The Palace in the Country!

As I told you in the last blog, our house is amazing. I can't give you a full tour with pictures, due to the length of time it takes to upload photos with my SLOW connection! But I will do my best to give you a tour with words. The house has two full stories and the third story has only a bedroom and bathroom and you can see out three sides of it! Emily loves her perch on top of the world!

The first story has our master bath and bedroom, extra bathroom w/ small laundry area, office/music room, entry area, living room, formal dining, kitchen and a small eating area connected with the kitchen!
The second story has an open balcony to the downstairs and this level has the boys and girls rooms with a bathroom between, a guest room with its own bath, and a second living area that we are using for a school room. Both the guest room and the school area have doors that open into a glassed in room that we call the conservatory!
As I mentioned before, the third story has been taken over by Emily, who is loving it! All the bathrooms have HOT water in all of the faucets. This is a small miracle for me after having such sketchy hot water for the past two years.

The Palace!

It is nice having the house fully furnished and it even has some hardwood floors, instead of just tile!

Clara and Ruth enjoying Play Mobile! Thanks, Joshua!

Emily and Myles at the table in the kitchen!

The children have really been enjoying having an acreage to explore. It is mostly being used by another family that grows flowers to sell, but there are plenty of trees for tree forts and such! We are hoping to put in a large garden soon, as summer is just getting started here!

Exploring the property!

The flowers and variety of flora and fauna is a sight for sore eyes. All of us love being up out of the city. It looks like the "country bumpkins" have found their spot in Bolivia!

Cactus flowers with the mtns in the background!

Back in Bolivia Again

Hello friends and family and faithful blog readers that I have never met, but would fall under the friends category anyway! We arrived back in Bolivia last week, after another series of flights and a night spent sleeping (kinda) in the Lima airport! What a joy to see "our" babies S. and A.! Thanks, Hannah, for bringing them to the airport! Also, a big thank you to the many friends who came to greet us, welcoming us back to Bolivia!

Not much culture shock this time. It just seemed business as usual, to jump into our old van and drive down Blanco Galindo, to the sound of horns honking and dust flying everywhere! Some of the road construction has gotten done...hooray... and more messes, I mean road construction, has started! A little unnerving for me, was trusting that all of our bags would stay on top of our van without being tied down. They all made it just fine, I am glad to report!

We have been able to settle into our rented home outside of the city. We feel like kings and queens in our new location. Pictures to come later... However, we would like for you all to feel sorry for us suffering down here in Bolivia, so I do not know if I should show you the palace we are living in!! Truly, we are super blessed to be in this quiet, beautiful place.

Today we began the adoption process. This morning we were able to meet with our fantastic lawyer. We were also able to get two of the many steps needed out of the way! We are excited to be in process and pray that all will go smoothly and well... Already our lessons in patience these past two years are coming in handy. If you just expect things to take twice or three times as long as they "should", you aren't stressed when they do. You also are pleasantly surprised if it takes less! Also, be sure to plan for all government offices to close for lunch and you won't be disappointed when they set your schedule back by a couple hours... again!

It has also been great to see all of the other babies at the Hogar. Rudi just brought Daniel, our heart surgery baby, in to say hi to me. I cannot believe how much he has grown. He sprinted in a crawl to attack my computer. Definitely not the baby we left just two and a half short months ago! It doesn't look like he lacks for appetite anymore either!!

These verses have been on our hearts, as we return to Bolivia to adopt and serve here again. They are from Isaiah 43
¹ But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

² When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.³ For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.⁴ Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.⁵ Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;⁶ I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;⁷ Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

As always we covet your prayers and are so thankful for each one of you. 

Return to Bolivia!

    It seems appropriate that this blog announcing that we are returning to Bolivia, should be posted on the second anniversary of our arrival in Cochabamba. You probably already picked up from some comments in my previous blogs that we were heading back, but I thought I would use this blog to make it official! If we weren't heading back, the previous blog posts would have been fraught with tears and lots of sadness!! Something began to change and grow into a full blown idea during the month of July. It truly felt like we were leaving behind not only OUR babies, but also some ministries that were just beginning to unfold for us. It felt like we had unfinished business in Bolivia. The day that clenched it all for me, was the day that we said goodbye to S. and A. . As we left the baby house and I sobbed my way back to the boys house, Clara told me that this was the hardest thing she had ever had to do. I asked her if she thought it would have been better if we had never come and she wouldn't have had to say goodbye or face this type of pain. She quickly told me NO, she was thankful to have had the short time with the children we cared for, than not at all.
    As we were flying out over Cochabamba on our way to Santa Cruz, Rudi and I both had the same thought, this was not our last view of this city. Neither of us said anything to each other until the next day. When we woke up we looked at each other and said, "We're going back aren't we?"!! We had a family pow-wow and everyone agreed that we should come back and adopt our babies and continue working with the Horita Feliz ministry.
    Of course, we did not know how God would work out all the details, because there were several that had to be orchestrated before we could return. We had a lot of peace though and knew that if He had us to go back He would work it all out. Within a week of deciding to go back, the Lord provided a family to live in our house AND someone to help manage the coffee shop. We are super blessed to have the Lystrup family in our home and helping run our coffee shop.
   On the Bolivian side, things came together down there as well. At first we wondered why the Lord would allow us to sell everything only to have to go back and buy it all over again. I mean He could have clued us in a little sooner and we could have saved all our things! Well God knew what He was doing (not that we're surprised by that!!), and He provided a FULLY furnished house out in the country for us to rent and we would have had to sell all our things anyway! Not only that, the man that purchased our van has agreed to sell it back to us! We feel super blessed by all of these provisions and are confident that God is leading us back to Cochabamba.
   Please pray for us as we return for safe travels and for favor with the officials as we begin the adoption process. We are excited about starting this new stage of life! Stay tuned for updates on our new country life in Bolivia!!

                                          Two of the main reasons for our return to Bolivia!

Our girl reason!!

Our boy reason!!