Holidays are here!

I promise I have a good reason for not blogging lately- my in-laws are here! Ok, so they didn't arrive until Friday night, but it's been a busy few weeks! I'm trying hard to think of what to report of the time before they came, but it's all escaped me by this point. I'm sure it had something to do with church plant stuff, people over at the house, date night, busyness... Well, I'll just start with what's happened in the past few days. My in-laws came to visit! We picked them up Friday night at the airport and immediately brought them down to our house which had conveniently developed water problems (a.k.a. no running water) for the first time ever. So, being the international travelers that they are, they took it in stride and said it's all part of the adventure. The adventure continued the next morning when I drove them to missionary friend's homes to shower (2nd morning in a row for me showering at someone else's house). Later in the day, Papi and Scotty went to Carmen and Marcelo's, where we have church, to fill up every empty plastic container we could find, and some of theirs too, so that we'd have water to flush toilets and wash dishes. Sunday morning Mims (Scotty's mom) came to church while Papi tried to catch some z's since the altitude was causing a severe lack of sleep. It was fun to introduce Mims to our church friends and she was happily surprised to find that the Spanish she had learned 20 years ago in Ecuador was still with her enough to catch most of the sermon without me translating. After church we picked Papi up and headed over to a big pre-wedding Mexican bash for my awesome friend Whitney and her fiance Tim. This was a great party, complete with to-die-for enchiladas and queso dip, a Bolivian Mariachi band (they rocked!), and a pinata. I'm bummed to be missing the wedding but that was a great time to celebrate and pray for this special couple. Monday morning we headed up to the airport again in the wee morning hours to catch a plane to Cochabamba for the SIM 100 year celebration festivities. Monday night was a program and tasty dinner to remember the faithfulness of God to our mission family over the last 100 years. Scotty and I, along with another family, were chosen out of the many missionaries to be a small part of the video that was made to commemorate this day- we were honored. It was fun to see a bunch of the kids that I used to work with when I was a single missy in Coch, although many of them didn't look so much like kids anymore. MIB (Misers in Black)- Dressed up for the big celebrations

The following day was a much larger, Spanish afternoon program, inviting all the Bolivian pastors with whom we work around the country. There was singing, testimonies, the video in Spanish, eating, mingling, praying, praising, and generally being quite encouraged as a mission in what God is doing through us in these times and in the times gone by. The three amigos- Greg, Scotty and Edgar

We were so grateful to be a part of it and to be able to share with Scotty's parents as well this important time in SIM history. So, we returned early this morning, after mistaking our flight time and getting up an hour too early. We're happy to be home and have left our parents doing little projects in the apartment and watching the chocolate chip cookies bake (72 ounce bag of chips from Mims!). They are showering us with gifts, mostly stuff we requested, the most exciting of which were 2 new laptops we ordered. I'm not usually too excited by tech gadgets- but these are so pretty and shiny and all my keyboard letters work without having to bang them! Another exciting surprise that I didn't think would fit in the luggage was my crock pot! I've become so accustomed to cooking taking twice as long that this crock pot is sure to revolutionize my life. I'm thinking about cooking the Christmas turkey in there. And so we look forward to the next few weeks of celebrating life and the holidays with Mims and Papi.

Like father, like son.