The cream in our oreo...

I always said that the middle child was the cream in the oreo... I just never expected to have one :) I didn't plan to have three children, two or four, even numbers that could be paired off, but never an odd number like three. And yet again, God giggles at me, his daughter for telling him what I will not do :) and this time I'm so so so thankful, because the product is my precious son Grant Thomas. Grant, you came into our lives' two years ago and you opened my heart in a whole new way. You have shown me what it means to be completely overwhelmed with love for my children... to love you up with snuggles, tackles, and tickle wars. You love so fiercely and it shows me so much of who you are. You are a passionate little boy and sometimes that gets you into serious trouble, but I'm praying that God will take that passion he placed within you and use it for his kingdom. You are growing into a precious little boy and I know one day you will be an amazing man! May God bless you my precious second born, and may you always know how much I treasure you, who you are, and all that you have taught me about this life, and about myself! Happy Birthday Grant Thomas... I love you more than my next breath!

Fun in the sun :)

So while all of our friends and family in the states are enjoying snow and bundling up, we're enjoying some fun in the sun :) These past few weeks have been the Carnaval (South American Mardi Gras... except even more pagan) season for Bolivia. The streets are filled with water guns, water balloons, buckets of water being thrown at people passing by (are you seeing a theme here? :) and lots of partying. Today we went to the annual parade called Corso de Corsos. Each year in Cochabamba groups (from civic groups to military groups) dress up and march in the parade. The night before the Corso people set up bleachers and seats and Cochabambinos come and buy their seats for the next morning.

This year our sweet secretary Gabi invited us to come and watch the parade from the balconey of her family's apartment on the parade route! It worked out perfect since that way we could come and go as we wanted to and we were up and away from all the water gun shooting, water balloon throwing, and foam spraying. So instead of looking like these poor people, we looked like this :)
This is Gabisito, Gabriela's son who is such a great friend to our boys! While at the parage we saw groups dressed up like almost anything you can think of... The Simpsons...

Avatar...
The Trojans...

Mario Brothers...

(These guys had the right idea... carry a big barrel of water in the back of your float and arm yourself with some big buckets... game on!)

Chinese Dragons...And more traditional Bolivian culture...

Bolivian peach season is in full swing :)

Dressed up as traditional Bolivian bread.
It's been such an experience for our boys to grow up in two cultures so different and distinct. Mornings like today will be memories made that they will carry with them back to the states :)

Ruh-Roh

Who knew that following in the footsteps of his big brother would start so soon? :)

My sweet Joshua...

This sweet little stud muffin turned three months old today...

Oh my goodness how time flies!

And so it begins...

Rather than rewrite (and use precious brain power that with three little ones underfoot is sometimes hard to come by :) I wanted to share with you a portion of our most recent family newsletter...

January 2006… Gary, Nathan and I boarded a plane bound for Cochabamba, Bolivia. There was excitement about the realization of the dream we had envisioned now for years, sadness in leaving our families and friends stateside and yet a new life waiting for us here in our new home. If you had shown me a snapshot, a glimpse of what the next 4 years would hold for us, I’m not sure I would have believed you :).

(Send-off Sunday at Austin Avenue Church of Christ)

(Nathan and I at the Miami airport, January 2006)

We’ve grown as a family… in more ways than one, as individuals and as a couple. We’ve passed milestones as a family… birthdays, anniversaries, and the birth of two sons. We’ve reached milestones in ministry… establishing a downtown office for the team, finding and setting up a church location, witnessing the adding of new brothers and sisters in Christ, watching the body here grow in maturity as well as size, and beginning to hand over the church and its ministries to our Bolivian brothers and sisters. We’ve gained a second language, culture, and home.

This past year we evaluated our time here, the goals we had met, and our future plans. It was with much prayer and petition for wisdom that we made decisions about the coming years and what they would hold for our family. After months of prayer and planning, we as a family decided that this year, 2010, will be our last year living and working in Cochabamba. Gary and I both feel very blessed by our time and experience here. Our time as missionaries has enriched our family and our faith in ways that we never could have anticipated. We are so thankful for the opportunity we’ve had to partner with our heavenly Father in the work of planting a church here in Cochabamba. It has stretched our faith, pushed us out of our comfort zones, and shown us daily what an important job we as Christians have in this world to share his gospel and salvation. We will miss our church family here in Bolivia, teammates, friends we’ve made here in Cochabamba, and the life that we lead here.

We are also thankful for the opportunity that we will have to live close to family and friends again, sharing important milestones with them face to face as opposed to over emails and webcams. We ask for your prayers for our family as we make this transition back to stateside living. Please pray for our last year of ministry here, our travel back and forth to the states in preparation for our return, decisions we make about career paths in the states, and decisions we make about our family lifestyle. We pray for wisdom and constant guidance from our heavenly Father as we savor these last months here. He was so faithful in bringing us here to Cochabamba, and we pray that his faithfulness will shine just as brightly as we plan the months ahead. Thank you for your support of us as a family, of the ministry we’ve been a part of here in Cochabamba, and through those, the support you’ve given to your fellow brothers and sisters here in Bolivia. God bless you!

Having that said... this blog is going to be my processing place for the next year. I'm already starting to grieve the life that we're leaving behind here. I know that so many changes lie ahead for us, and not being a huge fan of change, I'm going to need a place to work things out :). Just wanted to give you a heads up... it's going to be a fun time of memories of what we've lived, with much anticipation of what's to come, but it might get a little emotionally sticky... I'm just sayin' :)