This and That. Again.

Remember I mentioned you'd be seeing a lot more bullet point posts over the next little while?  Yeah well, I am nothing if not truthful.

So here we go!

• We had friends come and visit!  It was so refreshing to be with them.  We got to show them crazy traffic, our little mountain town, and we did hit a few of the tourist places too.  I told them repeatedly they need to come every year!  All the kids got along wonderfully and, yeah, it was just plain refreshing!

• One of the things our friends really wanted to see was a volcano.  The one they mentioned has been acting fussy for a while now, so you can't go to the park.  I suggested Irazú which is a pretty sure bet to be able to see.  Wouldn't you know, the night before we were going to visit it, the next volcano over erupted!  Not with hot lava and stuff, but erupted nonetheless!  For a while Irazú was closed, but by mid morning the next day it was open again, so off we went like volcano chasers!  

• After months of praying, God brought a family to rent our house while we are gone this winter!  We're thrilled.  They have 2 boys and one on the way, so the house and yard is the perfect set up for them and they are thrilled to take care of Minga while we're away!

• We're still praying for Noah's car here to sell.  

• We are also still in need of a vehicle in Michgian.  Will you pray with us about that?

• The big boys talk almost daily about how many clothes they are going to have to wear in MI.  It's cracking us up.  We also realized we are going to work with they so they can get all their snow gear on by themselves by the time they start school in January!  What a tropical world problem huh?

The Spring Arbor Team

The last week of June, a group of teens and leaders came to help with the work God is doing at Campamento Roblealto.  We have a lot of groups come, but this one was special to our family because they came from the church that we attended when we were in college.  The Youth Director was a couple of years behind us at Spring Arbor Univeristy and it was soooo very fun to have this group!! 

They came at such a good time for us personally.  There are these ebbs and flows as a missionary family.  Sometimes, things just clip along fine, life is easier, emotions are more stable, and well, things are good.  And then there are times, when things get harder, emotions are all over the place and it can be hard to keep the big picture in mind (for a myriad of reason).  The week the Spring Arbor team came was one of the ebbs for us. 

But what an encouragement they all were.  Not only did they kick butt around camp with the work project, do a fantastic job working with the Project Hope camp, but they played with my big boys, loved on Quinn, and just took time to talk with Noah and I, to ask questions, to pray for us, and haul a suitcase of goodies for us!

The boys and I were able to go in most days to eat a meal with them and two of the girls really took on Forrest and Elliot.  They played with them, helped them with their food, talked with them and just were fantastic!  They made such an impression on the boys, they are still talking about Abby and Kenzie.

One of the days we got to go with them to the Poás Volcano and we were actually able to see the crater for about 10 minutes.  And what fun it was just to hang out and talk with all of them!

Grateful for the time we had with this awesome group!  The boys are asking when we get to visit them all in Michigan!

We're here...and Things Have Been Interesting.

So I realize this space has been pretty quiet as of late.  I'll be back at it soon, but we have been enjoying Noah's parents being here for a whole week.  And things were going just splendidly until we got back from our two day trip to see the volcano. 

We realized something was wrong when the boys couldn't find their scooters (one was long awaited from the states and Grandpa had just made a scooter stand for them.). Then we went to check email and realized the door to our deck was open and the computer, the keyboard for the new tablet, the kindel fire, the second battery for Noah's phone  and Noah's work computer were all gone.  Sigh.  Yep, it happened, we got robbed.  We figure they were too with it because they didn't take the TV, the router, the passports or anything in draws. 

The boys were devastated at the loss of their scooters, and we were thankful that we had our tablet with us so we still have some form of communication with the outside world.  We talked about praying good things for the people that robbed us, and the boys prayed that God would bring their scooters back.  And sure enough, about 20 minutes; into all of this, a neighbor found the scooters and a bag of tools in a near by coffee field!!  So strange, and yet I was greatful.  Noah did go to the police and reported the whole thing, though we don't have much hope that they will recover the stuff.  And we don't have any sort of insurance to cover the stuff.  On the upside of all this, before we left for Latin America, we decided to back up our computers online through carbonite.  And gracias a Dios, that means we didn't loose any files, including all the photos from the last five years!!!!

But as you think of us, would you pray for the best computer deal we can find, and that we could get one sooner than later.  Thanks guys!