Its hard to believe that it has been nearly eight months since we brought home our tiny little Costa Rican baby. Analeigh has been so much fun, and she is growing like a weed. A few weeks ago she had two teeth, today she has six. Not long ago she sat by herself for the first time, yesterday she crawled. Her incessant screeching is turning into sounds that sound like talking, and she now says “da da,” although I’m not sure she yet knows what it means. Here are two videos of what our big girl is up to these days…

Its a catchy title isn’t it? As you know, we have been in the process of adopting from Ethiopia for quite some time. Recently, however, we were given a referral for the child who will become our son. He is about two months old, and from a poor part (no, there aren’t really “rich parts” of Ethiopia, but some parts are even more famine and poverty ridden than most) of Ethiopia about seven hours south of the capitol city, Addis Ababa. We have seen many pictures sent by the wonderful staff at our adoption agency. I wish that I could post them for you all to see, but Ethiopian law prohibits posting pictures of children until the adoption is finalized. He looks healthy and happy, and I think he has Marissa’s nose. Things seem to be progressing smoothly through the court process, and we are praying that God will move all the paperwork, get us through the courts, provide the significant money we need, and bring our baby boy home by Christmas. Unfortunately, do to a recent change in Ethiopian law, I will now have to travel to Ethiopia to appear in court about two months before we can bring him home. This adds to the cost and inconvenience, but we are just so excited that God has blessed us with this baby. Avalyn is thrilled (she has pictures of him on her wall), and although Analeigh continued to chew her book when we told her, I think she is excited as well. We are going to name him Kenian Philip. Kenian is after his grandfathers (Ken + Brian) and Philip was the first person to give the Gospel to the Ethiopian people (Acts 8). Stay tuned for more updates, and pictures as soon as our case passes court!
…and because no one likes a blog post without pictures, here are a couple of recent ones…

These are the girls waiting at the dentist

This is Analeigh being pretty proud of herself! This is the first time she had pulled herself up all by herself and thought she was pretty big stuff!

This week we wrapped up our second trimester of language school. Today we are off to Colorado, where we will enjoy spending some time with Marissa’s family and celebrating the wedding of her sister. We are looking forward to a week back in the US, seeing family and eating Chick-fil-a. When we return, it will be almost time to begin our third and final trimester of language school. According to Avalyn when we finish language school we will know “all of Spanish.” I’m looking forward to that. Yesterday we visited a pediatric ophthalmologist, who informed us that Avalyn’s vision has gotten a little worse, especially in her left eye. She strengthened the prescription in her glasses, and she wants her to wear a patch over her right eye four hours per day. This brings back memories, because I did the same thing when I was her age. I also had two eye surgeries however, and we are praying that she does not have to follow suit. We are again so thankful for the excellent medical care we have enjoyed in Costa Rica. When we return I will post pictures from our trip, and update everyone on the adoption situation (hopefully we have much news to update!). Thanks again for all the calls,    e-mails and prayers.

That’s what Analeigh wants to know as we continue to give her new foods. So far she has tried avocado, green beans, carrots, and homemade salsa (her favorite!). Although she is enjoying playing with food, and she thinks she is pretty cool when she has her own seat at the table, so far she is pretty sure she is sticking with milk. We’ll see how it goes….

“I’m gonna eat WHAT?!?”

This is the face Marissa made the first time I cooked for her…

OK, the carrots are pretty good.

Sorry for the delay in posting. We are finishing the trimester and have had friends visiting. I’ll try to be better.  Thanks for all the notes and prayers!

We talked to Avalyn about our recent change to Mexico City. She has been slowly processing the idea and is now comfortable freely talking about our upcoming move. One day while outside playing with chalk, she asked me to come see our house. She then explained all of the rooms and the people that she had drawn in our “new house in Mexico City.” She was so proud of it and it included all of the essentials that we are missing here in Costa Rica; including our dog, Zoli, a car and a bathtub. And ya know, I must say that I couldn’t think of a more perfect house myself.
Speaking of perfect….we have the sweetest and most beautiful girls in the world. And at times, I often think that perhaps they may be the same child. I am absolutely astonished at how much the girls look alike as babies. Who knows if the similarities will continue, but as for now….can you tell which is which?

Photo number one….Avalyn or Analeigh?

Photo number two- Avalyn or Analeigh?

Analeigh is a sweet baby, and loves to give kisses (although she kisses the way other people eat ice cream). Like many babies, she also loves to look at herself in the mirror. I often wonder if she knows that it is her she is looking at, or if she wonders who that baby is that has a daddy that looks (and dresses) just like hers. In any case, tonight I got her to give that baby a kiss, and it made for some cute pictures. Oh the things we do when we are trapped in our house during rainy season…

“Well hello good looking…”

“Gimmie some sugar!”

There it is…

“Your lips sure are cold!”

Things are ticking along here in Costa Rica. School is reaching the midpoint of the trimester (which is also the midpoint of our language school) and rainy season is in full force. The big baby news is that Analeigh got two teeth this week, which was the source of no small amount of crying and drool. The big thing in Avalyn’s life is her new swimming pool. Every Sunday after church, we go to Hiper Más, which is the Costa Rican version of Walmart. They have all these little inflatable pools, and Avalyn has been begging for one. We told her that if she did extra jobs around the house, she could save up money and buy one. After two weeks of helping with laundry, washing dishes and sweeping the floor, she had enough to buy her pool. She looked like such a big girl putting it on the counter, giving the cashier her money and saying “gracias” as she got her change. Sadly, at four she is not capable of blowing up the pool, so that job fell to her parents. Here are some pictures…

Avalyn shows off her purchases

Marissa takes a break from inflating to get a big hug

Avalyn enjoying her new pool. We are installing the slide and diving board when she saves up some more money

Analeigh’s new favorite place to hang out (besides in our lap of course) is in her jumper…she goes nuts in this thing!

Here is our newest family picture

Sorry I haven’t updated the blog in a couple weeks, things have been kind of crazy. Many of you may know that a while back the organization that we work for informed us that our job in Argentina was probably not going to be filled, and that they would like us to consider a higher priority job. This past week we were offered a job in Mexico, and after doing some research, talking with our future boss, and much prayer, we accepted the job last night. We will be living in Mexico City, and will be training and mentoring national church planters throughout the city. We are very excited about this opportunity, and look forward to learning more as time goes. We are still planning to be in Costa Rica until December, and then move to Mexico City when school is over. Avalyn was excited to hear about the change, mainly because she has some friends from here that moved to Mexico City. I know she is thinking about it though, because this morning on the way to school she asked me, “Daddy…do they have hyenas in Mexico City?” (we just watched the Lion King the other day). I told her that they did not have hyenas in Mexico City and she simply said “OK” and moved on. Keep your eye on the website, we’ll be making some Mexico-related changes soon!

People are frequently asking Avalyn how she stays so fit. Certainly good genes and proper nutrition play a part, but the reality is that it takes hard work. Recently Avalyn, always conscious about her health and fitness, began doing the 30 Day Shred with Jillian Michaels (this had nothing to do with the fact that Marissa was doing it) and now asks to do it almost daily. For those of you who need some inspiration to get in shape like Avalyn, here is a video. Feel free to workout along with Avalyn at home!

To answer your question…yes, she has her shirt off. We don’t have A/C and it gets hot in Costa Rica!

To answer your other question…no, Avalyn is not actually concerned about her health, fitness or physical appearance.  She simply likes to do whatever Marissa does.  Nevertheless, it made for one of the funniest videos we have ever taken.

It was a little sad today as we walked to school. We missed the American flags, grills covered with hot dogs and hamburgers, and parades of veterans and high school marching bands. Memorial Day just isn’t the same in a country that doesn’t even have a military. Nevertheless, we celebrated last night with a picnic in our back yard. We grilled hot dogs and we explained to Avalyn why we have a special day to remember those who gave everything to protect us and others. Here is a video in which Avalyn explains Memorial Day and says thank you to our troops.

Here are a few pictures from our picnic.

Yes, I understand that guacamole with hot dogs is a little odd, but hey, its Latin America.

Men everywhere….be jealous. Not only do I have an impressive $20 grill, but I have Costa Rican charcoal that won’t even stay lit if you fill the entire bottom of the grill with napalm.

Here we are enjoying our delicious (boiled) hot dogs.