Micah Update #2

Micah has made a great improvement in the last 24 hours. He is no longer on the respirator! Derek and Claire have had a chance to update their blog with a lot more detail. Here is a link to their blog.

http://derekandclaire.blogspot.com/

Thanks everyone for praying!

Happy Thanksgiving

Ella wanted to share a special Thanksgiving greeting to our friends and family.

For those of you who have not yet become fluent in child gibberish here is the interpretation of Ella's song.

Johnny Apple-seed

"Oh the Lord is good to me and so I thank the Lord,

For giving me the things I need, the sun, the rain, and the apple-seed,

The Lord is good to me, Amen, Amen... Amen, Amen, Amen.... AAAAAAAmen."

We are thankful today for the many blessings that have been lavished upon our family. The Lord has truly "been good to us." Thank you for the encouragement, love, and joy that you bring to our lives. We pray that you have a wonderful holiday and are reminded today of the incredible blessings that surround you. We wish we could celebrate with you. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Micah update #1

The latest news on Micah has been positive so we are thankful for that! The latest blood tests on Micah show that the infection seems to be getting better. So the antibiotics are working. Micah is also starting to breath over his vent every once in a while, but the plan is to keep him on the respirator until his infection is better. So it seems like some progress is being made, little by little.

The difficult thing is that Derek and Claire really have very little contact with Micah. The visiting hours in the NICU are only 12-2pm and 5-7 pm. Right now there are a lot of babies in the NICU so Derek and Claire are not even allowed into the room. They can only look at Micah from a window outside the NICU. You can imagine how hard this had been for them! When I spoke with Claire yesterday she said that the comments and e-mails you have sent have been so encouraging for them. So please keep the encouraging words and prayers coming.

Prayers for Baby Micah

Many of you know from previous posts that we are so blessed to have another American family here in Sucre with us, who also works for FH. This weekend, Derek, Claire and Noelia were blessed when Claire gave birth to a baby boy, Micah. The birth was a bit of a surprise as little Micah came a few weeks early, but not early enough to be considered a premie.

However, after Micah was born, it was evident by his blueish tint that he was not able to breath well enough on his own to get enough oxygen. He was rushed across the street to a larger hospital that has a NICU and put in an incubator with an oxygen hood. (The only NICU in town.) They also found out that Micah has some kind of infection, what kind they are not sure of yet. Micah seemed to be improving, until Saturday, when he started to go down hill quickly. He is currently on a respirator and more stable than he was on Saturday. But he is still fighting an infection which seems to be preventing him from gaining enough strength to breath on his own.

Please take a moment as you read this blog to lift little Micah and his family up in prayer. They would all greatly appreciate it. I will forward on to the family any comments, words of encouragement, or Bible verses you may have for them.

I will try to update his progress on our blog as I know more.

Thanks for your prayers!

Language School

We are plugging away at language school. It is hard to believe that we have been at it for almost 3 full months! The language has most definitely been the hardest thing in our process of adjusting to our life here in Bolivia. Not only does it complicate all matters when it comes to normal daily activities, but the language learning process has at times been discouraging and draining. It seems like the more you learn about the language, the more you realize how far you really are at being able to speak correctly. We are currently going through a period in our learning, where grammatically we are progressing, but verbally we are taking a step back. Mostly because we know more now, and it's difficult when you are trying to not only get your point across to someone, but you are also trying to choose your words so you speak correctly!

We are fortunate in that the program that John will be working with for FH will not be starting until Jan 15th. That means we will have time to take an extra month of language school than we had originally thought! This is a great blessing for us, even though there is a part of us that would just like to be done with the classes and homework! We do recognize that it is a great opportunity and valuable for our ministry.

I don't want to make language school sound like a total drag! We do get to do some pretty fun activities and meet some interesting people. We have gotten to meet people from all around the world, other missionaries and a LOT of students and young folks who are traveling around South America for fun. Because our school is for language study and cultural study we have had the opportunity to see some of the cultural museums around town, taste some of the Bolivian food, and visit other historical areas in Sucre.

Last week I (Jennie) got to visit the one and only "castle" in Bolivia. Back in the 1800's there was a very wealthy couple who lived in Sucre. They decided to adopt poor children in the area and give them a good education. Overall they ended up adopting over 50 children. They build a "castle", each room having influence from different countries - mostly different European designs. There is even a small replica of Big Ben. Eventually they were given the title "Prince and Princess of Bolivia" even though they held no political power.

Here are some of the pictures from that day:

Entrance to the Castle

Tower for star watching. When you are climbing up to the top, it seems ALOT higher. My legs were not quite the same for a few days afterwards.

View of the gardens from the tower.

A Little Bolivian Music to start off your week!

I have finally figured out a way to post videos on our slow server here in Bolivia!

Thought I would start with this video. We were eating at a pretty touristy place a few weekends ago and to our surprise were in for some live music.

As you can see, Ella and her friend Alana are their newest groupies!

Sorry about the quality of the video. This was the best I could get it!

World Weekend!

This coming weekend, our sending church, Hope Church in Mason, OH, is celebrating World Weekend. Every year the church picks a weekend to lavish love on their local and global missionaries and mission partners. The weekend is filled with wonderful meals, time to share struggles and triumphs with other missionaries, time to share with members of the church about our ministry, and time to just be rejuvenated before returning back to "the field."

If you live in the area we highly encourage you to take advantage of the many opportunities to meet the missionaries and different organizations that Hope Church supports. I think I can speak for everyone that will be there, it is a tremendous encouragement for these missionaries to see face to face the warriors that are behind them and to know that even though at times they may feel alone and forgotten in their work, indeed they are not!

We are bummed that we will not be able to attend this year, as we have just arrived here in Bolivia and are still in language training. However, we are happy to announce that we will be skyping in the service on Sunday evening for a few minutes to share how things are going for us. We look forward to "seeing" you there!

Feliz Cumpleanos!

This weekend Ella was invited to her first Bolivian birthday party. It was quite the cultural event, so we thought we would share all about it.

The first birthday is a huge event here in Bolivia. The parents typically go all out, throwing a huge party for friends and family. Our landlords live in the apartment next to us and their granddaughter turned one last week. Thursday night they came over with an invitation for Ella to come to the party. Ella was SO excited, and we were too! We had heard about these birthday parties and were really interested to get to experience one.

Our landlords are a married couple, probably in their 40's. The husband, Marco, is Swiss and is married to a Bolivian woman (Ruth). We were thankful that Marco warned us about the time on the invitation. Bolivians are not known for their punctuality. Because of this, whenever Bolivians invite people for parties or set meetings etc., they always put a time much earlier than the actual start time. So, when we looked at the invitation, and confirmed that the party started at 9am, Marco quickly said, "Oh, but you are Americans so we can tell you that the party will actually start around 10:30 am." Good to know! So we showed up a bit after 10:30 am and were the 3rd family there. People continued to roll in as late as 11:45 pm!

The party was really great! The first two hours, a clown was the main source of entertainment. We think that he was pretty funny, but he spoke so fast we couldn't understand a word he said. We are getting very good at smiling and nodding our heads in agreement. Ella was also quite scared of him, but eventually participated from afar. Around hour 3 we all gathered around the cakes and the speeches began. Both parents spoke followed by all 4 grandparents. Next were the great grandparents and a few other aunts and uncles as well. Next came the breaking of the pinata, handing out gifts and then eating the cake. Despite the fact that we were the only foreigners there, we actually had a really nice time, Ella had a blast, and we learned a little more about the culture here in Bolivia. Below are some of the pictures from the day.

Ella went shopping with Mommy and was excited to give the birthday girl her present.

Dancing with the clown...Ella made sure she kept her distance from the clown!

Ella and the Birthday girl!

The family getting ready to start their speeches.

Pinata Time

Group Picture

Ella showing off her party prize

Ella's favorite part about the party...her new blue glasses.