I Know it is Overdue...

 

Well in all honesty blogging has kind of been the last thing on my mind these days. For the last two months the kids and us have been off and on sick with all kinds of things. In addition to that Hudson has just not been sleeping well, partly from being sick so often and partly from who knows what??? Sometimes he sleeps for a whole 4 hours but usually gets up every hour to two hours just depending on the night. Oh, and he loves to wake up for the day between 4:30 and 5:00 am. Sounds fun right? Needless to say this has been quite trying on my body over the last two months and when night time rolls around I am EXHAUSTED.

On top of all of that we have been dealing with some issues concerning Hannah's health. This is another reason I have not been blogging lately, because I really do not feel like talking about something that has emotionally exhausted me as well. A couple of months ago we decided to get some tests run on Hannah first, because she has not been growing well since we got here and second, because our niece was diagnosed with celiac disease. Through a series of blood work we have found out it does not look like she has celiac, which we are grateful to God for. Hannah's blood work did however, come back a little abnormal. Sometimes though it is kind of ironic because even though I did not want her to have celiac I was sort of hoping for a concrete answer. Now we are on what seems like a never ending quest to figure out what is going on, which is not easy in a foreign country. Currently we are talking with some docs in the States and it has been recommended that we count all of Hannah's calories for 2 weeks and see if after two weeks of pushing her to eat we can get her to gain weight. Our two weeks will end next Friday and then we will do some more blood work. If the results return abnormal again and she still is not gaining weight we will need to make a trip to Lima for an endoscopy most likely.  Now it just seems like a waiting game. I do not think about it every day any more like I used to because I know God is in control and He knew what was going on with our girl even before we did. However, the idea of whatever is going on with her just sits in the back of my mind waiting to emerge at a moments notice. I know God holds her in His hands and I also know that in reality she is not mine - she is His. At one point, okay maybe a few more than one, I got a little angry because why now? Why her? But God, who is always faithful reminded me of this verse:

"But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

 the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed."

 

Isaiah 53:5

 

God never promised to heal our physical wounds here on earth but He did promise to heal our spiritual wounds and for this I am eternally grateful. In my short life I have seen enough to know that God is indeed faithful and He loves us in a way we cannot comprehend. I know that every time I am breaking down in tears for my Hannah I know he aches to see me in pain. Being in Peru has developed my trust in the Lord in ways I never thought possible, if this would be the only tangible thing I could see over these three years it will have been three years well spent.

 

We are praying that we have worried in vain, but we will keep you updated when we know something. Just to ease your hearts as of right now whatever it is does not look like cancer - thank God.

 

So sorry for the long delay in posts and lack of pictures/cultural stories. There are many which I hope to write about in the future when we are not so consumed. John finishes language school next week and I will finish in 3 more weeks. Hard to believe our time here in Arequipa is almost done. Be praying for our transition time and that God would give us wisdom in what we need to do next with Hannah.

 

Here are some pics of Hudson at 3 months (now he is almost 5 months!) and a couple of Hannah. I cannot get Caleb to slow down long enough to take a photo these days :)

 

*** Can't remember if we told you guys or not but we sold our house!!! Praise be to God for yet another piece of the puzzle that He has so graciously taken care of!!!

 

 

Putting things into Perspective

A while back John and I went out on a date. We got a bite to eat at a local restaurant and then headed to "El Centro" - just the center of town. Every "center" of town here has what they call a Plaza de Armas -really historical buildings that are still used for lots of government things- and usually in front of the plaza is some type of park. The park in front of the plaza in Arequipa is quite beautiful with a huge fountain. During the day there are always lots of people sitting on benches just talking and hanging out. The little kids are usually feeding/chasing all of the pigeons around the square. All of the local vendors are selling bird feed, candy and other random things. It is a pretty busy place and when I have three children attached to me it is quite important to keep an eye on them.

Anyway, so after our date we meandored on down to the park in front of the plaza. Often times there are local vendors who sell the most beautiful roses. John and I spotted a young girl selling roses the other night and we went over to try to buy one. As we were walking over we could see that she was earnestly trying to sell one of her roses to a couple close to her. They did not seem to be interested and she continued to be patient to try to make the sale. When she turned to see us you could tell she was excited to make a sale. We bought one rose from her. A whole 5 soles - equivalent to about $1.75. As I was handing her my money, I could not help but notice the two very big feet hanging from the carrier on her back. It is very common to carry your kids across your back here horizontally not vertically. So I could see two big feet sticking out of her side, but I could not see a head. In an effort to practice my Spanish I asked her how old her baby was. She replied 2 and a half years! It was around 9:30 at night and this poor lady was carrying her 2 1/2 year old on her back while she was selling roses! You cannot help but wonder how much she makes an hour and what kind of conditions she lives in. By the look on her face you could tell she was exhuasted. The truth is, she probably works at least two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Almost everyone here in Peru works at least two jobs and maybe three just to pay the bills. My perspective is changing...

Or how about last week when the kids and I were walking to the Plaza de Armas when suddenly I hear this man yell, "Ayudame, ayudame, por favor!" I turned around to look and that is when I notice that a blind man was about to step off the sidewalk into one of the busiest streets in downtown Arequipa. I had Hudson in the carrier on my chest, Hannah in the stroller, and Caleb holding onto the side of the stroller and I thought to myself, how in the world am I going to help this man?? Then a lady came from out of nowhere, grabbed his arm and walked him across the street. I am not sure how blind people survive here in Peru. At times I think that the uncovered drainage ditches, and the 15 ft drops off the edge of the sidewalks give me more gray hair ***especially since I have young children - imagine if you were blind living here? Again...my perspective is changing...

Recently John helped with a rural clinic a few hours away from here. After he got back that night he began to tell me about his day. Quite sobering I must say. As I sat there nearly in tears as he was telling me about some of the patients he saw that day I thought my day was pretty boring in comparison. The kids were kind of rough that day, hence my day was rough too, but everything was put into perspecitive after hearing some of his stories. My day did not seem too bad as he told me about the mother who brought her 50 pound, 18 year-old son who had hardly eaten anything in 3 months and had an undiagnosed case of what was likely muscular dystrophy (which they could not do much for). Or the little 18 month-old boy who got his hand caught in a sugar cane grinder. Or the man who had been blind for 10 years (due to a car running over him) who was hoping John could restore his sight (to no avail). Or the lady who miscarried during the clinic. Sometimes being in medicine is overwhelming and difficult on the heart. Thank you Lord for putting things into perspective...

Fruit Chronicles

We are really enjoying the fresh fruit over here

and thought I might photograph some for my kitchen wall someday - whenever I find a place that prints photos and a place to buy frames. No big deal right? I will let you know when this happens :) Anyway enjoy!

This is a granadia (granadilla-not sure on the spelling here). It has seeds that are encapsuled in sack that resemble fish eggs. Not the most apetizing but very interesting to look at.

 

Okay well these are just apples so not to exciting but they photograph well :)...and they are very tasty. I buy them by the kilo, sometimes 4 or 5 kilos at a time. Just imagine me with three kids, one in the stroller, one holding the stroller, and one in the baby carried on my chest carry 4 kilos of apples (~2.5 pounds per kilo). Quite the sight I tell you.

 

Hannah has fallen in love with oranges. She makes a ridiculously large mess with them but at least she is getting some fiber.

 

We did find some blueberries this last week. I bought a TON of them. Really wishing I had some canning jars :( Still cannot find these...what a bummer. So I made some blueberry muffins, blueberry syrup and I froze the rest for now. What a treat!

Jardin or no Jardin - That is the Question!

It is considered incredibly normal and quite frankly was expected that we were going to put both of our children in the Jardin once we started language school. What is a Jardin - well I am glad you asked! A jardin is basically a daycare center for preschool/kindergarten(jardin is Spanish for garden as well). Here it is normal for Peruvian children to go to the Jardin at age two if they are wanting to get into a better gradeschool, however it is obligatory to place your child in the Jardin at age three - at least that is what we have been told. The Jardin is from 8:50-12:30 every day during the week. For most parents this works out wonderfully because they need to work to support their families. However, for us it is a little complicated. First off John starts school at 8:30 and the Jardin does not open until 8:50 so that means I would have to walk with all THREE kids a few blocks to the Jardin - which seems like a few blocks to many unless I grow another arm. There are services to taxi your kids to school but those cost money and that scares me a little bit. Another thing to think about, is that if I did actually get Caleb to the Jardin in the morning I would not actually see him again until 4:30 because I have language classes from 12:10 till 4:30. At this time I would come home cook dinner and by the time I got done with everything I would be lucky to even get 20 minutes with the little guy before he goes to bed at 7. I feel like I am not ready for this. I think to myself, am I just being selfish or is the just not the right timing? John and I would really like for him to speak Spanish, but is this out of prideful ambition of just wanting to be able to say our kid speaks Spanish or does he really need to learn it right now? I mean I absolutely agree he needs to learn Spanish but right now we have a good schedule going and I fear the emotional turmoil (on both his side and mine) we might create might be worse than not sending him to school. At this point we are not sure if he will benefit from only having a few months in the Jardin before we move to Curahuasi. Once we get to Curahuasi we do not plan on sending him to school, for a couple of reasons (1) He is still very young (2) We have not decided whether we are wanting to homeschool or not. Caleb is still very young (3 in May) so really if we were in the States I would not even be considering whether or not to put him in preschool, however we do feel a good amount of cultural pressure to put him in school here. Every week people talk to me about the benefits of putting him in the Jardin, and really the only benefit would be that Caleb would learn Spanish because realisitically I will still not be able to get more homework done. Will 4 months in the Jardin really make a difference if we decide to homeschool them anyway in Curahuasi? Will it really be that important if we come back after three years anyway? Truth be told if we come back after three years he will not really retain any of it anyway although I am sure this will make it easier for him to learn Spanish in the future. Or will we stay here longer than three years? Tough, tough, tough decisions. Please pray for us on how to go about this.

 

We do have DVDs and music that the kids have been listening to and they are learning lots of Spanish words. We also have a sweet girl who comes to our house to watch the kids while John and I are walking to language school. She stays for about two hours and only speaks Spanish to the kids which has also been helpful. We also just started attending church on Thursday nights too in hopes to get Caleb exposed to more Spanish. We visited this particular church for the first time this past Thursday. What an eye opening experience. I imagine this will be a little bit more like the church experience we will have in Curahuasi. They had two kids rooms, one fore preschool and a nursery. The preschool room was a concrete room with ten plastic chairs. They did have a boombox for music and some crayons but that was pretty much the extent of it. The nusery had two small beds, one crib and lots of stuffed animals. Normally you expect to see a child safety gate in the nursery and they had one creatively made out of material easily available to Peruvians. Kids do not need much - just love and care - and that is what they got that night. When we returned to pick up Caleb that night he was so excited that he got to sing songs and color a picture. Who needs fancy toys right?

Pray for our friend who helps us with the kids as she will be going to have surgery next week, sooner than we expected. She will need to have about 3 weeks off after the surgery and we will miss her dearly - ourselves included. She is such a blessing to our family during this time of language learning.
 

 

...The decision on whether or not to homeschool is giving me more gray hair for sure. Any thoughts on this? I have many...

Oh the Microwave...

 

After several trips to oeshle (where we purchased our microwave), one mechanical repair that gave us back our original microwave and one mechanical repair that failed, two months later we have our microwave back. Seriously when I say several times I mean 15 times - not exaggerated at all. We took the microwave in before I delived Hudson and we just got a new one this week. Not sure we will ever know why it took so long but at least we have it back. We have not had a microwave for so long now we kind of wonder why we bought one in the first place. As we have used it this week we have realized that having a microwave is much more convenient when you have three kids and saves a lot on washing dishes. The funny thing is we have gone without one for so long that Hannah walked in and saw the mircowave, she pointed her finger and with a concerned look on her face said"Uh oh...uh oh..uh oh!". We are all grateful and astonished to have our microwave back. Oh the joy of modern conveniences!

I Can't Speak in English or Spanish

My brain is getting so confused I cannot even speak my native tongue anymore. Just a few days ago Caleb asked me how to spell the word "patient" I said, "P...A...C...I...." - John just looked at me and started laughing. I did not even realize that I was spelling it the Spanish way! Oh dear...

***By the way Caleb's first word he can spell all by himself is, of course, the word "jet". This kid has had airplane/helicopter brain since as he was born!***

Learning a new langauge does horrible things to your mind. Sometimes I cannot remember the English word for things - I consistently forget the English word for "palta" which is avocado. The avocados here are AMAZING- back in the States I could never find ripes ones but here I can choose if I want one for lunch or for later in the week. They always have ripe avocados here, and we are really enjoying them.

I just have to share some of these ridiculous language learning stories. This week for me has been a difficult one with the whole learning Spanish thing but I am slowly learning to laugh at myself - and so is everyone else! During class this week I was describing a scene in my vocab book to my teacher when I said, "The people are eating the duck", when what was really happening was the people were feeding the duck - no big deal right? We got a pretty good laugh out of this one. Oh but it gets better....this week I was trying to explain to John how Hudson's baby blanket smelled like dirt. Let me clarify this - I had just washed his blanket - however it is windy here in Arequipa and when you hang your clothes over night the wind blows all the dirt on the clothes. At least the blanket was cleaner than before it was washed. Anyway, as I was trying to describe that Hudson's blanket smelled like dirt I said, "The blanket sounds like the earth." John looked at me all funny and we both busted up laughing.

Sometimes language learning is hilarious, awkward, and extremely frustrating. The funny thing about this is that I **thought** (which is the key word here) that I pretty much knew Spanish before I got here. HaHAHAAHa! So FUNNY! Everyday I spend my time working on pronunciation, grammar, and just plain stumbling over my words. Spanish is such a beautiful language and it is horrible how I just butcher it every day. Just one more example..I had been here for 5 weeks studying Spanish when on one Sunday I asked my pastor, who is a guy, how his husband was doing?! In my mind I thought, "Did I really just do that?". Yep, I did. Oh brother...

I know that with every week that passes I am getting a little (emphasis on little)  better, but sometimes I wonder if it will ever be enough. One of the hardest things about learning a language is, well, that you actually have to practice speaking - profound right? Well as a mom I think this is really hard. I cannot spend all day integrating myself into the culture or meeting/talking with people well because I have three children who need to eat. In addition to this, every time we go out, we fall into the same pattern as we did in the US - John usually does the talking and I watch the kids. This is especially easy to fall into here since John knows considerably more Spanish than I do - I mean the guy is a genius! They say that some people are left-brained (better at math and science), and some people are right-brained (better at everything else). Well it is obvious to me that John uses both sides of his brain...I mean he is a doctor, and can absorb/speak new languages like no one else I have ever seen. After this evaluation of John, I am beginning to wonder whether I am right-brained, left-brained or just do not have a brain. I will let you know when the verdict is in.

We take for granted just being able to walk into a store and communicate with someone. Yesterday I went to one of my favorite stores here in Arequipa to purchase a few small wooden toys for the kids. They had these beautiful, colorfully-designed little instruments I had been keeping my eye on for a while. When I found out they were on sale I decided to go in and get a few. I spent  a while looking at prices and finally determined what I wanted and went to the register. As the prices began to ring up something was not adding up because it came out to be more than I had intended on paying. I took my receipt back and asked the lady why the price was so high since it said right here it was on sale. She tried to explain the problem to me for a couple of minutes but it was futile. I could not understand what she was saying and more importantly why I had paid so much for something that was supposed to be on sale. I had spent twenty minutes making sure I had everything added up right only to fail miserably. I walked home pouting in disappointment because I just could not understand a word that lady was saying to me. I tried really hard not to break down all the way home because so many people were watching me walk down the street - as I am always a spectacle with the baby. I got home, told John my story, and started crying. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to fully understand Spanish and more importantly have spiritual conversations - or make any sort of impact while I am here.

Everyone here is kind to me when I butcher the very language that so easily rolls off of their tongues. No judgemental words - a little laughter but hey that is just normal. When you learn a language it is like becoming a child all over again except children lack pride. With all of the silly little mistakes I have made lately I am lacking pride too - maybe that is a good thing. Oh Lord help me learn Spanish!

A break from studying Spanish!

Confessions of a Spoiled Rotten Missionary Wife

I admit sometimes I consider myself the most unlikely of candidates to be considered a missionary wife. I mean before coming to Peru I had never made my own applesauce (which I do on a regular basis now. As a matter of fact peels were flying tonight!) or even considered making my own baby wipes (this is next weeks new adventure). It is a for sure thing that I will never do cloth diapers - not because they are not awesome. I know lots of amazing women who use them but it just isn't for me. We all have our limits you know. Never before had I imagined not giving my kids a bath for an entire week, but here life is just different. No bath tub. Somtimes no power, and that changes everything now doesn't it. I never really realized how spoiled I was till I came here.

**Just for the record Peru has a lot of things. You can get lots of American products, but you will have to pay a little more for them and the trick is actually finding them - which can take forever, and who knows if you find it once, if you will ever be able to find it again. They do not really stock items here as I have found, which turns you into an impulse buyer for sure! Oh look they have corn chips, let's buy ten bags!**

I miss my high heels, having girls nights, eating fancy chocolates, and going out to high priced coffee shops for a few hours of relaxation. I long for my cowboy boots and country music. I decided not to bring my boots because I thought I would stick out like a sore thumb here, and I was right - but that does not change the fact that I miss them. John and I had really counted on being able to access Pandora while we were here too - then I could have had all the country music I wanted! Guess what?? Pandora doesn't work in Peru - really?

I miss my kids not getting sick all the time. I miss having a yard for the kids to play in with all of their toys. We have plenty of toys here but it just isn't the same. Sometimes I look at my kids and wonder if I have robbed them of the "American childhood" by coming here - or have I just given them different opportunities? In reality the kids are just fine and they are pretty much considered famous here. A guy in the super market today told us to warn people back home that are kids are going to be movie stars here - it is just so rare to see such light skinned children. I miss all of Hannah's beautifully color coordinated, ridicuosly, frivolous, girly outfits. Shouldn't every girl be gorgeously dressed? Somtimes I wonder if by coming here we have somehow managed to avoid the rat race of American culture, and maybe that is better. Since being here in Peru I have realized how materialistic I had become.

I miss hot summer nights in Missouri, grilling in the backyard (back when we had a yard), green grass that has been freshly cut, and playdates at clean parks.

I miss my dishwasher. It seems as though I spend all day doing the dishes. I miss my microwave - yes we had one but it has been out of commission since the 3rd of July. We have taken it in to the store we bought it from only to wait patiently to someday - hopefully- recieve another one. Glad we have a toaster and a TV - although like a lot of things that we've bought here, they are electrically spastic. Our TV randomly turns on whenever it wants - which is pretty creepy at 3 o'clock in the morning playing childrens DVDs. Our toaster also works when it wants to.

I really should not be complaining though becuase at least we have these things. I think of all of my friends in the Sudan who have NONE of these - these are the real missionary women. This is what I mean by calling myself a spoiled rotten missionary wife. Sometimes even with all of these amenities, I feel as though I am not cut out for this. It's true, I am not cut out for this. Inadequate - for sure. I do know one thing for sure though - God has called us to Peru. US as in both of US. Sometimes I am not sure why God has called me to a place so far and so different from home - but I know without a doubt we are here for reason. Sometimes God asks us to do things that do not necessarily make us happy, but they are the best things for us. God loves me and knows what is best for me - and for me right now it is Peru. I rest in this and in this alone because I know by myself I am a wimp - just ask John. He heard me scream tonight when I went to blend the applesauce and grabbed a worm on the blender - um that is just grose!

I am definitely no missionary wife hero - just an average, everyday, person who God has called to Peru. Not special, just doing what God has called me to in the place He has called me to.

Just so you know Peru is a beautiful country with many wonderful places to see and to visit. I think it is only normal to miss home regardless of how beautiful the country is or how wonderful the people here are. We have been warmly welcomed here in Peru, sometimes I just miss home that's all.

Here are a couple pictures of the kids I took today. Yes, Hannah is in a color coordinated swimsuit/headband that I brought from home!

A New Meaning to the Term "Porta Potty"

Here is the picture people have been asking me for. Apparently I forgot to post the promised picture! This is the bathroom of the place we decided not to rent. Can you see the hole with the blankets tied up around it in the front yard? Get it - porta potty - just dig your hole and hang up a sheet! Any idea why we made the decision to rent the other house - can you just sense the sarcasm in this comment? :)

 

Our house in Curahuasi and a trip to Machu Picchu
 

 

 

This picture is from Curahuasi on a hike up the mountain - more pictures from this hike to come in a later post.

 

Well we got back a little over a week ago from Curahuasi. We were looking for a house to fix up for our upcoming move in January/February time frame. Well fixing up a house turned out to be WAY more expensive than we thought. We looked at three places that were in need of some "fixing up", or just plain "finishing", and one that was completely finished but needed a few things to be worked on. The three fixer uppers consisted of cement or adobe blocks and wood poles. Needless to say after John introduced me to our first "fixer upper" some crazy things started running through my mind like...umm are we nuts? This house had no indoor bathroom, no indoor kitchen, no finished walls (only adobe bricks), no running water to the house, two floors but no stairs, no windows, electric wires hanging everywhere, and a giant gravel hole in the backyard. Can we say hazardous for three small children? I think once we exited the house John could tell by the look on my face that we were not going to be renting this one. I left that house thinking, " I know God never gives us more than we can handle so God must think I am one tough cookie." We went on to look at house number two. This was a cement block house with three rooms on the bottom floor that were totally unfnished although it did have one window that had glass in it - it was broken but hey, there was glass. This might sound strange but here in Peru "hallways" do not really exist. These houses all had space for a kitchen, living room and bedrooms but not of them are connected. You must exit each room and go outside to access the next room. Not really conducive for my potty training children considering the other hazards that are outside, gravel pits, electric wires, wild pigs, and loads of cactus.

The second house seemed like a better option even though the pigs were roaming around what would be the yard and the cactuses were in the multitudes, however, our hopes were dashed when were told the price to fix up the three rooms on the first floor (the second floor was not finished yet and rebar was jutting up into the air) - $10,000 american dollars - yep you read that right. We were shocked and disappointed because we do not have that kind of money and there is no way the kids and us will be living in the same room for the next three years - nope - not happening. On to house number three.

This was a little adobe house with enough bedrooms/space for us, but we were going to have to do some significant rennovating still. This included adding a bathroom (because there was NO bathroom - just a hole in the front yard surrounded by tarps...you can see it in the picture below), connecting all the rooms with hallways, redoing the stairs, making a room into a kitchen, raising the ceilings - aka digging out the floor (Americans are super tall in comparision with Peruvians and especially the Quechua people), and making a place for the washing machine. This list was just too long and the translation from English to Spanish to Quechua was just too difficult. So, on to option four.

Our fourth option was a finished duplex that had a kitchen but no counter tops. When we entered the house it stunk of rotting meat from the night before which was displayed on the table in the kitchen. Our first impression was not great but at this point things were looking good compared to our other options. This house was at least finished and only needed some minor work so we decided to go with it. We will be getting a larger water tank for the house since it is common to not have water for four or five days during the dry season. We will also be getting some counter tops and shelves so that I have a place to cook and a place to put my dishes. The best part about this house was the tiny plot of grass in the front yard. The kids will have a place to play and the yard is even fenced off! We have been told the windows leak and if that is true the landlord said he would fix it. So we now have a place! Quite the adventure.
 

These are a couple of pictures of our future place.

 

 

This is a picture of house number three, which we decided not to rent.

 

Pray for us this week as:

- We really need our house to sell

- We would really like it if our car would sell as well (an added bonus)

- That we would continue to learn the language well, which iI've found is especially difficult when I have Hudson in class with me.

- That the kids would adjust to having us back in school, and having our empleada return to help us with watching the children during our school time.

Suzanne and I ventured off to Machu Picchu while we were in Cuzco waiting to take our bus ride back to Arequipa. John so graciously stayed with the kiddos all day in a local Hostal and I bet he has some pretty awesome stories to tell you about that experience. John is such a trooper and really just an outstanding guy! Suzanne and I enjoyed our day off traipsing through the ruins of Peru. What a treat! It was more walking than I think either of us expected, even Hudson was tired! Poor John he has always wanted to go to Machu Picchu but it was just not going to be feasible with all of the kids. Hudson was only three weeks and now he can say he has been to Machu Picchu, I am sure John will never let me live this one down :) Love you honey!!! Enjoy the pictures from our trip!

Back to School...

 

Just a few more pictures of our little man. He is growing up so fast. I finally put him in a 0-3 months outfit today - getting big - out growing the newborn clothes. Hudson rolled over for the first time yesterday - quite a bit ahead of schedule than Caleb and Hannah.

 

Pray for Hudson and Hannah as they both have some kind of respiratory thing and the nights have been long. Other than that Hudson is growing well. The kids really enjoy having a new sibling and everyday it is so fun to watch them enjoy their new brother. What a blessing!

 

We have had the last month off to adjust to having Hudson around and it was also a Peruvian holiday time so school was not in session - including our language school. The timing worked out perfectly since we had the baby right before vacation time. During our time off we flew to Lima to get the kids visas and to register Hudson with the U.S. embassy. Dual citizenship sounds cool but in reality it requires a bit more traveling and quite a bit more paperwork. After our adventures in Lima we flew to Cusco and then made the supposedely 2 and a half hour drive, which took about 4-5 hours due to road closures, to Curahuasi. We will be moving to Curahuasi in January or February and we will need a house that is ready for us to move into at that time. Since things tend to take a little longer than expected we ventured to Curahuasi to find a house now so that the necessary improvements could be made before we arrive. Finding a house was quite the experience which I think deserves a blog of it's own. So hopefully sometime within the next week or so I can get that up as well. On a positive note we did find a house, and we are grateful for that!

 

We returned to language school this week. We are feeling super blessed to have our friend Suzanne here to help with this transition back to school. The kids have truly enojoyed having her around, and quite frankly I think John and I have enjoyed the extra help around the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bath By Candlelight

 

Constant electricity is a luxury really because most people around the world do not have it - us included. Although I really cannot complain because the electricity has only gone out a few times since we have been here and really for only a minimal amount of time. This morning just happened to be one of those mornings we did not have electricity. This just happened to be the morning we had planned on giving the kids a bath. Good thing we have a gas stove and matches. So the kids got to take a bath by candlelight. Nine pots of hot water later, they had a warm bath. Oh, the things we take for granted in life. The fact that we have running water in our house is just a blessing because there are lots of people here, even in the second largest city in Peru , who do not have this luxury. Sometimes I feel incredibly spoiled.                         

A Day With the Dinosaurs

 

For the first time in a few weeks John and I took the kids to the park this morning, but this was not just any park - it was a dinosaur park! A great deal of the parks here seem to be themed. I have seen a train park, an airplane park, and now a dinosaur park. The strange thing about the parks here is that the majority of them do not have any play equipment at all. Sometimes the parks are only open in the weekend as well. Saturdays we always go to the park but not with the intent of playing, but buying food for the week. Our park down the street has no play quipment, is super tiny, and is residence to the pack of neighborhood dogs. However early, early, early, on Saturday morning our park is bustling with people buying their food for the week. Just last week Caleb and I were buying our weekly vegetables/fruits, when we saw a pig head on the meat table of one of the vendors! Needless to say in many ways my definition of the word "park" has changed significantly.

Soo....today we went to the Dinosaur Park. Caleb has been asking to go since we got here and he heard about it from some of our friends. Our empleada, Ines, has been encouraging us to go as well, and we finally got the chance to go today. We spent a good two and a half hours there just playing on the swings, play equipment, and trampolines. Oh, the kids had so much fun! It was sort of like an miniature amusement park - at least that is the closest thing it reminded me of. Unfortunately none of the fun stuff, including the ferris wheel was running. Apparently, the park is open but the rides are only open on the weekend. It was still not a disappointment though because the kids have not played at a park with play equipment since we have been in Peru - so they were VERY excited. Hannah was exploring everything, and getting incredibly dirty. Caleb enjoyed going across all of the "rickey-rockety bridges" as he described them. We had such a wonderful, relaxing time today I almost forgot I was still in Peru. Enjoy some of the attached pictures of the kids just enjoying themselves.

We ended the day with icecream today. The kids really like icecream - who doesn't right? It is not easily accessible, or affordable, to buy a gallon and put in your fridge but it is easy to buy off of a vendor on the street. The truly special treat for John and I was watching Caleb, unprompted, share with his sister. She would go off and play with her toys, return signing and saying please, and then wait excitedly for Caleb to feed her another spoon of icecream. Caleb is such a great big brother, and we enjoy watching him grow. John has been teaching Caleb how to pray as well and this has been a daily source of enjoyment for us all.

Hudson is doing well, and the kids just adore their baby brother. Every morning Hannah joyously  screams his name when she sees him. Caleb enjoys touching his little toes, and showing him all of his airplanes. We feel so blessed to have this new little guy, and we cannot wait to see the little personality, and character God has given him.

The kids are also very excited because our friend, Suzanne, is coming tomorrow. She is about to make the flight over to Peru as I am writing this blog. Pray for her safe travel. Suzanne is coming for about a month to help us out with the children, and to check out missionary work here in Peru. The kids are very excited to have a new friend to play with, and Caleb cannot wait to go to the airport tomorrow.

 

Oh and this is how they "water" the parks here in Peru.