Catching Up

A lot has happened over the past month since our last posting. Things had been pretty stressful and busy with the kids school and then add in a very small puppy who wakes you up several times a night you get two parents who aren't functioning at 100%. Throw in the Spanish factor and you have some extremely stressful moments. Take away our health and then we are floundering.

We have all had sickness since arriving in Peru but two weeks ago a bad virus hit us. Gabe and Christian seemed to have slept it off in one afternoon while the girls and Gavin seemed to barely get a fever. For Max and me it was quite a different experience. We both had high fevers and aches and pains that put us in bed for days. I ended up going to the ER - we thought I might have typhoid. Max seemed to get better but I didn't and after many, many tests it was determined that I had amoebas and salmonella (on top of the virus that has been going around). The whole family took anti-amoeba meds for a week. It was strong medicine and we are all feeling better but trying to share the nasty side effects of the Flagyl. Not more than a few days after getting over one illness a second of low fevers and terribly sore throats has hit our house. I am sick of being sick!!!!

Also this month after much prayer, question asking and information gathering we withdrew the kids from Colegio Internacional. The stress of the environment there was too much for us. There was little consistancy between what we were told would be expected of our children (free students) and what was happening in the class room. Our kids need to learn Spanish not live in fear of getting screamed at by their teachers for not completing homework that we can't do yet due to the language barrier or for not having a $40 science that they can't read anyway . . .there was a lot more to it than that but long story short we changed schools. The kids are now attending a much smaller school called Rey de Reyes. They have officially been there a week now and we are all much happier.

Over the past month and a half two people who have been very important in Christian's life and spiritual formation have passed away and this past weekend a fellow missionary in Pucallpa died while practicing for a motorcross race. I have to say, I flich a little everytime I open e-mail wondering what news shall come our way next.

Some good news: Christian's sister, Nicole, and her husband, Chad, had a baby girl on the 24th. We are proud to announce the birth of our niece, Samantha Ryan Bagley. Our baby is going to turn 6 years old tomorrow!!!! We spent 6 years straight being pregnant, and now I can't believe that it has been 6 years since our last baby!!!! Our sweet little Bethie will be 9 on Friday. It seems like just yesterday that we told her she was getting a baby brother for her third birthday. Oh, how the time flies!!!! We are inviting some Peruvian friends over for the party along with the gringos - birthdays are a VERY big deal here. We visited the street today where they sell all the b-day stuff. Some many pinatas!!!

We had a special visit from our good friends Kirk and Emily - Kirk also happens to be head of SAM and he had to come to Peru for board meetings and Emily was able to join him. What a blessing it was to us that they could slip out to Arequipa for 30hours. We had a great time. But I have to admit it was really hard to watch them leave . . . . however, they did not leave us empty handed. They we the deliverers of our new computer and a slew of gifts from our home group and others. Thank you to every one involved in that. And a special thanks to my gilrfriends who sent me a great selection of new jewelry to replace all mine that was stolen. I love it all!

Speaking of the robbery, we also received a new front door this month. It is now flush with the road so you can't hide in the doorway while you pry open our door. Turns out that the night we were robbed we were just the lucky ones. Other houses had been tried that night, our was just the winner. Our neighbor two doors donw was robbed over the week-end while they were all asleep in the house - they are getting a whole new wall and doors. That is just life here - not much you can do about it.