(Laura) Where to begin...here we are in Lima. At last! How long we have waited to be here! (I know it's been a couple months now, but I haven't blogged in forever) We are so enjoying our church, our community, our neighbors, our team. We feel so blessed to have our apartment - just what we were looking for! We're getting into the groove of working here, building our schedules and daily activities - something I realize is crucial for me. I'm learning how much I love structure and regularity after being so transient for about a year and a half.
How's my Spanish? I'm a work in progress, constantly needing practice and often correction, but I understand most of everything that is spoken to me and can usually respond appropriately. I need to review what I learned in Arequipa. Sometimes, I find myself thinking in or automatically translating into Spanish, so that's encouraging.
How's my job? I get to be wife, mom, and active volunteer in our ministries here, so I'm working a lot! Thankfully, we now have Elita working with us 3 days a week, who makes meals for us, helps with all the cleaning, and watches Noah from time to time, allowing me to be more involved in the ministries of the church. She is a dear woman from our church and has an incredible testimony of God's provision in her family's life (I'll have to share more of that later). My role of being Mommy is center stage right now, and it is a lot of fun - tiring too!
So, Christmas is about a week away! We're doing everything we can to make it feel like Christmas here, all but buy an air conditioner to lower the temperature of our home, which is currently in the mid-70s. We have a lovely, full-sized Christmas tree, which we're borrowing from the Berrys (our team leaders) as they are leaving today for the States until the end of February. This was a treat since I really didn't know if we would have a tree or not this year. So two weeks ago we put it up and decorated it with all the Peruvian ornaments we've been collecting.
We've made Christmas cookies, watched "Elf," "Christmas Eve on Seasame Street," and on friday, saw a performance of "Cascanueces" (the Nutcracker) with some of our teammates. The Christmas shopping is all done! The Berrys are even bringing some packages home with them to send in the States for us. We are still looking for a quality tricycle for Noah, but maybe we'll find one for his birthday. The decorations are kinda funny here - most christmas lights sing, and even though the stores are selling snowmen decorations, right next to it there are beach accessories since summer just started.
Noah did a very good job at helping me make Christmas Cookies! He helped me put the mini M&Ms on like a champ - then he realized he could eat them, and that they tasted good! Let's just say, the cookies might have missed a few, but it was totally worth the looks on his face when he would eat them
But we miss being home - the Christmas parties and abundance of performances with real brass ensembles, and especially being with all of our family and friends. With so many changes in our lives, I've felt the desire to have our own family traditions. We're going through a book this season called "Family Celebrations" by Ann Hibbard that has a whole section on Advent and Christmas. It lays out each day of Advent with short readings from the Bible, songs to sing, verses to memorize, and activities to do. They are not long, and it has been a really special time for us as a family to remember and anticipate the birth of Jesus. It also explains the Advent Candles, so we're enjoying lighting those each Sunday and eating by their light.
We do feel very blessed to have each other and such wonderful new friends with us this year to celebrate Christmas together and bring in the new year.
