Prayers answered

Has it really been 3 weeks since we've added an entry to our blog? What have we been up to? Well, I did not get lost in the jungles of Chirripo and Tim did survive his three days alone with the kids!

School/studies have kept us very occupied and preoccupied! The more we learn, the harder it seems as we have so many new words and ideas swimming around in our heads. It gets hard at times to keep it all sorted out! Sometimes I feel like my mind is a tangled mess of Spanish words and grammar. Other times I feel that my head is so full of new information that nothing else will fit and I just can't take anymore in. I hear that this is normal and I look forward to the time when I either have a bigger head or a more organized mental filing system!

The kids are doing well and are very happy and content. Tanner eats like a horse and has gained a whopping 5 lbs. in the last three months; a 15% increase! He is in a rapid learning stage where he is talking tons in Spanish, even to us at home. Laura still loves school and this last week she got to perform in a traditional dance, being the first non-Costa Rican to participate in this activity in the history of Tuis (at least as far back as anyone here can remember!)


One thing that I am really enjoying is to see our kids take delight in the simplest of things. Today I filled a laundry tub with water and put the kids in swim suits. They were tickled and have been playing in the water for over 2 hours. Laura said that this is the most fun she's had since we've been here!

For Tanner's Birthday Laura made a necklace out of leaves, tape, and paper. She never asked if she could buy something for Tanner and Tanner was so excited about his new "bib" that he wore it all day yesterday.

We have been approved to stay here in Tuis until November to continue our language studies and get beyond the "beginner" and hopefully even the "intermediate" stage to be at a place to better communicate and minister here. Our plan is to finish language school the last week of November and then we'll go home to Oregon for December. When we return to Costa Rica at the beginning of January we'll get settled into a place in Atenas and Tim will begin working full time for eMi!

What else? Oh yeah, we found out just this week that our visa's went through! This happened very fast! Another family still awaits their visa and they have been in Costa Rica for 9 months! Now we are legal to live and work here without having to leave the country every three months! This also means that we may qualify to get health insurance here for very cheap and that I'll be able to get my medicines here for free and be able to use a local anticoagulation clinic!

God is very faithful and we continue to thank and praise Him for His great care. Thank you so much for your prayers. As you can see, they are being answered!

Cindy