NINE!

Today is Andrew's birthday.  He's 9.  And we are very excited to celebrate his life. 

He's a good one, that Andrew-boy. 

Here are 9 things we like about him in no particular order:

1. He's compassionate and brave.

2. He's generous.

3. He's a really good dancer.

4. He loves his brothers and shows them this by his actions.

5. He likes helping his mama cook; he's also hospitable

and likes sharing time around the table with people.

6. He will drop anything to play a good game of Rummikub

(and he wins almost every time).

7. He thinks outside of the box and has a good head on his shoulders.

8. He truly knows the definition of a friend. 

And he's a good and faithful one.

9. He has a very silly laugh and uses it often

with a certain twinkle in his eye.

We love you, Andrew. 

God richly blessed our lives when he allowed us to be your mom and dad. 

The day you were born will always be one of our favorites.
Happy 9th Birthday, buddy.

In case you're wondering, we celebrated with friends last night from 6:30 - 9:30 pm at Mr. Piruetas (a "party room"). 

We played indoor soccer, bounced in bounce houses, danced to funny music, raced electric cars, and ate lots of sugar. 

[And Chris and I dressed up like the King and Queen that we are when we served the cake. 

We do not typically wear blue and pink crowns or silky outfits over our everyday clothes. 

It was mandatory.  "All the parents do it... the kids love it!" we were told. 

We continue to be humbled every single day.

Thanks to Tío Devin for getting it on film and being Chris's partner in crime in eating the kids' food.]

Banco Mundial de la Mujer

We wanted to update you that we had another really great meeting with

Banco Mundial de la Mujer this morning and are excited to be partnering with them. Recently, Chris and I listened to a talk that Steve Jobs gave at a Stanford commencement ceremony and one of his points was that you can’t always connect the dots on things that happen in your life. However, he said, in hindsight sometimes you can.

The work we’ll be doing is designing and conducting a survey for Banco Mundial’s current (450 people) and prior clients to find out what other services they would like/need in addition to the loans being given. (Currently, they only give loans.) They really want to do more for their clients, but have not had the financial resources to do anything more. We will be able to get to know 450 micro-business owners! Additionally, we’ll get acquainted with the barrios they live and work in. After the survey is over and the results are calculated, we will be able to begin creating systems to implement these other services (micro-insurance, health classes, basic business principles courses etc.) that the clients express interest in.

 

It also felt really good to tell Gabriela that we came here to share the love of Christ. We explained to her that our idea is to show God’s love to all different types of people and that working with her and the foundation will enable us to do that. We also told her how much we appreciate what they have been doing for the past 20 years and think it’s very admirable and necessary in the alleviation of poverty.

We wanted to share our excitement and thank you for walking this road with us. It sure has been a process and we know it will continue to be (it’s life!), but we’re thankful for the way we can see God’s hand connecting the dots for us.

Have a great weekend!

Feliz Día del Amigo

We get to celebrate a lot of occasions, here in Argentina. 

Today is the Day of the Friend. 

It was such a blessing to receive (and send) emails, texts,

and even gifts in the name of Amistad.  

 

Here are some recent photos of some special Argentine friends and me. 

Lucia, Me, Marcela, Graciela, and Ivana

[We went to a conference in the province of Chaco about how the church can be instrumental in the education, prevention of, and restoration from sexual abuse.  It was very intense, especially when I had to look up various medical terms in my English/Spanish dictionary that I didn't understand in English either. 

However, this seems like it should be another post...]



I have to admit that I had to hold back the tears when I saw the sand.

The river was beautiful.  Unfortunately there were no waves.

Thank you, sweet friends - both here in Argentina and in the States, 

for being faithful, encouraging, and good examples to me. 

I'm a blessed lady.

Alta Gracia

In the middle of our winter vacation, we got a beautiful day of sun

so we made the best of it by going to Alta Gracia with the Fields.

 

It was a wonderful time, enjoying nature, friendships, and imaginative games. 

(Kings, spies, messengers, servants, boat bombings, the works!)

The kids (and Chris) even went swimming. 

The only way I would have even touched the water was if I needed to do a rescue or something drastic like that.  It was nice and sunny, but the water turned your skin blue.  I'm not into that. 

Chris loved getting wet and even took a siesta on the sand while Martin, Julie and I drank mate.

It's supposed to snow any minute.  That is not a joke. 

Argentina 3, Costa Rica 0

Have you heard of the Copa America?  It has been called the most important soccer tournament in Latin America. 

Guess what country is hosting it this year?  Argentina.  How stoked are we?

The boys have been collecting stickers of players, teams, and stadiums and put them in a treasured album and study it daily.  This weekend we'll be watching the quarter finals (and hopefully hear that USA Women won the Women's World Cup).

Chris, Devin, David, and Andrew were able to go to the Argentina vs. Costa Rica game last Monday.  Johnny and I stayed home and watched Argentina dominate from the comfort of our living room.  Messi was at his finest and set up some nice goals - 3 to be exact. 

Go Argentina!

5th Grade Gaucho Dance

On the last day of school, before

Winter Vacation

(yes, winter vacation in July),

David was in an acto at school celebrating Día de Córdoba.

 

He danced a gaucho dance with Milena, Facundo, and Milagros.

I'm very aware of how time flies when I look into the face of my oldest child... 

whom I used to call Baby-David.  Sigh.

Circo Solidario

Since 2004, our church, Jesucristo Rey, has put on a Circo (circus) that raises money to benefit a local organization. It is a big production and the kids in the Sunday School program participate. We were incredibly impressed by the use of their own time and human resources to put on such an amazing event (sewing, painting, designing, music, dancing, choreography, etc.). The kids sold bonos for 10 pesos each in an effort to raise money to give to Prodanea, a program that helps children with “epidermolisis ampoliar” (they have a rare skin disorder that causes their skin to fall off when touched).

We had a fun night of laughing, drinking mate, and being thankful.

Johnny’s age group were prehistoric creatures and Johnny was the head of the caterpillar-saurus.

The 6 & 7 year olds were knights and princesses. 

Did we tell you the Fields are back?  (We’re so happy!)

The 8 & 9 year olds were Egyptians with a mix of clown-parts. 

This would have been Andrew’s group, but as you know, he prefers to skip out

on these types of things instead of pinching himself through it.

The pre-adolescents and adolescents were robots from the future.  David had fun dancing and juggling.  (Today, at school, he’s in an acto with the other 5^th graders and "has" to dance with a girl.  No comment.)

These were 2 of the funniest clowns I have ever seen. 

I’m not particularly fond of clowns, but these guys had us crying we were laughing so hard.

And this act was so fun.  They did a bunch of hand tricks all together.  We loved it. 

There were lots of other great acts that were creative and very well-done.

It was a great night.

And tonight marks the first game of the Copa America!!!

The Fields will be joining us for the big event. Go Argentina!