Feliz Cumpleaños, Sael!

Check out these cute baby chickens that are
always wandering around the yard these days!

Saturday, November 3

After breakfast this morning, Freddy and Samia volunteered to take Jaden shopping with them in Turrialba.  Eddie and I took this opportunity to study.  We had a full day ahead of us, and we are finding it kind of difficult to study when Jaden is awake.

Samia made this dress.  No pattern.  No internet.  Just her
and her machine!  She knocks out a project like this
in a matter of a couple of hours from start to finish.
I wish I could sew like her!  I am impressed with her talent!

After they returned, Diana came over so that we could help her with her English.  She told us that she is not doing well in her English class and asked if we would help her study.  I hope we helped more than hindered.  She wanted help with pronunciation and as I helped her with words like “sightseeing” I was thinking about how incredibly difficult it is to learn English… there are so many rules and to many words that don’t follow the rules.  At least in Spanish, most words follow the rules.  And at least in Spanish, you pronounce all of the letters in the word, unlike the word “known.” 

Later, Hector asked us to meet with Abby and Gitano.  They are a couple from Oregon who are interested in attending CISA with their family (of 4 kids).   They came to Costa Rica for a tour of CISA, a business trip, and a vacation all in one.  It was fun to get to know them, but sad to know that we will be gone by the time they come to CISA.

After we met them, they joined us at youth group.  We played “human knot” with about 18 people and I had the unfortunate luck to be holding hands with a kid who thought it was funny to pull on my hand for no apparent reason and make it difficult to work with the group to get untangled.  It was all in good fun and we got untangled enough to discover that “Amanda was the problem.”  Well, Amanda and the four other people she made her own separate circle with…  Don’t worry, Amanda, we still love you!

Diana told us that there was an event at the restaurant (Monte Verde) this evening.  She told us that she was going dressed as a witch.  That is when we discovered that some people do celebrate Halloween here (just a little late… Tico Time).  We headed over after youth and ended up staying very late.  It was fun to watch the people dancing and at the end they had a costume contest.  “Zorro” won!  Sorry, Diana, we cheered for you and your cute witch costume, but you didn’t win.

Sunday, November 4

Samia and Freddy have had such a busy weekend.  They couldn’t go to church this morning because they both had to work.  As I walked to church with Jaden, I had thought that this is just like at Lifepointe… Eddie had to be there early for band practice!  Wow… this is our home and we still have things like “band practice” in our schedule; some things never change!  It was SOOOOO awesome to hear Eddie and Amanda lead worship in Spanish this morning.  I love the song they sang, “Enséñame A Amor” which means “Teach me to love.”  It is gorgeous!  

 Check out my Facebook page for the video.

Eddie and I also enjoyed the sermon today.  We actually broke into groups of three, and Hector gave us questions to discuss amongst ourselves.  He then gave the people a chance to speak up about what they had discussed.  The topic was: Spirituality.  One question asked us to rate our personal spirituality on a scale of 1-10.  As most people shared that they thought they were a 2 or a 3, Hector encouraged us with the reminder that according to John 15, we are all 10’s because we have Christ in our hearts.  What a powerful message and a great reminder!

After church, we took the bus to Sael’s Birthday Party.  The party included a Christian clown, balloons, decorations, 100 people, and a lot of food.  It started at 9:00 am and was still going strong when we left at 2:30.  They served breakfast and lunch and cake.

Jaden was a bit nervous when he realized the clown
with the big shows was near him.

The "Birthday Boy" with his mom and Jaden with one of the teachers from "CISA."

Jaden and Valentina

We met April again and her two kids (Valentina is two months older than Jaden and Noah is one month old).

           

Highlight of the Night: Face Time with Lifepointe Church Youth Group!  Thanks for the call… we loved chatting with you.  Call us any time!

The neighbor brought over a snake that he killed… great, one more thing to give me nightmares!

Monday, November 6

We began our day again with a work-out with Daniel.  All we did was walk (and run a little) up a mountain again.  We took a different road and it was muddy and smelled like pigs.  Daniel told Eddie to run ahead of me, but to stop when he got to a house because that is where the road ends.  Well, Eddie understood, but as he disappeared around a bend in the road, Daniel said to me, “He went to far.”  He proceeded to run ahead of me to retrieve Eddie.  He pointed a sign that said “Entry Prohibited” which was semi-hidden behind a bush.  There was a man out in his yard watching Eddie run onto his property.  Thankfully he was nice, and greeted Eddie with “Cómo amaneció?” which means “How are you this morning?”  The problem was that Eddie thought he said “Cómo nació?” which means “How were you born?”  Eddie was thinking “Cesarean,” but thankfully he didn’t know how to say that in Spanish.  Instead, he stood there with a confused smile on his face, said nothing, and waited for Daniel to get there.

We played a game of “tic-tac-toe” with verbs instead of x’s and o’s in class today.  They call it “gato” which means “cat.”  Rysen won the first one, but then I was determined not to let him win again… stupid concentration-on-the-verb-so-I-lose-a-game-of-tic-tack-toe.

This evening’s homework was difficult for me to understand because the sentences had so many verbs that I don’t know the meaning of yet.  It inspired me to make 150 verb flashcards so I can practice them and eventually learn how to conjugate them.

While I studied, Eddie was able to have his very own play-date with Rysen.  He came over to play in the plaza with Eddie and Jaden.  They played Frisbee for 2 hours and had a blast.  Thank you, God, for sending a male companion for Eddie to play Frisbee with.

Dressed in red, white and blue in honor of election day,
Jaden celebrated by eatin a guava and throwing bugs.

Tuesday, November 7

In class this morning, we reviewed the definitions of those 150 verbs… I am so glad I made those flashcards.  We also spent time working on homework for our Bible class, which is to memorize the books of the Old Testament in Spanish.  It was difficult to do on my own because I did not know how to pronounce them in Spanish, so how could I memorize them.  We finished half of them in 15 minutes and now I know how to pronounce “Deuteronomio” correctly!

I went to the dance exercise class while Eddie stayed home and spent time with Jaden and Skyped with his parents.

Wednesday, November 8

We had another 7:00 work out with Daniel this morning, but we did not want to get out of bed.  I woke Jaden up at 6:30… today was the FIRST day since we have been here that he did not wake up on his own at 5 or 5:30!  We worked on abs for our work out… and I know I will be sore tomorrow.  I kept telling myself “this is my only hope for a flat tummy so I better keep going” because all I wanted to do was quit.

We were observed by another teacher during class today.  I guess she is just trying to see our progress so far… I’m not sure.  We were both so tired in class, plus Rysen has a cold so he was pretty miserable.  Eddie and I stayed at CISA after lunch today to work on homework while Jaden played for a while.  When we got home, we all took a long nap. 

We woke for dinner and got to hang out with the family.  I love the sense of humor they have and I really love that I understood 100% of the conversation this evening.  Today was a good day… a day where I feel like I must be learning something!!!  Praise God! (Because I never thought this day would come).