Let Me Splain...No, There is too Much. Let Me Sum Up

10 points to whoever gets the title reference first.

Anyway.  So I had a few minutes today to sit down and answer some of the thousands of questions I know you all have.  Thanks for your patience.  We have been doing well, but we are asleep most nights by about 9:30!  And everything just takes longer around here, you know, when you are walking everywhere and trying to communicate with what little language we have and sign language.

Let's see.  Where to start?  Boy this is going to be a long post.  Feel free to look for the questions you are interested in.

Ok, first,  

Someone asked how the boys are adjusting.
Very well, as best we can tell. They love the new fenced in backyard they can play with their trucks in and the constant warm weather.  Forrest has been asking what the Spanish word for things is.  He even tried to talk to the Taxi driver the other night.  Elliot has been loving all the bugs and dirt and flowers.  Today they both gave flowers that had fallen on the ground to two little girls in their class.  And they are sleeping very well at night.

They have enjoyed Kinder (not Kindergarten...it's actually preschool.) the last two days.  I asked them what sort of snack they wanted to take the last two days and they have chosen hard boil eggs and bananas.  Seriously, they came up with that on their own!  Which is great, because I can get eggs and bananas easily here.  If they were asking for something like granola bars that would be a bit more difficult to find.  Right now they are in the same room, because this is Orientation, but I feel like that is good for this first week.  Starting next Wednesday they will be in different rooms.

How is your house?
Amazing!  Like more amazing than we could have imagined!  It was like it was built and decorated just for us.  It's our colors, our style, everything.  And it has a washer and a dryer(not typical), a hot water heater (not typical) and ceiling fans in every room (not typical)!  God just put it in our laps and we are so very thankful and overwhemled by how amazing it is.  Oh, and did I mention the beds?  Amazing!  Better mattresses than we had in the states.  Seriously!

Bit by bit we are getting things situated and it's starting to feel like home.  I'll have photos once we get things settled.

How did the trip go getting to Costa Rica?
Well, after our initial hiccup in Baltimore, very well.  And really, that hiccup was even good!  But Tuesday we got back to the airport, all of our bags got on our plane.  We just had our day packs to carry through the airport because they checked everything else for us.  And the plane was about half full from Baltimore to Miami.  Which mean we had a whole row for our family with an extra seat.  That made for an easier flight with the boys.

In Miami, someone from the MSO (Miami Service Office, aka LAM) picked us up and helped us navigate through checking our bags for our international flight.  Oh, and all our bags did make it to Miami!  The whole process of checking the bags took about 2 hours, but God did some amazing things!  We had been praying all week that the scales would be off balance in our favore, and sure enough the scale that was used was zeroed out at -1.  Yeah.  -1.  And about a month ago, American Airlines decieded to change the checked bag policy to Central America.  That meant that we were planing on paying for 6 extra checked bags.  Well, somehow, things got confused, and we were only charged for 2 extras!

After we got our bags situated, we went to the MSO for lunch and a couple of super quick meetings.  And the best part of the hour and half that we were there was that everyone who was in the office came in and prayed for us!  What a great send off! 

We got wisked through security in Miami because we have this bahimath stroller and there is no doubt that we are family that needs a lot of help!  And then we settled in for the wait and the flight to Costa Rica.  While our carryons didn't all get gate checked, we still managed very well.  We were the last ones off the plane, sorta on purpose (yes Susanne and Katrina, we learned that from your family!) 

We were then whisked through customs because again, there is not doubt that we are a family.  This meant we bypassed a line probably 35 or 40 minutes long!  And then we collected all our luggage...and it was all there!  The only thing that happened was some of my spices spilled over the contents of one bag, but that was even minimal.  We didn't have a single issue at customs with our bags, the boys fell asleep for the ride to our house and we came home to sheets on the beds and food in the cupboard for the morning!

What have your days been like?
 Well, we haven't really had a "normal" day yet.  Yesterday was the first day of Orientation. Classes offically start next Wednesday.  We had an oral and written evaluation yesterday and learned what we already knew.  Noah has been structure to his Spanish and can form sentences better than I can, and I can hear and understand a native speaker better than him, but my grammar is atrocious.  Which means we will be in different classes, but again, we knew that. 

We have done some shopping.  Our big brother and sister ( a family that has been here for 8 months) helped us get some basics and showed us where to go for things like stationary and other things.  Today we figure out how to get to the copy shop and get our passports copied into an ID card size and laminated. 

Really, a lot of what we do is walk (it's a good half hour to our house by foot and man, there are hills!) to and from school, sleep, and figure out what to eat!  I keep reminding myself we have just been here since Tuesday night late. 

Is there a time change?
 Yep.  We are two hours behind Michigan time.  Which means that the boys have been waking up at 5:30 or 6 every monrning.  But it's been ok, because that feels like about 8 am to us and the sun is up at about 5:30 anyway.  And we need to be up that early to get to school on time.  That also means we are going to bed at about 9 or 9:30.  But again, it's dark here around 6:30, and that really feels like 11 Michigan time.  So it's working out well.

Is there a way to talk with you?
Yep!  We have a US number, and we are on Skype.  You can call our US number and you might get our voice mail, but we'll work to get back with you!

Alright, that's all for right now. Thank you so much for all your prayers and sweet notes!  I wish I had time right now to write you all back, but things like cooking and walking are talking up a lot of our time!  See you in a few days!