Pool- check. Blueberries- check. Home church- check. Relax- check. We are enjoying checking off a mental list of all the stuff we've been looking forward to upon arriving home. Mostly, we were ready to relax, sit around, eat good food and hang out with my family- which we are doing a lot of. We are in no rush to mix and mingle or even visit supporters...yet. There is plenty of time for that. The trip home went fantastically, even with a few delayed flights. As He always does, God answered our prayers by giving us an empty seat on the long leg of the flight between Bolivia and Miami for Natty to hang out in. Big girl in her own seat.

We had her up by 4am on Wednesday and she eventually fell asleep on the trip home from the airport at about 10:30pm. While travelling, she did a great job of playing, sitting, staring, napping a bit, eating, and making everyone fall in love with her (at least, that's our perception). Although it was a very long day, she was up at her normal time the next morning and hasn't skipped a beat in her routine. I'm afraid she takes after me. We were able to share the flight home with good friends from Bolivia, James, Julie and Maya. James, Maya, me and Natty waiting to board the plane.

The girls have just reached an age where they seemed to be enjoying each other a little, but we sadly said "good-bye" to the Bellinghams in Miami, not sure if we'll ever see them again.

Although Natty takes a few days to warm up to new people, my parents have really loved watching her at this new, fun stage.

Natty's "Papa" feeding her dinner.

She's getting much more comfortable with them now and it is a delight for me to watch them interact and give me and Scotty a chance to escape a bit and do some dating again. Our first date since Scotty's birthday in April was a trip to Border's and out to a local Mexican dive, where we were able to chat with our waiter in Spanish (which scored us some free chips). A few days ago, we crashed my best friend's parents' house (which was like a second home to me growing up) to soak up the sun and float in the pool. Natty had her first dip, surprising me and Scotty by loving it and happily splashing around. Poor thing has done a lot of sweating since we've arrived- a feeling she's not at all accustomed to in La Paz. Days like that are exactly what I have been dreaming about in the weeks and months leading up to our return. We can't wait to catch up with more friends and see Scotty's parents this weekend!

Friendly ladies, cranky baby

I had one of those afternoons where just about everyone wanted to talk to or touch Natty- and she wasn't having any of it. The first tooth just arrived last night, and with it, a heightened degree of fusiness that we have not experienced before. So, as we arrive at the pediatrician's office, I'm happy that she seems to be entertained by a young girl sitting across from her. Then, this old lady sits down next to us, practically on top of my diaper bag, and starts mumbling incoherently. Then comes the touching. There is no etiquette on baby-touching here- it was the same way with the pregnant belly...if you can reach it, you can touch it. So here come the hands toward the face- very dirty hands, I must tell you- and there was lots of face groping and patting and caressing, as well as hand grabbing. And all the while, mumbling. I wondered where this lady came from and who was responsible for her. She held out her hands several times like she wanted me to hand the baby over to her. I'm not too down with giving my baby to very old, dirty-hands lady that doesn't seem to know how to speak. I smiled and prayed that she was healthy (we were in a doctor's office waiting room) and shook my head, explaining that she scares easily- which is true. She was border line about to bawl but seemed rather fascinated with this cloudy-eyed woman. Then, up she went and back she came with her caregiver/daughter/younger friend (??), who sat down on the other side and started stroking Natty's head. Now they were coming from two directions and I thought I might just bust out of my seat and politely explain I needed to go to the restroom. The pair eventually moved to another row of seats where there were two open together, but the old lady would periodically come back, almost trying to take Natty out of my arms, and the younger one would say, "no, honey, you're going to drop her.". Oh, boy. So then, after a traumatic visit with the pediatrician, in which Natty screamed her head off the entire time like that little measuring tape they put around her head were squeezing her brains out, we went back into the waiting room to wait for the nurse to come and give her 2 injections- perfect. So, a little girl came over who appeared to have pink eye and started babbling a mile a minute about babies and how they eat and what her little sister is like and also interpretting every sound Natalie made..."She wants to eat the grapes whole. She wants to eat them faster. She's bored." Again, I wondered who was responsible for this child. Of course, Natalie likes small people, so she was trying to reach out and grab the girl's face, which had me a bit concerned about pink eye. But, at least she wasn't screaming...until the vaccinations. So, thankfully after that joy ride through the pediatrician's office, we came home and she was actually cute and happy and laughing until bedtime- which made up for all the screaming. God has given us a great gift in this little girl.

An Unforgettable Night

We met with Greg yesterday to go over our end of term reviews that are part of what SIM requires before returning on home assignment. Filling out the review form and thinking about the last 3 years was a great exercise in being reminded of all that God taught and the continued need to be open to where He is leading and how He wants to change us. One thing that stood out to us as a continued frustration is how different we, foreigners, deal with time. I have realized how tied to the clock I have been all my life and we see how loosely most Bolivians hold onto time limitations...there really are few limitations when it comes to time. We see so much benefit in this, but it is so hard to conform to this way of living when you are used to punctuality and starting and ending times. Last night, God threw me a big test after talking through these things with Scotty and Greg- realizing that I was the one that needed to change my atitude about it. We were invited over by good friends who have been working on their house for several years- it's on the same street we will be building on. They still haven't finished, but they've gotten it to a point where it is livable and they wanted to throw us a going away party and celebrate the fact that they've finally moved in. Great idea! They invited other good friends who live at the end of the street and some of their family. I had talked with my friend on Sunday and we had planned for a little after 7, since Natalie goes to bed at that time. We called a friend to come over to be in the house while Natty sleeps and took off about 7:30, realizing that showing up on time would not be the best idea. We've been running hard these past few days and I was already tired, although looking forward to hanging out with these families. When we walked over to the house, there was no one there. Not too surprising. When we called our friend, she said, "can you come at 8:30?". 8:30??? I must say, that was the point where I totally forgot about the need to change my attitude. I was a bit upset, to say the least. We walked back home and spent the next hour chatting while waiting for everyone to show up. By the time we were ready to leave again, I had calmed down and wondered if I should bring up the issue at all. We went back and the house had been opened by another friend, but our friend still wasn't there. She came about half and hour later and explained the long list of things that had caused her to run behind in everything. After hearing her explanation, I realized how short of grace I had been and that I would want someone else to understand and be patient if I were in the same situation. Well, we all sat down, they cranked up the English ballads from the 80's, and we waited for dinner to be finished...I was getting pretty tired by this point. There was lots of excited conversation going on, kids running around, Air Supply crooning in the background, promises of karoke later in the evening and our friend promising us "an unforgettable night". Oh! Don't worry, I thought, it already has been.

Around 10 we finally ate, talked, started the first fire in their fire place, and out came the karoke videos. We sang a few and then Scotty and I reluctantly explained that we needed to leave to relieve the babysitter and also because he had to get up early this morning to head to Sajama, the highest mountain in Bolivia, which he intends to summit in the next 3 days. Then, as Bolivians are so skilled at doing, they blessed us by sharing how much we mean to them, how much we have affected their lives and how much they will miss us. We have been very humbled in the last week or so as various friends share these going-away thoughts and confirm what we sometimes wonder- that God really is using us here. Back to the house by 11:30- it was truly an unforgettable night.

The count-down

We leave for the US in 2 weeks! Because of this fact, I have been too busy to blog but I thought I'd throw a quick one out there to notify everyone of this. I also will not be adding pictures because I just let my computer do "updates" and it has wreaked havoc on my programs- including rendering me incapable of using the program I used to use to shrink pictures. I need to become more computer savvy. Anyway, it continues to get cold here- I am wearing a long sleeved shirt, sweater and fleece in the house. The air is crisp inside, even when it has warmed up considerably outside. Therefore, I am ready for the Florida summer, even though I haven't experienced that kind of humidity since 2006. I went through my wardrobe today and threw out socks I think I've had for 10 years in an effort to consolidate, figure out what I need to buy when we're home, and make room for the boys who will be living here while we're away. God has answered a big prayer in providing a family to take our cats! All we have left now is some more organizing, packing up a whole bunch of stuff and trying to get together with all our friends before we go. I feel like this is what has been going on in the last few weeks. I've thought many times about how wonderful it will be to be in the states with our friends and family, but how nice it is that we aren't leaving feeling burned out or that we're tired of this place. It is a good time to go and we are leaving things in very capable hands. We will miss our friends here but know that the break will be healthy and a great time to meditate on all God has taught us in these almost 3 years and seek out what He wants to do in the next phase.