While Matt is in school...

The girls and I get to hang out and play :) We are staying at my uncle's house right now and it has been nice being here. They have maids that clean and cook so I don't have to worry about any of that. I take care of my girls and that's pretty much what I do.

It's nice being able to just focus on my girls and not having other responsibilities. I also get to talk to the maids and spend time with them. They are so sweet and so helpful...truly have such servant hearts.

What Matty gets home from school, we have a yummy lunch made by Guadalupe. She also makes fresh fruit juices every day...some days it's pineapple, other days watermelon juice, or papaya...it changes every day. It is nice! After lunch we usually take our siesta as a family, napping for an hour or so.

The Lord is teaching us so much just by living here and being in such different culture. Life here is so simple and laid back. It truly makes us appreciate more what we have and the opportunities that we have. We in the States have way too much...we are truly blessed and should consider how to simplify our lives and use our excess to help others instead of wasting it on our luxuries.

See gringo. See gringo learn. See gringo learn fast.

Wow. I have a private tutor for 4 hours every morning from 7:30am to 11:30am. That is the way to learn and learn fast. I feel like Keanu Reaves in the Matrix when he is in that chair and they plug his brain into the computer to learn karate... it is super-intense to be drilled for 4 hours every day and then have homework each night--and I am only 3 days into it.

I already feel like my spanish is opening wide and my ability to speak is SO MUCH better. It is amazing. My tutor (Joshue- pronounced Hohs-way) is a 21-year old college student and is excellent at finding my 'spanish holes' and filling them in. He is really doing a good job. In just two days of spanish lessons, I have already had so many questions answered, that I wonder how we are going to fill up the next 7 1/2 weeks... but I know there is plenty to learn.

Yesterday I learned reflexive verbs, like "to dress oneself" and "to take a shower" etc. In spanish you have to say "I dress myself", to express that action, so there is a special way to treat all of these verbs. Today I learned the preterit, which is how to speak about an action that was completed at some time in the past. This knowledge has loosed my tongue in many conversations since lunch. :) It is very hard to tell people what happened yesterday, when you only know how to say what is happening right now...

Bottom line is that this is really going to be great for me and for our family. It is very exhausting, but I am excited that I am already seeing such results. Thank the Lord for a mind to pick all this up.

Oh, think twice...it's just another day for you and me in paradise

Lidia's dad went to high school with a man who now owns one of the largest resorts/diving centers on the island of Roatan (see map). Por eso (because of this), we were his guests at his condo on an amazing section of beach last weekend. We also were invited to dinner at his house one evening and met his wife, who is a believer. They are very kind and generous and it was a great experience.

He also arranged for us to swim with their trained dolphins, which was very cool. See the slide show for more pictures (fotos). It was a nice and relaxing time with all the comforts of america, and Lidia wasn't sure she wanted to go back to our former accomodations (no AC)... just the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities...

You hear something?

This is Rebekah's latest phrase here in Honduras. There are lots of new sounds for her here in Honduras. She usually hears the rooster crow or the trucks and buses go by and will say,
"you hear something?" And then when we tell her what it is she will say, "oh yeah, that's right, a rooster? It is pretty cute :)

Rebekah likes it here. Life here is so different in so many ways, but thankfully she is doing well adapting.

But it's not a dry heat....

Well, you may have expected that it is hot here in La Ceiba. You are right. It is usually about 90-95 degrees during the day, I think, and then about 75-85 degrees at night. The thing about the heat here is not so much that the temperatures are higher than say, Tulsa, or that the humidity is quite high either. What really makes it seem hot here is that most of the houses are not air-conditioned and so you cannot escape the heat. Our bedroom hovers around 86 degrees each evening and is just as humid as it is outdoors. The windows are open 24/7 and the breeze helps a bit, but it is quite sticky.

At first the girls seemed extra grumpy and fussy, we think because of the heat and humidity all the time. But they are doing better now as we continue to adjust to life here. We still can't believe that we are here for quite awhile. It is a surreal feeling to know that we are staying until September. I start school tomorrow so I am very excited! My prayer is that God would open my mind to be able to learn quickly!

We made it!!!

After what seemed like LOTS of travel, we made it! Gracias a Dios (thanks be to God) all of our flights were on time and all of our luggage made it (we think... the only things we don't have right now are Essie's carseat and Rebekah's booster, b/c I forgot to get them when we arrived in San Pedro Sula. We are sending someone to the airport in San Pedro to get them and put them on a bus for us).

Here is the itinerary that saved us $900... that $900 seemed to get smaller and smaller, the longer the flights dragged out, but other than the length of our travel time, all went well.

11:30am - Arrive at the airport in Tulsa, get checked in and go to our gate,

• 2:05pm - Board our plane (we were A49-A51 for you Southwest junkies--not a bad place in line...) and leave for Houston Hobby,
• Sit on the plane for about 30 min, move forward for better seats (again, for the Southwest junkies) and then we take off again and head for New Orleans....





• Again, sit on the plane for about 30mins, keep our good seats, and take off again for Ft. Lauderdale (FLL).




• 8:30pm - arrive at FLL, deplane, stack our 4 large duffels (49lbs, 51lbs, 50.5lbs, 49lbs) and our two smaller rollerbags (35lbs, 33lbs), 3 carry-ons, DVD player, stuffed monkey and stuffed puppy on a slightly-too-small luggage cart and take a shuttle over to a different terminal for our international flight.



• By the time we arrived at terminal 4 and were checking in at the Spirit counter, Rebekah was exhausted and resorted to kicking and screaming about something and when we put her in her stroller to try to calm her down, she got that much louder... I was checking our 200+ lbs of luggage and mama was holding Essie, so it was a bit stressful. :)
• The nice thing was that almost no one flys at 11pm, so the airport was not busy and it was easy going through security at FLL. So we arrived at our gate with about an hour to spare before boarding our final leg of the flight.
• 10:55pm - we board the flight (we got in on a special deal and sat in the Big Front Seats--Spirit's version of first class, but without the hot washcloths). Rebekah fell asleep on my lap almost as soon as we were in the air and mama and Essie were two rows back and got some rest on the 2hr, 20min flight to San Pedro Sula.
• After a few time changes, we arrived in Honduras just before midnight, got through immigration quickly and got all our bags without any problems. Except we forgot about the carseat and booster seat b/c we were so ready to get out of there and get to a bed...
• Our good friend Kelley picked us up with her brother-in-law and took us to their house to spend the night (end of travel: 1am or so)

All in all, I think the $900 extra on Continental would have taken us to Houston and then direct to San Pedro, saving us about 6-7 hours of travel time... we were debating on the value of that by the time we arrived in Honduras.

Anyway, we had pancakes in the morning, courtesy of the friends we stayed with, and then drove about 3hrs to La Ceiba. I got to drive part of the way and had fun weaving in and out of traffic (there is much more "freedom" when you drive in Honduras, than in the states).

We are now resting and settling in at Kelley and Abner's house. They have been very gracious and we are looking forward to our time here as a family. Thank the Lord for a safe trip!

Please pray!

We are leaving TODAY :) Please pray for us as we embark in this adventure. Pray for our girls to adjust well and for health and protection for all of us. Pray for the Lord to use us as tools of His love and grace. Our desire is that He alone will be glorified in and through us.

We love you all so much!

God goes before us

Something really neat happened this week...truly a God thing. About a year and a half ago when we were doing our Good News Club with our neighbors we were using simple evangelistic tools to teach them the gospel. About that same time we were also planning a trip to Honduras and wanted to use some of those tools to share the gospel with the children in our family (cousins, nieces, nephews). I then proceeded to order 50 bracelets and 50 Spanish tracks but the bracelets did not get done on time so we left without them.

Three days ago a lady from the organization we had ordered these called us and said that she was going through her books and saw that we had ordered these bracelets and tracks over a year ago and wanted to know if we still wanted them :) We were amazed!

Matt called her back and told the lady that we were actually going down to Honduras in four days and that we would need them. God goes before us and He has a beautiful plan and we are so very excited to be a part of. God has already placed in our heart how we will use these...we will keep you posted :)

Ephes. 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Meet the Tumlisons

This is the sweet family who will be leasing our home while we are in Honduras. The Lord worked this out so perfectly for all of us. This was a HUGE answer to prayer for us and them as well. We serve a powerful and magnificent God!

The Tumlisons will be doing medical missions in Honduras and they needed a place to stay from end of June through October. Cinthya is from Honduras and is a sweet and beautiful girl and her husband Joel is just great! We feel so blessed that they will be able to stay in our house while we are away. You can check out their blog here