The past month and a half has been such a blessing for Ryan and I. From having so many visitors and great groups to announcing our sweet little one's arrival in October we have just been overwhelmed by all the love shared. God is doing some great things. Ryan and I have now had a time of rest and are really starting to get a big picture of why we feel God has led us here. We are really looking forward to the next few years here in Nicaragua as a family!
So March.. in the shortest summary possible.
March 1-6: Prepare for the chaos that was going to continually role in for the next few weeks. Buy lunch food for groups, buy supplies for their projects, get everything ready at the hotel, with transportation, translators, churches, etc. Sheww.
March 7-14: 18 Jackson Christian School students joined us for a week to work with NCS and with the Vida en Familia church that meets on campus of the school.
March 13-19: David and Brenda McCrary were here in Nicaragua with us. They spent the last few days of their trip with their son who lives down south.
March 16: We had a few minutes to stay at the beach for our one year anniversary (March 17!)
March 18-19: Quickly finish getting everything together and in as best order as we could for FHU who would arrive the coming weekend.
March 20: We drove 5 hours to Honduras to pick up my cousin Lincoln who would be staying with us for the next few days. From the boarder of Honduras we drove 5.5 hours to Managua to purchase our new vehicle! Wahoo. (this is great news, we had been using the NCS truck and were sharing it a lot with the construction manager and the director of the school so it is a blessing to have our own vehicle now!)
March 21: We had our 11.5 week appointment to see Bushbaby who was looking fabulous and then got a tour of our hospital (both of which I talked about in my last blog post). Poor Lincoln had to tag along for all of this. And at around 7:30 we picked up my dear friend Brittany Mauney and her friend Kellye from the airport. (this makes 3 sweet visitors in our home!)
March 21-28: Brittany and Kellye were to be with us.
March 22: We tried to fit in as many fun things as we could with Lincoln, Britt, and Kellye before the next group would arrive on the 23rd.
March 23: We all rode the bus to Managua to pick up Freed-Hardeman's Xi Chi Delta (Ryan and I were both a part of this social club while in college) at the airport and we dropped Lincoln off.
March 23-29: FHU worked with the Primero de Mayo church in Leon, Nicaragua.
Yes you saw many days overlapping in there and it was a juggle but we were so thankful for March. We were really truly blessed by every person who we were able to spend time with this last month. They also helped me skip right over the terrible first trimester with hardly a glitch so that was a plus too!
In celebration of our busy awesome month, our anniversary, Ryan's Birthday (April 7), and the fact that we had to leave the country to renew our visas.. We were able to go to Costa Rica for two nights(April 5-7). We had a free nights stay at a Marriott so we got to stay in a fluffy bed with delightfully chilly air conditioner and a wonderfully strong hot water pressured shower. Along with the nice hotel, Costa Rica had a Moe's, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Outback, etc and a big air-conditioned mall. So we window shopped and we ate a lot. Though this seems lame to each of you, it was exactly what we needed. We feel so refreshed, rested, and happy to be in Nicaragua again.
This month we will be going back to our normal routine: visiting the churches, some work with the school, organizing and planning for El Camino Missions, and preparing for groups and interns that start coming next month.
On April 9, we were able to see our sweet one again. He/she is healthy, looking great, and getting big! We think those look like the feet of a ball player! :)
And a belly pic. I feel like I have been showing for a few weeks but I am amazed at how much I have grown this week specifically.
*Sorry about all the pregnancy-ness that is about to invade my blog!*
We go back on May 20th to find out the gender of sweet Bushbaby and on the same day we pick up our 4 awesome interns for the summer. What a year. So much to be thankful for!
We are so thankful for your prayers and your kind words. We are blessed beyond measure. Thank you thank you thank you!
We are sending out a monthly e-newsletter that is more specific to the work we are doing in Nicaragua. If you are interested in receiving this newsletter, you can enroll on the ECM and NCS facebook pages or just send us your email and we can put you on there!
Thank you for your love, your mercy, and your grace that you pour on us daily. Thank you for blessing our lives here in Nicaragua and for our healthy precious child. Thank you for our support teams and for all the special people you have placed in our lives to learn from. I pray that you will teach us patience as we learn to become more like you and I pray for even more patience as we learn to become the mama and dad you have called us to be. Thank you for choosing us for this special child and for leading us on such a special journey together. Amen
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