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Good Morning from Lu

We know this isn't the most flattering picture of Lucy but we thought it was funny. She looks a lot more sleep deprived in this picture than she really is but we are still praying for her naps as she continues to get adjusted to a different pace here in San Jose. Also note her first real wound on her forehead from falling down a hill at the park. You got to be a tough girl to make it here :)

Classes

Typically this blog focuses on Lucy but I thought I would give you a little insight of what our classes are like here in Costa Rica. We are in class from 1:30-4:10 every day. While we are in class Lucy is kept in day care with a dear woman we love named Sonia. Lucy's favorite things at school is the slide, the balls, and walking outside with Sonia. Meanwhile we are studying away in class and making fools of ourselves as we try to learn Spanish :)


This is Lindsey's conversation teacher Francesco. He makes learning a lot of fun by teaching us through dialogs. Every day we have to come prepared to tell the class a story some examples of things we have done: write a recipe in Spanish, tell a story about when you got hurt, and the Parable of the Sower.


This is Lindsey's grammer teacher, Yadira, and Sean's conversation teacher. She is a very sweet and patient woman which we need as we fumble through learning the language.


We give lots of class presentations and this is me giving one about the health problems of Costa Rica.


This is Lindsey's whole class! Its great to be in such small classes because it makes learning so much easier.

El Centro de la Ciudad (Downtown San Jose)

This weekend we toured downtown San Jose. We first had to learn how to take a bus to downtown, which isn't complicated you just have to make sure you get on the right bus. Then once we arrived in downtown we just walked the streets and enjoyed people watching. This was the first time we felt like real tourists here in Costa Rica.


Cam (another MTW missionary headed to Columbia), Zoe (missionary from Atlanta headed to Columbia) and Sean enjoying currios from the street vendor.




Taking a break in the central square.


This central square had lots of birds, it kind of reminded me of Mary Poppins.


Lucy wanted to share her crackers with the birds. They became fast friends.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

One of the things that I (Lindsey) loved to do in Charlotte was to go to the Farmer's market every week. I was thrilled to find out that every Saturday in San Jose there is a "feria" where all the local farmers come in town to sell there fruits and vegetables. The produce here is wonderful- I have had the best pineapple and tangerines that I have ever tasted. So my Saturday morning tradition is to walk about a mile to the farmers market and get all that I can carry home. Then I have to bleach the fruits and veggies for about 20 minutes before we can eat them. Here is everything that I got last Saturday and it was all for less than $6, what a deal!

Babies

Lucy has really fallen in love with her baby dolls lately and we even started to give them names.


She likes to pretend to rock and feed her babies.

Fun times with Lu

I will try to post some pictures soon but in the meantime here is a video to enjoy. We thought this noise Lucy was making was very funny so we tried to capture it in video. At the end of the movie you will notice that we are trying to get her to say "Chao" (Goodbye in Costa Rica). She said it today for the first time to her teacher and we thought it was very cute.

First Day of School

Okay I know I am a dork but I made our family take a first day of school picture. You will notice in the bag beside Lucy that she even has her very own lunch box! We had orientation this morning and had to take placement tests to see what level we are in for our classes. Then in the afternoon our classes began, we have 2 classes one for grammar and the other for conversation for a total of 3 hours.

I believe this picture says it all, we were all worn out when the day was done. Lucy did very well in the nursery even though she didn't take a nap. Our teammate, Erin, graciously volunteered to take Lucy home for the afternoon and let Lucy nap in her own crib. I think Lucy will take some time to get adjusted to being in childcare, only hearing Spanish from her caregivers, and having a little to no nap in the afternoon but I pray that this time of transition would go well and quickly for her.


We put her to bed early because she was so exhausted, hopefully she will get a good nights rest and be prepared for another day tomorrow. Meanwhile Sean and I have homework we have to do!

My Playroom

Our home here in Costa Rica has 3 bedrooms so we decided to make the extra space Lucy's very own playroom. She loves having so much space to play in and we hope it will teach her to play independently.

Lucy loves playing on her world map that Gannie and Mac gave her for Christmas. She is going to be an expert at world geography by the time she is 2.

Lucy's cottage which Aunt KK made for Christmas made its first appearance yesterday when we finally found a table here in Costa Rica. She loves playing in her house and pretends to hide from us.


This picture is taken in honor of Aunt KK because not only did she sew the playhouse but also the outfit Lucy has on. I love you Aunt KK and if you have time you can keep making me cool stuff :)


Every time we have gone to other friends houses to play Lucy has always loved the little chairs so yesterday we got Lucy her very own little chair. She is thrilled!


Where's Lucy?!

Our Costa Rican girl

Lucy has stayed very busy here in Costa Rica visiting many different stores around the city to try to get our home set up. Here we are strolling around the town. It is very hard for us to go on a stroll because of the sidewalks here (or should I say lack of sidewalks).

Our team mate, Erin, gave us this great idea from another missionary family here and that is to bath Lucy in a rubermaid container that we used to pack in. Lucy didn't seem to mind the cramped space and I think we are going to try to stick with this rather than the pool, since it is not inflatable.


This is Lucy's bedroom, and although it is not a great shot you can see the basic layout of the room. We use the twin bed in her room as a changing table for now but if anyone wants to come visit we have a bed for you to sleep on:)


Lucy loves her new crib and has slept amazingly well in it. The streets here are very noisy and so we are quite surprised at how well she can sleep through it all.


We were sad to find out that we can not get Sesame Street on our cable but today we found Barney in Spanish and she seemed to really enjoy it. Hopefully it will make her learn Spanish even more.


Lucy has found her new favorite treat here, and that is bread from a local bread shop right down the road. The only problem is that the bread is so soft and moist it gets stuck on the top of her roof- we think it is funny that Lucy only has a few words in her vocabulary and now one of them is "stuck".



We are trying to get Lucy to speak some words in Spanish. So far she has only said agua (water) but hopefully she will learn "hola" and "chao" soon because for right now she just looks confused when any of the locals try to talk to her.

COSTA RICA!!!

We are here at last and so far it has been quite a adventure. Lucy seems to like our new home, she has had so much fun exploring and loves sitting outside on the porch. The weather here is great for her, cool in the evenings and warm in the afternoon with a cool breeze. Lucy has also slept pretty well so far too which is a blessing to her parents.

We had a extra seat on the plane so Lucy loved sitting by herself and pretending she was a big girl.



This is our new home. It is wonderful, we will post pictures soon of the inside once it is all set up.


Here is a street view near our home. It is beautiful here and you can see the mountains in the background everywhere you go.


This is the porch Lucy loves. There are lots of dogs here so we sit outside and count the woof woofs.


Hanging out with Aunt Erin, our teammate. Lucy has loved spending time with Erin, Mike and especially Maddy so far. They have taken such good care of us and we have loved going around the city, shopping, and visiting all the places we need to know where they are.


This is what bath time will look like for the next few months since we don't have a real bathtub. Lucy loves her pool, it is great entertainment which is a good thing because judging by the amount of dust we got on us today I think Lucy will be getting a bath pretty much every chance we get.

And She's Off...

Today Lucy decided at last she wanted to walk. She has attempted to take 2 or 3 steps before but today she was ready to let go and try. We didn't count but she probably got up to about 10 or more consecutive steps at a time. We think being around Caleb the past few days has really encouraged her to "branch out". She loved all the attention and affirmation she got every time she tried so I am pretty sure in a couple days she should get the hang of it. You will see in the video that Caleb wanted some of the attention too, he always pretended like he was learning to walk when Lucy was- so cute!

Sam comes to Appling

We are so thankful for the friends we have made during our time in seminary at Charlotte and one of those friends are the Hunts. It is always fun when your two worlds collide and that is what happened when the Hunts came to Appling to visit.


This might look like Lucy is tackling Sam but really she is hugging him.


Don't we look like we should be on the cover of some outdoor mom magazine?!






You have to love naked babies in the bathtub, it doesn't get much better than this!



Go Duke!

This post is a little late but this is in celebration of the Blue Devils defeat again UNC last Wednesday night. Go Duke




Grandfathers

We have enjoyed some special time to spend time with our family before we prepare to leave the country. Here are some sweet picture of Lucy and her grandfathers.