Our first Temple Trip in Costa Rica

Last Saturday we went for the first time to the San Jose Temple. The excursion was much different than deciding last minute to run up to the Mesa temple after dropping the kids off at school, having lunch with a friend after and being back in time to pick up the kids from school...no siree...those days are no longer.

This temple trip actually started on Friday evening by driving into town to pick up the local Tico woman who cleans for us and bringing her back here to spend the night, since we had to leave a little before 3 a.m. and needed someone to watch the girls.

We all went to bed around 9:30 to try to get as much sleep as we could before our long day. The only problem is that whenever I have to wake up really early for something, I am worried all night that I actually won't wake up on time, so I don't ever really fall asleep. So, when the alarm went off at 2:30 a.m., it didn't really take me by surprise. Lane, Abram and I were out the door on time and Maricella was up smiling and ready to lock the door behind us. I was thankful that we had someone we felt good about to watch the girls all day.

We drove the one hour to Santa Cruz to meet up with the other members of the branch who would be going as well. First we had to drop Abe off at the Missionaries' apt. because the youth were going in a separate van and not leaving until 6a.m. We drove to their apt. but our cell phone was in a dead spot with no service and we didn't know which door was theirs. We didn 't think people would appreciate us knocking doors at that hour in the morning trying to find them, so we drove back to the church not really knowing what to do because the adult van was already full.

The Branch President was there to see us off (he was not able to go because he had a job interview that day that was really important, seeing as he is unemployed right now). He agreed to walk Abram back down to the missionaries apt. SO the 8 of us adults climbed into the van and off we went in the dark for the 3 1/2 hour drive to San Jose.

The van was a little rickety and there was no AC, but it was too early to be too hot, so it wasn't bad. It was a pretty quiet ride since it was so early.

We arrived at the temple and had about an hour to wait so we walked down to this little "tienda" to grab a snack. The picture above is the outside of it....looks like a good place to buy a snack huh?

Well, the temple is very small but beautiful and it was so wonderful just to walk in the door. It felt very familiar even though we had never been there before of course. I love that about the temple. It was a really nice way to spend several hours. We met up with Abe and the rest of the youth afterwards who were just smiling and glowing! What a great experience.

Abe told us after that he and the Branch Pres. had walked all the way back to the missionaries' apt. and they were probably dead asleep and didn't hear them throwing pebbles at their window! They walked back to the church which was now locked and Pres. had given the key to someone else...so they sat there and had a good chat on the sidewalk for a nice long time.

The whole day was wonderful until the ride home started. You see, there are two different routes that you can take to the temple and I was very grateful that on the way there, we took the new freeway and I felt very safe. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I get EXTREME anxiety about driving on bad roads and in bad weather, in fact I really don't like driving at all, especially when I am not behind the wheel! Well, I soon noticed that we were taking a different route home and I had "heard" about this other road and was NOT a fan, even though I hadn't seen it for myself. It goes over the mountains and the road is very narrow and has steep drop offs on both sides at some points. I am going to embarrass myself here, but I will admit that I started to cry! You see, not only was this a scary road, but it had started POURING rain AND I was sitting in the very back of this van with no air and I felt trapped. Lane quickly saw my fear and knows my anxiety in this situation so he was questioning why we weren't taking the same road back that we came on? They basically said they couldn't afford to pay the tolls which would equal about $8. Well, Lane was quick to hand the needed money up to the driver who said thank you but it was already too late to turn around. I was pretty much a mess inside. I wish I didn't get such anxiety about driving but I think once you are in a bad car accident, it just stays with you for life. Abram rode with us on the way back and he and Lane were both trying to help me do my "childbirth breathing" ha ha....I can laugh now, but not at the time.

I remained in that state for the first hour which seemed like 3....and then all of a sudden my fear just left and I felt totally happy and calm. Lane told me later that he was praying his heart out for me. Thank you honey.

We stopped to eat at this little buffet that had rice/beans and other Tico food. Behind the restaurant was this GORGEOUS garden! It was raining but you can see how pretty it is.

We made it home around 7pm, and greeted our very happy to see us little girls! They had a fun day with Maricella and her baby that she brought with her but they were so glad to have us home.

I was thankful for the experience but so happy to be home safe and sound.

If you live near the temple, please don't take it for granted!

Independence Day in Costa Rica

September 15th is Independence Day for Costa Rica. Lora's school was invited by one of the local public schools to join them in their festivities early that morning. It started at the school with the students and staff singing many patriotic songs of Costa Rica and then ended with a parade down the main street of Huacas. Despite the rain, the children were all very excited and proud to be in the parade. There was only one damper when an obvious drunk driver came speeding right through the rope lines being held at the front of the parade, and he headed straight for the oncoming parade participants! Everyone panicked and scattered out of the way as fast as they could and thank heavens no one was hurt! Very scary for a few minutes there.

Lane took these photos and has several more posted on his FB if you want to see them. This was a fun thing for our family to really see some true Costa Rican culture and tradition.

more school pictures

Fo some reason, I could not get more pictures to load on the first school post, so here are a few more. This school is a k-12 and currently there are about 30 students attending, so it is very small. The woman in the kitchen is Martina and she is the school cook and also cleans. I am able to sub at this school quite a bit and have gotten to know everyone here quite well. Most all the students speak English as their second language and all the teachers speak English, so Lora is not getting exposed to as much Spanish as we would like. We may make a switch with her as well at the end of the semester. A public school is a very poor education but she would be immersed in Spanish....we would definately have to homeschool her as well if we went that route. We will see.

La Escuela: School

Here is the little private school that Lora attends. Emma was attending here as well, until just recently we decided to make a change with her. We are going to do a combination of Public school/homeschool with her. We are still trying to figure out the best school options here.

My Morning Walk

I wake Lora up for school, pack her lunch and then head out the door for my morning walk. The first thing I notice is a frog whose life was apparantly cut short as he tried to make his way across the road in the night. To a girl who has always had a tender spot in her heart for frogs...this deserved a tiny moment of recognition.

Even though the music in my i-pod is turned up, I can still hear the birds, who are extremely loud in the mornings. They are very excited that the night rains are gone and they have a beautiful sunny morning to wake up to! I try to pick up my pace even though parts of the road are seriously slippery and muddy from the rains. I soon hear the shrill voice of the howler monkey cutting through my music and I look up to see two of them hanging in the tree above me as if they were trying hard to get my attention. I don't know if I will ever get used to seeing them...they are just amazing and I could watch them for hours.

Just as I am headed up the "killer hill", I hear a car coming up behind me and soon see my freckle faced Lora hanging out the window with her big smile shouting and waving, "you can do it mom!" That gives me the burst of enery that I need....I make my way to the top of the hill.....

She heads off to school in the nice air conditioned car.

About 30 minutes later, I make it to the turn around point in my walk and I start heading back home. At this point, the music in my i-pod changes to "The Reflections of Christ"....I get that familiar lump in my throat because this music makes me think of Alex. This was his favorite CD before he left on his mission and was one that we played quite often in the house for the months right after he left. This morning though, it had a different affect on me. Here I was walking in this beautiful country, seeing the mist rising up out of the mountainous forests in the distance, and just reflecting on this past year, specifically these past couple months.

It really got my mind thinking and pondering. These are the moments when we are taught by the spirit.

I soon see 3 little boys walking toward me on their way to school in their freshly washed white school uniform shirts. I have compassion on their mother because I know first hand now what it took to get those shirt clean and white. A few minutes later I pass by their "tico house" and there is that sweet mother, hanging clothes on the barbed wire fence and I'm sure hoping that the rain will stall long enough today that they will actually get a chance to dry. I feel a little sad as I look at her house and can clearly see that it has gaps and holes and looks as if a strong wind could blow it right over. It totally touches my heart as I see that she has a large pice of lace pinned up to cover the "window" in the front door. Isn't that just like all mothers, to want to make their home beautiful? Even in her world of so little resources, she somehow manages to bring a touch of beauty to her home.

Right then I see a mother bird sitting on the fence post with her beak overflowing with small twigs and jungle twine, obviously busy at work making her nest. It hits me that the Lord put it into the hearts of ALL mothers to want to make a safe and beautiful home for their children and that this is the root of the reason that I was so unhappy during that week in Nicargua...I didn't see how it was possible for me to make the kind of home that my heart wanted to make there.

I have been feeling guilty about my inability to make life work on Ometepe....but I think this morning, I am past that. I know that we all come to earth in different situations, with different resources, talents and gifts. It doesn't do any good to compare ourselves to others. Those that came to earth in situations that provide far less than what we are used to, are also given the ability to be happy and make the best of what they have, for the most part. For those of us that have been born in places and situations where life is easier in the sense of material things....I know the Lord has different ways for us to stretch and to grow and in some ways, much more is required of us because the day to day task of merely surviving is not an obstacle for us.

I am thankful this morning for my many many blessings. I am so thankful for my firm testimony that God lives and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the Earth. I feel of my "nothingness" without my Heavenly Father. I know that the most important thing I can do as a mother is to continue "making a home" for my children and sometimes when life is hard, I can think of the lace hanging in the window in the house up the road, and I will know that it is always possible to find an element of beauty in my day....sometimes you just have to look a little harder.

Meltdowns and Missionaries

I am not sure why, but when I woke up this morning I could just feel that it was going to be "one of those days." A day where the slightest thing would make me cry and trying to stop once it started was going to be like trying to eat only one OREO cookie once you have gotten out the milk.
This "phenomenon" seems to go along with motherhood, but apparantly it occurs more frequently to women who live in Central America....interesting huh? I didn't even have to read a statistic on that...just figured it out on my own.
Well, I was trying hard to keep it together during the getting ready for church process and during the hour drive. Did pretty well until church started and then the floodgates opened. I couldn't really put my finger on it....I was just feeling extra emotional and missing home and family. The microphone on our chapel needs repair and so it is very muffled sounding and makes it difficult for newbie spanish speakers to understand what is being said, so the meeting was frustrating for me.
I was feeling a little nervous to teach my primary lesson the next hour because I had told the president that this week I would try to do as much as I could in Spanish, and yet I wasn't feeling so confident and not really in the mood to play charades.
Well, primary ended up going pretty well and the kids seemed to understand my "spanglish" for the most part.
Today was a week where we also go to the branch on the beach after our meetings so the people in that area can have church as well. We decided midway home to have Lane drop me and the kids off at home and just have him go to the meeting so that he could offer to bring the missionaries and the Branch President back to our house after for dinner. We knew that with it being fast sunday, they would be ready for a good meal sooner than later and for them to take the bus all the way back to Santa Cruz would put them eating pretty late.
SO, Lane brought us home so that I could start a good dinner. Trouble was the power was out. Apparantly the neighbor said that it had gone out at 9am and wasn't expected back on until 9pm.
It was looking like a nice cooked meal was out of the question, so I started getting out stuff for sandwiches and fruit. The power kicked on at 4pm and Lane and the rest of them got here at 4:15, so at that point I hurried and made some spaghetti. We had fruit, salad and bread to go with it.
Since they missed the first bus, I even had time to make a cake after dinner so they were pretty happy about that. We got to have them here for almost 3 hours and it is amazing how the missionaries can just bring such a great spirit into our home. We just love spending time with them. They are both so happy and hard working and fun to feed I might add, because they love everything! Elder O'Dell goes home at the end of this month and we are really going to miss him. Elder Martinez hopefully gets to stay here in this area for awhile longer. Being around them makes me happy because I just imagine that some other nice family is feeding our missionary son too. And of course we LOVE our sweet Branch President Lopez.
Another great thing that happened was that right before we were ready to eat, our good friend Peno and his 2 children stopped by to say goodbye to us. They are leaving in the morning to go to Italy for 2 months and then they will return here in November. (people do whatever they can to escape the October rains here.) Peno is the man that runs the Pirate's Bay hotel by us and we take his kids to school each morning and then he brings our kids home. He has been so kind to us and we have really enjoyed getting to know him. He is Italian. He speaks fairly good English and so he is one that is trying to help us with our Spanish. We had gotten an Italian copy of the Book of Mormon from the missionaries but hadn't had a chance to give it to him yet. We were so happy that he stopped by tonight because we were able to give it to him, along with a booklet on the Restoration. He seemed genuinely touched and happy to have it. He said he had never known anything about the Mormons, aside from something he saw on tv once and he was very happy to have something to help him learn more. It was a nice little moment and the missionaries were so happy! We felt good about it and hope that when he gets back in November that he will have some questions for us and some thoughts on what he will have read.
We all got to talk to Mariah tonight too and even though it got me crying again, it was so good to talk to her. We are counting the days until Christmas break and she comes to see us!
I feel so grateful for my life and for my experiences, even though some things about this "adventure" remain difficult. I have a quote from Spencer W. Kimball that I carry in my scriptures with me and I want to share it here:

"No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God...and it is through sorrow and sufferring, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we came here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father in Heaven."

I guess the key is learning and growing from our meltdown moments huh? My day is ending much better than it started and I am thankful for that.

Red Tide

I wish that I had a picture of a beautiful sea turtle to post here.....this one was beautiful in its prime I am sure, but unfortanately he is dead now. Lane and I took a nice morning walk on the beach and we saw this turtle washed up. It was very sad....such an awesome creature.

We ended up going for a swim and didn't think much of the dead turtle. Later that day we went down to the Pirate's Bay beach by our house and it was there that we noticed the awful smell and saw many dead fish and eels washed up dead on the beach. In talking with people, we learned that right now it is what is called "Red Tide". It is caused by a toxic algae that reproduces certain times of the year and is actually toxic to the fish and other things in the ocean. Not supposed to be harmful to people but it was suggested that we don't swim until it is gone. It can last a week or two.

Yesterday morning I woke up with a red swollen eye and a teacher at school told me that it could be because I went swimming during Red Tide. He suggested washing my eye with coconut water, saying it is a great cleanser. The guard here brings us coconuts now and then because the kids like to watch him hack them open with his machete, so I will have to get another one asap.

Who knew you could use the juice inside as medicine? Maybe I will try washing my hair in it too. That sounds like it would be good huh?

We are preparing to head into the REALLY rainy season here in a few weeks, but as of right now, we are having alot of rain too. It rains everyday and sometimes more than once. It is supposed to get very intense in October. We usually lose internet during a hard rain, but so far the power outages have been pretty sparce. I hope that doesn't change. The rain doesn't seem to phase the locals. They still walk and ride their bikes everywhere, and push their babies in strollers in the rain. We pick up hitch hikers whenever we have an extra seat and get them some relief from the rain even just for a few minutes.

That's all for now....Pura Vida.