Good things come to those who wait

Buying a vehicle in Uruguay (or probably in any context where you don't know the system) is an adventure.  We first found out about this van in January.  We had looked at several options and swallowing the price being doubled was getting harder and harder.  Then we found out about an embassy couple leaving this June, selling their used Honda Odyssey.  We were buying some of their household things, and they then told us about their van that they would also be selling.  We looked at it, and it was beautiful, with all the dings and whistles.  After sitting in it and looking at all the cool features, I reluctantly asked the price, thinking it would be way out of our price range.  To my surprise, the price was the same as what we were going to pay for something of far less quality.

Then the question about waiting until June for a vehicle hit us.  Did we really want to take buses and taxies for another 6 months?  We had just finished a year in language study with no wheels and we couldn't wait to get to Uruguay to be mobile again.  We had a few weeks to think about our decision and after looking at the same quality type of vehicles and seeing that they cost from $70,000 and up, the phrase, "good things come to those who wait" came to mind.

So we decided to wait.  We didn't have the money needed yet, anyway, so waiting gave us time for more money to come in.

We were blessed by being able to use vehicles from other international workers for part of the time, at times cramming all 6 of us into these small spaces.  But we persevered.  We even made it through visits from family, although it was a tight squeeze at times.  Once we took 8 people over an hour away and back in this vehicle made for 4, maybe 5.  We are thankful for the use of these vehicles, as we didn't have to take as many taxis and buses.

Then June finally came.  Time to really start jumping into the buying process.  We had to hire an "escribana," or someone who would help us with all the legal papers (a requirement here).  The United States Embassy has a set of rules and a procedure for purchasing a vehicle from their employees.  It became apparent that our escribana wasn't familiar with all the embassy requirements for selling a vehicle, but she got in contact with the embassy contact and the process got on track.

We found out that June 25 would be our signing day, and that we could get tags for the van and take it home on the 26th.  The 25th came.  I went to the embassy at 9:30 to sign the papers and deliver the remainder from our vehicle fund to cover what we still owed.  (We ended up having to pay half out of our savings, which we will be able to have reimbursed when the remainder of the money comes in.)  Everyone was there who needed to be.  When I pulled out the check, the embassy contact person immediately became upset and told me I had the wrong type of check.  I was supposed to get a check against a bank in the USA from a special money changing house.  I had the equivalent to a cashier's check from our bank here.  The check they wanted would cost several hundred dollars, as the cost is based on a percentage of the total, and not a flat rate.  Or I had the option of wiring the money.  Either way, it had to be done that day.  With the embassy family leaving on the 28th, they had to have a buyer for their vehicle. They couldn't wait around.  So I had that day to fix the problem or they would have to sell the van to someone else.

Never have I been so thankful for our national office.  I just wish they opened their switchboard a little earlier. We had to wait until a little before noon to find out if they could even help us or not.  Time was ticking.  Thankfully our field director got through and the national office agreed to wire the money stateside to the seller's account.  But the deal was that the money had to be in the other people's account by midnight or no deal.  No sweat, right? Every wire takes a couple of hours, and this one was done between noon and 1.  All afternoon, we waited.  All evening we waited.  I had assurance that God was going to take care of us and Timbrel's word from God was that He was going to build our faith through this experience.  At 11 we just assumed the sellers had forgotten to contact us and we started the process of going to bed, anticipating all would be ok at the 8:30 signing.  No news is good news, right?

I woke up at 7:15 and a text from around 11:30 the night before said the money still hadn't transferred, but that they would check again in the morning.  I am glad I didn't read that the night before, or I don't think I would have slept very well.  Then another text came with the good news we were waiting for.  They money transferred sometime during the night.  Praise God!

I went for the signing, with that all too familiar feeling of anticipating something to still be wrong.  I met and signed with the embassy people, and then it happened.  They handed me the keys.  The van was ours.  Finally.  After all the waiting and last minute stress-waiting.  I walked out of the embassy with the keys in my pocket and a smile on my face.

We had to go get the tags, which had minor hiccup of us having to return the embassy because of a forgotten signature.  Then we found out we had to pay a tax that was remaining from the previous owner - a tax of $.10 - yes, 10 cents.  We walked 3 blocks, paid the tax, and returned for the tags.

We returned to the embassy again to pick up the van.  I spoke with the sellers one last time and then was able to drive our new van.  I told the sellers that I was going to pull in my garage (er, parking spot in the garage) and just take a nap in the van.

As I drove home, I thought about all the God did in order for us to purchase this vehicle.  I thought about Troy, and the money that came from his death.  Thank you Troy and Sarah.  I thought about all the gifts that have come in from so many different people.  Thank you to so many friends and family.  God's provision is amazing.  I am overwhelmed with thankfulness.

Then we went and picked up Madeline after school.  As I walked out of the school yard with her, she was telling me about her day, totally oblivious to the van sitting right in front of her, not even noticing that I wasn't walking, just standing there trying to get Timbrel's attention to turn on the video camera.  Then we walked to the side of the van and it clicked.  A Madeline smile appeared.  My heart smiled.  We are greatly blessed and very happy that good things come to those who wait.  Waiting is definitely an appropriate word for this van.

Am I really "doing" anything?

I recently gave some advice to a friend from language school who is about to do what we did five months ago - move to a new country and begin to plant (finally) deep roots. When you make as much of an effort to learn a language as we did in Costa Rica, you like to think that your language learning will continue on the same plane once you arrive at your final destination. After my second year of language study, my Spanish level will be double what it was after my first year, right? This was a really exciting thought for us at the end of our year in Costa Rica, where we felt like we had great teachers and learned well.

Enter daily life in Uruguay. When we left Costa Rica, we left behind a maid that kept our house clean, the laundry done, the dishes washed, the beds made, etc.  We left behind an excellent language school and 20 hours a week of instruction. Perhaps most importantly, we left behind the ladies who took care of our kids, speaking a lot of Spanish to them, for 25 hours a week. Did we really think we'd be able to do the work of all of those people? Plus jump into life in Montevideo?? Oh, and we had a baby in Costa Rica, so now the little people outnumber us 2 to 1.

So it didn't take too long for daily life to overwhelm me. And for me to figure out that my interaction in Spanish was going to be drastically lower this year than last year. It's kind of depressing to almost be able to feel your amazing (!?!) Spanish skills seeping away.

When you constantly have the feeling that there are at least four or five things you could be doing, it is freeing to know your first assignment. God has repeatedly confirmed my first assignment here. They are 7, 4, 2, and 9 months old, currently. They like to watch movies, read books, and play Pet Shops (yes, even Micah).  They say cuter things than any other kids in the world. They're high maintenance, yes, but they're also high reward. And I am one part of their world that hasn't changed (well, too much anyway).

Is my Spanish floundering? Perhaps (we do go to tutoring twice a week and have other interaction in Spanish). Are there usually undone dishes and laundry? Yes. Are there always parts (all?) of the house that need to be cleaned? Definitely. Are there things I would love to go do that I just can't do right now? Yes.

Is it worth it?
Yes.

It's worth it to see light in their eyes, joy on their faces, and safety in their sleep. It's worth it to see them learning to adapt to the newness without being overloaded.

Here's the advice I gave my friend from language school:
"Give yourself LOTS of time. You and your family will be under a high stress load (though you won't always feel like it), and it's okay to let your energy go toward surviving (thriving?!?) as a person, a couple, and a family. Keep your language expectations low and your awareness of His presence high and you'll be fine."

Giving that advice helped me look back over the last five months and be renewed in my assignment.
We're here for the long-haul. The language will come. The most important thing I can do is be in His Presence, listening, resting, watching His face, reading His cues, being His Friend.
"You are my friends if you do what I command." - John 15:14

-T

Refreshing

God is good! I have to start there. Every good and perfect gift comes from above.

There have been several times lately that my emotions have wanted to drag me into a self-pity/depression mode, and I hear the enemy's voice telling me how many things I lack or how impossible the circumstances are that we face.  Today I woke up from a short nap (last night was a long night due to staying out late and a teething baby), and I was feeling terrible emotionally.  Everything I was hearing was coming from the pit of Hell, because everything was telling me to be miserable.  

We have a theme for our house, and that theme is "Refreshing."  We have been blessed with some cool things that make our home physically refreshing.  We have a desire for our home to be a place of spiritual refreshing.  I have a goal of treating my family in a refreshing manner.  Today we bought a used sound system from some people who are moving back to North America.  Didn't think much of it, but I hooked it up and was amazed by the sound.  I played a Keith Green album.  His passion for Jesus and his genuineness are evident in his songs.  I worshipped "with" him, as I know he couldn't perform, but only could worship when he played.  God's Spirit ministered to me and brought a spirit of repentance as the tears flowed.  It was a sweet time.  Timbrel walked in and saw the situation and asked, "Who knew that even a sound system would be so refreshing?"  

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord." Acts 3:19

Provision - miracle #1

God is a good gift-giver and loves blessing His children.  That's who He is.

We have been a little discouraged at the price of things here in Uruguay.  If you know me, I hate to spend money, and everything we are looking at - from outfitting our house, to buying a vehicle, to going out to lunch - is extremely expensive.  It's almost as if you went to JCPenny and tried outfitting your home from their selection of show room material - and that's the low end stuff.  For some of you, this may not be a problem, but for me, raised on garage sales and, more recently, spoiled with things like Craigslist, it is difficult.  I like getting nice things at a fraction of the cost, which is nearly impossible here.

Sunday morning, I was sitting having a little quiet time with my Jesus, sharing my concerns with Him.  All along, we have known that God would supply us for this assignment He has given us, I was just having a hard time getting my mind to accept what my heart was believing.  I read about how Abram went after Lot when Lot was captured, how Abram recaptured Lot and brought back the goods and people that had been seized, and how the king of Sodom told Abram that Abram could keep all the goods he captured.  Abram responded by making it clear that man would not be receiving the credit for Abram's blessings, but that God would get the credit for providing, and it would be clear that God was responsible.  With that, I rested.  I asked God if there was anything He wanted me to be doing as I waited.  I listened for a few minutes and heard God's voice instructing me to look up the ex-pat community (i.e. English speakers that have moved here from other countries) here in Montevideo.  I looked it up and posted something about our arrival and asked if anyone was selling anything.

I left it at that and went and enjoyed my Kayden's birthday.  Late last night, I returned to the computer and discovered someone had written me about a moving sale from 4:30-6:30.  I had missed it and felt the sting of frustration.  I e-mailed the people and asked if they had anything left over.  This morning I awoke to an e-mail that they had a lot of things left and that I was invited to come take a look.  I called a colleague, and he graciously took me to the other side of town to look at the stuff.  We entered the apartment and began looking around.  Everything was very nice, and the prices I was hearing were good, but expensive.  Two bedroom sets, a fridge, washer/dryer combo, a big flat screen tv, a coffee table, end table, lamps, towels, rugs, paintings, floor scrubber, 5 chairs, desk, leather office chair, coffee grinder, plus a bunch of house decorations.  A bunch of stuff that was all within two years old. The people are wealthy and are selling their apartment and needed everything gone by tomorrow.  I asked them to give me a price for everything.  They went into their office and returned in ten minutes with a price of $3,500 for everything.  My jaw dropped, and I hope it wasn't too obvious.  To buy things separately would have been outrageous.  The fridge itself, new, costs $1,000, the washer/dryer, new, about $900, beds run around $1,000 each, not to mention the set that came with it.  I called Timbrel, and we agreed to the price.

Then the part about moving it all. They live in a high-rise apartment, and the elevators here are tiny. They need it gone by tomorrow (Tuesday), and we are not supposed to sign on our apartment until Thursday.  To move things can be very expensive, and we are going to have to do it twice, since we are moving it into storage (storage location also provided by God) for a few days until our apartment is ready.  We went and spoke with a moving company, (conveniently located right next door to their apartment building) and the price they gave us will move it twice for less than we thought it would take to move it once.  Tomorrow morning at 9:30 the pick-up begins.

God is good, and His word never fails.  His timing is right.  Seek Him, listen, and obey, no matter how hard it is to wait or obey.  Our strength is renewed.  Now we wait for a vehicle and the rest of the things we will need.  On paper, we need more money for both outfit and vehicle funds, but God is not limited to paper, as today proves. Wait, pray, and trust with us.

a synopsis of this moment...

Here's what's on my (perhaps our) mind right now...

1. We are starting to look at houses/apartments in Montevideo via e-mail. This is exciting but scary at the same time. The main concern we have is safety for our very busy little boy. We also want to be able to enjoy having people over to our house/apartment.

2. We take our final tests in Spanish in just a few weeks. We are so ready to really use well all that we have learned. We ready to be done with classes and at the same time trying to drink in all the instruction that we can while we still have our wonderful teachers here to help us.

3. We are bracing for the impact of another international move on our family. We can already see our kids, as young as they are, feeling the stress of the change. Change is almost never easy. In our case it is wonderful - something we have looked forward to for so long - but it is change, and change is hard.

4. We are dreading the packing that is going to have to happen in the next few weeks. Tonight I packed for a 2 night trip (our first with 6 people), and that was hard enough.

5. We are thankful for all that we have learned this year that had nothing to do with Spanish. Perhaps another post will come later about this, but for now, to try to sum it up...

We have learned that stressful times do not have to produce a spirit of stress. On the contrary, times of stress are actually gifts to us, calling us to cling to the peace of His Presence.

6. We are very aware of the high cost of a vehicle and everything else we will need to outfit our house/apartment. We are also very aware of the results of the last election and how this might impact giving, both to our support funds and to the individual accounts that will help us buy a car and outfit our house/apartment.

7. We are sure that the assignment hasn't changed. We know that the resources for this assignment are already in existence. Somewhere there are Kingdom workers who have already been supplied with the resources that we need to complete our assignment. We are trusting that those workers are going to walk in obedience, releasing the resources and being blessed and transformed in the process.

8. We want to hear from those who consider themselves part of our team. Your encouragement and exhortation are invaluable, letting us know that we aren't doing this alone.

I wish I could think of a way to close, but the fatigue is getting to me at the moment. Time for bed. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

a day trip...to the other side of town

This morning we decided to visit the coffee shop that our friends here in San Jose have started. This coffee shop would be about a 20 minute drive in a car. We, of course, do not have a car, and to take a taxi that far would be pretty expensive, so we took (including the trip there and back) 4 buses, 2 taxis, and we walked for about 20 minutes.

We left our house at about 9:45 this morning, walked to the bus stop, waited over 20 minutes for the bus, took the bus to one bus stop downtown, took a taxi from that bus stop to another bus station, then took another bus, which dropped us off about a block from the coffee shop.

Once there, we visited with our friends (this was definitely the best part) while enjoying some awesome coffee and desserts (Micah had fallen asleep on the second bus so he slept through the desserts - shhh, don't tell him), and then we walked down the road a bit to eat lunch at Subway. After lunch we repeated the entire process - bus, taxi, bus, then walk. Fortunately we didn't have to wait long for either bus on the way home because by this time we were all a bit tired. We got home at 3:00 p.m.

Did I mention that we did this with 4 kids ages 6 and under? Yikes! But it was great to get out of the house and go somewhere.

Can you tell that we are excited about getting to Uruguay (in less than 2 months!!) and getting a car???

Because of the incredibly high cost of vehicles in Uruguay, our vehicle fund still needs about $20,000.

We are asking you...
to pray with us for the release of these funds
to consider what part of this assignment God might be giving you
to pray that God would send us just the right vehicle for us after we arrive

To make a donation online to our vehicle fund, click here.

We cannot begin to say just how excited we are to be so close to living in Montevideo, Uruguay. This year has been incredible for so many reasons (future blog post coming).

Thank you for being on assignment with us.

Post-baby Musings...Having a Baby in Costa Rica

Everyone wants to know - what's it like to have a baby in a foreign country?

Really, not much different than having a baby in your own country.

For us, there were several helpful factors:

First, we were blessed to have learned a decent amount of Spanish before the birth, so for the most part we understood whatever people asked or told us. The influence of anesthesia was not helpful for my (Timbrel's) Spanish brain, I must admit, though.

Second, the hospital where Lillian was born is incredibly modern. Except for being noticeably smaller, it felt just like any hospital in the USA. Many staff members speak a decent amount of English, also.

Third, this was our fourth C-section experience, and our fourth time to walk into the wonderful world of caring for a newborn. We knew what to expect, what to do with this tiny bundle of sweetness, etc.

Fourth, some gracious family members came to stay with our other three kids while we were at the hospital. Some friends here in Costa Rica stayed with the younger two kids at our house while our oldest went with the family members to be the first ones to see the baby as she made her way to the nursery. No matter where you are in the world, life is easier with friends and family.

There were a few things that were different, some for the better! During our one night stay after the C-section (that's different!), we SLEPT. For some reason the nurses and other medical professionals don't have to do as many things to you or the baby during the night, so when the baby was asleep (which was most of the time), we were, too.

This hospital allowed us to check into the room where we would be sleeping that night before the C-section happened. It was great to be able to put all of our "stuff" away and not have to find someone to tote it around until two hours after the C-section when I am finally escorted from the recovery room to our actual room.

Not sure if it's Costa Rican custom, or just at this hospital, but our hospital had a lady from a local beauty salon that does the hair and make-up of all the new mommies before they go home - fun.

The biggest difference for Jimbo was walking into an operating room where the operation was already, um, in progress. He has never seen so much of the actual surgery. Fortunately he didn't pass out on us:).


All in all, we had the same difficulties that we normally have - my face itched like crazy for several hours afterwards, I couldn't get close to Micah for several days until the stitches felt safe, there's pain in the adjustment to nursing, and I was TIRED. (Ok, I'm still tired, and so is Jimbo - please keep praying for Micah to sleep well at night.) BUT, this has by far been our best C-section recovery and newborn experience. My body is doing amazingly well (especially after four session of physical therapy to help out my back, which mysteriously fell apart after the C-section), and we are enjoying this baby.

Life with four kids is definitely different than life with three - but that's no surprise. There have been plenty of stressful moments already, but this is an exciting time because it's a time for God to craft more mercy and grace into our parenting as the demands on us increase.

Pray for us, that we would choose to follow our Shepherd onto paths of Rest and Obedience instead of paths of frustration and control, especially in moments, or rather weeks, of fatigue. It is a time of molding, of being soft clay in the Potter's hands, and right now the wheel is flying.

Next week we have the privilege of welcoming my parents to their first outside-the-USA experience! Please stand with us in prayer that my mom will receive her passport before she needs to leave for the airport next Wednesday. On paper things do not look good (red tape...), but our God is the God Who placed the waters where they belong -  putting a passport where it belongs is nothing for Him.

Maybe my next blog post will be about how complicated it is to get Lillian's US passport...
hopefully not.