What's not in La Paz

I went to my favorite Cochabamba grocery store with Natty yesterday. If you're curious, here are some things I can't find in La Paz that I bought here:

1. canned green beans (does anyone else think these are super yum?)

2. coconut milk, lite (yes, not "light")

3. Crispix cereal (there is a serious good, but not too sugary cereal shortage in Bolivia)

4. donuts- these are as close as I've come to Krispy Kreme in Bolivia, except heavier (could that be all the grease?)

5. diet Cranberry Canada Dry- this was just a random splurge buy. I'm not much of a soda
drinker, but I think I picked it up just cause it was a novelty.

For some reason, I love purusing the aisles at the grocery store. As long as Natty has a plastic produce bag to play with, she likes it too.

The Land of Possibilities

Ok, so Cochabamba isn't magical or anything (but almost)...but it feels so good to be here for several reasons:

One: It's warm, even in the shade! Natty and I sat out on towels this afternoon and watched the tree branches waving above us, felt the breeze on our faces, and relaxed. Natty stayed up much longer than she ever does, I think just cause it was so fascinating for her to be outside and not have to have a hat on and clothing covering every inch of her body to protect her from the harsh sun. She didn't even have pants on (gasp!). I think she saw her own toes for maybe the 3rd time in her life- and she loved it. I loved it. It was truly a magical moment for us. I wish I had the camera...

Two: Food. Cochabambinos are known for eating, lots, and often. I went out to lunch with a friend and her baby that is 2 days older than Natty. We ate yummy food and Natty actually fell asleep in my lap, which she wouldn't do at home (after crying for a bit though). Maybe I just never give her the opportunity, but I felt like she could handle it here...or maybe I just didn't have another option.

Three: The SIM gueshouse. Special people; always meeting someone new; homemade granola every morning; large, clean bathrooms; wifi; beautiful gardens/lawn; old German shepherd that licks Natty's hands; kitchen staff that remember me from my days as a single, working with youth here.

Four: It's the city where Scotty and I fell in love. Isn't that enough? And it has donuts. And a really nice movie theatre with a food court. OK, those things help too.

So, we're happy here. Relaxing. Eating well. Do I have to leave on Saturday?

Valentine's Day

Yesterday was a full day. I woke up and went into the kitchen as I do every morning- hopefully before Natty wakes us- to eat breakfast and make coffee. On the kitchen table was a cute picture of Scotty and Natalie that said "Happy Valentine's Day" and two gifts. This was a very nice way to start the morning. I had already decided to make waffles and bacon for breakfast, some of Scotty's favorite breakfast foods. I whipped up some batter, dying it blue since pink is not one of his favorite colors, and then went into the bedroom to open my presents with Scotty. One of the gifts was this beautiful batik that we have seen before and both admired. The other was a very cute necklace and earring set. What a great guy! I had drawn a card for him that listed 10 things inside I loved about him. After breakfast (including a bad, waffle-stuck-to-maker incident) I got busy cooking and baking for lunch and other events coming up. I spent most of the morning and early afternoon at that and taking care of Nats. Mid-afternoon, our small group came over and we had a great time discussing holiness and how to attain it without drifting into legalism. And then, the moment we had all been waiting for- the V-day date. This would be our first time leaving Natalie with someone other than family and we were a tad nervous. A wonderful Bolivian family that live in our neighborhood (in the house we met as a church for the first year) were excited to take the baby for the evening. We packed a bag of goodies for her, including all her favorites and things used in her bedtime routine and drove over. We explained in detail how we put her to bed and when and left confident that she would do fine. Then, we set off for one of our favorite restaurants in town, a little Italian place that we had been wanting to return to for a long time. Alas, upon arriving, we found that they are not open on Saturday nights (what??). We also found that little is open on a Saturday night in La Paz. Obviously we hadn't been out for a while. After driving around a bit, we remembered another Italian place we had wanted to try, and it turned out to be scrumptious. We ate and chatted and enjoyed each others company, not worrying for a minute about Natalie. We walked and ate ice cream and got tired and headed back. Carmen explained to us when we arrived to pick up the baby that she had cried for a long time (boo.), but that she was finally asleep. We realized a few key things that Carmen could have done differently to help her fall asleep, and hopefully can implement those next time. She seems no worse off for the trauma and we were thrilled to have a night to ourselves- a freedom we haven't felt for too long.

Ready for church!

Wet!

So, here's Natty hanging out with her friend Santiago, who happens to have just turned one. Natty is 4 1/2 months old. Whoa- she weighs more than this little guy (she's looking particularly chubby in this photo, don't you think?). Santi is the son of our friends and fellow SIM-ers, Javier and Roxanna. He was born 2 months premature, so hasn't quite caught up to those of his age yet- plus, Ro is a tiny lady. It is always fun for me to hear peoples' surprise when they find out I am just breastfeeding and Natalie is so big- apparently, even though this is a breastfeeding culture, women tend to have problems making it work for them. Praise God Natalie is a healthy baby!

So, after little Santi left, I decided to rush off to find a sun hat for Natalie while she still had a few minutes of "awake time". We went down to the gallery of shops under Scotty's office and searched high and low for a sunhat- a necessity here where the sun is 50 times stronger than at sea level (i.e. skin cancer city). I even had a complete stranger approach me in the airport to warn me about Natty's light eyes and how I should avoid having her face windows because even the bright light coming in from them can do serious damage. This Bolivian woman and her sister confirmed that because her eyes had not been guarded as a child, she would eventually wind up blind. Scary! Anyway, the typical outfit of any kid in La Paz includes a sun hat, yet, I could not find one anywhere! We finally found a little shop tucked away that had some cheapy hats that tend to fall down in her eyes, but I bought one anyway. We then moved on to make a quick stop at the office to say hello, but got trapped by the heavy rain that seemed to come almost from out of nowhere. I decided we'd wait it out, even though we were pushing the limits for Natty's nap time. I gave her a little duck to chew on to keep her distracted from her tiredness (chewing on plastic seems to bring peace to her soul), which worked until she let out her sudden scream of "I'm not OK with this anymore, I want to go to sleep". I decided we'd have to make a run for it, even though I was parked pretty far away, and there's no running in Crocs with a baby in the rain. Thankfully, our lawyer was in the office and she volunteered to hold Natty while I got the car and pulled it up to the building. By the time I had dashed through the hail and rain, I was soaked, and our car was completely fogged up, being that our defrost doesn't work. I went about a block before I realized I was driving completely blind and had almost run into several vehicles. I refused to drive Natalie home this way. So, I called Scotty (who can somehow manage a million times better in these situations than me) and he came down and got us around to the front of the building where Natalia was holding a screaming, tired Natty. She fell instantly asleep in her carseat and I calmed down out of my stressed-outness. It's funny how quickly things can change from happy sunny hat shopping to blind driving, someone-else-is-holding-my-screaming-baby, what-do-I-do panic...

Doin' the stuff

Natty's rockin' the tennis shoes for our evening walk.

So, I'm hiding out in the bedroom right now cause the men's Bible study got switched to our house, last minute. It's nice to have an excuse to sit on the bed and look at recipes, download pics and write emails...although I think I'll be sacking out rather soon. As I was hanging clothes up, I realized that Scotty and I are doin' the stuff we love and that God has gifted us to do. While the men started showing up, I was in the kitchen preparing lunch for a Bolivian/Argentine family we've invited over tomorrow. Sipping tea, eating chocolate (someone stop me), chopping veggies, and washing dishes- I'm trying to live out the command to be a keeper of my home. And then Scotty's out in the family room leading men through the Spanish version of John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life- a neat group of guys who really do want to make their lives count for something. These things don't seem huge when I think about missionaries serving in the bush with tribes that have never heard the name of Jesus- but this is what God has called us to, and it is good. Natty is tucked away in her crib (hopefully not to wake for a long time) and we are serving in the ways we were created to serve. It is a gift to do this here in La Paz as a family.

Life

Today has been nice. Natalie hasn't been sleeping so well, which isn't nice, but because I'm a morning person, I can usually shake off a poor nights sleep when I get up in the morning (strong coffee helps too). I took Natty to the grocery store, our favorite place to browse and say "hi" to all the strangers that coo over her. Scotty came home from school stuff around lunch and we enjoyed some time together, deciding to take Natalie out to the valley of the moon in the afternoon. Valley of the moon is a little tourist spot down the road from our house that is basically rock/sand formations that look like the surface of the moon. It's quite unique and a good walk up and down stairs to check it all out. It's only $.50 if you have a Bolivian ID card, so I think I might make it a frequent walk with Natalie since the routine walk around the neighborhood is starting to bore us a bit. It was fun to have that time with Scotty since we are expecting visitors tomorrow and then I leave on Friday for the weekend. I'm really pumped to be going to a ladies retreat in Cochabamba, but somewhat nervous about having Natty all to myself for the weekend for the first time. As I mentioned earlier, she seems to be going through a rough spot with her night sleeping- initially wailing hard for a long time, seemingly in pain. Then, last night, just crying off and on for an hour and half, not in pain. What's going on? You can never pinpoint some issues with babies, but I can pinpoint how it makes me sin. I actually have been known to get angry at her, never lashing out or doing anything to harm her...but waking up angry when I hear those cries. And then, I tend to take it out on Scotty, who can't solve her problems any better than I can. Then, I wake up in the morning to that adorable, smiling face and realize that it wasn't the end of the world and that very soon that little girl is going to be acutely aware of her mommy's atitude problems and react to her own troubles in the same way she sees me doing. Oh, how wonderful and hard it is to be confronted with your own sin as you interact with your child. A friend with a 7 month old just blogged on this same thing- it is good to know I am not the only one dealing with this. But, how I long to put aside my schedule, my sleep, my self and serve my baby in her times of need, with joy that God has given me such a precious gift. I say I love my daughter, but do I live out that love at all times as the Bible teaches us what love is- patient, kind, etc...? So many life lessons God has to teach me through that little girl!