Will you be my Valentine?

Wednesday, February 13

Amanda and Deidre left at 4:30 this morning for their trip to Panama.  Eddie spoke to them this afternoon, and they have arrived safely (but not without mishaps).  At one point the bus stopped at a rest stop and they were using the bathroom and buying snacks.  The cashier was new, and he was taking a long time to complete their transaction.  The bus left without them!  Their bags were still on the bus!  They quick grabbed a taxi and the taxi caught up with the bus… Praise the Lord!

During class today, Sonia and I made a little craft for everyone for Valentine’s Day.  She found it on Pintrest and brought all the supplies to class today.  

She also brought a fitness magazine for me to practice reading in Spanish.   She was trying to prove to me that I know a lot of Spanish.  She had me read a paragraph and then counted the words.  There were 95 and there was only one that I didn’t understand!  It is interesting to see that even though talking in Spanish correctly is still difficult for me, I really am learning.

After class, Eddie and I worked on our presentation for tomorrow.  Then he had a meeting with Hector and Josué.  I stayed home with Jaden and made English Toffee, and had craft time with Jaden.  He sat in his seat and colored in a coloring book for a good 20 minutes while I made a card for Eddie.  Eventually he started using the colored pencils as drum sticks, but he continued to be content to just sit with me at the table and play.  I love those precious moments and have to remind myself to cherish them now while he is still young!

English Toffee "Pieces"

Thursday, February 14

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hector allowed Eddie and I to have class together today with both of our teachers, Ana and Sonia, since Amanda and Deidre were not here today.  We prepared our culture class presentation together.  We wrote a little drama about a first date on Valentines’ Day and then talked about some basic facts about chocolates, flowers and cards that are purchased and given on Valentine’s Day.

FUN FACT: 

Did you know that 15% of American women send themselves flowers on Valentine’s Day? 

At the end of our presentation, Eddie read a poem that he wrote for me in Spanish 

(and it even rhymed)!  How sweet!

Everyone passed out a little Valentine to everyone else and we had an enjoyable morning.  Hector came into our class to tell us that he had a new plan for the upcoming weeks for us.  Next week, Deidre and I are going to have Patricia for a teacher.  Eddie and Amanda will continue with Ana.   Then, after Amanda leaves, Eddie, Deidre and I will all have class together because he believes that we are all basically on the same level.  I have to disagree… Eddie and Deidre both speak more than I do, but I am up for the challenge.  Please pray that I will be diligent in my studies to try to catch up to him.

After break time, Sonia and Ana planned a little competition between Eddie and I.  They asked us questions about each other and we got a point if we got it right.  We ran out of time to finish the game, but here is the score for now:

We also celebrated another graduation at CISA.  Michelle is from Switzerland and she has been here for the past month.  She is leaving this week, but will return in 3 weeks to travel to Chirripo with us.  So it is not "goodbye" but "see you later."

Eddie and I wanted to treat Ryan and Kirsten to a date night so we offered to watch their kids so that they could go out!  They offered to repay us the favor if we want to go out tomorrow night.  We ate dinner with the kids and watched “A Bee Movie.”  It was pretty funny, and I even got to practice my Spanish by reading the subtitles in Spanish.  Thanks, Netflix!

Before dinner, Eddie played a round of hide and seek with the kids.  It was pretty funny to watch Jaden join in on the fun.  He caught on quickly that he needed to hide quietly…

… and to scream loudly when found! 

Jaden enjoys playing with their train set.

We had fun with the kids and hope to do it again soon before we have to leave (which is in about 6 weeks).

Praying

Monday, February 11

Mondays are always hard… even in Costa Rica… but especially after a vacation.

We went to class and I had some good practice talking in Spanish about our trip to the beach.  We also had another surprise!  Deidre decided to stay another month.  God provided her the opportunity and she just didn’t feel ready to leave just yet.  So… she is back in my class but she was pretty pre-occupied because she is planning a quick trip to Panama this week. She has to leave the country by Friday because Costa Rica does not allow you to stay in the country for longer than 90 days with out leaving.  You can return 3 days later, but you have to have your passport stamped.   Amanda is joining her on this three-day trip, and then she is spending just one more week here.  She decided to change her ticket and go home a month early.  We are not excited about this decision, but we are supportive and we understand why she made this choice.  

After class, we went home and Gatica told us she is not feeling well.  We told her to just go home and that if she is still sick tomorrow to take the day off.  Her husband is sick too, so it seems a little bug is traveling around our little town.  Please pray for her and her husband’s healing.

Amanda and Deidre spent the afternoon trying to plan their trip to Panama.  Since Deidre is staying an extra month, she needs to leave the country for 3 days.  They were a bit frustrated with the bus companies and hotel that were not returning their calls or emails.  I think they have it figured out, but not with out hours of frustration.

Jaden has been practicing his speaking skills, and his language learning is exploding rapidly!  Tonight he was repeating the letters “A” and “B” for Amanda and I.  I love hearing him say new words and listening to him try to repeat after us.  It is also awesome to see him understand both English and Spanish equally.

Tuesday, February 12

Praise God that Gatica and her husband are both feeling better.  She showed up to make us our breakfast today, but Amanda had already made pancakes, so she had a little break.  Amanda was up early anyway because we were all awakened last night by a noise in our house around 5:00am.  We figured out it was most likely just a bat.  She has been hearing it that past few nights, but last night it woke us all up.  I think his radar was broken because it sounded like it crashed into a wall or the roof near our bedroom.  I guess there are worse things we could have flying around our house.   I’m not sure what, but who’s asking?

Sonia and Deidre and I had fun in class today.  We were practicing making sentences in a past tense form that we were reviewing by using a pile of verb flash cards to base our sentences off of.  She would ask me if I ever did _______ and I would have to answer with "yes" or "no" and sometimes a story to go with it.  Then, I would take a turn asking her questions.  Deidre likes to ask some interesting questions.

The kids came over after school today, and the owner of our house was in the yard.  He came and spoke with them and told them that they are not allowed to play at our house anymore.  It is bittersweet… we don’t want them to damage anything else at the house, but we also do enjoy their visits on occasion.  Please pray that we handle the situation in a godly way, and that there will be no feelings hurt or relationships damaged.

Eddie led Bible study again tonight.  I love to see the faithful attendees and the new faces each week.  This week, we spent time praying for each other in groups of two or three.  I will be honest, praying in Spanish is still a struggle of mine, but I am beginning to understand them more.  I am not sure if this is something the people of this church do regularly, but I know it was blessing on my heart to have this opportunity.  Jaden even picks up on the fact that we are praying and stops what he is doing to fold his hands and sit quietly for a few moments.  It doesn’t always last too long, but I love that he is trying to participate!

Please pray for Amanda and Deidre to have a safe trip to Panama and back!  They leave at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow (Wednesday).

Manuel Antonio Beach - Day 3

Saturday, February 9

After another delicious breakfast, we planned to go for a walk into town or on the beach.  The kids had other ideas… they hopped in the pool.  It was so hot out, we couldn’t blame them.  Kirsten took the opportunity to Skype with her parents, and Eddie discovered a few messages from Amanda.  Eventually we got a hold of her and learned that a window had been broken in our house.  All is well, nothing was taken; but we were confused as to how it had happened.  To make a long story short, we think the kids that like to play by our house threw a rock (they said "at a snake").  Whether by accident or not, we don’t really know.  It has been fixed and they are not allowed to play at our house for a little while because they lied about it.  It is a sad moment, but we hope to see them learn a lesson and that we can continue to build a relationship with them and show them the love of Christ. 

Once all that was resolved, we decided to go on that walk.  It was so hot, and we didn’t find much this time around.  

We headed back to the beach and let the kids play in the shade.  

The guys headed to town to buy our bus tickets for tomorrow morning, and they found us some lunch and dessert.  While they were gone, we got another fun surprise.  I had gone down by the water to try to get Jaden cleaned off and to play in the water.  He was still not happy about it.  When I glanced back up at the beach, I see Kirsten pointing at the trees and making strange monkey like gestures.  I called Noah out of the water and took Jaden up to see.  There were about 6 monkeys eating and playing in the trees.  They were so close to us!  It was amazing!

Eddie and Ryan missed it.  Amongst all the chaos of the monkeys, there was a guy there who looked up in another tree and spotted the sloth again.  He had come down during the night and climbed up a different tree.  It was much shorter, so we could see him pretty well.  It is hard to see in the picture, but his face is just above the lower branch on the left side of the tree:

Kirsten shook the tree and it slowly turned its head to look at us.  It was pretty cute!  After all the activity died down, Jaden took a long nap in the shade and we all played in the sand.  We found a hermit crab and it entertained both the adults and kids for well over an hour.  Eddie did his beach ritual: digging a hole to China, and the kids and I tried to make some sand sculptures.  We had a blast!

When we got sick of being sandy, we cleaned up again and spent some more time in the pool before dinner.  We also chatted with some other hotel guests.  They have been visiting this hotel for the past 12 years and knew all about the monkeys and sloths.  While we were eating dinner, another monkey swung down through the trees and sat on a light pool right next to the restaurant.  There was a big bug flying around the light and we watched him catch it and eat it before moving on through the trees down the beach.  We are so thankful for these exciting moments where we get to see parts of God’s creation that we don’t usually get to see!

On our way back to our room... we saw a guard carrying this in his bare hand:

... and it was still alive.  I am not sure where he found it or what he was going to do with it.  I think it was better not to know.

After getting the kids in bed, Ryan and Eddie felt like getting some pizza from a local restaurant, called The Wagon.  They took the bus there, and then walked back to the hotel.  Kirsten was in bed a sleep and I was just finishing packing up and getting ready for bed.  That didn’t stop us from each polishing off 2 slices of pizza.  It was delicious.  Eddie and Ryan told me that they met two missionary girls from Honduras.  They were in Costa Rica to renew their passport, and the owner offered to give them free food for the week if they would help him out in the restaurant.  They were staying in the hostel by the beach for about $4 a night and getting free food.  What a great way to spend the week!

 

Sunday, February 10

We met for breakfast around 7:30 and planned to check out and catch the 8:20 bus to the main bus station.  Our tickets to San José were for the 9:30 bus.  Since the boys hadn’t quite finished their breakfast, she stayed down by the restaurant with them while Ryan, Eddie and I went and got our stuff and checked out.  She was taking forever to meet us, and we were worried we would miss the bus.  When Ryan went to get her, we discovered what the hold-up was.  After we left, about 30 monkeys came in and just about raided the kitchen.  They were taking bananas off the buffet and running on the tables and the rafters, hanging from the roof and even baring their teeth.  The aggression was because there was a momma monkey with a baby on her back that was passing through with them!  Kirsten was in shock and a bit afraid for her kids so she didn’t get many pics, but she did snap one of the momma and her baby!  She was then told that the monkeys pass through that area every morning… why didn’t we know that?  We missed it 3 mornings in a row!  Oh well.

We caught our bus and started out trip.  We were a bit nervous that this trip would be more difficult because we hadn’t purchased all of our tickets ahead of time.  We arrived in San José around 1:15 and were able to buy tickets for the next bus at 2:00.  We were back in Turriabla by 4:00 and home by 6:00 (Not 5:00 because we stopped in La Suiza for some groceries and to watch Josué play fútbol in the plaza.

When we got home, Amanda treated us by making tacos for dinner!!!  I love tacos and have not had them since October!!!  They were delicious!  We unpacked and told her all about our trip, and she told us more about what happened with the kids and the window.

Manuel Antonio Beach - Day 2

Friday, February 8

Everyone was up by 7:30 and we headed to breakfast.  After eggs, gallo pinto, fruit, and toast the boys couldn’t resist the pool.  We were the only ones in it and we had a gorgeous morning by the pool.  Ryan was the only studious one at the moment, but the rest of us swam and watch iguanas lounging on the pool deck with us!

Eventually, we wanted to hang out on the beach... in the shade because the sun and sand were so hot.

Kirsten and Ryan brought some cool foldable sand toys.  The boys loved every minute on the beach.  

Ocean and Noah are playing with the foldable sand toys... perfect for packing light!!!

Ryan and Eddie loved body surfing and eventually rented a surfboard. 

Baby Ezra hung out in his baby-pop-up-tent on the beach with us (which I don't have a picture of) but he and Jaden hung out for a bit on the sheet after Jaden's nap, too.

While Jaden played happily in the sand with the boys, Eddie and I went for a walk.  The beach formed a bay, so we walked to one end. 

At that point we saw a lot of people exiting the national park from these stairs...  of course Eddie had to go exploring.  

We found this bay where they were giving boat tours... but it was too expensive for our liking.

We also saw this gorgeous view...

We hung out at the exit, and tagged along with a group who had a guide.  Their tour was just ending, and he was pointing out something in the bushes.  It was a monkey!  It was down by the lagoon getting a drink of water.  We stood there and watched for a few minutes before heading back.  I asked a woman what else she saw on the tour, and she said just spiders, lizards, birds, and turtles.  Their guide never found any sloths or monkeys until just at the moment we were standing near them.  That was enough to convince us that it was not worth it to pay for the tour.

We headed back to the kids and Kirsten and Ryan, and on the way we saw a lady holding something that was trying to crawl out of her hand.  I went over and saw this:

A baby sea turtle! 












First monkeys; now a baby sea turtle!  This was turning into quite the adventure.  Upon our return to our spot on the beach, we found our sand-covered son, 

And we spotted Kirsten near the tree line, pointing to the top of a palm tree.

Sure enough, there was a sloth hanging out in the tree!  Everything we had hoped to see… all in the span of about 30 minutes!  I love being out in God’s beautiful creation!  Plus we saw hermit crabs, people horseback riding on the beach, raccoons, and snails… the list goes on!

A snail made a heart in the sand.

All those little trails are from snails, too.

Strange monkey we found in the tree.

After all that adventure, we decided to clean up a bit and go back to the pool.  There were some college-age kids hanging around, and of course Jaden, Noah, and Ocean had their attention.  I started asking them about things they had seen and came to find out that they were here in Costa Rica for a semester abroad program from a university in North Carolina.  They plan to stay until May, and all of their weekend excursions are covered under the cost of their tuition!  What a great experience.  If you are in college and reading this, let me give you some advice:  If your school offers you an opportunity to do a semester abroad, DO IT!  It seems that it would be an experience of a life-time.  I was too scared to do that when I was in college, but now I realize what a great opportunity that would have been!

Kirsten and Ryan had dinner while we played in the pool with the kids.  Pretty soon, we all got cold and hungry and joined them.  Dinner was another kind of fish wrapped in a banana leaf.  Again… delicious!  When we returned to our room, we found this:

Awwww!

Manuel Antonio Beach - Day 1

Manuel Antonio 2013

Thursday, February 7

We have lived in Costa Rica for over 4 months and we finally planned a trip to the beach.  Kirsten and Ryan and their three boys made the trip with us.  We had help from Hector to pick out the beach and the hotel, friends in San José who bought us bus tickets so that we would not have to make the trip longer, and of course we had help from God as His blessed us through out our trip.

Thursday Morning:  Eddie did not sleep much the whole night because he was sick.  He spent most of the night on the toilet or feeling nauseous.  We debated canceling the trip, but knew that our reservations were non-refundable.  Despite Eddie’s miserable state, we packed up and headed to the first bus.

7:00am: We took Bus #1 to Turrialba.  This 45-minute bus ride was miserable for Eddie. Every time the bus stopped, he felt like running off and vomiting.  There was a trash can near by, so at least he had a safety net.  We mistakenly sat in the back of the bus with all of our luggage and the ride was pretty bumpy.  He was green!

We arrived at the bus stop and had 15 minutes before our next bus.  He made it to the bathroom, and I bought him some Gatorade.  The boys played on the toy cars until it was time to go.

My sick husband... pobresito!

8:00am: We boarded Bus #2 to San José.  This bus was very nice.  It was cushioned and had air conditioning.  Eddie’s goal was to make it another almost 2 hours on this bus before needing the bathroom.  

My sleepy boy... que lindo!

The GORGEOUS view from the bus.

We made it to San José, but after 1 ½ hours of misery, he told us he had to get off the bus.  We all exited and he made it into a McDonald’s bathroom.   The McDonald’s was a blessing in disguise.  Thank you, Lord!  It was a great place to let the kids play and eat.  Check out the mini french fries...

The bathroom was clean and free (as opposed to the nasty ones at the bus stop that you have to pay for).  Also, there was a pharmacy right next door.  It helps that one of our traveling companions happens to be a doctor.  Kirsten took Eddie to the pharmacy and found him some medicine.  It was meant to make him drowsy so he could survive the next leg of the trip.  He was so sick that he was debating just staying in San José in a hotel until he felt better, but we convinced him to keep going.

We walked out to the street to catch a taxi to the next bus station.  God continued to bless us.  When we crossed the street, there were two taxies waiting.  We hopped in and were on our way.  

We arrived at the next bus stop around 11:10, and met some friends who, earlier in the week, had bought us tickets for the 12:00 bus.  We paid them for the tickets and chatted until it was time to go.  

12:00pm: We boarded Bus #3 to La Playa de Manuel Antonio.  This bus ride was expected to be about 3 ½ hours, but thankfully it stops half way at a rest stop.  Eddie’s seat was the front one right next to an open window.  It was another blessing from God.  He slept almost the whole way, and we arrived at the hotel around 4:00.  

Noah and Ocean were happy to have arrived... actually we all were!!!

We checked in and Eddie hit the bed!

 Poor Eddie...

 This is the front of our hotel room... how romantic... too bad my husband is sick...

Jaden and I and the other family headed out to the beach and left Eddie in peace and quiet.  Manuel Antonio is a beautiful beach.  

We all went in the water because it was so hot out and the ocean felt like bath water.  As we walked out on to the beach, we realized we were kind of intruding on a beach wedding.  The bride was in front of us, but she stopped.  We kept walking and felt like we were the bridesmaids and groomsmen and ring bearers… thankfully, they weren’t quite ready to start the wedding, so we got out of the way on time.

We hung out on the beach until sunset, and Eddie ventured out just in time to see the last 5 minutes of the sun setting on the sea!  We all enjoyed the sunset tremendously.

Jaden, on the other hand, was now the unhappy one.  When he walked in the sand he was fine, but as soon as a wave hit his feet, he was terrified.  I think he would have walked all the way back to our hotel room if I would have let him.  He was pretty upset. 

Ocean and the ocean and the sunset.

Eventually, we went back to the room and showered and got ready for dinner.  Breakfast and dinner were included in the price of the hotel, so we hoped for some good food.  We were not disappointed.  The first night they served us salad, mahi mahi, and dessert and a natural fruit drink.  The kids ate quesadillas, and every one was happy.  We headed to bed and anticipated a wonderful weekend to come!