Day to day life

Simeon sleeping on the couch - without a diaper!

This week has been quite the week for milestones with the kids. Simeon is finally (!!!) potty trained. You'd think that after 6 before him he would have been a breeze. But all my techniques were hindered here on the field.

For example, the first thing I do when I realize my children are ready to use the bathroom is to go to Wal Mart with them and let them pick out a package of underwear. We've had Hello Kitty, Strawberry Shortcake, The Lion King, Care Bears, Thomas the Tank Engine, Princesses, and super heroes. Once we get home the potty chair comes out and the trainee gets the big boy/girl pep talk.

First problem was that we have no Wally World here and let's just say the underwear here is, well, lacking. So I tried to get Simeon excited about the training undies, you know the thick ones. That was a no go. I left it alone for a few days then I tried a different form of bribery...M&M's. No go again. In desperation I had Naomi bring some Super Hero undies down with her. Still a no go. Now frustrated I decided to pray about it (I know I should have done it sooner). The first day he had one accident, the second day through today he has stayed dry through naps and through the night.

I know this post seems trivial, but it just proves to me (reminds me) that God cares about our day to day lives. He knew the price of diapers here is exhorbitant, He knew our desire to have Simeon out of diapers, and He knew my inability. He was waiting for me to get to the end of myself and look to Him.

Friends, is God waiting for you? Have you a problem, a burden or trial that God could help you with? Why not go to Him and ask Him to aide you in your time of need?!

A Bunch of Cutie Pies

L to R - Jeremias 5 mos, Juan Daniel 8 mos, Timoteo 7 mos, Rebeca 8 mos, Silas and Steven 6 mos

(I think the ages are all accurate.)

We were able to get another group photo of all the babies, aren't they adorable?! I wish you could have seen the crowd gathered around plus the antics of the babies. Juan Daniel had big crocodile tears. Silas discovered Rebeca's dress and flipped it up. And Steven was trying to get something on the pew beside him.

A Huge Storm

The past few days have blessed us with warm pleasant weather. Much different than the freezing weather we had this time last year. With this warm weather we have had some heat storms. Tonight's was exceptional! Scott was picking me and Silas up from the hospital (for vaccinations) when we saw an enormous storm approaching. I wish I would have had my camera with me because it was actually pretty the way it hovered over the water of the river. The front and bottom edges of the clouds had an orange glow. And the contrast of the river water, a tannish brown, against the cloud color, a dark grayish black made it even more spectacular.

After the hospital visit we had get people to drop people off at the Perez' and pick up Bethany from her piano lesson there. The brunt of the storm hit about halfway to the Perez' home. I've never been in a hail storm so bad. The ground was covered with hail ranging in size from grapes to baseballs. (Note: the above photo is borrowed from the web and best shows what the ground here looked like.) I was shielding the baby's eyes from the glass that I just knew was going to fly in on us. Thankfully, it didn't and we are fine but I'm sure there are some pretty dented cars and people tonight. We felt so badly for the people on foot and motos.

Church had to be cancelled because the storm broke windows at the church as well as windows on our bus. We have some sky-light windows in our house that I'm surprised didn't break but I'm glad they're still in tact.

17 months and finally done.

I can hardly believe it, after all these months of being told our residency would be finished next month we actually, really, truly have in our hands the Residencia Legales for Scott and I. Praise the Lord! We were told this morning that the kids file was now in the approval office and should be done in a month...or two. You'll know when we know. And that will be when we have it in our hands. Thanks for praying!

Please be praying as we prepare to sell, or turn in, whatever the process may be, our bonds that were the guarentee for the container. The paper we needed, or think we need (long story) is ready to be turned in to Eduana. Scott will need to call upon our contact that helped him buy them in the first place. Since the bonds are in US dollars, we're hoping that the dollar will jump significantly before we sell/turn them in and we'll actually make a little profit instead of a loss.

For the past 3 days each time we turned the engine over in the van we heard a significant crunching sound. Scott was trouble shooting it in his mind and hoped we wouldn't have trouble on today's trip to MV, especially since he spent yesterday afternoon replacing the radiator. When we pulled into the parking garage at Immigration the van would not turn back on. So when we left we had to be pushed out of the garage and down the hill to pop the clutch. Thankfully another missionary family, the Parnells, in Montevideo allowed us to use their driveway and also played taxi so Scott could repair the starter. Which just turned out to be a missing bolt. We are thankful this happened in the capitol as it provided us with the ease of finding the right parts with little wait.

More of our vacation

A picture taken inside Señor Piria's castle home. Not sure if this was his family, guests, or ???
The "castle" home of the founder of Piriapolis a city here in Uruguay. The founder divided and sold lots of his property to build his namesake city. The largest rodent in the world a carpincho is native to Uruguay.
At the hand in the sand in Punta del Este - that's everyone but me, I'm taking the picture.
Brandon scaled the pinky finger and tried to get up the others. I laughed so hard as he attempted the climb moving back and forth between the two. He almost made it. I love the sunset in the background.

BREAKING NEWS...

This just in from the Uruguayan immigration via the mail service...Scott and I have been granted residency upon our going to the immigration office to verify we are still here in Uruguay!!!! We are praising the Lord for this great news!

6 months old

A milestone occurred while we were on vacation, our little Silas is now 6 months old. In Spanish we would say he has 6 months or that he has completed 6 months of age. Isn't he adorable? Of course he is. :-)

Me and Silas at the park in Piriapolis, Uruguay. Sticking out his tongue is Silas' favorite pastime.

Going down the slide with daddy. This was after Scott and I "raced" down the slide and let's just say we both ate dust. He beat me but I flew off the end of the slide and did a modified army roll that looked more like I hit a clear wall. Ouch. By the way, all the slides here are wood.

A new song

Sacred Christian music is absolutely beautiful! I have loved listening to the many CD's we have collected over the years. The music we used to listen to - rock, country, hip hop, and all that plus some CCM after I was saved - just cannot compare to sacred music. The sound, the words, and the way the music moves your heart to worship a Holy, Just, Loving, Omnipotent and sacrificial God will never be matched with rock music attached to Christian words.

I'm still adjusting to sacred music in Spanish. Sometimes the songs are prettier in this new language of mine. Yet other times, nothing but English can compare. At any rate we enjoyed having the "Argentina team" from Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Wisconson ministering in the church here through music. We got a call about 3 weeks ago from a missionary friend in Argentina asking if we'd like to have this team over for a couple days.

The brass group was amazing! Each of the singing groups was a tremendous blessing. They worked hard at learning every song in Spanish, I should say Castellano, which was a particular blessing to the Uruguayans. The one on one instrumental and choral clinic was a tremendous help.

It was fun to host 4 young women - Emily, Tiffany, Laura and Lori. Emily comes from a family of 9 children so she handled the bustle rather well. Tiffany is the grand daughter Ron and Loraine Breil, friends of ours from our home church. (Loraine, we are praying for a full recovery from your recent heart attack!) And Laura and Lori were neat to get to know.

After we distributed invitations and a church flyer, we took the team out to Los Tres Botones, that farm we take everyone, and they had a great time. They got to enjoy the terrific Uruguayan food, horseback riding, soccer and more.

Last night's service was a particular blessing to us after we saw, Richard. Scott first met Richard when he came by our house selling potting soil. He has been back at least a dozen times to sell other things and also to talk. He's the guy who makes things from the palm leaves that I blogged about a couple months ago. He is a believer and also worked with sail teams in yacht clubs so he and Scott have much in common. After the service he said he could hear the difference in the music and thought it to be such a blessing that he plans to begin coming to the church regularly.

Richard was one of ten visitors last night. Please continue to pray for our language teacher, Cecilia, we have invited her to church dozens of times and though she says she will come she has not.

Well, I have a house to clean, laundry to wash, a church directory to design, and a kindergardener to gieve a test to. I'll try to post more vacation pictures as well as those from this special music meetings.

¡Feliz dia de la Madre!

Happy Mothers day to our three moms - Jay, Karen and Marge! We love you guys and thank God for you. Thanks for loving us and being such wonderful grandmas to our children. We miss you all!

Jose Ignacio lighthouse

Scott, me and Silas in front of the San Ignacio Faro.
All the kids at the top.
The shoreline that the lighthouse rests on.

About 20 minutes up the coast from where we were staying is the Jose Ignacio Faro. The views from atop the lighthouse were spectacular. It sits on a rocky area of the shoreline and is surrounded by some very nice homes. Scott carried the baby in his car seat all they way up the 121 steps. Quite the job with a 6 month old. The kids really enjoyed playing at the shoreline collecting sea shells.

The place we stayed on vacation

Friends in the States were very gracious to us and gave us their time in a time-share. We were able to trade it for a place in Punta del Este here in Uruguay. Having most of the comforts of home we were able to really enjoy our 7 full days there. I especially was excited about the bathtub.

Bowling on vacation

Last year when Scott and I took vacation we saw a bowling alley in the mall in Punta del Este. Since I was pregnant we didn't actually bowl then but we put it into the itinerary for our family vacation. I'm so glad we did because this was one of the highlights of our trip.
Not a lot of style, but he packed a mean punch.

Brandon literally whipped us all with a score of 151, including 5 strikes, 3 of which were one right after the other in the final frame.

They also had a big play area with video games and air hockey. Scott took the younger kids over there while I bowled with the big kids. Then I spotted the cotton candy machine. Believe me it was as yummy as it looks.