Lisa turns 30!

I turned 30 yesterday. I'm now in the same decade as Scotty, for the first time ever. I have a wonderful husband, an adorable, sweet baby girl and live in an incredibly beautiful place where God is at work around us. I am content at 30. Although, it does feel weird to say I'm 30...

We ran some errands in town on Friday and took a break to play with the rocks in the "park" outside of the office. Natty LOVES rocks. She wants to marry them. There are tears when you take her away from them. It's tragic.
She enjoyed sharing rocks with this cute little girl who was hanging out with her mom at the park. A couple poor ladies hang out in this 8-10 car parking lot everyday, all day, hoping to "watch" the cars that park there and get paid about $.15 or $.20 to make sure the cars don't get stolen or damaged...I'm not sure what would happen if someone attempted it.
Let the festivities begin. Apparently, this copious, American-style breakfast buffet has existed for eons at a nice hotel in town- but we never knew about it. We do now. And we ate until ready to pop. It was glorious and Natalie was an angel.
They bribed her with Mickey Mouse-esque pancakes. She really liked the "mit", which is how she says "meat".
Good friend Andrea, along with her husband, Andy, and their four adorable boys joined us over a leisurely all-you-care-to-eat pigout.
Once Natty finished the "mit", she headed outside to try to get as wet as possible and soil the white, velour pants I put on her that morning in a moment of insanity.
Can you tell that Natty has passed her morning nap time? She was still an angel.
After Scotty volunteered to get up early, as I usually do, to make coffee and get Natty, he presented me with this funky, cool ring. I love it.
We rounded out the day with a visit to the "MegaCenter"- La Paz's new mall which houses a beautiful, new movie theatre. We saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D because they didn't have it in English in the normal 2D...who cares to watch Johnny Depp dubbed in Spanish?? Not me. We adored the movie.

So, my birthday was all I hoped it would be. I am blessed.

Proof of Life

Check out the scratch at the top of the drawer. Natty bites when she gets mad.

For an explanation of this post, look here.

Privileged

This weekend was busy. We knew from Friday on the days would be full of meetings and Bible studies and get-togethers and even though they would take most of our waking minutes (or the preparation for them), we were excited to be involved with our teammates and the ones God has sent us here to serve, our fellow church members. We had one particular meeting that lasted almost 5 hours with the leaders of IBM. Greg started us out by asking fantastic, challenging questions about our dreams and goals and I found myself wondering why those words scare me. I don't consider myself a visionary and even though I am a type of leader, I don't consider myself the one that launches out to start new ministries. I found it difficult to think, off the top of my head, in terms of a specific plan I would want to put into place if I had to leave La Paz in one year. I found myself thinking of the common, daily interactions I seek out with women in the neighborhood (which aren't yet daily, but I'm hoping they will become), inviting people over for dinner and talking about life, hosting events, baking for those who just had a baby. These are things I love to do but I can't say that I have a plan of action regarding them, other than praying that God would more and more give me His heart for these women and families and more of a pure passion to serve them. I felt a little guilty that I didn't seem to have the same kind of vision as others in the group. I'm still wrestling with what all of it means for me...

One thing I found rather encouraging was when my pastor began to remind everyone that even these handful of hours we were spending together was a small sacrifice for our church. He talked of the missionaries, including us, who have left behind our country and our families, sacrificing time that grandparents get to spend with their grandchildren, birthdays, sad occasions, celebrations, etc... in order to come here and live and work alongside Bolivians. I found what he was saying to be true, but instead of a self-satisfaction in being recognized as one who has given up much, I instead found myself thinking of how generous God has been with me and Scotty to invite us to be a part of His kingdom in La Paz. How privileged we are that God would choose such imperfect creatures to be a part of a perfect plan. How blessed we are to be friends with our friends and experience a culture that is so rich in love, hospitality and generosity. We have given up much, but we have been given so much more.