Thursday, December 13
Eddie began our day with a great devotion about love. We read and discussed Romans 5:6-8 in
Spanish. These daily devotions are
awesome because we are learning more about God, each other and Spanish all in
one.
In class, we reviewed for our presentation and Sonia checked
my homework. I had to write
autobiography using the past tense form of the verbs we started learning this
week. We continued to review them,
and I know it will take a while before I am able to use them fluently.
Jaden and Sonia played outside this afternoon and he was so busy digging and dumping rocks into this bucket. I love his concentration...
After class we had our “clase de Biblia” with Hector and we
got a chance to discuss interesting facts about the books of the Bible like
which was written first, what time period the bible was written over, and other
great discussion questions.
Later in the afternoon, we had our regular Zumba class with
Deidre, and it was the biggest class yet.
We had about 15 women in attendance and they are inviting their friends. It is a great outreach program, and I
hope we can begin to build a relationship with some of the women we meet.
Since Samia and Freddy had to go to Jose Pablo’s graduation
tonight, we told her not to worry about us for dinner. We stayed at CISA all day because after
all our classes, Eddie had a meeting with Josue and band practice. We ordered Pollo Krispy and had a movie
night with all the students plus Josue.
We planned to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” because it is a Christmas
tradition (for Deidre) and because some of us have never seen it, but there
were no Spanish sub-titles. We
watched Avengers instead.
After the movie, we had a very chilly walk home and it was
sprinkled with shooting stars that were visible in the clear night sky. God is One Amazing Creator!
 |
| Our new house starting in January... and now Amanda will be joining us! |
Yesterday, we witnessed a true miracle. It started with a conversation that
happened on Wednesday. Amanda
happened to mention that she still has airline tickets to return to Costa Rica
because of her original plan to stay for 6 months. Hector heard this bit of information and felt that it was his
duty to share a burden he had on his heart. He asked to speak to Amanda in order to share this burden
with her. He told her that he had
recently had a dream that left him with an uneasy feeling about Amanda leaving
CISA next week. He feels that she
is just starting to grow in her Spanish-fluency, she helps Eddie to be a more
effective band leader, and he just felt that God was telling him she should
stay for the next three months. He
asked her if there was anything besides finances that was preventing her from
returning for another three months.
She confirmed that “finances” was the only reason she was not planning
on returning. She had purchased
the tickets before fundraising, trusting that God would provide for what he had
planned for her. Since she only
raised half of what she would need for the 6 months stay, she decided to only
stay for 3 months. Well… God did provide… just not in the timing we thought he
would.
Hector made an offer to Amanda… he told her she could attend
CISA tuition free. Since we are living in a rental house
starting in January, she can live with us. Basically, the only thing she has to pay for is food.
She talked this over with us, her family, and her boyfriend
and made the decision to follow God’s leading through this open door. She is going to stay in Costa Rica with
us for another 3 months, as we originally planned! Wow… we serve an awesome
God!
Also, I am praising God for the people he put in our lives
here in this small town of Tuis.
Jaden has had a fairly rough week when it comes to eating and just plain
grumpy-ness. He has not been
himself. For this reason, Samia
and Freddy and I all thought he might be “estroncado” again. If you are not familiar with this, I
blogged about it earlier when Jaden was sick in October. “Estroncado” basically means that his
body is not functioning properly because of a minor fall or something that is
common in children. As a result,
one leg seems to get jammed up into his body enough that you can see that one
leg is shorter than the other.
He was walking a little funny and he was tripping more. It also seems to affect his digestive
system. Because of the pain he may
have, he did not want to eat much and he was just angry more often than
not. If you know Jaden, this is
not how he usually acts. He loves
to eat and he loves to be happy and he loves people.
We took him to a woman in town who massaged his belly, arms
and legs. She also massaged his
bottom and right at the beginning, it seemed to hurt him. Within about 10 seconds, he was relaxed
an seemed more comfortable. He was
even playing with the woman’s grandson who was entertaining him with a small
toy. The change in him is dramatic,
and I wouldn’t believe it unless I saw it with my own eyes.
Praise God for people with a different culture and more
knowledge about the human body than me!
After that, Jaden and I spent the day at Amanda’s
house. He loved hanging out with
her, and “helping her pack” her suitcase.
He also took a nap while I enjoyed her high-speed internet!
Eddie, José Pablo, Josué and Rysen went to La Suisa to play
basketball. When they returned, we
discussed and grieved the lives lost in Newton. It is such a heartbreaking tragedy and I am thankful to
continue to be able to hold my son tight.
Our prayers are with those families.
Saturday, December 15
 |
| Waiting for the new bus becuase ours was "malo" |
We walked around town, did a bit of shopping in
the market, and then waited for our friends to arrive.
John and Jamie are fellow Costa Ricans now, but we know them
because we attended the same church in Raleigh. They committed to living in Costa Rica for a year and to
volunteer work near Tamarindo, a city in northern Costa Rica. 
They made the 5 hour drive to San José
and met us for lunch and the largest cultural event of the year: “Festival de
la Luz.” It is a festival that
mostly just involves a parade of lights. The website made it look more entertaining than any Disney parade I have ever seen, so we decided to stay. It started at 6:00, so when we finished our late lunch around 4:30, we wandered around the city until we could find a good place to watch. We found a spot, and purchased “bancos” to stand on. Everyone was standing on the stools, so we needed them to be able to see anything.
Before the parade started, Amanda and I headed to the
bathroom at McDonald’s. The line
was super long and we expected to have to pay the attendant to enter. Little did we know, we had to show him a
receipt from McDonald’s to use the restroom. Amanda told him we didn’t know and begged “Pleeeease.” The nice man let us in, and we
made sure to have a receipt next time we went back. As we excited McDonald’s at 6:05, we were surrounded by
fireworks and just knew the parade was starting. 
We were wrong… We headed back to wait for the parade to start… we waited
and waited and waited. We waited
for “la primera carroza
con luces” (the first float with lights) and it did not arrive at our
location until 8:30. We waited 2 ½
hours and only saw about 4 or 5 floats before we had to leave and get their car
out of the parking garage before it closed at 10:00pm. It was a great experience, but one that
I don’t have to repeat in my lifetime.
Sunday, December 16
John and Jamie wanted to go to church with us, so we
strolled in 15 minutes late, which was right on time for “Tico Time.” We had a moment to remember the
families that lost loved ones on Friday in the town of Newton, and we shed a
few tears as we honored the bravery of Victoria Soto (the teacher who died
protecting her whole class).
Hector also spent some time remembering the good times at CISA over the
past year. After church, we headed to the restaurant so that Samia and
Freddy could meet John and Jamie. We
enjoyed a relaxing lunch (seeing as we were the only customers there) and
finished with a bit of dancing “Gungam Style.”
After lunch we relaxed by the pool at the hotel, although it
was too cold to swim in. Jaden had
fun splashing and kicking his feet in the water for a while while the men
napped and the women chatted. We
headed to Turrialba for dinner and basically got stuck watching another
parade. We ate pizza at “Mama
Mia’s” on the second floor and watched most of the parade from the balcony. It was a good spot to watch from, but
not a good spot to escape from. I
have never felt so smashed by people as we tried to make our way back to the
car before the parade was over. We
saw a few floats and a lot of school bands, and Jaden got to see his first
parade. All in all, it was a good
night, but we were ready to go home and go to bed.
This float with a sewing machine is from the factory of Rawlings... they make the official baseballs for MLBA. The factory is right here in Turrialba and they were throwing balls out into the crowd. 
No comments:
Post a Comment