Selling the house

After 10 months on the market, we finally have a contract on our house in Houston. We are so thankful. Our dear neighbors and friends have been incredibly generous while the house has been for sale. They have mowed the lawn and cleaned the house to keep it looking great for showings. We are blessed to have such fantastic people in Houston. The man who is buying our house seems to be in a hurry and wants to sign final papers on April 20th. So the next 11 days are going to be crazy. The people who are buying the house live in Australia. We are in Costa Rica. And the house is in Houston. This is going to be a nightmare international transaction. I think we will have to go to the US embassy to sign papers in front of a US notary. We anticipate that being an all-day errand. Meanwhile, our house still has our furniture in it. So we have to sell all our furniture in the next 10 days. Each piece is listed on Facebook, Craig's List and another web site. We can't wait to stop paying the mortgage, water, trash, gas, house insurance, sewer and electricity bills, but this really brings things to an end in Houston. We realize that when the house and furniture are gone, everything we own will fit in suitcases. And this very well may be the last asset that we have. It makes things feel very final. We are thrilled to follow the exciting plan that God has put in front of us in Latin America, but we still love North America as well.

Clarissa's Tico Party

There is an old tradition in Costa Rica that celebrates the entrance of a child at 40 days old. Many women do not venture out of the house for the first 40 days except for doctor appointments. Although we were not able to keep that part of the tradition, we held a Tico party to celebrate Clarissa's 40 days. Ten of our Tico (Costa-Rican) friends came to our house to see her. We had a wonderful time speaking Spanish for the entire night. We served a Costa Rican style meal of arroz con pollo and other appetizers. Monica played her violin and Mark took a few minutes to talk about our thankfulness to God and our desire to see Clarissa learn to understand who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for her.

Birthday Boy

Reagan turned THREE! We celebrated by meeting some of his friends from school at the local Burger King. It was a wonderful treat to have Grammy and Papo (Mark's parents) in San Jose for his birthday. The kids enjoyed eating burgers and playing in the indoor playground. Our sweet little boy has had some health problems recently. The day after Christmas we awoke as he had a seizure. Over the next five weeks he had five more, four of which happened while grandparents were in town. After several trips to the ER, a CT scan and an EEG, Reagan was diagnosed with epilepsy and began treatment with medication. The meds have changed his personality a bit, making him a bit aggressive with a shorter attention span. But we are thankful that he has been seizure-free for the past five weeks. We are so thankful for the wonderful health-care that is in San Jose. We have wonderful doctors including a pediatric neurologist at a nearby hospital. God has protected Reagan and is a good and wonderful God.

Welcoming Clarissa

Clarissa Elena joined our family on January 29. She is a beautiful, healthy girl. The joy of her arrival was surrounded by lots of drama. For the weeks preceding Clarissa's birth, we were horribly sick. At one point we didn't know if Monica would be strong enough for delivery or if Mark would be allowed into the delivery ward due to his sickness. Mark ended up missing 13 days of school. Our friends here at the Spanish Language Institute took wonderful care of us. They brought us meals every night, took Reagan to the park to get him out of the house and brought us groceries. One brave couple even came into our germ-filled house to wash the dishes that were piling up. God's timing was perfect. Monica felt better for one day and went into labor that very night. Mark felt well enough to be in the birthing room wearing a surgical mask. Deliver was swift and intense. We arrived at the hospital at 3 AM and the doctor told us that we had a baby girl at 9 AM. Clarissa was just over 7 pounds at birth with a head of light brown hair. Reagan welcomed his baby sister by tickling her feet and holding her hand. Our parents arrived a few days later and Reagan enjoyed time with grandparents from both sides of the family for three weeks. We love being a family of four.