Fall Photos

Quickly, I wanted to post a couple of fall photos.  With Thanksgiving arriving today, there are many things we have to give thanks for.  Two of those are my two girls.  I guess this time next year, the family photos will included 33% more people!

It’s That Time of Year!

Christmas is right around the corner.  Yes, I know Thanksgiving isn’t here yet, but Christmas is in the air!  We’ve gotten our trees up and most of the lights on the house.  Haley is loving the Christmas trees.  She’s doing pretty good about not taking the lights off the trees.

We have got more trees than we know what to do with.  We’ve got one in our room, one in Haley’s room, one in the sun room and one in the living room.  All the trees are pretty small, except for the living room.  I guess they have to be or we wouldn’t be able to move around.

We’re also loving the fire place.  It burns gas logs or REAL wood.  We’ve opted for the wood.  There’s nothing like hearing a real fire crackle.

We’re also getting into photography more.  We’re taking pictures mostly of friends.  We’re not making much money off of it, but that’s not really the goal.  It is just fun to take them.  We’ve got a website set up so that people can purchase the prints.  You can check it out if you’re interested at SimonsProPhoto.com.  Other than that, we’re just enjoying spending time together.  I’ve got the St. Jude Half Marathon coming up in a few weeks and I’ve “sortof” been training for that.  By training, I mean going on one decent length run every week.  I hope I finish!

Of course, no post would be complete without at least one picture, so here’s two.  First one is what I found when I went in to wake Haley up from her nap today.  For some reason, she decided to put her sock on her hand.  Second one is just to make Grandpa Gary proud.

Costa Rica

Well, we made it.  To Costa Rica and back.  Safe and sound.  For those that didn’t know, I recently went on a trip with Hope Presbyterian Church to Costa Rica.  Our purpose there was twofold.  First, it was a fact finding mission.  Our group of 6 was the first group from Hope to go to Costa Rica.  We were also the first group to ever go on a trip with a new group Hope is partnering with, Footsteps Missions.  So a lot of what we did was figuring out the “do’s” and “don’t's” of Costa Rica as well as identifying other opportunities where Hope might want to send future groups.

The second part of our trip was helping to set up a bakery for a local place, Adinfa, that feeds about 75 kids lunch each day.  The bakery will most likely be used by some of the women that live around there initially.  Hopefully, over time, the women will be able to start a small business of baking and selling food.  Even if they don’t start the business, though, they’ll learn a skill that will help get jobs.  And, they’ll have fun while they learn!

While in Costa Rica, we stayed at a church.  The pastor of the church, Jose, is a very well respected man in the community.  We heard stories about how pastors come from over an hour away to talk to him and get his input on issues that their churches are going through.  One even came to talk to him while we were there.  He and his wife, Roxana, were the perfect hosts.  Roxana cooked breakfast and lunch for us each day.  I honestly don’t think we had the same thing twice.  It was phenomenal.

Pastor Jose’s son, Mauricio, cut his finger pretty badly at work right before we arrived.  Because of this, he was off work the entire time we were there.  It was a treat to have him driving us around all over town.  The roads were unmarked, full of potholes and they were extremely hilly (we were in the mountains).  On top of that, there were no lines and the drivers were CRAZY!  There’s no way we could have done that on our own.

In addition to being a good driver, Mauricio was a great addition to the team.  He always had a smile on his face.  It was also nice meeting his family, Tracie, Sammy, Marco and Hemana.

The kids that came to lunch at Adinfa were precious.  Laughing and smiling, they were genuinely happy.  One day while we were there, we cooked them pasta with cheese and meatsauce.  We cooked them cakes for dessert.  Some of them were a little picky at first, but they all ended up enjoying it.  Well, all except a couple!

Of all the time we spent in Costa Rica, most was spent at Adinfa or shopping for Adinfa.  Part of what we did was to pay off an oven for Adinfa.  We had to run all over town to get them pans for the oven.  We also hired in a baker to give a cooking class for the local women.  The class was a huge success and word travelled around the neighborhood quickly.  There were even more women who showed up the next day asking when the next class was going to be.  We plan to have the baker back to host a six week class for the local women.

Not all of the trip was work.  We did manage to have a little fun.  We had two “excursions.”  On one, we went on a canopy tour in the rainforest.  This is basically a zip line.  There were about 9 zip lines in all.  You’d zip from one platform to another in the treetops.

The other excursion was to Cafe Britt, a coffee company.  We got to see how coffee grows, is picked and is roasted.

Even though we only had two excursions, fun was had the whole week.  There was laughing and cutting up the whole time.  And there was hard work.  But the whole time we worked, we had fun.  Every night when my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light.  Completely worn out from the day.  But every morning, as soon as the sun was up, I was back out of bed…excited about what that day had in store.

I’m sure everyone that’s been on a mission trip before has had the same thoughts I had as I left.  On the one hand, I was happy to get back to the States.  I missed my family and I missed being able to order a meal without pointing to what I wanted.  On the other hand, I knew I was going to miss it.  Costa Rica, Steve (our translator/guide), the coffee, the food, the nightly hour and a half long devotionals, the peaceful sleep, Pastor Jose, Roxana, Mauricio and his family, the potholes, Adinfa, the kids, the complete disregard for schedules, the humidity, the people that came on the trip with me that I’d grown to love in only a week.  I firmly believe there are two reasons to go on trips like this.  One is to change the lives of those you’re going to help.  The other is to change yourself.  I don’t know how much of an impact I had on the people’s lives in Costa Rica.  I do know that I was changed for the better.