Two Down!

Mountain view overlooking San Jose

We are so thankful ...   the last two weeks we have been healthy & life has been a lot easier on us!

After a few weeks of really frustrating times, it is a HUGE deal on this end for us to have made it through the last two weeks as smoothly as we have.
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In fact, we can happily say that the worst thing that happened to us lately is that we ran out of Miracle Whip Light.

Micah & Bre (our big brother & sister here at school) found a bottle of it for Daniel before we came to Costa Rica but we have not been able to find it anywhere since!

If you know Daniel, you know that his love for Miracle Whip Light comes in close second to his love for teriyaki sauce.

He's been requesting bottles from everyone that has asked about sending us a package.

The struggle is real, peeps.

Sad, sad day.

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We were finally able to slip out for a few hours for a date night last Friday.  Between classes, studying, puppy duty, & life in general, we were LONG overdue for some us time.  We hit a local mall for dinner with another couple from ILE & walked through the mall for just a little bit to find a birthday present for our sweet girl.  Even though it was an early evening, we were so thankful to have some time together.  Josie enjoyed her time with Olivia, too!

First Costa Rican date night

Josie loves Olivia!

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Classes are continuing to go pretty well for us both!  We both did well on our second round of exams.  We are encouraged to see progress & see that our studying is paying off.  It is amazing to look back over the last 5 weeks of classes and see how much we have grown.

A glimpse into Laura's grammar class

A glimpse into Daniel's grammar class

Daniel has started tutoring twice a week in additional to our classes.  It has really helped him & he is enjoying it a lot.  It is so encouraging to see him start to build his confidence in the language.  God is equipping the called!
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Josie girl had Family Day last week during our class break.  She was SO excited to see us & play some games together.  We were able to spend about an hour with her & her classmates.  She struggled going back to her class afterwards ... bless her heart she thought her day at school was over!

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This weekend, the puppies ventured out to their new homes.  While we are SUPER thankful & ready to have a puppy free apartment, we are also kind of sad to see them leave.  There is nothing like puppy breath & puppy snuggles!

• Two puppies went to a fellow missionary family that is staying here in Costa Rica for ministry.

• One puppy will be traveling to Ecuador for ministry with a missionary couple from our school.

• One puppy will be living with one of Josie's teachers & her family.

• Three puppies will be living with Tica families here in San Jose.

These babies were the cutest! :) 

We know that we will always look back at our transition to language school & laugh.  Our time here did not start off as we imagined or planned with these puppies ... but we have been able to get to know a lot of families at ILE & locals as well because of these little guys!
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We have been spending some time in the hammock in our front yard after school.  Josie loves to kick back & relax swinging in the hammock!

View from the hammock of our street

Another view :) 

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Josie was very excited to receive a package last week!  David & Joyce Hardy from Adams Run Baptist Church wanted to send something to make our sweet girl feel special ... and boy did they ever do a great job!  Josie has played all week with everything that they sent in the box.  Thank you again so much for all of the goodies, David & Joyce!

Josie got a package this week!

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 We had to partake this week in a National Holiday from home ... National Pizza Day!  We even went for Papa Johns rather than ordering local pizza so that it really felt like home.  Our sweet neighbor, Polly, ordered the pizza & we all enjoyed dinner together that night.

National pizza day ... we had to partake :) 

We are SO blessed to have Polly next door.  Josie absolutely adores her ... especially because Polly is her backup singer for her concerts!  What a hoot!

Singing away :) 

Exciting nights here at our place ... haha :) 

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Josie got her first ice cream from the neighborhood ice cream "truck".  (It is really just a cart but it's close enough)  She was so excited to pick out a yummy treat on Sunday afternoon.  It's the little things!

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The nearby volcano has been active & the smell/presence of ash is quite evident!  That is something that I'm not sure we will ever quite fully get used to ... unlike anything we have in the States ... that's for sure!

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Tomorrow marks 2 months that we have been in Costa Rica.

Unreal.

It is so hard for us to believe that we are half way through our first trimester of language school already!  Today kicked off our 6th week of classes.  We both have grammar exams this Friday so we will be doing a lot of studying this week.

Along with studying this week, we will be celebrating the life of our sweet girl!  It is hard to believe that Josie will be 4 on Thursday.  We plan to take her to the zoo & spend the day celebrating.  We are excited to make her birthday super special for her!
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As always, thank you SO much for the encouragement & support that you have shown us along the way in this journey.  

We are so thankful that we are here studying Spanish in this season.  The Lord has shown us in so many ways that His timing was so specific for us to begin school now.  We are thankful for the relationships that we are building with fellow students, our teachers, and people in our neighborhood.  Our lives here are really full of reminders of His goodness to us!

Above all of that, we are thankful for those of you that have partnered with us to make this a reality for our family.  We would not be here without those of you that have joined our ministry team & we are beyond blessed to have your prayers, support, encouragement & love!

We know that 2017 is going to be a year that we will never forget.

If you would like to join our ministry team & give towards God's ministry in Honduras with Youth for Christ, please visit our giving site at:   https://yfc.givingfuel.com/32216