Lots of things going on right now...

 

I should really be handwashing my dishes right now but I am definitely procrastinating. On that note though, the whole "handwashing" the dishes is not as bad as I would have thought. However, someday I would not mind having a dishwasher again :) Hey most people in the world do not have dishwashers right? So right now I am just fitting right in.

 

We are trying to find an apartment to live in more permanently while we are here learning the language in Arequipa. We are here for 6 to 9 months and cannot really stay in the guest house that long. Finding an apartment might seem like no big deal but it is much different here. There are literally hundreds of "for rent" ads in the local paper - amongst thousands of other ads for other things - and rarely do they include a description or price they want for rent. This has been quite a process. Our mentor couple has done loads of work to help us accomplish this and we are coming down to our final decisions. We have one more place to look at tomorrow and we will make our decision. We are really hoping to find a place close to the language school, close to food, and big enough to support our growing family of three kids almost under three years of age. Pray for guidance.

Happy Birthday to our little Man!
 

Today was Caleb's third birthday. He had such a wonderful day. We brought a play tent from the States with us when we moved and had it all set up this morning with balloons our friends had given us for Caleb while we were in the States. Caleb and Hannah had such a great time playing in it today. We also went out to eat with some friends at a little restaurant that had some fun toys to keep the kids entertained. Caleb really enjoyed playing with his friends, and now is sleeping soundly after his fun filled day. He also enjoyed his "brownie cake" - okay so it was just brownies but I had to add the word "cake" to it. It just makes it sound more festive and immediately satisfied my little guy.

 

We are so blessed to have Caleb in our lives and we look forward to seeing the wonderful plans God has for him. He is such an energetic little guy - who never stops running in circles (could he be a future track star :)??? ).He is a great little helper and full of compassion. He loves all airplanes, helicopters, and trains and shows everyone all of his toys every time we go out. He talks to everyone in English and even though they cannot understand him he just keeps talking. I never imagined in a million years what a talker he would be. He is so curious about the world and narrates everything. He memory is impecable, I mean if I could have a tenth of it I would be doing well. As it is I feel like I cannot remember anything these days. We just love having Caleb in our family - that is just all there is to it! We love you little guy!

Hannah's First Steps

 

We actually caught Hannah's first step on video. Hard to believe she will be walking soon and that Caleb turns three tomorrow. Time goes by so fast!!!

  

Thanks to John for figuring out how to get this video up here.

Hooray!! Our luggage Has Arrived!!

So grateful that our luggage arrived a few days ago. Some friends of ours offered to drive our luggage from Lima to Arequipa and ran into some car trouble along the way. They drove 15 hours while we took a 1 hour plane ride. Crazy huh? The mountains are treacherous, and the roads are windy. We are super glad they made it in safely despite trouble with their cars. These guys are veterans here and made sure to take along all of their tools in the backs of their trucks just in case something went wrong - good planning since the desert is unforgiving to broken down vehicles. They will use these newly purchased (well used) vehicles they bought in Lima to do work among the people of Cotahuasi who are not accessible by road. These four wheel drive vehicles will make their own roads!

Now do not get confused we are going to Curahasi not Cotahuasi - confusing huh?

By the way our doctors appointment went fine. Everything was in Spanish so I was a little out of the loop but John got most of it - I think :) We got to see baby - as the doctor told us this baby was definitely a "varon" (a boy). My water levels look good - which we are grateful for since this has been a problem in the past. The doctors here are a "one man show" - she did my ultrasound, blood pressure, took my money, and everything else. My next appointment is in a couple of weeks. We will keep you posted.

Everyone but John has been fighting a nasty head cold this week. Not fun at all. We are grateful John has not gotten it - as I have been out of commision and needed his help with the kiddos. We are also super grateful for good friends who brought us homemade chicken noodle soup (oh wait everything here is homemade :) ) and some wonderful spaghetti sauce for dinner. What an answer to prayer - literally. God knows what we need just when we need it huh?

 

We broke down and bought some peanut butter this week. It was 23 soles for a 16.3 oz jar of peanut butter. EXPENSIVE. So we use it sparingly :) Also we found an american brownie mix - which was again expensive since it is imported - AND we found chocolate chips. We know where to get them although I have not bought them yet. It looks to me like they are milk chocolate and who knows how they taste, but we will find out. We are trying not to stock a pantry till we find a more permanent place to live, so that we do not have to move more stuff.

Interesting facts about Peru:

 

* We just had rain here - it has been 27 years sinced it has rained here in the month of May. Can we say desert? This was on the frond page of the local paper.

* Diapers are individually wrapped and sold - depending on where you are. In Curahuassi you buy diapers one at a time. Here in Arequipa we can buy a pack but they are all individually wrapped.

* You do not eat icecream when it is cold as Peruvians think this will cause you to catch cold. You do not open windows here either for the same reason.

* Always, always, always check the water you buy - as it might be carbonated (con gas), which we are not used to.

* The garbage guy rings a very LOUD bell at 5:30 am when he comes by to pick up your trash nearly everyday of the week - this makes for some early mornings with the kiddos.

* Milk comes in a box - not a plastic container. We go through like 6-7 boxes a week.

 

 

This picture is off the internet but it looks exactly the same here.

 

OH AND...Hannah took her first unassisted step today. Get walking girl because baby number three is coming soon :) Just kidding, take your time.

Valley of Volcanoes

 

The flight to Arequipa went well. It was only an hour or so, so the kids did not have any problems. Hannah even fell asleep for a short while. The views from the flight were pretty incredible.
Lots of mountain ranges and desert. As a matter of fact Arequipa is smack right in the middle of the desert. It is very dry and dusty here - which makes it nearly impossible to keep the kids clean. I have virtually given up on keeping them presentable. They constantly have black little toes, knees, and faces. Oh well :)

 

Arequipa is located in the Valley of Volcanoes (approximately 80 in total within the valley). Arequipa itself is surrounded by three volcanoes - at least one of which is ACTIVE. Yes, you read that correctly - it is active. As a matter of fact we had another earthquake a few days ago but apparently we did not notice it. That seems a little crazy to say. Caleb really enjoys the fact that we are right next to a volcano. He constantly talks about how it is going to explode and smoke - well we hope not son :). The last time there was an explosion was quite a long time ago (1600s? I believe). Apparently it smokes quite often but we are pretty safe.

 

The town of Arequipa is so radically different from Lima. There is no daylight savings time here so to us the days appear to start earlier and end earlier than normal. We are living in the SIM guest house here in Arequipa. The kids are enjoying sleeping in the same room together - which  is a first. It is going pretty well but they are getting a lot less sleep, which has made for grumpy children. In addition to this Caleb is sick. Please pray the rest of us stay healthy and he gets better soon.

 

We are slowly adjusting to a different way of life here. Groceries are not as accessible and getting to the store has been a little more difficult since our luggage with our stroller and baby carrier has not made it in yet. We  are not really sure currently where our luggage is - somewhere in the desert between Lima and Arequipa. One of our fellow missionary friends offered to bring it with him to Arequipa, but he has had some mechanical issues with his vehicles and so has been delayed. This has been slightly emotionally taxing on all of us I think. Please pray that it gets in, as well for our friends who are bringing it here - that they may get here safely.

Our internet is not as fast here either. So I am not sure if you will see many pictures from us while we are here. I am about to try and upload a couple.

 

Currently we are trying to find a more permanent place to live, which is proving to be a much more difficult and time-consuming adventure than we expected. Thank goodness John speaks a good deal of Spanish or we would be completely lost. We are also going to try and contact a doctor here today - of course this is all in Spanish as well. I think our brains( or should I say John's brain since he is doing most of the dirty work here) are fried :) We are certainly thankful to have the help of our SIM friends here...things would be very difficult without their help! Oh, and by the way it looks like I will be having a natural delivery whether I want to or not as it appears epidurals are not offered here. Oh nuts..good thing it is my third baby.

 

Our hope is to have our luggage, an apartment, and furniture before the baby arrives. Not sure if it is possible but a girl can dream right? :)

 

Pray for us as we are all feeling a little worn out both physically and emotionally this week.

It bugs me to see such poor quality in these photos - oh well.

Arriving in Arequipa

 

Pray for us as we fly to Arequipa this morning. Yet another place I have never gone to but will soon be our home- well at least for a little while. Our flight doesn't actually leave till noon today but we have to leave the guest house at 8:30 to get to the airport, even though the airport is actually close to us - any indication of how bad traffic is? Despite bad traffic I will miss at least certain things about Lima like:

 

- being close to having American products, even if we do not buy them because they are ridiculously expensive

- plethora of restaurants to eat at

- the tiny trampoline that Caleb enjoys so much in our little "backyard" (backyard is all relative  since no one has a backyard with grass in it - totally typical of big city living)

- the ability to walk almost anywhere to get what we need

- and just the familiarity of being in Lima for two weeks

 

It is kind of sad to leave since we have become a little familiar with at least this tiny little part of Lima. Oh well, I am sure we will feel the same way about Arequipa in due time. Arequipa is a big city but not nearly as large as Lima. Supposedly we will be able to see blue sky in Arequipa, which is something I am REALLY excited about.

 

Well I will let you know how it goes!

 

Today this blog comes to you specially from Caleb- since he was up at the crack of dawn this morning. Side note: On Mother's Day I turned to John and said, " Honey, I am exhausted and my back is killing me, " he then looked at me and said, "Yep, it's true you are a mother." Yep it is true!

EARTHQUAKE!!

 

We survived our first earthquake last night. It was only a 4.0 on the scale but we felt it for a few seconds. All the sudden everything started shaking - John and I looked at each other in bewilderment...and then it hit us - That was an earthquake! No big deal really. Apparently Peru has them all the time and they had 97 earthquakes just last year. So for some reason I feel more Peruvian now that I have experienced one.

 

And yes - we are coming up with a "what to do in case of an earthquake" plan :)

 

Check this link out for more info:

 

http://earthquaketrack.com/p/peru/recent

Hormigas! Hormigas! (Ants! Ants!)

 

Well we quickly discovered that ants are here in abundance. Everything must be washed and taken care of immediately after dinner. You must also put everything either in the fridge or in a tuperware container or it might as well be food for the ants. The ants are so tiny here you can barely even see them, but where you find one there are many! In an effort to keep the ant population here in the Guest House down to a minimum I am also sweeping after every meal - as my tiny children seem to drop an endless amount of food on the floor. Hannah and Caleb have also found a way to keep the ant population down as well - yes by killing them. It is quite commical to watch Hannah use her little finger to squish ants. After she squishes them, she then tries to show us her prize. Caleb just steps all over them with his feet. Well one thing is for sure - we are depleeting the ant population. I have a super cute video of this but not sure if I will be able to upload it or not. It will take a few hours though.

 

Everyone in Lima has been so welcoming. We have had lunches provided for us almost everyday since we have been here! As a matter of fact, we went out for lunch today with the Kim family. We went to a local restaurant that serves a Peruvian favorite, "pollo al la brasa". It is very tastey and the kids enjoyed it very much. Caleb enjoyed the play place at the restaurant, and the icecream as well. They even got balloons while we were there - much to Hannah's excitement. The kids were so fascinated with our little blonde haired, blue eyed girl and several stopped at the table to adore her. Just take a look at the crowd below!

 

As for visas, we will know more by tomorrow but for sure we are here at least another 16 days if we choose to stay here in Lima and wait for them. Right now we are looking at the option of flying to Arequipa and coming back to pick up our visas once they are ready. We just need to stop flying before I am 35 weeks or John and the kids will be flying while I take the 18hr bus ride (yuck).

 

Most of us have managed to stay healthy so far (everyone but Crystal of course). Nothing serious just adjusting to new foods we think.

 

Oh and here is a totally random fact on Lima - Lima has a popluation of 8 to 10 million people in a size about as big as the city of Omaha. Crazy huh? On another crazy note...I have never seen this offered in the States quite like it is presented here?

 

Pray for guidance on when to head to Arequipa and fast visa processing!

 

Special note **in an effort to save time and energy all of these photos were taken with our small point and shoot - and of course not edited** Boo!