One year

"What have we gotten ourselves into?"  That has been the question we've often asked ourselves over the past year.  And at times we're still not sure!  But it has officially been one year that we've lived in Venezuela.  At times it feels like it's been longer while other times it seems unimaginable that we've been here that long.

Within days of arriving, they're enjoying the riding toys

Some interesting numbers from the past year:
14 - the number of flights we've been on for visa trips
4 - the number of visa trips we've had to take to remain in the country legally
6 - the number of Americans we've had to say good-bye to
5 - the number of student retreats we've had
2 - the number of staff conferences
36 - the number of weeks of pre-school with Noah & Leah
16 - the approximate number of peanut butters we've gone through
1 - the number of new interns we have from last year
11 - the number of years since we started dating (it was 8/31/02)
47 - the number of students who came to our national student conference in March
16 - the number of students who committed to coming on summer project to Panama next month
1 - the number of doctor visits (Leah had a UTI)
3 - the number of times we've been to the zoo
15 - the number of pieces of luggage we brought with us
2 - the number of presidential elections while we've been here
300% - the value of the dollar versus when we arrived

The oh so many times we played in the rain

-Countless times to the amusement park, McDonalds, Burger King and pizza places
-Countless hours in staff meetings, Bible studies and prayer
-Countless tears shed for the difficulty of life in being here, for our marriage, our family, our team, the students and many others
-Countless emails to friends and family, Skype dates with loved ones and facebook connections

They just downright love the buses here,
especially when they get their own seat

THESE THINGS ARE ALL PRAISES!!!
0 - the number of hospital visits, so no major health issues

0 - the number of times we've been robbed

0 - the number of times anything dangerous has happened to the team

2 - the number of apartments we've lived in (praise the Lord we found housing!!)
Countless protests and marches as a result of the political situation here, but we've remained safe through it all

It feels so difficult to sum up the past year.  It's been hard.  It's been good.  It's been discouraging at times.  It's been really exciting at times.  This is such a roller coaster we're on.  I think when we look back over the past year, we're just really grateful.  We're grateful that our marriage hasn't fallen apart.  We're grateful that our kids are doing well.  We're incredibly grateful for really good health while we've been here.  We're grateful for the relationships we have as a result of being here.  There is just so much to be grateful for.

Waiting for Papa as he leaves for campus
so we can wave goodbye out the window

A break

We just got back from the mountains.  One of the downsides to not having a car is that we don't get to get outside of the city very often.  But we decided to take a trip out of the city to a town called Colonia Tovar.  It's about 2.5 hours away by car.  There's something fun about this town.  It's a little German village, complete with German food, in the mountains.  So it's pretty, it's not the city, fresh air, good food, there's grass and it's cooler.  Did we mention it's in the mountains?

People working on the side of the mountain.  This is
probably a strawberry field since the mountainsides
were covered with them.

A farther away view of the people working
on the side of the mountain

Bart loves the mountains, thus this trip happening.  But there is something really great about being able to get outside of a loud, dirty city to a place where you can hear the church bells ring every hour and half hour.  We didn't need fans.  We didn't experience mosquitos.  We started a fire in our room.  Twice.  Not because we needed to, but more because we could.  The kids really enjoyed that.  Our room even had a little kitchen area, so we could sit and enjoy our banana bread for breakfast every morning.

Watching the fire

We were amused by this wishing well.  It had coins but also
many bills worth 2 or 5 (sometimes even 10) bolivars!

Bart was in heaven with all of the sausage, sauerkraut (this wasn't quite as common) and the potato salad.  I would have to agree that it was a nice change to the normal food we eat.  We were able to buy peaches, strawberries, jelly and all kinds of good chocolate.  It's so strange.  It's almost like we leave Venezuela.  So many good things that we rarely come across in Valencia.

Two of the many chocolate suckers we HAD
 to buy while we were there

One of the great things about being away was the cabanas (as they were called) were on the side of the mountain and had a nice big hill and a play area.  That's why we went to this specific hotel so the kids could enjoy our time there.  They loved running (or falling, sliding, rolling, whatever) down the hill.  They LOVED wrestling and playing with Bart in the grass, creating base to have a safe place where they wouldn't get tackled.  We had a nice long pretend play time in the "house" as the kids called it during one of the few times there weren't other kids around.

Funny faces during our pretend time

More funny faces

The kids didn't love the hikes up and down the to get to center of town and back.  We had to carry them periodically or put them on our shoulders.  We can't blame them.  It's literally kind of a hike with the hills.  Overall, it was just a really great trip to get away and have some time to disconnect from the world and connect with each other.  We started doing hi's and low's at dinner and the kids love it.  Leah's low doesn't usually change, but she's 3.  Our standards are low.

This is what happens when the taxi you arranged to come
pick you up arrives over 3 hours late....

Another first

Yesterday we started school.  Oh my.  I'm not exactly sure what I'm getting myself into with trying to do kindergarten, but so far it feels a little overwhelming.  I'm not sure how people do it with more than 1 kid.  Last year Leah was usually pretty engaged, but after 2 days I think she's already a little bored.

The stories are longer, the information a little more intense.  I mean, it's a little complicated trying to explain that the sun doesn't move, but the earth goes around the sun, while spinning, while tilting (or not) while the moon goes around the earth.  I don't have enough hands for all of that!

This was meant for Noah, but how can we exclude the
little girl who always wants to do it too?

But Noah is doing great so far.  We started on a Friday because we're heading out of town on Tuesday to go to the mountains for a little break from the heat (and for mercy on poor Bart's allergies).  So we'll truck through until Tuesday and then take about a week off to start up again.  We couldn't really get behind because the chaos of our lives, visa trips, holidays, retreats, etc force us to take days (or a week) off from school.  And let's be honest, I don't want to be going into the end of June or even July with school.  That just doesn't sound fun for anyone.

Noah has been really excited for all of the new books.  Leah loves flipping through them and finding fun things.  The curriculum we're using does memory verses (with songs!) every week, so the kids enjoy that aspect.  Overall, Noah is loving all of the new games, tools, things that come with this new school year.  It is for sure a lot of work for him since he's a perfectionist (which means a ton of patience for me), but I think he's going to like it. He tells me he doesn't want to go to school and wants me to always be his teacher.  We'll see how long that lasts!

Working on our angry eyes.  This is something that started
from one of the Toy Story movies and has just carried over
into everyday life.  We give angry eyes on command,
although Leah does struggle with the serious aspect of it...

Leah on the other hand talks about wanting to go to school with Lucas, their Venezuelan friend. He of course is old enough for school, but she doesn't get that.  Her being the little social butterfly that she is would love to always be out and about.  She argues with us when we're out and we tell her we're going home. Even to the point of tantrums. Girlfriend loves to be out.  Or the fact that we have bars on our door and windows might have something to do with it (I'm also not a huge fan of the prison feel).  But we figure it out.

On a completely different note, we were able to Skype with the team that is coming in September!  They are all currently at the briefing in Chicago and we thought it'd be fun to chat with them a bit since we're obviously not there.  They were pretty blurry and it was hard to hear them, but it was great to at least feel like we could see them and try to connect a bit.  We're praying they continue to work hard at support so they can all come. Would you pray for our team, that they would be diligent and faithful to raising all of their support by September 1st?  We're excited for how this year's team is going to fit together!