Tuesday, June 9, 2009

a beach and more birthdays

Well, I really wanted to sit on my back porch to blog and now that my laptop is finally picking up the Livengood's wireless signal from down below, I can!! I think we're getting a new router when Andrea's family arrives on Saturday, so then I won't have to make sure the weather conditions are right or that I'm sitting in the right position in order to get wireless. I was blessed though to find out that I can actually pick up the Livengood's signal sometimes at my kitchen table or on my back porch like now.

Ok, now I see that I've lost my signal again, so I hope I won't need to type all of this over again!!

Let's see... the big news since the last blog is, of course, our visa renewal trip to Costa Rica. I don't know, do you want the long version or the short version? :) The short version is that we went, had some problems at the Costa Rican border, had some awesome family and relaxing time in Costa Rica, started the return, had some problems at the Nicaraguan border and some police stops in Nicaragua, but with God's help and answered prayers got our new visas and returned safely to La Finca. The longer version includes a lot more details like: errors on the part of border officials and their computer system, leaving our truck sit at the border while we found a hotel for the night, God's assurance via a Cristian restaurant owner that the problems would be resolved, phone calls by officials to San Jose, leaving a driver's license as security so we would be allowed to go in search of some paperwork, truck paperwork problem resolved, relaxing time in Costa Rica, starting our return, talk of a 3 hour wait at the Nicaraguan border for a drug search of our vehicle since someone else with Honduran plates had been caught with drugs, God's help in being allowed to go without the extensive search, a couple of police stops in Nicaragua for the sole reason for them to try and get money, the final fairly easy border and back home in Honduras! Lessons learned: No matter what you think you have learned from previous border experiences: things change and there's always something new or different. AND God is always faithful and it's best to just trust in him so you can feel peace no matter what's going on around you.

Anyway... here's some pictures of the relaxing family times in Costa Rica!





























































































We're all proud of Zack. He learned how to swim under water without holding his nose and with his eyes open. He had a little instruction from Ali, who can't even do it without holding her nose! :)





We were all glad for a time of rest and relaxation together as a family (and with Andrea, who hopefully also had a time of rest and relaxation, even though she had to share a room with my two daughters :) We were also grateful and thank God for bringing us back safely.

























The other big event recently was the celebration of Harlan's birthday, which is actually only tomorrow, June 10th. :) On Sunday, we had a birthday lunch for Harlan and Michele, whose birthday is also the 10th. Our friends, Guillermo and Luz, were able to join us, as well as Alonso and Michele and family, Angel, Andrea, Patricia, Concho, and Danilo. Dwain and Audrey joined us later for desert after they returned from a night away. Guillermo was very impressed that we had three birthday cakes. Chocolate for Harlan and a pineapple cake for Michele, as well as a small peach upside down cake, in case the pineapple didn't turn out well. It was a new recipe. :)
It was a great time of fun fellowship and talking about everything from soccer, of course, to politics. By the way, how many of you knew that there was an important soccer game between the USA and Honduras this past Saturday? You can be sure all of Honduras watched the game!

Birthday pics...











































Then on Monday for their after school project, Angelica, Ali and Zack helped Audrey make Harlan a birthday cookie.




Join us in thanking God for being with us in all things and seeing us through!!



PS. We love to hear from you! :)

4 comments:

Kim said...

Hi Harlan and Janelle! I enjoy reading your blog from over here in Jerusalem! I wanted to suggest an alternative for your posting so you aren't dependent on internet connectivity when writing. I also have a blogger blog, but use Windows Live Writer to write my posts. It's super easy to use and you can write and save your posts off-line. If interested, the free download can be found here:

http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/

Sally said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sally said...

Sorry, messed up other post. The pool looks very refreshing! It's been hot here recently. Glad you could all get away, despite all the issues you seemed to have had. We are planning another GNO if your interested Janelle:)

Crystal said...

Ha! I love Janelle's bunny ears in the pool! Thats so great!

I cant wait to see you guys... just another day and a half or so!