Saturday, August 25, 2012

First month lessons.....

So, I thought for our one month anniversary in country (August 21), we would do a review of what we have learned this past month:

1. Always remember your umbrella!
2. Mosquitoes can still bite you through your clothing.
3. Bugs are our friends!
4. Embrace the little ants.
5. Fly swatters are a MUST!
6. Always check the oven for cockroaches before you use it.
7. Trying to watch TV or make a phone call or skype call is almost IMPOSSIBLE when it is raining.
8. If you have to do something, make sure you do it during the morning (before the rain comes in).
9. When cars honk, don't wave your hand at anyone, because you probably just hailed a taxi!
10. Always check and wash the fruit before you eat it!
11. Turn the lights off in the house at about 6 to lessen the number of bugs.
12. Ankle socks grow to be tube socks when they hang out on the laundry line.
13. Addresses and directions in Costa Rica are long and confusing....
14. It is very hard to get a straight answer from anyone about anything.
15. FaceTime and Skype are a God send!
16. Small refrigerators are not the easiest to use for a family of 4.
17. Smaller freezers are even worse for meal planning and food storing.
18. Pilas (outside wash basins) are a MUST!
19. Trash cans do better outside.
20. Fighting racoons make really strange sounds--almost scary.
21. Dogs are everywhere--don't pet the stray ones.
22. Watch where you walk--at all times--dog logs, huecos (holes), people, cars, buses, motos, cracks, dogs, glass, gray water, huecos, and more huecos, open manholes, sewer drains without covers, etc., etc., etc.
23. When tile is wet, it is slippery!
24. The sun rises really early in the morning about 5:25am.
25. The sun sets really early in the evening about 5:30pm.
26. Sometimes when you try to speak Spanish, it sounds like something else--and not appropriate..oops!
27. When walking through the park and the smell of marijuana is strong, have an answer ready when your kids ask, "What's that smell?"
28. TV is not censored here, so make sure you know what your kids are watching or when they are changing channels.
29. Embrace the soothing sounds of Costa Rica--car alarms, dogs barking, traffic, honking, honking, and MORE HONKING, jake braking (Pappy), rain on a tin roof, oh, and did we mention dogs barking?
30. Must make sure kids are up to date on their shots before going to the park--Teeter tetnus totters.
31. Can't have anything nice for too long before it is ran over by a Costa Rican!
32. When you hear a baby crying, don't look. (Thanks Jason) 
33. Whoever said the rooster only crows at sunrise--IS A LIAR!!
34. Sleep with your mouth closed
35. Just take one day at a time!

Thanks to everyone who have been praying for us--we know you are! 

We are getting ready to start Language School and the kids will be starting school as well. Next Tuesday, August 28th is the day we have been waiting for!  Wish us luck and keep the prayers coming!

Love to you all!
In HIM,
The Crawfords

Friday, August 17, 2012

Mission Trip to Rincon July 22-July 29

Sunday, July 22
We arrived in Rincon and unloaded all of our stuff.  We established room set up and ate lunch.  Got ready for work and I pretty much set the rules with the kids.  There wasn't a whole lot of space for them to play that wasn't in the sun and wasn't anywhere that didn't make me a little nervous for them to go without supervision. Later that evening we took kids to the ocean and got to swim around.  The kids really like it!


Monday, July 23
Today hit me hard.  I pretty much used this as my re-coop day.  I stayed in the room almost all day.  I think the idea of all of the changes hit me hard and I really didn't want to be around anyone, try to speak Spanish or understand what little I could, and didn't want to deal with all of the stuff that was going on in my head. Leyton and I took a nap and I slept through lunch--it was fish:(  The kids liked the fish, which I was surprised because it was the whole fish--head to tail! YUCK!
After lunch Bruce and I and the kids went down to the ocean, just by ourselves--it was nice to just be the four of us.  Emme also tried snorkeling--she took to it VERY QUICKLY! She was able to breathe through the snorkel after a few tries! After that, she was staying in the very shallow water where she could float on her belly and crawl on her hands at the same time! She really enjoyed snorkeling! Over all it was a tough day for me, but after that, I felt a little better--just wanted to be able to work and not have to worry about the kids and deal with all of the problems that continued to come up!
Tuesday, July 24
The focus of the work while we were there was the roof and the electrical.  Along with the huge trusses, all of the metal roofing had to be painted, the old church floor had to be dug out, an electrical trench had to be dug out and the gutters and trenches for that had to be dug as well.  Because I wanted to try to stay close to the kids, I started helping painting the church benches, they had to be primed and then painted a pretty green color.  The workers started to put up the huge trusses and started to mix concrete for the new church floor.  Later in the afternoon, we went back down to the ocean and let the kids swim.  Emme started snorkeling in deeper water by herself! She learned how to float on top of the water and still be able to breath through her snorkel.  She only took in water a few times!  She did awesome!!  We also found the hermit crab beach.  There were thousands of hermit crabs all over the shallow shore--from teeny tiny to about the size you would find at the mall--the kids (and me) really enjoyed playing with them! 

After lunch, Bruce got to go iguana hunting again.  This time he got to use his machete to hit the iguanas on the back of the neck to kill them completely.  One of them he hit so hard he chopped the head right off! EWW!!  When the tica women started cleaning the iguanas, Leyton sat there and watched the whole thing--yuck!  Emme watched for a little bit, but said she didn't like it!  After dinner, Bruce and I went for a walk and a swim in the ocean by ourselves.  It was good to have it just us.  We talked and swam and just reflected on everything that had happened in such a short amount of time.  On our way back from the ocean, we saw a monkey.  We didn't get a picture, but it was a black howler monkey and looked just like this in the picture below:
Wish we would have gotten to see it closer, but it probably would have eaten our face off!! Overall a good day!
Wednesday, July 25
(125 degrees and 10:30am) Wednesday started off with heat, humidity and bugs.  Sitting at breakfast the bugs were bad and then low and behold, the sun came out--and it was hot and out all day.  The sun made us realize that we had pretty good weather the first few days, but now this is what Rincon will be remembered for!  I started working on concrete, shoveling, and helping with the electrical wiring.  I was pretty much out on the work site all morning, the most I had worked the whole trip and right before lunch, Eliel, one of the tico workers from the Abraham Project, ran up to me and said, "su hija" which means your daughter.  As I was running to check on her, one of the interns said she cut herself.  As I got to where Emme was, one of the tica women was holding her hand and she was crying.  As I was walking toward her, I saw the trail of blood to the sink where she was.  My heart sunk.  She sliced open her thumb on the second knuckle of her left hand.  When I got to her, she told me she cut it on one of daddy's knives, which really surprised me.  At home, she never played with them and when she found one she always carefully carried it to one of us.  I called for Bruce from the work site and he came running and looked at it, then Steve Thomas came and looked at it and we all decided that she probably needed stitches.  So Bruce, William, Steve and Emme all headed to the clinic.  I stayed there with Leyton and waited for them to return.
Before she left, she confessed to the whole story.  She said her push pop sucker fell on the floor and the spring popped out.  She wanted to fix it, so she climbed on the bench and grabbed one of Bruce's knives to fix it.  When she was trying to fix it, the knife slipped and she cut her thumb wide open.  Luckily the knife was very sharp and it was on the outside of her thumb--no serious injuries and the doctor sewed it up real nice.  Bruce said they were really nice and did a good job. Emme watched the doctor put in two stitches--she was a real champ! That is Bruce's daughter!

After that situation, I pretty much stayed close to the kids.  I wanted to work and I felt like I was being lazy a lot of the time, but I didn't want something like that to happen again!
In the evening, we had a small worship/devotion.  Eliel played the guitar and we sang a song in Spanish--sorta! After that, the ticos sang a traditional Costa Rican song of friendship and when people leave.  It was nice, as always, to fellowship with the ticos.
Thursday, July 26
I helped painting the tin roof, everyone worked on concrete, there was a lot of welding, shoveling, wheelbarrowing, etc.  A lot of work still had to be done, and we were fighting the rain with the painting.  Bruce got shocked twice- once on a wire and once on the welder.  All of the guys were welding with sweaty, wet clothes and standing in a puddle of water.  Can you say, "NOT SAFE!"?  But I guess it had to get done, so they did what they had to.  Micah took several good shocks as well!  Ask Pappy for the video! :)  We got to see a lot of the wildlife--we heard howler monkeys, and looked at the toucans through the binoculars!  The kids really liked that!  And later that evening, Bruce was asked to be a part of killing the pig for our supper.  He got to kill it and shave it.  You'll have to ask him about that, because I was no where to be found!  But when they made the pork chops and everything else, it was sooooo good!  Fresh pork tastes soo different AND better!
Emme and Leyton got the ride the pastor's horse--Thanks Sara!

Friday, July 27
Had to do a lot of painting today.  All of the rafters were set in place and the purlins were finishing, so all of the metal roofing had to be painted.  But of course, we were fighting the rain!  Which makes waiting for the paint to dry=long time!  They finished the church floor, the stage and continued to have to shovel for the gutters and weld. The kids really had a rough day.  Josua (Eliel and Rode's son) punched Emme in the eye, Emme and Leyton both have heat rashes, they both got bitten by lots of mosquitoes and ants.  The kids were tired and so was the whole team.  Steve Thomas, William, Jonathan and the interns all left in the morning, so everything that had to be finished was on us (finishing the roof, painting, shoveling and electrical).

We got a call from our big brother and he said he found us an apartment.  We were supposed to go look at it Monday when we got back to San Jose.  He said it was a smaller 2 bedroom, but it was on a dead end street.  We were very excited about that--safer for the kids and a place for them to play.  We were very excited that God found us a place to live--WHEW!!
Friday night we had a HUGE rain/thunder/lightning storm.  It woke up everyone up, except my kids!  It was the strongest, loudest, brightest storm I have ever experienced.  You could seriously feel the electricity! It knocked out electricity for a short time, and it probably rained 5 inches in a matter of seconds.
Saturday, July 28th
Today we fought rain on and off all day, but we managed to get all of the big pieces of metal roof pained.  Everyone was working on the roof-painting, nailing, welding and electrical.  In the evening, a group of us went fishing.  Bruce and Leyton had just showered, so I was stuck going fishing with Emme.  She really wanted to go--I didn't, but I wanted get to have the experience.  So I put on my big girl panties and went!  We actually had a lot of fun.  She caught two fish and I baited my own hook!
On the way back to shore, we saw glowing organisms in the ocean.  This occurred when something ripple the water, our hands, the motor, etc.  They said it was plankton--I was unsure, so I researched it myself.  Here is a website:
What's Glowing in the Water?
They were right!  It was really neat.  Emme actually got one on her hand, she wanted to show her daddy.  She kept it all the way till we got to shore, then it lost it's light.:(
Sunday, July 29th
Our last day there and it was all about trying to finish everything.  We finished painting all of the metal roof, finished all of the electrical, got all of the metal roof laid, except for the very top, middle of the roof, finished the rain gutters, and finished the church floor and stage.  Of course we wanted to finish everything, but we did a lot in just one week.  We ate lunch and started to pack up.  Before we left, the pastor and his wife, along with all of the workers all prayed.  Of course there were tears of joy and sadness--we didn't want to leave again.  But as Flori, the pastor's wife said, "we will see each other again."
Before
After
Although we didn't want to leave, I was happy to be getting back to San Jose to get to our apartment and start to have somewhat of a regular routine.  I can't wait till we go back to Rincon and see the completed project.  It has been almost a year in the making! So blessed to have been a part of the church rebuild! Gloria a Dios!

Our journey through Immigration...

Friday, July 20th-Saturday, July 21

After the going away party at church, we came home and finished packing.  We were up all night--did not sleep at all! We had A LOT to do in a little bit of time.
During the packing, we had several friends stop by: Dan, Michael, Scott and Linda, not to mention Bruce's mom and younger brother, my parents, and of course--Pappy, Sara and Micah, it was nice to see everyone one more time.
We finally finished packing at about 2:30am and we left for church at 3:00am. There were many things that were left behind because there wasn't enough space or time! I hope to bring some of it the next time we are home.
Arrived at church and loaded everything into the church trailer. The kids were 1/2 asleep, we were tired and by this time had been awake for 19 hours.  We said our goodbyes and we were off to the airport. 

We arrived at the airport and unloaded all of the luggage. We could have up to 32 checked bags and we had 34! But God was apparently there, because the man who was checking our luggage did not charge us for any extra luggage which would have totaled $280.00.  PRAISE GOD!
The flights were good. Kids slept and I tried to-but could not comfortable!! When we arrived to Houston we ate and just hung out. Then off to San Jose. 

When we arrived in San Jose, we arrived at Immigration.  We were the last people to go through Immigration, and we were stopped.  They asked us for proof of leaving the country and why we were here.  We told them to study Spanish at the Institute. We showed them the letter of acceptance, and the bus tickets to Panama. She looked at them and said, "these bus tickets are dated for 3 days ago and are no good." (7/18/12). Then she started asking us different questions that we tried to answer, but nothing was coming out right.  She said the bus tickets were scanned, so not acceptable, then they had the wrong dates, so not acceptable, then lastly we wrote our own names and dates on the tickets, so not acceptable.  She told us we would probably have to buy airline tickets leaving the country.  We were being kicked out of the country before we even got in! But we were praying and we found out our team was praying as well. We walked over to the Immigration office and sat down and waited while she called her supervisor.  She told us that whatever he decided was the final answer.  She talked to him for a short time and finally came back and said he approved our passports for a 90 day tourist visit.  Which she told us that if we don't leave within the 90 days we could receive a negative status and not be able to return to Costa Rica.  Needless to say, we said, "no problemo!"
THE POWER OF PRAYER WORKS!!!
By the time we were through Immigration, all of the bags had been cleared and were being loaded on the bus. They had no problems with any of the bags except the 25lb bag of rice that looked suspicious, but when they saw that it was just rice, they let it through!  After all of that, it was onto Casa de Franco (the bed and breakfast) where Leyton and I took a nap and Bruce and Emme went to Jason and Kerby's to go through some of the bags to find stuff that we needed for Rincon.  That night, we ate dinner, showered, and were in bed by 8pm--by that time, we were basically for 36 hours, except for the little cat naps here and there on the airplane! Then we had to be up again at 4am to leave for Rincon by 4:45am!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Today....

Well, today has not been the best day of them all; I went to bed last night not feeling well, slept awful, stayed in bed most of the day, haven't eaten or done anything today.  But as the day went on, it got better and better.
We got to talk to our parents, Jason and Kerby, Pappy, and the Mayes'.  It was really nice to talk with all of them. Really felt like we were back home--or closer to home.  The kids got to talk to their friends on Facetime.  The kids really enjoyed it.


Then we had a nice rain--a lot and really loud on the tin roof-I'm going to have to record how loud it is...but so relaxing!
Then we had a visitor-Paul, who used to live with the family downstairs.  He came up and introduced himself and invited us down for cafesita (coffee).  We did, and it was nice to just talk with people--they shared what they were doing and we shared what we were doing--the kids got to play with new people, which is always a good thing!
We watched a little bit of Spanish cartoons-nothing beats that; had supper-which I didn't eat because I was still feeling not so good, ended the night with a game of chicken foot and got the kids ready for bed.
Although that sounds like a pretty normal day, after all of that, I sat down and looked at Facebook. I saw that our friends Sara and Micah Waddell-who have been with us the whole step of the way- started a new edition--Flat Crawfords--so we don't miss out on everything going on back home.  Here are some of the pictures:



Dan Hitchcock, Ben and Anna Waddell, Matthew Riley, Ronnie Ping.

It was so sweet, and we were so humbled--not only that we missed Wednesday service at our home church, but that they were praying for us and taking time out of their night to take a picture with "Flat Crawfords".  Thank you Sara and Micah Waddell for thinking of us and sharing all of it with us! Love you!
In Him,
The Crawfords AKA "Flat Crawfords"









Sunday, August 5, 2012

Settling in....

For those of you who have been following our blog, we are finally updating.  It will be a short one, and I will start catching up from previous weeks without internet service.



We are alive!!!!!!  We are in our apartment. A very quaint (small) upstairs 2 bedroom in San Francisco de Dos Rios, San Jose, Costa Rica.  We are about a 12-15 minute walk to school.  The family that we live above is wonderful-husband (Leo) and wife (Maribel), 2 daughters 13 (I think, forget her name), 11 (Sofia) and a son, 8 (Luis). They have 2 dogs, 1 bird and fish. They have been so nice and welcoming to all of us.

The last couple of days has been a whirlwind of buying stuff for the apartment, start up things, and trying to remember the cultural differences in the needs of everyday items (for example buying a three prong adapter to be able to plug in all of our stuff!)

Last night we ate cold pizza left over from the previous night when the team was still here, that was a blessing to have that pizza because if it wasn't for that, we would not have had anything to eat! This morning I made instant oatmeal for the kids using luke warm/hot water from the shower because I wasn't brave enough to try the stove just yet (it looks a little sketchy:/).  Needless to say, we limped through our first night and first morning!

The kids are doing ok.  Leyton is really having a hard time. We have regressed in our potty training efforts and him just being down right difficult--fits, arguing, fighting, ignoring, crying and saying "I want to go home".  Emme is doing better, but she has had her issues as well.  They are both having problems with the language and I think that is the biggest struggle for them (I know how they feel).  They also have become very clingy to us--which if anyone knows our kids, that is not normal! But I completely understand that they are unsure of their surroundings and feel safest with us.  Tonight was an improvement, Leyton called this apartment our home and both Emme and Leyton got to play with the kids downstairs and Emme said, "I can't wait to learn Spanish."  Hopefully that attitude continues!

This week we are going to map out our walk to the Institute, find our pulperia (mini store), find our panderia (small bakery), and just get our bearings in our neighborhood.  Next week we will be heading to the project to work on some small projects that Steve Thomas has planned for us--he is getting Bruce as much as possible before we start school! Ha Ha!!

We start school with orientation August 28th and will find out all of the details about classes, schedule, kids information, etc.  Can't wait for that! 

Other than that, that's about it for us!  It has been tough, but today definitely has been the best so far!

Will catch up on posts of the last 3 weeks--shew! I really need to get better about this blogging stuff!  PS- for all of you, I'm not good at this, so please be patient until I work this into my daily or weekly schedule!

Love to you all!  Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

In Him,
The Crawfords

PSS- If anyone has skype and would like to add us our user name is: thecrawfords519  Would love to video chat with anyone!