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

Counting it ALL joy ...

Are we the only ones trying to figure out how to slow 2017 down already?!

How is it possible that tomorrow is February 1st?  It seems like January only lasted a few days ... it has for sure flown by here.  

Although the days are long, the weeks are so short.  This week is our fourth week of classes already.  Before we know it, we will be finished with our first trimester of language school!

In the three weeks since our last blog post, we have had some praises but also have had some pits.

The Praises

• We breezed through our first week of classes with little to no hiccups.  Josie was excited every morning to go to her class which left us praising The Lord for giving her peace in a new place with new people.  Those of you that know Josie well know that this is HUGE deal in our world.  

• We successfully paid our second month's rent, electric bill, & have pretty much mastered surviving the grocery store.  We are making it while living in a Spanish speaking country!

• In the last week, our monthly goal has increased by $700 a month!  We have been overwhelmed and in tears more than once as we have seen God prompt hearts on our behalf.  With this increase, we are officially 75% funded for full time ministry in Honduras. God is on the move!

The Pits

• Second week of class was not as easy for us. We started the week off with an AWFUL attack on our tummies.  Thankfully it was just the two of us & Josie never got sick.  But with one bathroom & two people violently ill in more ways than one (if you're following us here ...)  it was less than pleasant in the Peal home.

• Josie has struggled a LOT.  She is not listening, not responding to discipline, & being very disrespectful.  Thankfully, we have not had any reports of these behaviors at school but life at home has been a struggle.

• Josie did end up getting sick overnight towards the end of last week.  (We still aren't sure exactly what she had because it was less than 24 hours thanks to the power of prayer.  She shook it quickly & bounced back like a champ!)

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All of that being said, we are still overall really enjoying our new life here.  It really has been a huge blessing to have this fresh start here as a family & meet families that are facing the same struggles with their kids as they make adjustments to a new life away from home.

As we share this, it seems crazy to say that we are really enjoying it knowing what it's been like here for us.  It has truly been one thing after another since we left the States (7 weeks ago tomorrow ... time really is flying).

We have had some down right HARD & ugly days that have left us feeling defeated & discouraged.

The key for us to be able to truly say that we are enjoying it here is remembering that we are supposed to count it all joy.

Not just the good days.  Not just the praises.

But the days that knock us to our knees.

And those pitiful pits along the way, too.

Life here is harder.

But ... it's better.

How is it better?  Because we know that with all of the suffering & struggles also comes confirmation that we are doing what God has called us to do.

In James 1, we read that we should consider it all joy whenever we experience various trials because we can know that the testing of our faith produces endurance.  It also says that endurance must do its complete work so that we are lacking nothing.

We are confident that He will work all things together for our good & ultimately for His glory so we choose to live expectantly to see what He has in store.  We trust that this is all in preparation for what is to come.
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Since it's been 3 weeks since our last update, we figured you might be wondering ...

What have we been up to?

Well, to celebrate our first week of classes being in the books, we decided to branch out from the city life and see more of Costa Rica.  A few weekends ago, we took a day trip to La Paz waterfalls with some classmates to explore some of the beauty of Costa Rica.

MMMMMMM .... Hot Chocolate 

Butterfly Garden

A ride in an ox cart!

Ox Cart

Josie & Reeves

Nuestro amigo :)

Just this last weekend, we were able to slip away from the city & take a break from studying to go to the coast.  We had a great time away just the three of us.  We had really battled being discouraged after the struggles & sickness that we had faced so we needed to unplug and escape the hustle of city  life here in San Jose.  Thankfully, we were able to enjoy time on the beach & even got to see some monkeys!

Manuel Antonio

Airplane Restaurant

Overlooking Jaco Beach

<3

Palms along the way

Josie girl made a new friend in Manuel Antonio

Josie was excited that she found a chair like Nana's chairs at home :) 

Beautiful creation

Fun stop along the way

While we have had a few chances to see more of Costa Rica on the weekends, it's also been really helpful for us in terms of using & practicing our Spanish.  We have interacted with a lot of Ticos while exploring Costa Rica that have zero English so it is forcing us out of our comfort zones and enhancing our vocabulary as we adventure to new places.  All a part of the learning process!
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How is Josie girl doing?

Well ... we have been really struggling the few weeks with Josie when it comes to her temper.  She has been getting frustrated very easily & we have had to put some hard boundaries in place.  That has resulted in some tough evenings without the park or TV, leaving the park immediately after arriving because of her attitude, and tough mornings before school because we are realizing that she is not a morning person.

As we have been balancing discipline for her behavior & grace/comfort for all of the change that she is facing right now, we are learning a lot about grace ourselves.

The Lord has really shown us how important it is to rush to grace & love rather than react in frustration.  

Thankfully, His love for us has been an amazing model to follow after as we navigate this season of struggle with Josie. 

All that being said, the good times for her definitely outweigh the bad.

She for sure has her moments (don't we all?!) but she is embracing life here & has really been amazing us with the amount of Spanish she is learning.
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The other night before bed, we were doing her prayer box.  She has a box of names of people back home & here that she came up with on her own, we wrote down on slips of paper, & she picks a few each night to pray for before bed.  She pulled a name of one of her friends from Faith (mom's morning out back in SC) & began to pray:

"Lord, thank you for Naomi.  Keep her safe.  En el nombre ..."  and she stopped and looked at me.

She was finishing her prayer in SPANISH!  I guess from hearing Ms. Monica pray at school, she has learned how to finish a prayer in Spanish.  She & I both started giggling SO hard.  It was the sweetest moment.  She said, "Mommy I was 'peaking english AND 'Spanish!"

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Last night, a new Costa Rican friend, Pilar, stopped by our house to see the puppies along with our sweet neighbor, Polly.  She was asking about Josie & I shared with her that she has a birthday coming up on February 16th.  She asked me (all in Spanish) if it would be ok for her to bring chocolates to Josie for her birthday ... and as soon as she asked me ... Josie came running out of her bedroom yelling "Mi cumpleaños!" ... she had been listening to the conversation from across our apartment & understood that she was asking about her birthday!

Those moments leave us in complete shock.  We are so thankful that she has such a deep desire to learn this language!
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Along with learning 'panish, she also got to attend her first birthday party here in Costa Rica two weekends ago.  The party was at McDonald's and it was a REAL party!  Strobe lights, loud dancing music, things to use for dressing up, games, a piñata, happy meals, and a treat for coming to celebrate!

Although the party was great & a ton of fun for Josie, it made for a tough Monday morning last week.  The party was at 6pm on Sunday evening and we didn't get home until close to 9pm!

In this culture, when they gather for a celebration, time is NOT something they consider or worry over.  Their main focus is spending time together and celebrating life!

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How is school going?

We are really enjoying our classes at ILE.  We love our teachers & are really enjoying our classmates, too.  It is neat to see relationships develop through the funny mess-ups (sometimes leading to laughing so hard that we are crying) or conversations that happen in class.  We are all in this together ... so we might as well make it fun, right?!

We had our first exams our second week of classes. We were encouraged by our grades right when we needed the encouragement after being sick.  God is faithful!

When we aren't in class, we have been studying like crazy!  We have spent our down time quizzing each other with flashcards, reviewing homework together, and trying to practice Spanish at home as much as we can.

Daniel decided to label everything in our house with sticky notes as a way to remember some "around the house" vocabulary.  Josie wanted to take part in labeling things, too!  Can you tell which ones she wrote & which ones Daniel wrote? :)

Studying flashcards with Daddy :) 

First day of classes

Snapshot of the board in one of Daniel's classes the first week!

Chapel Service in between classes

First Trimester Students

We are so official :) 

Josie is loving her classes, too.  She gets to swap classes each day & spends time with Ms. Monica & Ms. Paula.  She spends time learning in Spanish with Ms. Monica & learning in English with Ms. Paula.

She made play dough at school one day :) 

We snuck a shot of her playing at recess :) 

SUPER JOSALINA at Super Hero Day at School

Playing dress up in class :)

Two weeks ago, Josie had to take a science experiment to class to share with her classmates.  We decided to do the egg float experiment with regular water & salt water.  She was so excited to tell us that her classmates clapped for her!  Her teacher even sent her home a present (a toy magnifying glass) for bringing in her experiment!

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How are the puppies?

The puppies are growing like crazy!  Their eyes have opened & their teeth are coming in so that has been a game changer.  They are all trying to navigate a little more than usual.  They're four weeks old & seem to be doing great ... we are hoping to have them all in great homes within 2-3 weeks!

Macie climbed into the box to nurse them ... it made for a good laugh!

Tired mama!

Running out of room!

First round of softened puppy chow ... a success!

Ms. Paula (one of Josie's teachers) made a special stop by our house to see the puppies & decided that she wants one!  So that has been very special for Josie.  She loves knowing that one of our puppies is going to live with her teacher.

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How can you pray for us?

• Continue to pray for the development of our ministry team
• As of right now, we are around 75% funded.  We are praying for the Lord to connect our hearts to others that feel led to invest in Youth For Christ & God's ministry in Honduras.  

• Our hope is to transition from language school to full time ministry there in Honduras.  If we do not reach 100% while here in Costa Rica, we will need to return home to continue raising support until we reach our goal.  If that is the case, we will have to be intentional to continue studying & practicing our Spanish so that we do not lose any of what we gain while here in Costa Rica.  Please join us in praying for the last 25% of our budget!

• For Josie to push through these adjustments & work on listening 
• We have seen a big improvement so far this week with Josie.  She is working hard to "make good choices" and told us tonight at dinner, "I obeyed at school today!"  We know that she has had a lot thrown on her in the last 7 weeks.  We are doing our best to balance discipline & grace as we continue to adjust!

• For our marriage to continue to develop & grow  
• Please pray for us to dig deep & grow in grace together.  There are so many stressors in our lives right now that it has made it very easy for us to take it out on one another.  Please pray that we would be strengthened as a couple!

• For our relationships with other families here at ILE to grow into lifelong friendships
• We are excited to see God bring families into our lives here in Costa Rica that we know we will remain close with even after language school.  We will have contacts throughout all of Latin America & we can't wait to continue to build relationships while here at ILE that will lead to future mission trips around the world!

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There's a quick look into what the last few weeks have looked like for us here in Costa Rica.  We are learning to celebrate the little things and see them as big things as we continue to adjust to living away from all that we know.  

Please continue to pray for our family.  We are so thankful for the encouragement we have received from home ... it really does make a huge difference for us.

If you'd like to send us something via "snail mail", it would make our day!

Joseph Daniel Peal or Laura Marie Peal

Instituto de Lengua Española

Apdo. 100-2350

San Jose, Costa Rica

America Central 

Count it all joy, my brothers,when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1 : 2 - 4

View from the nearby park of the Full Moon a few weeks ago!