We're Back...Safely Back

pOur field trip was amazing. Once again, we got to see so many different things in this small country of ours. We spent 3 out of the 4 nights on a bus and three days of sight seeing and investigating our country. The kids are required to do a final exam speech about an area that we visited and what they learned about it including pictures, information handed them, a power point, etc.
We left on Tuesday night...or Wednesday morning at 12:30 am. We left Edson at Tía Marlene's house. (He loves it there!) He didn't even miss us when we took off with Brandon and Gaby. It rained for THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS! The weather was BAD, but the adventure was great! I'm sooooo glad a little-almost-three year old was not with us!
(I will be posting pictures, but I have some other computers using the connection as well and I can't download stuff right now.)
If you look at this map of Paraguay, you will see where we went...a triangle trip down south, then up north, then back to Asuncion.
1. Asunción
2. Paraguari (Ayolas - Hydroelectric plant -Yacereta, museum)
3. Sand Dunes of San Rafael
4. Coronel Bogado (Chipa!)
5. San Ignacio (Trinidad y Jesús - Jesuit Ruins)
6. Encarnación (Soccer game at Super 6! Paraguay-Colombia...0-2)
7. Ciudad del Este (Monday Falls, Hydroelectric plant- Itaipu, Museum, Zoo
8. Acaray - camp grounds, waterpark
9. Downtown -Ciudad del Este, Light show at Itaipu
10. Home!

chapter 4

Wow! Four posts in a day!
That'll make up for the rest of the week.
Tonight we are leaving on our High School Field Trip. I won't be home til Saturday.
See you then...

Chapter Three...Saturday's Wedding

Our friends were married on Saturday. It was such a beautiful, simple wedding. They had both been searching for answers. Before and after her pregnancy, she was always very angry. Her sister and sister-in-law are both Christians. She would often come to church, but she never really opened-up to anyone. Her boyfriend wanted to get married and they were already living together, but she didn't. They fought all the time and finally, her dad told her to either separate or get married, and change her attitude about everything.

The following weekend at church she was a transformed person and was making plans for her wedding! She talks about how blessed she is. She sees beauty in everything. She laughs. She's content!

She is enjoying her "first love" in Christ.

What an incredible, life-changing miracle! Praise God!

Another Chapter Today...My computer

I figured out my computer's problem! It's a suspicion, but it seems to be repeating itself.
When the electricity goes off, that somehow messes up something in the back and my computer won't recognize any USB ports. So, yesterday, I wanted to post my pictures of the wedding and the storm and couldn't get the drives to work...it just won't recognize ANY, ZERO, NOTHING! I have talked to the BEST computer guys I know and no one can explain my computer's glich.
Then it hit me that every time the computer goes on batter-power, when the electricity goes off, I have this problem.
So, last night I left everything unplugged. Today, I plugged it all in...started all new, and WhaaaLaaa...It worked! I downloaded all my pictures and...everything seems fine!

Sunday's Storm

Sunday was extremely hot and humid all day long. In our neighborhood, there was a problem with the electricity and we had "low tension" (it would be "baja tensión" in spanish...not sure how to say that in English. I mean that the lights were only half bright and other electrical appliances were not working to their full potential.) So, we had an extra-hot afternoon until a nice, cool thunderstorm came through. That cooled things down tremendously and then the sun came out! Later on that evening, another storm was brewing and we walked outside to see hailstones as big as marbles!

OUCH!

A strange thing happened today. I was ready to walk out the door at 6:00 am with the kids to take them to school and Gaby came out to the kitchen and said..."mom, do you have anything for a head ache?" I looked over at him and saw he had a bloody nose and he was holding his head. "What???" Then, he told me his story...
You know how teens kinda like new clothes, new hairstyles, new music and...muscles, right? Well, this kid from school loaned our kids an elastic-type contraption for your biceps. Things were going good until Gaby pulled a muscle in his back last week. Still convinced that this thing might work, he was pulling on it this morning while laying on his bed...with his foot and hand. After a strong pull, it slipped off his foot...his slipery sock, and the handle wacked his eye/nose area so very hard that it almost knocked HIM out.

(He is demonstrating in the pictures.)

He has a good attitude about it because he even let me take pictures of it while he was explaining it all to us. He has a very bruised face, but recognizes the miracle that it didn't hit his eye.

P.S. He told me I could write this.

What's happening here...

I was thinking that my blog would be kind of dull with no picture, but anyway, I couldn't find the one I wanted...so I am just checking in to say...
Edson is growing up so fast. He is starting to say sentences, get into stuff a lot more, and has a little bit of a cold. Gaby is enjoying his own cell phone privilege. Brandon is saving up money for his Field Trip next week. There are stories of "good deals" in Ciudad del Este.
Oscar and I are busy with...the end of school activities as well as the plans for next year's schedule at Adonai.