Arrived!

Below is an email that Melissa sent out to a good friend.  It'll give a glimpse into how we're doing our first few days.

Hey!  I wanted to let you know we made it to VZ safely.  We had a couple small hiccups along the way but overall it went relatively well.  It's been a little hard to be here and still feel unsettled since we're not going to be staying here (at the girls' apartment), but we're making the best of it.  The kids seem to be adjusting well.  We went swimming yesterday and they liked that and they've enjoyed the little playgroundish equipment inside our complex.  

Addition by Bart: Today was funny.  Well, depending on your sense of humor it was funny.  Noah went down the slide outside our apartment and didn't put his feet down in time, so he planted squarely, and pretty hard, on his bottom.  Tears and yelling ensued.  Only maybe 30 seconds later Leah heads down the slide and catches her foot on the side of it maybe 2/3 of the way down.  It forces her sideways and she flies out and lands directly on her head.  Obviously tears, yelling, and a welt ensue.  So there we sit, three gringos; I have one on each leg as they scream.  Way to go, Papa.

Melissa, continued: They are sleeping well which has been a huge blessing.  We're still adjusting to being really hot, just sitting here in the apartment sweating but I think we'll get used to it.  Praise the Lord for fans at night to help us sleep (and keep the mosquitos away)!  We would love if you could continue to pray for housing for us.  We're not wanting to be desperate but at the same time, we don't want to be in limbo anymore or make life harder on the kids.  We'll see.  The Lord will provide.  You could also pray for sleep for me.  I'm having all kinds of trouble sleeping.  I'm not sure why.  I have trouble falling asleep and then I wake up numerous times throughout the night and sometimes go check on the kids.  There's a part of me that I think is worried that they're not handling things ok but there's a bigger part of me that just gets paranoid that I can't hear them if they cry or whatever (the fan in our room is incredibly loud).  But there have also been random loud noises that wake me up.  Literally the first night we were here I woke up and walked into the living/dining room area and the door was wide open.  It wasn't a big deal because we have a barred door also and it was closed and locked but it was a little unnerving.  So random stuff like that just prevents me from sleeping too.  Not to mention there are no curtains on any of the windows and the sun comes up around 6 so if I want to sleep past then I have to do it in broad daylight.  Sleep was not something I was anticipating as being an issue.  I guess it's a great way for satan to bug me.

Anywho, keep me posted on how things are with you.  We can skype or facetime (if you have an iphone/ipad/ipod with wifi).  I think our skype account is bartandmelissa.  No idea what facetime is.  Maybe bart.shadle@uscm.org (Bart: Yes, it is).  I'd love to talk sometime whenever we can figure out a time.  And the time change will be tricky.  We're a half an hour behind you, so it might be really hard to coordinate.  :)  Just kidding.  But we really are a half an hour behind Ohio time.  :)

Thank you for your prayers!