The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17
After our return from Peru, Grandma and Granddaddy stayed another week to celebrate Thanksgiving. Uncle Nathan & Aunt Laura came too! The kids were thrilled to have everyone in their space and are still talking about it. We loved hosting our first Thanksgiving for our family.
Amelia working on strawberry pie.
There were lots of books read since there were new readers to employ.
Since we don't have cable, Patrick set us up to watch the Macy's Parade through online streaming. But they only allow the first 45 minutes to be watched - so we all watched the opening and then moved on to other activities.
Like playing broom ball with Granddaddy and Uncle Nathan in the garage.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Satisfied.
(As a side note, she bartered for leftover sweet potato casserole every meal (including breakfast) until it was gone.)
This awesome airplane has been well preserved and played with by Amelia.
We set up our Christmas tree after rest time so our family could enjoy it with us. Amelia enjoyed hanging all the ornaments.
Happy to vacuum the (fake) fallen needles.
Because Uncle Nathan is that cool.
Pretending preschool, even on a holiday
These two had some fun goofy games. Austin gave his uncle quite the core workout!
Hanks boys
The kids have spent days asking when Thanksgiving is coming again, when will their family be here to visit again and pretending many of their activities together. We hope it won't be the last time we get to host! Thank you all for traveling into the cold North to celebrate with us!
The kids looked forward to Grandma & Granddaddy's visit for weeks, knowing we would be leaving but they would be coming made all the difference to how they responded to the trip. Grandma let me grab the photos off her camera of the fun they had while we were gone. I can give captions to the ones I've heard the stories about. :)
We have a significant Indian community in our neighborhood so they took the kids for a walk to see all the houses lit up for Diwali (festival of lights)
Coming out of preschool
They introduced the Peanuts characters to the kids. Amelia & Austin think that watching the 2 minute Peanuts movie trailer is the same as watching the movie - but they still ask to watch it daily.
We are so thankful for parents who will not just come and care for the kids while we traveled, but were gracious and enthusiastic about coming, flexible with the nuances of each kid and dealing with the processing of our absences that each one had (by not sleeping and tantrums). Patrick and I spent our 10 days never once worrying about the kids or how they were being cared for. And we are so very, very thankful for that. The kids are still pretending many of the games they invented with Granddaddy and telling me "how Grandma did things". :) It fills our hearts with joy.
Most of the readers of this blog know that I lived in Peru for a time in college and returned frequently, bringing my parents and Patrick to Lima to meet the people and country that claims part of my heart. Our last trip had been in 2011 when I was pregnant with Amelia. In the autumn of 2014, one of my 'little sisters' was engaged to be married and they set the date for November 2015. Patrick knew the desire of my heart was to be at her wedding so we set out to plan the trip. Patrick's parents were gracious and agreed to come take care of the kids while we traveled and free us to really enjoy ourselves, so we planned an Amazon River cruise after our Lima visit.
What occurred over this past summer takes more time to tell, but basically the wedding was called off and then postponed and we became pregnant with this baby #3. So after much prayer and consideration, we decided to continue with our plans to visit Lima and my Peruvian family there, but cancel the Amazon River cruise portion of our trip.
The story of our 7 days in Lima is one of God's gifts of mercy and care for us, over and over again. I had been experiencing severe pain from a fall while hiking in Shenandoah, and while that pain didn't disappear, God provided during the 8 hour flight down and in our accommodations where I could be comfortable. Our hosts, Laura & Vico, both had to work during our visit so we weren't able to do as many 'activities' as we might have previously, but instead found ourselves passing hours in conversation, catching up on the past 5 years, playing many hours of Rummy, and eating. Lots of eating. The most obvious, even miraculous, gift that God provided was the return of understanding and speaking Spanish in my mind. I was sure after 5 years that I would find myself floundering, frustratingly translating back as a beginner. Instead God just placed the connections in my brain and I found myself thinking and conversing in Spanish without that awkward transition stage. At times, it even seemed more fluent than when I lived there - and there is no explanation for that except God's intervention in my brain. Even Patrick was able to understand far more than in past trips and was perplexed at how it would be possible.
One of our evenings playing cards with Estefani
A family dinner - Laura made my favorite, Lomo Saltado!
Somehow Patrick and I managed to fly to Peru with only carry-ons and two quilts in them. This one I made for Laura as her favorite colors are blue with yellow and green.
Their cousins live downstairs and have three young boys. We played with Diego a lot during our last trip. He's a preteen now and we didn't see him much, but his little brother Adriano (5) enjoyed learning how to play Memory and Go Fish with us.
Anytime you read a tourbook on what to do in Lima, they always tell you go to go the Catacombs. Somehow Patrick had never been (probably because the rest of us have been a dozen times and never thought about returning). So one morning we toured them per his request. Unfortunately they've stopped allowing photos in the cathedral and catacombs so there isn't much photographic evidence that he's finally seen them.
What Patrick was really excited about that day - ceviche & jalea!
We were all able to get away one day to visit an archaeological site in Pachacamac (at the southern edge of Lima). It's a large site with pre-Incan and Incan ruins all built on top of each other. You are allowed to walk or drive around its perimeter (about 3km) and we opted to walk.
After about a mile in the girls decided they were done and walked back to get the car.
Old city and new city, side-by-side
The girls driving by (we were just about done with the circuit anyways!)
The Sun Temple - which we decided to ascend and walk around.
View of the Pacific from the Sun Temple
Heading back down
We offered to cook a few meals for Laura as she was pretty swamped with work. Patrick made breakfast one morning, I baked cookies one afternoon and dinner another night. They'd never had peanut butter cookies, baked ziti, garlic bread or chocolate chip cookie bars before and they were hits! Although cooking in an oven with no temperature gauge was interesting.
This little guy, Sebastian, is one and is the youngest brother of Diego & Adriano. He would come to us and play games and let us tickle him, but we could not get him to crack a smile or laugh. Then Patrick pulled out the "Paint Sparkle" app on the iPad and he transformed into a grinning toddler.
Patrick taught Sebastian how to do "fists" or "knuckles" and the entire family loved it.
Adriano got a little iPad painting too.
We only had time for a short dinner with Gino and Carmen who are also dear family of mine in Peru. I lived with them the longest and Gino came down to help officiate our wedding. We had a quick pizza meal and I was able to give Carmen the other quilt I had made and brought down for her.
Mama Rosa, the matriarch of the family who lives with Laura & Vico. She told me daily that she loved us, was praying for our children and parents at home, and that she predicts this baby is a girl. But Laura later informed me that every baby is predicted to be a girl. :)
Blanca, a dear friend that I served with in the kitchen for weeks. We had an afternoon to visit together at her booth in a local market.
Heather is an American missionary currently serving as a teacher. She knew I was in town and set up to bring me to Blanca to surprise her. Such a sweet treat to talk with these ladies for an afternoon.
On our last afternoon, the ladies went out for a movie and lunch. Since it was an early show, we had the entire theatre to ourselves.
What a tremendous set of memories we made in that week in Lima.
Once we cancelled the Amazon River cruise, Patrick looked into our staying in NYC for two nights after flying back in Newark. Using a variety of last-minute deal apps on our arrival in the US, he got us a super-cheap hotel room right off Times Square. It was so much fun!
We headed to the TKTS booth that first evening and got tickets to a Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder - very funny!
Groupon for a food tour of Little Italy was also a great way to spend an afternoon. The 'youngest' place we visited was 110 years old.
Frank Sinatra's favorite bakery - it was yummy!
Our second night we went and saw "An American in Paris" which was also awesome and somehow we scored 4th row seats at the TKTS booth.
A great little getaway after our bigger getaway - we enjoyed eating our way through NYC for those 2.5 days. But we were happy to head back to our munchkins at home.
