Memories

For the past week, as soon as I wake up my mind quickly wanders to thoughts of Bolivia. I imagine what it might be like to wake up in our apartment in Sopocachi (a neighborhood in the city that consists mainly of university students). Since we are returning to the same apartment that Scotty lived in his first term, I have many fantastic memories with him there, and can more easily picture our life at the beginning. Because the apartment is on the side of a hill (La Paz is bowl-shaped), from his kitchen window you can see most of downtown and beyond to the majestic, snow-capped Illimani mountain. I loved to fix toast or cereal and drink coffee staring out that window in the morning. I imagine we will do that together now to get our day started. I also think about what it might be like to talk to the lady that sells bread down the hill or what our first church service might be like as everyone will probably make a big deal that we are back, possibly inviting us to say a few words (which scares me to death since my Spanish has long since rusted!).

I must admit that many of my thoughts regarding our return come around to my insecurities about initial interactions with people. Bolivians are so warm and friendly, and I know I will not lack friends or company, but I have a tendency to be quite reserved in trying out my Spanish and especially freeze up when asked to speak in public. My prayer, and one that I should be praying more fervently, is that my pridefulness in wanting to impress with my language skills would be replaced by humility and acceptance that it's OK to make mistakes and be transparent with people. As we sat in a members meeting at our church last night, I thought about how each person attending was free to share his or her thoughts on a topic, but generally there was an eye on the time and a desire to be somewhat faithful to the stated length of the meeting. I found out later that Scotty was also thinking the same thing I was, that if that meeting took place in Bolivia, it could have been mid-night before we were finished! I am probably a bit too concerned with timeliness, which will also present a struggle as I live and become very involved in a culture where time is rarely an issue.

Although I am aware of challenges facing me, I am fully confident in our Lord who is able to overcome our sinfulness and daily purifies us and molds us into His likeness. Despite our differences, I love Bolivia and Bolivians, and daily count it a gift to have been called, along with Scotty, to La Paz. We anticipate the day we will step off the plane into our new home and wait expectantly for all the good works God has prepared in advance for us to do.

11-monthiversary

11 months ago today Scotty and I were married. That's starting to be easier to believe now that we have experienced so many different things together. We still try to do one out of the ordinary thing together each month, and today we had a full blown, mid-day date. I'm not sure how many of you know how much of a donut fan I am. I don't allow myself to indulge very often (although there was one time after a mountain climb in Bolivia that I thought I deserved 3!), but I decided 11 months deserved a donut (forget fine china or stationary). So, our first stop- Dunkin Donuts. This donut store has been taunting me for the last year we've lived here, placing itself right on the road that we take almost daily to go anywhere. I had been contemplating donuts since yesterday when I decided we must go, and had narrowed down my selection between my two favorites, chocolate iced and raspberry filled. I went with the chocolate and threw in a hazelnut coffee to offset the sugary snack. I must admit, this donut didn't live up to the anticipation. It was good, don't be mistaken, but they didn't glaze the yeast part...that's just not right. I have found the only place I know for sure (other than generic grocery store donuts) that glazes the yeast part of the donut on a chocolate iced is Krispy Kreme. Well, I'll know better next time. Scotty is a coffee snob, I think I'm a donut snob.














Post-donut happy tummies

After getting plenty jacked up on caffeine and sugar, we loaded a Gold Rush Trolley and headed to Uptown. Next destination, Deep Sea, the latest IMAX adventure. Another fact about me, I love watching any discovery channel type flic that involves ocean life. Love it! So, we bought tickets, wasted a little time in the Mint Museum Gift Shop (when you're too cheap to actually buy a ticket to the museum) and then walked back to pick out perfect seats.

Fun masks at Mint Gift store

The film was good, narrarated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet, and had an abundance of wierd, ugly, and very talented sea creatures that mostly encouraged me to stay out of deep water. They also gave a stunning reminder of the impressive creativity of our Creator. Factoid of the day: The Mola Mola fish can grow to weigh 4000 lbs- yes 4000.

Overall, a succesful date, and even better that my husband planned it without my urgings. He is a great man and I hope we'll have at least 11 more months together. :)

Fun with floods and plane tickets

Johnny and Laura Mitchell invited us to our first pool party of the summer on Saturday night where we enjoyed cute kids, good conversation, and beautiful weather...until about 9:45pm.
After driving through high winds and lightning, we came home to find two rivers of water gushing out of the corners of our bedroom window. Scotty and I proceeded to scoop water out of the sill with cups and try to construct the storm windows in such a way that would cause the water to repel out instead of in onto our wood floors. We had requested a couple months ago that the leaves be cleaned out of our roof drains, but didn't realize that this was never done until the evidence spilled itself into our bedroom. After filling and dumping our 5 gallon bucket a few times with water, Scotty managed to get the windows in a good position and the rain finally slacked enough to stop the flood. I couldn't help but wonder what type of fun experiences we will have like this in Bolivia, but without the expediency of a well-paid matinence staff...

Speaking of Bolivia, I bought our plane tickets today, and our official departure date is Monday, October 2nd! 10 weeks!!! Whoa...is it really possible that in 10 weeks, we will have said good-bye to friends and family, gotten rid of most of our stuff, packed all our belongings in 4 suitcases, under 50lbs each (yeah, right), and be stepping off a plane in La Paz, Bolivia? The reality of all of that hits a little more each day and leaves me feeling excited, scared, but ready for the adventure.

One Long Day

Before sharing the ups and downs of our last day on the road, I'll share a little photojournaling with you:
During our family trip to Dollywood on Monday, Scotty spilled the beans about the reservation he had made at a gorgeous bed and breakfast in the Smokies of Tennessee he had made for us that night. After saying a quick good-bye to our family, who we had been enjoying enormously all of the previous week, we headed out of Pidgeon Forge to our hill-top refuge. Whitestone Inn is a top notch bed and breakfast, created originally to bless those in ministry as a place to be well taken care of and refreshed by beautiful natural surroundings and pampering opportunities. Our large 2 bedroom room with waterfall shower and whirlpool tub, lakefront balcony and king-sized bed, usually going for $250/night, was given to us at a $16.00 service charge. I am amazed and grateful to this couple who have chosen to get involved so graciously in ministering to those who are serving overseas. After a restful night and a hearty breakfast (blueberry pancakes- my favorite!), we hit the road again with high hopes of seeing our own home 4 or so hours later. As we pulled off the interstate for lunch, we felt a sickening wobble in one of our wheels and prayed that we would make it back before anything happened. Near Hickory, NC, our hopes were dashed as we felt the tire go. God graciously protected us from a blow-out, which could have been more dangerous, and we found the tire had shredded its tread. After unloading three weeks worth of luggage and accumulated stuff from the trunk, Scotty grabbed the spare tire and started working to get us quickly back on the road. Unfortunately, the lock lug nut on the hubcap stripped as he was removing it, and the tire became impossible to remove without the assistance of a trained professional. We enjoyed the lovely, intensely hot day on the side of I-40 as semi trucks blew by, waiting for our Knight in Shining Tow Truck to rescue us. Only $55 and an hour or so later, we were back on course. All was well when we returned to our cozy Poindexter love shack (baby, love shack!) until I sighted something awful. As you can see above, our beloved "Herb" didn't make it through our 3 week absence. This was my first rosemary plant and one that I used often to brighten our lives and dinner plates, and it was tragic to see him so brown and crunchy. The events of the day finally took their toll on me after our grocery trip to Wal-Mart later in the evening, and I experienced a minor meltdown. We have been reminded by other missionaries that emotional downs after such intense, people-dense trips are normal and to be expected. Scotty and I were encouraged over and over by the people we spent time with, but we are very happy to be home. I think Dorothy's mantra was right..."there's no place like home".

Oh The Places You Will Go

Hi friends--here are some more pictures from our roadtrip (we're letting them tell the story, I guess), this time some things we did and saw, and at the end, our adorable sobrinos (niece and nephew), Chayila and Ransom!

On the blog again...

...Just can't wait to get on the blog again. You need to have Willie Nelson's tune running through your mind (as I do right now) for this entry to fully connect the ideas of "road trip" and finally getting the chance to journal about it on this blog. Lisa and I are now enjoying the hospitality of my parents at their home on a lake in TN, along with my sister Amanda, brother-in-law Aaron, 3 1/2 year old niece Chayila and 6 month old nephew Ransom. Here are some people pics from our first two weeks on the road (other types of photos to follow soon):

Time Out

I'm sitting in our hotel room at the Hampton Inn trying to think of a good way to encapsulate our experiences over the last week. We didn't plan on staying in any hotels on this trip, but found ourselves needing some time to ourselves to relax and be refreshed from a whirlwind tour of seeing friends and supporters. We counted yesterday a grand total of 14 visits with different families in 8 days. I feel like someone hit the "blend" button on my brain... But, God knows what we need before we know, and blessed us with this beautiful hotel with a pool and free breakfast. Our trip has been a blast and we have felt the overwhelming grace of many people who have welcomed us into their homes, fed us, loved us, made us laugh, and encouraged us greatly. We're anticipating fun times with Scotty's extended family this weekend as we celebrate his cousin's wedding, and a slower paced week next week with his parents in Tennessee. We miss all our friends in Charlotte, and will try to share some more details when time permits. Stay tuned!