-Happy Thanksgiving-

Happy Thanksgiving to all our North American friends and family. Today happens to be my favorite holiday that we celebrate in the U.S.! I love the history behind it and the meaning. It is not about commercialism or greed, but the joy of being together with family and being THANKFUL for all the things that God has given us, done for us, etc! Because of its simplicity, this holiday often gets lost in the shuffle. This is our third Thanksgiving away from our family in the States. We miss you all like crazy... ALL 90 members of our immediate families (as in parents, brothers, sisters, in-laws, and nieces and nephews!). Yep, we've got a lot of you guys to miss! Sending lots of love and wishing that you enjoy all that AMAZING American food and are properly thankful for it, as we would be if we were there!!
Stay tuned, because tomorrow I plan to add to this post a Thanksgiving song that we are recording today and pictures of the time we had with our friends in honor of this great holiday!! I just wanted this post to be posted on the actual Thanksgiving Day rather than the day after...

UPDATE SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30
Hmm... well, this isn't exactly the day after like I had hoped, but here is the update with the promised pictures and the link to the song! But first a favorite passage of scripture!

                                                         Psalm 100
                          "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 
                    Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 
                  Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we 
                   ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
       Enter into his gates with THANKSGIVING, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him,             and bless his name. 
            For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."

  Emily and I started early making pies and desserts. Emily like her Grandma B. is amazing at making pies. I figure that with such amazing pie makers in the family, I can stand back and just applaud the efforts! Emily made a double crust apple pie and an apple crumble pie that were both super yummy.

Peeling lots of Granny Smiths

 I made pumpkin cheesecake bars that were super yummy, if I do say so myself! And of course, the traditional Pumpkin pie, as well!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars anyone?

We brought the Pumpkin Pie Spice and canned pumpkin from home, but had to get creative with the other ingredients.

Bonle, is the cream cheese product and Tosh, the graham cracker!

 The other kids stayed busy making name tags for the guests. They turned out really nice!

Jake and Jennifer were the first guests to arrive. We took a picture of their expanded family from last years Thanksgiving photo. Three more boys and a new one on the way! Busy folks!

The Beaty Family 2014

The CDA volunteers arrived next, Hannah, Danyelle, Sarah, and Daniel. They also brought S. and A. with them from the baby home! We all sat around and chatted while we waited for Vico and Elena to arrive!

And then it was time for FOOD. Everyone brought a dish to share and there was plenty to go around!

Jake and Jennifer brought the turkey this year and it was fabulous. Maybe it has been too long since I have had turkey, but I think it was the yummiest ever!

Jake doing the honors of carving the turkey!

Myself, carving the chicken...and scoping out the desserts!

Check out all the desserts in the picture above. It was truly a second course! If you went away hungry it was your own fault!

Emily enjoying her turkey leg!

Volunteers Sarah and Daniel, (brother and sister) are from Ireland and this was their first Thanksgiving! They seemed to enjoy their time!

Danyelle, Sarah, and Hannah holding C.

We were happy that Vico and Elena could make it for the celebration. Elena is expecting their first BABIES! Twin girls! She isn't due until the end of January, but with twins you never know! She sure looks great and really healthy.

Vico, Elena, Jennifer, and Sophia

The whole group...feasting!

S. chowing his T-giving dinner!

We were really thankful for Hannah bringing "our" Bolivian babies out for dinner. They seemed to enjoy their time. We sure enjoyed them.
After dinner we sang some songs and shared what we were thankful for. We are thankful that we have friends to celebrate this great American holiday with!

A. did too!

And the song we did for Thanksgiving, actually only got done tonight. You can go to the following link to listen to it!
https://soundcloud.com/ejb-4/give-thanks

Blockades and Babies

Sticks and Stones... and Barrels. It's blockade time!

 Today the Tias had a workshop at Casa de Amor, House 1. Hannah asked us if we could help out with the babies for the afternoon. We said that we could, not knowing that today would be a "blockade" day! Our car is currently at the mechanics for the week getting an engine overhaul, so we set out in public transportation. Our "Q" micro driver let us out at Km. 11 on Blanco, so we could walk down to Km 10. and get the "R" on the other side of the blockades. The kilometer we walked looked like a war zone. I had brought my camera, for once, and was able to get some pictures! We have been in Bolivia long enough that this kind of stuff is normal. I have to think, "Oh, this wouldn't happen back home. I should do a blog about it!" Emily said that we looked like tourists snapping pictures of ourselves... I don't think she liked that very much!

Walking our blockaded kilometer.

Rudi and Paula enjoying the walk!

Our tourist pose! The sun was fuerte!

Getting to hang out with the babies at House 1 made it all worthwhile, as we knew it would...

This picture is for you, Lindsey! A. is as cute as ever!

A. and Clara. Love those smiles!

Our beloved S.!!

 I think the baby that gets the most changed vote from me is our "heart surgery" baby, Daniel. He is all over the place and into everything. The blurry photo below is the best I could do! M. loved having his picture taken. He is turning into a personality plus! A lot of the babies at the baby home have paperwork ready or almost ready for their adoptions. Please pray that God will send Christian families to adopt them! They are each a treasure. We were glad we got through the blockades to be able to spend a couple hours with them. The big kids all wanted a spot on Rudi's lap. He maxed out at  four at one time! It truly was a privilege to spend part of the afternoon at House 1!

Daniel and M. 

By the time we headed home all the blockades were cleaned up and you could hardly tell they had ever happened. It made our trip home a lot faster and easier! The picture of Rudi and Clara below was taken on our "road" to our house. You can see why we feel at home out here in the country!

Rudi and Clara with a friendly neighbor!! 

There is a water canal that flows throughout our neighborhood. It was empty tonight, but Ruth likes to walk in it regardless!

Ruth posing in the water canal!

 The boys had stayed home together and one of the things they did was create a crane out of wood and odds and ends! We thought it was photo worthy!!
   Thanks for joining us on another adventure in Bolivia. We will leave you with this thought, "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." Psalm 127:3-5

Clancy and Myles and "The Crane"

The Man of My Dreams

Happy birthday to the man of my dreams, Rudi Michael Booher! I love you today and always! Thank you for spending the last 19 years of your 43 years being married to me. You are the world's best husband, friend, and father!

Rudi and Me on the Oregon Coast (Sept 2014)

 I love raising a family with you and dreaming big for them and us!

Our Blessed Family

I love that you are becoming a handyman after all these years... I know Bolivia forces you to it!
His exact words when I took this picture yesterday, of Rudi changing out the pipes under the sink were, "Where is Ned when I need him?"(Ned is his brother who is a plumber! You would have been proud of him, Ned, he fixed it!)

My hunky hubby at work!

 And keeping with our family tradition we had a birthday breakfast together this morning.

Rudi with the kids

Rudi with Me and the kids, minus Emily taking the picture!

The kids gave creative gifts to Rudi this year. Pictures, leatherwork, etc. The most amazing gift was a song that all of the kids took five hours to create and record together yesterday. Emily put her recording gifts and equipment to the test and came up with a winner! It was huge surprise for Rudi and I both.

Rudi listening to his birthday gift from the kids.

I have included the link if you would like to listen to it on Emily's Sound Cloud account.
Here's the Link.
https://soundcloud.com/ejb-4/whipoorwill-song-1

We had a great day celebrating the number one man in our lives! God bless you, Rudi-love. I love you more today than ever before. Happy 43rd Birthday and may you have MANY, MANY MORE!

Visitors From Camiri

We were pleased to receive Mark and Carol Mattix and two young people, Diana from Peru and Aaron from Washington state, as our first visitors in our new house! They arrived last Friday afternoon and stayed through Sunday morning. We had a great time with them. Diana understands English very well, but did not get up her nerve to speak much English. We ended up speaking a lot of Spanish together. In looking at the pictures we took while they were here it seems that most of them were of us eating! We did do a lot of singing and most everyone hiked up to the Pairumani Park Saturday morning!

Carol, Mark, Diana, and Aaron

    Diana and Aaron have taken various classes at the Facultad Biblica in Camiri. Diana was heading home to Peru this past Monday. Aaron will be traveling to Ecuador in about a week and will be staying there until January. A funny side note is Rudi made arrangements with Carol and told me to prepare for Mark and Carol and the two YOUNG LADIES that they were bringing. I had to do some fast switching of rooms and sheets and such when I saw Aaron get out of the car instead of another young lady!! Thankfully, our house accommodated everyone easily! Hooray, for a big house with lots of beds!
    On Saturday we headed into Cochabamba to go to the Bible book store, lunch at Globos, and then Horita Feliz. We met up with Mario and Helen very good friends of ours and the Mattixes, from the Km. 0 church!

Diana, Carol, Helen, and Mario at Globos

Mark ordered dessert first, because life is short you know. Aaron is showing his disdain in the picture below. When I accused him of being a health nut, he assured me that he was turning his nose up at the peanuts in the dessert, because he is allergic to them! Either way it is a funny picture.

Rudi, Mark, and Aaron

Our kids enjoying Globos!

After tea and cake at Mario and Helen's we all headed for Horita Feliz. Look who we found there, S. and A.!!

Rudi with S. and A.

Clara took up the challenge to memorize Psalm 23 and was able to quote it from memory for everyone this past week!

Clara quoting Psalm 23

After Horita Feliz we came home to a crockpot meal that Richard and Gladys Scoggins and Gracie joined us for! The kids were able to play a game of "Settlers of Catan"... It was a great weekend. Thanks for coming ya'll!

The Catansters!

Fun Day with S. and A.!

A. and Paula "Happy to Be Together Again"

A little over a week ago S. and A. came to our house to visit for the first time! We had such a great time with them. It was actually at the end of a long holiday weekend, so Tia and Javier came over and  we made lunch together. We fed S. and A. earlier than the rest of us, so that they could take a nap!

Clara with her two little friends!

First we gave them a bath and then took lots of pictures of them on Rudi's and my bed. Unfortunately we couldn't get them to sit very still! They actually both slept on our bed for their nap. They settled down really well and I had to wake up S. about three hours later, so that he would sleep that night!

A. and S. all clean and ready for naps!

While the little ones slept Emily and Tia finished up lunch preparations! Check out Paula getting something out of the cupboard in the picture below.  She loves to help herself to nuts in that cupboard and climbs up all by herself!

Emily, Tia, Mijael, and Paula the climber!

Javier did an awesome job of barbecuing the chicken and sausages. It was SUPER yummy food!

Javier working the Q.

We all served up outside by the barbecue. Salad from Tia's garden, mashed potatoes, watermelon, and
B.B.Q. Chicken and sausages!

We then ate on the wood deck out behind the house. The house comes with chairs, tables, and umbrellas for the outside. It was a beautiful day to have lunch outside.

 After lunch we had fun playing "Settlers of Catan" with Tia and Javier just like old times. After S. and A. got up from naps the kids had fun playing with them until we took them home around 7:30 in the evening. It had been a great day!!