Off and Running...

We were very blessed to see many of you on our visit back to the States in May and June. Thank you all who spent time with us, prayed for us, gave us donations, came to a talk, helped us or hosted us! For those we did not see we are sorry we missed you!

My (Blair's)  mom came to Wichita to visit us for 3 weeks.

Blair's dad drove from California to visit us
for a week.

Grace received her First Communion on
the Feast of Corpis Christi at our Parish
St. Jude in Wichita, KS. Fr. Mainzer was
so welcoming to our family.

Gabriel and Kimberly at Grace's
1st Communion. They love to spend
time together. It's so adorable!

As long as he has a banana it doesn't matter if
he's in Costa Rica or Kansas! This boy
LOVES bananas.

We got to visit and pray with Angie, Donovan's cousin
who is fighting cancer.

We celebrated Grace's 8th birthday!

We celebrated Catherine's 11th Birthday.

Flashback to 2002! We celebrated our 14 year anniversary
on May 25!

Got to hang out with our friends the Frascos!
Always a fun time!!!

The girls got to see their friends.

Gabriel mowing with Grandpa Bailey.

Our trip back to Costa Rica started early Tuesday morning, June 21^st when we drove a rental van packed with our things, and the donations we received, and drove to Houston. We took a flight from Houston to San Jose, Costa Rica and arrived about 1 am. After gathering all of our bags and going through customs we took a taxi to our hotel about 10 minutes away. 

Getting out of the rental van to the airport in Houston.

Waiting in line at 1:30 am to go through customs and security.

And still a sweet smile!

After driving from Louisiana and flying to Costa Rica we were very tired. We arrived at the hotel about 3 am and unloaded our bags into the lobby. We were given our room key and told we were on the third floor and there was no elevator! Donovan, Hannah & Catherine carried all 21 bags up the 2 flights of stairs and then we all went to bed. The next day we had to carry everything downstairs and then load into another van for the 2 ½ hour drive up the mountain to Florencia (where our friend Pablo lives).

Preparing to load up again for the drive back to Florencia.

Always beautiful sights driving
through Costa Rica.

 We arrived at his house and got to see Jason (our good friend from Intake 2013). He had been in Costa Rica helping to plan the next short-term mission trip with Pablo while we were in the States. We all got into our car (which was waiting for us at Pablo’s house – thank you Geerlings!) and Pablo’s car (along with all the luggage) and drove 2 hours to our house in Coopevega. An unexpected treat was that the dirt road to our town had been repaired while we were away. The drive that usually takes 1 hour and is very bumpy was only 45 minutes and much smoother! We finally made it back to our house and enjoyed a wonderful meal with Pablo, Jason and the Geerlings.

Our first time getting to see Jason since
 Intake 2013. It was such a blessing to
have him as part of our mission trip team.

The Saturday after we returned was the start of our 2^nd short-term mission trip in Costa Rica. Again it was a blessing to have a group of young people here. We spent our days working in the Pastoral Center in Santa Rosa (our parish town about 1 hour away). When not on the mission trip we normally attend Mass weekly in our chapel in Coopevega. There are 3 priests who serve the Parish of Santa Rosa which is a hub to 42 other communities (Coopevega being one of those).

A lot of the work project was painting and
cleaning.

We gathered at the local high school each day for songs, 
prayers and to play and get to know the students.

We also held prayer meetings each night in the church in Santa Rosa with singing, testimonies, teachings and prayer. It was a blessing to us and the community! One of my favorite moments was hearing the group sing Oceans in English while a group of local high schoolers were singing along in Spanish. It was so beautiful! 

I was so blessed to have my friend Lucrecia
join us for the entire mission trip. Lucrecia
lives in a town near ours and comes to our
house to practice English and help us with
our Spanish. She also jumped right into the
mission with us and comes along for home
visits too!

We prayed over people for their needs each night in the church.

Here our group poses with some of the local community.

Pablo and his wife Yalile welcomed the group into their
home for fun and food. Pablo and his family love volleyball
(he has coached for many years).

We gathered in his house for praise and worship.

A prayer we used on the mission trip
 (thank you Fr. Mainzer)!

We returned to Coopevega for some time of rest after the mission. We settled back into our home and began sorting all of the donations we received from the States and from the mission trip. We received so many school supplies, clothing and shoes that are really blessing the mission here.  We are praying for the help of the Holy Spirit to guide us to the people who need the things we have. We are able to take items to people when we visit them on our home visits (we read scripture, visit and pray for their needs).

This past week our families had a beautiful home visit with Don Fabio. While we were in the States he had a heart attack and spent some time in the hospital. It seems that he doesn’t have the option of getting surgery because the access to the treatment he needs is harder to get here and there are too many people who need it. 

To get to his house is about a 30-45 minute
 walk. It was really beautiful and a fun little
 adventure for the kids. 

When we arrived his face absolutely
 lit up. He had the best smile!
 He was so happy to have visitors. 

He lives with his wife and their 2 grandchildren. We were able to pray over him for healing and I told him that we would be asking for your prayers as well! So please keep Don Fabio in your prayers for a miracle of healing of his heart. We are asking the intercession of Saint Anthony and the Blessed Mother. We were able to bring the family a small bag of Costa Rican staples (rice, beans, sugar, coffee) and some school supplies for his grandson.

Our celebrations for the feast of our chapel patroness, and the patroness of Costa Rica, Our Lady of the Angels, started last  week. One million people make a pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Angels Basilica in Cartago, Costa Rica each year on her feast day August 2^nd.

Sunday we drove in caravan to bring the
image of Our Lady of the Angels to our
neighboring town in San Joaquin.

We celebrated the feast of Saint Joaquin with Mass
and yummy food.

Monday night began with a Novena and we have the special blessing of receiving Mass everyday until our fiesta on August 2^nd! What a blessing for this community as we only have Mass once a week usually (and for the neighboring towns sometimes its only once or twice a month).

All of the kids made stick horses for
the "horse" race at the church. It is a
memorial of the humble people who many
years ago would travel aroudf the town on
their horses on the Feast of Our Lady of the Angels.

I said, "Smile Gabriel." :)

The Lord continues to stretch us and ask us to be uncomfortable. We pray that we will all embrace the opportunities He gives us all to grow in virtue and holiness. And yet in the middle of it all He also greatly blesses us in ways we don’t expect.

We hope you all have a blessed week! We are praying for you and thinking of you. Please keep our families in your prayers as we start a 3 day retreat tomorrow.