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Sawyer, sporting his many layers of pjs:

From Fam Pic/Lost Teeth

Olivia, sporting her toothless smile:

From Fam Pic/Lost Teeth

For the Record

Here's a belly shot from last night after our team banquet: 32 1/2 weeks!

From Fam Pic/Lost Teeth

While the Savior's team was here. . .

. . . the kids got to spend a lot of time with their friend, Alissa. Here's some cute pictures of their time together:

At the children's museum feeling a simulated earthquake

From Olivia, Sawyer and Alissa

Water Play

From Olivia, Sawyer and Alissa

Pilot Sawyer

From Olivia, Sawyer and Alissa

Watching a Movie

From Olivia, Sawyer and Alissa

As if there wasn't enough going on. . .

. . .the same day as the McDonald's birthday extravaganza, Olivia was also involved in two events at our church. She was part of a worship dance with a group of girls, and then a parade of nations (the ones represented in the church) to complete a month of focus on missions.

From Olivia's Church Dance and Parade of Nations

See the cute little prairie girl? She was told to wear "traditional" US clothing--whatever that means.

From Olivia's Church Dance and Parade of Nations

BIRTHDAYS!!!!

Olivia's and Sawyer's birthdays just happen to conflict/coincide with our busiest time of year. This year, a big party seemed way too ambitious to pull off, so we opted for a very Costa Rican birthday at McDonald's (you think I'm joking, but actually parties like this are very popular). I made cupcakes for each of their classes at school the week before (plus a Thomas piñata for Sawyer's class and pizza for Olivia's), and then we invited other friends to celebrate at McDonald's on the Sunday between their actual birthdays. The beauty of doing a party this way is fairly easy to see: there is built-in entertainment, McDonald's provides the cake, the piñata, the food, a staff person to lead a couple of games, and best of all, they set it all up and do all the cleaning up afterwards. Of course, it was crowded and not exactly private, but overall worth every penny. Most importantly, Sawyer and Olivia had fun, and successfully turned 4 and 6, respectively.

Olivia's Tio Conejo Party

From Olivia's Tio Conejo Party

From Olivia's Tio Conejo Party

Sawyer's Kid's Academy Party

From Sawyer's Kid's Acadamy Party

From Sawyer's Kid's Acadamy Party

And the McDonald's Party

From McDonald's Birthday Party

The Games

From McDonald's Birthday Party

This could be my favorite: Cailah and Olivia dancing b/c they got the 'hot balloon'

From McDonald's Birthday Party

The cakes

From McDonald's Birthday Party

Mordisco!

From McDonald's Birthday Party

From McDonald's Birthday Party

And finally, the distribution of the piñata candy

From McDonald's Birthday Party

Birthing Class: Costa Rican Version

A week and a half ago Jeff and I went to a birthing class at the hospital where we plan to have this baby. Since she is our 3rd, many people (including our doctor) have wondered why we would attend another class. Basically, I had 2 reasons: I wanted to see how different or similar the philosophy of the hospital here was compared to our experiences in the States, and I wanted to hear all the vocabulary in Spanish. Good news: at Clinica Biblica, most of the birthing protocol and techniques are similar to our hospital experiences in Visalia. Though they have an astronomical c-section rate (which I have told my doctor I want ONLY in a true emergency), they do have private labor and delivery rooms, up-to-date medicines and equipment, epidurals, etc., and they do allow women to walk around, use birthing balls, and take showers during labor. They promote breast-feeding, teach kangaroo care, and allow big sibs to visit. Some differences: they give a tuberculosis vaccine at birth (we have been advised both for and against this by medical personnel here), and they will pierce our baby's ears for us if we bring the right earrings (we are thinking of going ahead with this to avoid the millions of boy or girl questions.) There are most likely some other minor differences, but mostly we felt at ease with what to expect. As far as the Spanish, it was comforting to realize we understood most of what they were telling us. So many words are cognates (epidural, forceps) that I think we'll be okay. :)

The other parts of the class were quite an experience as well. First of all, it was set up with linen tablecloths and covers on the chairs, tied with tulle bows; centerpieces, and many vendor samples included. We were served a full breakfast, lunch and cafecito (coffee and snacks). And for the presentations, they had 2 huge mounted flat-screen TVs, plus a full wall that was projected onto. There was a pediatrician that talked to us about baby care (sort of--he wasn't actually all that great), an OB/GYN who talked a little about the physical process of birth, a nutritionist that told us how to feed our babies after the first 6 months of nursing, and a nurse that led us through breathing and relaxation exercises, etc. Plus we watched some birth videos. The best was the dance aerobics instructor who led us in some very entertaining moves at the end of the day. :) I may, or may not, include a picture. . .

We'll see what happens, but so far, we have been really impressed by the staff and care at Clinica Biblica. The other good thing is that it's only about 10 minutes away (in good traffic) should we need to get there in a hurry; since Sawyer was a fast and furious birth (less than 3 hours at 10.5 pounds), we figure we'd better be ready to run at the first sign of contractions this time around--just in case! They can always send us home :)

Jeff, deeply impressed with the decor

From Birthing Class

Quite a spread, X 3

From Birthing Class

Getting ready for relaxation time

From Birthing Class

Okay, okay, I'll put it in! Dance aerobics, obviously. :) At least it's a good 29 week belly shot.

From Birthing Class

The Stairs

This post is long overdue, but I thought I would post it anyway :). Most of the time my work is behind the scenes in a support role. I get to support our staff at the various ministry sites and get to do a lot of logistical work and coordination for our student teams. In March we had a large spring break outreach of 34 people! Too be honest this was probably too big of an outreach for us. But we have to commit to the size of an outreach almost a year in advance. So at this point in time, as SI-Costa RIca continues to grow and develop, our outreach size is often an educated guess or a prediction of where we think we will be at a certain date. Well let's just say things didn't go as well as anticipated and we had room at our sites for about 20 people. Fortunately we had just rented an old auto shop to turn into a carpentry shop, so we used about 10 people from the team there helping us to scrub walls, put up dry wall, paint, etc. That left us with about 6 people without a site.

In our model of ministry we seek to incorporate the teams into the ongoing regular ministry that our staff are doing with or without teams. Of course having teams here allows us to do some things at the ministry sites that we couldn't do without them, but we do not want to create things to do just for the team, especially if they will not be sustainable.

A month or two before this team was to come Pastor Gilbert mentioned that he was recently told by the city that he needed to improve (read tear out the old and put in new) stairs on the property of the church. Pastor Gilbert is the pastor of the church in Las Fuentes that Cailah partners with in our Social Work site. So I decided that I would work with the 6 without a site to build the stairs at the church. It was a project that needed to be done and it would help further the ministry of one of our ministry sites and key partners.

The only catch would be that I would be leading this project and that I have little construction experience. Fortunately what experience I do have has come in Latin America and working with concrete! Much more fortuitous was that there was a contractor in the church without work who agreed to work with us for the week. Without Eddy we would have had issues!

So the students came and we worked hard and built some stairs. For me the experience was much more significant. As I mentioned I usually do the behind the scenes coordination for our outreaches and our staff do an incredible job of working with the students who come day in and day out while they are here. During this outreach I had the privilege of working all day every day with students. I was reminded of the powerful experience a trip like this is for the students that come. I was able to witness many "ah ha" moments in the lives of the students I was working with and was able to see them interact in a beautiful way with Eddy and the other church members who worked alongside us. I was reminded of the power of what God is doing through us and the privilege it is to work with students and the poor.

These days I often think back to the students I worked with in March and to the other emails and comments from past students as i am swimming in a sea of logistical work and preparation for our summer outreaches. Remembering the impact an outreach had on one student and the impact of a ministry site on one person in the community gives me motivation to make the phone calls, write the schedules, and to do what God has called me to do.

Here are a few photos of the stairs:
The Before

From Las Fuentes Stairs

Getting ready to pour

From Las Fuentes Stairs

The Construction Crew

From Las Fuentes Stairs

The Finished Product

From Las Fuentes Stairs