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.

Baby Showers

My dear sister, Tonya, planned a virtual shower for me online. It was so cute. My girlfriends from all over the United States visited a web site where they could guess the gender of our baby, suggest bilingual baby names and take quizzes about the unique details of our coming child. Many of my dear friends sent gifts to my parent's house so that they can bring them down to Costa Rica when the baby is born. I was so touched by this gesture of kindness.

Another party was being planned that took me quite by surprise. When I entered a friend's house to run an errand, I was astonished to see 25 of my fellow students and neighbors gathered to shower our child with love. The ladies had gone to great extent to bake special dishes and were very generous to provide many special gifts for the baby. They of course played silly games where each woman had to tear off a strip of toilet paper that she though was the size of my very pregnant belly. When we sold or gave away all of our belongings about 8 months ago, I specifically remember wondering, "how are we going to get all the things that we need for a baby in Costa Rica?" We weren't able to move all of the items we had used for Reagan. I just had to believe that God had provided for us once and that He would provide again. Little did I know that He would use an online shower and a surprise party to stock us with diapers and baby-wipes and cute clothes for our coming baby. Thank you to my classmates, neighbors and friends who planned that special morning.

Bryan is in town

Mark's best friend, Bryan, came to see us for a week. He's fluent in English, Spanish and also in Chinese. With some strange stroke of fate, he sat next to a Chinese woman on the flight to Costa Rica and spoke Mandarin with her for 3 hours before landing in Latin America. You can image the torment of his poor brain as he began speaking in Spanish with us when he arrived at our house. It was so funny to hear words come out of his mouth in all three languages until his brain finally settled on the correct idioma. While we were in school Bryan investigated different parts of San Jose, and also visited a rain-forest park complete with toucans.

Christmas Time

A few days before Christmas an impromptu party was planned at one of the student's house: 60 people showed up. I guess that shows that many of us had no plans and needed a way to celebrate the holiday together. We enjoyed fabulous traditional foods and enjoyed the company of many other people who had no family in town. On Christmas Eve, we made a construction paper nativity with Reagan and let him glue down the characters as we told him the story of Christmas. He loved hearing again and again how Jesus was born in a barn and was laid down to sleep in a manger. The next day we were able to skype with family and Reagan opened various gifts via skype from his grandparents and aunts and uncles.

The beach

At the end of the school semester we traveled with three other families to a beach for some relaxation. One family had completed their language training and was moving on to Ecuador for medical missions. We were very sorry to see them go because they had become close friends. Our days at the beach were full of sunny skies and blue water, a great way to wind down from four hard months of studying.

Thanksgiving

We were so blessed to have our dear friends, Michael and Heather with us for Thanksgiving. We celebrated by spending 3 days at a nearby volcano. Alas, the volcano stayed shrouded by clouds the entire time that we were there and we never saw even a peak of the cone let alone the glowing lava. Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time enjoying the hot pools which are naturally heated by the internal lava from the mountain. And Michael and Heather enjoyed an exciting (if muddy) zip line through the rain-forest canopy.

miedo o creencia (fear or belief)

In just a few short days, God gave us 3 great opportunities to choose trust over fear. Last week the San Jose news ran a program about a park in our city that has been taken over by a Chinese gang. The police gave public notice that they leave the park between the hours of 10 at night and 5 in the morning because they are afraid of the gangs that deal drugs and sell arms in the park. This park is 3 blocks from our front door and we walk through it every morning on our way to school. Will we choose to fear or believe? A few days later we flew to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to visit the church where we will be serving after language school. When we arrived and were greeted by the pastor of the church, he informed us that a woman from the church had just been kidnapped and was being held for ransom. Unfortunately, this has happened several times this year because the people at the church are fairly affluent. Will I choose to panic or trust as I follow God to the place He wants us to serve? The night that we returned from Honduras, our city was without power because someone STOLE one of the main power lines. (The copper inside the power line is worth a lot of money.) So we lit some candles, grabbed flashlights and sang songs and told stories to Reagan. A few hours later the power returned. At about 9:30 we heard some strange sounds and some loud thumps on our roof. There was an intruder on our roof. Mark grabbed our huge maglight, yelled in Spanish for the thief to leave and called our guard. The guard checked our roof to make sure the intruder had left, and we thanked God for protecting us from the person who was trying to take advantage of the dark to rob a house. Will we choose to believe or fear? When my heart starts thumping quickly or I let my imagination go places which are not helpful, will I ask the Spirit to take control of my mind, heart and emotions? It's a daily battle, but the only thing I fear more is not following God where He wants me to go. When I choose worry over belief, I am telling God that I don't think He is big enough for my problem. Don't worry. We're living wisely. We asked our landlord to put barbed wire on our fence. We hide valuable belongings in the house every time we leave. We hold Reagan's hand on the street; and we walk in the park during safe hours. But I don't trust in the fence or barbed wire. I trust in a good, powerful, loving and wise God who has my best in mind. Not only has He promised to protect me, He has also promised that He is big enough to take me through whatever circumstances He places in my life. God, please help me to have the strength to live this out.

Tegucigalpa

We spent four days in Tegucigalpa visiting the church where we will be serving after finishing language school here in Costa Rica. We have visited one time before, this past December. Almost a year has gone by, but we were able to connect with many of the same people and also were able to see the progress that is happening as God does amazing things among the Honduran people. While in Tegus, we were able to see the beginning construction of the new church site, attend a parenting class, participate in 3 church services, enjoy a 25th anniversary dinner for Norberto and Patty, and engage in many wonderful conversations, most of which were in Spanish. Mark played keys with the worship team for the church services. We were touched when Norberto prayed for us during the service, that God would give us grace to learn Spanish as we prepare to join Impact Church in Honduras in August. Below is a photo of Teto and his wife Dania. Teto is graduating from the church planting school and will be ordained as a pastor this summer. There is also a picture of us with Keith and Dawn Moore who started Iglesia Impacto 9 years ago. Reagan enjoyed pretending to be Bob the Builder at the church nursery.

Mud Slides

We can now add mud slides to the list of natural disasters that we have experienced in the various cities we have lived in. It has been a tragic day in San Jose as 30 homes have been buried in mud slides due to incredibly heavy rain. Sadly, more than 30 Costa Ricans lost their lives and more are still missing. One of the mud slides was only 4 miles from our home. The entire city of San Jose was without water because the mud slides broke some of the water mains. And our house was without power for 3 days. It changes life a lot when you don't have a few of the basics of life. But we were very impressed with the organization in San Jose as workers and rescue personnel restored power and water supply with great efficiency.

Change of Scenery

We don't have a car here in Costa Rica, and I can only walk about 3 miles a day with my 6 month pregnant tummy, so we end up living our lives almost exclusively in a range of about 4 square miles. After two months of walking the barbed wired and graffiti lined streets of San Jose, we were ready to see this beautiful country where we now live. So we and some other students from El Instituto de Lengua Espanol, packed our bags for a 3 day weekend at the beach. We took a bus ride to Tortugero on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. On the way we stopped to see a banana plantatione, and we walked through a butterfly garden. If you watch the video below, you will see how a 2 year old boy reacts to a butterfly landing on his hand. We also saw huge fields of pineapples. (I guess that ends my belief that pineapples grow on trees.) After the 3 hour bus ride, we rode a boat for another hour to get to our hotel. And throughout the weekend, we were able to see many animals, including a sloth, a crocodile and a spider monkey who jumped across the river above our boat with a baby monkey on her back. It was amazing to see her swing from tree to tree. Reagan loved running in and out of the waves on the beach. It was also the time of year when the huge sea turtles lay their eggs in the sand. We didn't stay up all night waiting to see the mammoth turtles dig their nests, but we saw their tracks on the beach in the morning. They were so big that it looked like a four wheeler had driven on the beach. And we did get to see some of the baby turtles crawl down to the ocean. It was a refreshing break from our studies, and we enjoyed seeing this incredibly beautiful country.