¡Feliz día de las madres!

August 15th is Mother's Day here in Costa Rica, and this year I had a special surprise for this day: my very first serenata!  We woke up at midnight to sweet voices singing at our gate.  We went out on our front porch and listened to a dozen members of our church's youth group, along with Pastor Yeremy, sing some beautiful songs about the love of a mother.  With some calls of "Feliz día, Sarita!", they piled into the back of a truck and were off.  We had just gotten back from EMI's world staff conference in Colorado, USA late Saturday night, so the serenade doubled as a wonderful, sweet welcome home.

 

It took me a long time to fall asleep afterwards.  I just lay there feeling so loved and blessed.  Blessed to be a mother of these two precious children.  Blessed to be the wife of my husband who knew what the youth group had planned and was ready with treats for them.  Blessed to be at home in a foreign country.  Blessed to be sharing life with the jovenes ticos (Costa Rican youth) here in Atenas. 

Dan took some great photos of us on our front porch in honor of el día de las madres.  I can't believe how old they both look in these photos!  Seriously, Timmy looks about 12!  And, I know they're my kids so I'm biased, but they're pretty cute, aren't they? 

Nine month old Tabitha

Three year old Timothy

tears and hope

Dan and I are seeing more and more that when we're involved in ministry, and in people's lives, we become more and more part of the emotions of what they're experiencing.  We've invested a lot into building relationships with our church family here, and now after a couple of years of growing friendships, we feel very deeply the joys and sorrows of these dear brothers and sisters.  And, so, I find myself in tears, crying over the hurt and sadness and sin and pain and sickness that come as we live life in this fallen world. 

I cry over broken marriages,
over unforgiveness,
over young people straying from the truth,
over a young boy from a very poor family being diagnosed with leukemia,
over that boy's grandmother being diagnosed with the same several months later,
over situations of poverty in which I feel helpless to know how to counsel,
over the fear and pain of a woman trying to support her children after her marido (unofficial husband) left her,
over my own fears and sin and weaknesses...

As the tears fall down my face, I praise God for the promise that there is a Place where there will be no more tears.  I'm so thankful for the Hope that we have in Jesus!  Please join us in praying for our brothers and sisters here.  Pray for us, too!

While it's still July...

... I should post about our celebration of the USA's Independence Day here in Costa Rica...

I really love the 4th of July.  I love the patriotism of celebrating our country's freedom, I love the fireworks and picnics, and the time together with family.  It's funny, though,  that I've spent a lot of 4th's of July in other countries: 2 in Ukraine, 1 in Russia and 4 here in Costa Rica.  This year, Dan worked like it was a normal day, but we did get to do a few things to celebrate.  Here are some photos of our day:

our little family all in red, white and blue

our little dual citizen sporting her American side on Independence Day 

having fun together before our celebration

grilling out at the EMI office (interns Tripp, Andrew and Wes, and our teammate Micah)

 
We did get to have a little celebration at the EMI office for lunch.  All the staff families and interns got together to grill hamburgers and hot dogs (real American style burgers - such a treat!).  Here in our basement office in a small Costa Rican town, we sang America the Beautiful, shared things we love and miss about our birth country, and prayed for the USA.  We finished off our celebration with some good apple pie (again, another special treat here).

That night, I happened to have tamales, seasoned beans, and Tico-style rice on our meal plan.  After our lunch of burgers, hot dogs and apple pie, I laughed at how bicultural we're becoming... even on the 4th of July!

Brother and Sister

Timmy and Tabitha are having more and more fun together every day, it seems.  Our parent hearts swell with joy when we see their love for each other; it is so sweet.  Tabitha adores Timmy, and when she is awake, all of Timmy's energy is expended on getting her to smile and giggle (which always starts out cute, but often ends in more hyperness than Mommy can handle!).  Timmy likes to make sure Tabitha is never alone, and Tabitha has a cute little razzing sound that she makes only when she is looking directly at Timmy or when he's running away from her, as if she's trying to call him back!  Here are some photos of our two cuties (taken last month; I'm really slow on blogging, mainly because of these two!):

Three Years!

June 3rd marked the three year anniversary of our family living here in Costa Rica.  Last year, I was very nostalgic and pensive on this blog about the changes our move here brought to our life (in this post and this).  This year, my thoughts were more along the lines, "Wow, it's been three years... we've had a baby here, we're established here, we love our church family, we see God using us in His work here... this is home." 

We didn't have any plans to celebrate the three year milestone, but, in view of the dramatic flair our life has here, we ended up having it be fittingly memorable.  The power meter for our house, which is located down by our front gate, caught on fire!  Dan and I heard really loud, cracking noises and looked outside to see big electric flames shooting across our driveway repeatedly. A small fire was ablaze on top of the box, very close to some branches of our neighbor's mango tree.  The next few moments were a little crazy as we were running around turning off all the breakers in the house and calling 911.  We heard the sirens of the firetruck a few minutes later... just as the afternoon rain started and did its part in putting out the fire. 

Timmy was thrilled to see the firetruck at our house and to shake the fireman's hand.  He's been pretending to be a Spanish speaking fireman ever since!

We were thankful that the rain began just then, that the power box is down by our gate and not on our house (!), that our Spanish speaking empleada and friend was here to help call 911, and that it wasn't just me at home by myself... because, to tell the truth, living on the mission field for three years still hasn't given me the clear head you'd think I'd have in these circumstances.  I'm still more the type that runs around in circles screaming before figuring out what to do... I've definitely gotten a lot more tranquila (calm) about such things in the past three years, but I wonder how many more years I'll need before I'll be that Tough Missionary Wife that knows just what to do calmly, bravely, and, of course, fluently in Spanish in the face of any crisis?  I'm thinking it's going to take quite a while longer...

home again

We're home in Costa Rica!  And, if feels GREAT to be back!

We've actually been home for a week now.  Dan and I often joke that our life tends to be rather dramatic, especially since moving to Costa Rica.  You know, with the robberies, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions (ok, haven't fully experienced that yet), ant invasions, flooding houses, exploding water heaters, preterm labor in a developing country, having our baby the day the country is in a state of national emergency (have I not written about that yet?  I should.)... we have a lot of drama...

... and, our homecoming was rather dramatic...

First, due to cancelled and delayed flights, we actually got home to our house in Atenas at almost 1am very early Friday morning.  We had originally checked in in Kansas City at 11am on Wednesday. 

Then, on Friday afternoon, while Dan was meeting with some interns, the real drama of our homecoming shook us up.  Literally.  Tabitha was playing sweetly in her pack and play; Timmy had just woken up from too short of a nap and was dancing around me as I unpacked.  Everything started shaking.  I grabbed Tabitha to keep her falling over, while glancing at our bottled water.  (That's my earthquake test; if the water is really sloshing back and forth, I'm not just dizzy AND it's a little bit bigger than just a little tremor.  Oh yes, I'm much more experienced with earthquakes than my first experience 3 years ago). 

The water was really sloshing.

Just as I grabbed Timmy's hand, I heard a terrible, thunderous, roaring sound and the shaking became really violent, the most violent I've ever felt.  I heard neighbors screaming.  We ran outside into our garden and I saw all our neighbors run out at the same time. 

My first thought was...  welcome back to Costa Rica!

All of the neighbors stood outside talking for a while.  Who knew that an earthquake could be a great ministry tool?  I got to meet a neighbor I've been wanting to meet for awhile, another mom with a 6 month old baby.  We found out later that the earthquake was magnitude 6.0 and that the epicenter was really close to us here in Atenas, which is why it felt stronger than others we've had.

No one was hurt; nothing was damaged.  I heard others say later their coffee tipped over or that books had slid out of place.  The only thing I noticed in our house was that all the pictures on the walls were crooked.  Every time we have an earthquake here, I think of Haiti and, now, Japan, and am reminded to pray for those places that have been so devastated, realizing that we could have such devastation any of these countless times we feel the earth shake.  It's sobering.  I think of the many lives that were lost in those two places, so many lives of people who did not know the love, forgiveness, redemption and hope that we have in Jesus. 

It's a good reminder of why we're here.  Dan, a structural engineer, is designing strong buildings in earthquake zones.   These professional designs will potentially save people's lives when earthquakes strike.  We're serving ministries that make Christ known to those who are lost.  We ourselves are seeking to be a light among our community here, to bring eternal hope to our friends and neighbors.  As dramatic as it was, I was thankful for this reminder as we returned to our home and work here!