Old ladies and movement.

As I stood on the side of the street today, hand-picking my fruit at the market, a little old lady that I've come to recognize and who recognizes me, came to ask if she could help me carry my bags.  Often I reject the offer of help (even though they expect to be paid a bit), because I think that surely of the two of us, I should be the one doing the heavy lifting.  This lady must be in her '70s and is hunched over a bit and she always tries to make friendly conversation in Aymara, which, of course, I don't understand a word of.  Sometimes a Spanish word will make it out of her lips, like "girl" or "expensive".  The last few times I've let her help me, after placing my bags in the car, she'll say something in Aymara and then pat her chest gently and say, "Michita".  Her name.  She waits until I repeat her name and tell her mine, then she nods her head and walks away.  I was struck today that I live Bolivia's capital city, but can still interact with women who have never learned to speak Spanish.  The diversity is stunning.

We've made progress in all main areas this week!  Scotty had a meeting with the director of Highlands, the school where he hopes to teach next year.  He now knows some concrete steps to take to be ready for that to happen and has been promised a job!  This is huge!  That same day, our adoption lawyer called to let us know that after two months of chasing down someone at the judge's office, she was able to connect and get us an appointment for one of our two last interviews!  The next day, our architect finally sent us what we need to have the engineer begin his part of the deal so that we are one step closer to breaking ground.  Wow!  I was just trying to explain to Natty right before all this happened that God exists outside of the realm of time and is not affected by it, but in control of it.  (Is this a bit complex for a 5 year old?)  So, I prayed with her (meaning she begrudgingly listened to me) that this sovereign God would move things along as only someone in control of time can.  And he did!  We are very thankful and excited to see what happens now.