing, but there is no running water in the house that day?  Well, fortunately, the combination of the rainy season and the fact that your house has no gutters makes a  great makeshift outdoor shower!

Or, what should you do when you are too hurriedly trying to put the clean dishes away and the glass cover of your electric skillet slips from your hand and breaks into millions of itty bitty pieces of glass that are still being swept up two months later?  Well, just get out your roll of aluminum foil to use as a makeshift lid each time you use the skillet... and be thankful that you have one less dish to wash!  (This definitely beats buying a new expensive skillet to replace the now coverless one you inherited from another missionary last year.)

Photo Friday: Beautiful Haitians

We haven't been able to find the time to write any posts this week, not even the previously promised update on Dan's most recent trip to Haiti.  So, we'll offer another sneak peak of his project trip.  Here are some photos of the beautiful children Dan met while designing a church building there:

"... Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." 

Isn't it cool to think that someday these precious kids will be able to go to church and Sunday school in the building that Dan is designing!? 

Photo Friday: el carrusel de caballitos

We may not be going on hay rides at pumpkin patches this October, but Timmy did get to enjoy un carrusel de caballitos last weekend when there was a celebration in the central park in honor of our town's patron saint, San Rafael.
 

taking a break

"I need to wash the dishes... oh, the water's out... well, I guess I'll take a break."  That was my sequence of thoughts earlier today.  I like days like today, when not having running water in the house is a welcome opportunity for a break from laundry, cleaning, and dish washing.  Timmy and I had a great time playing together all day, which I was glad of because tomorrow we won't get to play together much at all.  I'm going to have my first experience with surgery in Costa Rica.  Thankfully, it's nothing serious, just the removal of one little wisdom tooth that's been causing me a lot of pain for months.  Still, it will be a whole day event, driving from our little town to the center of San José for the hour long procedure, then driving back for a couple of days of a chubby cheeked recovery.  But, I can think of it as another opportunity for a break, a time of rest and plenty of fruit smoothies! 

Introducing... PHOTO FRIDAY!

Now that we have the wonderful high speed DSL connection, I'm hoping to be able to blog more, including regularly posting photos of our family and what life is like for us here.  I'm starting this out with some beautiful photos that were taken by a teammate's sister who was visiting Costa Rica.  We're really thankful for these great photos, and for her willingness to bless all of the families on our team with her talent.  Here are just a few of our favorites (and you may be seeing some more in future posts):