God Speaks Spanish

It's Day 177 in Costa Rica!

The sun is shining bright through my window by 4:30am. Roosters are crowing and the local busses are passing by as the day is beginning. It isn't until 6:30am that I get out of bed and walk into the kitchen to have breakfast waiting on me by my host mom. If it happens to be a morning that my host father is just getting home from third shift at the airport, I will have breakfast with him and my host mom. They greet me every morning by saying "Como amanació?" meaning "How did the sun rise" or "How did you wake up this morning?". By 6:30am, my older host sister is catching the bus for work and my younger host sister is walking to her high school. Breakfast time has been one of my favorite times. These past few months, I have truly opened up to my host parents. God has totally used every bit of my Spanish in these mornings as I share my life and relationships with them. It has been a blessing to hear their godly encouragement. The thing that has been the biggest surprise is that I hear God speaking to me through them. Does everyone else realize that God speaks Spanish? Of course God can do all things and nothing is too great for Him. I just didn’t realize that He would speak to ME in Spanish. Relationships within my host family have taken some time but have grown immensly. My host mom has adopted the name Mama Nuria between the interns. The other day, Brad signed out at work as going to "Mama Nuria's beauty salon" before he walked down the street and got a haircut at my house. 

Gallo pinto (rice and beans), fried eggs, and coffee are what is waiting for me in the mornings. I never drank coffee until I came here so I have nothing to compare it to. But the taste of Costa Rican coffee is delicious and with a tad bit of cream and sugar, it makes for a great start to the morning. It may not sound appetizing to have beans for breakfast but I have found myself craving rice and beans many times in the middle of the night and can't wait to wake up for Mama Nuria's delicious gallo pinto. Though I don't know how, Spanish seems to be my first language at the breakfast table. 


After talking with my family, 7:30am comes so quickly that I have to hurry and shower. I hope to have a warm shower or that the widow maker won't shock me. When I am ready to walk out the door, Walter, a family friend, brings his daughter Abigail to our house for a fun-filled day of Mama Nuria's babysitting. 

Abigail - in who I see God give me joy

I counted 307 steps to get to work which is approximately two blocks. Less than a considerate amount of exercise, I know, but for me its just enough without getting too hot walking in the early Costa Rican sun. I get to work around 8am, greet everyone in the office with a hug and sometimes a Costa Rican besito (kiss on the cheek) when I feel like a Tica. After turning on my computer, and checking my EMI email, I usually get a wave of excitement to see my plate will be full for that day. 

Everyday at exactly 8:30am we start off each morning gathered around our large conference table. Mondays we share prayer requests and praises and spend time in prayer. Tuesdays, we gather for music and worship with Josh and Tim on guitars and whoever grabs the bongos first. Personally, one of the most refreshing ways for me to start the morning is in song. Our new favorite Spanish songs to sing in the office are "Eres TodoPoderoso" and "Te Alabaré, Mi Buen Jesus". Wednesdays, each intern is given a chance to give a devotional and share what God has been teaching us through His Word. Thursdays, we spend time in prayer for the other field offices of EMI around the world. We receive weekly updates from each international office. Fridays are staff devotional day where we hear from one staff member of what God has been teaching them.  


Video of Tuesday morning worship in the office singing Bueno es Alabar:

Tim has been an excellent project leader. We stick to a close schedule in the office because Tim keeps Google Calendar pulled up on his largest monitor. I have truly found an incredible friend here, and that is the girl I get to work beside everyday, Esther. She has been a source of encouragement from her hugs in the morning, our daily trips to the pulperia (corner store) for a morning snack and shopping during our lunch break. She has been working hard on our structural drawings for our Honduras project. The architecture design is complete meaning I can now focus on some fun stuff. I have been creating photorealistic renderings of the Director's Residence and Mission Team Building. After Monday coordination meetings, Esther and I pick up the phone and call our volunteers, open AutoCAD and start picking up our redlines. We have been so in tune with our project, we know what to start working on when we get to work. Brad and Kevin's project in Ecuador has been finalized, published, and sent out so we have recruited them to work on our project. I have really been surprised at how much interns carry the projects of EMI. The interns do 80% of the designing and drawing with our volunteers while project leaders make design decisions and keep the project on schedule. 

My desk at the office. Two computers, CAD drawings, a highlighter, personal photos, a Costa Rican pareo, and my Bible. Feels like home. 

Kevin and I working on the renderings in Photoshop.

Esther, Brad and Tim collaborating on structural drawings.

The office goes out for lunch twice a week to a local restaurant in town. We have 4,000 colones to spend ($8) for each of us.


Some of the fun restaurant names around Atenas:
Soda Tio Mano (Soda Uncle Hand)
Pollo Jeffrey #1 (Chicken Jeffrey #1)
Esquina Caliente (Hot Corner)
Mega Super

After getting caught in the rain. Our payback for treating ourselves with ice cream, I guess.

After a days work of CAD, redlines, printing, rendering and talking with our volunteers, the day concludes  around 5pm.  As the sun is going down, I walk back to my house for dinner with my host mom and sisters. Just a few nights ago, we realized we could make the same outfit to wear for bed.

Good advertisement for Casa de la Cultura (where our brother works)

Bedtime is usually around 8:30pm where I am excited to do it all over again the next day! 

Semana Santa

My family came to visit for Easter!  It had been three months since I had seen them, the longest I have ever gone.  They arrived on Thursday of Holy Week.  All stores were closed and public buses weren't running normal schedule.  The day started off with me rushing around, cleaning my room, cleaning my desk at the office, making a welcome sign, and preparing gallo pinto (rice and beans) with my host mom as a surprise for my family. My host father graciously drove me to the San Jose airport that is 35 minutes away. We were all excited for their arrival in Costa Rica.  When he dropped me off, I was officially on my own for an hour or more.  Amazingly, by looking a little lost and speaking the best Spanish I could,  I got past security, past the glass wall where everyone waits for their visitors, and stood right outside of customs to surprise my family with a sign saying "BIENVENIDOS a Costa Rica!" 

The sign I made to welcome my family to Costa Rica!

Dad, Mom, Erin and Granddaddy standing with me outside of the EMI office.

Dad, Mom, Erin and Granddaddy were pretty tired but I wanted to show them so much! We picked up our rental car, drove to Atenas, visited the EMI office, and bought some groceries before heading to our vacation villa. The villa we rented week was about 10 minutes from downtown Atenas in Picaflora, a short drive up the mountain, inside a gated community with a 180 degree breathtaking view.   

The house was named Window to Heaven.  http://www.vrbo.com/369068

Sunrise at 5:15am. Costa Rica.

My family was very excited to meet my friends I have made since I have been here. On Friday, Kevin, Esther, Brad and some of our Tico friends came over to the villa. We had a cookout with American hotdogs and hamburgers, played Marco Polo in the pool, and sang while Juank played his acoustic guitar. Later that night, all 11 of us sat around playing games and eating grilled cheese sandwiches. Great game for everyone of different languages- Basta! I couldn't have been happier having my family and friends all together sharing time and getting to know each other. God has blessed me tremendously with close friends who care about me.

Friends and family enjoying time together in Atenas.

One act of worship: music and singing. God's beauty was prevelent.

One of our days was spent at Volcano Poas.  Having no GPS and being a girl who has never driven in Costa Rica, I was a little nervous about getting us to the volcano. Someone had said if you just follow the signs, you'll eventually get there. That's slightly true. We got all the way to downtown Alajuela and got turned around on the one way roads.  Following a paper map that had no road names wasn't much help. My family had the great idea for me to ask for directions to some policemen directing traffic. After not understanding any of their Spanish (they spoke so fast!) they eventually gave up and gave us a police escort through the city to get us back on the right road. Just another way how Ticos showed me grace.

A Gringa girl + a map with no road names + two Tico policeman = still lost.

Finally... they gave up and gave us a police escort through the city.

Me, Erin, and Dad enjoying being together, the cool weather and the walk towards the Volcano.

Mom and Granddaddy heading to the Volcano.

Casi twins :)

Volcano Poas, Costa Rica

My biggest excitement that weekend was for my family to meet my host family. We went over to my host family's house for breakfast and dinner. A lot of time was spent around the dinner table talking, laughing, and me trying to translate as fast as I could. It was very important to let my host family know how much we appreciate them. We had gifts for each of my host family members to say thank you.  My family was able to bring with them the things I requested from the States. After many chats, I knew that my host father loves to play the drums and his dream was to own an African djembe so my family brought down a djembe for my host father.  He got tears in his eyes. My host mom cooks a lot for others so we brought her a collapsable hot/cold carrying case perfect for transporting food. My younger sister, Antonella, loves to straighten her hair with my straightener, so now she has her very own.  My host sister, Wendol works every day in Alajuela, so I wanted to get her a nice thirty-one brand lunch bag for her to carry her lunch. My host brother, Augusto, is learning to play guitar and plays music in the house almost every night. He was excited to receive a quepo for this guitar. 

Augusto and his new guitar quepo.

One morning we went outside to find our rental car dead in the driveway. Dad was prepared for anything dressed in his emergency equipment. 

Safety first!

Safety vest and emergency signals... in the driveway.

Granddaddy got in touch with our friend, Brendan, who used to work with him years ago. Brendan has been living in Costa Rica for 8 years now building houses and selling real estate. He drove from Parrita to Atenas to meet us for dinner. I recommended Antaños, one of my favorite places here in town. We had a great time catching up with him and listening to Brendan's stories of Costa Rica and his great Spanish (that I'm only a little jealous of).  


Our last full day together I took my family on a Canopy tour (zip lining), a popular excursion and one that the interns and I did when we were in language school our second week here. We drove  an hour to the Pacific coast near Jacó Beach to Los Sueños for our zip lining excursion.  This was the first time for Dad, Mom and Erin. Mom was a little nervous but I was so proud of her. Los Sueños is a place of dry forest and rain forest with views of the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Nicoya. They offer one of the longest and fastest cables of 2,400 ft. Our bilingual tour guides were personable and made our trip memorable. We left that day with smiles on our faces. 


Los Sueños canopy tour: http://www.canopyvistalossuenos.com/


Tuesday, the day of their departure, was a sad day.  I asked Kevin to go with us to the airport, where we made a side trip to downtown San Jose for some souvenir shopping at the Artisan Market.  We soon found out that even McDonalds in Costa Rica serves gallo pinto, who would have known! 

McPinto at McDonalds. Only in Costa Rica :)

Erin, Kevin and me in McDonalds in San Jose

May. Half-way point.

Day 111...  74 days to go!

First, I want to apologize for putting my blog on the back burner these this last two months.  I have had to cope with my Mac laptop recently being put to rest.  The last few months I have been so overwhelmed with having new experiences every day that I sometimes forget to set aside time to share these experiences with everyone back home.

I want to be honest with you.  I have found that many people back home hear "six months in Costa Rica" and automatically think that everything is fun, wonderful, a nice vacation, and that I'm having a blast... but I'd like to share with you that my life here about a month ago wasn't that easy.  I know I have been called here for one specific purpose and that is to serve God by serving the poor in these areas in Latin America.  I want to share my love for Jesus with those who don't know Him.  But its not that easy.  Being on the mission field, Satan will try his hardest to attack in many ways.  But during this morning's devotional, I was reminded with Nehemiah 6:3: And I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down".  Even when I didn't understand, I know that God certainly wanted me to trust him through those difficult times.  Today, I am refreshed in Jesus, reminded of my salvation and His promises.  Please continue to pray for all of us here.  

Sunday afternoon after church with my Tica family


 My Papá, Mamá, my two sisters and I pack in my family's tiny car and head to our church, Iglesia Biblica, at about 8:30am every Sunday.  Sometimes when we feel energetic, we may walk the few blocks to the church.  Completely opposite of a calm Baptist church that I was raised in, I now attend a pretty lively evangelistic church with loud, hand-clapping music with lots of jumping and dancing in the aisles.  

Iglesia Biblica

There are many gringos that go to this church so the first Sunday of the month, the message is usually translated to English.  EMI is known throughout the church.  Each staff member and their family attends a different church in Atenas.  Tim (my project leader in the office) sings at Iglesia Biblica while his wife Cindy (my spiritual mentor) helps with the children.   

Surprisingly enough, word got around the church quite quickly that I know how to play clarinet.  My Tico friend, Alvaro, also plays saxophone.  Just a few Sundays ago, Alvaro and I were asked to play a clarinet and soprano saxophone duet to Sublime Gracia (Amazing Grace).   Because I hadn't played clarinet since my sophomore year in college (4 years ago, wow), my band "nerdiness" quickly came back and soon enough I found myself walking down the streets of Atenas proud to be holding a clarinet case. 

I loved being able to use my talents in my church to serve God and feel the Holy Spirit move in the congregation. "...for the Lord God is my strength is my song..." Isaiah 12:2

My Pastor, Oldemar, and his wife Tita wanted to thank me for some design work I did for their newly built house.  They came to the EMI office and presented me with a Bible in Spanish and English. 

Praises:

-Amos came to visit in March and we had a wonderful weekend vacation to Manuel Antonio with the other interns.

-My family came to visit in April and it felt incredible to spend a weekend together as a family.  This was a much needed weekend for me. 

-Projects in the office are progressing as we are rapidly approaching deadlines from our volunteers.




Another blog coming soon!

Project trip- "Valley of the Blessings" Danli, Honduras

We arrived in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sat. Feb 18, where we met the rest of the eMi team. Our team was made up of 14 professionals who graciously gave up a week of their life - family, career, etc. - to volunteer their services for the eMi project in Danli. This is mainly how eMi functions. Professional volunteers offer their services for a week to gather any needed information about a project and spend the next few months after the trip in coordination with the full-time staff and interns of eMi to produce a complete project.

Tim, Zach, Esther and I are the EMI staff and interns that came from Costa Rica.  The couple in front are the missionaries, Trisha and Marlon. The rest are volunteers who came from all over the world.

The missionaries: My previous blog post shared a little about the missionaries we partnered with in Honduras. Trisha and Marlon Muñoz are definitely a neat couple with an awesome testimony.

Marlon is a Honduran who had a desire to learn about God from a young age. He grew up in the church and loved to serve. He worked for the Honduran government for a while and enjoyed it. But God kept saying, “I want you to serve Me.” Marlon answered, “That is fine God, I am going to keep my job and serve you part time.” He wanted to serve, but didn’t want to quit his job. However, the Holy Spirit kept convicting him and Marlon didn’t have peace in his heart.  Eventually he put his hands up and said “Ok God, I will give up everything and serve You.” He then quit his job to begin serving God full time.

Trisha is an American, a nurse from Louisiana who took several mission trips to Honduras when she was younger. On one of these trips God told her that Honduras would be her home. So she moved to Honduras, leaving behind a longtime boyfriend, a job she loved, and security about the future.  Trisha began her new life in Honduras as a missionary traveling with others to remote areas within the country.

On one of Trisha’s short term mission trips they shared the Gospel with a village, but later, when Trisha and the rest of the team were in their tents, the people of the village came to kill them. They began dragging away Trisha’s tent with her in it. The rest of the team stopped them. At the time Trisha was thinking, “God, is this how it is going to be when go out and tell others about You? I don’t know if I want to do this.” However, one of the men on her team, Marlon, shared the Gospel with the men who tried to kill them. By the end of the night, the men accepted Christ. Trisha thought, “God, if this is what it takes for people to come to You, I’m in.”

After serving for over a year together, Marlon and Trisha finally started to notice each other.  They got married in 2005 and now have a two year old daughter, Madison. They continue to travel to remote villages in Southern Honduras to share the Gospel. The indigenous people in these villages are hungry to know more of Jesus.  God has given Marlon and Trisha a vision of growing their ministry together.

The architect, master planner and me meeting with the Muñoz family early in the week for preliminary programming of the project.

Late night meetings with Trisha and Marlon to show them stages of the design process.

The Project: eMi came to Danli to help the Muñoz family's vision become reality. They had a vision from God to buy 62 acres of land to provide a ministry campus.  We spent one week surveying the site in order to start our design.  


Our plan is divided into two phases.
Phase One:
Mission House
Director's House
Guard House
Water Wells
Storage Building Facility
Community Garden
Outdoor Baptismal Pool
Multi-purpose Gathering Space 
Recreational Facility


Phase Two:
Pastoral Conference Center
Pastor's Vocational School
Long-term and Full-time staff Missionary Cabanas
Medical Mid-wife Training Center

Our surveying team went out to the site every day. The architect, master planner and I stayed in the Muñoz home where we worked on our design concept and started drafting. The other engineers researched local building materials and talked with local contractors about construction methods used in Latin America. 

Our project leader, Tim, talking with a local contractor on construction and building materials.

Utility tables + picnic tablecloth + lots of power strips = EMI field office

The architect, master planner and I worked late hours every night because the architecture work had to get done before the structural engineering work could start.


Our team that week provided architectural and structural engineering services, surveying, master planning, water and waste-water management, electrical engineering, and alternative energy engineering. 


The final presentation to the ministry was on the last day of the trip.  Local pastors were invited to attend the presentation, as they are excited for this vision.  Every member of the team presented their portion of the project and research they gathered that week. We had translators for the presentation.  I was given the design of the Director's House to complete by myself.  So to the best of my ability, I presented the design in Spanish.

Presenting my design of the Director's House in Spanish

One of my favorite things about this trip is that while working, God was constantly reminding me of the greater purpose of the buildings we were designing. Our work will help the Muñoz ministry to further the Kingdom and bring others to Christ.


Thank you for praying for health, safety and unity within the team. God answered these prayers and blessed us immensely our week in Honduras.

Preparation for Honduras

The time has come for me to start my design work here in Latin America! As I woke up early this morning to start packing for my project trip to Danli, Honduras, I was reminded of God's amazing grace that has allowed me to take this trip tomorrow. I wanted to share Ephesians 2:10 with you. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Two staff members (Tim and Zack) and two interns (Esther and me) from the Costa Rican EMI office will take off in the morning to meet 10 other volunteers in Danli. I have attached a small description of the Muñoz family and their vision for our design of the Missions Base and Training Center.

We are blessed to have all disciplines covered that we need to create a conceptual design by the end of our week in Honduras: professional architects, structural and civil engineers, electrical and alternative energy engineers, surveyors, a landscape architect and a master planner.



WHO WE WILL BE WORKING WITH: Marlon and Trisha Muñoz have been partnering with Commission to Every Nation (CTEN) and Extreme Missionary Adventures (XMA) since 2006. The Muñoz family has graciously opened their home for years as a base camp for visiting international mission teams. Together, they travel into remote villages in southern Honduras along the Patuca River. By hosting about 15 short-term mission teams per year, they have been able to build relationships with remote indigenous people. They share Christ with them, learn their physical, spiritual, and social needs and connect others to serve with them meeting these needs. Many of the indigenous people have said “You have come and shared such news with us and we have believed. We want to know more and learn how to walk the path of the Lord.” Marlon and Trisha have a vision to continue being effective and expand their ministry to these people. Because they have slowly outgrown the capacity of the home, they need a more dedicated space to host mission teams.

The site in Danli

THE VISION: The Muñoz family has acquired a 63-acre parcel of land about 25 minutes outside of Danli, Honduras. They are hoping to develop this land into a missions base and training center. Their passion is to grow new believers and church leaders, especially those from the communities off of the Patuca River. This center will also provide a much needed place for baptisms, church events and conferences for local churches. In addition, they have a vision to use this ministry base to teach preventative medicine, teach pastors a trade so they can support themselves since most of the time their congregation doesn’t have the financial capabilities to do so. They plan to build a home on the new property and raise their family there so they can continue being intimately involved with the ministry work.

OUR WORK: The EMI team will design a master plan for the site, providing a detailed design for a multi-purpose facility that will house mission teams and serve the community. We will also design a new well to provide water and design the connections of power lines on the adjacent property to provide electricity. We also hope to use solar energy for sustainability. The Muñoz family is excited to see the design God will provide through the EMI team.


Please be in prayer for:

- team unity as we come together for one week of hard work
- our safety and health while traveling to this poverty stricken part of Honduras
- our ability to design a facility that expands the Kindgom of God 

Settling In

It's Day 27 in Costa Rica!

ATESA Language School

I can truthfully say it has been a wonderful last three weeks in Costa Rica!  Before starting work with EMI, we four interns attended Language School here in Atenas.  We had two weeks of an Intensive Spanish Program (very much like the language school I attended in Mexico).  Kevin, Esther and I started promptly in the intermediate class... yes, intermediate!  It's interesting to know that Kevin and Esther's three years of Spanish in high school = my 10 weeks of Spanish being completely immersed!  Our classroom was located outside under a canopy as we enjoyed the lush greenery and fresh tropic air.  After two weeks of intensive learning and being encouraged to speak only Spanish for those weeks, we graduated! 

Graduation from Language School

We took advantage of the time we had before starting work in the office.  Our various activities included a day trip to Jacó- a beach on the Pacific ocean, rock climbing in San Jose, and zip-lining through the rainforest in Los Sueños!

Our afternoons were spent volunteering in our local community.  My host family's church, Iglesia Biblica, hosted vacation bible school where we helped out with facepainting, crafts, teaching music and games. 

Vacation Bible School at Iglesia Biblica

We have also been working at a new division of the local orphanage called Residencia de Vida.  Kevin, Brad, Esther and I have been working hard to finish building cabinets in preparation for Health Dept inspection.  We have designed, made, and assembled two cabinets... including going to buy the wood, sawing, sanding, staining, drilling and varnishing. We are quickly getting the new house ready for inspection, then we can bring in the kids! 

I praise God that I have connected even more with my host family. Just a few days ago, they told me I am a part of their family and my host mom is starting to introduce me as her daughter when we are out in public. I have been waiting for this moment to come!

Bienvenidos a Atenas, Costa Rica!

It's Day 14 in Costa Rica! 

 

We arrived in Atenas late Sunday night on January 22nd.  Our first night here, Tim and Cindy (staff family with EMI) opened their home to Esther and me while Brad and Kevin stayed with Dan and Sarah (another EMI staff family).  We had a welcome breakfast the next morning at Tim and Cindy's home and departed for the EMI office for the first time!  We settled in quickly, chose our desks at the office and went off on our first adventure in town to exchange US dollars to Costa Rican colones at the Banco Nacional de Costa Rica.  Going to the bank here is more like going to the DMV in the States.  You grab a number at the door, wait in a sitting area until your number and position are called, then you make your exchange. It could be up to an hour wait!

Our first week here was another week of orientation, becoming familiar with the new culture, language and customs of the Costa Rican people.  I already feel a bit accustomed to the Latin American culture from my time spent in Mexico. For those of you who don't know, a year and a half ago, I lived with a Mexican family for three months when I studied Spanish in Cuernavaca.  Not being taught anything about the culture before being immersed in it, I realize now I could have done some things differently to better fit in with the people instead of always thinking the gringo way was the right way!  The staff of EMI has given us a heads up of some things to get used to.  #1. You will have a loss of privacy.  Costa Rican people are very close in their relationships and in having small personal bubbles.  #2. Throw your toilet paper in the trashcan.  Plumbing is not as advanced here as it is in the US.  #3. You will need to adjust the "widow maker" in the shower in order to have hot water.  It's a lever on an electric box next to the shower head that you have to push up while running the water- yikes! That's a good reason it gets the name "widow maker"! 

"Tico"= A native Costa Rican

"Gringo"= An awkward American oblivious to his surroundings, possibly sporting a fanny pack and continually saying "donde" and "baño" in the same sentence. (Well said, Amos!)

Antonella, Nuria, Emerita, Marvin, and Wendol

We were introduced to our Tico families on Monday!  I am living with a wonderful Christian family who live quite close to the EMI office.  My host father, Marvin, works in Immigration at the San Jose airport.  My lovely host mother, Nuria, is a hairdresser who has a small studio in the house.  She prepares all the meals, cleans the house, washes all our clothes, and still manages to spend a lot of time with their three children: Wendol, Augusto, and Antonella.  My host sister, Wendol, is 22 years old, graduated with a degree in Administration with an emphasis in Finance.  She speaks slowly for me and she seems to use words that I know.  She and my host mom babysit a precious 2 year old girl during the week who is a like a breath of fresh air.  She makes us laugh and smile.  Her Spanish is still better than mine, but it's good because when she comes in my room,  she's always asking me "Que es esto?" which means "What is this?"  I am able to practice my vocab of knowing different things around my room!  My host brother, Augusto, 19, is studying Systems Engineering at a university in San Jose.  He also works at la Casa de Cultura at our church here in Atenas.  He is rarely at home, balancing his time between school, work and friends.  My youngest sister, Antonella, is 15 years old and very sweet. I have enjoyed helping her study for her English tests and she enjoys it when I fix her hair.  I am learning the technique of teaching English while speaking in Spanish! 

The Guzmán Family

I am blessed to be living with a loving Tico family.  They have shown me the grace of God these past two weeks in many ways. They are patient with me as I am new in their home as we try to communicate.  They serve me and care for me like I am one of their own.  They want to know more about me just as I want to know more about them.  I am excited for the next six months as I feel I will grow to be a part of this family.