We stay busy - no doubt about it.
Nathan is doing new things all the time and trying to stay out of trouble. His latest thing is to walk around counting things in Spanish . . . the only problem is that he often says "uno, tres, cuatro . . .", skipping the number 2! We're pretty sure he'll figure it out at some point. But he does know the number 2 as he will tell you that he's "two" if you ask him how old he is! Another thing he likes to do is carry around a banana and/or apple (he likes to eat them eventually too). We're not sure why he likes them, but we figure this is just one little stage for him for now.
Isabella has mastered the art of crawling and is finding all sorts of interesting things at ground level. She's also working hard to cut her two bottom teeth - chewing on everything she can get her hands on. . . making the combination with learning to crawl interesting as she's finding new things to chew on!
We've had colds off and on this month. Ruth and Isabella still have runny noses. Hopefully we will be finished with the runny noses in time for our trip to the US on May 13! Yes, the time is rapidly approaching for us to begin our 10 week Home Ministry Assignment in the US. We are looking forward to connecting with friends, family and churches there. It will be a busy time traveling with two little ones, but the renewed connections will be worth it.
Santi had a birthday this month too! It was fun to celebrate several times - once with a date night out together, another time with our small group, and a third time with a lunch at HCJB with the Information Systems department. His birthday has been well celebrated!
We are looking forward to the visit of some friends from Indiana this week, Chris & April Fresh. They are coming with their youngest son, Mason (one of five boys!). They will be here for a week, taking a look at Extreme Response and our ministries here in Ecuador, and seeing what God might have for them as full-time missionaries. We look forward to having them stay with us and are praying that God will clearly direct them as they look into missions.
And Ruth is also helping to organize two baby showers . . . .one for Lori Aguirre. Lori and her husband direct one of our partner ministries, Pan de Vida (Bread of Life - a ministry to people living on the street). They are expecting their first son in July. And the other is for Teri Newburn, Ruth's good friend and co-coordinator of the Kids Club at the Zambiza dump. Teri teaches high school math at Alliance Academy. They are expecting their first boy the first of June.
And then it will be time to pack and do the last minute things needed for our trip! We have all our passports (Nathan and Isa both have two), visas, paperwork and other important things taken care of. . . .but we still have to figure out suitcases, packing for two kids and whatever else we might need! Thank goodness, we will be arriving to the "Land of Walmart" where it will be easier to pick up anything we might need!
Pray for us in these final weeks before we leave on May 13 as Santi has projects to finish up at work. He also needs to find replacements for some of his work while he is gone. We also need to finalize the organization of our presentations for churches while we are in the US. There are so many interesting things to share, that sometimes it's hard to narrow it down and decide on what is the most important. Plus, we also want to be sensitive to God's leading and what He would want us to share with our churches and supporters who have been a part of what God is doing here. Pray that God would direct us to what He wants!
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