Friday, December 28, 2007

Christmas in paradise



I had a hard time trying to amp up for Christmas time. Our friends Mitch and Ranae had moved back to the States and other friends here all were heading back to the States or Canada. And of course the warm weather is hard to get use to, especially when I grew up with cold Christmas'.

At the last minute we found some of our friends, one of the teachers at the school we help out at and her sisters, in town and wanted to know if they wanted to come over Christmas day or eve to hang out. The tradition here is to wait til 12 am christmas to really celebrate. they shoot fireworks have a big dinner and open gifts. the family that we invited over don't really have the resources to celebrate. they don't do presents or fireworks and they just have same dinner as they always have, beans and rice. it is so hard for me to see families that can't even go to the local $1 store to get a gift for their kids. we invited them over for christmas eve to celebrate with us, they were so excited.

it ended up being 13 plus us 4. everyone wanted to come. we had grandma, her 3 daughters, grandchildren and 2 neighbor kids came. i really didn't have much planned so we grilled hot dogs and bought fireworks. we all had a blast!! it was so great to see all the kids light some fireworks and the old faithful sparklers. it made it really special to just spend time with each other and not focus on who got how many gifts, or the best gifts. we didn't stay up til midnight but trust me the fireworks woke us up anyway...haha

Monday, December 17, 2007

Butterfly, Flutterby



sunday, it was just a nice day. no other explaination. we hung up the hammocks, there was a slight breeze and just a bit of clouds. (sorry to all those with the freezing weather) it was so peaceful. as we were swinging away, the most beautiful thing happened, hundreds of tiny yellow butterflies were flying by. we were blessed enough to be there at the right time to see as they passed by. if there was a perfect day here, the best family day!!!

adios and enjoy your own "butterflies" wherever you are.
enjoying where i am,
rhonda

ps. to all those with the snow and the freezing cold, i do envy you a bit. it is so much easier to get into the holiday mood with a bit colder weather. and josiah continues to pray and ask if God can make it snow here in Nicaragua too.;)

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

First time for everything

well here we are finally with a minute to breathe. i have wanted to do this for some time.

this year has been a whirlwind and i am looking forward to a bit of retrospect and giving much thanks to our Lord for his amazing grace and mercy on our lives. i thanks him alone for his ability to guide us even in the dark, when we have no clue what to do or should do. the key is to just give him your hand to be guided. so easily said, and definately a daily decision.

i hope this will be a first of many a blog....
hablamos pronto (we will talk soon)
adios, rhonda