Week #5

We just came off of a great weekend. It seemed long, and we were able to do a few fun things, and at the same time relax. Sometimes the two don't go hand in hand. Most of the time, playing is hard work, and you are tired afterward. Friday night we watched half of "Gone with the Wind." We really enjoyed it. We both did not realize how long it is, so we will have to finish it some other time. It was nice to relax with it Friday night, after a day that just made us want to go home. It doesn't happen much, but this past Friday it did. Not because of anything major, just little things that keep adding up all day long until you just want to run back to the "good ol' days." Even though we all know the good ol' days are happening right now, and when you take your eyes off of the Lord for even a moment, the grass always looks greener on the other side. We were encouraged greatly Saturday, and fell in love with Latin America all over again. We took a couple of buses to a zoo, that is basically out of the city and out in the countryside. That was really refreshing for us, and a great time as a family. Very nice little Zoo, and afterwards we ate at a little "roadside cafe" that was very charming and typical. Yesterday was also a great day. Church was very good. Our pastor is Columbian and can really relate to the same things we go through since he is a foriegner as well. Even though he speaks Spanish and is from the Latin Culture, there is nothing like your own country. Anyway, he spoke a powerfull message about not playing christian, and always being ready to defend your faith, through prayer and intercession mostly. He said he just came off of his hardest week ever in Costa Rica after being here for a number of years, and he was just being honest with us and letting us know that we need each other to bear our burdens, pray for each other and care for each other. Afterwards I (Sean) went to a friend's house and watched 6 hours of TV, mostly the pregame of the Superbowl, and then the Superbowl itself. Becca and Brooklyn showed up for the actual game. It was great. But I must say after not seeing American TV for such a long time, you guys are weird. It is funny what you grow accustomed to, and after a little time away from it one can see how silly some of that advertising is! (Although, we must admit there were some pretty funny commercials this year!) Today we began our fifth of fifteen weeks left here in C.R. We are beginning the process both mentally and logistically of making the next move sometime at the end of April. It is getting really exciting. Below are some pics of our time at the Zoo.

Africa, Football, and MAF

Even if you aren't interested in football, I hope you'll tune in for the human interest story that will air during the Super Bowl on Sunday. The following memo was sent out by MAF headquarters.

"Sometime between 4:00 and 4:30PM EST, in conjunction with the Super Bowl football game, ABC will air a ‘human interest’ story. Seahawk Head Coach Mike Holmgren’s wife, Kathy, and their daughter, Calla, are in the Democratic Republic of Congo this weekend on a mission trip.

MAF will fly them , along with an ABC film crew, on Saturday from Kinshasa to Karawa where they will participate in a medical mission. On Sunday morning, MAF will fly the ABC crew back to Kinshasa where the MAF IT crew will transmit the clip to the US for broadcast in the pre-game show. "

And tomorrow is Friday

• It has been a long week, but a good one. We're looking forward to Friday, of course! A lot of our class time is spent just practicing conversation - usually talking about deep or controversial issues. We long for a shallow talk in English!
• I can't believe we're already in February. Where did January go? (I know I say that every month but it's the truth every month!)
• Brooklyn is more little girl and less baby every day. Today we watched her arrange her puppies for a "dinner". She was teaching them how to put their hands (paws) together and pray before eating. Precious. If we leave her any heritage, I hope it is a real faith in God and a desire to talk to Him all the time. When we see her playing like that, our hearts are very glad.
• Brooklyn is giving out more genuine kisses and hugs. We used to have to beg for those. Another thing that makes us smile.
• Will we watch the Superbowl? We'd love to. We'll probably go over to our fellow MAFers house since they have cable. The problem is that they aren't positive it will be on any of the channels that they have. Oh well, it isn't like the Broncos are playing anyway. Ugh.

A Toddler

Brooklyn is an excellent kid. She is also a toddler and with that comes some unavoidable crises. Usually we're fighting over taking a nap - praise God we've worked that out and changed "nap-time" to "rest-time" where she can take a book to bed with her and just "rest" although she almost always falls asleep and takes a two hour nap anyway. Sometimes it's a matter of teaching her not to hit, throw or bite. Sometimes it's a simple matter of grabbing her before she defiantly steps out onto a busy street. Most times we're not amused but sometimes, it's just too hard not to chuckle.

Like yesterday, for instance. She was up and ready for her usual Saturday morning video. I got her all set up and she asked for juice - even said "please" - so I went to get her some. I picked the wrong kind, and unfortunately she saw the juice bottle, so she was quite upset with me. I kept telling her to just try the juice, which I knew she would like. But it wasn't to be. I even tried "tricking" her by pretending to put milk in the cup. YOU DON'T INSULT A TODDLER'S INTELLIGENCE LIKE THAT. Well, the cup went in the fridge still full of the dreaded juice.

Later in the day, she asked for juice. Yes, of course, I got out that same cup. But she's no dummy.... Sean and I both were trying to convince her that she wanted to try the juice. We both took several sips and swooned with exaggeration over it's excellent flavor. She was not impressed. Finally, it came down to "You take a drink of that juice right now or you are not getting anything for the rest of your life!" With big tears, she still refused. At this point, of course, Sean and I are convinced that we are not good parents and are abusive to ask her to try a silly juice. But pretty soon she disappeared. A look around the corner revealed her sucking away at the straw of her cup, loving this new juice. Then she was asking for more.

She's two and a half. I know a million stories similar to this one from parents all over the world. And yet, somehow, Sean and I expected our precious child to be different. Or at least, we expected our parenting techniques to be better. Who got the last laugh? Somehow, I still feel like Brooklyn won this one.

How's it goin'?

Yeah, I know, we don't write as often as we should. You have to understand that our lives are incredibly dull. We go to school, we come home, we study, we eat dinner, we go to bed, we get up, and we go to school. Why would anybody want to read about that?! But we know you care (or at least there are 4 of you with the word "grand" in your names who care) and that means a lot, so we keep writing.

What have we been doing? We go to school, we come home, we study, we eat....you get the idea. School is in full swing now. Sean and I are in classes together and we have great teachers. We already did a two-hour presentation in class on Ecuador. That was fun because we got to talk about our favorite themes - Ecuador and flying!

Do you realize that 3 months from yesterday we will graduate from language school?!?! April 25 is graduation and we'll leave for Ecuador just a few days after that. We are starting the visa process already. I know that the next three months will go by very quickly. We're ready and we're excited. And we're doing our best to concentrate on things we need to get done right now but I must confess, IT'S HARD! We've never been so close to actually being there before. You know, the place we've been headed for sooo long? Anyway, it is an exciting place to be.

Gotta laugh

Okay, I just thought this was a good story. For class we often have to find an article in the local paper (in Spanish, of course) and explain it to our classmates. Well, I found one that, although it didn't exactly fit the teacher's requirements, I just had to share with the class. You may have heard about it, but I was amazed that the story made it all the way down here!

A New Mexico man is now homeless...the result of a very unfortunate turn of events. After catching a mouse in his house, he threw the (still living) mouse into a pile of burning leaves. But the mouse had its final revenge when it ran, flaming, back into the house, catching the house on fire and burning it down.

Now, I'm accident prone but I must say this guy has me beat!

Go Broncos!

We have been enjoying a good weekend. We realized that it is the first "free" weekend we have had since the beginning of December. So we have been finding ourselves bored and not knowing how to handle it. We both have a 2 hour presentation that we are going to present this coming Wednesday in class and had talked of doing it this weekend, but their just is no substitute for last minute procrastination and inspiration. It is neat to look back at when we arrived at language school and we could barely tell you our name, and maybe our phone number (Becca still forgets our phone number, must be those Spanish numbers:) ); and now we are giving a very professional and long presentation for 2 hours and we aren't even worried about it. Time will tell if we should have been worried I guess. After church this morning we are going to a friends house to watch the Bronco game. There is going to be a big crowd there; a few families from Colorado, just some general groupies, and even a few Costa Ricans that want to figure out this other kind of "Football." We are looking forward to it, should be fun. And of course we are all bringing food...yeesss! We are all making things with a mexican type theme. It might be interesting, because most of the Mexican ingredients we are used to in Colorado don't even exist here. The Costa Rican's for the most part dont eat spicy food. The food really has a tendancy to be a little on the blandish side, not always, but most of the time.

Movies

We went to a movie last night (it's been a while) and saw "Chronicles of Narnia"...finally. Wow. It was so good! It was nice to have a night out too - we went with friends and shared a babysitter. Wednesdays are also 2 for 1 days at the theater...let's just say that for both of us to go was more than half the cost of one ticket in the U.S.

By the way, don't forget to go see "End of the Spear" in theaters Friday, Jan. 20, I think. It's about Ecuador!!! Many of you may already know this but it's also about an MAF pilot and 4 other men who wanted to reach a tribe in Ecuador that had never heard the Gospel. The base called Shell is where we'll be living. We've seen the trailers and it looks like a good one. Don't know if it will make it to theaters down here but you can be sure that we'll be excited to see it as soon as we can.

What's happening...

It's been a whirlwind weekend. I can't believe that it's already Tuesday evening! As things get spooled back up at school we've discovered that we are way too busy. Here's a quick update:

• Over the weekend we hosted some friends from MAF in our house. What a precious time! What an encouragement it was to hear news from Ecuador (where our visitors had just come from) and about MAF, in general. Once again we were reminded what we are doing here, why we're working so hard to learn this language.
• Things in Ecuador are looking better. We mentioned before that there were some issues about whether or not MAF could fly down there. Apparently, the problem is not with the government officials but they are responding to a complaint - they definately want to work with MAF so that we can stay. We'll be in the process of training and placing two new Ecuadorian pilots over the next few years in order to continue flying. This is something that we want to see happen anyway! Continue to pray for MAF as we work to make this happen.
• Last night we watched "The Cosby Show"! We have Season 1 on DVD and we finally had a night when we could sit down and enjoy watching a few episodes. My goodness has television changed since then! But "The Cosby Show" is a classic. We laughed pretty hard - I remember watching the show as a kid but now that I'm a parent I get much more of the jokes!
• I lead my first ever Bible Study today! It went really well. They even understood my Spanish. There were about 9 of us in all and they all participated. We had a great time in the Word and sharing about God's work in our lives. God certainly helped me out. To those of you that were praying for this, thank you - and please keep up your prayers. It was a fantastic time and we're all excited to see where God leads us in the coming weeks and months!
• Brooklyn is losing it so I'll close here. She didn't get her nap today and she's a little sick. We're gonna watch some Strawberry Shortcake and then take a bath and go to bed!

Pictures

Volcano Irazu 11,500 ft. Still very active.













Crop spraying the "Old fashioned" way.













Culivating potatoes with an oxen team. Very common.



















Check out the legs on that one!













Cuahita, Costa Rica. Caribean side
(How did the little one get so cute?! Must be the fella taking the picture.)













Brooklyn at the Catholic National Basilica.

The Ocean is for fish

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve always been a little afraid of the ocean. Now I’m deathly afraid of it. And I’m never going on a boat again.

Dad wanted to go deep-sea fishing. We were able to find a really good deal (note: cheap doesn’t mean better in this kind of thing but nobody told us that) Anyway, we even decided to take along Brooklyn so that we could all go. It was going to be a fun day out on a nice fishing boat (we didn’t realize that “good deal” does not mean “nice fishing boat”) We were sure we could handle Brooklyn between the four of us and thought it would be fun for her to see us catch fish. And we packed some toys to keep her entertained.

Mom and I worried the instant we saw the boat. No bathroom. This was an 8-hour trip and there was no bathroom? Not only was it not a “nice fishing boat” it was not a very big boat. There were already three “guides” plus three other tourists that joined our little trip and the five of us. But they had brought the “big” boat. As we loaded into the boat (not easy for us land-lubbers) I realized that the only way to get around to the front of the boat was by climbing outside the cabin along a narrow ledge. No thank you. So mom and I settled in on the only bench in the boat facing the rear of the boat right behind the “captain” in the cabin.

As we moved away from shore I could see it would be hard to hold Brooklyn but I figured once we stopped to put in our lines that we could figure something else out. As we moved further out to sea the waves got a little bigger. Pretty soon the boat was slowing down so that Sean and Dad could climb back to the cabin. Mom and I were shocked to see that they were absolutely drenched! They had been sitting in the perfect spot to get splashed by every wave that the boat slapped over. They were cold and wet but we were all still excited to go catch us some fish.

I was holding Brooklyn and trying to balance myself on a tall bench when suddenly my feet were not under me anymore and I was landing hard on the floor of the boat. (Not that my falling is such a rare occurrence but it adds to the adventure of this story!) Brooklyn didn’t like that so Sean took over my seat holding her. I must admit I was glad, because I was starting to feel a little nauseous.

At some point, as I was barely holding on, somebody mentioned we were about an hour out from where we would stop to fish. In the back of my mind I was wondering how I would survive just the next hour (remember: 8 hour trip). Then Brooklyn started throwing up. She’s always been pretty sensitive to motion. Poor thing hadn’t even had breakfast yet but I had a bag ready for her and she let me know whenever she was going to need the bag, which was often.

Then one of the men that came along with us lost his hat. Why in the world they thought it was worth fishing back out of the sea, I don’t know but they did and so they stopped the engines and were going in reverse and bobbing around in the sea trying to get the hat back. At this point I could see mom wasn’t doing so well and neither was I. Actually, Sean and Dad looked a little green themselves. The men that were in the front of the boat also moved back to the cabin where they could warm up. (I’m not talking about a big cabin here.) We got the hat but next thing I knew Mom was leaning over the side of the boat. Yes, she was sick. And then (no joke) the man next to me breathed on me. And his breath was bad. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was a good thing I had Brooklyn’s sick sack in my hands at that moment.

By then it was pretty obvious to everybody that this wasn’t going to work. We did end up turning back around, PRAISE THE LORD! The other men decided to go back out and get their money’s worth (they weren’t ready to “count their losses” yet). They ended up finding even rougher seas and not much else. Not a good day to fish. Dad, why did you think that was going to be fun, anyway?

I’m never getting into a boat again.

And back to school we go...

• Well, that was a quick break. Here we are already back in classes. We had a great vacation time. We just finished our last extended vacation time in the foreseeable future.
• We said goodbye to my folks yesterday. We had a special time together visiting the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and also going to the tallest volcano in Costa Rica. Nevermind that we all were miserable sick in a boat on rough seas or that winds at the volcano were so strong we were nearly blown into the crater!
• I’m going into mourning. Brooklyn is apparently done with afternoon naps. Short of drugging her, I can’t think of any way to keep the naps going.
• Brooklyn’s teacher was telling us today that Brooklyn is a little on the bossy side. She tells her classmates to eat (in Spanish) and if they don’t do it she gets in their face and says “TIME OUT!” At least she isn’t giving spankings…yet.

Pray

Please be in prayer for a meeting between MAF officials and the Ecuadorian government tomorrow. We're hoping to get things ironed out so that our pilots can fly again.

Thoughts

• We welcomed the Dickson family to Costa Rica yesterday. They are here to learn Spanish before Rick takes over as Latin America Regional Director. They have been in Africa with MAF for several years. That makes 3 MAF families in Costa Rica again.
• I'm ready to go to Ecuador. It feels weird knowing that we'll be going in only four months. In many ways, I've already said good-bye to Costa Rica and I'm skipping ahead to the next phase. But I know that isn't how God wants it. We still have lots to do here in Costa Rica and we can't be missing out on what God has for us in the next 4 months. But our house has taken on a more temporary feel again, knowing we need to be getting rid of the extra stuff again before we leave.
• How weird. School begins in a week. And we're the "big kids" now. 3rd Trimester. Seniors. Wow. And we're supposed to be the smart ones! This should be a fun trimester of practicing what we've learned and digging a little deeper into the heart of the language. I would definately say that Sean and I know Spanish now. That doesn't mean everything comes out as it should or that we are totally clear on some of the rules - that's what this third trimester will hopefully help us with. Pray for good teachers for us!
• I'm getting anxious about the maid's Bible Study. I'll probably start it in 2 weeks. Yikes! God gave me an excellent outline for the study. We'll be studying on Christlikeness and what that means. I'm looking forward to it but I really don't feel ready and I feel a lot like Moses must have - "but Lord, I can't talk!" Please pray with me for these ladies. I don't want this to be a mediocre study or one of those things that doesn't "stick". I want God to use this study to change our habits, our attitudes, and our lives for the better. And I know that is what He wants too. Let's pray against the enemy's tactics to stop our progress!
• Sean just got home. He was downtown most of the afternoon working on getting his Costa Rican Driver License. He's official now. And only after standing in 3 differnent lines for one hour each!!

She's just so cute

Brooklyn is getting really talkative. We can't understand much of what she says but she's very expressive. Occasionally we catch words like "moo" or "puppy" but the majority is still blabber. (unless, of course, it's Spanish!) I can tell she's going to be quite a talkative young lady. She's also been singing a lot. She makes up her own songs and sings a combo rendition of "Twinkle Little Star" and the "Alphabet Song".

And she loves animals...can't leave them alone. She was funny with the beagle last night. She carried the dog's food bowl all over the house so he would follow her. Pretty soon she was feeding the poor dog one kibble at a time - but not before she tasted it first to be sure it was okay. That's what we call "GUACALA!" in Spanish. It is a combo of "yuck, gross, and icky" and says it better than any English word I know.

Brooklyn is still convinced that everything that flies is a "ducky". We have a hummingbird feeder that Sean fills with sugar water and the other day Brooklyn was outside playing near it. A hummingbird came and was drinking the water (agua in Spanish) and Brooklyn yelled very loudly, "NO, Ducky, dat's Dada's agua!"

Happy 2006

Is it really possible? Wow. A whole new year already. We're amazed when we look back at 2005 - we sold and moved out of our house, finished packing all our earthly belongings, finished raising our support,"moved" to California to MAF headquarters for training for a few months, and came to Costa Rica. And now our time in Costa Rica is over two-thirds complete. What a year. God has been good.

Well, last night we got a bit of a feeling of what "shock and awe" must feel like. Fireworks. Loud, big fireworks. They were going off in spurts throughout the night but we definately knew when Midnight hit (yes, we were in bed and I don't see anything shameful in that). A lot of U.S. cities have fireworks shows. San Jose doesn't have its own show but every citizen of San Jose sets off his own little fireworks show. You can probably imagine. We could hear the whole city shouting and yelling, sirens, and fireworks going off right beside our house and all across the city. It was actually a bit unsettling, considering we had been sleeping peacefully for a couple of hours already! We might have been running for cover if we didn't remember that it was the New Year. Surprisingly, Brooklyn slept through the whole thing. I don't know how. It was pretty cool at first but it went on and on and pretty soon I was kinda mad at these people disturbing my sleep. "All right all ready, so it's a New Year. Now go to bed!" If we could have had a nice view of the city, I'm sure it would have been amazing. As it was, we couldn't see much from our little house.

Don't get me wrong, we did celebrate the new year. We ended up going to the house of some missionaries from White Rock, British Columbia. We went to school near White Rock for a year and used to love taking a drive to White Rock, which is on the coast. Anyway, we just happened to meet this family at a Chinese restuarant on Friday night and were invited to their house for New Years! They have a couple of acres (totally unheard of in this city) and so it was nice to have a little space. They also have a kitten, a beagle dog, fish, and a hamster. Brooklyn was in heaven. The girl could hardly contain herself. At one point she walked into the room carrying the kitten.... with hands wrapped tightly around its little neck. It's eyes were bulging a bit. We hope it recovers okay. We set off a few fireworks ourselves. It was a great time.

Pictures

We thought you might enjoy a few recent pictures.


Poas Volcano


I see a modeling career in her future...


Family photo. December 26, 2005


Brooklyn got to hold a Red Eyed Tree Frog!


She's a very good mommy to her new baby dolls.

Good-byes and Earthquakes

• We said goodbye to the Cannons this morning. I don't think we'll ever get used to that. It is always hard. But we had a great time together. Although we don't get to be with family as much as we would like, the times we do have together are precious and unforgettable.
• Brooklyn appears to be a little sick. I'm pretty sure that its mostly just pure exhaustion. She's been playing hard, missing naps, getting to bed late, and waking up early this past week. Even the potty training thing is out the window since we traveled so much. She has been grumpy and weepy today. We're trying to give her lots of rest today.
• We felt an earthquake this morning. It wasn't a very strong one but definately was noticeable. That was a little weird! Little earthquakes are a rather common here, this is the first one we've felt since being here but supposedly there have been several little ones since we arrived in May.
• This next week will be pretty quiet. We have a few little errands to take care of. We'll welcome our new Latin America regional director (read: BOSS) to Costa Rica on Monday. He and his family will be here to learn Spanish. Then my (Becca's) parents come in next Thursday. (YIPEE!) They'll leave the same day we start back to school on the 10th and then it's back to the old routine for us. Wow. Something tells me that our last 4 months in Costa Rica will go by very quickly.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Well, it's December 25.... We are enjoying our time with Sean's family. We got back from the beach yesterday, it was a great trip. Last night we went to a special Christmas Eve program and dinner at our church. The fireworks were going off past midnight last night. A few of them really lit up our room! We had heard that Christmas Eve was a big deal down here. It wasn't very quiet last night but it was festive!

We hope that you are enjoying Christmas with your loved ones. Don't forget to take the time to really think about the "Reason for the Season". The fact that God chose to send His Son, Our Savior, down to us as a little baby is so amazing. He could have taken just a few minutes to accomplish His purpose but chose to work out His plan in a very special way. Christ lived just as we lived - with one difference, He never sinned. But He certainly understands us and how we feel. From little babies, to children, to adults - Christ was there. Thank you Lord!

Merry Christmas. May your day be filled with peace and joy...and a little bit of Christmas fudge.

Countdown to Christmas

In a little over 24 hours, we'll be picking up Sean's parents and sister at the airport! YIPEE!! We are excited, getting things ready and doing last-minute errands. We haven't seen Sean's family since we left home (Colorado) last February. Boy, are they going to be shocked when they see Brooklyn! It will be so much fun seeing them again, enjoying Christmas with them, and showing them around Costa Rica. We're taking them to the beach, to a volcano and showing them around San Jose as well as celebrating Christmas here at our house. This will be my first year ever having the Christmas company in my house and I even get to cook a Christmas dinner for them. I feel so grown up or something. Always before we were going to our parents' houses and letting them cook for us but this is a special treat to host them in our home. The turkey is waiting, the fudge will hopefully not be all eaten up by the time they get here, the Christmas tree is looking as good as it's going to get, the beds are made, the floor is shining brilliantly (thanks to Isabel), and the Pepsi is in the fridge. The only thing left to do is find some egg nog.

Remember as you travel Cannons - "KEEP YOUR TRAVELING HATS ON AT ALL TIMES!" We love you and we'll see you soon!

Climb Every Mountain...

Yesterday Sean and I went on a date. We left Brooklyn with our househelper, Isabel, and went for a hike. It was beautiful. And cold. We climbed - or at least thought we climbed - up to a cross that we can actually see from our house. It is on the top of a mountain that overlooks San Jose (well, for us it was more of a hill than a mountain...hey, we're from Colorado). It was a great hike but we forgot jackets so we were a little cold. We were disappointed, though, to realize that we didn't actually climb to THE cross but just a cross. There are 3 crosses up there, which we didn't realize. We were pretty high up and couldn't see the other one, so we thought we were there. We felt pretty proud of ourselves as we made our way back down the narrow, overgrown trail but when we looked back up to where we had been, we saw that just a little farther up was the real cross. Bummer. Oh well, we had a great time and enjoyed fresh air and an awesome view. Now, of course, we need to go again. Another date!

El Cascanueces

Last night I went to the National Theater and saw The Nutcracker. That was my first live ballet - who knew I had to come to Costa Rica to experience such sophisticated culture?! But it was beautiful. I enjoyed the time with a bunch of other ladies from language school. I was glad Sean wasn't there, though, I just don't see him getting much of a "kick" out of watching people dancing around on the stage...when you put it that way, who would?! Brooklyn stayed home and played with Daddy while Mommy had a nice evening out with the girls. I even wore real dress shoes - not flip-flops! Impressive, I know, but for the record I nearly fell and twisted my ankle so it's back to my old standby again.

There are Giants among us

This morning when we arrived at school, the teacher who I did the spinning competition with had some interesting photos. She had found on the internet our pictures along with all the other participants of the spinning competition. It was pretty funny. Note the difference in size between me and the average tico (Costa Rican). Yes it is obvious to say that we stand out a bit. www.ticomania.com is the website if you want to see more. It is all in Spanish so good luck navigating if you choose to go there. There are other pictures of me, but this one is the best.

I did it!

Yesterday, as Rebecca stated last week, I had a competition of spinning. It was for two hours and I don't think I have sweat that much since at least high school football, maybe never. For those of you who don't know what spinning is, here is the unofficial definition: "Spinning - the act of pedaling really hard and fast for a specified time period on a stationary bike, thus inflicting lots of pain and even more sweat." So there we were yesterday with around 200 people in a dance hall of a nice shopping mall, all pedaling our little tails off thinking we were going somewhere. You might ask , how you determine a winner of a spinning competition. The answer, you don't. Yes, this was basically one of those things I just needed to do, something to conquer, and challenge; as if Spanish isn't enough. I went with my grammar teacher who is a fitness nut, and her friend. They both did great, and after starting about an hour late, ( its Latin America, remember?) we conquered the "spinning-competition" about 2 hours later. Did I mention that every 30 minutes a fresh instructor was introduced to continue the torture with great effect? I hope I don't sound like I am complaining. I am not. I love physical things where you need to overcome your physical pains and just continue on. I think it was Sir Edmund Hillary that said, before becoming the first person to successfully climb Mount Everest in Nepal, "I am climbing Mount Everest because it is there." Those are not his words exactly, but it conveys the idea. Anyway, I would have to say that I don't think I would ever do a spinning competition again, but now I can check it off of my "to do list." Rebecca and I are trying to get geared up for maybe climbing Costa Rica's tallest mountain this next year, maybe in March or so. It is almost 12,000 feet high, which is quite a bit "shorter" than other 14,000 ft. mountians I have climbed in Colorado, but we will be starting a lot lower. Just another goal we have while we are here. We'll keep you posted.

Church was really good today. One of the students from our school that is graduating this week and going to Spain with his family delivered the sermon. He did a great job. I have found it is really hard to speak Spanish when you are not totally relaxed, at least at this point in my skills. Afterward the church really honored them and sent them off with a blessing. It was neat to think we will be there ourselves in a few months. I think I would even try the preaching bit if I was asked. Maybe. On second thought, maybe I would just do another spinning competition instead :)

Christmas Angel

Today was the Christmas Program for the Kinder at school. Brooklyn looked so cute up there ringing a little silver bell with all the other two year olds while the older kids sang. The best part was when she and another little boy started fighting and hitting each other with their bells. Precious. Our little angel.

Prayer Request

Please pray for the program in Ecuador. The Ecuadorian equivelent to FAA has grounded MAF. We have had situations like this over the past couple of years . There is a group in Ecuador that believes that MAF is stealing money and jobs from Ecuadorians and they demand that we hire an Ecuadorian pilot within a month. MAF has had Ecuadorian pilots in the past and there are several Ecuadorians that work with MAF in Ecuador but at the present we don't happen to have an Ecuadorian pilot and this appears to anger some people. Pray for the team in Ecuador as they try to sort things out and resolve the issue as soon as possible.

6 days of classes left!

I know, we're pretty spoiled to get a nice long Christmas Break. But then again, this is probably the last one we'll ever have. It is very possible that Sean may be flying on Christmas day next year! Yeah, I'm pretty sure he'd rather be doing that than having three weeks free. You may remember how terribly bored we were during our last break from school. Neither one of us are very good at "vacations". We love adventures, traveling, doing, and even working... but we go absolutely crazy with a completely "action-less" day. Sean starts cleaning toilets with screwdrivers (don't ask) and I start thinking too much which is always dangerous. Brooklyn is just like her parents. We get pretty grumpy.

We do have lots of visitors coming, though. Looks like we'll keep pretty busy which is wonderful!

Sean is off at a Spinning class right now. He's always really loved riding bikes - especially in the mountains. Pedaling on a stationary bike in a room full of sweaty people isn't quite the same as a ride through the aspen trees in the mountains of Colorado, but it at least gives him something to do. He's even doing a Spinning competition this coming Saturday!

I went to a party this afternoon. It was for a Bible Study group that I'm going to be teaching next trimester that is for househelpers of language school students. As I sat there, looking at all those precious souls I started to wonder WHAT IN THE WORLD I HAVE GOTTEN MYSELF INTO! These ladies are so special and this is just one of those things a person doesn't want to screw up! It isn't really the Spanish thing that I'm worried about (although that is certainly a factor) but it's more the whole idea of leading these ladies in a study of God's Word! Pray for me and for these special women. My prayer is that these ladies come to know Christ in an ever deeper and more real way...and that is also my prayer for myself - so it will be a journey that we take together. This is a God thing and I'm excited to see what He does with it!

Restful weekend

We didn't do much this weekend. It was kinda slow but, then, we haven't had one of those for a while. We have a park right next door and now that the weather is so much nicer, we 've been taking Brooklyn and the puppy there almost every day. Brooklyn is quite the big girl climbing up the slide, swinging on the swings and pretty much telling us where to go. She loves running races with Daddy, too. And she always wins!


Here she is beating Dad for the 5th time in a row! Just call her "Flash"!






















You talkin' to me?

And so ends another month...

• Can you believe that tomorrow is December?!? Where did this year go?
• We are down to 10 more days of class.
• We ate Chinese food tonight. Fed the whole family for about $4 and even had leftovers! And it was very good. Yes!
• The weather has been just awesome! The rain suddenly stopped about a week ago and it is warm and breezy. Didn't realize how much we missed blue skies and sun. No, it doesn't feel like Christmas but we are easily convinced that this weather is more than okay!
• Brooklyn is sitting beside me coloring herself purple with a marker. Cute. She's been sort of hit and miss with the naps (please no!) and also hasn't been going to bed so easily. Last night at about 9:30 (an hour and a half after we put her to bed) she was still going strong. We caught her playing with her toys on the floor - she'd even taken off her pajamas. Why does she have to be so darn cute when she's being so naughty?
• Our puppy Ana is getting big. When we first got her we were amazed at her calm, sweet demeanor. Then we found out she had worms. Now that the worms are gone, she's a real puppy - still sweet but "calm" no longer applies.
• I (Becca) was able to talk to my Grandma for just a few minutes on the phone last night. What a treat! It doesn't seem right at this time of year to not be planning a trip back to Kansas to visit her and all my uncles, aunts, and cousins. Mom and Dad are there right now - Dad is hunting with his brother-in-law for some innocent creature. I have to laugh - most Texans and Kansans go to Colorado to hunt but now Dad goes to Texas and Kansas!
• Have you seen "Beyond the Gates"? It's a documentary about the 5 missionary men that were killed by a tribe in Ecuador about 50 years ago. It's a great film - Nate Saint, one of the men, was an MAF pilot and lived in Shell, where we'll be living. His house still stands - our friends, the DiCrastos, will actually live above his old hangar. Check out the film!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

To all our loved ones - all our family and friends back home...and those of you we may not know that read our blog. HAPPY THANKSGIVING! We hope you have a very special day.

If you're worried about us missing out, don't worry - looks like we'll have at least two Thanksgiving dinners here in Costa Rica. I'm making pies tonight. The pumpkin smells and looks awesome but the pecan pie...how do you say "flop" in Spanish?!?! Oh well. Since I still have a hankering for a pecan pie I'll try a different recipe tomorrow. I'm struggling to get used to our oven here, plus a different altitude and ingredients that are just different enough to completely destroy my time-tried favorite recipes! (Not to mention the fact that I packed all my cookbooks and recipes in our shipment for Ecuador...which is sitting in a hangar in Colorado waiting to be shipped.)

We have school in the morning and then are heading over to some friends house to watch American football (YIPEE!) and eat and eat some more. I was surprised tonight (and so was Sean!) when I completely fell apart thinking about not being with family or enjoying the usual traditions - I don't like being so far away sometimes. It doesn't help that we've hit the 6 month mark (when it is normal to have another bout with culture shock) during the holiday season!

I keep coming back to something a fellow student spoke about in chapel on Tuesday. GOD'S GRACE IS SUFFICIENT. Wow. Here we are so far from family, far from what we know, far from good old-fashioned traditions that were a part of who we were. We don't have a car (which is really starting to get annoying!), our bed is killing our backs, our couch could seriously injure you if you sat in the wrong spot. We're struggling to learn a language, being corrected over and over again, we're still learning how many ways we've offended people with the Spanish we do have, we don't understand our church services.... BUT GOD'S GRACE IS SUFFICIENT. The wonderful thing about where we are in life - in a new country, learning a language, "camping out" for a year - is that it drives us that much closer to God. And we have discovered that in every trial, every situtation GOD'S GRACE IS SUFFICIENT. What am I thankful for this Thanksgiving season? God's grace.

That and the fact that Brooklyn is now potty trained. YES!

ThanksWHATing?

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week. Call me crazy (or ignorant) but until we lived here I really never made the connection that Thanksgiving is really just a North American holiday. When we lived in Canada they had Thanksgiving, although it was on a different day. But here it's just another Thursday. We even have school that day - ohhh the humanity... We'll survive somehow. But I'm taking pumpkin pie to school anyway (thanks Mom for bringing down some canned pumpkin). Those of us that are gringos and feel we must stuff ourselves with turkey and ,well, stuffing will be getting together on Saturday to celebrate the big day. My sweet Mom brought down some little ceramic pilgrims so that I could remember that special day and so they have a prominent place on our bookshelf. They don't particularly stand out and they seem like a pretty sorry attempt at creating a fall-like Thanksgiving atmosphere in the tropics ...*sigh*. But I can really relate with the pilgrims that came to the New World to make a new life for themselves in a strange new land ...

Christmas, on the other hand, has already begun. Because there is no Thanksgiving here people started getting out the decorations at the beginning of November. Although there is Christmas stuff everywhere, it is very hard to believe that it isn't still July. We read in the news that it is
1 degree (F) with wind chill back home in Colorado while here it has been in the 80's. I relate Thanksgiving and the beginning of Christmas season with the first day of ski season ... not the beginning of summer! And that is what they call the season we are getting into here in Costa Rica - "summer" as opposed to "winter" which is the rainy season. On bright, sunny days our teachers say "Oh, it's beginning to feel like Christmas!" WHAT?!?

We went ahead and bought a cheap $9 plastic Christmas tree, a string of lights and some ornaments. Let me just say that the tree looks worth about $3. Somehow, that attempt at making it feel more "holiday-ish" only made me feel worse! I'll take a picture of the tree and post it later - I want to wait till it's at least dark and the tree doesn't look quite so ridiculous and pathetic! But, we have a beautiful HUGE poinsetta plant that somebody came by our house selling for about $4. It is beautiful - better than we usually get at Wal-Mart every year and we can plant it outside and have a tree!

Most importantly, we have lots of family coming to see us over the Christmas break. We feel blessed to be here and to be able to share such a different experience with our families. A weird thought is that Brooklyn's idea of Christmas will be very different from ours as she grows up in the mission field in tropical climates! She'll probably have a hard time adjusting to snow and cold at Christmastime when she's older. She'll be 5 the first time she sees real snow and remembers it, when we come home on furlough in 3 years. Wow. But she'll have some awesome experiences that your average, every day kid in the US may never experience. We figure it all balances out. We might miss seeing the snow but Brooklyn won't care at all.

The dog ate my homework

Yesterday when we came home I was looking out in our yard and saw something interesting other than dog scat. Oh yes, upon further inspection it was just as I thought. You see, here in Costa Rica, there are no addresses per se, and thus no mailboxes, well almost none. So any mail we recieve from the electric, water, and phone companies just gets stuck in our gate, and they hope it just stays there and the wind doesn't blow it away, that it doesn't get rained on ect. Well in our case yesterday, add a new one to the list, that your dog doesn't eat your bill. I was able to find out enough from what few remants were left to determine how much we owe, but I do not know when it is due. They sometimes get delivered late. You never know.

Last night Brooklyn just melted mommie and daddy's heart when we were putting her to bed. She told us for the first time in her own words that she loves us. Except to make it even sweeter, it was in Spanish. "Te amo" is the phrase in Spanish that she used. How sweet!!!

American Futbol

We had a chance this afternoon to watch the Denver Broncos play the much hated Raiders. I have not been able to watch much football here in Costa Rica for obvious reasons, we're not in Kansas anymore Toto! But there is a couple here at language school from Denver and they are Bronco's fans as well. So they found out that the Broncos were going to be aired this week down here and invited us over to watch and also eat dinner afterwards. It was a lot of fun just to see football and to be reminded of some of the things of home. The funny thing about watching this afternoon was this, the game was televised by CBS, but here FOX bought the rights and showed it on Spanish FOX. Because of this the commentating was also in Spanish. So in one corner of the TV screen was the CBS logo, the other corner was the FOX logo with the score, and then the commentating was in Spanish. But it was still fun and the Broncos even won. It is funny the things you take for granted like just watching a simple football game in your own language. For those of you that don't like commentators much anyway, I think you would prefer them in your own language anyhow.

On a side note, tommoro begins our last of 5 weeks for this trimester. It is going to go very fast as our schedule is already packed with various things and activities, and then it will be all over. Only one more trimester to go! We can't wait.

Survival of the Dumbest?

Yesterday on our way home from school we went with another MAF couple's to their house to pick up some things real quick. They basically live in a duplex, but it is a little more intimate than that. Their neighbor is a “taxista” or a taxi driver. So what this means to them is that Mr. Taxi man has a lot of other “companeros” or co-workers over at anytime of the day. It was reported to us that Thursday night was one of grand celebration for the taxista and his friends, girls, alcohol, you get the picture. Well, when we arrived yesterday (Friday) around 1:00 in the afternoon, the garage had turned into a repair shop. At our co-workers house they also “share” the garage. Like most garages here it is very nice and clean and even laid in tile. Anyway, all the taxistas were involved in this mechanical endeavor somehow. There were about 5-6 taxi cars in the street, and about that many drivers in the garage. Two of these were underneath the car being worked on while the rest stood around with their arms folded in approval. Then things got interesting. The garage has a slight pitch to it so that water will run out into the street, and you must remember that the floor is nice clean, slick, tile. You know those dinky little jacks that come with your car for changing tires? That is what they were using. All of a sudden, without warning, the jack came shooting out and the car went flying down, yep, on top of the two taxi drivers underneath. Immediately, my coworker and I were doing what we could to lift the front of the car up and get the two guys out. Praise the Lord that they came out just fine and were just slightly banged up. One had a pretty swollen nose, but that may just have been his normal looks. So afterwards, as everyone’s heart rate was slowing and we were all catching our breath by how close that had been, the Cannon’s were off to their house. But not before the Taxi drivers began to jack the car back up without doing anything different to prevent the same thing from happening again. SCARY! Now we know why there are warnings on everything and how to operate it. You cannot teach common sense. Last night we also watched our co-workers kids, 5 and 7 years old, while they went on a much-needed date. Tonight we are going over to have a casual dinner and we (the guys) are going to play flight simulator. But this is no ordinary way of playing a computer game. We run it through my co-worker's computer projector and display it on the wall. So our “screen” becomes about 8 feet by 8 feet. I think we will call this the “missionary wide-screen T.V.”

Tidbits

Tidbits on our surprisingly ordinary life as it stands today:

• Our puppy, Ana, is doing very well. She has a very sweet nature. Brooklyn has learned how to say "NO, Ana, NO!" and they get along much better. We've been making our own "homemade" dogfood and it seems to be working well...not to mention that it is sooo much cheaper. No Ol' Roy here!
• Brooklyn seems to be getting the hang of potty training. We might just be diaper-free by Christmas!!!
• School is going well. We're moving right along through our grammar book. I was encouraged today when I read an entire news article in Spanish and understood it all. Maybe we are getting somewhere! Just for fun, I bought a book (for ages 8-10) in Spanish and have been able to understand it. It is very rewarding to learn a new language. VERY. "Vale la pena." - "It's worth the pain!"
• Our househelper, Isabel, is busy as ever. She is looking forward to going to Mexico in 5-6 months or around the same time that we head off for Ecuador. Until then, (because she didn't have enough to do looking after us) she is taking on a soup kitchen for kids in a poverty-stricken area of the San Jose area. She will continue working for us so that she can feed herself and her own kids. I admire Isabel so much. She has so little but is always looking for ways to give what she does have to those that need it even more than she does. I have learned so much from this special lady and praise God everyday for providing such a wonderful person to help us adjust to this new culture, keep our tile floors shiny, help us with homework, feed us tasty, Costa Rican food, and allow us to practice our bad Spanish at any moment of the day.
• Sean is at the school right now installing the NEW SOUND SYSTEM in the chapel. This is a huge praise. The sound system was ordered from a company in the US, shipped to Texas, then driven to Mississippi, and from there, hand-carried to Costa Rica. And it all arrived in one piece without problems...well, except for the extra soundboard that was sent along with it. We'll have to contact the company and see what can be done about that! Anyway, PRAISE THE LORD. Now just pray that Sean and his buddy are able to get the thing installed!

What do we know?

Today during dinner Brooklyn noticed a moth that was flying around the outside of the dining room window. She was very fascinated with it and so we decided to use it as an opportunity to teach her a new animal name.

"That's an insect." says Dad.
"That's a moth, Brooklyn." says Mom.
"A moth is a kind of insect," we explain. "Can you say moth, Brooklyn?"
Brooklyn looked at us both and then back at the moth. "No, dat's a ducky."
Says Dad, "Yes, it flies like a ducky or a birdie but it is a moth."
With wide, knowing eyes and a rather superior tone, "NO, dat's a ducky."

End of discussion.

A new addition...

Well, we want to make the happy anouncement that there is a new Cannon in San Jose. She's blonde (of course), and has the sweetest eyes. She's got long legs and a tail that wags non-stop. Her name is Ana and we love her so much already! Ana is a 3 1/2 month old golden retriever puppy that we "adopted" on Saturday. Brooklyn is in heaven - she's always loved "puppeeees" It has taken some time for the two of them to get used to one another. Ana is all puppy and is, consequently, always anxious to play which makes Brooklyn a little worried. On the other hand, when Ana has played out all her energy and wants to sleep, Brooklyn has found she is even more fun to play with than her stuffed toy puppies. It has been fun to have a dog around, though somewhat tiring. We've always loved dogs and for years have talked about getting a golden retriever puppy. When the opportunity presented itself we just couldn't resist getting one and so...here we are! Granted, we hunted this opportunity down but...anyway. Ana will make the move to Ecuador with us when that time comes.

One thing is for sure. Our work is cut out for us. A puppy and a toddler. Here's what it sounds like to our neighbors: (Remember Ana is the dog.)

"No, Ana, NO. Give me my shoe." "Brooklyn, yuck, get that out of your mouth."
"Brooklyn, don't touch that." "Ana, NO! DOWN!"
"Fetch it, Ana." "Brooklyn bring Mommy that marker, RIGHT NOW!"
"Ana, drop it." "Brooklyn put that down."
"Brooklyn, next time you need to go peepee, tell mommy." "Ana, NOOO! Outside!" (praise the Lord for tile floors.)
"Sit, Stay." "Ana, you too."
"Atta girl!" "Such a big girl." "Such a good dog!"













Ana




















Brooklyn reading Ana to sleep...

Cold in Costa Rica

Yes, cold. It has been rainy, windy and crisp here the past few days...at least we think so, those of you in Colorado where it has already SNOWED might think we've gone bonkers to think we are cold here. But really, San Jose is much cooler than you might think due to our higher elevation here. It's hard to imagine that anywhere south of the border could possibly be anything other than hot, humid and tropical but we're here to tell you COLD still exists down here. Of course, we're just putting on long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, not heavy winter coats. We both had to laugh and give our street guard a hard time - he wore a thick down coat all day yesterday.

We don't have heaters, just fans, so I turned the oven on high to try to get some warmer air circulating. Sean thought I was being ridiculous.

Chili for dinner tonight! (Thanks to Mom for bringing some chili seasoning down for us.)

A Trip to the Hospital

Don't panic, we're all fine. But we did have a rough weekend. Brooklyn was running a fever all weekend. She was a real trooper - in fact, other than the fever and loss of appetite we couldn't figure out was going on. Finally on Sunday we decided it would be best to take Brooklyn in to an urgent care clinic located in downtown San Jose. The hospital is a private, Christian hospital that was started way back in 1929 by missionaries. So, at about 6:30 pm we got a taxi and headed out. We were able to see a peditrician. He was excellent with Brooklyn. He only spoke Spanish so it was a good test of where we are with the language after 6 months of study. We did fine, between the two of us - with four ears, four eyes, and two brains we were able to understand it all just fine. Well, the important stuff anyway. We think.
As we were waiting in the waiting room, our poor, sick little baby was bouncing off the walls, jumping, running, laughing and singing. Then when the doctor was asking us questions she was being just as friendly as could be. I could tell the doctor was thinking, "so, she's been pretty sick, huh? whatever you say, gringos!" Brooklyn was perfectly comfortable as the doctor poked and prodded her. It was funny to see her respond so readily to Spanish. When the doctor asked her if she was ready for an examination she nodded her head yes in all seriousness. Not only was this doctor an excellent physician but he has great kid skills - he got Brooklyn to agree to something. Not even her parents can do that! We didn't even know that "si" or "yes" was in her vocabulary. By the way, we haven't heard it since. *sigh*
Anyway, turns out Brooklyn had an ear infection and a horrible looking infection in her throat. We honestly never even suspected it was so bad! She apparently has a very high pain tolerance. The same thing happened the last time she had an ear infection just before we left the US. We got the same "yeah, right" look from the doctor and then he exclaimed, "She does have an ear infection....and it's a really bad one, actually." Guess we'd better be careful, she is so tough that it's hard to know when something really is wrong. Well, she's doing much better today. We got some antibiotics and she no longer has a fever. By the way, our trip to the hospital was relatively painless, even when we went to pay.
Well, except that the cashier was so hard for Sean and I both to understand. The cashier kept saying something and we'd keep looking at each other trying to guess what he'd said. Then we'd look back at him with probably the most confused, "duh" faces he'd ever seen so he'd repeat himself. Sean and I just kept looking at each other. Sean was thinking "surely Becca understood that" and I kept thinking "Sean must have understood and I should be coming up with an answer". Finally, we got it - he wanted us to pay! Well, the whole thing - medicines and doctor visit plus an extra fee for a visit with the pediatrician, cost less than $50.

Volcanos and Mid-terms

This morning we were off to the airport once again to take Becca’s mom, sister and niece so they could fly back to Colorado. We have had a whirlwind week! What a time we had – it was great to see loved ones and show them around this beautiful country that we have called “home” for the past few months. Over the weekend we went to see a volcano called Volcan Arenal in the northcentral part of Costa Rica. It was a stunning sight. This volcano is active and has lava and smoke continuously coming out of it, as well as audible eruptions. It was a very surreal experience to see such power and realize that if the volcano decided to really get serious, we would be history. Such is the power of God’s creation. It actually is a miracle that we even saw the volcano. October here in Costa Rica is the rainiest month of the year. The entire weekend was perfectly clear at the volcano, but we heard it rained all weekend here in San Jose. So I guess we picked a great weekend to go. The hotel we stayed at had three pools and 3 water slides. It was a blast and really fun to see Brooklyn get a huge kick out of the swimming. Even Grandma Vicki went down two of the slides - at night, but we do have a video that recorded all her screams, just in case you need proof that she did it! Last night we ate our last dinner together at a nice restaurant that has a special “show” every Wednesday. The show followed a buffet of typical Costa Rican food, which we thought was good (I don’t know if our visitors thought the same). The food is definately different, and it is NOT Mexican for those of you who think nothing exists except tortillas, tacos, and burritos south of the border. The show was very entertaining. The first part consisted of traditional music and dancing with beautiful garb worn by both the men and women. The second part was dancing again but this time with people wearing really unusual masks. Becca’s niece Catie was dragged out to dance – she was horrified but was a really good sport! Finally the night was finished up with fireworks. All in all, a neat experience to see this side of the Costa Rican culture. Tommorow we have “mid-terms” at school. It is hard to believe that we are already half way through this trimester, which also marks halfway through school for us. Six months down, six to go. Man has the time flown. We did find out this week that we now have a house in Ecuador. It is exciting to see that come together, although Becca and I both won’t be able to believe it until we are actually setting foot in Ecuador.













Volcan Arenal















Costa Rican Wildlife

Update on Isabel, Company coming, and thoughts on Language school

• First, an update on our househelper, Isabel. She is doing very well now. Feeling fine and back to her normal self. She really scared us there for a while. Praise the Lord, she is fine and still pursuing God and His will for her life with all her strength!

• Well, today we receive our first visitors! We're so excited we can hardly stand it. My (Rebecca's) mom, sister, and niece are flying in tonight at 8:30. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to see loved ones and can't wait to show them where we live and what we do! We are planning a trip to a volcano this weekend and hope to take them to see the sights around San Jose. We feel very blessed that over the next several months both Sean's family, and mine, plus a few friends will be able to come see us here in Costa Rica. It helps take the bite out of being so far away from family when we know they'll come see us! Yeah, we know they aren't coming to see us, they're coming to see Brooklyn.....

• We're both feeling very tired lately. Somebody mentioned that our blogs sound tired. Well, we're not sure how that came through but it's the truth! Gee, learning a language takes much more energy and work than we ever imagined. Our classes are very challenging this trimester. Suffice it to say, we doubt we'll be bragging so easily about our grades at the end of this trimester! But, while we are tired and almost overwhelmed, God has strengthened us and has been our strong tower in time of need! We're still having fun, still loving our life as missionaries, still learning Spanish (somehow) and still enjoying the process!!! We appreciate your prayers for continued strength, energy, and grace to learn Spanish well. We want to wring out our year in Costa Rica for all its worth!

Bugs and Futbol

Phew…! What a week, once again. We had “Spiritual Emphasis Week” last week. It was really good. It is a week that the school designates as one to be refreshing and encouraging to the student body. The teachers are not allowed to assign homework and tests, and a special speaker comes in to minister to us twice daily. The couple that were our speakers were from Tennessee. They had been missionaries to the American Indians in Arizona and New Mexico, and then to the Spaniards of Spain. He and his wife had some great wisdom and experience to lavish on everyone. Becca and I were also greatly involved in the worship aspect of the services. Of the 9 total services we were involved in 5, which began to tire us out by the end of the week, but it was still good, all to God’s glory. I also started a tutor last week, two times a week. Jumping up to Becca’s class has been bittersweet. While we are going over some useful things, I incurred some gaps in my foundation from making such a big jump. Therefore I have a tutor twice a week after school for an hour. It has already been helpful, but that extra hour can sure drain whatever brain capacity I may have left.

O.K., ready for another weird experience? Yesterday as I was sitting on my couch I looked across the living room (its not that far) to one of our houseplants and thought I saw a spider, or at least something caught in a web. It was in a palm tree type plant that we have inside our house. So I went over to investigate and saw a very weird looking spider underneath one of the palm branches. As I looked a second time, a little closer I about fell over backwards with that creepy crawly feeling only bugs can give you. Not to mention I was leaning sideways practically upside down to see the underside of the palm leaf. Of course this provoked Becca’s interest and I let her run her own investigation. It was the same as mine. She thought she saw the same “spider” I did and didn’t think much of it. I told her to look again, just as I had, and her reaction was just like mine, she just about fell over backwards with that creepy crawly feeling only bugs can give you. Now that you are all wondering what it was, it was a caterpillar. But this wasn’t your ordinary bug. It’s head (which we thought originally was the spider) was about the size of a small thumbtack, and disguised in such a way and to make the back part of its head look like a slug or snail, with those two creepy little eyeball things. The color of the head was tan/reddish. Now, upon further investigation, there were a few more inches to this thing. The rest of its body was completely camouflaged with the rest of the palm leaf, green mostly, but at its tail end were again those funny things that looked like the eyes of a snail. I am assuming that these are defense mechanisms to confuse prey as to which end to bite. So Becca and I cut that particular leaf off and took Mr. Scarylookinguglything outside to investigate more. As I tried to coax him off the leaf, not only was he weird looking, he was downright aggressive. He did not like to be disturbed, and let me know about it. We finally got over our “willeys” and got him off of the leaf and took some pictures of him. Upon further investigation, we found a LOT of caterpillar droppings in and around our palm plant, and of course many leaves that were all chewed up. Looking back we had both been hearing something occasionally falling (yep, it was his droppings hitting the floor) or had seen the plant move out of the corner of our eyes. I never thought such a little thing could give such fear, but that is usually the way life is huh? The things we fear tend to give us the “willeys” and make us want to run and go back to our comfort zone. So whether it is a caterpillar displaying all of God’s greatness, or a language and culture that is different, fear comes in many different packages when we don’t understand something.


"Mr. Scarylookinguglything"



Leaf or Grasshopper? (taken by Becca)

On to other news, last night (Saturday) I had the chance to go to the World Cup Soccer game between Costa Rica and the USA. In a word, AWESOME! The Latin’s, and the world for that matter, have a reputation for being crazy about their soccer, or “futbol”. I wasn’t disappointed. Luckily, for my own personal safety, the USA got beat soundly, 3-0. But to see all of these people, going this nuts for this long, in the POURING rain, was amazing! Half of the entertainment was the people. For those of you into soccer, you no doubt saw the game stateside on ESPN or some other network. But it is very likely that most of you did not even know that the USA had a National team and they played Costa Rica last night. Last night confirmed for C.R. that they are now going to the World Cup, held next summer in Germany. The USA had already secured their slot, as well as Mexico, from our region. Since the USA had already secured their slot, they basically sent down their Junior Varsity. Which was a smart move, but we didn’t see all their star players who previously had beat C.R. the last 2 times they played each other. So today, Sunday, we are definitely making a day of rest. We both have studying to do, and various other projects to get caught up on. We have been running so busy and loving every minute of it. It is amazing how fast time is flying, especially that we are quickly approaching our half way mark here at language school

When did October Start?

I missed it. When did we start another new month? Yes, I realize we are already a few days into October but, well, I missed it. Maybe my brain has a short somewhere...yup, there is strong possibility...

We had a nice but quick weekend. I went to a ladies retreat put on by our school. It was a nice time and my first night away from Brooklyn. For the first night in two years I slept all through the night! I mean I didn't even move! I woke up on my own without a cold little hand patting my cheek...but then again I missed that pudgy little hand. Sean did great without me. Such a good Daddy. In fact, according to Sean - and I say "according to" because I don't really believe him - Brooklyn did better without me around. She never got into things or did anything bad in the whole 25 hours that I was gone. If that's true, I guess I'd better get away more often....hmmm, I've heard there are some pretty nice spas here. Suppose I could get a special missionary deal (i.e. free)?! Probably not.

This is Spiritual Emphasis Week at school. No tests or homework...praise the Lord! We have a guest speaker and his wife here from the U.S. We are really enjoying their messages. There are two meetings each day - in the mornings between classes as well as in the evenings. It means Sean is especially busy with worship leading and playing and organizing but it is going very well and we are both being refreshed.

Please Pray

We would really appreciate your prayers for our househelper, Isabel. Last week she had an episode very similar to a heart attack. At this point she doesn't believe it was a heart attack but is instead some sort of virus. The medical system here is socialized and she hasn't really had the quality of care that we feel she needs. The doctors that she has seen can't seem to pinpoint the problem and she has to wait ten days before she can get in to have any tests done. She has been extremely tired and has been feeling just awful. We've given her some time off to rest and recuperate. Please pray for Isabel that she would be healed and return to her normal energetic self!

What I long for...

I'd love to have an intelligent conversation in Spanish. Would you believe that all of a sudden I can't pronounce words that I never had trouble with before? Isn't it supposed to go the other way? Aren't I supposed to speak better with more time and practice? And I can't seem to say one sentance without getting either a gentle correction or a funny look. I really wouldn't mind so much if a few people would just smile and nod and act like I'm not sounding ridiculous.

On the upside, I'm learning humility. Like never before. They say that is the upside anyway...

I'm also learning how to keep my mouth shut or at least I'm learning that I need to keep my mouth shut...whether or not I have learned this lesson is still very questionable. I realized today that I am always arguing with one of my classmates just for the sake of arguing. (By the way, this classmate is not Sean, although we won't go into how much I argue with him just to hear myself talk.) I suddenly realized how bad it is today when this classmate was just innocently trying to do an oral description about contact lenses and I kept piping up with my two cents that he wasn't right. My mom and my husband know better than anyone that I can get very argumenative at times. I've been in class with these people far too long when I start picking a fight with them over gas-permeable contact lenses!!!

Long Time NO Write!

Phew…what a week. For those of you who regularly follow our blog, sorry for the gap of information and news left over the past week. I am sure you all had an intense longing for great and big news from our lives that we have left you without, sorry! This past week has been crazy. With my increased workload from moving into Rebecca’s class I had tons of homework and studying to do. In fact I still do, but it is a little more manageable now. We had a lot to cover in my tutoring sessions last week, which consisted of about an hour after lunch (a great time for a nap) with a tutor going over an amount of material that probably would have taken 1-2 months in the normal classroom setting. So needless to say I am still recovering from having my brain fried repeatedly last week. I can’t think of anytime in the past when my brain literally hurt like this and caused me headaches. Not even in all my flight training, maintenance training, college, high school, ect, had my brain hurt like this. There is nothing to compare learning a language with any of my past experiences. The greatest thing and perhaps the weirdest as well is that I am loving learning Spanish, we both are. It is a joy daily to learn more and more Spanish and the different ways to say things, and then try and use it in real life and make a complete fool of yourself. Oh well, you have to crawl before you can walk, and at times I feel like I am even far from crawling. Life outside of the USA is really getting easy for us as well. Not that is was ever extremely hard, but we are slowly becoming attached to the Latin culture and their language. An answer to our prayers indeed, and I am sure some of yours as well. This week has no great things happening out of the ordinary. I am parenting solo this coming Friday-Saturday while Becca goes to a women’s retreat. That should be fun for her. It will be Brooklyn’s and my first time “alone” without mommy, prayers are accepted…please. Next week is Spiritual Emphasis week. What this means is we have a special speaker for 2 services a day, every day. As the worship coordinator it means a high workload for me and my 4 teams, but it should be fun. I am in the beginning stages of gearing up for that. I should actually be studying right now, and even desire to, but there is a point in my brain that I have been reaching a lot lately, that the brain cannot handle any more information. It is kinda like when you are running a lot of programs on your computer and all of a sudden…nothing but a frozen screen and locked up processor. Well that is what would happen if I studied right now, nothing but brain freeze. Sometimes I wish I could get my processor updated for a newer, faster one, but there is nothing wrong, or for that matter unspiritual, with relaxing until my current one can catch up with all the new Spanish words and grammatical concepts. Therefore, I think a bowl of ice cream is needed. (By the way, it is better here that in the USA.)

Quick Update

• Friday - Yes, last Friday was my birthday. It was a very nice day. I have the most wonderful, thoughtful husband in all the world. He bought me roses, had our neighbor make a cake for me (she has her own catering/bakery business) and then surprised me by getting a babysitter and sweeping me away (with the help of a mini-bus and driver) to a favorite restaurant of ours that overlooks the city. It was a great evening. The waiters really enjoyed talking with us. They kept coming back to our table asking for help with their English... Waiter: "Que es esleeeepeeeng?" (Accompanied by funny motions of falling) We answer: "Slipping!" He walks away saying: "Esleeepeeng. Esleeepeeeeng. Esleepeeeng." Then he comes back with a little piece of paper that he must have copied from the English side of a milk carton that says: "Partially skimmed.....breast milk is best for ....nursing" Why he chose those words of all the words on that milk carton I don't know but we did our best to explain it and pretty soon he was blushing realizing what he had asked us!
• Saturday - I like to stretch my birthdays out. A fellow MAF wife and I went out together. We ate at Outback Steakhouse (yes, free refills, American style hamburgers and french fries so good you don't even need ketchup) and then headed to a scrapbooking store so I could buy some things to start a scrapbook. I'm just getting into this whole scrapbooking thing but the other two MAF wives here at language school are both really into scrapbooking and making handmade cards so I have them to point me in the right direction. I don't consider myself artistic or creative but I'm ready to give it a try! I think this will be something fun to do with all that spare time I have...when Brooklyn is sleeping. So, in other words, between Midnight and 4 am...
• Sunday - Another attempt at going to church. Brooklyn hasn't been too excited about going to Sunday School for some reason...actually she's terrified and that just isn't like her at all. We're guessing she might have had a bad day with one of the other kids a few weeks ago. The teachers are great and she's always loved going until recently.... Anyway, it is next to impossible to keep her still and quiet in church so we ended up leaving after worship. Looks like we might have to go to church in shifts (one of us first service, the other for second service) until Brooklyn warms back up to the Sunday School idea. At this point we don't feel we need to push the whole church thing. We really hate to see her have such a terrified reaction to church when she should be looking forward to it. We'll wait a few weeks for whatever it is to blow over and try again. We spent the rest of the day "re-confirming" boundaries with our precious two-year old. Some days (and usually on the weekends) she likes to test us to see what she can get away with. Days like these make us very happy with just the one child!

The Rest of the Story...

Rebecca did clarify clearly that I am being moved into her class, beginning tomorrow (today is a national holiday, no school). What she failed to tell you is this. I have to jump up about 6 levels. She has been in the class where only the gods come to learn, there is no higher class. They are up there in the clouds. On the other hand, I was in a class with more normal people, commoners. So to be elevated to this level is quite an honor, no doubt. Rebecca also failed to mention that I can make some mean pancakes as well.

It's happening

Well, a while ago I expressed my worry that Sean would pass me up in Spanish. It's happening. He's just been bumped up to my grammar class. The Academic Director made the decision to move up Sean and one other classmate who were ready for a bit more of a challenge. They will take a crash course to catch up to where our class is in the book (they will have a tutor for an hour everyday till they are caught up).

This is a sad day for me... when we used to have arguments I would turn things in my favor by saying "you just wouldn't understand, you aren't as advanced as I am. I'd explain it to you but I don't want to confuse you." What now?! Okay, I'm a bit competitive and, although my Spanish was only .000012% better than Sean's to begin with, it was one thing I could actually beat him at. Those days are gone. *Sniff*

Not only do I have to share my classroom (okay, glory) with my husband but I also have to learn to keep my mouth shut. This is the conversation we had when I found out he was coming to my class:

Becca: "Wow, honey, congratulations! They're really moving you up?" To MY class?!?!

Sean: "Yeah, I can't believe it. I just hope I'll be able to catch up and stay on top of everything." Just please don't try to -

Becca: "I'll help you!" Hmmm, this could be fun. On second thought, maybe that wouldn't be so great for our relationship.... "Or maybe you'd rather -"

Sean: "I'll let you know if I need your help." Too advanced for me, are you? We shall see. We shall see.

That's about how it went. The best advice we ever received about language learning and marriage was to never, not ever, correct each other. Sean is great at keeping his "help" to himself but I, on the other hand... well, we'll need your prayers!

This is a great thing. Sean has been needing more of a challenge for some time now. And, believe it or not, I think its awesome that I get to have my husband in class with me. We're going to have so much fun! He belongs in this class. I have no doubt that he'll do great. He has that "language gift" - he's improved SO FAST in the four and a half months that we've been here. And considering that his life could depend on his Spanish skills someday I'm especially happy to see him in a class where he'll learn more...even if he will pass me up. I should have known it wouldn't last for long. Hey, at least I can still cook better than he can...although he can make a mean macaroni and cheese...

Yes, I know marriage isn't about competition....
I'll bet he'll never take up scrapbooking, so I might have him beat there!

Just an ordinary average day...

Today was a great day for us. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, we just enjoyed our classes and the day overall. I began to ask, as part of my homework, some of the community members some questions for my weekly report. This week it is over the independence of Costa Rica, which is celebrated this Thursday. Because of the importance of this national holiday we do not have school this Thursday, which is bittersweet, because we can’t do much as far as fun in a day. But it will still be nice. Friday is Rebecca’s b-day. That should prove to fun, we shall see. I had to prepare a report also tonite on a famous person that is dead, I chose Abe Lincoln. I also began to prepare a Bible study that is due this Wednesday, is has to be only about 20 minutes. So like I said, not much to report. Life is pretty ordinary. That is good, because we have enough to worry about trying to learn Spanish.

Brooklyn Gets a BIG Star!

Today when we picked up Brooklyn from the kinder we got word of something monumentous. I described yesterday a little of the classroom format for Rebecca and me. Well Brooklyn has high expectations as well. She started this week in the pottie training class. And on only her third day she went without 1 accident and even communicated in Spanish and English when she had to go. What a smart little stinker. Mommie and Dada were, are, so proud of our little girl, on her way to diaper freedom. Granted there will be many mistakes and miscommunications with Brooklyn in this process, but that is what her parents are perfecting as well. We love to do things like mess up and miscommunicate as a family, for us it happens when we speak Spanish.

On a lighter note, the butterfly picture below I took today when we got home from school. This photo is totally staged, so no huge acolades for this photagrapher. Brooklyn and I found this butterfly on the street, alive, on the way home from school, yet is was unable to fly. So I let it crawl on my hand and brought him to my house and found a better backdrop and took some pictures. I don't know what it is called other than pretty. There are sure a lot of neat butterflys here. I tried once to get a picture of a moth that was bigger than my hand, like a big bat, but he flew off to quickly. I did get stung one day at school though by a caterpillar. It hurt like a bee sting but not for as long. It was about 2 inches long with lots of green spikes on its back. The pain thankfully was short lived, about 20 minutes or so.

Back at the grinding wheel...

Today was the second day back for us at school. We truly love learning Spanish. Nothing worth doing is easy, and this definitely holds true here. Here are a few of the things that will be expected of us throughout this trimester, which ends in December. For me, Sean, in my conversation class, I have to create a “route” of about 5 or more people outside of the school in the community to go and ask pre-specified questions every week. From their responses I have to make a report and turn it in to my teacher and also discuss it with my classmates. This happens every week. I will also be responsible for a weekly Bible study of just around 20 minutes. Twice this semester I will have to prepare a Bible study for a full hour. And even today we started to discuss things such as the Big Bang Theory, kids of missionaries, some humorous things that happened to me in the past, and what I think of violent sports like boxing. This is just part of the format for my conversation class. At times it is hard to get your point across in English let alone Spanish with topics like these. I will also have to give a “trade” type presentation. Since I am a pilot and mechanic I will be expected to teach my classmates all the parts of an airplane, what they do, and then explain how it all comes together for the miracle of flight. Again, this is no easy matter in English, but I will need this anyway, so the course is very practical for us to not only obtain Spanish, but know it as it relates to our respective trades, pilot, pastor, doctor, ect. Rebecca’s conversation class is very similar to mine. Supposedly next trimester, our last, we will have to give around a 2-hour presentation on the country of our expected service, for us, Ecuador. They really challenge us, but one of the quickest ways to grow is by being stretched (how do you say Gumby in Spanish). We also have grammar class, which we are learning is getting deep quickly. It is hard sometimes to file some of this information for use when there is nothing remotely close in English to compare it to. Yet, we are learning this language and still having fun. On top of all of that we are involved in other things at the school. I am the worship coordinator, which means not only do I have a worship team of my own to lead, but I am also responsible for all the other teams that I need to manage and make sure they are scheduled for the appropriate chapel service, which we have twice a week. This is fun though, and I really enjoy it. Rebecca on the other hand is the treasurer for student council. What this really boils down to is I now have to opportunity to get us a new sound system at the school as well as take Becca out on a few more dates. Wait, this is beginning to sound something like Enron. I wonder how that translates to Spanish. Maybe sleeping with the treasurer isn’t full of all the perks I thought. Needless to say we are really busy, which is a vast difference from our recent break. I believe I experienced a level of boredom unprecedented in my life before. It was awful. Now we are at the other extreme, barely getting our homework done, making dinner, cleaning the dishes (we are the dishwasher here), putting Brooklyn to bed, ect, ect, ect. And then we go to bed around 9-10 at night. Yes I know this sounds early. But I am up at 4:30 a.m. to get the day going on the right foot, and overall this culture just rises earlier than we did back home. It took a little adjustment at first, but it is pretty easy now. Costa Rica being close to the equator experiences close to 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness every day, regardless of the time of year. So this schedule suits us fine since the sun is up around 5 a.m. and goes down around 5:30-6 p.m. And when you don’t have T.V. and are finally done with homework, there isn’t much to do, so you read a book, or something along those lines and go to bed. It is already amazing to us how fast our time is going here, and all the Spanish we still need to acquire. We have been told that this year will lay the foundation for our Spanish, and afterwards in Ecuador we will actually build upon it. We are beginning to believe this. Although we are getting pretty good at understanding conversations and overall what is happening around us, we are far from fluent. Anyway, if our little girl Brooklyn has taught us anything, language isn’t something you can order at a drive up window or in a nicely packed box. It happens little by little every day.

Too much laziness...

Tomorrow we will start back to classes!!! We had a nice vacation but we are (all 3 of us) ready to get back to school. The past week has been a bit too boring and quiet. There was a time when I could lay around and do nothing for months on end. Not anymore. Would you believe that I actually got tired of reading?! You know it's bad when I don't even want to look a book in the face anymore.

Sean is at the school right now practicing with his worship team for this week's chapels. He is the music director at the school this trimester, so that will keep him awfully busy. I'm the Student Council treasurer...they're going to trust me with money!! Anyway, I say all that to say that starting tomorrow our lives will suddenly get very, very busy. Just pray that we will be able to keep up after two and a half weeks of progressively sleeping in later, staying up late, taking long naps just to waste time, and lounging around wondering what to do with ourselves!

Sean and I have had headaches for two days now. We've finally decided it must be atrophy of the brain. Seriously, we haven't done anything to stimulate our brains cells. They must be dying off by the millions. Boy are we in for a shock tomorrow!

God's Blessing to us in Costa Rica

When we arrived here in Costa Rica we were advised to hire house help. This wasn’t an easy decision to make but after much prayer, we felt the Lord was telling us to go ahead. We ended up hiring Isabel, a mother of 5 with two still at home, to come to our house 2 days a week. We expected that having someone to help with housework would be beneficial but what we did not know was what an incredible blessing Isabel would be in our lives. We couldn’t have realized how much we really needed Isabel – not just for help keeping this house livable (it is a bigger job here than we ever imagined) but we also needed Isabel for her spiritual wisdom, patient help as we learn Spanish, and advice in everything from how to store our food to where to pay our bills! There have been many occasions when Isabel has quietly and lovingly encouraged us with the simple Truth of the Bible and God’s faithfulness. Other times she says things just as my own mother would – loving, helpful advice that we so often need!

Isabel is a great woman of faith. She loves the Lord and this is obvious in all she does. She works harder than anyone I have ever met. She provides for herself and her children by working for two families (ourselves and another family) that are studying Spanish. But that is not all. She is also currently leading two discipleship/Bible study groups through her church, working through her church to start new churches and working to unite the Body of Christ, taking weekend mission trips with her son, Andres, helping her daughter, Deborah, study for high school exams, attending prayer meetings and conferences and preparing to become a missionary herself!

God has called Isabel to Monterrey, Mexico. There she will work with impoverished families, teaching them about Jesus and discipling them in the Word. She is studying and “practicing” both evangelism and discipleship, applying for visas, and raising her support in order to go to Mexico as God has called her. Her task is not easy but Isabel has a smile on her face and a faith in God – after all, He has provided in miraculous ways before, He will do it again. I wish I had the space to share some of the awesome testimonies of God’s work in Isabel’s life – her stories of God’s faithfulness and miracles in her life could fill books. We have seen what God has done in her life in just the past four months that we have known her! And even when things have looked very badly for her she was still saying “Dios tiene control” (God has control). And she is right, God has complete control!

I want to ask you to pray for Isabel. She is working hard and certainly needs God’s strength and grace as she continues to work toward the goal that He has called her to. Her current plan is to head to Mexico in the next 4-6 months with her daughter Deborah. This all depends, of course, on the necessary funds being raised* as well as the visa process going smoothly. Pray for Isabel’s daughter Deborah, 15, who will leave friends to join her mom in Mexico. Isabel's son, Andres, will stay home to continue his studies as a seminary student. Her three older, married children will also remain behind in Costa Rica with their own families. This family will go through a big transition and will need an extra measure of God’s grace to go through the upcoming changes. And we’ll need your prayers as well as we will be saying “good-bye” to a new friend and will be without her help for our last few months here!

*If you think you’d like to help Isabel financially or would like to know more about her, her family, her ministry or her specific prayer needs, please contact us at holy_man77@msn.com (this is not our MAF email account but is set up for this type of use) and we will get you the necessary information.