The week with my sister, brother in law, and my adorable niece and nephews went by way to fast. Here are some highlights from the week we shared together…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can hardly believe it. Even though it has come and gone now, I still am in shock that my sister, her husband, and three kiddos made it down here!! They were here for a whole week-to explore Nicaragua, and meet the newest member of our family. It was so much fun to have them here.

I don’t even know where to begin! Okay, so there are five of them, plus three of us, which just by default makes us a traveling freak show. It began right away, at the airport, because hello, five blond hair and blue eyed beauties-Nicaraguan people really don’t see that very often! Just when I thought I got looks being foreign and pregnant here, man, it is hilarious to see people stopping what they are doing to see a line of five toe heads walking down the street. Cracked us up every time!

Anyway, we started the week off with a sweet boat tour of a local estuary. We opted for the three hour tour (Doesn’t Gilligans song just pop into mind when you hear those words??). The five hour tour included seeing some giant crocodiles-which everyone really wanted to see- but we opted out because A. we didn’t know how long Eliana and the kids would do and B. the guide said they can be 15-20ft and while it might be cool to see one, we weren’t sure how sketch that might be with four kiddos on board! The three hours was perfect, seeing as how it was a slow tour down the river. We spotted birds, iguanas, ROUS’s, (well, a giant raccoon that is) some amazing trees that the roots actually grow up out of the ground, and oh yes,need I forget, mosquitos. Thankfully, they were just on land when we got off the boat to look around, and we stopped to look at an old well and before we realized it, Kate-my sister’s youngest, had four on her head, and I had five on my back. We ran like crazy to the beach, and sprayed down again, and hoped back into the boat. Yikes.

 

Sunday was Mothers Day, and oh what a day. My very first Mothers Day, and one that I have been waiting a long time for. It was perfect. It was an extra treat to be spending it with my sister, one year after last years somewhat awkward Mothers Day. Side note: I have to share this story with you, stick with me. Every year I do something little for my sister for Mothers Day, and last year she felt like she really wanted to get me something for Mothers Day. The background is, we had been praying about “thanking God for the miracle before He does it” a very bizarre concept someone on a short term team in Haiti was talking with me about. I didn’t understand what that meant, and so I talked with my sister a lot about it. How do thank God for a miracle He has yet to do? Isn’t that audacious? Or presumptive? Or just plain odd? I had never heard of it, and neither had she. So, we decided to start praying for the miracle of a child in mine and Brandon’s life. This would of course have to be a miracle, because at that point we had been trying to have kids for almost four years. In addition, we were talking about adopting, and trying to that from Haiti would take nothing short of a miracle. So we started praying. And as my sister began to pray, after a few months, Mothers Day was approaching. She felt the Holy Spirit telling her to send me something for Mothers Day, in particular a baby blanket. She thought, no way. We are super close, and she thought for sure I would freak out and be upset. I mean, that is pretty risky. She prayed about it and prayed about it, and off it went to arrive in Haiti for Mothers Day last year.

I cannot tell you the emotions I felt when I opened up the package. I was confused at first. Then just irritated. And then I cried. That is, until I read her card. She explained everything that I just shared with you, and I was impressed she had the courage to send it, I don’t know if I could have if I were in her position. The funny part was, I put it aside in the back of my closet and didn’t really think much more about it. I didn’t want to dwell on it and start to hope again. Nor did I want this constant reminder of what I didn’t have. So, I just moved on. Well, barely over a month later we found out we were pregnant.

Even a year later, it brings tears to my eyes to remember such events. I love the way the Lord works. He is so amazing. His plans are so intricate, and intimate. One year later, after a huge step of faith for both of us and especially her, we are celebrating mothers day-together. She booked the tickets to come here sometime in March and we didn’t even realize she was going to be here for Mothers Day. But God did. All along He knew what He was doing, and He watched as two women continued to put their trust in Him. He heard our prayers, and the prayers of many of our dear family members and friends who prayed alongside of Brandon and me for a child for so long. Oh what a long awaited and special day.

 

 

 

The next week, Brandon’s dad came to visit, and it was super fun to hang out with all of us. We wanted to show them Nicaragua, and they were ready to get out and see the sights! Since we’ve only been here about five months, we still are pretty new to everything as well. So it was fun for us to get out and see some things for the first time as well. This included a day trip to Selva Negra 0a beautiful forest and coffee plantation up in the mountains, and then a trip to one of Nicaragua’s many volcanos, we took them downtown in Leon and showed them the old churches and buildings, we did a tour of the old Rum Factory,we went to the beach near by, and also spent our last day together at a different beach just south of Managua. We were able to do so much because Eliana is such a trooper-she was perfectly happy hanging out in the car and on the road, as some places we went were almost three hours away! We had such a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa-the time just flew by!

kja

It was so special to have them both come and visit-to love on our sweet Eliana. I cherished the sweet moments like these, watching them both play with her, love on her, sing to her, and enjoy her-what a treat to have family come and visit!!

We went to Selva Negra-the Black Jungle-and it was amazing. It’s about 2.5 hours away from us, and it might as well be a different country! It was about 20 degrees cooler, had large forest trees, and is home to these creepy monkeys called “howler monkeys”. They howl howl. Close your eyes and imagine the low growl of a tiger/lion. And that is the sound they make. No lie. We tried to get it on video but it didn’t work too well. Mom was all about it-she wanted to go and see her some monkeys! I however, have realized over the years, I in fact do not like monkey (the last time I was on an island with them in India it totally creeped me out!) Dad and Brandon took off for a more serious hike,so I humored mom and we went on this little trail through the jungle to try and find these monkey. We had no luck at first, much to her disappointment and my relief. Until about halfway in, all alone, we hear them. And it sounded like it was right above us. It was so loud and so creepy, mom actually clenched my arm and hid behind me and Eliana! ha! Mom says, “they are wild animals, what if they attack us?” I couldn’t help but laugh, yes of course they could attack us, we aren’t at the zoo with nets around us! We spotted one way up in the trees, and the sound freaked us both out enough to get the heck out of there.

This was outside this really old church made of stone. There were tons of trails to take and explore too…

The next day we went down to Masaya, and drove up to see the volcano there. It’s supposedly the most easily accessable volcano in the world-made for lazy people-you can just drive right up to it! And since this mama is way out of shape and not ready to do hiking without any shade and a baby attached to me, it was just perfect! We drove right up to the top, and got a lecture on how we can only stand there for 10 minutes. I guess the fumes/chemicals/sulfur is so strong, that they don’t let you stay up there very long. The volcano was amazing. Unfortunately, all that gas means smoke and we couldn’t see as much as we would have liked. But it was so cool. I couldn’t help but smile to myself, as I thought about how cool God is. I mean, He is so creative. Why make a volcano? What is that there for? It’s a huge mountain with hot hot stuff in it that sometimes spews out. This volcano actually erupted about a year ago, and visitors had to wear hard hats for a while. Hmmm. No hard hats that day, but it was still kinda crazy knowing it could just start raining rocks or lava!

Our last day mom and dad took us to this beautiful hotel right on the ocean! It was close to Managua, where they were going to be flying out of, so we went down on their last day and had a lovely time together hanging out on the beach soaking up the rays. It was so pretty right on the water, and our hotel was really nice. It was odd since it was in the middle of no where-literally a 40 minute drive down a dirt road led us to this hotel and some swanky houses. We didn’t care, we just hung out by the pool and ate yummy food. And yet it was a bittersweet, since it was our last day together. Driving them to the airport the next morning was hard, it sucks saying goodbye. But, what a wonderful time we had with them, and we’re so so thankful they made the trip out here to meet Eliana and see where we live. We are thankful for them, for family, and so thankful for modern technology that makes living so far apart a little more bearable.