Fair Day

Today we took the kids to the Pierce County Fair. We had a great time. We got to visit a lot of free exhibits and the kids went on a few rides.

It did our hearts good to hear what their favorite thing at the fair was. They all said that their favorite part of the fair was hearing the Bible story at the Child Evangelism Fellowship Tent.

What a wonderful testimony that our kids love the Lord.

We talked with the couple after the other kids were gone and found out that they go to a independant Baptist church in Chehalis, WA. They have even been to our church. It was the first booth we went to, and it was a great start to the day.

Tate Update

Ok, so I know that it has been a while since I have written anything and I am not going to start off by making excuses. I will just say that I am sorry and will try to do better in the future. :-)

So many things have been happening to our family. We had a great time with the East Hill Baptist Church teenagers. They came down the end of June for a Missions Trip. It was during this trip the President of Honduras was arrested for trying to put through an illegal vote allowing him to rewrite the Constitution.

Because of the after affects (and threats) of this event we left the country and came back the US for a time. We are monitering the situation in Honduras and are looking forward to the time when things have cooled down enough for us to go back.

At this time we are visiting supporting churches near our sending church trying to raise the money needed to buy plane tickets back to Honduras. Please pray with us about that.

This morning we called a supporting church, Riverview Baptist church, to let them know what was going on and they asked us to come and visit tonight. This church has been a faithful supporter since we left for language school in 2002. We had wanted to visit as we have many friends here, but the timing was never right. Anyway we had tonight free and they asked us to come.

I was able to see my best friend that I had all of my growing up years. Her name is Stephanie Erquiaga and as she was showing me to the nursery, I saw someone walk down the hall toward me. It was my best friend from college, Audrey Longo (now Coffman). I was so excited to see her. I have tried to get a hold of her many times, but could never find her. We were able to talk and had a great time. It was so funny because I introduced my friend Stephanie to her. During the service Stephanie remembered that her and Audrey had both been my bridesmaids. I had even forgotten. When she reminded Audrey at the end of the service she said, "I knew you looked familiar, but I couldn't remember from where."

I am so thankful that God has used this time to refresh not only our spirits, but has also allowed to us renew old friendships.

Need for coffee

Have you ever had one of those days where you just felt like you needed a cup and coffee and some time to relax? Well, this month has been like that. We had a missionary family come and visit us. They are moving here the end of July and so they came from Costa Rica on a bus to spend two weeks with us. They ended up finding lodging for themselves free of charge. Our good friends the Jacksons are going to be going back to the states for 6 months to help get their kids adjusted to college life and they offered the Jacobos their house for those 6 months. That will help both families as the Jacobos will have some time to save up for their move to Campamento and all of the household things they will need to buy at that time.

The Jacobos ended up staying a few extra days because we all (Matthew was the only one who escaped) got sick with Rotovirus. It makes you very sick for a few days and destroys all of the good bacteria in your intestines so everything runs right though. We had to be put on a very strict diet and some recovered faster than others. I was the last one to get sick. I thought maybe I had dodged the bullet, but I was not so lucky. I was sick for almost 3 weeks. I finally had an appointment with a specialist, but was able to cancel it when I started feeling better. The plus side of this sickness is that I have lost a lot of weight. I am down 17 lbs at this time. I only lost 13 on the sickness, but have lost the rest because I am not eating as much as I was before. Hopefully I can continue to lose weight. I would love to wear size 10 again. :-)

A few weeks after the Jacobo family left we had a group from the states come in. We had a great time with them. They just left. We have another group coming in a few weeks and so we are rapidly trying to finish school before they get here. Hopefully once our summer vacation starts I can feel a little more rested.

Please pray with us about the kids' schooling. We have a courier service to get our school materials, but we were just advised by them that the Aduanas (customs agents) are confiscating all packages over 4 lbs and charging a "holding fee and inspection fee". We already have to pay $4.00 a lb (last year for two kids we spent over $100 just on shipping) to the shipping service, but this new "fee" can be whatever they feel is fair. We haven't purchased the kids' books and videos yet, but are dreading the cost to get them here.

My kids use the Abeka video school and I love it. Audrey was the only one last year, but Jordan will be joining her in using the videos this year. Since we are missionaries we get to keep the videos for future kids. This year we have to buy two complete grades which is a huge upfront cost, but this is the only year we will have to do this. We are praying that one of the missionary groups that is coming down this summer could bring the books down for us.

This past week we had an earthquake. It was located about 200 miles north of us in the ocean off the north coast. It didn't cause any problems where we live, but it seemed like it lasted forever. I was up feeding Matthew at the time (yes, he is 5 months and still doesn't sleep through the night). It is a good thing because if I had of slept through it, I would have never heard the end of it. Everyone has been email making sure we are okay.

Spring Break

We are enjoying our spring break. We did school Monday and Tuesday to make up for some days we have missed. When we moved we had to take vacation time and now have to make that up. We have several missions groups this summer so we must make those days up before they come.

Tonight we are at the Jackson's house. We are enjoying a good time of fellowship and food.

We had the church over on Wednesday for a service and swimming time. We have a river that runs through our property that has several swimming holes. Everyone had a great time.

In this country everything shuts down from Thursday to Sunday. Contrary to life in the US, Easter Sunday is the least attended church service in Honduras. Since everything is closed down, we have a few days at home to catch up from the past month. It has been a nice time. We filled the pool and the kids have lived in it. They are all quite sunburnt today.

Tomorrow Jason will be teaching a marriage seminar for a church in the colonia of San Miguel. They will not have childcare, so I will be staying home with the kids. I am hoping to use the time to catch up more. We will see if that wil happen. :-)

San Pedro Sula

We are in San Pedro Sula as I write this. We found out on Monday that the US Embassy couldn't process Matthew's application for Citizen Birth Abroad until April 30th. They did inform us that if we went to San Pedro Sula we wouldn't need an appointment. We got Ernesto and Nelly to watch our older kids and off we went.

The US Consulate office here is only open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. We got there shortly after 1:00 and were able to be seen after only waiting 30 minutes. The Consular was impressed that we had everything all ready and set up. We started going through our papers and found out that we were missing a key paper.

It was Joey's birth certificate of all things. Joey's birth certificate proves to the US government that we have lived in the States in the past. Don't ask me how his Consular Report of Birth Abroad certificate proves this, but it does.

We had to call Ernesto and have him take Joey's certificate and send it to us on a bus. Thankfully He was able to go this morning and we now have it in hand.

We will be going back to the Consulate tomorrow and are hoping that everything goes well.

Last night when we got back to our hotel we were shocked at the sight of all outdoor personnel. Every last one of them had on bullet proof vests. I thought the motel was in a good neighborhood. It just brings to mind that San Pedro Sula is a lot more dangerous than Tegucigalpa.

We are planning on going home tomorrow and are looking very forward to it. It has been a nice vacation for Jason and I, but we feel guilty leaving Ernesto and Nelly with the kids for so long.

This picture is of the Dining Room decorated for the party. The gray spots on the walls is where the plaster is being repaired. Only another week and we should be able to paint. YEAH!!!! Joey and Brooklyn (Hodges) eagerly waiting for cake time.

Joey hitting the Lightning McQueen Pinata

Joey loved his cake. He was so excited to get a race track cake. It was so easy to make. Jordan is already putting in his order for one on his birthday.

Video Games

Joey had a birthday last Friday. He turned 5. We had a birthday party for him and it was good to see all of our friends again. Even though we had just three families over, our house was packed. We had hot dogs and everyone brought a side dish for potluck.

Thursday evening, while on the way to church, Ernesto (the man who helps us in Ojojona) got a call from his brother saying that his mom was doing badly and they were taking her to the hospital.

After church, Jason took me home and then drove Ernesto and Nelly home. When I got out of the car at our house, Ernesto was explaining to his brother that his mom was 96 and had smoked most of her life. She had been saved for the last 12 years and in that time had not smoked once, but her lungs were permently damaged. He told his brother that if she didn't die that night it wouldn't be long for her.

We got a call Friday morning saying that she had died during the night. Jason left to be with Ernesto and Nelly (who were supposed to come to the party) and help them in any way he could.

We couldn't cancel the party as most everyone invited had a fully scheduled month already. Thankfully everyone was late and Jason got home just after the last guest arrived. Ernesto and Nelly couldn't come as they had to stay with the family for the viewing.

Joey was a little disappointed that Ernesto and Nelly couldn't come. Jason almost didn't get to come so we were thankful that at least he was able to be home in time.

Joey loves cars so we had a car theme. I made him a race track cake. He loved it. His favorite gift was the Leapster educational video game player we got him. He ties to sleep with it at night. Jordan has had one for a few years now and it is a much fought over toy.

Today Jordan told Joey that he was going to let him use some of his games as soon as he gets his out of toy jail (he was playing with it at night when he was supposed to be in bed). Jordan prayed for lunch today and when he was done Joey said, "I thought you were going to pray for the video games to get out of toy jail."

Ladies Meeting

This past Saturday we had the first Ladies Meeting in over a year. During my pregnancy we had to cancel almost everything I was involved in. We had a special potluck meeting at our house. We invited 20 ladies and of those 20, 16 actually came. We had Becky Jackson come and give a devotional on the right kind of love.

For our game that day, we had the ladies pair up in groups of two (non-family members) for a Bible scavenger hunt. First they had to find what to look for by looking up a specific Bible reference and then they had to go out and find that item. I had Jason hide all of the items for me so I couldn't help anyone. It was amazing what some ladies found that was not part of the scavenger hunt. One of the references mentioned nails and one of the ladies brought back a log with a bunch of nails in it. Many things were buried in the yard and were from the last tenant of this house.

We made woven heart baskets from construction paper for a craft. I thought they would get it, but I ended up doing a great majority of the baskets for people. I guess the next time I will have to find something much easier.

The puppies that our dog had 6 weeks ago kept getting into the house. I announced that we were still trying to give one of them away. I had two girls instantly say, "I want one." The only problem was that there was only one left. The other two were already promised. Thankfully both girls wanted a different puppy and we talked to one of the people who had wanted one and he was glad to give it to someone else as "he really wanted a male".

The next day in church, Karina, brought her new puppy to church. It was dressed up in a ribbon and sweater. She even showed us pictures on her cell phone of the bed she made for the dog. It is actually a bed with four posters. It was really cute. She told me that she would not bring the dog to church next week. I hope this is true as I had to watch nursery along with the puppy.

Matthew is crying now. That nap was way too short. At least you all know that we are still alive.

Catch-up

Today is the first time I have been able to update my blog in over a week. What a week we have had. Last Sunday we had a baptismal service. We had four people baptized. Tonita, Kenia, Reina, and Karina.

Tonita is in her late 50's. She works as a street sweeper and walks 6 1/2 miles every day with a broom and wheelbarrow sweeping the street off. She is tiny and so very sweet. She started coming to our church about a year and a half. Almost a year ago she started attending faithfully. She really struggled with her salvation for the first year she attended. She would raise her hand for salvation every service. We tried to explain to her time and time again that the Bible teaches that once you make a decision for Christ then you are always saved. Finally about six months ago it clicked. She finally realized that the decision she had made many years ago did not need to be repeated. Even though her husband will not let her come in the evenings anymore, he did not forbid her from getting baptized and she was so excited to finally take the step of obedience in baptism. She is legally married (a rarity in this country) and is so excited to be able to serve in the church. We were teasing her on the way home from church that she needed to be ready to teach Sunday school the next week and to be sure to have at least two songs ready to sing for a special.

Kenia and Reina are two preteen girls that live in the same area. They mentioned a few weeks back that they wanted to be baptized. Jason talked to them both in the presence of their parents and they both gave a clear salvation testimony. Both girls' parents gave them permission to be baptized. Kenia's mom was under conviction and had many questions after the talk. Bro. Ernesto, who was with Jason at that time, was able to answer her questions and she received Jesus as her personal Saviour.

Karina, is a very sweet girl who is 15 years old. She is almost albino her skin and hair is so light. Her family started coming to church as a result of a ride that they got from Bro. Javier. He gave them a ride one day and invited them to church. They had been saved in a church in a town called Guinope, but had recently moved. She had not yet been baptized and was excited to make that step of obedience. Please pray for Angi, her younger sister, she was going to get baptized with her sister, but got scared and didn't make that step. She said that she wants to be baptized next time we have a baptismal service.

Monday evening Jason and Alan Jackson started a new session of Bible Institute. This time we are having classes two nights a week to help the students get done faster. Living closer to the work has helped us to be able to do this.

Thursday was Jason's birthday and we had a special dinner of Spaghetti. We had invited Ernesto and Nelly to come and celebrate with us, but their bus got here late so we had to celebrate after church.

Unfortunately, since our truck is still in the shop from the accident, I didn't get to go into town to buy him his birthday presents. We still had our big green Ford F-250, but it is big and the parking spaces in Teguc are small so I don't drive it there if I have to park it. I felt bad to not have a gift for Jason to open.

Friday, we went into Teguc to get Jason's birthday gifts. We were late getting started as Alan Jackson called us to take some teens home from a teen meeting. They had the pickup full of teens they were dropping off and some ladies they were picking up for the Ladies Meeting. One of the teenage boys was sitting in the truck bed with his legs hanging over the side. Becky, who was driving, went over a bump and he fell out. In the process he managed to grab another boy and drug him to the ground with him. They were both fine, but the one who wouldn't get all the way in the truck bed pretended to be unconscious. They took him to the hospital that is near and Becky explained to the doctor what had happened and how she thought he was faking. The doctor examined him and also conclued that he was faking too. To snap the kid out of his "unconciousness" he gave him an injection in the behind. He was instantly cured.

We managed to get into town about 15 minutes before the stores closed. Thankfully I knew what I was going to get him and managed to get everything just before the stores closed. We all got back into the car and started home. About five miles from where we used to live in Tegucigalpa, the ABS light came on in the truck. A few minutes later the stereo stopped playing, then the lights dimmed and went off. Finally about two miles later the truck stopped as we came up to a gas station. We were able to pull in and called for Alan Jackson to come pick us up. We then called our old neighbors, who have a car, and they came and towed the truck to their house. If we had left it there, it would have been all taken apart and gone by the time we got back. God worked everything out, but Friday night at 8:00 pm is not when you want to break down. We figured it was the alternator that fried and are having our mechanic fix the problem.

Since we didn't have transportation we had to cancel Saturday's activities. Saturday afternoon we tried to get our small gray truck from the body shop to be able to go to church on Sunday. We got it back late Saturday night, but on Sunday morning when we went to start it up, it wouldn't start. For a few months we have been having trouble getting it to start. We have know the glow plugs (spark plugs for diesel motors) were going out, but when you don't have money to change them you wait until they are gone before you do the work. Well, Sunday morning they were gone. Jason had to call Ernesto and have him run the service and we went to Alan Jackson's church. We were encouraged when we called Ernesto after church and found out that we had over 20 adults that came to church. Several took the bus to be there since we couldn't pick them up.

Please pray with us about a matter with our gray truck. Both the motor mounts are bad in it. I am sure they were getting bad when Jason was in the accident. We hadn't had a problem with them though. After Jason was hit there was a rattling sound whenever the truck was turned on. After they have repaired most of the body damage and all of the damage to the muffler the truck is still making the same sound. We are trying to get the man that hit us to replace the motor mounts as we are sure this is what is causing the vibrations and noises. Frankly we don't have the money to do this ourselves and since we didn't have this problem before we were hit, we don't think we should have to pay for this. Please pray with us as we talk to the man who hit us that he would be willing to pay for this repair.

This Week

This week has held blessing and struggles for us.

Sunday we got to church to see a truck of our Sunday School students being driven somewhere else. We asked them where they were going and found out that Iglesia Bautista Nuevo Camino was picking kids up on a "truck" route for their church. This church is part of Baptist Medical and Dental Mission and they have a habit of going into an area where there is already a good Baptist church and stealing all of the members. They have done this many times and as they have all of their funding come from the states, they can do whatever they want. This is not a missionary run church, but a church with a pastor that gets support from the states. They are Baptist in name only. They do not have the same beliefs that we do. Their pastor even believes that if one person from the family attends their church then the whole family is saved. This in direct contradiction to what the Bible says. Last week we had 9 kids in my Sunday school class. While I know it is not about numbers, it is nice to see a full class. I am so thankful for the 9 kids that came knowing that all they were going to get was love and teaching from the Bible.

Sunday morning during our church service we had a baby dedication service. We dedicated Ruben Isaac Zelaya Santos, Jason Alex Rodriguez Lopez, Joey, and Matthew. It was so sweet to see the tears in Ruben Sr's eyes as Jason told how God had used their lives in our church. Jason preached that morning on what it means to dedicate your child to the Lord. Even though our Sunday School attendance was low, the Lord gave us a great adult attendance even though several of our faithful were out sick.

After church, Chad Minnick came into town. He and his wife, Julie, are adopting a girl from Honduras. Normally he stays in a motel, but we offered to let him stay with us and he accepted. We had a great night of fellowship. They needed a place for Magda, the girl who they are adopting, to stay. So he was coming down to get her situated in the house of the uncle of the other girl they adopted a year ago. It wasn't the best place for her to go, but it would be a home where she would get at least food every day.

Monday morning as Jason was talking to Chad, he offered to let Magda stay with us. He didn't talk to me first, so when I heard it I was stunned that he had thought of that as it hadn't entered my mind. Then, almost instantly, my mind went back to the boy we had living with us a few years ago and all of the problems that we had. I felt bad because I am sure the utter terror showed on my face. Magda is 14 years old, but emotionally she is about the same age as Audrey. Chad decided to let her stay with us. I was so glad we could make a difference in her life even for a short time.

Magda has been having a great time. She loves playing with Audrey and they are two peas in a pod. They only time they are separated is when they are doing schoolwork. Although Magda is taller than Audrey, her diet hasn't been great lately and she is super skinny. They wear the same size at this time. They have been sharing clothes and everything. We know that the first few weeks are easy and calm and so we are perfectly ready for things to take a turn for the worse as that is what happened before. Magda is so eager to please and is such a joy that we are hoping that she will make the transition smoothly.

Wednesday I came down with a cold and had to go into the doctor on Thursday as I could not stop coughing. My doctor gave me several medicines as well as a prescription for a nebulization medicine. I am feeling better now, but on Friday Magda and Matthew got sick too. We had to take both of them into the doctor. Thankfully, Dr. Munoz saw Magda for free and gave us her medication is samples too so it didn't cost us anything.

It has been a fun time of adjusting for us with having Magda in the house. She is a HUGE blessing. She helps with the dishes and laundry as well as any time Matthew cries, she picks him up and holds him until I can take care of his needs.

To cap off this roller coaster week, I got a call yesterday as we were working on a homework project for Audrey. Jason called and told me that he had just gotten in a car accident. He asked me to call and have Alan Jackson come and help him and then he hung up on me. I am a pessimist and so therefore I assumed the worse. I called Alan and then called Jason back. He told me where he was and asked me to get the police and then hung up on me again without giving me any more information. I hurried and got the kids in our other car and drove to the police station. Once there I ran inside and talked to the two police officers that are assigned to the town of San Buenaventura. They told me that they were not transit officers so they could not help me, but they gave me the phone number for the police in Sabana Grande (a town about 20 minutes away) where there is a transit police station. I called them and they told me, "We will send someone out as soon as we can." When you know how the Honduran system works that is not very comforting. I drove to where Jason was and was relieved to find out that he was ok. The accident wasn't as bad as I was imagining. He was dropping someone off and so was stopped on the side of the road. A driver coming along was not watching where he was going and slammed into the back of Jason. Two ladies flew out of the truck bed and landed on the grass, but they got up and walked away. We tried to get them to go to a hospital to be checked out, but they didn't want to. One man who was also riding in the back, was sore and pretty cut up on his arms. The man who caused the accident took him to the hospital. Our truck (the small one) is pretty damaged. The back end is all crushed in and something is loose on the front of the truck that causes it to rattle pretty badly when it is running. Jason and Alan took the truck to a mechanic/body shop near our house and the owner told us that the man who caused the accident is a friend of his and he will make sure that he pays. Once everything was worked out the police finally showed up. Since everything was already decided they just left again. Jason is very sore today. His back and neck hurt a lot, but we are so thankful that he was not hurt worse.

It seems like the discouragements always come right before a great victory. Our soulwinning program in Ojojona has picked up and we have seen faithfulness in many people. Many people have visited our church for the first time. The church is growing and we are excitedly waiting to see what God is going to do through us in 2009.

Ticket

Yesterday we had to go into town for a few errands. We were planning to go in around 2:00 in the afternoon, but Alan Jackson called us and asked us if we wanted to go to lunch with them. We decided to go in early and have lunch with them. First though, they were going to take us to a new store that is really good.

As we were leaving Hondutel (the phone company) pulled up to our house. We haven't had phone service since we moved in and they finally got out to fix the line (only 2 months after we requested it). We called Alan and told him that we would have to wait around for a few minutes before we could leave. Hondutel told us that they had to go to the main office and pick up something they need and then they would be back.

We went to our neighbor's house and asked if they could come stay in the house so Hondutel could work and we didn't have to wait for them to get back. Our neighbors are Bible Institute students and their house is separated from our house so that you can't even see the other when in one, but they are part of the same property. When we rented this house we requested that they also rent us the little house for the same price. Jose Luis and Suyapa keep on eye on things when we are not around and for that they get to live rent free thus enabling him to work less and attend more Bible Institute classes.

We drove to Teguc with no problems and as we were heading to the new store, we had to make a u-turn. Jason saw two police officers standing on the side of the road and was almost going to go down to the next intersection, but the small bus in front of us made a u-turn and so we decided that it was legal and Jason started to make a u-turn. Just then the police waved for Jason to pull over. Very few police have cars so they wave you over and you must pull over. Who knows what would happen if you didn't, but they carry guns so I don't want to find out. Anyway, we pulled over and the police officer proceeded to ask for our identification and papers for our truck.

Jason gave them to him and then he told Jason that he was too far over in the turn lane and thus was a danger to himself and everyone else on the road. He started making out the ticket. Jason is so calm. I, on the other hand don't like being taken advantage of. So I was furious. But I was good and kept my mouth shut. I do have a frustrating problem though that when I get really mad I cry. So as the tears were running down my cheeks, the other police officer standing with his partner came over. He proceeded to explain to us how dangerous our actions were. That made me even madder as I am not an idiot and I know that we did nothing illegal or harmful to ourselves or others. He then told us that if we would help his partner out he probably would not give us the ticket. Jason told them that we are Christians and don't participate in bribes.

We now have three days to pay a fee based anywhere from 900 Lempira ($50.00) up to 1,815 Lempira ($96.00). While I know that this is cheap compared to the states, it is frustrating to pay when you don't deserve it. There also is no way to fight or complain about tickets.

The police officer told us when he gave us the ticket that we had been in a lot of accidents. We bought our truck from missionary Mike Lane who had been in several small accidents. They are all minor and only can be seen if you are looking for them. We were also in an accident while we were in a store. We came out and our truck was in two parking spots instead of one and the bumper was just about yanked off. Of course no one saw anything. The security guard (who is paid to watch the cars) told us that how does he know we didn't come into the store with it looking like that. Oh well, what can you do.

We have a feeling that those police officers were just waiting for a gringo to come by and look for an excuse to pull them over.

Abigail

There are so many kids that we love to have in Sunday school. They are excited to come and love to participate in class time and in church. And then there is Abigail. Abigail is a strange case for us. Her cousins (that live with her family) used to be some of our most faithful kids. They loved coming until one of them got saved and wanted to get baptized. Then their maternal grandmother didn't want them to come anymore. Abigail is 13 and never was faithful. Lately though she has become very faithful. Her paternal grandparents come very faithfully and she comes with them. She has a bad attitude when she gets into the truck and acts like she is being forced to come. What is funny is that if she didn't want to come there is no one to make her.

Abby is a big problem in church at this time. I am constantly having to chase her back into church. For the past month she has been complaining about feeling like she is going to throw up right when the sermon is in full swing. It would be nice to sit through a service without having to chase her down. She obviously wants to be there as no one is forcing her. I am praying that God would really get a hold of her heart and that she would change her behaviour. She claims to have accepted Christ as her Saviour when our church was here.

Some day, if we can find the space, we want to start a class for girls of this age. We have four of them at this time, and it would be so good to have a class especially designed for them. First, we have to finish the classroom and then add on the 2nd story for this to happen. I probably won't happen for a while, but please pray with us for this. We are tired of losing girls of this age. Just last week I had a 14 year old, that used to come to Sunday school, come to church and show us her new baby.

Registering Matthew

A few days ago we went into Teguc to register Matthew. Knowing that it would take a while, we hired Jenny Jackson to watch the kids and keep them going on school. We left at 9:00 am and got into town at around 10:00. We decided to go to the registry first and then do our running around. We got there and had a hard time finding a parking spot. We saw a huge line outside the registry. So instead of just getting in line we decided to push and shove like everyone else to trying to get inside and ask which line we are supposed to be in. There are two doors leading into the registry and both have lines that go around the building. We finally pushed our way up to the door and as politely as I could I started yelling, "Excuse me, I just have a question", in Spanish of course, when the guard opened the door. Finally he got to me and I asked him what we needed to do to get our baby registered. He told us that we had to be there at 8:00 am and get a number. He told us that there are only 50 numbers given out a day and over 300 people who show up to get a number. That means if we want to be one of the first 50, we must be there at 6:00 am to be one of the first 50 in line to get a number.

I was so frustrated. When we registered Joey there was a line, but it only took about 2 hours to get helped. It seems that with time the process should get better and more time efficient. To deal with just 50 people a day is crazy. A good worker could do that in less than 3 hours.

We decided to take Matthew to San Buenaventura (the town where we live) and register him there. We thought that going to Teguc would get us the papers much faster. So the next day, we went to the registry in San Buena and found out that the man in charge of registering was in Teguc. They took our phone number and told us they would call us when he came back. Later that afternoon Jason checked back in with them and was told that while the man was there, they had not been given the official book for births yet. They had the one for deaths and marriages, but not births. We checked back a few days later and they still hadn't received it. They suggested that since the land we own is part of Santa Ana (another town nearby), we should try to go there to register Matthew. We did yesterday and finally we got him registered. It will take us about a week to get his official birth certificate, but that is fine with us.

We need a Forma Larga (Long Form) certificate as well as the normal one for the US government. We had a time explaining to the registrar what we needed, but finally she understood and told us that she would have it ready at the same time, but it would be handwritten as they don't have even a typewriter. I hope the US government doesn't have a problem with that. Once we get the papers in order we will go and try to get his US citizenship. We are in a little hurry this time. We need to have everything done before tax time. :-)

My Birthday

Today was my birthday and it didn't start out to good. Matthew decided that I did not need to sleep last night, so I didn't wake up in the best mood. We did school and had to leave at 1:00 pm to go to Teguc for Dr's appointments for Matthew and Joey.

We have been having problems with bugs (Joey looks like he has the chicken pox, but it is some kind of insect bite) so we decided to set of bug bombs when we left for our appointments. We took the time to make sure all of the lights and electronic equipment was off, any food was put away, and the windows were shut. We then set off the bug bombs and ran out of the house. We started looking around and realized that we had shut two dogs and a cat in the house. The only dog that wasn't in the house was Snuggles (our pug) and he was in the neighbor's yard barking at their visitors. So we can back in the house and quickly found Anne (the mutt) and Mittens (the cat) and got them out. We couldn't find Max though. He is the husky mix that was given to us after Goldie (my Golden lab puppy) died. Jason and I held our breath and ran through the house several times and couldn't find him. This is unusual as Max is the one dog who will not stray from the yard. He was hit in the eye before we got him and is cross eyed now (we found out after we got him). This makes him timid. He is a great as a watchdog though as he sits by the front door while we are gone. Since he is a bigger dog everyone is afraid of him.

Anyway, we couldn't find Max. Jason and I decided we just had to leave him and hope he wasn't dead when we got back. Jason asked me to go and chain Snuggles up so we didn't lose him. As I was going into the neighbor's yard the fence snagged my shirt and ripped the sleeve (of course it was my favorite shirt). So once again I held my breath and entered the house. I quickly pulled a shirt out of my drawer (thankfully it was wrinkle free) and ran out of the house by way of the guest room entrance. We had shut the doors leading to the guest room from inside the house as we didn't buy enough bug bombs. When I got inside the guest room I took a huge breath of air and was greeted by Max who had found a nice cool room to lay in. I called him and being gun shy like he is he ran away from me.

I had my new shirt in my hand and picked up Max to take him outside. I got him out and got into the truck. With a great deal of difficulty, I changed my shirt (modestly) while Jason was driving, but when I was going to put it on I felt a wet spot. Thinking it was damp from the line I continued to put it on anyway. Once it was all the way on I noticed a strange smell and smelt the wet spot on the neck of my t-shirt. It was then I realized that as I picked up Max to take him outside in his excitement he had helped me "wash" my shirt again.

So I got to put back on my ripped shirt. I was going to try to do it modestly again, but it was not easy the first time I did it. So I crouched down on the floorboard and told the kids to shut their eyes and changed really fast. Thankfully we were on a deserted road.

After all that it didn't seem like anything else could go wrong and thankfully it didn't. We made it to the appointments on time and Matthew was given a clean bill of health. The doctor wanted him to put on at least a pound in these past two weeks, but Matthew gained 1lb 12 oz. Joey's arm also looks good and in a week and a half will get the stitches removed.

After the doctor's appointments Jason took me to an Argentinian Steakhouse and it was so yummy. The only way it would have been better is if they had served baked potatoes. YUMMY!!!

As we were leaving dinner, Jason had to run into the store and so I sat in the car with the kids and told them to start working on the last of their seatwork. It was then Audrey realized that she couldn't find her Spelling book. We tore the car apart and couldn't find it. Thankfully the restaurant was within 5 miles from the doctor's office. We returned and found it right away. I was thanking God for that one as we found it in another part of the doctor's office than where we were, but it was visible from the main doors.

We came home and had cake. Jason did a great job buying the cake. It was very good. Unfortunately he undid that good deed by telling everyone that I was turning 39 today. :-)