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