Our First Month in Costa Rica

I can't believe it has already been one month since we arrived here in Costa Rica! The time has gone very quickly as we adjust to this new place and learn a new language. We have hired a wonderful Spanish teacher named Myrna who comes to Pablo's house 3 times a week to give us Spanish lessons. Pablo even found a gigantic chalk board from a local school that he hung in his living room for us to use for classes. We study and practice Spanish on our own everyday. It is hard to remember to try to speak in Spanish and we find ourselves talking in English too much! 

Pablo preparing our gigantic chalk board for Spanish class.

Pablo calls us the 7 + 7 family.
 I made a Kansas dinner to share with our new family:
chicken pot pie and mashed potatoes!

Surprisingly most food costs twice the price as it does in the U.S.
But some local items like mango, pineapple, papaya & bananas
are cheap and in abundance. Not to mention they taste AMAZING!

We can really see the Lord working here in many ways. He has especially been protecting our family from physical harm and sickness. So far everyone has been healthy. We had a very scary moment the second week here while we were taking a break during our Spanish lesson. Catherine was enjoying pineapple and started to choke. She was trying to say something and the pineapple went down the wrong way. She truly was choking (she couldn't speak or cough). It was TERRIFYING! Donovan quickly did the Heimlich maneuver and she was able to dislodge the pineapple. Then again about a week and a half later Pablo's father was choking on his diner and again Donovan was able to preform the Heimlich maneuver on him. He was very grateful to Donovan and I am very grateful for his recent first aid training that he took as part of his job at the YMCA while we were on furlow in Wichita!

So happy to be riding a horse!

Victor took the girls to his girlfriends house for horseback riding!

When we first contacted Pablo and asked him to take our letter to the Bishop in his diocese (back in January) it was the first time Pablo had met the Bishop. Pablo was delighted to met him and see his enthusiasm for our family's mission. Shortly after our arrival, the Bishop celebrated his first year anniversay as the Bishop of the Diocese of Ciudad Quesada on May 17. Bishop Jose Manuel Garita Herrera is such a welcoming, kind, humble and supportive Bishop and we feel so blessed to have him as our Bishop here. Just 6 days after arriving in Costa Rica we had a meeting with Bishop Jose. He told us that we have a beautiful family and that we are a witness to this diocese. He gave us his encouragement and support and told us he wants to be a part of our mission. He said he is here for us and for anything we need. We know God is working through all of the plans for our new mission post and we are excited to see all that He has for us.

We love the light on the Bishop's shoulder in the form of a cross! How beautiful!
Here we are with Bishop Jose, Pablo, Yalile, Lucy and a friend of the family.

Hold onto the cross!

With Lucy at the Bishop's Office

It's always green here!

Like the Philippines there are 2 seasons: dry & rainy. Dry means
it rains at least every other day. Rainy means it rains everyday
and often multiple times.

As it was in the Philippines we find ourselves challenged by stepping out of our comfort zone and learning a new way to do things. We have to learn a new language, figure out transportation, how to shop, where to shop and what to buy, how to wash clothes and get them to dry in an ALWAYS humid environment... When I find myself feeling bad for myself or wishing things were easier I try to remind myself that Jesus looks with great mercy on our family's sacrifices and He will bless us in the struggle! Dying to yourself is not supposed to be easy! If it was then it wouldn't be a sacrifice. I was reminded today of the great sacrifice that Jesus made for us in dying on the cross. Even as he hung there and all of his disciples abandoned Him (except for His mother and John) He never leaves us. He is always there with me and if I walk with faith I can see Him. As we strip away all the external things we cling to we are better able to clearly see the Lord and all the blessings and gifts He has for us. I realize how tightly I am holding on to certain things that prevent me from totally surrendering to the Lord and His mission. The stronger I am attached the harder it hurts to pull these attachments off.

Something that greatly helps us all to better appreciate all the gifts the Lord has blessed us with is to have an "attitude of gratitude." The more we are practicing our thankfulness the more we are able to see all that we have to be thankful for. As FMC missionaries we make it a practice to start our day with thankful prayers (from each member of the family). In addition, in this new mission, we have been led by the Holy Spirit to start a daily examen based on St. Ignatius of Loyola. Here is one we found online that we have been using.

Gabriel is getting so big! He pulls himself up to stand
and crawls around like a crazy baby!

I am so thankful for this walker so this super active baby
can get around. There is only hard tile here so when he is on the floor
I have to watch him like a hawk.

We are so excited that we will be travelling to Coppevega today for the first time. This is the small town where our family will be living and serving the Lord. There are 13 chapels that we will visit and help bring Jesus to the people. We will get to meet some of the people in town as well as look for a house to rent and get a better idea of this new place. Please pray for this trip!

Pray for our transition here (I know I keep asking for those prayers and they are working so wonderfully so keep them coming)! Please pray that we learn Spanish quickly! We love and miss you all and are praying for you. Please remember to send us your prayer requests anytime so we can add them to our intentions.