Sometimes just living takes up all your time...

OK, it's only been about a week since I updated my blog but MAN a lot has happened this last week. On Saturday night it was decided we would leave for Tegucigalpa on Sunday morning instead of VERY early Monday morning. Since early mornings are my mortal enemies, I was all for this idea. We had some minor troubles on the way there...About 10 mins away from home the Hosiers realized that all the important paperwork they needed to bring was still at the house. We'll call this delay #1. We were making good time, the weather was fantastic, the birds were chirping...then BANG!!!! thud thud thud. I screamed and covered my head with my hands for like a second. THEN, I realized it was just one of our tires EXPLODING! OK, it only had a small hole in it....but it was SO loud!! Luckily, Paul has a spare tire with him at all times and he got the tire changed and we were on our way again soon. Praise God that Paul was prepared and capable of changing the tire! We'll call this delay # 2. We got going again and I said those fateful words...."Um...sorry.... but... I really have to go to the bathroom..." You guessed it - delay # 3. So we got to Tegus a couple hours later than we planned, but everything worked out fine. We ended up going out to lunch with some friends of the Hosier's who have an ADORABLE baby girl and we got invited to an evening church service. While in Tegus I stayed with some other friends down the street from where the Hosier's were staying. one of them had just gotten a puppy a few days before. SO CUTE.
Thus begins the saga of our fours days at Tegus. Let me start with saying this: almost everything possible went wrong but God is working it out for good! OK, Monday morning while Paul and Sheila were figuring out all the paper work they needed to bring to immigration, I was doing school with the kids. Emma started getting a migraine and she got violently ill. I will spare you the gory details but I cleaned up a bit of puke and spent the better part of the day with a very sick girl. We went to immigration that afternoon (with the still sick Emma) and made NO progress. We found out we were all going to have to start from scratch on our residency process. The Hosier's file had been lost and I did not have the proper paper work. The next day we did school again and felt the strain of being cooped up together all day. Again, we got nothing done at immigration, but we did go out to the mall that evening and I got a bit of Christmas shopping done and ate some good Honduran food. Wednesday, we awoke bright and early to come back home and get ready for Thanksgiving and would you believe that the car wouldn't start? Well, it was pretty unbelievable to me also. We couldn't even get it to start with jumping it so we ended up having to buy a brand new battery and get it installed. We got home much later than anticipated.

So much foooood!

Happy Thanksgiving card!!

Lots of work went into these potatoes!

Thursday was Thanksgiving! I am so thankful to God that I have good friends and family to spend this holiday with while I am so far away from mine.

We had another family over for lunch that day and spend the morning cooking and the afternoon eating, having fun and good conversation with friends. That evening we went to our pastor's house and it was another time of good conversation with good friends. There were SO many people there and lots more food. Our pastors are extremely hospitable and they genuinely enjoy having people over.

I made that hat :D 

The new mom getting read to open gifts!

I was not feeling my best over the weekend, but I did go to a baby shower for a newly adopted baby in our church. I made a little hat for her and there was much laughter and holding of a very adorable baby :D

This is baby Grace!

 I made more chai and generally enjoyed my Sunday morning. I did spend a while writing out the words to La Primera Navidad (The First Noel).  We are using it in the kid's Christmas program at my church and we couldn't find the lyrics online (it was a different version than the one we DID find online). So I listened to it over and over until I had all the words down. Tough work - but now I have the song memorized!! La Primera Navidad el cielo lleno de angeles cantando....Yeah I'll stop now :D Igelsia was pretty good too. Our pastor spoke on the desperately important truth that Jesus is not JUST the son of God. He is fully God. It made me think a lot about Camp Pattersonville because Director Dan teaches that truth every week to our campers. We'll be spending the entire coming year looking at what Jesus said and did throughout his life so we can better understand what Jesus would have us, as Christians, do here on the earth. I also translated the entire service for the woman who does the sign language translation for the people who are deaf that attend our church. It was again really good practice. I think I got like 95% of it and I enjoy doing it, but it makes me mentally exhausted!!

Emma dancing with the cat...

Moving on to Monday! In the afternoon we got a fire going in the hearth - boy it was chilly! I know, you think I'm crazy, but our house has NO insulation and air flows freely into our home...so if it's 60 outside it's 60 inside and I KNOW most of you keep your house closer to 65 or 70 in the winter... so we were honestly a bit chilled! It was even colder today - I'm talking scarf and coat while indoors! Okay back to the Monday festivities.

Color accent setting on my camera

One of the children suggested we put up the tree and we all instantly agreed this was a great idea. They have a good sized artificial tree and an abundant supply of ornaments. Emma and I also risked life and finger to string popcorn to decorate the tree. We also hung our stockings over the fireplace- Sheila bought me one :D - I'm so thankful! There was one moment of sheer hilarity when Paul and I nearly knocked down the tree trying to attach it more securely to the base. Today we worked diligently at our schooling, I got some laundry done and we did some craft projects. I went out for really good baleadas for dinner with a friend. YUM!! No hay nada mejor en todo el mundo.

The tree is looking good!

So in conclusion to the residency things....The Hosier's have a friend who is working on getting it for me and I might not even have to go back to Tegus. Please pray that this will work!! Please also be praying for my abilities to teach these kids Spanish. It is the thing I think I'm having the most trouble with. I love and miss you all. Thanks again for reading. I know this is a long one. At least I added pictures this time!!

Happiness...

'My hope is in You, Lord, all the day long. I won't be shaken by drought or storm. A peace that passes understanding is my song. My hope is in You, Lord."  My Hope is in You, by Aaron Shust. See link for song :D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RRZgr7wNDs

This is a little bit of a P.S.: I wrote this a week ago...so minor updates: School went very smoothly this week and each child had some major accomplishment. Quentin can now do multiplication! Morgan got a very good grade on a Language test and Emma ACED a math test. They're doing so well!! I thoroughly enjoyed Bible study Wednesday night.  I taught some friends to make Chai Thursday evening. Good fun! I played Frisbee with a whole bunch of friends and got baleadas for dinner AGAIN on Friday night. Very good week. Did I mention I have yet to pay for these amazing Dona Norberta's Baleadas....people are super nice to me and I love them for it.