A Choice to Make

Yesterday afternoon I had a few hours where nothing could or would go right. As I took Tracey and the rest of our female staff to the airport (they are currently in Guatemala participating in a women's outreach) I discovered that there is still something wrong with our car. We had some broken engine supports (at least in Spanish that is what they are called. Could be engine mounts in English) replaced. Well now there is a new sound, similar to a 747 landing, and a vibration that shook my seat better than any of those massage chair things ever could. Needless to say, something is not right and I will be keeping my weekly appointment with our mechanic again this week.

After the kids and I arrived home I was busy chasing Sawyer when I heard Olivia screaming for me in the other room. Turns out she had grabbed a pair of scissors and cut her finger. Nothing too bad, but of course she wanted mommy and was not happy when I reminded her mommy was in Guatemala.

Shortly after getting a band aide on Olivia's finger some furniture we had ordered was delivered. As we were unloading it I began to notice things like a mirror on a dresser wasn't the design we had ordered, a bed wasn't what we had asked for, and some poor work on the bed for the kid's room. So about half or more of the order had something wrong with it.

It was just one of those days. In the midst of feeling sorry for myself the Lord spoke to me. He has a habit of doing that when I least expect or want him to speak. In the quiet of my heart I heard the Lord telling me, just like I often tell Olivia, "You have a choice to make." Don't we always have a choice to make? We can not always choose or control our circumstances, but we can choose how we react to them. As we continue to adjust to life in a new culture I find I need to tell myself to choose to react well far more often than I have ever before.

I think it was Charles Swindoll who once said, "Life is 10% circumstances and 90% how we react to them." Well with all due respect I think his numbers are a bit off. It seems to me it is more like a 5%/95% split, maybe even 1%/99%.

Ram Luna

As an early Valentine's Day Surprise (and our 2nd official get-dressed-up-planned-date since arriving in Costa Rica--kinda sad, we know), Jeff took me to Ram Luna, a restaurant up in the mountains, not too far from us. It is decorated in traditional Costa Rican style, with an amazing view of the city. They serve typical food, and on Wednesdays they do a traditional folk dancing show. Overall, it was a fantastic evening, and we recommend everyone go!

Us, overlooking the city lights.

From Ram Luna

With the dance troupe. This was pretty funny--and very touristy (that they posed for pictures with all the guests)! They actually 'introduced' all the tables, too, and announced where everyone was from. There were people that night from as far away as Spain, France and Turkey!

From Ram Luna

One of the talented dancers. I love their outfits!

From Ram Luna

Our Home

We have been blessed with a tremendous home! After almost two months of looking, walking through numerous neighborhoods, calling on countless adds, and talking to everyone we could think of we found a house. Actually I should say that the Lord provided it for us, just in time. About 2 weeks before we had to be out of our apartment. Our new friend Carlos, who is a real estate agent, helped us find it.

To be honest it is more house than we need, but it gives us room to host the various guests we will be having. It also has an attached office with an independent entrance that will serve as the Students International Costa Rica office. We have a great landlady and the rent is probably about 60% of what it should be. We are slowly, but surely acquiring furniture and are meeting a lot of interesting people via Craig's List, newspaper adds, and small furniture stores owners. So without further adieu here is our home:

Our First Visitors

We were excited to welcome Ken and Candy as our first visitors in January! They stayed with us for about 10 days and got a taste of what our life is like these days, including car trouble, our new house, early mornings to get the kids to school, the feria to get our fruits and veggies, gallo pinto (rice and beans Tico-style), and a trip to Manuel Antonio beach and national park (we WISH that was a REGULAR part of life!!) It was really fun to have them here. The kids were ecstatic to have Grandma and Grandpa visiting (I think Olivia was worried no one would ever come to see us.) We were all blessed by their presence and helpfulness. As Ken would say, a fun time was had by all! Here are a few pictures of their time with us, complete with one of Olivia's favorite songs!

Email Update

We sent out an email update this week. If you did not get it and would like to get future updates please send your email address to thedixonz@gmail.com. If you would like to get the PDF file click here.

We will post some pictures soon as well as a ministry update.

We moved into our new home about 3 weeks ago. We like the house and the location. However, we are still waiting on our internet connection to be hooked up, so our communication is a bit limited and sporadic these days. When we are hooked up we will post a more detailed post with an update on what all is going on.

If you have heard of the earthquake a little over a week ago here we felt it in our home, but did not have any damage. Parts of the country are pretty devastated, so please keep Costa Rica in your prayers. Hopefully we will post soon with more info for all of you who faithfully follow our blog. Hopefully our internet will be connected in the next few days.

Christmas Reflection

Christmas was a bit different for us this year. Obviously! It was the first Christmas where I could look out my front door and see palm trees. It was also my first Christmas since I left home for college 12 1/2 years ago that did not involve some sort of travel to see family. It felt strange not to be packing up to go some where. It was also the first Christmas in which I did virtually no Christmas shopping. When we were in MN seeing Tracey's grandma we purchased the kid's Christmas presents. For some reason shopping in October does not seem like Christmas shopping. Yet while we were thousands of miles away from most of our friends and family Christmas was still special. We had a great time both Christmas Eve and Christmas with our good friends and teammates the Janzens. We had a fun celebration with just the four of us Christmas morning and enjoyed visiting with family via the phone (We love our Magic Jack!).

I think what makes Christmas so special is stopping to reflect on the fact that we are celebrating Jesus moving into our neighborhood as Eugene Peterson translates John 1 in The Message. When I stop to reflect on the God of the universe choosing to move into our stinky, smelly neighborhood it is pretty overwhelming. It makes our moving to Costa Rica no big deal. We moved across a border, Jesus moved across the universe! He moved so that we might have abundant life and so that we would be able to have a close, intimate relationship with him. It is amazing that God would pursue you and I so intently.

So while Christmas is different this year it is no less special. We have enjoyed and continue to enjoy the celebrations here in San José (I can hear fireworks going off as I type). There will be celebrations through the 4th or 5th of January here. What makes Christmas special is remembering that God reached out to you and me in the form of a baby. Unfortunately it takes a holiday to remind us of this. May we live every day of the new year remembering what God did for us and allowing that to drive how we live. Merry Christmas!