..in chile

It's so nice to be with family!!!! My Chilean family (aka the in-laws) are the greatest. Our first night here we had a whole bunch of family over to celebrate my birthday and our home-coming. With cake and celebration in true chilean fashion, we all enjoyed ourselves. This picture is of my suegros (parents in law) to the left, and Ricky's aunt and uncle, Nano and Janet, to the right. They even brought gifts! I was so surprised, especially because it is so unneccesary.. but was really nice of them. I even received 2 pairs of little baby socks. So cute!!

Ricky was so happy to be back in Chile and attend a futbol game. I didn't go because being 7 months pregnant in all the craziness at the stadium wasn't appealing to me! Along with brothers, various cousins and family, the whole gang of guys had a great time. The team's who played were Chile vs Peru. Who do we root for? Chile, of course!! Being in Latin American you have to be loyal to your own country!! And Chile won, so that was a good game.

Here's a recent picture of me and the preggo belly! I'm 29 weeks along now and feel REALLY pregnant with all the aches and pains that are a normal part of this stage. But I truly feel rested and refreshed in just a short time in being here. We are ready for our upcoming travels to the U.S. Trying to make contacts with new churches. Hoping to connect our church family in Cusco with US churches. We still need to raise more monthly support for the upcoming 4 years, so that beginning in 2008 we can rent a church location in Cusco, a smaller location for the children's ministry in San Marcos, Cusco, and to help bring out a missionary from Chile to work with us full time. Pray for us and pray for God's hand over the contacts we've made in the US. Oh, and for my health, that it remains well... and that we have no complications once we arrive to the states.

more soon!


PS - We are thrilled to share that..... It's a girl!

finally

we've arrived in Santiago. it's a long story, which i don't have the ganas or strength to explain just now, but we're here. we are happy. thanks for praying for us. God showed himself merciful.

we received a nice warm welcome, as always, in Ricky's home. it's nice to be with family after such a long time without them. God is good.

we will be in Chile until Nov 3rd, at which point we leave for the US. We arrive to the LA area the morning of the 4th.

more updates coming soon... and pictures

hemos llegado a Santiago. es una historia larga; no tengo las ganas o fuerza de hablar ahora, pero llegamos. estamos contentos. gracias por sus oraciones. Dios nos mostro su misericordia.

nos recibiron con una bienvenida calida, como siempre, en la casa de Ricky. es bueno estar con la familia depues de tanto tiempo. Dios es bondadoso.

estaremos en Chile hasta el 3 de Nov, en esta fecha saldremos a los estados. Llegaremos a Los Angeles en la mañana del día 4.

hasta pronto... con fotos

on the countdown....

10 days until we leave Cusco... for 5 months! We are very busy getting everything ready. We have spent several days cleaning the house, and today, the patio area.

Vito is gone. Yes, Vito has a new home!! Yippee!! I am so happy that he's not here anymore. I know it's kind of sad to say, because he was our dog and we got him when he was only 5 weeks old. But my allergies have been even worse during pregnancy, especially not being able to take any allergy medicine. And on top of it, I didn't even realize I had dog allergies until after we already brought the dog home over a year ago. I was just miserable. Now that he's gone, we did some deep cleaning (man all that hair, yuck!). I feel better already. Cleaner. I've realized that, although I like pets, I am just not a dog person.

All this cleaning is really a nesting fix for me. I love it. And I love that we have a great excuse to start early and to have Ricky's complete understanding, support and help! Since we're leaving the house in the hands of Pablo and Edgardo, we of course want it to be clean and ready for them to move in. We got the crib the other day! It was hard to find cribs for sale here, because the majority of mom's just have their baby sleep in bed with them. But we found a really nice wood one. It was fun buying something for baby.. like a reality check!

Speaking of Pablo and Edgardo, please pray for them. They left last night (Thursday) at 11:3opm Chilean time. The bus ride is more than 48 hours. Ricky and I have made the journey before and it's not the most fun or comfortable, to say the least. They arrive to Cusco on Sunday morning around sunrise.

Our "to-do" list is getting shorter, things one by one are being checked off. I still have to finish preparing the children's lessons. I am leaving everything ready for each week... through March! It's a huge job. But will be a big help for the guys. We also are preparing video and pictures for our church visits in the U.S. The video has been the biggest challenge because our computer doesn't have enough memory (the pc must be about 5 years old). So Ricky has to take things off the computer and save them to disk before we can try and upload any video. The idea of editing the thing seems like a nightmare... but it's SO important for us to have video to show. And we received this camera as a blessing from someone who doesn't even know us, but had a heart to bless the ministry here.

In regards to getting things done, it's been harder for me now that I'm 6 months along. I wake up and have energy in the mornings, but sometime after lunch, I am exhausted and my whole body hurts. I need to stick to doing pregnancy yoga every day, but I've been super floja (lazy) when it comes to doing it every day. I do get exercise though. I walk a few miles almost every day. It's not much, but helps me feel better and sleep better.

But on a good note, I feel great overall. The baby seems to move around more and more each passing week. My belly just popped out there in the last couple weeks, I don't know where it came from! I always get kicked in my right side. Many time I can feel the pressure of a little foot over there. Ricky was able to hear the heartbeat of the baby (which was distinguishable from mine) by putting his ear to my belly. That was a cool experience for him. Every morning the baby wakes up right about the time I am waking up (sometimes the baby wakes me up even earlier by swimming somersaults in there). It's really sweet to spend some time in the morning just the three of us.

Anyhow, thanks for praying for us. I'll write again soon,
love, Tracie

the home fellowship