Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Family picture while visiting some giraffes (in background)

We’ve slowed our posts down here as there has been a lot of activity with the holidays, new things, and our parents coming to visit.  We had a great visit with my parents and are now having a great time with La Maestra’s.  These blogs can do a fair amount in describing our situation and what we’re doing, but letting them see first hand has put them much more at ease, and helped them understand more.  We have been able to take our parents around to some of the places we visit the most, sing around a small Christmas tree, exchange exciting gifts, introduce many of our companions, expose them to food, travel, and worship, show off our language skills, and even see some exotic animals!  No one has gotten substantially sick, and we’ve avoided most other trouble besides our bus tire blowing out in the middle of the desert (thankfully only a 30 min. delay!), and another car we were traveling in breaking down for a half a day.

Skyping with Unc to sing around the Christmas tree together (we were
able to buy the tree from someone returning to the US)

Being able to share with our family and to see with new eyes the things that have started to become normal has helped to emphasize how blessed we are, even as we celebrate Jesus’ coming into our world to help us all have fresh eyes to see God’s love for us.  We hope you all have had a blessed Christmas celebration, and pray for a great new year full of fresh views of God working in your life.