Where's Laura?

So are you picturing me in a red and white striped shirt (like Waldo)... hiding among the masses in a crazy oversized book? :) Because after the last month I have sure felt like "hiding out" for a little while. It's been an action packed last month or so and I hope that explains my silence in blog land.

We had four Harding interns (for 6 weeks or so)... a group of Aggies for Christ (for a few very action packed days)... each survived a serious cold (since we are in the middle of our dry winter season here)... experienced our first "gospel meeting" for the church in Cochabamba... had another fun filled 4th of July at the Marcum's house... a visit from Roland Bowen (one of our brothers and dear friends from our sending congregation)... and are learning how to transition from a team of 5 families to a team of 4 families (as the Custer family has decided to return to the states - www.custers.blogspot.com).

So you count the "extras" along with keeping up with shopping, communication with family (which I have completely slacked on this past month), dealing with the sickies, and emotions that come with transitions facing us and it's been kind of an exhausting month. The visitors we have had brought us such encouragement (and great goodies from home too!). Two of our Harding interns are a married couple named the Eades. They are expert travelers as far as light packers go and so had alot of extra baggage weight up for grabs. My mom and mother-in-law made sure it all got put to good use :) Gary got birthday goodies, Nathan got new clothes, my sister restocked our supply of Starbuck's coffee for like the next year :) and I was able to order some things online for our family! Stephanie (another HU intern) brought chocolate chips from home (she scored big!) and Roland just recently brought staple items like cough syrup, candy corn, and starburst :) thanks to his wonderful wife Carol! So our cup has been overflowing with goodies from home! Nathan is definitely a fan of starburst I've found, so the partaking has had to be limited to after his bedtime... for his own good, right? :)

I have been keeping up with all our friends online though and it's always such a blessing to stay "connected" with family and friends regardless of the miles. Thank you so much for all your emails, prayers and encouragement even though there's been so little coming from this end! I promise it won't happen again :) as much for me as our friends at home. I never knew what a huge blessing this outlet would be for me... a great way to process our experience here in Bolivia and it has proven to be such an encouragement thanks to you my dear friends!