Costa Rica 2 - La Cumbre

La Cumbre is the camp where we took the 25 kids for 4 days. We had SUCH A BLAST!

Here we are loading up the mini bus to drive down the side of the mountain to our campsite...

Here are the backpacks we gave to each of the kids with clothes, toiletries and shoes...

Here is Cristopher all happy after receiving his new clothes (FYI, most of these kids don't own but one or two pair of clothes)...

Here we are the first day playing group games to get to know the kids...

Playing Sumo Game - I have no words for this picture (I look like I'm demon possessed) :)

We went swimming with the kids in the river and the water was FREEZING!!!


We had morning and evening sessions with the kids where we would sing, dance and Jonathan would speak...



Jon coordinated and led the worship team...

We gave the kids each a Bible and they were so proud of them and really cherished them...


Robert F., Jon & I organized a soccer tournament for everyone. We had 5 teams and it was a lot of fun. I played on a team and Jon refereed (so that he wouldn't hurt one of the kids or get too competitive:) )...

They showed us how to make this bread and then we cooked it over a fire. It was really cool and actually tasted good too...

I painted 10 of the girls fingernails and they LOVED it. They had never even seen nail polish before...


Here's just a few pictures of different kids at the camp...





This was another one of my FAVORITE little boys. His name is Cesar, and he is SO adorable! If I could have, I would have brought him home in a heartbeat. Anyways, on our last day there we had a giant Easter egg hunt for the kids which they loved...


This is something called the Hamaca. You basically jump off a platform about 40 feet high and free fall until the rope catches you and then you swing out over the soccer field and back through the trees. A lot of the Ticos (CR Children) were too scared to do it and rightly so but a few of them did try it. It was fun and well worth it...




We did lots of rock climbing and rappelling. Jon and I used to go a lot before the girls were born so it was fun to get to do it again. This rock climbing gym was the largest in all of Central America. I was happy that I was still able to climb after 6 years and 2 babies...



Here is a group picture of everyone before we left...

On the last night we were there, we shared the Gospel and 17 kids came to know Christ. It was one of the most awesome things I have EVER experienced. We had counselors that met with them 1 on 1 so they understood everything thoroughly. And when they came downstairs they were crying and smiling all at the same time. Several of them came and hugged me for like ever and just cried. It was amazing!

Costa Rica Video

Click below to see a 5 minute video that Jonathan made from our trip to Costa Rica...
Costa Rica Video

Happy Birthday Averi

Dear Averi,

Happy 3rd Birthday to our sweet little girl. We love you SO much and can not believe how quickly you are growing up. You get more and more beautiful by the day (both inside and out). I love your cuddles, your kind heart and your playful & happy-go-lucky personality.

Your favorite color is pink and you love to wear dresses with boots (even though half the time you have your dress pulled up to your head). I have to wait until the last minute before we leave for church to get you ready or I'll find you rolling around in the grass or jumping in puddles in the front yard.

You have become quite the conversationalist lately and talk more and more by the second:) You adore your big sister and watch and imitate her every move. You say the sweetest thing to me like "your pretty mommy" or "your a nice mommy and I love you". You have a very special bond with your daddy and ask me MANY times a day when he's coming home from work.

I look forward to many more years of watching you grow and anticipate what amazing things God is going to do with/through your life...We feel so blessed to have you in our family and it would not be the same without you. I love you forever...Mommy

Wordless Wednesday

Me & Humberto - he was one of the little Costa Rican boys I got really close to and wanted to bring home with me!

Here is a picture of him from the front. Isn't he adorable?

Costa Rica...Part 1

Wow...where to begin. I am going to have to post in sections from our trip. We took almost 1500 pics so trying to edit and post that many is way too overwhelming for one post.

So we traveled through the night on Thursday which was pretty exhausting. It took us 3 hours to check in at the Atlanta airport. Jon, Jonathan and I literally had to run to make our flight. It was pretty humorous. We had a delay and hit some pretty strong turbulence on the way there but we finally made it.

Once we arrived, we ate some delicious empanadas. Then we had team orientation. Marge planned a game of Jeopardy for us based on facts about Costa Rica which was really interesting...

The next morning we walked to the local vegetable market...



Here's Lynn, Connie & I admiring this BEAUTIFUL Costa Rican baby boy...


They gave us all coconuts to drink out of...Not as sweet as the ones in PNG


Jon & some of the guys playing soccer in the courtyard at the CFCI guesthouse where we stayed in San Jose. His team was so stacked. He & Garrett won every time:)


That night we went to the Long's youth group that they direct and Jonathan spoke...


More to come...And on a totally unrelated note, we FINALLY closed on the house today:) We will begin working on it this weekend!

Home Sweet Home

We made it home safely from Costa Rica at 2:00am this morning. I cannot tell you how awesome our trip was! It was truly amazing and I can't wait to share more about it. But we are physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. The trip ended with me throwing up in the ATL airport (and many others had diarrhea or were throwing up the night before we left - all part of a missions trip). But other than that, it was absolutely wonderful...

The girls were SO excited to see us this morning. Apparently they were very well-behaved but definitely ready to settle back at home with mommy and daddy by the end of our trip. I will be doing a couple different posts with pics from our trip in the next few days. Thank you so much for all your prayers. More to come soon...

Vamos a Costa Rica

We leave tomorrow night (in the middle of the night at 1am) and head to Atlanta where we will fly out to Costa Rica. I am getting more and more excited. I have been anxious about being able to accomplish everything I needed to before we leave. It is pretty intimidating being in charge of passports, money, forms etc. for 38 people traveling internationally! And then on top of that having to get everything ready for the girls at home...

I've been a little apprehensive about leaving them for 8 days. But I know they are going to be in good hands and will get completely spoiled while we are gone. They will be with Jon's mom the first half of our trip and my parents the second half.

We will be in San Jose for the first couple of days of our trip sightseeing and ministering to the missionaries there. And then we will take 30-40 kids from the slums with us to a campsite in the mountains called La Cumbre. We will spend 5 days there with them playing sports, doing crafts, rock climbing/high ropes courses, singing, and sharing the love of Christ with them. It's gonna be a blast!

PRAYER REQUESTS:
*Health for our team while we are there (and for our girls as well).

*For the team to mesh/work well together and to remember it's not about us...

*Pray for God to bring the kids to camp that need to be there most...

*Pray for the girls while we are away (and vice versa). I know I will be missing them, but will have some Costa Rican kids to love on for a few days so that will help:)

Wordless Wednesday

Averi loves to wear dresses & cowboy boots!