La Casa Nueva

We have been busy this week settling into a new home here in Costa Rica. Through multiple blessings from God recently, we made the decision to move from our two bedroom apartment to a three bedroom house. We have loved our little apartment for the past 10 months. It was a blessing from God and we LOVED living next to Mark and Meg and Valeria and Mariana. But, we now have a large patio area in the front of the house and along the side of the house and a separate area in the back that the kids can play in and we have had nothing but a 5 ft. by 3 ft. concrete slab at the apartment. Out neighbors would laugh at the monkeys (our kids) that they would see climbing on the bars for lack of anything else to do...that is a joke, but really they did climb the bars...Ethan finally has his own room and does not have to share with his sisters anymore, which he is really happy about. :)

The house came open because our team mate Melinda has moved into the new house CLF Costa Rica is renting to use as a mission house. It is an unbelievablly beautiful house - ENORMOUS!!!!! - but so wonderful for the teams. So, Melinda is the caretaker, hospitality person and the perk to that position is getting to live there!!! WOHOO! So, she told us about her house and we came to look at it and thought it would work for us. The jump in rent is not too bad and we decided to take it! We have been here three days and I LOVE it! It is three minutes away from the mission house- which is SO nice for us! Our new neighborhood is a little more busy, but it is clean and nice and the people seem very friendly. It is so close to everything. Many of the places we usually go are just down the road from us now, which is nice for me!

We were VERY blessed to have the help of the four teenage girls staying with us (CLF Costa Rica) for the summer. Chelsea, Heather, Jessica and Cherilyn were such a HUGE helo to us the past few days. I do not know how we could have moved without their help. We definitely could not have gotten it done it two days, for sure! They helped clean, pack, move furniture, unpack at the house, organize, help with the kids and basically anything we needed - they did! It was great time spent getting to know them and Heather and Chelsea even took their first taxi ride with me!!! WOW! That was a trip! :) They are fantastic and we a relooking forward to spending the summer with them. It was neat to hear their stories.

I have pictures to come very soon!

We have our phone and internet up and going now and are getting things in order!

Please pray for me tomorrow. I begin my very first discipleship group ever- in Spanish! I will begin discipling one of my former teachers, Marinela. I believe God brought us together for a purpose and I am praying that He change her heart and she gives her life to him. Please pray that God might see fit to use me in her life. She is dealing with a very serious health issue right now and it has caused this first meeting to be delayed for several weeks now. Please pray that she remain healthy and that we are able to meet on a regular basis.