An awesome weekend

We are happy to report that Lane is pretty much 100% better now. It seems that the second Dr. was accurate in her diagnosis and the medication has worked quickly.
We had met this wonderful couple in the branch last week at church, Eddie and Mirna. They are a little older than us and are watching over us like parents as well as friends.
Eddie has 3 restaurants with his brother Carlos. They have one in Chicago. One in Guatemala and then they just recently opened one here in Costa Rica, not too far from our home. It is called “Carlos & Carlos”: Italian Restaurant. Anyway, Eddie and Mirna have become such good friends already. They have been so helpful to us and we really enjoy being with them.
Friday, Mirna came and picked me up and the two of us went shopping for groceries and a few things that I needed for the kitchen, etc. We went to lunch together and just had a great day. She is originally from Mexico and so she helps me with my Spanish a lot. Eddie is from Guatemala.
Saturday, Eddie and Lane went to the Priesthood session of District Conference in Liberia. I stayed here with the kids and we walked down to the beach. It was a beautiful day and the waves were a little bigger than normal, so we had a blast playing in the water.
The kids were excited to see some things that they hadn’t seen before. Lora saw a huge starfish, Emma saw a puffer fish and Abe…..well….he was a little disturbed at what he saw.
Explanation: there was this woman at the beach with her little 13 month old daughter. They ended up coming out into the water with us and playing and talking with us. She is from France. Well, her daughter apparently got hungry halfway through our conversation and decided to get herself a snack. Abe was not prepared for the way French women do things, and lets just say he got an eye full! This nice lady just didn’t bat an eye that her daughter was helping herself to a nursing session and she just kept right on talking and playing in the water with us.
It made for a good conversation on the walk home with the kids about how people do things differently in other cultures. I am sure that will not be the last time the kids see that, as this woman plans on meeting her new friends at the beach more often now! Maybe we will have to get Abe a pair of goggles that only let you see under water…hmmm….I will check E-Bay.
So Eddie and Mirna brought us a pot of homemade Marinara sauce from the restaurant and we had pasta for dinner. SO yummy! Afterward, Abe looked up a recipe for “No Bake Cookies” online and he made those for us. Used up the whole jar of $6 peanut butter,(very small jar) but they were worth it!
Today was District Conference in Liberia for church and once again our wonderful friends Eddie and Mirna made the awful trip down our pot hole, dirt road to pick us up bright and early for the meeting. They are so fun to be with. We all end up laughing a lot because things just seem funnier for some reason when we are all together. They are just happy people. They are leaving in 10 days to go back to their restaurant in Chicago for 3 months and then they will come back here. We will miss them a lot.
The conference was great. Lane and I each had an English speaking missionary come and sit by us and help translate the talks. I guess it was the highest attendance they have ever had at a District Conference here. Over 500 people. It was held in a banquet room of a hotel. Not like a nice hotel, but it was adequate. We were a few minutes late to the meeting because we got pulled over by the police on the way….so as we got out of the car, we could hear them singing the opening hymn, “We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet”. I can’t explain how that made me feel inside. It was like chocolate cake to my ears! Even though it was in Spanish, it was so familiar and it just made me so happy to hear all these wonderful Latin people singing at the top of their lungs.
We were able to pick up our rental car on the way home so now this week we can get around a little more. The kids are excited to go explore another beach farther away tomorrow.
We have progressed a little more in our Spanish this week. Lora memorized the first Article of Faith in Spanish and we are reading a little of the Book Of Mormon in Spanish each night, along with the English one so we can see them together.(that was Mariah’s idea for us). The missionaries have agreed to come over on Saturday mornings and teach us for an hour or two. That will be fun. I need to get some more peanut butter by then…that is one thing that they say they really miss! Like I said, it is very expensive here, so they don’t buy it.
We are feeling more comfortable here. Life is very relaxed and we have lots of family time. It feels good. We know there will still be challenges to face, but we look forward to new experiences.
We love our families at home so much. We find ourselves talking about them now more than ever. My younger brother Matt got married Saturday! We are so happy for him and the kids are so excited to have a new Aunt Heidi and her 3 adorable kids to be new cousins.
I always look forward to Mondays because it is when we hear from our missionary son! It is still the highlight of our week. Thankfully we have skype and get to talk to Mariah nearly everyday, so that is the highlight of my DAY! I love them both so much and am so proud of them. We are very blessed.

Flesh Eating Bacteria!

Ok, now that I have your attention with that title...you can relax just a little. Lane and I are breathing a big sigh of relief right now as we just returned from a long day of Dr. visits and learned that this in fact IS NOT a flesh eating bacteria!
As I mentioned in a previous post, Lane got this oozy sore on his arm that appeared the day after we arrived in Nicaragua on the Island. It started small and continued to grow. We didn't know what to do about it while in the island, but shortly after arriving in Costa Rica, we knew we had to see a Dr. about it because it had spread bigger on his arm and was starting on his eye.
The first Dr. we went to thought it was some sort of infectious bacteria and gave him 3 different medications and a shot in the behind. After 3 days on the medication, it was getting much worse, not better. These pictures were taken before it got much worse.
This morning his eye was nearly 100% swollen shut and he had new areas of growth on his arms and stomach as well as his other eye, nose and lips. (sounds highly attractive huh?)
We both felt so worried about this and called the Dr. right away. If it was truly an infection like he thought then this could be really bad. Well, we are carless still, so we called for a taxi that said he would be here in 20 minutes.
Lane and I left the kids here and went back to the original Dr. that is about 10 minutes away. He and the nurse were both baffled and said they did not know what this was. They wanted him to go to a specialist right away in the city of Liberia that is about 1 1/2 hours away. They called the specialist there and the first appt. was for 4:15 this afternoon.
We left there feeling very nervous.
The taxi driver agreed to come back for us at 2:30 and take us to Liberia.
The kids would need to stay home, which they were really sweet about doing even though we knew they were nervous. I went over and introduced myself to a couple neighbors and filled them in so that they could check on the kids or be there in case they had a problem. They were all very nice and so willing to help.
Well, the drive to Liberia was so tense. Not only were we nervous about Lane, but it was POURING rain and their roads are very narrow. You have to dodge people on bikes, people just walking, cows crossing and even armadillos! Oh, I was so tense I had leg cramps! Raining so hard you could hardly see in front of you at all. Our taxi driver, Walter didn't seem phased by it and kept moving right along.
The Dr. was ready for us, but didn't speak a word of English. Thank goodness Walter speaks English pretty well, so he came right in with us to translate. The Dr. was very confident that this was an allergic reaction that Lane had to a tropical plant and not a bacterial infection at all! WHEW! We were so relieved. She could see the relief in our faces. She was a very kind and motherly type of woman. I wanted to hug her. This diagnosis made sense to us because Lane remembered that right when we got to the house on the island, he went off for a minute with the caretaker and picked some mangoes. He crawled under some brush to get some off the ground that had fallen and it was after that that he noticed a small abrasion on his arm. So, that is where he ran into the plant that he is apparantly highly allergic to.
This Dr. prescribed another medication that he has to take for 20 days, some topical cream, and then also another shot that he would get at the pharmacy when he picked up the meds.
So, we went to the pharmacy and Lane went behind the counter into a little room and drooped his drawers. Kinda funny that they do that at the pharmacy we thought.
They actually had a Pizza Hut in Liberia so we ordered some pizza to share with Walter on the drive home and also have some to bring to the kids, which we knew they were going to LOVE!
More rain on the way home and this time it was totally dark so once again, I was a basket of nerves. I am a total wimp about driving in bad weather. That is why we live in AZ!! Why did I move to the rain forest??? I don't know. To see armadillos in the road I guess.
We are feeling so relieved and so blessed tonight. Today was a big learning experience for us. We met some nice people and got to eat pizza, so I guess it is not all bad right?
We know that several of you were praying for us and have been worried, so hopefully you all will see this and can sleep better tonight knowing all is well.
Now let's just hope that this Dr. was correct in her diagnosis and if so, Lane should start clearing up very soon.
The Dr. assured me that this is not contagious...so Lane might even get a kiss tonight! Believe me, we have all been scared to death to get too close to him for fear of us getting it! Only Emma has been brave enough to give him hugs.
We are all safe and happy tonight. Let's hope we don't have any other medical mysteries headed our way.

Our Costa Rica House

Cute little Beach House
Emma thinks that these "swirly stairs" are just the greatest thing ever!

Strange cows

This is a picture of the very strange cows that they have here in Central America. Interesting huh?

Latin Dancing and Colorful Crabs

Today was a great day. It was a landmark day as Lane and I actually left the kids home this morning while we went and ran some errands! It is the first time we have had any time alone at all since we left Phoenix! Although we did pick up a hitch hiker for a few minutes and gave him a lift about a mile down the road until we reached our first stop. I know...that sounds crazy! We have never done that before, but it is kind of the way many people get around here. He was such a nice guy and was fun to chat with for a few minutes.
We found a salon for me to get a hair cut and also a nice grocery store that has all the things we are used to finding in a grocery store (just double the price for anything American brand). We also went to a medical clinic for Lane to get his hive/rash/festering sores...looked at! Our experience at the clinic was actually quite nice. We walked right in, saw the Dr. and got some prescriptions...bam! Out the door in 10 minutes and $50! NICE HUH? Let's hope they got it right and he starts to clear up in a few days. They said it was some type of bacteria he has picked up. It has spread to his outer eye and arms. Poor guy.
When we got home the kids were more than ready to go to the beach so we let them walk down while I cleaned up lunch. I walked down a couple hours later and they were just there having a blast. The waves are very mild at this beach and it is shallow for a long ways out. We feel very comfortable letting the kids walk down there with Abe in charge. Also, it is very private so almost no one is there. Anyway, they did not want to leave, they were having so much fun, but I hurried them home so we could be in before the mosquitos come out in force.
So far our walks back and forth to the beach have been very interesting because we always see something new as far as wildlife. Today on our way home we saw this really crazy looking crab. He was about 5 inches in diameter and was very brightly colored. Royal blue and orange! He was so amazing to look at and we were laughing because as soon as we got close, he made himself as tall as he could be by standing up on his hind legs and reaching his huge pinchers high into the air. Then he started doing this latin like dance back and forth in front of us! It was hilarious.
This inspired Abe and Lora to try out their Latin dancing skills so ever since we ate dinner, they have been making up these crazy dances together, spinning, twirling, dipping all over the kitchen complete with their own self made music. Who knows, maybe they will get good enough to be on Dancing with the Stars some day!
We made our first batch of chocolate chip cookies tonight! What a treat that was. Life is good.

Sunday in Costa Rica

Well today was our first Sunday here in Costa Rica. We rented a car for Saturday and Sunday so that we could a) get some groceries! b)go to church
We drove around Saturday so we would be familiar with how to find the church. It is in Santa Cruz about 45 minutes away. Kind of a bummer to be so far, but at least the scenery is great along the way. It is so pretty and green here and there is always lots of wildlife to see. THe cows here are so funny looking. We have never seen cows that look like these. THey have big long floppy ears and they are skinny and white with bug huge heads. Lane took a picture of one so we will post that soon.

SO, the branch is small...about 30 of us there today. I guess there are normally about 50 but many were gone today because of a big holiday here.
The people were all so nice and interested in why we were there. The Branch President was just newly called as of a few weeks ago. He is young, about 30 and not married. He seems really sharp and is super friendly. The women in RS were all so kind and helpful to me. The lady that taught the lesson seemed like she was doing charades half the time to try to help me understand what they were talking about.
I tried hard to pay attention, but I have to admit I kept getting distracted by the ENORMOUS IGUANA that was crawling up and down the tree just outside the window! THis thing liiked like a small alligator. It was about 3 feet long!!

After church we came home and ate and then took the car to explore around a bit since we have to turn in the rental car tomorrow. There are several beautiful beaches very close to us.
Right now we are having a major rain storm. We had one last night too and the power went out for about 3 hours. Luckily it was about time for bed anyway so we just all went to bed.
Nothing too eventful today. It is always nice to go to church and know that wherever you are in the world, the message of the Gospel will be the same and you will feel the same warm and sweet spirit in any branch or ward that you attend. We are anxious to get to know people here and help with the missionary work.

We love our family and friends back home so much. We especially miss our sweet Mariah who is trying to adapt to life without us! Life is good and we are blessed.