Leaving!

Wow, we have been running around like crazy people. We leave for Lima tomorrow! It’s hard to believe how fast 7 months have flown by, and harder still to imagine not seeing all of the Peruvians and extranjeros who have become so dear to us here. It has been a week of despedidas (goodbyes) and logistics. We took our hosts, Bob and Noel out on Tuesday, and last night we got to go out to dinner with the two directors of the institute and their wives. Today we had our despedida at the institute, complete with empanadas and gift exchange, and tonight we will go out with some of our student friends. In between, we have packed up the apartment and run around the city on last-minute errands. We’re exhausted.

One more thing we wanted to post before making the move and signing off for a few days: It has been remarkable just how many of our friends’ families have grown since we arrived in Peru. So many babies! We never took the time to congratulate them on the blog, and welcome these beautiful new lives into the world! We wish we could meet them in person, but thankfully many have blogs of their own, so we've been able to see pictures. Here they are, in no particular order:

Titus Powers, to Andrew and Karly
Trinity Iverson, to Danny and Kimberly
Macey Mitchell, to Scott and Andi
Liam Chase, to Matt and Carly
Nora Prather, to Justin and Jacquie
Ephraim Aday, to Adam and Catherine
Eve Rider, to Tyler and Becky
Luke Secrest, to Scott and Tori
Josiah Beardsley, to Matt and Laurie
Mary Catherine Munsell, to Joe and Cathy
Grace Mattson, to Dan and Marianne
Dallas Lacy, to Darryl and Lindsay
Nathanael Conyers, to Brian and Allison
Uzoamaka Ezejiofor, to Ifeoma and Ike
Jude Lookabill, to Josh and Tabitha
Grace Bingham, to Brandon and Sarah

Congratulations to all!!
We’ll write as soon as we can from Lima.