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!