Despedida

Despedida is the Spanish word for a going away party.

We gave one to Marisol before she got married – kind of a going-away-from-being-single party.

Bethany and Julie organized and planned our Argentine one and we were surrounded by precious friends on Saturday night.

We were again reminded of the many prayers that have been prayed on our behalf

and of our faithful God who has provided us with such amazing friends in a country very far away.

Never in a million years did we imagine that we would have developed such deep friendships here.

I feel like a broken record, but God is so faithful.

I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately – mostly in Spanish – and that lumpy throat feeling is still ever present.

[Bethany and Roman leave a week before we do for 3 months in the States to continue Roman’s master’s program in Linguistics which made the despedida feel extra heavy.]

It was an incredibly special time, one that we will never forget.

So, without further words, here are some photos of our Argentine despedida.  

We wrapped up the evening with a spontaneous acto given by the girls... the boys watched and tried to understand.

We stayed for dinner with the Fields and Caceres and, unfortunately, even Mr. Bean showed up.

It couldn't have been a more perfect gathering.

We are thankful.

~~~~

We realized that while we were continuing the process of saying good-bye to our Argentine friends,

some USA friends and family were moving our stuff out of storage and into our garage. 

Steve, thanks for showing up. 

Mike, nice AFA shirt and awesome pose (is it a pose??). 

Ramon, we love the loyalty to La Patera and your organization skillage. 

And, of course, thanks to Brad for snapping the photo. 

Muchas gracias a todos.

And thank you to all of our wonderful friends - both here and there - who are helping us process this transition and making it as smooth as possible (even when that involves dusting off boxes and recovering chairs).

We definitely feel the love... amor.

On Sharing Meals

 It has been a full couple of weeks and I'm guessing this pace will continue until May 31. 

I try to remember -- but often fail -- to take photos of our experiences. 

Here are some highlights of the last few days.

David's classmates planned a suprise going away party for him last Friday, complete with covering his body with shaving cream, flour, and sand.  They ate a hamburger dinner together while hanging out, talking, and playing. 

All his amigos wrote David thoughtful notes and compiled them in a book and the above poster. 

As Chris left him at the party, he heard the chants of "el David no se va... el David no se va."

Chris and I had a double date with Bethany and Roman AND one with Guille and Susy. 

(Of course, I didn't have the camera for the time with Guille and Susy.  Lame-o.)

We are so incredibly blessed by our friendship with these couples and the very special memories we share with them. 

It's amazing the way God has provided these precious people to us.

We enjoyed a family dinner with the Lencina family at their beautiful home.  Ignacio is in Andrew's class and Sofia is in David's.  They are some of the nicest people and it was a gift to share a meal with them.

(Andrew ate 3 chicken legs!  You'd have thought I don't feed the child!)

I spent some good time with Sofia looking at her baby pictures and talking about life. 

The boys enjoyed lots of video game time. 

Andrea, Raquel and Ricardo are sweet friends from church.

These brave souls invited our family, the Field family, and the Caceres family over to share a meal around their table(s).

We had a yummy mix of Armenian and Argentine food based on the origins of Raquel and Ricardo. 

(I think Chris and I ate half of the homemade hummus.)

It was another delicious meal time, seasoned with engaging life stories and conversations.

One of the many things I've (re)learned here is the importance of sitting around the table:

sharing life through sharing meals.

Doing so has allowed us to enter in to many peoples' lives in a way that is otherwise not possible.

We are so thankful for the warm hospitality we have experienced from our Argentine friends.

(And this absolutely includes the friends we've met in Argentina who have a different passport country... maybe say Australia or Los EEUU.)

I'm pretty sure all 5 of us Frohlings are walking around with lumps in our throats most of the time.

We're so excited to come home and say hola, yet at the same time we're very sad to leave and say chau.

In those emotions, however, the overriding feeling is one of gratitude.

Gratitude for the good advice followed to stick it out here.

Gratitude for the healing God gave as a result.

Gratitude that one of the ways God heals us is through relationships with His children.

We are so very thankful... even with our lumpy throats.