I will call this my Darthvader Look

Well day three in the hospital. Look at that I finally have time to blog. This has been quite the month and a half for our family . First Andrew with pneumonia , then him and Beth with bronchitis and now me. I started feeling like I had bronchitis 2 weeks back, went the the hospital last Sunday cause I could not breath and had a x ray a few masks with steroids and I went home. As of my 5 th x ray not including the CAT scan this morning they all agree it is pneumonia in both lungs but the right side has now developed a mucus plug that is at the bottom of my lung and is not moving. I actually am praying I will start coughing harder then ever. Please join me in this. I am on so many antibiotics and different steroids and physical therapy to help break up the stuff in my lungs the best thing at this point is the ability to cough. Only thing is my lungs aren't listening to me or my Doctors.
Ok now I will count blessing to keep perspective.
I had a wonderful friend nurse come sleep in my hospital room last night. Thanks Rhonda, now I know why you were sent here not Bolivia.
My kids are being well taken care of.
I missed a grammar test in Spanish.... As much as it would be nice to be done it the mental energy hasn't been there for a few weeks.
I have wonderful friends and family that sends their love and prayer.
I haven't washed dishes or folded laundry in days!
And I truly feel the Lords peace here with me in my room and with the doctors.

Thankful for a great hospital near by

Well after 3 trips to the hospital with Andrew's pneumonia and the his bronchitis and then Bethany 's bronchitis to one last in the morning to drop off a specimen of her digested food to see if there are any unwanted bacteria living in it. We have been trying to enjoy every last moment with the amazing friends we have made out here. This past week we were able to go on a double date one of our closest couple friend our here. All made possible because a gracious single missionary lady at our school who wanted to babysit for free to allow us down time sin ninos! With out children! Thanks Jen!
If I am honest there is fear as I look to the coming of our last semester of language study. I am trying to remember scripture passages in Matthew that tell me not to worry and that If God can take care and dress all the beautiful flowers all around me how much more me His daughter. I may not be the next top Spanish speaker but I am walking where I have been called and I will trust that our heart language will cover a multitude of Spanish grammar errors and pronunciation
Issues.
I hope you all are walking through this up and coming spring/ summer with great expectations for the year ahead. I think it is time to start our Count down to Mexico City.
Well kids are still up trying to come up with creative ways to prepare us for how sick they plan to be in the morning due to school. I keep telling them I wasn't born yesterday and I know all their tricks, let's hope that stays true for a few more years. I guess no matter the continent children will always be children.

1 Week and Cockroach Free!

OK so last Saturday (not yesterday but a week ago) we had just returned to our place right after dark. And of course you know what that means all things ugly and creepy are out and about. We have two gates to get to our front door and it was between the first and the second where my tale takes place. Our friends park their car in our driveway and from time to time we borrow it. It was just as we were climbing out of their vehicle that my story takes place. First, we noticed the almost hissing sound right under us, but it wasn't quite a snake hiss and then the sensory light illuminated the area around our feet to expose about 30 large cockroaches scrambling to be hidden from the light. Did I mention I was wearing crocks ...the kind with holes all over them! As loud as a woman as I can be I was silent with disgust and fear. It was then that we noticed that they were all scurrying into the small tree in the front of our yard.  This tree is also right in front of the kids bedroom windows and would explain why that is where we mostly find these ugly ugly alien looking creatures. After the kids and I were in the house Andrew, my knight in shinning armour, took a can of raid (or the Spanish version of it)  to spray the entire contents of the can on what we  think was their nest. We woke up Sunday morning before church to see a line of dead, or still slowly moving almost dead, cockroaches that were sprinkled on the ground from the gate to our front door step. We have since paid to have a company that specialises in pet control come over and spray our home. Can I say I am so relieved. Apparently when he lifted a cement step in the back yard he was met by a colony of cockroaches that ran and scattered into the daylight of our yard.
So there you have it 1 week and we are still cockroach free! We are used to finding that ugly free loafer in the house at least every other day.

 

Sam was the designated photo-man in the morning to help us capture this magical memory.

This is a picture of the tree in our yard that offered a place of safety and darkness to our unwanted house guests for 6 months!

Catch ya later ugly buggie!

Yummy Guacamole!!

Ingredients:
2 ripe avocades, peeled and chopped
1 small tomato, skinned and chopped tiny tiny
juice of 1 lemon or lime
1/2 chopped onion tiny tiny
1/2 teaspoon salt
a dash of Tabasco
celantro (even though Andrew doesn't like it but when he can't see it he sure does like it)
I brought my small no name food chopper from Canada and it chops everything in seconds.
if you want add a tiny bit of your favorite spice chilli

You can eat with celary sticks, carrots, craxker and yes of course corn tortillas.

if you omit to avacodas and add green pepers it is called Chimchury.

Change.....

You know I wonder if change ever becomes something we don't think about and just do.

This past 7 months has been amazing for language learning, growth
as individuals and as a family. We have seen Sam grow in his understanding of who God is and how he can trust God even if it means leaving his friends is Abbotsford. And of course his family.
This may sound premature but I can already feel the winds of change approaching. I was at the Farmacia yesterday (I think we keep the dear little shop in business) and I was thinking how comfortable it has all become. How nice it is to see their familiar faces each week and be able to humiliate myself (not that I care) and speak my Spanish to them. And then the thought hit me.... Another 5 months and it will be a new Farmacia, a new city , a new country. I will admit the pity part began for a few hours. And a hundred thoughts ran through my mind. How would the children adapt to another school? Would Sam forgive me for taking him away from his new found best est friend Garret? Would the next house have less or more bugs? And then two things happened. I had lunch with a friend and she reminded me that I am not enjoying the gifts God has given me if I begin to step back and prepare my heart for the inevitable tearing off of the metaphorical band aid. And then it hit me. Do I trust Him with my family? Do I trust Him with the kids education? Do I trust Him with my heart and with the leaving of our new amazing friends? Friends that get our situation with out us having to explain where we are at with long detailed stories?
 And then I heard deep inside that song from Matt Redmond. And I remembered the truth. Yes God is good, only He is trustworthy. I can trust Him with our kids here and with our parents far from us. It is about the journey and I am so excited to be "on this journey". I know all our journeys look very different, but my prayer for all of us is that we would follow God where ever He leads us, be it s different job, a heart adjustment, eyes to see those near us in need of our compassion. If you hear Him calling you to step out of your norm, don't be scared, He is a Good God, He is trust worthy and He will give you what you need to get to where He is calling you.
I leave you with the words to Matt's song.
All my love,
Claudia

Toothpaste and Price Smart

OK so I have this remedy for curing all acne problems. Go to bed with toothpaste on your pimple. Well that's great in Canada but I have a problem out here in Costa Rica. If you leave any food, lotion or any other substance out you are basically sounding an alarm notifying all the insects in your house to "Come and Eat!". So I am stuck without my toothpaste remedy because I'm too scared to wake up to find a cockroach attached to my face. So all week I was blessed to sport a third eye on my chin. To read a article ablout toothpaste vs pimple cream go the following website.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ansy/2420480843/

I was recommended a book a few weeks ago called "Crazy Love." I finally downloaded it on my kindle....OK on my husbands kindle and read it. Wow what a great read. It was one of those books that was easy to read but if you actually challenge yourself to follow the philosophy in the book your life would drastically be changed.
Here is the the authors web site http://crazylovebook.com/ 


I have been trying to take this year in Costa Rica slow.  There is hours of schoolwork, and then on top of this I need to be with Sam for his schoolwork. For some reason Sam takes 3-4 hours a night to complete his work. Then there is the time we get to be a family, set some traditions down, be there for one anothere in a new way. In those respects I am loving it here. More and more my heart is growing towards my children. Not that I ever thought it needed to, but I am continualy suprised how, as a parent you can find a bit more love to pour put when you sense your child is feeling discouraged.

I have been so tired lately but both of our children have their birthdays this week. Beth's friend party is tomorrow. We are having a pancake makeover party. Sam's will be the following weekend and his is an Angry Birds theme. I am still brainstorming on how we can act that out at the party. I found a amazing woman out here who isn't just super freindly and stylish but she bakes! So I do not have to stress about this aspect of the kids parties.

Hola Amigos! It's Been a While

I can't believe we have been here over 2 months!  I think we are surprised with how smoothly things are going. Now that doesn't mean it hasn't come with it's difficulties but somehow we have survived and are "still in the game." That's the phrase our friend used on his son one day after arriving here when it didn't seem that his son was engaging in the new culture and language.  And some how "get in the game" keeps coming up in our family conversations, sometimes it is to me, sometimes to Sam and Beth and yes sometimes I get to say it to Andrew. Well I promise to be more regular then 2 months. My goal this week is to post some simple recipes for you that tend to make multiple appearances in our weekly meal plans.

 This is a picture of the woman in my Grammar class. All I can say is the Lord knew I needed this group of ladies to laugh with, to cry with, and to experience change with.

 This is a picture of where we get our produce for every saturday morning.  It is called the Ferria. All the merchants are the farmers who grow the food.

 One of the creatures that I have come to accept. Thankfully they are not mornally this size where we are.

There two girls represent two families that our ffamilies have connected with since arriving here. Andrew and I and the children have found great friends in them.