Uyustus: Shop till you drop!

Uyustus market from above.

The other afternoon Scotty offered to stay home with the girls so I could do a bit of market shopping.  There are some places in La Paz you really don't want to go through the hassle of dragging small children to and Uyustus St. is one of them.  Uyustus is this amazing assault on the senses that is filled with everything you could possibly imagine.  Clothes, shoes, hardware, electronics, toys, make-up, pool items, household goods, etc...  And, the prices are much better than that same stuff that you could find down where we live.  So, I drove into town, parked, and hailed a cab.  The first 3 rejected me- getting there takes a while through the worse traffic in town.  The 4th guy offered a price, I agreed, and we were off.  Shortly into the drive, he began asking me questions about myself and how long I lived here.  He decided I was practically Bolivian after 7 years in La Paz.  He asked me what I was out to buy today (since everyone knows this market is for those who are doing some serious shopping- this is no quick run-in to Target).  He found out I had 2 girls and laughed, as though I was joking, when I told him we were going to adopt a boy.  We seem to get this incredulous response quite often when we share our plans to adopt.  He shared that he had 4 sons and that they love their mamma.  I told him that's why I needed a son, too- my girls are quite attached to their daddy.  As we neared (after going through lots of sketchy back streets that had me only a tiny bit nervous he was kidnapping me), he kindly reminded me several times to be careful- lots of thieves around here.  I thanked him and was off.  The street runs steeply up hill and is cut into two lanes by vendors set up down the middle.  I'm never quite sure which lane to walk down and tend to switch back and forth indiscriminately, trying to see everything.  It was packed this particular afternoon and every few minutes, hunched over men with enormous, heavy cardboard boxes strapped to their backs would rumble through (always uphill for some reason), calling continuously to make space.  Every block or so would waft the stomach churning smell of something frying in an open skillet.  Occasionally I would duck into side "galleries" to check out larger stores inside the buildings instead of just the vendors set up under tents.  There are easily hundreds of people selling their wares on this street that can't be more than 10 blocks long and it is truly an exhausting experience.  I found the toy ghetto that was another 100 vendors selling mostly the same cheap, Chinese imported toys, with a few Bolivian made crafts dotted throughout or imported, over-priced American items.  I bought nothing there, even though Natty's b-day is coming up in 2 months.  By the time I got down to the end of the street, it was dark, windy, drizzling and rush-hour.  I felt nervous getting in a cab up there- only because I've heard too many stories and known too many people who have had unfortunate experiences with taxis in places like where I was.  I decided to start walking until I got into a more well-known area and saw some interesting things along the way.  Passed the cloth/sewing market, the tupperware/baby goods market, the hardware market, the traditional dress stores, the cheap bridal dress stores and everything in between.  About a mile down, I happened to see a trufi (public transport minivan) heading my way that would take me back to my car.  I squeezed in the front (always my preferred seat since you can only fit one more in next to you and the driver) and settled in for a long ride and some people watching.  It probably only took 45 mins to get back to my car, which isn't bad for rush hour through the middle of town.  And, I actually made it home in time to say good-night to Jubilee.  Want to know what I got?  2 swim caps, 2 lbs. chia (half the price of what they sell it for where I usually shop), a Pooh Uno game for Natty, pink leggings for Natty, white sweater for Natty, and 2 sippy cups.  Was it worth it?  Probably not-but it was fun...

Big sister's prayer

Last night Natty requested that we pray for her little brother.  I think she just wanted to hang out a little longer before going to bed, but what followed was so special to me.  Her prayer went pretty much like this:  "Dear God, thank you for my little brother.  Please help him not to be afraid in the orphanage.  When he cries, let someone run over to him and pick him up.  I pray he will be nice and not be afraid when he comes home.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

It's official...

...We're expecting a baby!  Ok, not in the feeling nauseous, growing tummy, 9 months kinda way...but, in the adoption kinda way!  It might actually include a bit of feeling nauseous and possibly take 9 months, but there's no way to know yet.  We've just taken the very first baby step in meeting yesterday with a lawyer who has worked with two other ex-pat families and seems very competent/nice.  Her mom is a lawyer who actually exclusively does adoptions, so they will make a good team.  What she had to share wasn't very new, since we've asked a fair amount of questions already, but we were a bit disappointed to hear that getting an infant under 6 months of age is impossible.  Even getting one that young is rare.  From how she talked, it sounds like almost everything about your child is completely dependent on who is available at the time you turn in all your paperwork and who the judge thinks would be appropriate for your family.  You can request gender and give a preferred age range, but the rest is up for grabs.  So, we're slightly nervous about that, but also are praying that we can rest in our Father who already knows who this son of ours is, what kind of baggage he might come with and is already preparing us to know how to love him and help him.  So, first step- get our birth certificates translated and "legalized".  We left the lawyer's office feeling very vague about that process, but know of a couple people here who are going through or just finished their adoptions and so we will be bothering asking them lots of questions.  I'm ready to get things rolling, since I know paperwork can often lag in the most efficient of countries and we've been here long enough to know this is not one of those countries.  So, this has officially become an adoption blog in addition to big and fat- I hope it can one day be helpful to someone as so many other adoption blogs have been helpful to me.

It's back!

So, a few weeks ago my computer went a bit crazy and wouldn't let me log on.  I would turn it on and it would slooooowly load up and then turn itself off and repeat this ridiculous process about a dozen times.  Annoying and weird.  Then, we went to Cochabamba for a week and just tonight, we finally got a techie out to fix things.  So simple for him- wish I was more technological.  So, a report from Cochabamba.  Normally, we love this city where we met and love being able to take a half-hour plane ride to get there.  This time, the second we touched down, the faucet in Jubilee's head turned on and there was constant running out of several orifices for the next week.  Boo.  We went a couple days before our yearly SIM mission conference to chill and enjoy the somewhat warmer weather, but ended up cancelling our plans out to the mission cabin on the lake (so peaceful there!) and spending a fair amount of time worrying (OK, maybe it was just me) about J who was running a high fever and coughing too much.  We still felt pretty relaxed by the time at Dale and Debbie's house since they have a nice yard and happened to have the last season of a TV show we are totally into recorded for us to conveniently watch on their big screen.  Score.  Natty adores a yard and morning and night would find her outside crunching leaves, rolling around in the grass and exploring the garden.  I suppose I must admit that the poor girl lives in a bit of a concrete jungle around here.  Just today, however, I asked God to help me not complain about that...so, let us continue.  A good friend of mine that I called when I was worried about Jubilee passed on the prayer request for her health to our pastor who must have conveyed that the situation was a bit more grave then it really was because we received a fair amount of phone calls from our church family, with worry in their voices, asking if she was OK.  At least a dozen people asked me at church on Sunday how she was.  Apparently they prayed together as a church while we were gone and that same day, her high fever passed.  Awesome God.  Anyway, Monday we drove over (with a ridiculous amount of luggage for a week away) to a "retreat" center (we're still in a developing country- so not so "retreat" as I would like) and I have to say I was happily surprised with the locale.  It was big and sprawling and filled with trees and plants and quite pretty.  The rooms were decent and we scored a working bathroom and Natty immediately became best friends with the director's 5 year-old daughter who didn't leave her side but to sleep.  Although we suffered some rough nights with Jubilee still working through her cold and only one nap for her the whole time we were there (she usually takes 1 or 2 a day), it was so nice to be with our SIM family.  I'm not just saying it because maybe some of them read my blog, but I absolutely love our SIM mssionaires.  For the majority of them, this is the one time a year we see them and it is such an encouragement to hear about what God is doing in their lives and churches and just have fun together.  This year, we had "travel logs" by the international members of our team and got fun explanations and pictures of their home counries- including New Zealand, Malaysia, Australia, Argentina, Columbia, Holland, and Switzerland.  Cool, right?  Our days consisted of a fairly early breakfast, prayer time, a morning session with a speaker from the US, lunch, rest time (at which point I usually sat as silently on my bed as possible waiting for Jubilee to fall asleep and usually getting way too frustrated when she didn't), afternoon expo where we got to chat, by region, with missionaries about their ministries, dinner and then games.  The awesome thing about people coming down from the US is that there is always a team that does a kids program so we can drop off the munchkins and focus on grown-up things.  What a gift!  I appreciated the time away and how good it feels to be back in your own bed when it's all done.  So, for the last couple of days, we haven't had internet and I've found myself a lot more productive.  Now that it's fixed, I'll have to be a bit more disciplined in how I spend my time.  Natty is on winter break for a few weeks and I'm hoping to make the most of the time with her.  She loves to be at home, but that means sitting around getting colder in the house.  Today I had on fleece socks, a long sleeved shirt, two jackets and a hat- but I was still cold.  Maybe I should pray about not complaining about the weather, too...  To end on a positive note- I've written to an adoption lawyer so that we could meet up and chat about what the next steps look like.  Eeeeeeee!