from Gimma with love

Gimma (my mom) sent Timmy a very special gift, a Cars apron made by her for him.  He loves it!  It's time to start baking (now that the cooking books that have been packed for, ahem, two months are finally back on the shelf).  When Timmy first got this new apron, he had to wear it even outside, gathering oranges from our orange tree.  Yes, our new front yard hosts an orange tree... and has palm trees... and flowering bushes  We are blessed!   

My mom is by far the main follower of this blog, so here's a note just for you, Gimma:  we love you and we miss you.  We wish we could be with you this week but we know God has a good purpose in this change of plans.  Hopefully, God willing, we'll see you soon!  Timmy wants to make cookies and Tabitha wants some snuggles... and I want some good mom/daughter talks!  Love you, Mom!!

What is happening to my brain!?

Spanish.

It's such a huge part of our life here.

And, after living here for almost 3 years, I feel that my brain is filled more and more with Spanish thoughts, Spanish words, Spanish conversation, Spanish worship...

The other day, I was in a restaurant and the music changed.  I stood there for way too long wondering, "What language is this song in?"  I couldn't understand it at all; I felt frustrated that I couldn't understand the words in Spanish.  Then, I realized... it was in English!!  And, I had to concentrate really, really hard to understand it!  The next song was in Spanish and I completely understood it.  What!?

A week ago, our pastor invited me along with eight other women from our church to attend a women's leadership conference that was being put on for women from all over Costa Rica by a team from a church in New York.  There were over four hundred Tica women there; I was one of three gringa missionaries among them.  The short-term team from New York spoke only English, so my Tica friends were excited for me to have an opportunity to speak English.  But it was so hard, when I was sitting there laughing and talking with my Tica friends, to switch over to English whenever an American woman passed by our table.  I tried to play the role of translator and kept accidentally talking to the Americans in Spanish.  Why!?  It's HARD for me to speak Spanish, but switching back and forth was even harder.  My friends were laughing at my confusion.  One of the gringa missionaries and I just talked to each other in Spanish because it was easier in that context.  So strange. 

And, then, the other day, Dan and I were talking to his parents over skype.  Neither of us could remember a certain word in English; we could only remember the word in Spanish.  We both just stopped dead in the conversation and stared at each other.  How do you say aguantar in English??  We finally came up with "tolerate"... Tabitha doesn't tolerate her swing.  Is that even how you would say that in English?  (I just looked it up on google translate; it's more like "Tabitha doesn't put up with her swing".  Why am I needing to look up translations of words in my own language?!).  Well, aguantar just communicates the idea better, we think, so that's the word we always use for that concept, so much so that we had completely forgotten how to say it in English.  This happens often, either with vocabulary or with grammar...

And, then, the weirdest of all, a couple of months ago, I turned to my friend Iveth in the middle of a cooking lesson... and spoke to her not in Spanish, not in English, but in.... Ukrainian.  Where did that come from!? 

What is happening to my brain!?

I'd like to think that what's happening is that I'm getting fluent in Spanish.  But, I'm not!  Oh, it's embarrassing how much I still stumble over my words, use the wrong verb tense, mismatch my adjectives and nouns!  I really have so very far to go before I could ever consider myself fluent.  No, instead of gaining fluency in Spanish, I think I'm losing fluency in English, my native language!  My brain has become an official confused jumble of English and Spanish, with a little bit of Russian and Ukrainian thrown in there.  I'm hoping some good language progress will come out of this jumble.  For now, though, I'm thinking it's a good thing that the majority of my daily conversation is currently with a 3 year old and a 4 month old; that's a good language level for me right now... in any language! 

He's 3!

Our Timothy turned three years old on March 3rd.  Three!  Sometimes it really is hard for me to believe that he's such a big boy now.  Timmy is such a joy - so vibrant, so talkative, so affectionate, so sweet, and really so, so, so much fun!  We are so blessed to see how he has grown and developed over the past 3 years, and I am very excited to see him continue to become the person God has made him to be in the coming years.  Thank you, Lord, for our precious boy!

Timmy has been excited for his birthday for months, so I felt really bad that when his actual birthday day became a day filled with doctors' appointments in San José.  On the morning of his birthday, he asked for his grandparents to be at his party... and I went in another room and cried.  But, he still felt very special when we surprised him with a lunch at Applebee's between appointments  (yes, there is an Applebee's here, in a suburb of San José, and going there is a very special occasion).  He especially enjoyed his hot fudge sundae after the staff sang happy birthday to him.



On Saturday, we were able to invite a few friends over for a small birthday party.  Timmy was very excited to have his two best Tico friends, Henry and Eimy, here to celebrate with him.

It was a very simple party... we just ate cake, ice cream and fruit, the adults talked, and the kids played.  And, I love that here it's totally ok to use the same theme and decorations you have left over, so, since Timmy still loves things Cars, we reused everything from his big party from last year!  Tabitha got into the party spirit:

Timmy was excited about his "red baby vroom vroom cake" (which was his specific request).

Timmy boy, we love you more than we can ever express.  We pray that you will continue to know and delight in our love for you, and that you will learn to know and believe that God's love for you is infinitely greater.  Happy 3rd birthday, sweetie!

a cafecito blessing

Living here as a missionary is truly a blessing, but it also (often) has its difficult, trying times - times of feeling lonely, discouraged, out of place or just plain tired.  I'm realizing that not much encourages me more during these times than good time with friends here, especially local friends.  A good conversation in Spanish... a time of laughter with las hermanas ("the sisters") of our church... a meeting in which my heart can truly worship and pray in Spanish... a Tica friend opening up her life to me in a way that shows me that I'm truly a friend she trusts, not just the gringa missionary... these are the things that fill me with joy about living here, that remind me WHY we live here, and that make me so thankful to have made this our home. 

A couple of weeks ago, my Tica friends blessed me with a special surprise.  At about the normal cafecito hour on Saturday, several taxis showed up at our front gate carrying some of my closest friends from our church.  (Cafecito is the Costa Rican version of a tea party... but with coffee, of course).  They walked in with drinks, bread and cake, and gifts.  They oohed and ahhed over Tabitha, and she rewarded them with all sorts of smiles, giggles and coos that she never bestows so freely on gringos.  They told me they were here to celebrate and welcome Tabitha.

 We talked for hours, laughed, and enjoyed the cafecito spread they carried with them.

I was surprised with homemade gifts for Tabitha - a beautiful, quilted and embroidered pillow, a blanket and pillowcase, and several outfits. 

We ran out of coffee, and it wasn't a problem.  I had wrinkled curtains that were too long for our windows hanging up, and didn't feel embarrassed about it at all.  Everyone was excited about Timmy waking up early from his nap and joining the party.  I made lots of Spanish mistakes and no one cared. They insisted on washing the dishes and making the new mama (me!) rest.  I felt truly among friends.

Did I mention that we laughed?  These ladies are so fun!  I love these photos of us just enjoying being together:

Before they left, they shared how I have been a blessing to them, and I tried to share the same about them (talking in a second language while fighting tears, even tears of joy, is a challenge!).  They prayed for me and for Tabitha. I looked at them and knew that even though I'm far from home and family, my Timmy and little Tabitha have some sweet aunts and abuelitas (grandmas) among these precious friends.

I was blessed.

Valentine's Day 2011

On Valentine's Day this year, Timmy and I had a little craft time and made valentines for the family and for some friends, and Tabitha really enjoyed posing with them.  Here is our sweet little valentine:

Both Timmy and Tabitha are getting so big!  Tabitha is definitely completely out of the newborn phase and is constantly smiling as if she is overflowing with joy, which of course makes the rest of us smile, too.  Timmy is full of energy and fun, and seems to have gone overnight from being a toddler to a little boy; there is definitely no baby left in him anymore.  Really, why does being almost 3 make him suddenly look like he's ready to go off to school!?

Dan and I were excited to able to go on a quick dinner date while a friend (who is also our teammate and now neighbor) watched the kids for us for a couple of hours.  After walking the kids across the street to their house, Dan and I walked out of our neighborhood and down the main highway through town to our favorite Italian restaurant.  It was closed (and to make it even more laughable, not only was it closed, but a big backhoe was ripping up the entrance)!  So, we enjoyed a longer walk into town to eat out and get ice cream cones for our walk back.  Being able to walk just the two of us into town was a very special Valentine's Day treat!

one month

In the past month, we have...

packed up all our belongings,
moved to a new house,
barely unpacked,
loved living across the street from some good friends,
been adjusting to living in a more tico-style house,
immediately felt at home in our new place,
had our running water go out every day,
enjoyed great visits from Dan's parents and my dad,
set up host families for our five new interns,
welcomed our new interns to Atenas and to EMI,
dedicated Tabitha at Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva (our church here)
hosted a couple of interns overnight,
had a pancake breakfast and several team dinners in our new home,
not been feeling well,
gone to a lot of doctor's appointments,
had intern orientation week,
followed by office staff week,
followed by member care week,
brainstormed with our pastor about our church's upcoming missions conference,
been surprised by a sweet celebration of Tabitha by my tica friends,
had meetings in our home every day last week, 
dreamed about new ministry opportunities in Atenas,
prayed for Tabitha's reflux to get better,
been told about some upcoming major changes for our team,
had some rich times of prayer and learning from God's Word,
laughed every day with our very energetic almost 3-year old Timmy,
rejoiced constantly in the smiles and sweet giggles of 3-month old Tabitha...

Busy?  Yes. 
Tiring?  Yes. 
Good?  Yes!
No time to blog?  Exactly.