Settling in

Just wanted to send a quick update on our Costa Rican status - everyday looks a little different because of all the things that we need to get done. If you get our update newsletter, you know that we are the proud new owners of a 2004 Terrano (Nissan). It was on the high end of our budget, but we were prepared for the close to $20,000 price tags that come with Costa Rican 4x4s. In fact, we feel really blessed that we found it for under 20K - a few other missionaries that are just moving here are having a hard time finding something in that price range.


We've also been busy purchasing some furniture for the house - we got a chest of drawers for the kids room, a dresser with mirror for ours, 2 bedside tables for our room and an entertainment center/stand. Today, we went and placed an order for a couch and 2 chairs and are having some curtains made for our living rooms as well. The curtains are SUPER expensive, because half of our living room is solid windows. Due to the positioning of our apartment, anybody can see inside if they aren't covered. Due to the monstrous size of the windows, I'm not adequate to find window fixtures and curtains that would work.

The kids have enjoyed every single day here - lots of the Latino missionary kids haven't started school yet, so they are enjoying the warm mornings here. The weather is something that is a little shocking, because it's warm (upper 70's) in the morning, but by 1PM it seems to fall into the lower 60's. The kids always start the day with short sleeves and end with sweatshirts and jackets. We've been told that Feb/March will take a drastic turn for warmer weather - we'll see if that rings true. :)

We are still awaiting our shipment - they thought it would come on Wednesday, and then today - I'm sure somebody thinks it will come tomorrow. I'm not getting my hopes up - I'll believe it when i see it. Call me a doubting Thomas. The kids are dying to get to their toys again - it's been almost 4 months since they had them to play with. With Sydney's birthday coming up, I'm tempted to just put away one of her old toys and wrap it up and give it to her again. I don't think I could really pull it off, but it's crossed my mind.
Hopefully our TV arrives in tact - the cable company comes tomorrow to install the line. Elijah is geared up for the SuperBowl. He is cheering for the Cardinals to win (who would've thought that Cardinals and SuperBowl would be in the same sentence?) We'll see what the outcome is shortly.

Keep us in your prayers with the church search - we've visited 3 different ones so far and haven't felt like any of them have completely "clicked" with us. We have 3 more to visit that are possibilities - the kids are anxious to find a place that we can be every Sunday - they get really anxious having to go to new Sunday school classes every week.

Lots of love to all of you!

We are here in Costa Rica!

PURA VIDA! That is the Costa Rican way to say that all is well. In fact, even if someone asks how you are, the proper response is "pura vida" (pure life). That will take a while to get used to saying, I think. :)

We make it to Costa Rica exactly one week ago, and I'm finally able to slow down enough to send some news your way. Needless to say, we've been busy. I've sent the link of pictures of the house to family members, so that I don't overload this blog with that stuff - if you didn't get it, and want to see, just let me know, and I can send it to you. We are slowing making the house a home, but without our shipment here yet, things still feel a little "temporary" - like we are just here for a while. We should be getting our things in about 2 weeks, we hope.

We've gone to the grocery store twice and Scott went out today to look for a potential car. He thinks that he's found one, but until we get permission and go through all the processes, we can't purchase it. If the purchase goes through, we'll take a picture and post it in the next few weeks. Grocery shopping here is much like it was in Guatemala - lots of the same type of foods available. One difference is that there are TONS of grocery stores - in Guate there were only 2 main ones that were even close to where we lived. This morning I went with another missionary who has lived in CR for a long time to the produce market - I'll definitely be buying there every week. There is a lot more selection and the prices are a little bit lower. Speaking of prices - things here are MUCH more expensive. I think the hardest thing to get used to will be the price of cheese - for 10 pieces of sliced cheese, you can easily pay $4.00. For a block of cheese, prices are around $6-$10. The exchange rate has been kinda hard to get used to - it's 550 colones to 1 dollar - it's been interesting trying to figure out how much I'm spending to buy things.

The weather here is pretty nice - it's always sunny and warm in the morning and by the afternoon it cools down considerably. We usually have long sleeves or jackets on by early evening. You probably all know about the earthquake that happened a few days ago - it was pretty big. The newspapers are still carrying it as the front page story. No damage happened here on campus - we are very thankful for that.

Elijah and Sydney are LOVING being outside all the time. There are about 15 MKs all within a stones throw from our front door. About 6 of them are younger (6 and younger). Needless to say, they have found some new friends pretty easily. The older kids are enjoying playing with them too - Elijah like to play soccer with them, when they let him. He comes in crying almost everynight that he's not ready to stop playing. I don't think that he really understands that we live here, and that when he wakes up, everybody will still be here. :)

Well - lots to say, but don't want to bore you with everything. We have got an internet connection in our house, so feel free to send an e-mail. We should be able to get to it soon. We want to go to the kids school on Tuesday and get them registered and buy books and uniforms. We have a scheduled power outtage all day on Tuesday, so we figure it's the perfect time to get stuff like that done. Lots of love to all of you.

em